My Favorite Movies

This is the Alejandro Jodorowsky film not the old silent one about mountain climbing, anyway this film had pretty much everything I wanted out of a movie. Every frame is visually engaging, it's easily one of the most visually dense films I've ever seen, but not in an eliptic David Lynch way, these are symbols, not emblems, and they represent ideas not included in the film as opposed to representing ideas in the film, simple right? It's a pinnacle merger of surrealism, satire, philosophy, and science fiction. The sets, the images and the story itself blow me away, and the ideas though chaotic at first flow together not seemlessly, but in a New Orelans Mardi Gras Parade kind of way, confused, drunk, and many limbed, but all ambling in the same general direction, a conclusion which breaks "the fourth wall" in more ways than one.

The story and I will it keep as simple as possible, is about a wondering thief, who meets an alchemist and joins with this group of the 9 wealthiest people on Earth(the lords of Industry who secretly control the material earth, each named after a different planet in the Solar System, like the Pantheon Roman Gods), who want to become Immortal by stealing the Immortalty from the 9 Immortal Men who sit on the Holy Mountain and trully rule the world in secret. What follows is a spiritual, psychologial, and if you had'nt guessed it yet, surreal journey of enlightentment.

This is not a druggie film with no plot and a bunch of crazy stuff, it might appear that way if you view it on drugs which completely incapacitate thought, or with no attempt to think and deliberate (which understandably is not everyones cup of tea) about what appears on the screen after it's gone, but the film is actually quite complex, if anything too complex. Jodorowsky is weaving together a lot of escoteric threads and symbols (the first scene is the Japanse Tea Ceremony, but you wouldnt know it unless you knew, someone else pointed it out to me, after about my fifth viewing) together to tell a quite simple story about the various ways we( and the contemporary audience of the 70's) attempt to escape death. If you interested in watching a gifted film maker at the height of his game paint a truly unique portrait of the world, look no further. If you want something truly bizarre and different because you've seen everything, see it. If you don't care much for symbolism, allegory, or metaphor, avoid this at all costs, there is no realsim here, but there is brilliance, and I don't use that word lightly.

Man wakes up in a dream, and then into another, and then another, etc. One of the few movies, I have watched, then sat for 10 minutes, then watched immediately again. The narrative is made up of conversations and lectures from real people(often actors playing actors and professors playing professors, etc), who were then animated over, in technology developed specifically for this film(now being seen advertisements).

The subject of these dream discussions include identity, free will, evolution, language, rebelliion, apathy, conversation, sex, film, God, death, dreams, memories, etc. Some vignettes are funny, some disturbing, some pretentious, some relaxed engaging, some didactic, some inquisitive, and others more like poems aborted mid-stream. This is not a plot driven film, it's a series of vignettes not unlike an earlier Linklater film "Slacker"(if you liked this movie, Slacker is the 90's no-budget equivalent).

If you enjoy thinking for thinking's sake, putting ideas together and then taking them apart like building blocks, you will enjoy this movie. Few films have had quite the impact on me that this did the first time around, I showed it to just about everyone I knew, and while a few gave me the standard "What the fuck is this, shit's wierd", more than a few were left just as blown away as I was. Cynics will of course associate this film with a coffee shop, no attention span culture, jittering pretentious ideas bieng typed a mile a minute by spectacled hipsters, etc. However this is an unfortunate reduction of a film, that has generated more interesting ideas in it's first 15 minutes alone than most film's do after years of academic discussion.
Watching this movie made me feel aware for the first time, that I was no longer living in the 20th century, that things were and could be different, and that new langauges and systems would have to be made to describe and implement new experiences and new ways of doing things, this movie was the beginning... perhaps I was getting a bit ahead of myself, but that's what I liked about this movie, it's own granduer, ridiculousness, and ambition are infectious and life affirming, where often films of this artistic caliber can be obstuse or de-humanizing.

There are no characters to empathize here with, just ideas and beautiful visuals(from dozens of animators with varrying styles), so if your not to interested in the discussion you can always just tune out and watch the colors dance, it's as much a treat for the eyes as it is a delight for the brain, as well as ears, the "Tosca Tango Orchestra" perform the music, which keeps everythingh swirling at a nice pace. I could go on like this forever, it's a good movie see it, if not see something else.

A beautiful and amazing film. Like Jean Luc Godard's "Alphaville" which transformed 60's Paris into a dystopian sc-fi planet without the use of special effects, Tarsem's "The Fall" shoots in 18 different countries and transforms some of the most beautiful locations on earth into a surreal fantasia of orange deserts, blue cities, and underwater photography of elephants swimming in the open ocean.

