The Station Agent. Small, nice film about a dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who forms a friendship with 2 other people (Patricia Clarkson and the adorable Bobby Cannavale) after he moves into a deserted small-town train station in rural New Jersey.

I'm kind of intrigued by Gus Van Sant's new one, Elephant. It got writeups in the NY & LA Times yesterday; it's a mostly improvised movie with mostly amateur actors set in a high-school. Two of them go off and start shooting the place up. Van Sant didn't want to do "A Columbine Movie" but instead, try to show what teenagers go through in high school (hint: it's not always pretty). Apparently, some are outraged that he doesn't take a stance or try that typically American thing of "explaining why it happened". I only think that it's been shown at Cannes, where it won the Palme D'or, but anyone else have info about it?

Elephant played at the Toronto Film Festival, but I didn't see it.

I'm really looking forward to seeing ELEPHANT when it opens here in Austin. PARTY MONSTER is finally going to show here in early Novemeber, more than two months after it opened in New York and Los Angeles. Any other angst-filled movies I've missed?

From the Toronto FF blurb for Elephant: Sounds exactly like my cup of mocha java.

[ October 20, 2003, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

Saw Kill Bill last night. It’s an hour and 3/4 of film-geek in-jokes, but there seems to be no point to it beyond that. On a technical level, yes, it’s pretty amazing, but watching a brilliant technician show off can only take you so far. When you make something deliberately lurid, which has no purpose other than to BE deliberately lurid, what have you really made? Tarantino has built a very well-oiled machine that is just as soulless as the bloated commercial blockbusters he probably disdains.

I’m astounded that the same critics who complain that the Coen brothers movies are “cold” (I loved Intolerable Cruelty, BTW) are drooling over Kill Bill – I can’t think of a movie that left me more cold.

Has anybody seen Wonderland? I haven't read too many reviews about it yet, but I may go see it tonight if I have time. I liked the late-90's film Boogie Nights, which was based on certain aspects of John Holmes' life, so I have a feeling this will be a similar experience.

[ October 23, 2003, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: Mike T. ]

My friend who is on the SAG Awards nominating committee dragged me to a screening of Radio starring Cuba Gooding & Ed Harris. Cuba's Oscar curse is alive and well. This movie bring snew meaning to putrid. Overblown schmaltz times 10! Quite simply the longest 4 hours of my life!

After, we decided to go plexing and took in a second flick, Lost in Translation. Great movie that had better be remembered come Oscar time. Bill Murray is so frickin' great and Scarlett Johansson, who has been terrific in her earlier work, keeps up with Murray all the way. If you haven't seen it, see it now!

[ October 24, 2003, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: George_vikingfan ]

I saw "Out of Time" with Denzel Washington last night.

The movie started out slow, but I'd say after the first 25 minutes or so, the plot really picked up, and it turned out to be a very enjoyable and interesting movie!

Josh

Have recently read a few negative commentaries about Lost in Translation and Kill Bill, which claim that the "foreign-ness" of the Japanese culture in these films is a sign of Yankee Imperialism. I have to disagree. I think Sofia Coppola and Quentin Tarantino have great respect for Japanese culture and pointedly set their films in Japan as tribute.

Much as E.M. Forster took his stuffy British characters to Italy and India in A Room with a View and A Passage to India, Coppola and Tarantino take their American characters and American audience to Japan to reveal their American-ness.

The fact that Bill Murray and Scarlett Johanson felt out of place in Tokyo, merely reflected how they felt out of place in their own lives. And it was only because they were in a foreign land that they could have their platonic affair, and learn something about themselves.

Tarantino pays hommage to the samurai revenge story and kung fu films in the graphic, choreographed, sometimes comic, fight scenes in Kill Bill.

----------

With the recent discussion of God on the board, I decided to go see The Gospel of John. Rolled out initially in the Bible Belt, this film is slowly making it to the big cities. It's sort-of an educational re-telling of the Jesus story, with narration by Christopher Plummer. Rather long (at 3 hours), the story is still fascinating. It doesn't strive for the naturalism expected in Mel Gibson's Passsion (everyone speaks English in this film), there's nothing terribly controversial or inflammatory either.

