Fear of Fear (RW Fassbinder, 1975)

Fear of Fear is a TV movie made by Fassbinder in 1975, at the beginning of the height of his German popularity. The plot does indeed sound like the modern, American version of TV movies: Margot (Margit Carstensen), housewife and mother of two children, becomes increasingly bored and anxious with everyday life. She becomes convinced that she is going insane, and even submits to a quasi-affair with the doctor across the street. The whole time, no one listens to her, and everyone simply provides her with valium to relieve her anxiety. They are not uncaring (well, at least her husband isn't), it's just that this everyday world makes it nearly impossible to care deeply about someone other than oneself. It sounds like total Lifetime Channel material, but Fassbinder has this way of taking everyday melodrama and turning it into something extremely meaningful and almost universal. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Fear of Fear, one of his lesser works, but one of my favorites. I have relatively little to say about the acting and writing, other than the fact that both are tremendously effective and moving. This film is so amazingly directed that I actually took some notes on it while watching! There are countless perfectly choreographed scenes, especially the ones where Margot bumps into the mysterious Mr. Bauer on the street. Seen from up above, the characters pass one another, and then, at the same time, turn around to look at one another. It's marvelous to see. Another pristine directing tool Fassbinder uses is the close-up shot; it is at once a glimpse into Margot's inner self, and only a longer look at the mask she wears to the world. Many of these shots show Margot's face from behind the person talking to her, so that only half of her face is visible. This ever so subtly presents Margot as only half a real person, what she is inside herself. Fassbinder was critiqued in his lifetime by everyone: the left, the right, and especially some feminist critics. It's surprising, then, that Fear of Fear is on feminism's side! Fassbinder gives us a personal, intimate portrait of the problem without a name, the feminists' issue of the housewife with nothing to do who medicates to get rid of her problems, when all she needs is a life of her own. Fassbinder pretty strongly suggests that if Margot was able to get outside of herself, of the life that has been forced upon her, she would be happier; we see this as Margot is happiest when shopping (before she remembers herself), or drinking and listening to a record on headphones. In other words, Margot is happiest when she's not a mother or wife. She clings desperately to her daughter, but once her second child is born, she seems to drift away from them. She is constantly under surveillance from her mother- and sister-in-law, and is watched through the window whenever she leaves the house. Fassbinder, strangely enough, enumerates this feminist problem in one of the most effective, empathetic films I've ever seen. Can you tell I miss writing papers? This movie, though, deserves this kind of verbosity; it is the stuff that essays and intellectual thought on movies are made of. Sure, there are some flaws, but none that take away from the near-perfect execution. This movie is Fassbinder, pure and simple. I don't really believe that you can love Fassbinder without loving this movie. Essential viewing. 9.5/10 RIYL: Fassbinder, Volker Schlondorff

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Huevos de Oro (Bigas Luna, 1993)

I am a pretty big Javier Bardem fan, especially when he's in comedies (Alex de la Iglesia's Perdita Durango is Bardem at his most hilarious). I rented Huevos de Oro expecting a comedy, but instead got an occasionally funny, mostly melodramatic and overwrought story of a man who puts success before anything else in his life. The story revolves around Bardem's character Benito, who has big dreams of getting out of his small town and becoming a construction mogul. After his serious girlfriend cheats on him, he goes to Madrid and achieves that dream, only after using his mistress to seduce possible investors and eventually marrying the banker's daughter to ensure funding for the Gonzalez tower (complete with strip club!). The two women (Maria de Medeiros of Pulp Fiction and Maribel Verdu of Y Tu Mama Tambien) eventually meet up and become close, but what could have been an interesting turn (a three-way relationship?) is dashed in a melodramatic car accident. After the accident, Benito becomes an invalid who realizes that his whole life has been devoted to numbers (money and even the weights of the women he is with) instead of people. Gag. Bardem gives a good performance as Benito, who could have been a great antihero. He's a guy without morals, who uses everyone and everything in his path to achieve his own greatness. He's not above the most petty revenge, as he shows when his first love shows up to ask for money. But Bigas Luna, who directed and also co-wrote the film, makes a turn to sloppy, sentimental moralism that doesn't work for the character or the story. Luna could have made his same point without the cliched fall from grace, but he takes the obvious route. And then there are all the ridiculous phallic/building visual metaphors. At times, I wanted to scream, as they were so obvious and not particularly necessary. But even with all these flaws, a good Javier Bardem performance is worth seeing, so I recommend this to his fans and his fans alone. 5/10