The story is deceptively simple tale of a stuntman named Roy, whose taken an emotional and physical fall, meeting a 5 year old Persian girl named Alexandria, who fell and broke her arm working the California Orange grooves,meeting in a hospital in 1920's Los Angeles. Alexandria has lost her father, Roy's lost his girl and is suicidal, and Roy begins telling an epic tale of revenge, staring characters based on hopsital staff and historical characters. Five heroes an Italian explosives expert, an Indian Prince, an African self-freed slave, Charles Darwin as young british naturalist who speaks to animals, and a mysterious masked Zorroesque bandit who is at turns Alexandria's father and Roy himself, set out to kill their mutual enemy Governor Odious(The leading man from the film Roy was working on, who stole his girl and drove him to his stunt/suicide?) in the story Roy tells Alexandria, provided she fetch things for him.

Like so many oneiric fantasies, this story is about innocence and romaticism vs. the big bad world, in Don Quixote it was romanticism and fantasy vs reality and deception, "Pans Labrnth" romanticism against facism, "Brazil' romanticism against buerocracy, and "The Fall" likewise is romanticism against despair.

The film is as grand in it's themes as it is in it's visuals, touching on love, death, despair, story-telling, manipulation, the early days of film making, innocence, cross cultural relationships(when Roy says wigwams describing the Indian's back-story, Alexandria imagines Hindu Palaces.), and reconstructing your life after a trauma, picking up the pieces after the fall.
I was glad I saw this in theaters on a big screen, one of the most vibrant and beautiful things Ive ever seen anywhere and at anytime. If youve seen Tarsem's first film "The Cell", youve got an idea of this directors abilities to work with both visuals and performers(he mad J-Lo passable). Alxandria is played by one the best child actress Ive seen in a very long time, a 5 year old who speaks like a 5 year old, which injects a good helping of humor into the story. Instant classic, If you get a chance, see it.

This is Wes Anderson's greatest departure from realism and into the realm of the fantastic. From the "crayon ponyfish", the Jaque Costeau outfits, the Mark Mothersbaugh(of Devo) pop song selection, the David Bowie songs in Portuguese, to the literally yellow submarine, we are granted a trip with a bygone hero on his last mission of revenge, love, family, and tragedy. The tone here is much more dayglo and childlike, but the characters maintain their trademark Anderson deadpan sensibilities and sharp/awkward wit.
What dissapoints so many about this film, is that there is'nt an easy resolution. Paradoxically more than any other Anderson film this is his most fantastical and fatalistic. Steve Zissou learns all of his most important lessons far too late to do anything about them, theres a kind of division between the character and his life(the title after all is "The Life Aquatic...with Steve Zissou), where like so many Henry James characters Steve just can't get himself together, can't catch the fish, can't get the girl, can't make the movie, and even as his long lost son is returned to him, his wife abondons him, and his financers all but cut him off, he still can't get out of "why me?". For all it's raindow claymation fish, and clever musical samplings the end is straight outta "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzia(an 80's film about superhero who was kind of the ultimate man), it's kind of a depressing film. Or at least the ironic tensions between the comedy and tragedy kind of flatten each other out. Still if given the option of spending two hours watching the Bellafontaine and it's crew, or in the lives of some of Wes Andersons other characters I'd take the red cap and the jumpsuit, anyday.

Like reading a great novel. The words which pour out of these kids mouths, are at times completely natural and others poetic and rich. This is not your typical independent film, dealing with "life amongst the poor", in fact though destitute the setting is kinda magical and Utopian. (George doesn't get harassed, assaulted, while patrolling the neighborhood with a cape? Adults and children, speak to each other with no recognition of age, etc.) But none of this distracts from the "realism" of the story or characters, well realism is the wrong word...naturalism seems more fitting.

A group of friends in North Carolina (all played by real people, no actors) deal with boredom, crushes, and growing up, until tragedy strikes, and changes them all, some attempt to escape, others take to lofty (super-heroesque) heroism.

May seem a bit slow to some, but it's sincerely one of the best movies I've ever seen, it has a life and uniqueness all it's own which is difficult to put into words. I'd heard whispers of this movie for years, and now that I've finally seen it, I understand exactly the reasons for the hushed admiration and awe.

A moving and inspiring masterpiece, I wish there were more like this...for one it's a film with non-middle class black characters, which doesn't immediately fall into clichés of race, class, etc, allowing the characters to grow into actual 3 dimensional human forms, and not just sacrificial lambs for heavy handed social tragedy (Okay I'm getting a bit off point, and maybe personalizing this, but it did make a difference in my appreciation, and perhaps Gordon's directing. In the Charlie Rose Interview (for those of you with the DVD), Gordon mentions for instance using ambient and string music as opposed to traditionally expected "hip hop" or "urban music". It's small details like this which help establish the films tone apart from it's environment, and to show how tranquil and mystical even junkyards and vacant lots can seem to fresh eyes and minds.)....Anywho it's a great film.

"I just wish I had my own tropical island, I wish... I wish I was... I could go to China, I wish I could go out of The States... I wish I had my own planet, I wish I... I wish there were 200 of me, man... I wish I could just sit around with computers and technology and just brainstorm all day man. I wish I was born again... I wish I could get saved and give my life to Christ... then maybe he can forgive me for what I did... I wish there was just one belief... my belief."

