Netflix Diary 7

Aguirre, The Wrath Of God [1972]
I wanted to see this after enjoying last year’s Rescue Dawn, because I had always heard how good it was, and how in a lot of ways it is the…technical forerunner to director Werner Herzog’s 2007 expedition. But ya know what? I was bored to tears by Aguirre. I understand how much of an impossible feat the production was, trekking a film crew and actors in full suits of real armor through the South American jungle – it’s all right there on the screen – but that doesn’t mean it makes a good film. The story is skeletal, with half the scenes being improvised, and the acting is alternately forced, amateurish or nonexistent. It’s not a completely bad film, illustrating madness and paranoia pretty well, and the craft does count for something, but I just found it profoundly disappointing for all the cultish hype it gets.



A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints [2006]
I really really wanted to like this movie, because, as I’ve said, I like Shia LaBeouf, and I really like the recent choices of Robert Downey Jr. Actually, I did like this movie, and I do recommend it, but I do so with some reservations. The movie totally hinges on the good performances of these two lead actors (playing the young and old versions of the same person, Dito Montiel), as well as the fact that it’s simply a filmed autobiography, adapted and directed by Montiel himself. NOW, the rest of the movie is merely good. The situations are interesting, though sometimes not well drawn enough, and unfortunately the characters are mostly unlikable, though Irish Mike is cool...but I can’t shake the fact that I wanted young Dito to escape his world not because I was rooting for him, but because I was rooting against the world. Apparently, this is just one of the short stories from the original book, which continues with Dito fronting a hardcore band among other things, so maybe that’s the place to start. Otherwise, this is just another in a long line of coming-of-age dramas that take place in the five boroughs of New York City.

Netflix Diary 6

2 Days In Paris [2007]
I want to recommend this, but I hesitate because your enjoyment kind of depends on your sense of humor. If you like slapstick and Adam Sandler lowbrow type of stuff, you’ll hate this. If you like what I call “uncomfortable humor” – like if you love Christopher Guest’s movies, love The Office, but prefer the Ricky Gervais Office to the Steve Carrell Office – you’ll probably dig this. I was on the fence, because I did an equal amount of laughing out loud and cringing in discomfort. If I was Adam Goldberg’s character, I would’ve split way early in the trip. Overall though, Julie Delpy does a pretty good job of juggling the raunchy writing, semi-guerrilla directing and bi-lingual acting.



The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters [2007]
I don’t want to form too much of a pre-opinion for you – I’ll just say that it’s a fucking masterful documentary, one of the best I’ve ever seen. If you like documentaries or just movies in general, you need to see this. Hollywood wishes it could write a screenplay this fuckin' perfect.

Netflix Diary 5

The Wild Bunch [1969]
Easily one of the ten great Westerns of all time, this is just as revolutionary as Bonnie & Clyde when it comes to pushing the boundaries of film in the late 1960’s. Besides the fact that the violence is still fairly excessive by today’s standards, with the body count up around 150, it’s also one of the earliest films I can think of off the top of my head with gratuitous nudity in it (nothing like a few Mexican whores swimming in vats of red wine). Not just that, but the film’s finale is a pioneering example of the kind of jump cut editing that would become popular in the post-MTV late 80’s and early 90’s, William Holden and Ernest Borgnine are spectacular as aging desperados attempting to retire, and Sam Peckinpah’s direction is flawless throughout, especially on the tense (and improvised) train robbery sequence.



Bridge To Terabithia [2007]
I read a really good review of this movie when it came out, but never found the time to see it. I was flipping past the SAG Awards and saw that the girl lead, AnnaSophia Robb, was nominated for Best Young Actress, and so I was curious again. I had it on my Netflix, but ended up catching it on cable one weekend morning, and I was surprised how good it was. The studio totally botched the advertising for this one, because not one ad hinted at the power of the story, instead trying to pimp the Walden Media effects team, which is really only 20% of the film, if that much. All the kid actors are great, especially Robb, who looks like a future star from the moment she gets on screen. The climax is heavy duty, so have your tissues at the ready. It’s not a film revolution, but it is a really good movie about how kids deal with loss, guilt, and regret, and the filmmakers made an honest movie that doesn’t insult their audience’s intelligence like the studio’s marketing did.

Netflix Diary 4

The Game [1997]
I’m a big David Fincher fan, and Fight Club is one of my favorite films of all time, so it is a complete mystery why I’ve never seen this decade old film. Well, now that I’ve seen it, and been suitably blown out of my shorts by it, I think I want to make a big statement: The Game is Fincher at his Hitchcockian best. That’s right. I said it. It’s rare that I feel as satisfied by the journey in a film as I did when this movie was finished. Everything was in its right place, and that’s kind of the point; if there were any goofs or loose ends, the film wouldn’t work. The ending got me just as it got Michael Douglas’s character; I was totally suckered, and I loved every minute of it.

Netflix Diary 3

Stardust [2007]
A good, fun bit of family filmmaking by, of all people, Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn; although I had gotten myself psyched up that it was gonna be a kind of next-gen Princess Bride, which I guess is too much to hope for, it was still mildly worth seeing, like on cable. It has a pretty good cast, highlighted by a radiant Claire Danes and an unforgettably ridiculous Robert DeNiro.





The Lives Of Others [2006]
Winner of the 2006 Best Foreign Language Oscar, but only hitting the US around when it won the award (early ’07), this instant classic from Germany would be a brilliant piece of filmmaking in any language. It not only deals with the place and power of art in a society, but how people’s attitude’s change towards art when the government tightens its grasp. Set against the police state of East Berlin in the 1980’s, the story of a Stasi Police investigator who has to struggle with the relationship between his politically sensitive profession and his silent opinions on the follies of his government’s policies produces deep, tangible characters with performances to match. This is a tense, genius drama as good as any from Hollywood in the last 5 years.

Netflix Diary 2

Bonnie & Clyde [1967]
1967 was the year that movies changed, and this was one of the great few that changed it (along with The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, and In The Heat Of The Night, among others). I would say it’s not a hands-down masterpiece, mostly because it hasn’t aged as well as some of the other films of the time – Estelle Parsons’s Oscar-winning supporting actress turn comes off as a bit grating now – but its classic status is still evident when watching. The violence was definitely revolutionary as far as what you could show and how you could treat it emotionally, and Clyde’s sexual hang-ups were definitely an interesting development of how a male lead could be portrayed. Throw in Gene Hackman’s breakthrough, a bit part by a super-young Gene Wilder, and Faye Dunaway in one of the sexiest performances of the 60’s, and you have a cool flick to go back and discover.




The Host [2006]
I’ve wanted to see this for about a year, and so when I got Netflix, I put it right at the top of the list. I think it’s always interesting to see what big budget blockbusters look like when made in other countries. As a monster movie, this is way more fun than, say, the Matthew Broderick-led Godzilla, wisely choosing to have the creature be smaller than most movie monsters – this thing is about 20 feet tall – so that during the action, whichever human is there engaging it can be fit in the same shot, instead of separate giant monster shots and tiny ant-of-a-person shots. Add in some good acting and classic slapstick humor from the Korean cast, and a little social commentary in the script, and you have one satisfying viewing experience, destined to be a cult classic.

Netflix Diary 1

Disturbia [2007]
Ever since I saw The Battle of Shaker Heights, I try and check out Shia LaBeouf’s flicks; I think he picks good projects for his acting personality. This teen angst reimagining of Hitchcock’s Rear Window was a fun little slice of popcorn fare; as both teenage fare and as a thriller, it’s slightly above average. I don’t think it was worth a $10 ticket, but I enjoyed it. Good to see David Morse continuing to raise his profile too.