2004: Non-2004 Movies I Watched
Submitted by AAA on Sat, 01/03/2004 - 07:11
Tags:
- Punch-Drunk Love (2002) - Dizzying, weird, and beautiful, this film managed to basically defy my expectations on every level. Watching this beautifully shot film, I couldn't help but think that P.T. Anderson is well on his way to being one of the single most important directors in the world. With passion, creativity, and vision like this, how can he not be? The film itself is not a masterpiece, but the beautiful pieces of the whole (the bizarre and wonderful score, the stylized acting, the sub-concious diving script, the cinematography) are all wonders to behold by themselves, let alone together. A romance that makes love seem at once comforting and bizarre...wow, that's quite an acoomplishment. Grade: A-
- The Shining (1980) - I think that these days, I've finally caught up with Kubrick. Until maybe a year ago, I'm not sure I quite understood film as a visual medium. The fact that films didn't connect with me emotionally put me off. But, I think that this is something I barely even think about these days when I'm watching a film. With The Shining, Kubrick creates a cold, sterile, chilling portrait of insanity and base human terror. I think that the decision to emotionally distance the audience from the action is a very smart one. Kubrick's stedicam and colors are enough to create meaning and mood, there's no reason to use messy exposition. I think that I liked this film more than the average viewer, which is surprising, because I've never really loved the Kubrick in a Stanley Kubrick film before. Grade: A-
- The Sleepaway Camp Trilogy (1983, 1988, 1989) - The first film is a real odd duck of a slasher movie. Well-filmed, and decently put-together (for the first half, anyway), it really seems that someone put way too much effort into this one. I would have to say that if you're not into the bizarre, don't check out the first film. The second and third in this trilogy are, by comparison, boring and obvious. There's much less effort put into the production-values, and the wonderfully twisted gimick of the first film is basically dropped. If this series did anything, it finally made clear the odd morality that slasher films possess. In fact, the last two films are something of parodies of the genre. Grades: C, D, F
- Raising Victor Vargas (2003)
- Dahmer (2002)
- Z (1969)
- Sweeney Todd (1982)
- American Splendor (2003)
- Wet Hot American Summer (2001)
- The History of the World, Part I (1981)
- thirteen (2003)
- Shattered Glass (2003)
- House of Sand and Fog (2003)
- The Magdalene Sisters (2003)
- The Secret Lives of Dentists (2003)
- Quills (2000)
- Unknown Pleasures (2003)
Sleep Away Camp Rock on!
Honestly one of the weirdest set of films I've ever seen. I'm gonna be writing up reviews of them.