What To See Next

© A.J. Malouin 2008

Last updated Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 17hr54.
This is a work-in-progress which currently includes every movie & film we’ve seen between 29 April and 6 June, 2008. Keep checking back, as we’ll keep adding entries!

Between them, Caryl & Al and The Film Snob see upwards of six (6) films and movies each and every week. It is not likely therefore — given their day jobs — that they can give in-depth reviews to everything they see. Some of their viewings in 2008 will have to be therefore only covered in the thumb-nail reviews you’ll read below. See only the films which at least one of them has rated a “9” or better (“1” being the best rating they can give a movie, and “31” being the worst.) Anything else is a wastering of your precious time!
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ANSEL ADAMS: A DOCUMENTARY FILM
(Rating: 7 by Al.)
Torn between piano and camera, Ansel Adams attacks both, and becomes one of the best documenters of America’s western national parks. In spite of his growing reputation, there were times when Adams could not come up with the US$100 to would take to finance his next trip. A loverly documenting of life, art, and commerce.

THE APARTMENT
(Rating: 3 by Al.)
Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine star, of course, in the sweetest of the Billy Wilder movies, and Fred MacMurray helps out beautifully as the “evil” Mr. Jeff D. Sheldrake. The movie won five Oscars for writing, direction, art direction, film editing, and picture. Created in 1960, this sweet story still holds up firmly today.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL
(Rating: 7 by Al.)
British and softly funny, this hilarious send-up of a genteel wake at a country estate starts with the wrong corpse being delivered to the Main House, and ends with an old man sitting naked and higher than a kite on the peak of the Main House. In-between, a dwarf is trussed, a coffin is spillt, and all manner of misunderstandings construe. Because of the British fascination with flatulence, and feces, there is one set piece that should have been re-edited into an “American Pie” sequel. Other than that? It’s a highly satisfying entertainment!

DESIGN: E2 [THE GREEN APPLE]
(Rating: 3 by Al.]
This is a film about efforts to create ecologically sound buildings in The Big Apple. The film points out that cities in general (versus the countryside) are, because of their population density, are very-efficient models of energy usage. In Europe, architects and developers tend to look at buildings over a 50-year time span, and so are much more conscious of the building’s impact on the Earth upon which it stands. In America, in contrast, architects and developers (especially) are looking to re-sell the building within 12 months and therefore generally construct projects mostly to take advantage of immediate tax incentives. One new NYC building, however, has been conceived and erected primarily as an energy-efficient building. Called Four Times Square, this building was designed from pencil stroke one to responsive both to the needs of the people who use it and the Earth upon which it sits. As one example of its brilliance, the ventilation system in Four Time Square is so efficient that the air exiting the building is actually cleaner than the air entering it.

DESIGN: E2 [GREEN FOR ALL]
(Rating: 4 by Al.)
As you read this, one out of every seven people with low incomes is living in inadequate housing. In the coming years, that number will climb to one in every three people. Faced with this staggering statistic, it is important to put emphasis on creating housing that is affordable, livable, sustainable, and also a very cool place in which to live. This film examines one effort to accomplish that. It documents houses built to relieve a housing shortage among the Yucci Indians. For US$5,000 the designers and builders of these homes created a space with kitchen, living room, etcetera on one side and bedrooms on the other side of a welcoming and shaded patio. Not only are the Homes efficient and affordable, but they are all specifically designed around the social and cultural traditions of the Yucci society.

FACING THE DEAD
(Rating: 3 by Al.)
This is, quite simply, a jaw-dropping documentary. During the years of Stalinist Russia, 20 million people thought to be “enemies of the State” were executed. Horrific as this is, there is even more! Authorities came to the homes of every person who was executed and removed all photographs of that person. If anyone kept a photo of an executed person, he or she was liable for execution, also! Years later, a film director investigates the impact terrifying policy had on generations of Russians. The horror a country commits against its own people makes this a riveting film.

THE FALL
(Rating: 9 by Al.)
“The Fall” falls down quite a bit but, then, so would you if you had to carry such Totally Fabulous Visuals across one hour and 57 minutes on the back of a thin, thin, thin story that is, apparently, based upon another film. See our review under “Archive > June, 2008.”