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Don Juan (Or If Don Juan Were a Woman) (Roger Vadim, 1973)

For her last film, Brigitte Bardot again teamed up with the man who made her famous, Roger Vadim, who directed her in ...And God Created Woman. That film was a brightly colored story of a married woman who acts out sexually in the idyllic St. Tropez. Don Juan couldn't be further from their first film, and couldn't be more of a fitting vehicle for Bardot's last film. There are so many layers of meaning in this film; audiences at the time would probably have had God in mind, as well as Bardot's reputation as a sexpot in real life and on the screen and Bardot and Vadim's real life failed marriage. That's a lot of subtext! But I didn't really think about much of these before seeing the film, but I still thoroughly enjoyed Don Juan as a campy, colorful, erotic piece of film history. Bardot plays Jeanne, a man-eater who is growing tired of her lifestyle. She recounts to her priest cousin the stories of several men whose lives she has ruined, including one who killed himself after their encounter. There's really no more to the plot than that, as Bardot is deliciously amoral as a woman who deliberately ruins two men's lives, but feels surprisingly guilty about the suicide victim. One story deals with a man whose wife and child left him after finding out about his affair with Jeanne, and he plays a pivotal role in the (heavy-handed) finale. Another story is about a man who is so cruel to his wife (played by Jane Birkin!) that Jeanne seduces the wife to teach him a lesson. These highly erotic scenes with Brigitte and Jane, including them naked in bed together, are the highlight of the film. It was wonderful to see Serge Gainsbourg's two main ladies getting cozy. Most of the film is very sexy and erotic in that 1970s way, meaning not dirty and not particularly explicit. The ending is done rather heavy-handedly, and seems out of place in the movie, but it can either be taken literally (Bardot pays for her sins, rather misogynistically), or Vadim and/or Bardot kissing off Bardot's screen career with a deadly finale. I prefer to interpret it the second way, as the film then seems like a kiss-off to Bardot's sex-kitten image, rather than an almost Biblical punishment. I definitely recommend this for fans of 1970s softcore, Brigitte Bardot, or those who might just want to check out the super surreal settings (Jeanne lives in an ultra-mod submarine!). 8.5/10 RIYL: Radley Metzger, ...And God Created Woman

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Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2006)

Babel is getting huge buzz this awards season, so since Inarritu's Amores Perros is one of my favorite films, I thought I would check it out, as it's been in a theater in town for almost two months. It's certainly no Amores Perros, and it was actually quite a disappointment, but there are glimmers of that Inarritu greatness that definitely make this worth seeing. Again, Inarritu deals with multiple stories of human tragedy that vaguely overlap; the first, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in crisis in Morocco; the second, the couple's nanny takes her charges to Mexico illegally for her daughter's wedding and crisis ensues; the Moroccan children who accidentally shot Blanchett; and a deaf-mute Japanese girl deals with the death of her mother by trying to give her body to any guy whose around, that doesn't really end up in crisis. The shooting of Blanchett ties all the characters together very loosely. Mainly, all the stories are just really stressful. I spent most of the movie with my muscles clenched, as I was convinced at one point that everyone I cared about would die. Watching a movie that's not really that emotionally engaging, but still really stressful is not a fun time in the theater. I can't say that I had a good time watching Babel, but I suppose that I am glad I did it. There are quite a few very good performances: Gael Garcia Bernal is stellar as always, in a role that was too small for his talent (it's really his year, be on the lookout for all my favorite Bernal performances on my top ten list after the first of the year), Brad Pitt has really never been better as a husband under fire, and Rinko Kikuchi gives a great breakout performance (what a brave performance, sexually explicit yet not exploitative). Most of the other actors are left to just sweat and scream/cry, especially Cate Blanchett, who does almost nothing but pout and sweat all two plus hours of the film. The movie is stressful and not that satisfying at the end, but I recommend seeing it, if only to support Inarritu. He's a director of immense talent, but like Jenna, I'm hoping that he moves on to more diverse subjects - no more intertwining stories, please! This is real award season bait, but isn't his best work. The direction is just wonderful and epic, though, which is probably the best thing about the whole film. 7/10 RIYL: Amores Perros

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Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1986)