Movie walks a razor thin line between, cute, disturbing, and annoying, but all with the grace of a ballerina. Ive heard mixed reviews of Miranda July's fiction, but there is no denying her prowess as a film maker. This romantic comedy and ensemble peice, is one of those unnexpectedly funny, moving, awkward, human, and complex indie films that comes around once every years, and gets imitated to death ever after. Fortunately "Me And You And Everyone We Know" has not begun to loose it's freshness just yet. July, uses her characters as vessels for musings on love, death, technology, sexuality, and lonliness. None of the characters in the story are one dimensional, everyone is entangled, and everyone is leading lifes of qiuet desperation. Through chance encounters, diverse yet familiar characters are brought together. In some of the, indeed, most adorable, and at times extremely discorfmiting scenes your likely to see(if your touchy about children and sexuality you might want to steer clear), but all are treated with the same sense of honesty that keeps the film from feeling cheap or melodramatic. It's a movie about the things which hold us together in the modern world, and those things which keep us apart, childhood mysteries, and adult magic. It's a romantic comedy, that doesnt feel in any way cleche(a very rare thing). I didnt love it the first time I saw it, but after repeat viewings I love it more and more. As good as "Punch Drunk Love", "High Fidelity", "Closer", "Before Sunsirse", and those literate hip romantic dramedies, which have come before it. Also just as enjoyable, and bolstered by its ensemble cast, instead of focusing on just one couple, or couples in general. Anyway I love it, its an easy film to love, July is going to be a film maker to watch in the future.

Amazing, great performances, great script, great directing, great concept, I normally stay away from Biopics because they tend to either demonize or hero worship, especially when it comes to musicians. Tood Haynes uses fragmentation as a device to show us parts and asepects of a personality empahsizing that there is no one "real" person ever really present within anyone, just lots of idealizations, frailties, passions, dreams, fears, and projections, a series of persona. He demonstrates this by using six different actors(of various races, genders, and ages) to play various aspects of Bob Dylan's personality, career, and life.

The soundtrack which uses alot of original Dylan songs as well as covers, adds to the confusion of identity. Now normally with a film of this scope, it's easy for it to become swallowed by it's own audacity, but "Im Not There" doesn't miss a beat. My favorite film of 07, and instantyly one of my top ten all time favorites. About as smart, literate, and enjoyable as films get.

People as strings, world as instrument.


I had the good fortune of a teacher lending me this in high school. It may be the best documentary ever.


Two British film makers traveled to 25 countries recording pieces of music and then fusing them together via Lap-top, and the results are a stunning fusion of world musics and editing. If that weren't enough there's interviews with artists, scientists, religious scholars, mystics, authors (Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Robbins, actors, activists, prostitutes,and people on the street divided into twelve chapters "Time, Confrontation, Sex, Masks, God, Faith, Blasphemy, Unity, Death, Money, Inspiration, and Happiness." Each is broken up into a song, so it's easy to watch in pieces or all the way through. Inspiring music, concepts, and message; the world as instrument and all it's peoples as strings. Should be seen by anyone with an interest in anything.

"Be pleased then, you the living, in your delightfully warmed bed, before Lethe's ice-cold wave will lick your escaping foot" -Goethe

That's the opening title card from "You The Living". Like Roy Andersson's earlier "Songs From The Second Floor" each scene in "You, The Living" is composed with a static non moving camera, giving each vignette the detailed composition of a photograph or a painting. Some vignettes last minute or two, some a matter of seconds, as previous. Though Anderson plays the same stylistic instrument, he manges to get more than a few fresh notes.

One of the most stunning openings in a film anywhere, a woman complains about the woes of the world and her life, repeatedly insulting her boyfriend and dog to leave, as a New Orleans Style Brass band bubbles beneath the conversation, until the boyfriend exits and the woman repeats that he lies, but that she may be along latter for dinner... then she breaks into a song about escaping from her life on a motorcycle. Then cut to a group of Chefs standing in a row and staring in silent awe out of a window at something off screen, while the Brass band plays on, making the scene resemble an eerie french cartoon. Eventually the Chefs go back to work, and an old man hobbles into frame moving at snails pace, and dragging ten feet behind him on a leash a small puppy yelping on it's back, as the band plays on.

Songs From The Second Floor began with a quote, "Blessed Be The Ones Who Sit Down", and where that film built it's jokes and visual poems from consumer culture, this film takes a broader view of the world, where all suffering and misery, fantasies, and hopes are all to be appreciated, because they're better than the alternative; death or "Lethe's ice cold lick" as Goethe puts it in opening quote. And besides all the humiliations and loneliness are funny enough if you look at them from the right perspective, as this film perpetually does.

A thin old man has sex with a large breasted woman wearing a band leaders helmet, as she moans on top of him and get's closer to climax, he somberly recounts losing his pension, having served in the brass band for years and now having nothing, as she orgasms, he mutters "Isn't it Tragic".

