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SCREENING LOG
-11/22-11/28, 2004
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Orphans of the Storm (1921, D.W. Griffith)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0012532/
Griffith lets his Victorian side out bigtime with a revolutionary
French melodrama that could rival the likes of Dickens or
Hugo. As usual, the virginal Gish sisters are placed in imperiled
situations for maximum exploitation effect. yes (#9 for 1921
between THE CENTAURS and GERTIE ON TOUR)
Kinsey (2004, Bill Condon)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362269/
As storytelling goes, this is pretty standard made-for-TV
fare; it just happens to have sexually explicit visuals and
dialogues to rile the conservatives. Still, the subject matter
is (pathetically) as timely as it was 50 years ago, and the
scenes of Kinsey's childhood brought back a lot of poignant
recollections of the emotional and social pain of adolescent
sexuality. The later scenes depicting Kinsey's unconventional
marriage raise a lot of peplexing questions about the difficulty
of true sexual liberation that proves to be more than the
plodding script can handle. Liam Neeson adopts a mechanical
Method approach to finding the soul of his eccentric, elusive
character and comes up with nothing but biopic cliches; Laura
Linney fares moderately better as Mrs. Kinsey. yes
Sideways (2004, Alexander Payne)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/
Paul Giamatti and Thomas Hayden Church shine as two bachelors
who go on an epicurean road trip through the California wine
country while enacting the tragicomic flaws that befall many
a contemporary white American male -- one lacks self-awareness
and steamrolls from one pleasure to another, while the other
is wracked with enough self-deprecating insecurities to fill
a Charlie Kaufman screenplay. Not unlike Payne's previous
films (ABOUT SCHMIDT, ELECTION), Payne hits his targets with
a knowingness that's both affectionate and ruthless, though
it's from a squarely middle-class blue state sensibility,
one that's harsh towards people's aspirations to become more
cultured while despairing at one's own intellectual or cultural
deficiencies, and trying to pass this self-criticism off as
some kind of human insight instead of the evasive counter-measure
it really is (as Kaufman did in ADAPTATION). The man definitely
has a talent for satire, though when it comes to breaking
out of that shell and reaching towards something more resembling
genuine human sensitivity, he seems as out of his element
as Giamatti's character -- the scenes with Virginia Madsen
as a godsend ugly duckling waitress-cum-graduate student/wine
connoisseur are a bit much (despite her great performance),
and the last movements of the script reveal how calculated
and slippery the whole movie had been all along. The film
takes on a humorous subtext when one considers how much the
two leads resemble Arnold Schwarzenneger (the superficial
womanizer) and Billy Joel (the dypsomaniacal schmuck). yes
(#18 for IMDb 2004 releases between BAADASSSS! and COLLATERAL)
White Zombie (1932, Victor Halperin)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023694/
There are some rather awfully directed and acted moments
in this tale of Bela Lugosi using zombies to terrorize people
at a Caribbean sugar cane mill. But in the face of so many
breath-taking (and wordless -- less dialogue is better) sequences
where figures float across the frame and a chilling dampness
saturates the screen, how could this be anything less than
amazing. This film deserves the reputations of DRACULA and
FRANKENSTEIN combined. YES (#5 for 1932 between VAMPYR and
TROUBLE IN PARADISE)
The Phantom Carriage (1921, Victor Sjostrom)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023694/
What might otherwise have been a standard moral redemption
tale is turned into a brilliant display of glorious, jaw-dropping
camera effects and complex, non-linear storytelling. Consider
it a shorter and more artistically accomplished predecessor
to IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. YES (#2 for 1921 between THE GOAT
and THE PLAYHOUSE)
Shrek 2 (2004, those same corporate hacks with a bigger
harddrive)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298148/
Basically a Simpsons episode stretched to feature length.
This film probably epitomizes the current state of American
culture better than any film: effectively entertaining but
totally disposable. mixed
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