Based on the life of actual serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, John McNaughton's debut film is probably one of the most notorious films of all time. Finished in 1986, but not released until 1990, Henry paints a disturbing portrait of a deeply disturbed man and his effects on the lives of those around him. Henry lives with Otis, a friend from prison whose sister Becky comes to get away from her abusive husband for a little while. Henry is definitely a magnetic personality, and charms both Becky (in a romantic way) and Otis (in a murderous one, although is also somewhat homoerotic at times). He falls in love with Becky, and convinces Otis to join him on his murder sprees. The story pretty much revolves around Henry's murders and those two relationships, as well as the bizarre dynamics between the three of them as between Otis and Becky, as well. There isn't much of a plot, just documentary-style filming the life of Henry. The violence isn't the most disturbing part here; there's very little gore, and it's not particularly well done, either. Henry's complete lack of remorse, or any real human feelings aside from those of lust and anger is the terrifying element here. He convinces Otis to join him in murdering people (after killing two prostitutes without so much as a thought), and they even tape their crimes, and Otis becomes obsessed with watching the tapes again and again. It's a sort of sexual release for him, which, along with the eventual rape that forms the climax (bad word) of the film, is the only kind of sexuality we see Otis involved in, or even Henry, for that matter. The violence in the film isn't romanticized (outside of the heads of Henry and Otis, that is), it's brutally honest and uncompromising. There's no redemptive arc here, just a lot of sociopathy and misogyny (the violence against women was so intense at times that I had to look away to remind myself that it wasn't real). Henry caused a lot of controversy at the time of its release. Some have called this movie exploitative, which I wouldn't agree with. It doesn't have any of the camera effects or fetishization of the violence performed that exploitation films do. Instead, it's extremely realistic, so much so that it is at times uncomfortable to watch. If you're looking for an escapist horror film, this isn't it; but if you're interested in the mind of a serial killer, and all the murder, torture, rape, and incest that goes with it, check out McNaughton's film. It deserves all the infamy, even this many years later. 8/10 RIYL: Last House on the Left, The Devil's Rejects

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Lola (RW Fassbinder, 1981)

The third in Fassbinder's BRD trilogy, after The Marriage of Maria Braun and Veronika Voss (I actually saw a film series in order for once!), Lola is Fassbinder's conclusion of his tales of post-war German women's lives. Whereas Maria Braun is devoted to her husband and uses the post-war economy to boost her own social status and that of her husband, and Veronika Voss is more or less ruined by the fall of the Third Reich, where she was so successful, Lola represents the end of the post-war era, where women both could use and be used by the system. A revisioning of von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, Lola concerns the titular singer/prostitute who decides, even though she is kept by a very wealthy construction mogul, to seduce the seemingly uncorruptible building commissioner, von Bohm. But where The Blue Angel is interested in Lola and the professor's marriage and the professor's downfall, Lola ends just at that point, leaving Fassbinder's message very much more vague than von Sternberg's. There are so many layers of meaning in Lola, which is typical of a Fassbinder film. Not only does Lola have a child by her brash, over-confident (representative of the previous era) lover Schukert, she attempts to win over von Bohm without revealing her profession, which she knows rightly that he wouldn't approve of. There are a few devastatingly constructed scenes where von Bohm and Schukert are talking about the same, but different, things, a perfect example of dramatic irony. Barbara Sukowa as Lola doesn't even enter into the same sensual stratosphere as Marlene Dietrich, but it's easy to see why von Bohm would fall so in love with her. By this point in his career, Fassbinder had given up on most of his reperatory players, so seeing a familiarly directed film with all these new faces is a different kind of experience. All the elements are here, but this film pales slightly in comparison to the first two, for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. Recommended, but see the other two first. A note on the poster (straight from Robert Katz' Love is Colder Than Death): Lola was made at the time when Fassbinder was first attracting real Hollywood attention, and the film was almost called off because of a preliminary poster, which was pink and vinyl-looking. Fassbinder commented that he hoped he would never make a film that "pink," and he really didn't, but the posters tell a different story. I love the pop art, sex kitten poster, but it doesn't represent the film fairly, and I could see why such a tempestuous man as Fassbinder would have been outraged by it. 7/10 RIYL: BRD trilogy, The Blue Angel

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The Untold Story (Danny Lee, 1993)