It's brilliantly and beautifully put together, and hilarious sometimes in very dry and others very absurd ways, the scenarios here instead of feeling stark and tragicomic have a warm bittersweet feeling to them. The greys of Ingmar Bergman have abandoned for brighter, softer tones, the colors in the class room and the park look like crayon and watercolor alternately, and there's a building on train tracks, that's as amazing as anything Terry Gilliam or Michel Gondry ever dreamed up. The ending, ties all the themes of appreciating whatever of life we have together perfectly.

Though I liked the feelings and sensations this invoked in me more than "Songs From The Second Floor", it is slightly less effective. Still though, amazing follow up film, and something anyone interested in movies needs to see, actually makes for a much better introduction than "Songs". Dry humor, dreamy images and structure, vivid colors and bittersweet harmonies of brass bands, guitar heroes, and loud lone drummers in empty rooms.

There are a lot of things I really do sincerely enjoy about this movie, it's funny, visually engaging, and a truly unique experience, that being said, it was also clumsy and convoluted as all hell. A lot of the "story" and especially back story is almost kind of irrelevant to the plot, but it's there, as are the references to the book of Revelations which kind of become the plot, there is a lot going on here, lots of characters (its an ensemble piece), lots of story lines, and more then one level of allegory working here (Revelations is just the most in your face), there's also references to pop songs in the chapter titles, dialog, and the soundtrack(even a dance number with Justin Timberlake doing a hallucinatory karaoke version of The Killers), as well overt, albeit, kinda tacked on references to Donnie Darko's Philosophy Of Time Travil, Philip K. Dicks "Flow My Tears The Policeman Said"(a so-cal story about a celeberity slipping into another dimension), alternative Energy, government surveillance, improv actors, terrible yet prophetic sci-fi scripts, and porn stars, all get their walk on roles, set against a dystopian but still sunny future Los Angeles.

It's messy and absurd and ridiculous, with dialog like the Rock's "I'm a pimp...and pimp's don't commit suicide" line, not quite working out as the hilarious, ironic, and iconic gem, it was designed to be. Still it is a one of a kind sci-fi/comedy and that is what I took away most from this. I might have laughed at the film as much as I did with it (mind you rarely out loud), but it laughs at itself a good deal to (look for the pop art giant tiolets). It's not for everyone, the plot I know will irritate people looking for a mind bending and taught twist from the Donnie Darko guy, will get more of an attempt to cross Philip K. Dick and the Big Lebowski with a helpful sprinkling of Buckaroo Banzai, which though not nearly successful as those, does have a charm of it's own, like a friend at a party who livens up and becomes more and more interesting as he simultaneously becomes more drunk, disheveled, and obnoxious, it won't end well but there will be a story to tell the next day.

In the days where text-book minimilist chase thrillers with vauge hints of existential terror ala "No Country For Old Men" are awarded for best picture, it's refreshing to see a director really try to make something different and ambitious, even if he fails. A ridiculously ambitious flop which cannot possibly communicate all it tries to is more interesting to me than a highly polished text-book film, which does everything I would expect proficiently. There's an enthusiasm in this movie that eventually gets the better of it, but there's just so much going on visually and conceptually that it's possible (not easy), to get past it's short comings, which either dooms or ushers it lovingly into new cult classic status. For better of for worse, I liked it.

In a lot of ways its the opposite of Donnie Darko, ensemble to insular, absurdist to melancholic, vibrant to shadowy. And regardless of it's flaws it's manages to creep back into my thoughts again and again, the hallmark of a good film in any genre.

One of the most vibrant and fun art house films you are ever likely to see. Vera Chytilova was merging feminism, nihilism, psychedlic color filters, collage aesthetic, and silent film slapstick into a one of a kind film about two young girls named Ma...(read more)rie who decide to self destruct, and be just as wicked as the world. They con men into buying them lunch and ditch them at train stations, get drunk in posh nightclubs, set their beds on fire, and lay siege to whole banquets(this latter bit got the film and the director into alot of trouble with the Soviet Czech government for "wasting food"). Anyway this is an energetic and vibrant film as youre likely to find anywhere, and unlike so many great euro art films, this is as fun to watch as it is think about afterwards. Ive shown this movie to alot of people and Ive never had a complaint, it clocks in at just over an hour, so if youve got the time, go for it. It's a one of kind experience(in fact the worst part of this movie is the cover).

A lot people get hung up on this films tag as a "children's film", and that it certainly is, though it is one made for adults. Takashi Miike uses the fantasy genre, particularly, the children's fantasy genre, as a springboard into the wild territory ...(read more)that is the Great Yokai War.

The setup is simple a boy is selected to play the "hero" in this years annual festival, only to discover his role is much more real than he could have imagined. What follows is a hallucinatory, grotesque, whimsical, and often funny journey through the world of Japanese folklore, but wait there's also an evil Villain on the lose who wants to destroy the world. However, the villain here, is not a mere demon, it is the demon-spirit of the accumulated resentment of those things which humans "use" and "discard". Usuing a chamber made out of pure liquid hate/resentment, the villain transforms the vibrant colorful Yokai spirits into soulless ten foot tall makeshift robots which chainsaw for arms and eyes like burning coals(those whove played the video game, Sonic The Hedghog, might remember a certain Dr. Robotnik performing similar procedures to the cute and cuddly's who Sonic had to then "liberate").

