July 31, 2008
Andrew
Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Documentaries, Foreign
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2007 (Canada)
Director: Yung Chang
Viewed: July 30, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print
Yung Chang’s Up the Yangtze dangles delicately in the documentary space between an unvarnished portrait of life and a nimble examination of social issues. Deceptively modest in its approach and laced with swift, unexpected stabs of pathos, Yangtze is most essentially a glimpse of a land in flux. Chang is plainly fascinated with the ways that epic changes to landscapes and societies sweep some people along, raise others to heady heights, and drown still others without a glimmer of pity. Yangtze is primarily the tale of “Cindy” Shui Yu, a sixteen-year-old Chinese peasant (though she looks younger) who takes a job on a kitschy river cruise in order to help her family claw its way out of poverty. Chang, however, frequently wanders away to gaze at the brown expanse of the Yangtze River, to peek in on the struggles of Cindy’s parents, or to listen placidly to others only tangentially related to the story. In this way, Yangtze moves with plodding resolve from the personal to the universal and back again, its intentions naked but always accented with remarkable insight and empathy.
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July 30, 2008
Andrew
Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Documentaries
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2007 (USA)
Director: Werner Herzog
Viewed: July 30, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print
The Discovery Channel and its lesser edutainment progeny are a bit like eccentric Victorian naturalists, disseminating wonders and grotesqueries for an ecological spectacle that would made Barnum proud. This, perhaps more than the Bowdlerization or Disneyfication of Nature, is one of the more unfortunate legacies of the nature documentary. Art has receded in favor of the accumulation of curious factoids and gruesome oddities for their own collectible sake. Thank God, then, for Werner Herzog. The German director has spent decades carefully building his cynical credibility. As a result, he can approach the natural world with the same awestruck notes as any Discovery feature, even as he pushes beyond the banal limits of such fare in the pursuit of something more probing and, well, visionary.
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July 30, 2008
Teresa
Film Diaries - Teresa
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1964 (UK)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Viewed: July 29, 2008
Format: DVD
July 29, 2008
Andrew
Film Diaries - Andrew, Reviews, Film Diaries - Libby, Kid Stuff, Animation, Science Fiction
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2008 (USA)
Director: Andrew Stanton
Viewed: July 27, 2008
Format: Theatrical Print
WALL•E delivers to the anemic landscape of science fiction cinema a much-needed shot of vitality and depth. This is especially the case for that rare subspecies of sci-fi film that WALL•E delightfully embodies, one that is at once engaging, challenging, and appropriate for children. If the film has a flaw–and its flaws are rare indeed–it is the filmmakers’ dogged insistence on exploring a proflieration of ethical and philosophical quandries when a sublime little allegory might have sufficed. Lest I damn with faint praise, let’s be clear about one thing: WALL•E is simultaneously the best animated film, children’s film, and science fiction film of the year. The electricity that tingles within its comfortable tropes signals a turning point in Pixar’s oeuvre, not to mention Disney’s. Although it lacks the virtuosity that made the studio’s Ratatouille one of the best films of 2007, WALL•E has an ache of grand ambition in its bones, one that bodes well for the potential of “children’s entertainment” to still take people of all ages to undiscovered worlds without and within. (Minor spoilers follow…)
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July 28, 2008
Teresa
Film Diaries - Teresa
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2000 (USA / Germany)
Director: Harold Ramis
Viewed: July 27, 2008
Format: Television - Cinemax
July 28, 2008
Teresa
Film Diaries - Teresa
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1988
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo
Viewed: July 26, 2008
Format: Television - Cinemax
July 27, 2008
Libby
Film Diaries - Libby
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2000
Director: Cameron Crowe
Viewed: July 27, 2008
Format: DVD - Dreamworks (2001)
July 25, 2008
Libby
Film Diaries - Libby
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1999
Director: Gil Junger
Viewed: July 24, 2008
Format: Television - WGN
I only watched this movie to see how far Heath Ledger had come. The answer is really fucking far. My gut tells me that he is hotter than hell here, but his acting just isn’t good. The best scene involves him stabbing his dissection frog with a switchblade, and then lighting a cigarette from the gas jets at the lab station. Typical Bad Boy crapola, but at least we can see glimmers of what’s to come. Positive potential, if you will.
July 25, 2008
Libby
Film Diaries - Libby
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2007
Directors: Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith
Viewed: July 25, 2008
Format: DVD - 2008 (Paramount)
Meh. Jerry Seinfeld’s voice acting is pretty good, but the plot is lukewarm. Certainly nothing offensive here, so no worries with the kiddos. For me the addition of Patrick Warburton or Matthew Broderick to any voice acting cast is a major plus, but even they didn’t make the movie shine. The animation was passable but not impressive. Again, a strong meh.