Netflix describes The Untold Story as "dark and powerful." I would call that an understatement. Instead of the deep psychological drama you might expect (although there is some of that), there's a lot of violence and some goofy humor. Anthony Wong (truly an awesome performance) plays Wong Chi Hang, a Hong Kong restauranteur who took over his Eight Immortals Resturant only after the previous owner and his entire family mysteriously disappeared. Employees of the restaurant keep disappearing, too, esepcially after they find out about Wong's propensity for cheating at mahjongg. Wong (the actor) does a good job of portraying this truly crazy man, who, while being a psychopath, is actually sort of likeable, in that intensely frightening way. The local police, who are a bunch of yokels and held together only by their commanding Officer Lee (Danny Lee, who also directed), catch onto Wong's plan, and take him in for the murders. He will not admit anything, however, and we're treated to a solid twenty minutes of various tortures, which I won't describe here so as not to ruin their reveal. When Wong finally describes what actually happens that night, it's truly chilling, one of the more upsetting death scenes I've seen. I'll just say that Lee breaks the cardinal rule of never showing a child murdered onscreen. While my description of the film may make it seems like a constant gorefest, it's really surprisingly not. There is definitely some violence, both murders and dismembering of corpses, but nothing that made me want to look away (but remember how desensitized I am!). And then there's the issue of Wong's barbecue pork buns, which makes me never want to eat Chinese food again. At least I don't eat meat. But the overall dark tones of the film are lightened up, although not very humorously, by the antics of the local cops, who are male chauvinist pigs and a woman in love with Officer Lee. While it's for the most party really unfunny, it's kind of nice to have the intensity of Wong broken up every once in a while. 7/10 RIYL: Takashi Miike And in other news: first, happy holidays! I hope everyone has/is having a great one with people you love. A new year is almost upon us, so I'll be doing my year-end top 10 or 15 before December 30th, when I leave town for a few days. Also, I've been thinking of a few new year's resolutions for this little blog of mine, and I think I am (finally!) going to write about my all-time favorite films, along with stuff about any interesting film news I come upon and/or read about (like this RW Fassbinder bio I finished today, which I will probably post about soon). So, while my main focus will still be reviews, I'm interested in branching out, and think I've already been doing that a little in my more philosophical reviews. I'm always interested in feedback, either here or via email. Thanks for reading!

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A Tout de Suite (Benoit Jacquot, 2004)

Set in 1975, A Tout de Suite (Right Now) details a lonely art student, Lili (although I never would have known the names if not for imdb, I don't think they're used ever in the film) who falls for a Moroccan man, Bada, she meets at a bar. The next day, he calls her in a panic; he tells her that he's in the middle of robbing a bank, but it's gone wrong and one of his friends is dead. She thinks it's a joke, but he soberly tells her to turn on the news, and that he'll call later. She does, and when he does call, she's ready to house Bada, his surviving friend, and the next day, when they need to leave the country, Lili decides to go with. They are joined by the second man's girlfriend, and go from France to Spain to Morocco to Greece. At first, Lili describes it as a holiday; they are carefree with lots of money, but soon, they start to have personality clashes and realize that the money they are spending can actually be tracked back to the bank. An even bigger catastrophe strikes Lili, and she needs to figure out her life for herself. Isild le Besco plays Lili for all the sensual, unsure, vivid young woman that she is. Some have criticized this film for being unrealistic because Lili goes off with the criminal Bada after only knowing him a few days, but I think it means that Lili wanted so desperately to change her life that she would do anything. Plus, she felt she had a deep connection with Bada (which I definitely think you can see), and wanted to feel something for someone and would go to great lengths to do that. Bada and Lili make a good couple, they seem to fit one another, and I applaud le Besco and Ouassini Embarek for making this unrealistic situation seem so real. The story is very slow, but, for the most part, pretty interesting, and the black and white photography is lush and yet almost documentary-like. I recommend this for those interested a story of love and crime that goes wrong, as well as to catch le Besco's performance, as she's one of France's up and coming actresses (I suspect she'll be a pretty big star in the future). 7/10 RIYL: Catherine Breillat

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Rampo Noir (2005)

