Funny Games - 2008 - Dir. Haneke

The Long Good Friday - 1980 - Dir. Mackenzie

Man, I really liked The Long Good Friday. I have no idea why I rented it. Or how it ended up on my queue. Perhaps the mere existence of Bob Hoskins in the film is the reason it appeared. I can't imagine why else. Apparently, a break-through role, it's easy to see why. It would have been easy to just play the role as a tough, but Hoskins takes it to a whole other level. He brings tons of humanity to the role without sacrificing any kind of fierceness, so when he turns into a mad dog, it's still a little scary to see. The film is perfectly engrossing, proving that a simple story and able story telling is all you need sometimes. The film also has a TON of actors in it who pop up in a bunch of places later on. A young Pierce Brosnan. Hatchet Harry AND Brick Top. Apparently, Soap is in it as well as a tiny kid. Indiana Jones Archeological Nemesis from Raiders. Lemmy Caution. And that's not to forget Helen Mirren who does her Mirren-best! I must also say, the scene in the abattoir was positively awesome. Oh hell, there's a bunch of awesome scenes in the movie! It was a completely satisfying experience!

Don't you fuck with Bob Hoskins! DON'T YOU FUCK WITH BOB HOSKINS!

Street Fight - 2005 - Dir. Curry

Cory Booker is in the news these days. Well, he's on TV, at least. The man is making appearances on all the hip shows the kids love. He comes off as friendly, likable, and intelligent. WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT HE'S EFFICIENT TOO!? He knocked violent crimes down 40% or so since he took office as Mayor of Newark. He apparently wants to make it a less terrifying city for some reason. This was not the goal of the previous Mayor, Sharpe James, who is currently serving jail time for various kinds of frauds. In 2002, the little known Booker went up against the popular and long serving James. The result: STREEET FIGHT! The premise of the documentary was enough to pull me in. Even though, I have to admit that it feels a little amateurish at times, the film is engrossing. Curry paints a desperate and polarized situation in Newark. A city with great possibilities, as well as great corruption. He is never condescending to Newark or its inhabitants. We don't see jerks mugging for the camera or inarticulate loudmouths (well, not a ton, it IS politics after all) while at the same time showing us a different kind of political campaign. Booker nor James ever feel like a clear winner so the documentary holds us to the very end. It feels honest and fair, as fair as it can be considering James refused to be filmed. But we see Booker trade in some of his ethics so he can win, this is after all: A STREEETTT FIIIIGGGGHHHTTTT!!!!

Round One: Fight!

Murder By Death - 1976 - Dir. Moore

This movie is FILLED with people. And I'll admit to not being a huge fan of Neil Simon but damn it, the man knows how to make some silly jokes. Although, the film really begins to get tedious after a while and I don't know how well it really fares once you get past the verbal humor. I feel like a lot of visual gags could have been done better and the movie in general could have had better timing. As far as the actors ability to crack jokes though, TOP NOTCH. It's also James Cromwell's first movie. AND HE'S AWESOME. I know he's just being a big doof but MAN, he was cracking me UP. Alec Guiness is also a ton of fun to watch. Peter Sellers was on and off. I'm not sure how well the racist chinese jokes held up. I was trying to figure out it if was making fun of Charlie Chan's racism or if it just wasn't being very imaginative with their own racist jokes. I mean, this coming from the man who made a living butchering a French accent, it's tough to tell. And I'm not willing to give Simon the benefit of the doubt either. So the movie ends up being a little half and half. Some parts are GREAT, some not so much. Especially as the movie drags on, I couldn't be very interested in the end since the movie projects that its basically jerking us around when it introduces the idea of teleporting dining rooms. Of course the end isn't going to be a real ending and the rant felt more like it was trying to be clever than actually clever. Oh well... good for a lark! :p

You leave Obi-Wan alone Columbo! He didn't do ANYTHING!

Wendy and Lucy - 2008 - Dir. Reichardt

All right, I'm digging on this Kelly Reichardt lady. Second film of hers I've seen, also the second which has a nice bit of Portland footage which is always a nice bonus. Wendy and Lucy follows in the minimalist tone of Old Joy of having a lot of looks and silence. It depicts Michelle Williams or Wendy as she attempts to move up to Alaska with her dog Lucy. She gets stranded in Portland when her car breaks down. More problems arise as she is arrested for shop lifting and she loses track of Lucy. In the film we manage to see a lot of characters living on the fringe. People just scraping by, only doing slightly better than Wendy herself. Perhaps one of my favorite touches was the security guard, a benefactor for Wendy throughout the film, offers her some parting cash. While the sum is treated as a lot, it turns out to be only a few dollars. I don't think I liked it as much as Old Joy probably having something to do with the unending sadness throughout the film, never really feeling much of a lift at any point. But I won't say that's a bad thing. It's a captivating enough film and I did connect with it, just not as much I suppose. The endings IS sad, but there's something terribly reasonable and almost happy about it. But certainly not happy enough to not feel bummed out by the time the credits roll.

Will Oldham! YOU ARE CRAZY!

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - 2005 - Dir. Gibney

Man, I'll tell ya! This documentary got me so damn steamed. Which I guess means its completely successful in it's goal. I mean, I'm sure there could be loftier ambitions behind the film, like to say, INFORM but for a good chunk it just feels like it's just demonizing those with their fingers in the Money Pie. The work is pretty cut out for them. I mean, most people don't need to be convinced at this point. So it's basically a parade of evidence. I think the documentary screws with the timeline, and by that, I just mean, it seemed to jump around a little bit, grouping the allegations and crime not by when they occured but more like subject matter. I'm not positive, of course, the film throws A LOT of information around at you so its a bit of a struggle to follow sometimes. Despite this, you have a broad understanding of what went on in the scandal. I was fairly uninformed about the whole proceedings so despite it only happening a few years ago, I learned a shit ton from the movie. It paints strong pictures of our "antagonists" out of Lay, Skilling, and Fasdow.

Luckily for this man, he was not one of the smartest guys in the room.

Synecdoche, New York - 2008 - Dir. Kaufman

MAN! I had a pretty good hunch that Synecdoche, New York would be depressing and dreary... that still didn't really prepare me for it though. I suppose expected something along the lines of Philip Seymour Hoffman putting forth tons of effort into something that inevitably fails but the film isn't terribly interested in failure, in fact, it seems to chalk it up to that being awfully small scale. I also didn't factor in how friggin weird Charlie Kaufman could be. I don't really know how I forgot how quirky that sonuvabitch could be. Or I don't think I forgot. I didn't realize that he would also be such a friggin' quirky director as well. And pretty damn capable if you ask me. He plays a ton with the passing of time, never in a flashy way, with the same deft hand that writes all those screenplays. It also helps that he has a pretty incredibly cast. I mean TOM NOONAN!? No, seriously though, he's got some great people on board. Samantha Morton was just awesome (and perhaps my favorite) as was her somewhat doppelganger Emily Watson. Hope Davis has a few scenes of complete ridiculousness. And Tom Noonan is pretty bitchin'. Daniel London even has a tiny role as a doof. But naturally, the movie is all about Philip Seymour Hoffman and the bastard can play a sad, neurotic man whose falling apart like nobodies business. The film has a lot going on, and I'm not going to act like I understood it all like say, the house that's constantly on fire. But I can certainly appreciate it, even if it's DREARY AND FULL OF DREAD!

AWWWWW!!!! A precog!