The hero in this film is actually the least interesting character, essentially playing the straight man, in a world gone suddenly mad. Though he does go through the typical heroes trials he more often than not cowers, as do many of the Yokia themselves, who seem truly defenseless against the murderous robots, some spirits being umbrellas with eyes, talking walls, or creatures whose soul purpose in life is to count beans...of course in this magical world of Miike's Yokai war even beans take a magical power when one believes in them.

In several ways this film subverts the normal conventions of children's fantasy, as few, if any, of the characters are heroic, their victory being a combination of happenstance, almost arbitrary faith, and a desire to party. The Yokai spirits, only rally together and lay siege the villains hideout, after they mistake the end of the world invasion of Earth for a great Yokai festival, and even then only to dance and party. Also the film ends not with the usual celebratory all's well that ends well fantasy ending, but with a final scene, showing our hero years older, with an adult job, now unable to see the Yokai spirits of his youth, who then despondently turn to the villain, who being a spirit can never really die. This ending, with it's Yokai spirit who is the spitting image of Pokemon's Pikachu, warns us not just of leaving behind our childhood selves, but of the horrors of over-consumption. The villain is resentment caused when humans no longer have reverence for the world and the objects around them(in Japanese folklore nearly every object has some kind of spirit), and so when they are used and discarded as we in consumer societies do without reverence, they become soulless vengeful machines, not unlike those seen in modern video games, suggesting that though our imaginations and myths do not ever really die, they can become deformed.

This is one of the first scripts Miike has contributed to, and I believe it shows, as there's a tightness conceptually that sometimes gets swept under the rug by his exuberance for visual playfulness. Though I've focused mostly on the story (since lots of users here seem to write it off), I do want to say that visually it's a kaleidescope of CGI, stop animation, costume, and live puppetry, that works remarkably well. There's a dreamlike quality to a lot of the film, and the Miyazaki comparisons are warranted, as are the NeverEnding Story and Labrynth comparisons, though this film is sharper and more adult than either. The Yokai are beaten, brutalized, and turned into machines of living hate, who I believe even kill a few humans, a deformed aborted calf with a mans face is born and dies in the films grotesque opening, while a sexual undercurrent, the women with the long neck licking the face of our boy hero, or another characters persistent memory of touching the thigh of a young scantily clad water spirit as a boy, seem to linger a bit too long for most western tastes, especially when considering this is a "children's film". However these are slight enough to catch adult attentions while minor enough, not to traumatize any children to bad. Grims fairy tales, before revisions, did much worse, far more often.

All and all this is one of Miikes most accessible and engaging ventures yet, with enough visual drama and great performances(the Yokai spirits have a humanism and an absurd humor to them, thats laugh out loud funny at times) to appeal to audiences of all ages, and a steady conceptual undercurrent strong enough to draw in an adult audience who have presumably brought their children or else come out of a sense of nostalgia for the long lost fantasy films of their youth. The latter group the film seems to address the most fervently asking that they not just continue passive consumption of the world around them, but show reverence to those spirits within them which seemed so much closer to reality in childhood. Another beautiful, funny, and truly original film from a thrilling director who hasn't come close to his apex. Instant classic.

This is the most criminally underseen movie of all time. Its a rare thing to find a movie which uses bats on visible strings and makes allusions to paintings by Rene Margritte(the kiss in the crypt resembles Margritte's "The Lovers"), and have talkin...(read more)g zomibe heads, but here it is-and in English.
Rupert Everertt delivers a great performance as the caretaker for a cemetary in a small Italian village, where the dead once buried there come back to life, and every evening without fail, he kills them and buries them again. Of course no one will listen to him, and killing the zombies becomes more a matter of maintnance than survival. Against this backdrop of casual zombie killing, comes a love interest, into our protagonists life, a beuatiful woman who will appear and then die, and then appear again, rising like the dead from cemetary. And speaking of things which rise from the grave, our hero is completely impotent, a fact everyone in town knows and taunts him about. The film goes on to subtly discuss, death, love, sex, buerocracy, divisions of labour, obsession, reality, and the literal ends of the earth. Theres also plenty of zombie gore, sex, vomit, and decapitated heads. This movie is too smart for most of the zombie crowd, and has too much projectile vomit for much of the art house fans, but then there are those for whome this film wil be just right. Not to mention Micheal Savoi's direction, which is as good as Gilliam or Ridley Scott in his techincal Blade Runner days. Every shot is framed to give it a sense of visual flourish, and it's a shame Savoi never made anything nearly this ambitious again. The story is based on an Italian comic book called Dylan Dogg(which hasnt been translated, into English yet, but of which Ive heard great things.), and "Cemetary Man" is it's American release title, orignally it was "Dellamorte Dellamore" which means roughly "Of Love, Of Death" and is a play on words as our heroe's fathers last name Dellamorte, while his mothers was Dellamore. A fascinating, funny, gory, smart, mindf*&k of a film, that should be seen by all fans of zombie movies, tricky cinematography, art films, and movies in general. Up there with "Dawn Of The Dead", and "Dead Alive", this stands as on an essential, if unknown part of the Zombie cannon, this is about as close it's come to literature.