Rampo Noir is a counterpoint to 3 Extremes, both being collections of short horror films by Asian directors. While 3 Extremes had several high-profile directors (Miike, Chan-Wook Park), Rampo Noir collects shorts based on the short stories of Japanese mystery/horror master Rampo, from less well-known directors, two of whom are directing their first film on this collection. All four (all featuring actor Asano Tadanobu, whom I remembered from a few Tsukamoto films) are intensely creepy and beautiful, in their own perverse ways, but each are very different, so I'll quickly run down each one. The first, Mars Canal, is less than five minutes long, and almost completely silent. It details the disintegration of a relationship, with a brutal fight, and then the man waking up in silence in a deserted (eerily beautiful) landscape. It's highly conceptual, and strangely engrossing. I was left wanting more after the only few minutes. The second, Mirror Hell, completely changes directions, and is a modern Japanese noir-esque detective tale. Several women connected with a traditional tea house are found burned, always with a certain traditional mirror found at the scene of their death. Tadanobu is the detective in charge of the investigation, and the answer is pretty mystical and surreal. The third, Caterpillar, directed by Hisayasu Sato (I have a few films of his coming up in the queue soon!) also features Tadanobu as a detective (the same one?) who is loosely connected to the case of a woman whose husband has returned from a war badly burned and without limbs. She starts torturing him in order to amuse herself, with confusing consequences. This was actually my least favorite of the four, but I'm looking forward to more of from Sato in the future. My most favorite was from first-time director Atsushi Kaneko, and boasts the best directing and the absolute best performance from Tadanobu. It is the story of a seriously socially awkward chaffeur, who breaks out in hives when he touches other people, who works for a hot young stage actress. He falls in love with her, and when he goes to tell her, she ends up killing her. From there, his grasp on reality slips even further away, and the line between his fantasy land with the actress and the reality of her decaying corpse becomes seriously blurred. Tadanobu is great as the chauffeur; he is seriously crazy and yet a little sympathetic, because he understands reality so little. Tamaki Ogawa, as the actress, is not only a great performance, but is so ridiculously photogenic that she makes the whole film more beautiful (see here for some stills I made, probably my favorite stills I've ever done) and ethereal. The film is beautiful, creepy, and downright frightening, all at the same time. The cinematography is actually breath-taking, and I seriously can't wait to see more from Kaneko (Even though imdb doesn't show any projects from him coming up). Most of the comments I've read call this collection pretentious, but if you like arthouse, more abstract horror mixed with extremely violent and visceral images, I highly recommend it. All four films are excellent, and, in some ways, I prefer this collection to 3 Extremes (which I also loved). 8.5/10 RIYL: Takashi Miike, 3 Extremes

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A Nos Amours (Maurice Pialat, 1983)

A Nos Amours greatly reminded me of another French filmmaker who is interested in adolescent sexuality and the maturity that goes with it, Catherine Breillat. Unlike Breillat, however, Pialat infuses his films with gentle reality, instead of the graphic sexuality and philosophy that Breillat does. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of Breillat's films, but A Nos Amours touched me in a way that Breillat's films never have (or have never even meant to, really). It is the story of Suzanne, played truly remarkably by Sandrine Bonnaire, who, at 15, sees her parents separate in a painful way, and becomes promiscuous in order to make up for the love she doesn't receive at home. Eventually, she does get married, but, as her father tells her, she's just like him in that she will never be able to truly love anyone. She loves to be loved, but cannot reciprocate the feeling. Pialat makes this message crystal-clear, and, in the story, it is obvious how strong the relationship between family life and sexual activity is. At the beginning of the film, Suzanne has a steady boyfriend, Luc, who loves her very much, but she decides to give up her virginity in a field to an insensitive American soldier. This experience is so traumatizing to her that she tells the soldier (in French, so her probably did not understand), that it was free, he did not have to pay her. The scene is painful, but one senses that Suzanne did it simply because it was painful, and she wanted to ruin her relationship with Luc. After she breaks up with Luc, she goes to man after (older) man, and is obviously looking for a father figure. She even tells one of her lovers that when she meets a new guy, she wonders if her father would like him. Not only is Suzanne's sexual life sort of self-destructive, her homelife is even more terrible: she is alternatingly beaten and (subtly, very subtly) lusted after by her older brother, and screamed at by her mother. It's no wonder she leaves the house and stays with men all the time; I would, too. One of my favorite questions posed by this film is that of maturity: Bonnaire, at 16, plays Suzanne from ages 15 to (about) 18, without herself aging at all. It's striking to see baby-faced Bonnaire as a married Suzanne, but it makes you think about what makes a woman; it's obvious that Suzanne has had many "adult" relations, and is married, so what makes her a woman? Is it experience? Is it just the arbitrary number of age? And although I have described the link between family and sexual behavior as obvious, it does everything but beat you over the head, and instead makes you think about the politics of sexuality, and even Freudianism. Pialat himself plays Suzanne's father, with whom she has a very close, yet very distant, relationship. Suzanne spends the whole film looking for a man to love her, be it her father, her numerous lovers, or her eventual husband. If she does, or ever will, find that love is a question that will stay with you long after watching this exceptional film. 9/10 RIYL: Catherine Breillat (this film is a different exploration of the themes in 36 Fillette)

