“Happy endings are for stories that haven’t ended yet.” — Angelina Jolie as Jane Smith in Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005).
As promised last month, I’m doubling the frequency of DVD review posts in an effort to catch up with movies I’ve watched and reviewed. Although I review movies right after watching them, sometimes two or three months will go by before I post the reviews here. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes struggle to remember movies I’ve reviewed, and that has to stop. So here are ten more catch-up reviews:
 |
Schultze Gets the Blues (2003) Given most Americans’ film diet, few of us will be willing to sit through this slow-paced subtitled tale, particularly the first half-hour or so. But please believe me, it is worth every slow scene, every subtitle. From the time Schultze hears his first zydeco music on the radio to the time he gives up the ghost on a houseboat in a Louisiana bayou, you’ll be a happy participant in Schultze’s adventure. There are many echos of Easy Rider in this movie, and I’m certain they’re intentional. Just picture a bicycle, not a chopper, and adjust your mindset accordingly. Really well done; I’m so glad I discovered this movie! |
 |
Red (2008) In Death Wish, Charles Bronson’s Paul Kersey is out to avenge his murdered wife. In The Brave One, Jodie Foster’s Erica Bain is out to avenge her murdered fiance. Well, Katie bar the door, because in Red, Brian Cox’s Avery Ludlow is out to avenge his murdered dog! Never fuck with a man’s dog! This is a bit of a sleeper, surprisingly thoughtful for a revenge movie, but every bit as satisfying as Robocop blowing off a rapist’s nuts with one shot! If you’re up for a movie that will make you sad, then mad, then glad, Red is the DVD for you! |
 |
The Tiger’s Tail (2006) I loved Brendan Gleeson in the movie In Bruges, and I loved him in this earlier film. Actually, The Tiger’s Tale has a pretty improbable plot and is more of a vehicle for good acting and suspense . . . but I was engaged throughout and never got bored. Suspend your disbelief in the idea of an identical, hitherto-unknown twin, and just enjoy the damn movie, all right? Also, it’s Irish, which is a nice plus. |
 |
Avatar (2009) Click here to read my original review, posted in December 2009. I’ll just add this: having now watched the movie in both 3D and 2D, I have to say there are good arguments for each format. You get a terrific sense of presence and immediacy with 3D, but you can see more in 2D. There are lovely little touches in almost every scene, many of which are obscured and hard to see in 3D because they’re outside the focal point of the cameras. If you want to see more detail, watch the movie in 2D. Better yet, do what I did: watch it in 3D at the theater, then watch it in 2D at home. |
 |
La Mujer sin Cabeza (The Headless Woman) (2008) This is one of those prize-winning art films. I did not like it. An upper-middle-class Argentinian woman runs over a lower-class boy and keeps on driving, leaving him for dead. She experiences some sort of mental breakdown and spends the next few days walking around in a daze. Her husband and lover cover up the crime. She eventually changes the color of her hair, goes back to mistreating servants and menials, and gets on with life. Do I have that right, fancy-pants art film director? Was there some larger message? If there was, you didn’t get it across to me. |
 |
Taking Woodstock (2009) The first thing you should know is that this is not a concert flick — it’s about how Woodstock came to be. It’s also a coming-out story. Taking Woodstock is sweet and touching, and it brought back a lot of memories. If you’re an old hippie type like me, you should love this film. Demetri Martin is just perfect in his role. And after years of watching crappy “acid trip” sequences in movies about the era, finally a good one! God, those were the days. . . . |
 |
Note by Note: the Making of Steinway L1037 (2007) A very enjoyable hour and a half. I heard something about this documentary on NPR a year or so ago and had wanted to watch it ever since. Basically it follows the construction of a concert grand Steinway, from a log among hundreds of other logs floating in a river to a beautiful finished instrument, a process that takes an entire year and is done entirely by skilled hands using old-fashioned artisan tools. And not in some quaint Bavarian forest with elves, but right in the middle of Queens by American workers. It makes you proud. Especially nice were the interviews with pianists, from Harry Connick to Marcus Roberts, and the scenes in the selection room, where concert pianists play piano after piano, trying to find just the right one. God, I wish a had a hundred grand or so — I’d buy a Steinway tomorrow! |
 |
Julia (2008) Tilda Swinton is a punch to the kidneys. After she’s through with you, you feel like you’ve been beaten and left for dead. Her character, Julia, is an out of control alcoholic who has lost her job and is about to lose her apartment. She falls in with a psychologically disturbed woman from her AA meeting who asks her to help kidnap her son from his custodial guardian. Julia sees a way out of her problems and hatches a kidnapping plot of her own. She’s so unorganized, impulsive, and chaotic, her plan is doomed from the start — but she frighteningly pulls it off. Once the initial crime is committed, Julia and the young boy she kidnaps get into a series of increasingly-desperate scrapes, and their descent into the underworld of crime is one of the scariest rides you’ll ever take. Just when you think things can’t possibly get any worse, they do. And brother, if you think you’ve seen scary-ass badness, wait’ll you meet the Mexican kidnappers in Tijuana! Julia is a horrifying mess, but she gives us glimpses of a redeemable soul, just enough that, in spite of your revulsion, you begin to root for her. I am seriously in awe of Tilda Swinton’s acting in this movie. She reminds me of Charlize Theron in Monster, a 2003 movie about an uneducated alcoholic prostitute who murders her tricks. Powerful stuff, these movies about bad women, and not for the faint of heart. I’m wound up, nervous, upset, exhausted. I’m practically shaking and I’ll probably have nightmares. |
 |
District 9 (2009) Superb. District 9 is brilliant. There’s a great sci-fi idea behind it, and the gritty documentary-style presentation gives it a believable immediacy. Except for the bit about two prawns out of millions being the only ones with the know-how and gumption to fix the disabled mothership — that part was hard to swallow, but never mind — the movie is just so exciting you’d be crazy not to enjoy it because of one little detail. I loved the way the bureaucrat Wikus is portrayed, the way his character evolves from a second-rate bureaucrat to a man fighting for his life, and I will never trust a Nigerian again . . . oh wait, I never trusted them in the first place. But damn, peeps, just damn . . . hella good flick! |
 |
(500) Days of Summer (2009) Donna prefers romantic comedies with actresses like Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, and Sandra Bullock. I go for zombies. (500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy with a younger, lesser-known actress, and not one zombie. So Donna gave about an inch when she agreed to watch this, and I gave a mile. But as it turned out, we both had a good time watching it. It’s refreshing, well acted, and more adult than most others in its genre. |