25th Five Films, 2007
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Billy Liar (John Schlesinger) at MoMA. I've never been a real big fan of the false reaction gag, except for that scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack imagines reacting more and more angrily to Tim Robbins' interloping hippie until it reaches the point where Todd Louiso rips the air conditioner out of the wall and bashes his skull in with it. I also tend to not get excited about stories where the main point is that the character spends most of his time in an imaginary alternate universe in order to take the sting out of humdrum reality (eg Big Fish). Then again, there are some very nice moments in here, like where Billy heaves his girlfriend's orange in the graveyard, or at the dance.
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Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder) for a Stylus review.
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After the Wedding (Susanne Bier) at home on DVD. I enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen more in Adam's Apples but this is almost certainly the better movie. I kept checking the time counter because it constantly seemed like the end must be coming soon, but then another plot twist would be revealed. Not that it's an uninteresting scenario, but it felt kind of uneven. Maybe if I see it again it'll cohere better.
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Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey) at MoMA. I was apprehensive about this one after the first act or so. Up to that point Charles Laughton's valet basically just stands around and rolls his eyes, and the filmmaking is just not that interesting. The action really picks up once the group travels back to the state of Washington ("the West"). The Gettysburg Address scene was unexpectedly great, both for the long tracking shot and Laughton's understated delivery. It kind of seemed like something out of a more serious John Ford western. I thought the gags were funnier than in the other McCarey film I've seen, The Awful Truth.
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After This Our Exile (Patrick Tam) at BAM. A strong film but just brutal to watch. It's kind of like Bicycle Thieves if the mother ran away and the father had severe emotional issues, soaring gambling debt, and no moral compass. And if it were set in Malaysia.
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Billy Liar (John Schlesinger) at MoMA. I've never been a real big fan of the false reaction gag, except for that scene in High Fidelity where John Cusack imagines reacting more and more angrily to Tim Robbins' interloping hippie until it reaches the point where Todd Louiso rips the air conditioner out of the wall and bashes his skull in with it. I also tend to not get excited about stories where the main point is that the character spends most of his time in an imaginary alternate universe in order to take the sting out of humdrum reality (eg Big Fish). Then again, there are some very nice moments in here, like where Billy heaves his girlfriend's orange in the graveyard, or at the dance.
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Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder) for a Stylus review.
+ +
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After the Wedding (Susanne Bier) at home on DVD. I enjoyed Mads Mikkelsen more in Adam's Apples but this is almost certainly the better movie. I kept checking the time counter because it constantly seemed like the end must be coming soon, but then another plot twist would be revealed. Not that it's an uninteresting scenario, but it felt kind of uneven. Maybe if I see it again it'll cohere better.
+ +
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Ruggles of Red Gap (Leo McCarey) at MoMA. I was apprehensive about this one after the first act or so. Up to that point Charles Laughton's valet basically just stands around and rolls his eyes, and the filmmaking is just not that interesting. The action really picks up once the group travels back to the state of Washington ("the West"). The Gettysburg Address scene was unexpectedly great, both for the long tracking shot and Laughton's understated delivery. It kind of seemed like something out of a more serious John Ford western. I thought the gags were funnier than in the other McCarey film I've seen, The Awful Truth.
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After This Our Exile (Patrick Tam) at BAM. A strong film but just brutal to watch. It's kind of like Bicycle Thieves if the mother ran away and the father had severe emotional issues, soaring gambling debt, and no moral compass. And if it were set in Malaysia.
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Posted on Friday, August 17, 2007
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