Shades of Radiance

4th o' July Movie binge

So . . . I watched a bunch of DVDs over the 4th. Watched House of Flying Daggers again, still an excellent film. It loses a lot on the small screen, but I at least got to catch the opening five minutes that I missed last year in Toronto.
Started two series, of which I've only seen the first disc of each. The Yakuza Papers, which I can't believe I never heard of before, and which I'm definitely a fan of. The comparisons to the Godfather are inevitable, especially considering that Vol. 1 was released only a year later; I think Coppola's definitely better, especially with the care he took to make each killing memorable in a particular way and that he's better with the camera most of the time, but Y.P.s has a bleeding edge to it that the Godfather series decided against. Looking forward to the next four.
Also started watching the BBC's adaptation of Le Carre's  Tinker,  Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It was the first Le Carre novel I ever read, having heard almost nothing of the man previously, and I'm still hooked on him, so I'm enjoying the BBC's take on it pretty well. 
The Five Obsctructions was actually a little disappointing to me; I was hoping for a longer movie, something that would go more in-depth into the technical, creative, and critical side of the very intriguing concept, but the movie itself comes off more as an ode to von Trier and Leth's friendship and less a probe into film-making, which is what I had my expectations up for. Still def. worth seeing though.
Found a movie called 2009 Lost Memories at Hollywood video that I'd never heard of before; Korean thriller, quite recent apparently. Excellent thriller, well acted, well written until the weird end, and very well shot. Thrillers subsist a lot on feel for me, and it had good feel all the way, though again, the end is a little iffy for me.
Watched Cowboy Bebop: The Movie with my parents; solid fun, typical Bebop. Villain was . . . a little overdone, I think, but not bad. Also rented the Spike Jonze DVD. Some good stuff, but I liked the Gondry DVD MUCH more.
interlude - Jen! Have you watched Koyanisqatsi yet? I believe you promised me you would. -resume-
The Untouchables was a piece of crap, in my opinion. I hate Costner when he gets self-righteous like that, I couldn't believe that stereotypical plot was David Mamet's, I hate it when Hollywood throws it's buddy cop segments into a purportedly historical movie, and the one good scene was a horrible rip-off of the Odessa Steps scene. Bleh. Hopefully I'll never see that one again.
Watched a pair of Luc Besson films as well; La Femme Nikita, his classic, which looks like it could have easily been made in the 60s/70s; hard to believe it came out in '90; also Wasabi, which he wrote and which stars Jean Reno, for whom my love is so unreasoning that I actually really enjoyed and recommend this totally dumb parody.
Also a couple others I forget at the moment.

On Hiatus

Due to my overwhelming time sink of a new job, I haven't been seeing many movies lately. I'm also not finding the time to post on what I've been seeing for the past few months, even pre-job. Therefore, I'm officially putting this site on hiatus until it seems worth re-starting. Expect an announcement on my main 'blog if I restart up here.

On seeing Goodbye Lenin

Nice, fun, sweet little German comedy. Pretty funny, and the nostalgic look at Communism was kind of cool/interesting to see. Only real thing I feel the need to note is that I'm 90% sure I've been to the nightclub that they go to on their first date; I mean, I wasn't positive I recognized any of the rooms, but there can't be that many five story clubs built into the sides of ruined buildings in East Berlin, can there? It's a sweet place; check it out if you're ever in Berlin. I'm pretty sure it was on Oranienburger Straße, but I don't have my battered old City Guide handy, so I can't be positive.

On seeing Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban

First HP movie bored me out of my mind, so I didn't bother seeing the second one, but the news that Alphonso Cuaron was directing the third one got me excited, so I talked my parents into going so that they would pick up the ticket. :) I thought it was pretty good, for what it was. Nothing spectacular, but nice, and good atmosphere. The silent movie style spotlight fades were very cool, and the pacing and tone were nice; it was definitely leagues better than the first one, as it was about characters, not digital effects. Give me some nice conflict over a ten minute game of Quidditch any time.

Oh, and Emma Watson? H-O-T. All I'm saying.

On viewing Lost in Translation

I watched Lost in Translation with my parents the other night. It was still good, but not as good as I remembered it; I think it suffered due to my recently watching/re-watching a bunch of Wong Kar-Wai, and it seemed even more like a pale imitation after that.

Anyway, my dad didn't like it, but he rarely likes arthouse movies. My mom didn't really like it either; she thought it was sad because "it's just two unhappy people and the only happiness they have comes from tempting each other". Afterward, I brought up Casablanca, which could be said to be basically the same situation, since I know she loves Casablanca. She said she'd been thinking about it too, and thought that part of it was that Casablanca had so many supporting characters and other things going on, whereas LiT had nothing to distract from the central relationship.

As I'm writing this, it occurs to me that In the Mood for Love could be seen as the same basic situation too, and I think she liked that one. Any thoughts?

Interesting

Apparently someone copyrighted Shades of Light. My apologies. Also, it's "immediately". Current title will remain until I decide on a new one.

On viewing Le Samourai

Couldn't find it on DVD, so I broke down and rented Le Samourai on VHS last night with Luke. Well worth my time; have to find it on DVD now even more so, but daaaamn. That was an almost perfect heist movie. And so, so little of that pesky dialogue that I hate so much. Everything visual, and great visuals. Ahhhhhh. Now if I could just find some way to actually be Alain Delon in that trenchcoat and hat . . . man, I wish hats were still required for menswear. Oh, and it's really fun to see Melville tipping his hat to Kurosawa in this, and John Woo tipping his hat to this in The Killer.

On viewing Punch Drunk Love

Wow. Absolutely perfect, gorgeous use of color, framing, light, real deep saturation of the colors . . . orgasm for the eyes. Funny too. Fantastic.

On re-seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Damn, I like this movie. Still the best movie of the year to date, as far as I can tell. I love the bits in his head where they seamlessly transition from re-living the memories to discussing them. And poor Kirsten Dunst really kind of breaks your heart. And the fact that he doesn't pull out a cheap "love conquers all" counter to the set-up, but resolves it a different way. Ah. Perfect if many, many ways. Great clothesline, great material on the clothesline; Gondry is one of my new idols.

On seeing Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Great, great, great, great film. I need to see it again; not to catch the twists or anything- it's got some achronological stuff, but it's really easy to follow. I just want to watch it again and enjoy it again. Really good acting, esp by Jim Carrey; blew me away. I knew from the Truman Show that he could act in a serious role, but I had no idea he could do it this well; rest of the cast is good too, but he dominates. The story's really good; it all hangs together well, and it's a really nice actual love story the way love actually works, instead of a fairy tale Hollywood romance. What really blows me away though is the great feel of whimsy. I love the scenes in his head, the way characters deliver the line from the memory and then turn and comment to each other on the memory, the gorgeous effects and trick shots, the brilliantly crazy spots in his brain that he runs to. But what's even cooler is that the stuff outside his head manages to have a lot of that same feel. Mmmm. Sheer movie-watchin' pleasure. Need to see it again.