Summer viewing... 2008?!

As it's been a very busy last month, I haven't had much time at all to post anything new these last few weeks. I'd like to try to get back to a weekly schedule, but like the best laid plans of mice and men...

At any rate, as a way of making up for my lack of new postings, I thought I'd be a little perverse and offer some, well, older musings on films that I was watching last year between January and June. I know, I know... it's a little bit like cutting the mold off the edges of the mozzarella that expired a week ago but it's either that, or no pizza pie at all. Hope I'll be forgiven this once!

Thanks for your indulgence, and enjoy the penicillin...

Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006)

One of the most joyous films I've seen in a while. A near perfect ensemble cast plays out endlessly inventive variations on their singular theme. The long take and centred framing of the girls during the final minutes of the game is unforgettable.

Shortbus (John Cameron Mitchell, 2006)

Finally - an American film given over completely to the celebration of everyday carnality. A far cry - thankfully - from all the hate-fucking found in European cinema these days (to say nothing of The Brown Bunny). Frequently witty in its blissed-out frankness, Woody Allen should be taking notes.

Speed Racer (Andy & Larry Wachowski, 2008)

At last! An adaptation of a lousy Japanese cartoon, coloured only in neon, made by dunderheaded neo-"Marxists." Just what us poor, benighted proles have been waiting for. Racers of the world, unite!

Three Times (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 2005)

The opening segment taking place in the 1960s is a masterpiece in miniature - exquisite staging and perfectly chosen music ("Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "Tears in Rain"). The second segment is subtle, but powerful silent melodrama. And while the last segment is much less engaging than the first two, the lovers are so exquisite to watch, it doesn't matter. Chen Chang and Qi Shu are two of the loveliest creatures on the planet.

Election (Johnny To, 2005) & Triad Election (2007)

Scorsese would be proud. Rather routine power-play shenanigans at first, but the final fifteen minutes take the movie somewhere interesting. A worthy examination of honour among thieves, if nothing else.

* * * * * *

Johnny To crafts an emotionally complex study of greed and the erosion of tradition, drenched in shadow and blood. Certainly has "The Godfather" on its mind, but its utter lack of sentimentality and romance are a welcome corrective to Coppola's ambivalency. This is a powerful and ambitious sequel.

In the Shadow of the Moon (David Sington, 2007)

Despite being terrific NASA propaganda, this is also a grand tribute to the utopian impulses at the heart of exploration. A compelling use of some very charismatic talking heads (despite the inexplicable compulsion towards extreme close-ups). The juxtapositions between the elderly astronauts and images of their younger rocket-jockey incarnations made for compelling human drama.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2007)

A near-perfect vivisection of the mythologizing of the West. Deakins' cinematography is breathtaking: both romantic and scalpel-edged (the vignetting gives many of the images the iconic appearance of period daguerreotypes, and the torchlight, night-time train robbery is extraordinary). The cold beauty of the cinematography is complimented by performances that burrow into the typography of the West. Garret Dillahunt is particularly haunting as he puts up a desperate front to circumvent Pitt's harrowing paranoia. Masterful, and quite worthy of its comparisons to early Terence Malick.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008)

I thoroughly agree with a Metacritic amateur review of this film: Spielberg should stop indulging George Lucas. This is a listless, self-satisfied outing that brings out the worst instincts in a director with unmatchable craft and continually unrealized artistry (the best scene in the film is the rich, deep-focussed diner sequence, with intriguing pockets of teenaged activity blossoming behind Indy and Mutt as they trudge through more humdrum exposition). From the half-assed CGI, to Ford grimacing through every scene, everyone involved in this utterly forgettable dreck should've left well enough alone.

Elizabeth: The Golden Years (Shekhar Kapur, 2007)

Profoundly silly tosh, but oh so fabulous wigs. The performances are all variations on singular themes: Owen glowers, Rush slinks, Blanchett postures. Particularly camp are the terrifically bathetic Manichean exaggerations: the umbral Spanish Catholics (enshrouded in flickering candlelight) and the resplendence of the Virgin Queen (care of a supercharged CGI sunrise and a few dozen arc lamps) as she overlooks the retreat of the Spanish armada. Flat out goofy!

Fay Grim (Hal Hartley, 2006)

Begins as an enjoyable romp in unfamiliar generic territory for Hartley, but becomes ponderous in its purposefully Byzantine second half. Posey, Goldblum and Urbaniak are wonderfully adept at circumnavigating the deadpan cadences of Hartley's dialogue, but whimsy gives way to ponderous geo-political intrigue all too soon. Hartley's baroque style livens up the proceedings slightly - the exclusivity of Dutch angles, and the blurry stills during action sequences that serve as a riposte to Bourne-styled chop-socky - but all the same, a decline from the heights of his early career.

Southland Tales (Richard Kelly 2006)

A textbook example of producers utterly failing at their central responsibility - to support, nurture and focus unruly talent. After a promising debut, Kelly squanders his potential by chanelling David Lynch at his most comically unhinged. The problem is that while Lynch has a sense of humour, Kelley evidently does not (but thank God for the charismatic mugging of the Rock). While it certainly begs for repeated viewings, it doesn't warrant them. And yes, the film bristles with ideas (albeit of the half-baked variety), it ultimately fails as a satire. I'm willing to admit that it may work better as a comic book, but ultimately, l'll have to agree with Jonathan Rosenbaum on its effectiveness: you can't be political and willfully incoherent at the same time.

Shi gan (Time) - Ki-duk Kim

Kim Ki-Duk proves himself to be an expert at quickly shifting affective registers - comedy to melodrama to suspense - with compelling aggression. Certainly more dialogue-driven than his combined previous work, his figures here attack the film's corporeal conceit with often frightening gusto. A disturbing study of the central tension in any romantic relationship: the dangerous dialectic between the promise of novelty and the exhaustion of familiarity.

Atonement (Joe Wright, 2007)

It's tempting to dismiss this as watered-down McEwan, or hyper-produced Masterpiece Theatre, but every moment in this meditation on the dangers and shortcomings of fiction are carefully considered and finely crafted. And perhaps this is the sole flaw in an otherwise superlative adaptation. Wright carefully attempts to correlate the rigidity of the framing, the expansive mobile camera (the five-minute long take of the beach at Dunkirk), and the percussive choreography of motion, rhythm and light (the close-up of the adolescent Briony on the subway, plunging in and out of darkness) to the protagonist's florid imagination. But our retrospective consideration of the narrration as Briony's fictive construction renders the drama somewhat lifeless and inert. While this final revelation should wound, it settles for dejection. A considerable compromise, but an otherwise extraordinarily beautiful film.