Pan’s Labyrinth

Well this was everything I expected it to be — and more, honestly… I think it is the perfect combination of classical fairy tale themes and the subversion of the same, offset by the true horrors of reality. Gutwrenching, visceral, emotionally exhausting. The ending pretty much killed me, & that’s what I like in my movies.

Sherrybaby

I’m having a hard time rating this film because Maggie Gyllenhaal really is magnificent and she is, of course, the heart and soul of the film. For her, perhaps a 4 (or an Oscar nod?). For the film alone, perhaps a 3. It’s glossy verite never really putting a new spin on themes of drug abuse, reentry into society, sexual abuse &c. I appreciate its simplicity and true-to-lifeness; Maggie brings emotional complexity and honesty to many scenes. In the end I don’t feel it does anything beyond its conceit. A film about a woman with these problems, this history, this attitude is always going to be moving; the fact that people actually live lives like this is moving. There’s no art to that. Collyer’s film does nothing beyond it.

The Sandpiper

And Now… Ladies and Gentlemen…

An absurd and convoluted film that follows two lonely amnesiacs through a transcontinental search for a cure, or simply something true — films about the unreliability of memory probably should be a bit convoluted, leave you wondering what really happened, what was imagined, and in what sequence reality unfolds, but here it just strikes one as laziness and slapdashery… Still and all, I enjoyed its goofy meandering very much! Romantic, silly, now and then very thought-provoking. Nice music, too, between the Patricia Kaas soundtrack and Michel Legrand score. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, but I like it.

Eternity & a Day

Dreamgirls

Little Children

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

Moving portrait of the Jewish upper class in Fascist Italy. It is ominous and tragic to watch the young adults learn about life and love, making decisions about their education and future, while they and their parents go on business as usual, largely ignoring the increasingly restrictive ‘racial laws.’ They seem to have no idea what is coming, as prepared and wise as they may seem to be. The viewer knows all too well. The ending is a sorrowful elegy to lost innocence, a lost way of life, an entire lost generation.

A Man and a Woman

2001: A Space Odyssey

This film was unlike any other I have ever seen, and so was my reaction different from any other I have experienced. I am left with the impression that, on the whole, I disliked it. This may very well be a personal problem, related to the prejudices and baggage I bring to a first screening of any film, and what I am usually looking to gain from a film. I may be single-minded to a fault: I like films about people, I say, about figuring out our connections to each other. 2001 undermines this concern completely (and probably quite brilliantly): it’s more about our connections to the universe, the transcendence of an entire species — it undermines the ego. It places the individual in a context too vast to grasp.

I’m having a difficult time reasoning out my impression that I disliked it — though I’m happy to own it for the time being. I get the sense that a lot of you who love the film now did not like it on first viewing — but I’m not seeing it for the first time as a child or a cinematic n00b. I don’t want to dismiss long sequences as pretentious bullshit, especially when I cannot find the words to describe why I found them frustrating and maddening.

Well, the film certainly affected me, & I think I’ll revisit it in a month or so (just when I think I’m over the initial shock!). I don’t honestly expect my opinion to change but I do hope to develop a fuller response, and I think I may mature as a viewer if I can approach this film on its terms…