FLAWLESS
(Ratings: 6 by Caryl and 8 by Al.)
See our review under “Archive for May 2008.”

THE GOOD NIGHT
(Rating: 5 by Al.)
A man dreams nightly of his Perfect Woman, while ignoring the perfect woman with whom he lives. Gradually he learns to control his dreams and take his Perfect Woman relationship farther and farther. His male best friend becomes intensely jealous, and his female roommate becomes distant. Then, one day, the man meets his Perfect Woman in real waking dream. None of this turns out to be a good thing.

HEAVEN OR NOT
(Rating: 8 by Al.)
In a once-prosperous Canadian town, a man takes 30 years to build a ramshackle mansion out of scrapped materials. His neighbors and townspeople are not pleased by his efforts.

HEAVEN’S GATE
(Rating: 4 by The Film Snob.)
Not one to be put off by bad reviews on the front page of The New York Times, nor the off-duty fixes a director gets himself into, The Film Snob decided to judge this film by watching what is on the screen. Though it sags a bit in the middle, “Heaven’s Gate” is superb! An incredibly exaggerated depiction of Wyoming’s “Johnson County War” in the late 1800s, it is incredibly beautiful and full of outstanding acting performances, including those of Christopher Walken, Sam Waterston, John Hurt, Jeff Bridges, and, especially, Isabelle Huppert. Sit down for a long time and enjoy it all.

HORS DE PRIX [PRICELESS]
(Ratings: 14 by Al and 15 by Caryl.)
See our review under “Archive for May 2008.”

I LOVE YOU…FOR AWHILE
(Rating: 18 by The Film Snob.)
The fellow who wrote, shot, directed, produced, and edited this film is becoming a good friend of ours, so we wish we could like this film better. But…we cannot. “i love you…for awhile” tells the story of an L.A. film producer who returns to his hometown of Detroit and takes a job as a producer of television commercials. He meets a girl who goes in and out of his life repeatedly. The two questions the film raises are (1) will the two of them ever end up together, long-term, and (2) we will care long enough to find out the answer. Most of the story is delivered voice-over by the male character. This becomes annoying, not tooooo far into the film. There *is* a lot of intimacy at all levels displayed inside this film, but it seems to be too much of a one-note samba to involve most viewers.

IRON MAN
(Rating: 3 by Al, and 6 by Caryl.)
Caryl reports that it was fun seeing the colorful Iron Man costumes get made. She also loved looking at Tony Stark’s house overlooking the Pacific. Caryl also said that the filmmakers made Gwyneth Paltrow’s body look gorgeous, which is no easy task after Paltrow has had two children. She says the movie was fun entertainment, with not one boring moment in it.
Read our review under “Archive for May 2008.”
IRON MAN was also the main topic of the “Al’s Movies @ Gayle Chocolates” film discussion group that took place on Wednesday, 14 May 2008. We’ll *try* to post an afterglow of that discussion, soon.

LADRI DI BICICLETTE [THE BICYCLE THIEF]
(Rating: 2 by Al.)
The classic Italian film about a man who needs a bicycle before he can get a job; gets a bicycle; has it stolen on his first day of work; hunts the city looking for the bicycle thief, and; in the end, becomes one himself. “Ladri di biciclette” is a beautifully done comment on the trials of the working Everyman.

A LION IN THE HOUSE
(Rating: 6 by Al.)
Some kids who have cancer are among the bravest people in the world.

MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
(Rating: 1 by Al, and not seen by Caryl.)
Sometimes the world treats us badly. Always, however, we treat the world even worse. Al, with his liberal-Democrat, anti-global-warming, Minimalist-inspired gestalt, thinks every human should be this film. If you care about such things, “Manufactured Landscapes” won a 2007 Genie Award for Best Documentary, and was named 2006 Best Documentary and 2006 Best Canadian Film in that year’s Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. Al has seen it twice, so far. See our review under “Archives January 2008.”