Saw Filipino film Small Voices. OK film about a teacher in a rural school, who puts together a student choir despite the parents' objections (they want their kids to work). Sweet, well-intentioned.

[ October 27, 2003, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

I finally got to see "Under the Tuscan Sun" today. Although it is a bit simple and weepy in areas, the film definitely made some valid points regarding men and relationships. I could identify with Diane Lane's character regarding men lying to you. Also, the film had one recurring theme that stuck with me. When someone hurts you, you hurt so much that you think you are going to die. But you still survive.

I saw TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE on Saturday and it is one of the most violent, disturbing movies I think I have ever seen. Definitely won't be buying the for the DVD player! I was telling one of my friends about how violent it is and she said, "Wow, I'd never think a film that had the words 'chainsaw' and 'massacre' in the title would be very violent." It's not just chainsaws and butchery. Very brutal.

I saw Scary Movie III just the other day. So stupid but it was entertaining for an hour and half. Pamela's boobs have gotten bigger. Or I think she shrank, I don't know. Anyway, the guy that played Charlie Sheen's brother, the white rapper, was pretty cute. One of his friends really "loved" him. It was cute. I might see Mystic River because I've been hearing good stuff about it, especially about Sean Penn.

Originally posted by George_vikingfan, commenting on 'Radio':

This movie brings new meaning to putrid. Overblown schmaltz times 10! Quite simply the longest 4 hours of my life!

George, I've never thought of you as being cold-hearted until now I'll concede the movie did get a bit schmaltzy at times, but it's not THAT bad! I suppose the movie had some personal relevance for me because I work with mentally-disabled persons. I thought the kindness displayed by the football coach (Ed Harris) towards 'Radio' (Cuba Gooding Jr) was quite touching and genuine. Did I see an 'edited' version?? The movie I saw was only two hours long, not four.

"Mystic River" is a must see. Performances by Tim Robbins, Marcia Gay Harden, and Sean Penn **should** garner Oscar nominations.

Well regarding the four hours I was being sarcastic because it seemed like four hours to me. Every movie about a mentally challenged person (Forest Gump, Rain Man, etc.) are always about the rest of us "learning life lessons" from the main characters. Kind of like every Indian in a movie is going to be the wisest character.

Since you work with the mentally challenged (and bravo by the way!), you know it's just not that simple. The coach's kindness towards Radio is fine, but the fact that everyone else so readily accepts him just seems unrealistic to me. Seems to me there would be alot more conflict based on the fact that he was a mentally challenged and black man in South Carolina. Glad you enjoyed it though.

Good points about the almost universal acceptance of Radio and the racial harmony, George. In fact I was thinking along the same lines but was willing to overlook them because I otherwise liked the film. I suppose by 1976 (the year the story took place) relations between blacks and whites in small Southern towns were somewhat better than they were in the turbulent '60s, but any undercurrents of racial tension seemed completely absent in the movie. The integrated high school even had a black female principal...I wonder how common that was at the time? Also, I doubt if attitudes towards the mentally-challenged were really as progressive as was suggested in the movie. The only antagonism seemed to come from that one football player and his father.

This might surprise you...

'Radio' tale so nice they had to invent a bad guy

BTW--I saw Scary Movie 3. Loved it!

[ October 29, 2003, 09:10 PM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

Joe, Joe, Joe. <canmark shakes his head in dismay>

I swear I lost many, many brain cells watching that film. It wasn't funny. It wasn't scary. That's 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

Saw the re-release "director's cut" of Alien (which I had never seen). Enjoyed that. Although a sci-fi made in '79, the film held up well. A bit slower-moving and with less action and gore than it would have been if made today.

