SCREENING LOG - 8/28/2006-9/3/2006

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Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006, Adam McKay)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415306/
I regret missing the Frank Tashlin retrospective currently playing at Film Forum, but this will certainly suffice. One of the funniest comedies I've seen in a while (I've heard that ANCHORMAN is better and I will definitely check for myself). The satire of NASCAR culture as a symptom of everything that's wrong with corporate-sponsored American capitalism is off the charts. This is the first Will Ferrell performance I genuinely admired (maybe because his channelling of Bush seems particularly resonant here), but the entire ensemble is excellent throughout; even Michael Clarke Duncan is funny. But Sacha Baron Cohen steals the show as the French Formula One convert to NASCAR who climbs to the top and soon has every NASCAR fanboy drinking Perrier in adulation. YES (#3 for 2006 new releases between ARMY OF SHADOWS and MIAMI VICE)

Cute Girl aka Lovable You (1980, Hou Hsiao Hsien)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080964/
yes - Hou's first feature is a gag-infested pop romantic comedy mostly set in the country, but his penchant for long takes and wide shots is improbably implemented. I kind of wish his recent films had this much humor and lithe energy to them.

The Water Mill (1966, Lee Man-hee)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308609/
yes - Lee Man-hee was the major rediscovery at last year's Pusan Film Festival -- this melodrama about a simpleton who tries to live right only to be abused by everyone reminds me of Bunuel's NAZARIN (while it reminded others of early Renoir or Zhang Yimou). It builds steadily to a staggering finale.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954, Richard Fleischer)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046672/
mixed - it was fun, but ehhh. It just kind of chugs along and doesn't leave much to remember. Peter Lorre was charming, Kirk Douglas ridiculously salty, James Mason pretentious (he makes Gregory Peck look good in MOBY DICK)

Half Nelson (2006, Ryan Fleck)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468489/
yes - It gets so close to really being about something fascinating in its examination of contemporary race relations as well as what it feels like to be in your 20s and working through post-collegiate disillusionment in the real world. But it meanders through its middle act and settles on a Griffithian cross-cutting climax that's as gripping as it's simplistic. Ryan Gosling is formidable in the lead, managing to look both bright and stoned out of his mind.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Jack Clayton)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046876/
The people who recommended me kept talking about the sight of Julie Adams moving through the water, but I was much more taken by the Creature (or rather, whoever was inside the Creature suit and able to be so mobile -- dare I say graceful -- within all those layers of rubber -- that person should have gotten an Oscar for such an accomplishment).
yes

Toni (1934, Jean Renoir)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025898/
TSPDT #886
yes - Perhaps it was unfair to see this after THE WATER MILL, but I'd say Lee Man-hee's take on adultery is more powerful in its outrage than Renoir's concerned sociologist approach.

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts - Acts I and II (2006, Spike Lee)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783612/
YES so far - I did not expect to be so glued for two hours watching the horror of Katrina unfold. Not only did Lee make it watchable, he saw the material through to become a major statement on race in this country, a state of the union address for blacks in America. He deploys an wide array of subjects, mostly black, to give a multi-voiced, multi-angled view of the tragedy, and the effect is like nothing you'll see in the evening news -- you really get a pervasive feeling of what this event meant for an entire people, and it sinks into your skin. What he does with the abundance of mostly handheld amateur video of the tragedy and its aftermath is as seamless as it is stark. Many memorable moments and soundbites in this one, but the juxtaposition that stays with me the most is one man talking about how he rescued his aging mother from their home as it flooded to the ceiling, only to lose her while waiting for evacuation at the N.O. Convention Center, and standing by her corpse for three days until finally he was ordered to abandon her -- compare this to the testimonial of two Caucasians who heard what happened to their hometown while touring the ruins of Pompeii, and the first thing that came to their mind was the poetic irony of it all. This movie makes such bemused detachment seem impossibly ridiculous.

The Chess Players (1977, Satyajit Ray)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076696/
yes - Quite uncharacteristic of Ray's films, this one plays rather broadly in its characterizations of both its British and Muslim leads -- though it is particularly unsparing to the Muslim ruling class for being so dense and backward while the British were scheming to take over. Maybe it's a general contempt for all ruling classes, but it felt somewhat limited especially compared to the somewhat similar JALSAGHAR / THE MUSIC ROOM. Nonetheless the film sustains a certain integrity in its outrage, which by the end almost feels empathetic towards its chess-addicted fools, symbolic of a people so inwardly focused on their own antiquated rituals that they can't face the world changing around them.

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