Tag: 2009 movies

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Blitz, Miller, Newman, Rudolph, Thurman

Dan Seeger

Lucky (Jeffrey Blitz, 2010). After a middling sidetrack into fiction filmmaking, Blitz returns to the sort of quirky documentary that first earned him attention. Lucky is about lottery winners. Blitz follows the trajectories of several different individuals that became instant millionaires when a few kinetic ping pong balls bounced their way. While some of the asides are good, especially those that consider the incredible unlikelihood of actually striking it rich this way, Blitz struggles to find a clear narrative to give the film some structure and cohesion. It winds up instead as a smattering of human interest studios. Some are … Continue reading Blitz, Miller, Newman, Rudolph, Thurman

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Demme, Frears, Hooper, Lee, Wang

Dan Seeger

Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme, 1987). Jonathan Demme may not have been the best filmmaker of the nineteen-eighties, but I think there’s an argument to be made that he was the most interesting. This film is a good illustration of that point. It’s a film version of one of Spalding Gray’s monologues, a meandering but always focused act of storytelling that springs from his involvement in the film The Killing Fields. Gray’s approach was simplicity itself, sitting behind a small wooden table with his spiral notebook before him and little more than a couple of maps to help fill out … Continue reading Demme, Frears, Hooper, Lee, Wang

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Acker, Cronenberg, Denis, Heckerling, Sturges

Dan Seeger

Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995). I’m prepared to concede that Heckerling’s gum-snap reworking of Jane Austen’s Emma is better than I would have said after seeing it upon its original release. It’s also, despite its reputation, not some glistening pop gem. It’s an agreeable bit of fluff with some charming moments, and a suitably bright performance from Alicia Silverstone, who’s more a beneficiary of shrewd casting than anything. Writer-director Amy Heckerling–here fresh from a couple dippy crowdpleasers about the inner monologues of babies, let’s not forget–is a sloppy, unfocused filmmaker. Just because her attention span may sync up with those of … Continue reading Acker, Cronenberg, Denis, Heckerling, Sturges

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Aldrich, Huston, Kore-Eda, Lee, Sanders

Dan Seeger

Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009). An inspired spoof of nineteen-seventies Blaxploitation films, Black Dynamite stars Michael Jai White as the title character, who dispenses justice on the mean streets while searching for his brother’s killer. Sanders gets the tone exactly right, mocking the conventions of the subgenre without lapsing into condescension. There’s a clear affection here, a conviction that no matter what else the original films may have been, they were also fun. How many movies can have claim major climactic sequences taking place on Kung Fu Island? Clever as it is, it’s a hard conceit to sustain over the … Continue reading Aldrich, Huston, Kore-Eda, Lee, Sanders

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Edel, Farrow, Hitchcock, Jordan, Siegel

Dan Seeger

His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951). How many other actors completely own a genre of film the way that Robert Mitchum does film noir? It’s like he was born into a delivery room filled with murky shadows and cigarette smoke, the doctor instructing the nurse to slap his bottom by growling, “Give him what’s comin’ to him, and make him sing when you do it.” He moves through this story of scheming and duplicity at a Mexican resort as if he’s walking through his own front door, tossing of aloof wisecracks with the ease of a guy who’s already … Continue reading Edel, Farrow, Hitchcock, Jordan, Siegel

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Argento, Daves, Joffe, Judge, Moses

Dan Seeger

Dark Passage (Delmar Daves, 1947). This passable film noir is probably most notable for a storytelling gimmick that keeps the face of star Humphrey Bogart obscured for a good chunk of the film’s running time. He’s plays a man who claims he was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife. He escapes from prison and hides out in San Francisco, eventually getting some backroom plastic surgery to change his appearance. That’s when he starts to look like Bogart, so the lead up puts the star in shadows, covers his face in bandages, and, for significant stretches, employs a subjective camera technique … Continue reading Argento, Daves, Joffe, Judge, Moses

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Anderson, Charles, Krasinski, Miller, Moeller

Dan Seeger

Break of Hearts (Philip Moeller, 1935). Katherine Hepburn was a mere twenty-eight when this thin romance was released, just a few films into her storied career. She already had an Oscar and at least one solid hit to her credit, but doubters were plentiful. This was one of the string of flops that famously got her labeled “box office poison.” If nothing else, the film is evidence that Hollywood didn’t really know what to do with her yet, shoving the camera into her face to capture a dewy glisten that may have been the standard of the day for leading … Continue reading Anderson, Charles, Krasinski, Miller, Moeller

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Bunuel, Frankenheimer, Phillips, Wright, Wyler

Dan Seeger

The Hangover (Todd Phillips, 2009). The premise is great. Four guys go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party. The next morning they wake up from a blackout drunk with the groom-to-be missing, and they have to reconstruct their crazy night from increasingly absurd clues. It’s like Memento reimagined as a ribald comedy. The execution is another matter. The screenwriting team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (who saw this turn into a box office sensation just a few weeks after their handiwork resulted in a dreadful-looking bomb) just pile on incident after incident, getting laughs from jolting the audience … Continue reading Bunuel, Frankenheimer, Phillips, Wright, Wyler

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Cummings, Hartley, Lord and Miller, Preminger, Truffaut

Dan Seeger

The Last Metro (Francois Truffaut, 1980). One of Truffaut’s last films, The Last Metro is set in a struggling theatre during World War II. The Germans occupy France, causing the acclaimed owner and director of the theatre to hide out in the basement relaying covert suggestions as the troupe upstairs mounts a production that needs to be a success to keep the business afloat. Catherine Deneuve plays his wife and muse, the person trying to keep both him and the theatre safe. Gerard Depardieu plays an actor cast in the latest production, though its his life away from the stage … Continue reading Cummings, Hartley, Lord and Miller, Preminger, Truffaut

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Bunuel, Elliott, Gast, Hill, Weide

Dan Seeger

Easy Virtue (Stephan Elliott, 2008). Based on a play by Noel Coward, Easy Virtue has all the requisite pieces to help the Priscilla, Queen of the Desert director get his artistic sensibilities back on track after the disastrously bad thriller Eye of the Beholder. The story about an English gent bringing his headstrong new American wife home to meet his snobbish, disapproving family is abundant with basic, effective dramatic conflict, and the source material guarantees that the screenplay will be filled with admirable wit. The finished product is sadly in a perpetual state of overexertion, everything ratcheted up to a … Continue reading Bunuel, Elliott, Gast, Hill, Weide