I saw Mystic River over the weekend and, although I rarely agree with the critics, I must say that this film deserves all the accolades that it has been receiving....I haven't enjoyed Sean Penn in any movie since The Falcon and The Snowman and Racing With The Moon but he does give an Oscar worthy performance here to go along with a memorable supporting cast including Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon and Laurence Fishburne, among others....it may not be a "feel good" movie but it certainly keeps your attention and the nearly 2 1/2 hours went by in a flash, at least it did for me anyway.

What can I say? It made me laugh a lot. I wouldn't think anyone would be scared by it, despite the title.

I think a lot of what made it work for me was how it spoofed "The Ring," because I hated that movie so much. And the little boy who kept telling everyone their future was hysterical.

[ November 04, 2003, 09:19 AM: Message edited by: Joe in Philly ]

I realize that I am a few month's behind in movies, but finally rented Matrix revisited this past weekend. (was in Atlanta on business all week and then Cher concert friday nite so needed to veg).
It was a good movie, but it would have worked better if they'd at least answered one question, instead of leaving all of them for revolutions.

Also, Saturday night on Bravo (Canada) was a British film called Blow Dry. I didn't watch the credits, but it looked like something Channel 4 would have put out.
It was sweet, a weak plot plot (British hair dressing championships), good acting by Natasha Richardson, and a younger Josh Hartnett was in it and actually did a credible British accent.

Not one I would have rushed out to the theaters to see, but a cute film nonetheless.

I won't be seeing the remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The first one was bad enough, and yes, I'm old enough to rremember it.

Does anyone remember the '70's movie "The last house of the left"? Now THAT movie was disturbing, on a number of levels. And not just the scene when the mom bit off the end of the guys dick. 25 Years before it was done on Oz.

THAT movie would be a good remake. It had violence, but was also a mind f**k at the same time.

I caught the re-release of Alien (The Director's Cut)...still a very good movie even by today's standards! A few more shots of the Alien than I recalled.....

Also rented Iron Ladies...I must say that I found it to be much better than I thought it was going to be....

In The Cut. Full of atmosphere and selective focus, In the cut is a rather non-thrilling erotic thriller. Too long for a film with so little in the way of story or plot.

love actually. Overly long ensemble romantic comedy with big name cast. Plenty of good-looking men (of various ages) and some gratuitous female nudity.

Ostensibly about a Columbine-type high school massacre, Gus Van Sant's Elephant answers no questions and gives no explanations. It somewhat impersonally obsevers the actions of a number of students during an atypical day of high school. Roger Ebert's insightful (if overrated) review.

[ November 11, 2003, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

Tonight I went to an advance screening of Bad Santa. Originally set to be released November 26, it's been pushed back to Christmas, so I've read. Not that any extra time can help this dud.

SPOILERS!!! DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF FOR SOME WRONGHEADED REASON YOU WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE!

I wasn't much of a fan of Ghost World, Terry Zwigoff's last movie, but since it's so beloved by movie geeks everywhere I figured it was just one of those movies I just don't get. Bad Santa, on the other hand, will be hard-pressed to find such fervent admirers since it's a candidate for the worst comedy of the year.

A holiday-themed movie with a misanthropic sense of humor can be very funny, as anyone who's seen The Ref can attest. But what separates the good from the bad is the quality of the writing - the creation of mean-spirited characters who are sharp-witted but have identifiable human traits. The characters in Bad Santa are not funny in any clever or original way; they're straight out of an Adam Sandler movie: undeveloped, anti-social, and hostile.

There's a fine line between comedy and cruelty, and this movie crosses it. Take the kid, for example. The filmmakers dress him in ill-fitting clothes and have snot running down his nose. Nasal fluid can be funny if something amusing is done with it, like in The Naked Gun. But just a gross runny nose is just gross, and not fun to look at on a large movie screen.

Boy, is this kid weird in an unbelievable way. Bullies give him a wedgie but he seems okay with walking around a mall without dislodging it. In another scene he sits next to a middle-aged adult who's relaxing in a bath, which is creepy in a way the director probably hadn't intended. A child young enough to sit on Santa's lap shouldn't be watching him bathe naked. Later, he cuts his hand making a present for Santa: a "wooden pickle," which he gives to him while in mid-seduction with the movie's stock love interest. Its resemblance in shape and size to a dildo makes the moment a pretty good one to give such a gift, I suppose.

