24th Five Films, 2007

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Crash (David Cronenberg) at MoMA. I liked this exactly as much as I've liked each of David Cronenberg's movies, which is kind of weird, considering I've seen five of them now. His isn't my favorite filmic reality to visit, but it is a very distinct and vital one, and one to which I gladly return. Here, James Spader, Holly Hunter, et al discover that they find car crashes to be erotic and start fantasizing about and engaging in them on purpose. I suppose "engaging in them" could be read as a double entendre, as well--the NC-17 rating was not for nothing.
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This Is England (Shane Meadows) at the IFC Center. I love the northern accents, and the clothes and music were both quite an experience. The ending is somewhat wrenching, if not unexpected. The kid, Thomas Turgoose, was extremely endearing, but not in a cloying fashion. From IMDb's trivia: "Thomas Turgoose had never acted before, had been banned from his school play for behaving badly and even demanded £5 to turn up for the film's auditions."
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Bob le Flambeur (Jean-Pierre Melville) at MoMA. I was hoping this would seem somehow more necessary than last time I saw it, but no. It's still fun, and the ending is great, but it all feels a bit by the book.
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The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman) at the AMC Empire 25. I didn't enjoy the action toward the end nearly as much as the straight comedy at the beginning.
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Liviu's Dream (Corneliu Porumboiu) at home on DVD. A terrific short (39 minutes) depicting the awkwardness of young lust and its consequences in a mid-sized, working-class city in Romania.
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