27th Five Films, 2007
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Hannah Takes the Stairs (Joe Swanberg) at the IFC Center (w/ Stylus editor Todd Burns) for a Stylus review. Note: I do not recall spotting Ivan's character, named Stephen, though I suspect he appears at the party early in the film.
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Funny Ha-Ha (Andrew Bujalski) at the IFC Center. I remember being kind of stunned by this the first time I saw it, which was in my room at the end of junior year. I think I grasped it a little better this time, but I loved all the same bits. Bujalski's main characters just really bounce around like pinballs without specific motivation, which is sort of the opposite of the basis of narrative construction, but it works so well. You should probably watch this right now if you haven't.
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The King of Kong (Seth Gordon) at the IFC Center. This has been getting a ton of good press, creating much more of a stir than I'd initially thought given the concept and first-time director. It seems to have incredibly broad appeal given the very traditional hero/villain scheme, yet in an unfamiliar enough setting that it doesn't feel hackneyed. Also, I hadn't realized that Life Magazine had chosen Ottumwa, Iowa, as the site of their 1982 convention of the top arcade gamers from around the country. The only things I can say about Ottumwa are that it's the hometown of Tom Arnold, I took my SAT there, and the first time my family drove through it the place smelled something awful.
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Tazza: The High Rollers (Choi Dong-hoon) at Cinema Village as part of the New York Korean Film Festival. It's a mostly fun and stylish, if slightly violent, film about gamblers who play sotda which has 20 small, thick cards in its deck. It's also pretty long, at 139 minutes. I noticed looking at the program guide today that the six films I plan to see during the festival average 123 minutes, which I think is probably 20 minutes longer than your median Hollywood film, though I'm unable to find statistics on that.
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Superbad (Greg Mottola) at the Regal Union Square 14. They were packing 'em in for this one on Saturday night as the screenings both before and after were sold out when I bought my ticket. Have you seen the trailer for National Treasure 2? I mean, I saw most of the first one on TV earlier this year, but even compared to that the sequel looks completely ludicrous. I'm sure you'll find out about it soon enough. But yeah, Superbad was just about what I was expecting in all the right ways. I'll be excited to see just where Michael Cera's career goes, either on TV or the silver screen. Aside: The web series Clark and Michael follows him and minor Superbad cast member Clark Duke as they pitch a television series.
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Hannah Takes the Stairs (Joe Swanberg) at the IFC Center (w/ Stylus editor Todd Burns) for a Stylus review. Note: I do not recall spotting Ivan's character, named Stephen, though I suspect he appears at the party early in the film.
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Funny Ha-Ha (Andrew Bujalski) at the IFC Center. I remember being kind of stunned by this the first time I saw it, which was in my room at the end of junior year. I think I grasped it a little better this time, but I loved all the same bits. Bujalski's main characters just really bounce around like pinballs without specific motivation, which is sort of the opposite of the basis of narrative construction, but it works so well. You should probably watch this right now if you haven't.
+ + +
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The King of Kong (Seth Gordon) at the IFC Center. This has been getting a ton of good press, creating much more of a stir than I'd initially thought given the concept and first-time director. It seems to have incredibly broad appeal given the very traditional hero/villain scheme, yet in an unfamiliar enough setting that it doesn't feel hackneyed. Also, I hadn't realized that Life Magazine had chosen Ottumwa, Iowa, as the site of their 1982 convention of the top arcade gamers from around the country. The only things I can say about Ottumwa are that it's the hometown of Tom Arnold, I took my SAT there, and the first time my family drove through it the place smelled something awful.
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Tazza: The High Rollers (Choi Dong-hoon) at Cinema Village as part of the New York Korean Film Festival. It's a mostly fun and stylish, if slightly violent, film about gamblers who play sotda which has 20 small, thick cards in its deck. It's also pretty long, at 139 minutes. I noticed looking at the program guide today that the six films I plan to see during the festival average 123 minutes, which I think is probably 20 minutes longer than your median Hollywood film, though I'm unable to find statistics on that.
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Superbad (Greg Mottola) at the Regal Union Square 14. They were packing 'em in for this one on Saturday night as the screenings both before and after were sold out when I bought my ticket. Have you seen the trailer for National Treasure 2? I mean, I saw most of the first one on TV earlier this year, but even compared to that the sequel looks completely ludicrous. I'm sure you'll find out about it soon enough. But yeah, Superbad was just about what I was expecting in all the right ways. I'll be excited to see just where Michael Cera's career goes, either on TV or the silver screen. Aside: The web series Clark and Michael follows him and minor Superbad cast member Clark Duke as they pitch a television series.
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Posted on Sunday, August 26, 2007
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