The 400 Blows

Les Quatre Cents Coups, which actually refers to an expression that roughly translates to "raising hell", was a very interesting character study and period study of late 50's Paris. I found out after watching this film that it is the first of 5 in the Antoine Doinel (the main character) cycle that director Francois Truffaut has done all with the same actor that played Doinel in this film! It is also one of the first films of the French New Wave, a genre that I know next to nothing about.

Rachel Getting Married

Silence of the Lambs-great. Philadelphia-powerful. The Agronomist-amazing. Jonathan Demme has done amazing things and I can easily get lost in Anne Hathaway's eyes for days, but Rachel Getting Married struck me as nothing more than dysfunctional rich people "just trying to get by". Please. Don't get me wrong, Anne Hathaway did a great job but come on people. Seriously, you're stinking rich and everyone is messed up in one way or another, but I am not going to connect with whiny, hipster rich people that are trying with all their might to have some sort of multicultural wedding festival while dealing with family demons.

Battlestar Galactica

In my opinion, one of the greatest shows that has been on television. Not only was it able to successfully blend science fiction with competent storytelling and superb acting (especially James Callis as Gaius Baltar), but it continually addressed issues ranging from dystopian psychology, torture, and ethics to gender roles, society formation, and theology. The motivations for virtually every kind of action and response to stimuli are examined and turned inside out throughout the entire series. During the week of the series finale, two of the main actors, the reimagined series creator, and a producer of the show met on a U.N. panel to discuss the human rights issued raised during an armed conflict! This show has had much to say about the human experience in multiple facets of life and it will be missed.

What do you hear?
Nothing but the rain

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta

I felt like I needed a book review in here somewhere.

I had the privilege of starting this book in the Copenhagen airport on my way to the Middle East. The chapter concerning the Arabian Sea was brief but it felt good to have a small idea of what this amazing 14th century Muslim jurist/traveler may have seen. This is not the primary source, which is on the more difficult side to some by in a good English translation, but Dunn does a great job of giving more back story and historical context than Ibn Battuta would have thought to include in the original text. The pan-Islamic world was larger and far more complex than I could have ever imagined and it was a joy to discover the adventurous spirit of Ibn Battuta.

Le Samourai

So perfect in all it's minimalist/existentialist/60's French cinema greatness! The main character, Jef Costello (played to perfectly detached perfection by Alain Delon who, might I add, is an extremely handsome and alluring man), is a joy to watch as he methodically goes about all that is required of a Parisian/gangster hit man /samurai.

Battle in Seattle

It was great to watch a film where I knew most every locale, but this ultimately came off as a melodramatic made for TV Sunday afternoon movie. The Seattle WTO Riots are better left as documentary material unless someone like Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, United 93) is at the helm.

Confessions of a Superhero

This documentary was enlightening to the ways that different people have come to grips with the harsh realities of life. From the less extreme homeless man turned Hulk to the Superman that knows no other reality but Superman. Each person/character shows that being a mere mortal is hard enough without the added weight of being a superhero.

Blindness

I loved City of God and The Constant Gardener was great on many levels, but director Fernando Meirelles just could not quite pull off Jose Saramago's vision (no pun intended, well, maybe a little) of what Blindness was supposed to be. Yet again, the book is far better than the movie but it was a nice try.

Synecdoche, New York

Charlie Kaufman's directorial debut is exactly what you would expect from him considering his writing work in the past (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Yet, this in no way pigeonholes him because he can present such a uniquely bizarre film like this and successfully pull it off too. Casting Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead works perfectly. You can't help but love him as his life falls apart literally and figuratively. This film is pretty depressing but in the we-all-die-someday-realization sort of depressing, which is more honest I think.

Milk

I cried...a lot. Every actor in this film was great and I especially loved the ongoing chemistry between Sean Penn and James Franco. The Christian Right made me absolutely furious throughout though.