Writer/Director: Michel Gondry
Year: 2006
Cinematographer: Jean-Louis Bompoint
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind *****
Director: Michel Gondry
Year: 2004
Writers: Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry, Pierre Bismuth
Cinematographer: Ellen Kuras
The greatest screenwriter of our time, Charlie Kaufman, paired with the most creative filmmaker of our time, Michel Gondry.
L'enfant *****
(The Child)
Writers/Directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Year: 2005
Cinematographer: Alain Marcoen
Le fils *****
(The Son)
Writers/Directors: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Year: 2002
Cinematographer: Alain Marcoen
Distant ****
Original Title: Uzak
Writer/Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Year: 2002
Cinematographer: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Climates ****
Original Title: Iklimler
Writer/Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Year: 2006
Cinematographer: Gökhan Tiryaki
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu ****
Director: Cristi Puiu
Year: 2005
Writers: Cristi Puiu, Razvan Radulescu
Cinematographer: Oleg Mutu, Andrei Butica
4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days *****
Writer/Director: Cristian Mungiu
Year: 2007
Cinematographer: Oleg Mutu
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada ****
Director: Tommy Lee Jones
Year: 2005
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Cinematographer: Chris Menges
Very good present day western.
The Proposition *****
Director: John Hillcoat
Year: 2005
Writer: Nick Cave
Cinematographer: Benoit Delhomme
Nick Cave's screenplay for an Australian western is surprisingly good, and his soundtrack is a totally unexpected expressionistic force. The story, the acting, the directing, the cinematography and the soundtrack work together powerfully to tell a unique western which, while hitting upon some usual tropes, finds interesting twists in the genre.
A must see film, especially for western fans.
Le scaphandre et le papillon *****
(The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Director: Julian Schnabel
Director: Julian Schnabel
Year: 2007
Book by: Jean-Dominique Bauby
Adapted by: Ronald Harwood
Cinematographer: Janusz Kaminski
Great directing, telling the story visually. Mathieu Amalric is great. Loved the references to Truffaut's "400 Blows" (the driving through Paris sequence borrows the music and angles taken from a car shooting up at the monuments and buildings passing by). Actually, there is a lot of Truffaut in this film thematically as well, the helpless girl-obsessed boy who needs approval, and the way the women are treated cinematically here owes a lot to Truffaut. The camera caresses them visually as the male lead suffers with desire to touch, to kiss... he can't resist the women in his life, much like Truffaut's revisited character, Antoine Doinel.
Truth in 24 ***
Directors: Keith Cossrow, Bennett Viseltear
Year: 2008
Documentary following the Audi Sport racing team as they attempt a record 5th consecutive win at Le Mans, the biggest event in racing. It's a very good look into what goes into auto-racing, the personal and mechanical drama.
As good a film about racing as I've seen.
Still, doesn't have the strength of characters or drama to really make this a great film, it lies a little flat, like an NFL film... oh and look, it was produced by the NFL films people.
See it if you like auto racing.
2012 *
Director: Roland Emmerich
Year: 2009
Writers: Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
Cinematographer: Dean Semler
Terrible film. Aweful. I should have known better with a poster like this.
You take an interesting premise... Mayan culture predicted the end of the world in 2012... and you throw it out the window with a terrible script, and ridiculously stupid special effects.
I don't even know where to begin tearing this thing apart. Maybe with the idea of a tidal wave topping mount Everest...
Despite Emmerich, I still think the premise could have turned out an interesting film, and I don't believe disaster films have to be terrible. But the world should never allow Emmerich to direct one again.
I'm Not There. ***
Director: Todd Haynes
Year: 2007
Writers: Todd Haynes, Oren Moverman
Cinematographer: Edward Lachman
Editor: Jay Rabinowitz
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan ****
Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 2005
Very good Bob Dylan documentary.
Avatar ***
Writer/Director: James Cameron
Year: 2009
Cinematographer: Mauro Fiore
Visually incredible, especially in 3D. I saw it twice in 3D at a quality theater and was taken on a ride for sure.
The problem is with the story, its been done before (much better in Dances With Wolves) and the dialogue turns everyone into stereotyped cartoon characters. A big anti-corporation, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, pro-environmentalism film works as a cultural zeitgeist, but its ironic to hear coming from the most expensive corporate Hollywood film ever made.
Appreciate the visual effects and the new technologies invented to bring them to the screen, but ultimately the story doesn't support the visuals. What good are technological leaps in CGI if the storytelling is ho-hum?
Maybe this film was just supposed to be a demo for new technologies, and hopefully the next time they are used a director with better story-telling skills will be wielding them.
However, I won't be buying this one on DVD, instead, I'll be popping in Dances With Wolves again to see that real buffalo hunt.
District 9 ***
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Year: 2009
Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
Cinematographer: Trent Opaloch
Some great special effects, definitely a forward progress in CGI, but overshadowed by effects in the year's later release, Avatar 3D.
Well done action movie, sets itself up as more thought-provoking than most films, but then turns into a regular action flick by the end, losing track of where it could have really built more interesting conflicts.
A good action/alien flick.
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