Once

I’m biased, as a pretty big fan of star Glen Hansard’s band The Frames, and being just a little bit smitten with said star. But I’ll let the universally glowing reviews support me when I gush: this is the sleeper film of ‘06, and slides easily into my top 5 for the year. A simple slice-of-life story about two musicians who meet, change each other’s lives, and then part within the span of perhaps a week. The music is gloriously affecting, the first-time leads surprisingly natural, and the story thoroughly charming.

The Hunt

Ahhhhha, here it is! The first film (and I expect a few more!) I’ve seen to really place Saura up on a level with the great masters. I suspect his output may have been uneven, but when his game is on, you get this unknown masterpiece here. A few old war buddies and onetime, failed business partners take a weekend trip to the arid wilderness outside Toledo to hunt rabbits. The heat, violence, and memories increasingly eat away at them, leaving them by the end of the trip stripped down to a terrifying skeleton of what might be ‘man in his natural environment.’ Chilling, economical, masterful.

Avenue Montaigne

A Guy Named Joe

ANGUISH. This story still does to me what it did to my equally silly, girly self ten years ago: the puddle of goo still gives way to torrential sobbing. Oh, how Spielberg’s soppy remake affected me then, and damned if the original doesn’t hit just the same notes for me today! I guess this is sentimental and patriotic and other things not usually to my taste, but at its core it’s a great romance I can’t help but fall for, with one of those fast, quippy screenplays old Hollywood excelled at. Yes I loved Dreyfuss and Hunter, but here Spencer Tracy is perhaps the most rascally charming man living, and Irene Dunne kicks so much more ass in comparison: she’s not just in a control tower, but actually a fighter pilot herself! Now how did a remake 45 years later lose its feminist credentials? Anyway I can’t think of many other Golden Age romances that so perfectly balanced quippy barbs and real tenderness; Tracy & Dunne have exceptionally powerful chemistry. And it is, yes, so much the film that too easily moved me at 14… “girl clothes!” “You’re still my girl.” 6.8, IMDb, heartless thing? Oh, then it shall be mine all mine…

Becoming Jane

Well, here’s more likable inanity. This is a glib and lazy flight of fancy, repurposing Austen’s novels (largely Pride & Prejudice, as it’s the one audiences know best) as the story of her own life. I don’t mind that none of this is remotely true, but it’s not even plausible as a film. The romance is unconvincing; the angst and ardor trite and unearned. The only real difference between this and In Passing, really, is that this had a big budget, glossy production values, the pure redemption of Julie Walters & Maggie Smith, and a competent script doctor who knows how to satisfy the average viewer’s desires. All that doesn’t earn this film more points: it’s still utter crap.

In Passing

I don’t know how much of a handicap I ought to give amateurs. This is thoroughly amateur filmmaking by amateurs all around, of the caliber perhaps of an undergraduate thesis project. I hate to be unfair, and I’d like to encourage raw talent, but I’m inclined to say no handicap is warranted at all: sensitive, simple filmmaking can be done on a slim budget; untrained actors can deliver charmingly awkward performances; any writer with skill can produce quality work at almost zero expense. So no points simply for greenness here: despite its limitations, it had every chance to be quite good. This is full of Editing 101 dissolves and freeze frames, painfully bad performances, and schlocky writing that wouldn’t earn anyone a spot on the writing staff of an American soap opera. This is the story of a relationship as it develops from the first date to its end. I use the word “develops” generously, because that is exactly what is missing: any character building whatsoever, any believable or interesting story at all. It is straightforward and phony, moving unceremoniously from point A to point B: first kiss, they move in together, suddenly a year has passed, artificial problems develop, more years pass… Unbelievably poor dialogue: the average writer on fanfiction.net has one up on this crew. It’s with great sadness I must report it is devoid of any cinematic interest, and satisfies on no level whatsoever. It is, at least, likable from start to finish. Inanely, artificially likable.

Life & Nothing But

Atmospheric, solemn, personal story of France in the wake of WWI and the survivors — soldiers and civilians — who attempt to find, or at least identify, those lost in the war. It balances country and individual well, and poses interesting questions about how well we really know our loved ones, and what of that matters when they’re gone. Still, this is not the most successful Tavernier in my opinion; I don’t think he draws his characters as richly as his subject would allow him, and the romantic element feels tacked on (though its ultimate implications are heartbreaking).

Le Petit soldat

Theodora Goes Wild

[Nb: This one needs a serious rewatch review. On second (and third and fourth and fifth) watch, my opinion of it has gone way up!]

Suddenly I found myself in the mood to watch another bunch of Irene Dunne films…. she’s her fabulously loopy, doe-eyed self here (and they always find time to get two or three musical numbers in, when she’s starring :|) but the film’s either trying too hard to match the quick wits of the day, or I’ve started to lose my taste for the sort of thing. Anyway it’s very good but nothing I would recommend to those who aren’t already fans of screwball.

Abigail’s Party

This is just a filmed play, so know that up front. Another caveat: I imagine it’s so thoroughly about the British class system that no outsider could really appreciate what it has to ’say.’ Those things aside and thankfully: on a simple and pure level it is wickedly hilarious, so much fun that not for a moment did I begrudge its complete uncinematicality or my own inability to ‘understand’ its deeper themes. Actually this is a new favorite of mine, okay? Thank you!

Cheesy pineapple one? They’re dainty, yeah!