3 months in and I’m still going strong on the movies. Here are the ones I saw for the first time this month:
Annie Hall (1977, dir. Woody Allen)
Sunshine (2007, dir. Danny Boyle)
The Class (2008, dir Laurent Cantet)
Eagle vs Shark (2007, dir. Taika Cohen)
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Nights of Cabiria (1957, dir. Frederico Fellini)
Duplicity (2009, dir. Tony Gilroy)
I Love You, Man (2009, dir. John Hamburg)
Marnie (1964, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Strangers on a Train (1951, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Sunshine Cleaning (2009, dir. Christine Jeffs)
Moonstruck (1987, dir. Norman Jewison)
A Scanner Darkly (2006, dir. Richard Linklater)
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969, dir. Paul Mazursky)
Watchmen (2009, dir. Zack Snyder)
Paranoid Park (2007, dir. Gus Van Sant)
What Happens in Vegas (2008, dir. Tom Vaughan)
Bullitt (1968, dir. Peter Yates)
I really liked Nights of Cabiria. There’s this beautiful moment when the title character is on a stage as part of a hypnotist’s act (it reminded me of David Lynch [specifically Mulholland Drive], who I later read was inspired by Fellini’s work, so … do with that what you will). She was so beautiful and sweet and vulnerable and lovely during the moments she was hypnotized, I was sure men from the audience would be lining up to treat her special and love her forever afterward. There was one man waiting. This lady has seen some tough times and attracts shady shady men, but the audience doesn’t doubt this one because we too fell so in love with her during her time on stage. It’s a really good moment and totally succeeds in earning the viewer’s trust. Now you have to watch it to find out if that trust pays off or not. Oooh.
Eagle vs Shark. Now on my list of favorite movies, and pretty much the definition of charming. This movie suffers from a chronic comparison to Napolean Dynamite, and I think that’s unfair. I consider Napolean Dynamite an underdog story; Eagle vs Shark is a love story. Please don’t write it off as just another Napolean Dynamite.
Sunshine. I love Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire pushed him to the top of my list of favorite directors, but Sunshine was only okay. I do really like the dual role of the sun as both good and evil. On one hand it is vital to the survival of every living being on planet Earth; on the other it haunts and threatens the life and mission of the astronauts — makes for an interesting dichotomy and some good drama. I wavered between blah and thrilled enjoyment during the watching of this movie; in the end they balanced each other out to an over-all “just okay.”
I also really liked Paranoid Park, Sunshine Cleaning, The Class, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Bullitt.
I did not like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. I did not like A Scanner Darkly (I have a pattern of not enjoying Richard Linklater movies; it maybe time to stop trying). I did not like What Happens in Vegas (is there a more annoying actress on the planet than Cameran Diaz? In my defense, I only watched it because I was holed up in a hotel room with HBO during road trip weekend.)
And the rest I liked just fine. What movies have you seen lately?