Santa is, of course, Billy Bob, an actor I've admired for years. He does his best with the lousy material he's been given, but even Olivier couldn't make this character work. He's ill-served by the serious miscalculation in tone. His Santa is alcoholic, a criminal and borderline-violent. I wish the movie would have dropped its failed attempt at comedy and dealt with this promising character in a serious manner. When he hooked up with a barmaid with a Santa fetish, I wished for the movie to morph into Leaving Las Vegas. (I didn't get my wish. See? There really is no Santa Clause.) His violence comes out against the kid's bully, whom he, to put it bluntly, kicks the crap out of. I guess it's supposed to amuse us to watch an adult beat up a teenager. This Santa is one that'll make children cry and parents angry (one scene has him drunk, uncouth and wrecking the holiday display because he can barely stand), but nobody seems to do anything about it.

The booze jockey, by the way, is, like all the supporting roles, terribly underwritten. There's some cursory talk about why she is the way she is, but nothing becomes of anything until the end (which I'll get to the ending later). Her first sexual encounter with Santa is somewhat funny, but the movie later repeats the joke, which wasn't funny enough to sustain two scenes.

All we learn about Bernie Mac's security chief is that he's an incontinent, ethically challenged chain-smoker with a penchant for pedicures. If that sounds like a shallow, awfully random collection of character traits, you're putting more thought into him than the writers did. If it sounds funny, then by all means see this movie, since this character is likely never to be used again.

John Ritter's final screen appearance is just as thin, and practically unnecessary to the movie. He's given only a few scenes, and they're all lacking in humor, and a point. You can glimpse his embarrassment in the performance, like he knows his role is unworthy of his talent. He disappears from the movie during Act 3 (which I'm getting to).

Before I get to the ending, let me object to the gratuitous use of profanity in BS (rarely does a movie's initials become an accurate assessment of its content). F-bombs are dropped from beginning to end, with no creativity, wit, or point. Curse words, when used with panache, can explode off the screen to shock laughs from the audience. Quentin Tarantino knows how to do this. But the filthy mouths of the characters in BS made me want to wash them out with Lifebuoy soap (an homage to A Christmas Story, a movie that will still be around long after prints of this one have been turned into landfill).

Now, the ending. Never mind the movie's near-turn to contrived sentimentality (barf). The movie knew this would be predictable and false (gee, Bad Santa does care!), so it was more or less dropped. So let's get to the real ending. Only in a bad Hollywood movie does a holiday comedy end with a shoot-out, a murder, a car chase, and an attempted murder by the police, who fill an unarmed, fleeing man with bullets, after which a bartender agrees to become a foster parent to a weird kid whom she's barely spoken a word to. (If you can explain to me how the police were tipped off to BS's criminal plans, you have amazing intuition, since the details are so confusingly presented in the movie I gave up trying to figure it out.) I'm not even sure what happens to BS when all is said and done; it seems like a happy ending, but shouldn't he be facing major jail time? The way the voice-over explains it, he gets off scot-free because the police don't want bad publicity. Any connection to reality exists only in the writer's addled mind.

Which pretty much sums up Bad Santa as a whole. Nothing that happens in it is plausible, or interesting. The Coen Brothers get a story credit, but what does that mean? Their unique touch is nowhere to be found here, making me wonder exactly what a "story" credit means. Was their involvement the reason Billy Bob signed on? It has to be, since nothing in the final product would indicate otherwise. And I wonder why Cloris Leachman, in the role of the kid's grandmother, didn't have a screen credit either at the beginning or the end. Odd, since Alex Borstein (Mad TV's Mrs. Swan), who is in only one brief scene, receives an opening credit. (She left the SNL rival for this?) Same thing with Ajay Naidu (Office Space's federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison-fearing Samir), who plays a meds-deficient kook who assaults BS for thinking he's gay. (Don't ask, since his two scenes are so inexplicable I assume the bulk of his role is on the cutting room floor.) What's with the misleading credits? I know I shouldn't harp on stuff like this, but Bad Santa gives me so little else to think about.