There are alot of films about kids in 3rd world conditions going down violent paths, but rarely are these accounts as first hand, expansive, and compelling as City Of God.
Theres a vibrance, urgency, compassion, and scope that makes this movie so hard to pull away from. The story of a boy named Rocket trying to escape and being pulled back into the violent conditions around him, as well as the local history that created this enviornment. We see generations of slumlords few old enough to drive, come and go, in ages and empires, of drugs and fashions from the 60's to the 70's. Most of the performers here are not actors but children from the infamous slum, including Brazilian pop star Sue Jorge(seen in the Life Aquatic seeing David Bowie songs) who also grew up there.
Theres an immediacy, honesty, and energy to this film that 90 percent of films about gangsters, street life, and the 3rd world miss. No glorifications of excess, just poverty, desire, hope, and ignorance, put in a blender and set to fuck all. Anyway, excellent from start to finish. One of my favorite films of all time.

Great everything, all hype true. Love, life, and memory captured with imaginative genuis and poetic and honest sensibilites. The 70's had "Annie Hall" and the 90's had "High Fidelity", in the 200's there is Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and though I love the other two, this one casts a pretty big shadow of it's own. An example of why you should still go the movies.

This movie doesn't need much support or discussion, with comedies either you laugh or you don't. Even during those scenes where I wasn't laughing I was at least smiling as the absurd antics of camp Firewood, become more and more irreverant. Ive seen alot of mixed reactions to people Ive shown this film too, Ive had girlfreinds whove hated and loved it, family and freinds whove alternately thanked me or asked me why I was into "shit like this", and once had it playing in the background on a tv during a party, until nearly the whole room was gathered round to watch all laughing in unison, so it's hard to gauge because there's no single predictable brand of humor hear. Like "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun", this film is foaming at the mouth with absurd slapstick gags and non-sequiters. However the humor is remarkably sharp, hip, when not being completely off the wall. Micheal Showalter and co., who would go on to make the more subdued yet still very funny, "The Baxter", which parodies the Romantic Comedy the way this film parodies the summer camp comedy. Whether it's the gay or refregerator sex scenes, the copious drug binge which inexplicably lasts an hour, or campers bieng left in the wilds to cover up the negligent drowing death of yet other campers, to the talent show, or the meteor that is going to crash there and destroy them all, there's something here to offend and delight just about anyone. This is not a film that laughs with the characters it laughs at them and at itself openly, and if you can get "in" on the joke, it's as good as a beer around a warm campfire on a summer night.

The story of the first man in history killed for having low ratings.

One of the best film scripts ever written, and a film which is more relevant now than when it was written, and increases in relevance with every passing year. Amazing performances, actually based on a book about the newspaper industry, but adapted to here television. Every scene is perfect

One of those heartwarming and amazing films, that it's almost impossible not to enjoy. This movie kicked off the 21st century. The writing, direction, music, performances, costumes, colors, everything is flawless. A film for everyone.

An absurdist film, with a sense of humor, that's actually as laugh out loud funny as it is conceptually amusing. A lampooning of scientology, relationships, the difficulties of communication, the film making buisness, the nightly news, corporate life, and just about everything it touches.

Steven Soderberg has made one of the vanniest comedies, in recent memory(I cant think of the last time I used the word zanny in conversation).

This is the film which restored Soderberg's creative powers after a series of slumps and a collapsing marriage, after which he would go on to Oceans 11 and infamy. These two quotes might better let you know what your in for.

"Dear attractive woman number 2, only once in my life have I responded to a person the way I've responded to you, but I've forgotten when it was or even if it was in fact me that responded. I may not know much, but I know that the wind sings your name endlessly, although with a slight lisp that makes it difficult to understand if I'm standing near an air conditioner. I know that your hair sits atop your head as though it could sit nowhere else. I know that your figure would make a sculptor cast aside his tools, injuring his assistant who was looking out the window instead of paying attention. I know that your lips are as full as that sexy french model's that I desperately want to fuck. I know that if for an instant I could have you lie next to me, or on top of me, or sit on me, or stand over me and shake, then I would be the happiest man in my pants. I know all of this, and yet you do not know me. Change your life; accept my love. Or, at least let me pay you to accept it."

"Fletcher Munson: [sunnily, on homecoming] Generic greeting!

Mrs. Munson: [warmly] Generic greeting returned!

[they kiss and chuckle at each other]
Fletcher Munson: Imminent sustenance.

Mrs. Munson: Overly dramatic statement regarding upcoming meal.

