Lessons in Documentary Filmmaking
Murderball is the perfect movie to show to people who think they don’t like documentaries, because it transcends the genre; above all else, it’s a very good sports movie – compelling, fun, smart, and accessible.
Feeling Yourself Disintegrate
In Dark Water, the 2002 Japanese horror movie that was re-made in the United States in 2005, an anxious, annoying, newly single mother named Yoshimi rents a very wet apartment and encounters a greenish ghost. I thought: Certainly this would have been a much more entertaining film if Yoshimi battled the pink robots instead.
Tagged: Dark Water, Horror, Making a Mockery, Reviews
Intolerable Cruelty
The easy, conventional reading of Lars von Trier’s Dogville casts it as an anti-American screed. Yet that interpretation exists almost completely outside of the movie itself. In other words, many of von Trier’s critics are full of shit.
Tagged: Dogville, Dramas, Lars von Trier, Misunderstood Movies, Reflexivity, Reviews
God Said, “Eh … “
The core material of Julia Sweeney’s performance movie God Said, “Ha!” is strong enough to nearly overcome the treatment.
Tagged: God Said "Ha!", Julia Sweeney, Reviews
Extraordinary Music from the Margins of 2005
Twelve albums (and one stray song) from 2005 that I loved, most of them in the indie-rock vein and all of them a bit off the beaten path.
War Won’t Tear Us Apart
In A Very Long Engagement, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s fervid need to turn everything into fussy, over-processed whimsy is wholly incongruous with its primary subject: war.
Anthropomorphic Widescreen
March of the Penguins, the surprise summer hit, is often awe-inspiring in its content and stunningly beautiful in its visuals, but it’s also a big fucking cheat.
Tagged: Documentaries, March of the Penguins, Nature, Reviews
The King(dom) of Comedy
The ever-divisive Lars von Trier is not known as a storyteller, and that’s the main reason his miniseries The Kingdom – which was released on DVD in November – is so surprising.
Tagged: Foreign-Language Films, Horror, Lars von Trier, Reviews, Riget, Television, The Kingdom
Building a Film-Book Library
A document of my film education and something that I hope will help guide people who are intimidated by the thousands of film books available – from omnibus guides to explorations of single works.
Tagged: David Thomson, Ways of Watching
Fear Is Blind
Afraid of the Dark, Mark Peploe’s smart but minor psychological thriller, comprises two movies. One of these stories represents reality, and one is fantasy, and it takes no genius to figure out which is which. Thankfully, the film doesn’t try to fool the audience.
Tagged: Afraid of the Dark, Mark Peploe, Reviews, Thrillers