3/10

French-Belgium movie called The Son (Le Fils). Brilliant acting. Blue-collar Belge characters, very convincing. They sweated the details and the close-up photography makes getting all of them right a neccesity. I wouldn't want to give away the plot, but the legerdermain is brilliant and the two lead actors blew me away. with their acting. Saw it at International House (foreign student housing on the U. of Penn campus), so it may not even be in many video stores not being the sorrt of blood-soaked sex-mad extravaganza but it won an international competition in Europe.

Wonderful performance by Lazaro Ramos in the Brazillian film Madame Sata. Based on the life of Joao Francisco dos Santos, a fiery, gay man who brought fabulousness to the rough part of Rio de Janeiro he inhabited in the early 1930's. In and out of prison, he would become a legendary performer during Rio's carnival.

I'm debating on what to see this weekend. Should I see ...

Looney Tunes


Die Mommie Die


or

Master & Commander

My vote's for Looney Tunes! But I'm not going until at least Monday, because I never see something the very first weekend it opens. I prefer to avoid the crowds if I can.

I was thinking the same thing...after all, most of the Looney Tunes characters are naked (ever think about that?) and why have gratuitous nudity if it's not for art's sake.

I am volunteering at the Out on Film Festival here in Atlanta. I'm getting to see a few movies including "200 American" and "Girls Will be Girls". They were both ok, but not special. American did have some good eye candy however!

I have also seen another really good indie film called "Bubba Ho-Tep", a movie based on a Brahm Stoker short film about what really happend to Elvis. He's living in a rest home in Texas after having taken on the identity of an Elvis impersonator. He is there with a man who believes he in JFK. There are mysterious deaths at the home and they embark on a wild course to find the killer. It's a far fetched movie that is truely a must see! It is riotous at times and at times suspenseful. Great script presented by a wonderful cast make it a true hidden treasure. Go see it! You'll thank me.

http://www.bubbahotep.com/main.html

[ November 14, 2003, 08:53 AM: Message edited by: wade n atlanta ]

from Joe in Philly:

My vote's for Looney Tunes! But I'm not going until at least Monday, because I never see something the very first weekend it opens. I prefer to avoid the crowds if I can.

I was thinking the same thing--especially if the crowd is mostly underage! My big concern about "Looney Tunes" is the absence of the (much missed) great Mel Blanc. As for "Master and Commander," my local cineplex has already sold out all evening showings for this weekend. Saw "love actually." Pure treacle!! (Yech!! Easy stomach!) And too long--though it does have some nice eye candy.

~Adam

that is such a good movie. pretty predictable but very sweet

judging on pictures along--Die Mommy Die!

[ November 15, 2003, 04:09 PM: Message edited by: m1 ]

Havne't seen Loony Tunes (bad reviews), but Die Mommy Die was awful. What a total waste of time and money. It's at best a fun movie to catch on cable when nothing else is on.

Master and Commander, on the other hand, is terrific. Obviously a great story from really popular books. Nice acting all around. Great contrast between the action/battle scenes and the tone of day-to-day life on the ship. Highly recommended.

"Master and Commander" is superb.

By the way, the critic from the NYTimes called it one of the most proudly conservative movies ever made. PhillyFan and William1865: you should definitely see it!

I'd be a lot more interested in Master and Commander if they'd kept the enemy ship AMERICAN as in the book .. .hmm, wonder why that change wa$ made? CITT's pal Christopher Hitchens on how the author's sensibility was discarded.

Some good to marvelous documentaries making their way around the country: Morning Sun (China's CulturalRevolution), Bus 174 and The Revolution Will not Be Televised (the latter has amazing insider footage of last year's near-coup in Venezuela, though is a bit too indulgent of Hugo Chavez as Man of the People).