THE MOTHER
(Rating: 4 by Al.)
A world-premiere and beautiful film about a Russian woman trying to raise her eight children after escaping from a violent husband. In spite of her best and heroic efforts, there’s a good chance that she is raising boys who will become exactly the kind of man from whom their mother escaped.

OSCAR AND LUCINDA
(Rating: 3 by Al.)
A *brilliant* adventure and love story about the Australian Outback and in-town, starring wonderful performances by Tom Wilkinson, Ciaran Hinds, Ralph Fiennes, and Cate Blanchett, among others. After a seemingly slow start, the film gains delicious momentum, and leaves impressions that will stay with you long after your first viewing of it.

OSS 117: LE CAIRE NID D-ESPIONS
[OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES]
(Rating: 2 by Al and not-yet-rated, although liked a lot, by Caryl)
This is the most fun you are going to have allllll Summer. See our review of it under “Archives>June, 2008”)

SOME LIKE IT HOT
(Rating: 8 by The Film Snob.)
Billy Wilder at his wildest wildness? A lot of slap-stick stuff that just doughnut hold up in this real, surreal world in which we are now watching movies. In the 1920s two two-bit musicians, played by Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon, witness a gangland slaying in a parking garage, and are forced to go on the lame lam disguised as women traveling with an all-girl band. A plot so goofy and “zany” that it made The Film Snob’s head hurt.

STRAND: UNDER THE DARK CLOTH
(Rating: 2 by The Film Snob.)
As a snob who has several books of Paul Strand photography spread conspicuously across his minimalist furniture, The Film Snob was beguiled by this life story of the photographer. Along with Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, Strand was responsible for establishing photography as an art modern. This establishing of photography as an art form led The Film Snob to make 6,800 images of his trip to Barcelona and 10,500 images of his trip around Cape Horn. This film shows wonderfully how such a regrettable course of events could come to pass. It won a 1990 Genie Award as the “Best Feature Length Documentary.”

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
(Rating: 1 by Al.)
Four thugs — played beautifully by Robert Shaw, Earl Hindman Hector Elizondo, and Martin Balsom!!! — hold the passengers of an NYC subway train for ransom. It’s up to Walter Matthau (Lt. Zachary “Z” Garber!!!) to save the bacon of The Mayor, the passengers, The Big Apple, and the New York City Transit Authority. From beginning to end, a mesmerizing, tautly tight high-wire act that won’t have anybody leaving the room for a cigarette or whatever!!!

THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES; SHELBY LEE ADAMS’ APPALACHIA
(Rating: 3 by Al.)
See our review under “Archives > May, 2008.”

THEN SHE FOUND ME.
(Rating: 7 by Al.)
Helen Hunt turns in (another) amazing performance here. Not only *that* but — at her age and in her angst — her character looks gorgesexy than ever. Hunt plays April Epner an NYC school teacher in the mid-life muddle of her adoptive mother’s death, her husband’s exit, and the arrival of her biological mother who is (it could be worse!) the Bette Midler character. In the middle of the muddle, also is a new love interest, the father of one of her students. Bette Midler, Colin Firth, and Matthew Broderick also do very nice jobs of doing the kinds of things they do. There was too much ethnic detailing in it for Al’s taste, but this movie is still worth seeing.

TOXIC TRESPASS
(Rating: 11 by Al.)
A totally plodding documentary about what what we are doing is doing to the places in which we live. The film is spot-on with its messages but, bottom line, we would rather sail single-handed around Cape Horn with our Aunt Martha than watch the plod plodding denouement of the crap which we humans are Obviously feeding to our Earth. Most interesting fact? At least 30,000 idling semi trucks pass over the Ambassador Bridge, 40 miles from where Al lives, Every Single Day, spewing their poisons into the lungs of the innocents of Windsor, Canada.

THE VISITOR
(Rating: 3 by Al and 5 by Caryl, during Al’s 2nd viewing.)
See our review under “Archives > May, 2008.”

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS
(Rating: 16 by Caryl, and a pass by Al.)
Caryl callt this “something to see if you’re trying to kill time on a rainy afternoon.”