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Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978)

This dreamlike piece of the American dream gone awry was only Malick's second major directorial project, and in the almost thirty years since, he's only made two other full-length films. It's no wonder Malick has an almost legendary reputation, solidified by the dreamy and beautiful imagery in his first two films. Days of Heaven stars Richard Gere and Brooke Adams as Bill and Abby, two turn of the century lovers who, along with Bill's sister Linda, travel around as laborers, searching for work so they just don't starve for another few months. Bill and Abby decide to pose as brother and sister in their travels, because, while it's never really explained, as Linda says, "When you tell people something, they start talking." There are rumors, as another laborer gets punched by Bill when he makes a joke about Abby keeping Bill warm at night, but they are mostly left alone. When they work at the farm of a sick farmer, nameless and played by Sam Shepard, who falls in love with Abby, Bill pushes her to marry him because he'll die in a year and leave them all his money. Well, love is a better medicine than anything else the farmer has tried, so instead of dying, he stays the same, and even gets Abby to fall for him a little. The emotions that Bill had hoped to manipulate come bubbling to the surface in a surge of violence that has consequences for every character. The movie is extremely atmospheric, with many scenes of fields of grain blowing in the wind and other turn of the century scenery. The scene with the fire, where everything around the characters is on fire and there are locusts everywhere, is as much a scene of hell as anything I've seen on screen ever. While the setting is beautiful, the dialogue is less so, but that is because these are rough people who don't say much, much less beautiful, poetic speeches. The narration is given by Linda, and her young, rough accent is hard not to fall in love with. The movie, then, has almost a dreamlike quality; these lives seem to be predestined, and there's no use talking about it, because what happens, happens. All the performances are pretty great, especially Brooke Adams as the conflicted Abby; there are plenty of scenes that you can see the conflicting feelings in her fighting it out on her face, and it is a very realistic, heartbreaking performance. This movie is quietly devastating, and the last scene really speaks to the enduring nature of human spirit. 8/10 RIYL: Badlands

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Rodrigo D: No Future (Victor Gaviria, 1990)

Blessed with one of the most nihilistic film titles of all time, Rodrigo D: No Future really lives up to its title. Set in Medellin, Columbia, in 1988, Gaviria's film follows a loosely-knit group of friends, who happen to be mostly drug dealers or thieves, through what seems like a typical period of time in their lives. There is no real plot (the main complaint I've read about this film, although any plot enforced on these lives would seem silly and, well, forced), and it is shot in almost documentary style. The line between fiction and non-fiction is blurred in the film, because Gaviria did, in fact, use mostly local street people for the roles, as only Ramiro Meneses as Rodrigo was a real actor. How much of this was written by Gaviria, and how much was actually just filmed? Probably a fair amount of both. The acting is so realistic that this definitely could be shown as a documentary, and I think few people would dispute the title. Rodrigo wants to get out of his Medellin home, and he thinks punk music is the way out. He desperately wants to buy a drum kit, but doesn't have the money or the resources to find one. He finally gets a woodworker to make him a set of drum sticks, and he spends the rest of the movie drumming on any available surface, while his friends practice fighting and talk shit to one another. I got the feeling that while Rodrigo doesn't seem much different than his friends, that he was going to get out of his life because of his love of punk - he really wants to start a band, and starts hanging out more with his musician friends than his thug ones. Also interesting, I thought, was to see these urban, disenfranchised youths embracing punk music rather than, say, hip-hop. It makes perfect sense, though, because punk embodies the anger and the energy these young men have in every day life. There are some minor tragedies in Rodrigo D, but they don't affect the audience so much because we get the sense that this kind of stuff happens all the time. In fact, Gaviria put a note at the end of the film, saying that some of the street tough non-actors had been killed in ways similar to what characters in the movie had died, even before the film had been finished. This is a less polished, way more real version of City of God, and really gives you a taste of what life can be like in a world not that far from (at least my) own. I definitely recommend it as an artifact and way to peek into a different kind of life, but it's not incredibly strong as a film on its own. 6/10 RIYL: City of God, Amores Perros

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The Last Metro (Francois Truffaut, 1980)

