SCREENING LOG - 9/18/2006-9/24/2006

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Block Party (2006, Michel Gondry)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425598/
Not as good as I was hoping -- I just don't see much of Michel Gondry's hand in the film, and Dave Chappelle is remarkably good-humored playing a kind of Santa Claus to high school band members and white folks in Ohio who've always dreamed of attending a Brooklyn block party. The music was pleasant, but as concert footage goes it's not up there with half a dozen films I could name.
yes

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004, Adam McKay) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0357413/
Is Adam McKay the Frank Tashlin of our time? Too soon to tell after two features, but I am rooting for the man. Anyone who can completely turn around my opinion of Will Ferrell on the strength of two movies has my vote. This one isn't quite as keen on making inspired riffs on contemporary capitalist culture as TALLADEGA NIGHTS -- instead it prefers to live in a nostalgic near-past that gets a fantastical treatment, a SoCal surrealism that's beyond even Paul Thomas Anderson's reach.
YES (#12 for 2004 between LES PONT DES ARTS and PRIMER)

The Killers (1964, Don Siegel)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058262/
yes

Donkey Skin (1970, Jacques Demy)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066207/
yes

From the 2006 New York Film Festival:

Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apitchatpong Weerasethakul)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477731/
a wild YES/yes (not sure where to place it, but for now I'll say #6 for new releases seen in 2006 between THE HOST and TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY)

Little Children (2006, Todd Field)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404203/
mixed tending to no

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