Gateway Cinephiles

Film Diary: Syndromes and a Century (Sang Sattawat)

2006
Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Viewed: February 17, 2008
Format: DVD - Strand Releasing (2008)

I have not seen any of Weerasethakul’s previous efforts. His elliptical, almost impressionistic approach to filmmaking takes some effort to absorb during the first encounter. Syndromes and a Century doesn’t so much tell a story as meditate on a whole host of life’s fundamental mysteries, including love, healing, and memory. Buddhist philosophy, the beauty of the natural world, and the faintest ghosts of hidden desire meander through its uncanny, dreamy spaces. I’m not sure I sensed the cinematic greatness that others have in this film, but Syndromes is a worthwhile excursion for adventurous viewers.

Film Diary: There Will Be Blood

2007
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Viewed: February 15, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print

The Rule of Three: Love Is in the Air

I’m introducing a new semi-regular feature here at the Gateway Cinephiles site: The Rule of Three. The premise is simple. Contributors from the Cinephiles will be tasked to select three films that fit a designated criterion. For each film, each contributor will write no more than one hundred words: why we love it, why it is noteworthy, or why everyone should see it at least once. It’s a short and simple formula for sharing our film recommendations, and I hope to do several of these features in the coming year.

We’re kicking the feature off with a tribute to Valentine’s Day, that crassest of crass commercial holidays. Our contributors were asked to pick three films about romantic love. You won’t find the usual rom-com staleness in here, but you will find a lot of tear-jerking cinematic goodness, occasionally in some unexpected places.

Read the rest…

Film Diary: Exterminating Angels (Les Anges Exterminateurs)

2006
Director: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Viewed: February 13, 2008
Format: DVD - IFC (2007)

Brisseau dribbles this surreal nibble of a sexual morality play with cryptic poetry, brash music cues, and visitations from strange, possibly supernatural presences. He doesn’t have the confidence to pull it off with anything close to the fuck-you virtuoso flourish of a David Lynch. Angels succeeds well enough at borderline pornographic arousal, but its taboo-shattering intentions fall a little flat. That said, the final encounter between director François and actress Julia is unexpectedly moving and melancholy. Angels’ boldest message may be that to deny the consequences of sex is to let precious things pass you in the night.

Film Diary: Jaws

1975
Director: Steven Spielberg
Viewed: February 12, 2008
Format: DVD - Universal (2003)

In Memory of Roy Scheider, 1932-2008.

Film Diary: In Between Days

2005
Director: So Yong Kim
Viewed: February 10, 2008
Format: DVD - Kino (2007)

Review: Michael Clayton

2007
Director: Tony Gilroy
Viewed: February 6, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print

Michael Clayton is the finest corporate thriller to emerge from Hollywood since Michael Mann’s The Insider. In some ways, Clayton is better, although on the surface its ambitions are more modest. It operates by the conventional genre rules, but in nearly all of its details it burrows deeper, finding gold where I expected only silver or even clay. It helps that the film boasts three compelling lead actors—George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson—all of whom offer perfectly tuned performances. Michael Clayton might be fiction, but the script and direction from newcomer Tony Gilroy are more forceful and psychologically intricate than that of any recent suit-and-tie thriller inspired by true events.

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Film Diary: Deep Water

2006
Directors: Louise Osmond and Jerry Rothwell
Viewed: February 5, 2008
Format: DVD - IFC (2007)

Film Diary: Raiders of the Lost Ark

1981
Director: Steven Spielberg
Viewed: February 3, 2008
Format: DVD - Paramount (2003)

With all due respect to Schindler’s List, Raiders is probably Spielberg at his pinnacle as a storyteller. If you were to describe Raiders–pulp adventure homage with a dash of genre deconstruction and subversive nose-tweaking–it wouldn’t sound like anything exceptional. And yet the things Spielberg does with it… It’s satisfying to watch a film whose story I know so intimately: I can just appreciate the way the story is told. There is so much daring behind every shot, the way he uses focus, lighting, props, and sets. A hero’s tale for the ages and an intensely pleasurable film.

Film Diary: The Devil Came on Horseback

2007
Directors: Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern
Viewed: February 1, 2008
Format: DVD - Break Thru Films (2007)