Catherine Deneuve shines as conflicted wife Marion Steiner in this later-period Truffaut film about the Nazi occupation of Paris. Marion is married to Lucas, a Jewish theater owner who feels he has to flee when the Germans invade. Everyone thinks Lucas has fled, but only Marion knows that he is living in the basement of the theater, so he can still be with his wife and manage the theater. Marion is starring in the theater's current production and is handling all the business affairs of the theater, as well as making sure her husband's whereabouts remain secret. The leading man in the production, Bernard, played by Gerard Depardieu, is an active Nazi-resister and great actor, things that come to conflict in his life. The German censor, Daxiat, is also hovering around the production and is in love with Marion. All this personal drama is swirling in the background of the making of this play, making everyone's lives really stressful and pushed to the boiling point. Think of this movie as Day for Night, only more sober. The acting is all superb, but the film's pacing leaves much to be desired, something Truffaut is usually brilliant at. The big twist near the end of the film was confusing, as the characters acted the complete opposite of the revelation the entire film. But that's undoubtedly what Truffaut was trying to portray; during this traumatic time in France's history, things are never what they seem, and people cling to what they have or can get in order to find happiness. Deneuve and Depardieu are dynamic together, and they bounce off of each other wonderfully, especially when they fight. One of Truffaut's last films, The Last Metro is a spectacular of style and acting, an exploration of one of France's darkest and least publicized periods in an unconventional way. The plight of the Steiners' theater company mirror those of France, but the end product is not always captivating. 7/10 RIYL: late period Truffaut

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Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan, 1989)

Another early (by which I mean pre-Exotica) Egoyan film, Speaking Parts falls between Family Viewing and The Adjuster in his filmography, and represents a logical bridge between the two. Egoyan's early obsession with the videotaped image and voyeurism is here in full effect. The story revolves around Lance, a struggling actor who works at a hotel as both housekeeping and the hotel manager's personal gigolo. Lisa (Arsinee Khanjian, whom I am now convinced is never bad) is Lance's coworker and is desperately in love with him, to the extent that she obsessively rents the movies in which Lance is an extra over and over to see his fleeting moments of fame. Clara is a writer who has written a tv movie and is staying at Lance and Lisa's hotel; Lance slips her his headshot, and gets himself an audition and an affair with Clara, although it is quickly clear to everyone but Clara that Lance is just using her to finally get a speaking part. These people's lives become more complex with their interactions with one another, and, as in Egoyan's films, their inner lives become more interesting than their actual interactions. There is also an interesting plot line about how Clara's script gets radically changed by the producers of the television movie, and what writers in the movie business go through, even to their most intimate, personal stories, as this one obviously is to Clara. This is a turning point in Egoyan's filmmaking, I think. It represents to me a step toward the more mature, complex filmmaking that lies ahead, and also is better directed than his earlier efforts, which should be obvious but is impressive nonetheless. This is the first film (chronologically) of his that I was really impressed with the cinematography and composition. This film has a very interesting plot, and the performances are all pretty solid, but it's most interesting as a stepping stone in Egoyan's career. The films that are obsessed with video pretty much end with this one, but Egoyan keeps the voyeuristic elements and matures them after this film. Speaking Parts is a good, if a little dragging, exploration of obsessive love and what makes people who they are, and I definitely recommend it for people who like Egoyan as much as I do. 7/10 RIYL: Harold Pinter

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Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982)

The second, after The Marriage of Maria Braun in the BRD trilogy (but last chronologically, how tricky of Fassbinder!), Veronika Voss is the story of the titular faded actress, a big star during the Third Reich, but since the war, is out of work and a morphine addict. She lives with Dr. Katz, a neurologist who supplies her with morphine and sleeping pills (at a price) and has a history of getting patients hooked on morphine and signing their entire estates over to her. Veronika is no different; Katz is a really creepy character, and insists multiple times to Veronika that they are "best friends," that they'll live together in Veronika's estate. Veronika meets and falls for sports journalist Robert Krohn, who might love her back, in spite of already having a girlfriend, Henrietta. All these people's lives start to orbit around Veronika, just the way Veronika likes it, and there are tragic consequences all around. Fassbinder based Veronika's life on that of Sybille Schmitz, a real German actress who fell hard after the end of World War II. The directing and cinematography are literally breathtaking, as the first scene on a movie set, with lights twinkling and people hurrying around, made me gasp out of its beauty. The film itself is a sumptuous black and white, and it really does feel like a film about Voss' life, not a film made in the 80s looking back at the late 40s. It is very timely, and is equally in place with Sirk's melodramas (Sirk was a great influence on Fassbinder, and nowhere is it more apparent than here and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul) and cultural critiques of post-war Germany. It is authentically German, and authentically about its time, a magnificient feat on Fassbinder's part. Not only is it almost perfectly directed, the acting and script (although the ending is obvious, it seems more inevitable than hackneyed) are wonderful as well. In 1982, Fassbinder made his final two films, Veronika Voss and Querelle, two films that couldn't be more different. In the Fassbinder biography I'm reading right now (Love is Colder Than Death, a sensationalistic account of Fassbinder's life - needless to say, it's incredibly interesting and I will post on it once I'm done!), Robert Katz describes Fassbinder's desire to do a "hat trick": he won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Veronika Voss, he thought he could win the Palm d'Or at Cannes for Querelle (which I'm sure he could have if he had had studio backing behind him), and then thought he would win first prize at the Venice Film Festival for a film he hadn't even written or filmed yet, but would that summer to be ready for September. I'm sure he could have done it, and if these 1982 films are any indication, we lost Fassbinder far, far too soon. I would give a lot to see where he would have gone next. 9/10 RIYL: BRD Trilogy, Douglas Sirk

