Film Roundup #6
Slacker ***
Richard Linklater, 1991
Full review below.
The Thin Blue Line **
Errol Morris, 1988
A solid indictment of the justice system. Actually probably a little better than solid. In assessing "The Thin Blue Line," it's impossible not to take into account the social importance of the project, or the successful investigative reporting, which normally I'd avoid to focus on the intrinsic merits of the film.
Vernon, Florida *
Errol Morris, 1981
A more or less delightful little film about the (mostly) male, middle-aged to elderly inhabitants of Vernon, Florida. Much is made about how weird these people are, and most of them would be to people who'd never spent much time outside the city. Others make some hullabaloo about the Southern-ness of it all, but I think it's much more important that these people are relatively old and rural. Morris could have found these people in small-town Iowa just as easily.
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books *
Richard Linklater, 1988
Linklater's first feature, shot completely on his own in Super-8. Watched this with the commentary on most of the time. Not much audio, sparse interactions between characters, mostly just images of Linklater, the "main character," traveling by train to or through Missoula, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and Huntsville, Texas, as well as his homebase of Austin. As he mentions in the commentary, there are a lot of now-embarrassing shots of him with his shirt off, but much of this was shot in summertime in Austin, so apparently there are to be no autoerotic undertones. He meets Daniel Johnston on the street, who hands him a tape, which he also does in his short attempt at a documentary of local music festival in 1985 called "Woodshock." Probably the best part of this for me, besides the scene of him leaving the note for the sleeping girl in the airport, was his monologue on the commentary track about his burgeoning interest in film and the years leading up to both this project and Slacker.
Dazed and Confused **
Richard Linklater, 1993
So I finally saw the whole thing. Great, perhaps amoral, ensemble drama.
Richard Linklater, 1991
Full review below.
The Thin Blue Line **
Errol Morris, 1988
A solid indictment of the justice system. Actually probably a little better than solid. In assessing "The Thin Blue Line," it's impossible not to take into account the social importance of the project, or the successful investigative reporting, which normally I'd avoid to focus on the intrinsic merits of the film.
Vernon, Florida *
Errol Morris, 1981
A more or less delightful little film about the (mostly) male, middle-aged to elderly inhabitants of Vernon, Florida. Much is made about how weird these people are, and most of them would be to people who'd never spent much time outside the city. Others make some hullabaloo about the Southern-ness of it all, but I think it's much more important that these people are relatively old and rural. Morris could have found these people in small-town Iowa just as easily.
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books *
Richard Linklater, 1988
Linklater's first feature, shot completely on his own in Super-8. Watched this with the commentary on most of the time. Not much audio, sparse interactions between characters, mostly just images of Linklater, the "main character," traveling by train to or through Missoula, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, and Huntsville, Texas, as well as his homebase of Austin. As he mentions in the commentary, there are a lot of now-embarrassing shots of him with his shirt off, but much of this was shot in summertime in Austin, so apparently there are to be no autoerotic undertones. He meets Daniel Johnston on the street, who hands him a tape, which he also does in his short attempt at a documentary of local music festival in 1985 called "Woodshock." Probably the best part of this for me, besides the scene of him leaving the note for the sleeping girl in the airport, was his monologue on the commentary track about his burgeoning interest in film and the years leading up to both this project and Slacker.
Dazed and Confused **
Richard Linklater, 1993
So I finally saw the whole thing. Great, perhaps amoral, ensemble drama.
Labels: Film
Posted on Monday, February 20, 2006
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