Fletcher Munson: Oooh! False reaction indicating hunger and excitement!

Fletcher Munson: [wife snuggles up amorously] Ooh! *Really* well-rehearsed speech about workload and stress.
[pause]

Fletcher Munson: Genuine sorrow. Um... truthful-sounding promises of future satisfaction? Enticement to agree?

Mrs. Munson: [pause] Accepted.

Fletcher Munson: Gratitude."

"A New Mexico woman was named Final Arbiter of Taste & Justice today, ending God's lengthy search for someone to straighten this country out. Eileen Harriet Palglace will have final say on every known subject, including who should be put to death, what clothes everyone should wear, what movies suck, and whether bald men who grow ponytails should still get laid."

In my opinion, and as objectively as possible, the best film ever made. It's technical prowess alone, has fiilled books, and its scope is as wide as any in film history, showing human evolution and it's possible future development as three chapters going from the dawn of man to (at the time it was made) far future, and beyound. Changed the way I looked at movies forever.

Picture perfect unsentimental Romantic comedy, about nuerosis, growing up, obsession, fetish, fantasy, memory, music, and top 5's. This book takes place in London, but the universal appeal of music makes it's transfer to Chicago seemlessly natual (we are all united by pop songs). The characters are deeply flawed, honest, and funny. This is one of best examples of voice over narrative and breaking the fourth wall for direct audience adresses working perfectly, without drawing too much attention to itself. It's excellent, got a great soundtrack, some jokes that are likely to go over a few non music-heads heads, but for the most apart it's a film almost anyone can relate to in some aspect, be it relationships, music, or obsessive listing. But enough has been written and said about this movie, just see it. Good times.

This movie got alot better after I gave it some distance and watched it again. Douglas Adams co-writes the screen play here and the material that differs from the book doesn't seem too out of place for the story.

I especially like the merger of Jim Henson creature shop puppetry and animation with contemporary CGI, it compliments the comic and absurdist tone of the work perfectly.

No movie adaptation will ever be as inegnious as the book, there's just too much detail, but this movie does a good job of distilling the wit, absurdity, imagination, and bittersweet humanism that made the books such compelling reads in the first place. This film does a remarkable job of bottling the wild energy of the universe as a joke, while still remaining simple almost fairy taleesque.

The story is of Arthur Dent, who wakes one da find his house is going to be destroyed to pave way for a freeway, only to be informed a few minutes later by a freind that the earth is about to be destroyed to pave way for an intergalactic freeway, and they have only moments to leave. What follows is cosmic trip with manic depressive robots, singing dolphins, John Malkovich as a cyborg with metallic spider legs, and the answer to "life, the universe, and everything", as well as anything the "infinite improbability drive" can throw out, which given the nature of the improbable...you can guess is alot of stuff.

There's alot of movies about "the meaning of life", and "Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy" is one of the few that I can honestly say I agree with wholeheartedly.
"Don't Panic" and don't take yourself or this movie so seriosuly.

The whale at three thousand feet, is brilliant.

Some of the best animated films ever made, Svankmajer combines claymation, stop motion, puppetry both classical and with found objects like shadows, sand, foods, meats, and live actors. It's almost impossible to describe these little features some bieng fairly straight forward while others are as abstract as cinema can get. Pervasive themes are food and consumption, oppression, the mechanistic puppetlike apsects of life, and those mysterious experiences which transorm mundane objects into something more. Theres a few Edgar Allen Poe adaptations here too, of "The Pit And The Pendullum",all shot from the first person pov, and "The Fall Of The House Of Usher", told with sand and footage of abondoned casteles. There's definitely an aesthetic here an entire generation of music video directors lifted wholesale, but few push themselves into as many directions as Svankmajer. Working under the Soviet Czech government, it was difficult to find grounds to censor more abstract material, Svankmajer along with Milos Freeman ("One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" "Man On The Moon") and Vera Chytilova("Daisies"), was a key part of the Czech New Wave, known for it's wild anarchic and visually surreal films(which more often then not got banned anyway).
Still I think it helps to know this kind of work evolved out of a necissity as well as a desire to be creative and original.
These short films pack more punch than any of Svankmajer's full length films, which remarkable as they often are can get tedious. Ive never met a person who wasn't impressed and at least momentarily hypnotized by the images in these films. An amazing marriage of animation and storytelling. Must see!

David Cronenberg films the unfilmable. Though almost nothing like the book the title get's it's name from it's nonetheless an excellent film about the life and works of author William S. Burroughs. Like "I'm Not There", "Naked Lunch" takes a fragmented persona and mixes autobiography into fiction, and cuts them together. So it helps to know a few things about William S. Burroughs before going on.

