404) A Dangerous Method (2011)

404) A Dangerous Method (2011) Dir: David Cronenberg Date Released: November 23, 2011 Date Seen: October 4, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

Fuck the haters. See my review for The House Next Door.

403) This Is Not a Film (2010)

403) This Is Not a Film (2010) Dir: Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb Not Yet Released Date Seen: October 4, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

Typically, setting out to create a narrative about your own creative frustration means you're shooting to make a moving and/or thoughtful but also necessarily alienating narrative. This documentary's potency is largely reliant on how frequently Jafar Panahi is able to successfully dramatize his personal isolation and represent ideas and fleeting notions that are unique to him. At the same time, I'm more interested in This is Not a Film's figurative representation of Panahi's ennui as a sweeping expression of his pent-up artistic ambitions and his stymied need to create. These are more moving than the moments that show Panahi as an individual martyr (ie: interludes where we accompany Panahi as he waits for his lawyer to call and shuffes about his apartment). These latter intervals are necessarily frustrating but a vital part of the film's story. That doesn't make waiting for Panahi and Mairtahmasb to show us something more poetic than static that much more compelling. Still, it is worth noting that yes, this very exciting experiment is also frustrating by design.

Note: I love and can't help but hope that Panahi or Mirtahmasb decided to arrange Panahi's DVD shelf in such a way that Buried, the Ryan Reynolds horror pic, was purposefully put on the edge, right where the camera and hence the viewer could not help but see it.

31 Days of Horror

400) Alligator (1980) Dir: Lewis Teague Date Released: July 2, 1980 Date Seen: October 2, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

401) Crawlspace (1986) Dir: David Schmoeller Date Released: May 21, 1986 Date Seen: October 2, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

405) Dead Alive (1992) Dir: Peter Jackson Date Released: February 12, 1993 Date Seen: October 4, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

409) A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) Dir: Lucio Fulci Date Released: March 20, 1973 Date Seen: October 7, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

410) Dracula 2000 (2000) Dir: Patrick Lussier Date Released: December 22, 2000 Date Seen: October 8, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

411) Messiah of Evil (1973) Dir: Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz Date Released: XX 1973 Date Seen: October 9, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

412) Kill Baby, Kill (1966) Dir: Mario Bava Date Released: October 8, 1968 Date Seen: October 9, 2011 Rating: 4/5

Fantastic Fest 2011: Part Deux

393) Revenge: A Love Story (2010) Dir: Ching-Po Wong Not Yet Released Date Seen: September 30, 2011 Rating: 3.75/5

394) Blind (2011) Dir: Sang-hoon Ahn Not Yet Released Date Seen: September 30, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

395) The Squad (2011) Dir: Jaime Osorio Marquez Not Yet Released Date Seen: October 1, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

396) Two Eyes Staring (2011) Dir: Elbert Van Strien Not Yet Released Date Seen: October 1, 2011 Rating: 3.25/5

397) Aardvark (2010) Dir: Kitao Sakurai Not Yet Released Date Seen: October 1, 2011 Rating: 3/5

398) Retreat (2011) Dir: Carl Tibbetts Date Released: October 21, 2011 Date Seen: October 1, 2011 Rating: 2.25/5

399) A Lonely Place to Die (2011) Dir: Julian Gilbey Date Released: November 11, 2011 Date Seen: October 1, 2011 Rating: 2.75/5

So I watched a bunch of screeners for this second of two dispatches written from New York but about Austin's own Fantastic Fest. Mosey on over to Press Play for more.

392) Sleeping Sickness (2011)

391) Sleeping Sickness (2011) Dir: Ulrich Kohler Not Yet Released Date Seen: September 30, 2011 Rating: 3.5/5

I rather liked the "Col. Kurtz has overstayed his welcome in Africa, even after he's become an institution and a force of good unto himself" aspect to this story. But only when it's literally imagined. When Kohler gets into abstractions and tries to create metaphors, he really starts to look like an amateur that happens to have latched onto a galvanic and compelling story. The hippo stuff, the hunt in the woods, the driving sequences which seem loaded with meaning (specifically, how passable the road the characters are driving on and what they see is dependent on where they are in their personal journeys): these are weak. But the characters are rich and compelling enough and their world is, too. Which I guess is why I don't like the film when it strives for greater meaning. Feet on the ground, good. Head in the clouds, nope.

391) Dogfight (1991)

391) Dogfight (1991) Dir: Nancy Savoca Date Released: October 4, 1991 Date Seen: September 29, 2011 Rating: 4/5

I find this comedic romance to be very charming, mostly because it's determined to not totally conform to generic expectations. The set-up is pretty formulaic: guys compete over who can present the ugliest "dog." Then the story's narrative starts to meander and the film becomes more about what happens once the stupid courtship game the two characters have started to play stops working for each other. They try to talk over dinner, which is her idea of taking control of the evening and countering his previously established chauvinistic rules, choice of seedy milieu, etc. So their imperfect but nevertheless magical night is an experiential dialectic in that sense and one that dabbles with audience's expectations. It's also frustrating because, while I think the ending tugged on my heart strings well enough, the end returns us back to formulaic status quo. Their tryst inevitably has to end as the march of time and history in this case is undeniable. Still, I liked its gentle sense of confusion, its graceful, subtle reversals and its confounding light touch.

390) Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

390) Unfaithfully Yours (1948) Dir: Preston Sturges Date Released: December 10, 1948 Date Seen: September 29, 2011 Rating: 4.25/5

I'm mostly awed by how side-splittingly mean this film is. It's also technically accomplished in ways that I think are invigoratingly eccentric. Like, the motif of invading Rex Harrison's mind via tracking shots that go past his eyeball and straight to his id. Or that elaborate phonograph gag that requires the audience to see a pattern and recognize its total reversal. I wasn't just in stitches when I saw this latter bit, I was laughing so hard I was actually doubled-over crying. I was doubled-over coughing and crying and laughing. And then I composed myself and unpaused the film. Only to rewatch it. How did Sturges do it? Or maybe just: how did he get away with it?! Incredible.