The Virgin Suicides should've gotten the reviews of Lost in Translation. It's decent, but isn't Scarlett Johansson's character fundamentally uninteresting? And Bill Murray has been better before, ie Rushmore and Groundhog Day for starters.

Way to go on The Son, sportinlife. I saw it in January and it's till among my favorites of '03.

Intolerable Cruelty had two of the funniest scenes I've seen this year, and Clooney doing a respectable Cary Grant riff.

Elephant is best when it keeps the massacre and killers at arm's length... I found it somewhat distasteful that all the model-pretty male teen actors reminded one of what a chicken hawk Gus Van Sant is...

BostonGirl and I saw Master and Commander last weekend. Terrific film, but the ending was a bit...weird. :confused:

Shattered Glass opens this Friday!

good reason to avoid it now

"Looney Tunes Back In Action" is a definite wait-for-home-video flick. Dumb story idea, far-from-stellar script, lame acting--ESPECIALLY Steve Martin. Bugs and Daffy had some good moments, and I have to admit that Brendan Fraser is kinda purty. wink But overall, I think I may have laughed more at "Space Jam." eek!

OK, I need info:
A new movie that I had a preview pass for but couldn't make seems to be a big hit with some reviewers. Has anyone seen BIG FISH yet?
It's directed by Tim Burton, and the Music is by Danny Elfman (my hero). I have read a review that says this is the best movie of 2003, even better that SEABISCUIT. The story line tells of a son trying to find out about the true life of his dieing father. The father has told the son whimsicle stories throughout his life and the son envisions what his father was really like. I have heard it is also a real tear jerker. Has anyone seen this movie yet?

Oh God help me! Its become a Thanksgiving tradition that Uncle George takes all the nieces and nephews to a movie the day after. This year, they want to see The Cat in the Hat!!! This flick has gotten the worst reviews! The NY Daily News gave it one star while the Post gave it ZERO! Maybe I can talk them into seeing Kill Bill? wink Actually maybe I can convince them to see Looney Tunes instead. That one at least looks somewhat tolerable.

Poor Unky George...Looney Tunes was a disappointment. The good news is, Cat in the Hat runs for only about 1:20. It will just seem like 4 or 5 hours. Part of a review from the Phila. Inquirer:

For some reason, The Cat In The Hat movie just seems really really creepy in a Michael Jackson sort of way. I just never found The Cat as a very likeable character. An entire movie would just give me nightmares. Now Go Dog Go...that's a story!

I plan on seeing "Elf" this weekend.

Regarding "The Cat in the Hat," 'Entertainment Weekly' titled its review of the film 'Kitty Litter: or the Only Thing That'll Conceal the Stench of Mike Myers' The Cat in the Hat.' They gave it a D grade. My sister's family always goes to a movie on Thanksgiving (I've a permanent invitation to join them) and I've already let them know I will not step foot into a theatre showing "Cat." We'll probably wind up at "Elf."

George: can't you feign some sort of illness/achiness to get out of seeing the film?? Or try "I'll stay here and help get the place ready for Thanksgiving dinner." I once used that one and then just took a nap!

~Adam

Just talked to a friend that went to see "Cat" with his some. It must have been a snoozer- he fell asleep.

Still waiting for any reviews from Outsporters on "Big Fish". I don't know if it is even playing or just in reviews now. Anyone from New York or LA know?

I saw Looney Tunes earlier this week and had a big ol' dopey grin on from beginning to end. Forget a Will Ferrell in yellow tights (eeeew) and creepy-looking Mike Myers. Toons is a great family flick. Loved it!

Saw Master and Commander. Thought it was OK, but nothing special. Reminded me of The Two Towers in that it's all "middle." At the end of the film we're at the same place as we were at the beginning. Liked Paul Bettany's character, the naturalist/doctor. Bettany played Russell Crowe's 'roommate' in A Beautiful Mind.

The Barbarian Invasions. Won best screenplay and (inexplicably) best actress at Cannes. There's not much of a story, but the characters are enjoyable.