Things like he "accidentally", shot and killed his wife in mexico while tryng drunkenly to perform this films William Tell Routine, an event which would start Burroughs in his writing career(William and "Tell" being a strange coincidence for a writer named William), he was addicted to various drugs until his death in his 80's, heroin longer than any, did once work as an exterminator, spent a good deal of time in Tangiers and North Africa, was monotone voiced and always sharply dressed, though the film shows him as more bi-sexual than gay(he did have children), but was overwhelmingly gay(read a few of his books and you will get the overwhelming part). Was also an expret marksman, a gun entusiast, and afraid/obsessed of centipedes. His freinds in the film(who help get his book published) are supposed to be young versions of beat writers Jack Kerouc and Alan Ginsberg. If you look closely you can see that several different places are built out of the same sets, as the protagonist Bill Lee, doesnt really go anywhere, but into his head. (Oh the murder aspect of the Burroughs story is also basis of another film from 2000 with Kiefer Southerland as Burroughs, called "Beat", but it's not so great.)

But does any of that really explain why the type writers are insects who speak out of their assholes? Well the asshole story in the car ride, is a "routine' he used to do at dinner parties, as well as the asshole in general being both for Burroughs as a gay man a place of desire(or desires not spoken) and a social symbol of everything in life we avoid or would rather not say. As for what the title "Naked Lunch" means,
it's the point during a meal when one looks down theire fork and realizes what it is they've been consuming and eating all this time, where the true nature of the meal is revealed(not that this get's discussed in the movie)

Without any of that information and before I started reading Burroughs, I had no idea what was going on, in this movie save something about drug addiction, sexual identiy confusion, and paranoi (which it is too) afterwards though I was amazed at how much David Cronenberg was able to bring together. It's not really an adaptation of "Naled Lunch" the book, but a Burroughs inspired film about Burroughs, that uses the techniques, preocupations, and ideas of the author and his life to tell a Burroughs story. Because any type of literal adaptation of the book would probably be banned in every country on Earth...well maybe not Japan where incidentally you can buy the insect/asshole type writer (Who can say Christmas wish?)

So yeah if you like "wierd movies" you'll like this, if you like William S. Burroughs or David Cronenberg you should like it, everyone esle though, approach with caution, even for "drug" cinema, there really isn't anything like this.

This is one of the most brutal Tragicomedies ever made. For a long time I would appologize to people before showing them this. I watched it(not knowing what I was getting into) for the first time with my mother...and it was awkward to say the least.
However, for the adventerous, not easily offended this is one of the most incredible films I have ever seen. The pursuit of happiness was never more horrifically uncomfortable than it has been here. All perormances are amazing, the script as good they get, the music, cinemtography flawless. Todd Solondz knows every button to push and he does so like a master puppeteer. This film is why he is one of America's current pre-eminent film makers.
A film as hilarious as it is disturbing, completely one of a kind ensemble peice about sex, love, perversion, and the depths to which human beings can sink in the pursuit of pleasure of contentment. (John Lovit's scene at the beginning is one of my favorite in all of moviedom).

The story and performances in this film, are some of B-horrors worst, the cinematography, set design, death sequences, and music however are as unique and inspired as horror films get.


Dario Argento films have thin plots which allow his sinister imagination to stage elobrate "Giallo" death scenes. Giallo is a genre orignating out of Italiy, part pulpy mystery, part fantastic horror and crime stories, part erotic thriller, and always ridiculous amounts of violence. The pulps, are "yellow books" basically, Gaillo means yellow in Italian, which for some reason was cheaper than white paper and used in alot of pop novels and magazines at the time. This genre has been Dario Argento's modus operendi for nearly thirty years, and though for the most part, his filmography is full of really, not even amusingly, bad films, this is the one that made him famous enough to make people interested in all the others.


For me it's the best, the bizzare and operatic soundtrack by "The Goblins" alone make it worthwhile viewing. The story is about a girl attending a haunted Ballet school in Germany, arriving the same day of a tragic and grissly murder, and uncovering the dark and ancient secret behind it all. A little slow at times, the story is a loose excuse to run wild with macarbe ideas that don't need too much explanation. It's also the beginning of a trilogy continuing with Inferno (the less said the better), and ending with last years "The Mother Of Tears".


Featuring a mix of slashers, killer dogs, witches, bats, and maggots, "Suspiria" is a horror funhouse and a masterpiece of genre, but a film mostly for fans and horror enthusiasts, those looking for a movie that's actually scary, might want to look elsewhere, those in for a wild operatic pulp horror have found their golden ticket.

The camera work at the beginning got a little annoying, but after you get into "club rectum" it's impossible to pull away though every measure is taken to make you want to. I don't know if all ten minute of rape were necessary for us to know that a character had been raped, but the brutality does alter the context of everything in the film. It's really disturbing, and manages to employ the backwards editing technique to great effect. The acting was amazing, the Godardesque discussion on the train was hilarious, and the 2001 wormhole ending was brilliant. If you want to see a literate, savage, sophisticated "revenge" film, which is far greater than the sum of it's parts, and manages to say some profound things about fate, choice, and of course revenge. Not for the weak of stomach, as this is very, very, difficult to watch, but to the brave go the spoils. Phenomenal filmmaking, and perhaps the best film about "revenge", ever made.