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The Stendhal Syndrome (Dario Argento, 1996)

Last year, I wrote a really big paper in a women's and gender studies class on the rape-revenge cycle, and Argento's mid-period The Stendhal Syndrome really made me wish I had seen it earlier, so I could have included it in my study. Starring Dario's daughter Asia (whom frequent readers will know I am enamored with), it is a return to form after some disappointing efforts on Argento's part (I thought Trauma was pretty boring and not very scary), and it was during a period where Asia was pretty prolific (including Traveling Companion, her Italian Academy Award-winning performance). It's the story of Detective Anna Manni (Asia was 20 during filming, so she's not very convincing, but oh well), who is in Florence investigating a rapist-murdered. She is quickly captured by the suspect, who rapes and would murder her, but she escapes. After that, something inside of Anna snaps, and she starts going to a psychologist. Even with professional help and a visit to her hometown, things aren't right for Anna. To say much more about the plot would be to ruin it, as there are some shocks that shouldn't be revealed. Asia always seems really comfortable while being directed by her father, even though Dario caught some flak for directing several disturbing rape scenes with his daughter. The movie is dark and murky (although some of that might be Troma's fault, as this is a pretty terrible transfer), and while Thomas Kretschmann as the villain is pretty terrifying, even more so is Anna Manni's Stendhal Syndrome. The syndrome is when paintings have a hallucinogenic effect on an individual, and Anna's involves being able (actually, not being unable) to step into paintings, even while things are happening in real life. The CGI is actually used to pretty good effect, especially in the scene where Anna thinks she's drowning. The scares in this film are psychological and physical, and Anna's response to her rape is really stunning, something not seem much in film. This is a film that is both entertaining on the surface, and could definitely be analyzed in a much deeper way. I recommend this to any fan of Argento, and horror (especially feminist horror!) in general. 8/10 RIYL: Suspiria, I Spit on Your Grave (theme-wise)

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Play it Again, Sam (Herbert Ross, 1972)

One of the only Woody Allen films not directed by the man himself (although he did write the screenplay, and the play on which it was based), Play It Again, Sam starts with Allen rapturously watching Casablanca in the theater, and, once it's over, wishing he had the cool that Humphrey Bogart does. His wife has left him, and his married friends Tony Roberts and Diane Keaton try to set him up with several of their single friends. This always completely fails, as one would expect, but the first blind date scene at Allan's (Allen, humorously enough) apartment is full of slapstick and awkward hilariousness that really had me laughing out loud at several points. The rest of the film is regular Allen territory, focusing on his complete lack of social graces and awkwardness toward the opposite sex. Eventually, he falls in love with Keaton's character, and has a typical Allen crisis of morality, which resolves itself in a wonderful mock-up of the final scene in Casablanca. While this sounds like a typical Allen film (and in most ways, it is), it also becomes wonderfully surreal with the addition of the spectre of Bogart, who comes in at times and tells Allan how to act like a man - get rough with dames, forget them quick, that kind of stuff. The ghostly Bogart is not really like Bogart at all, but is instead what Allan has in his mind of Bogart, and becomes a pretty good parody of typical, film noir masculinity. But, after all is said and done, this is one of Allen's more mainstream films (once, I had a roommate who called Annie Hall weird, and I knew after that, that we'd never be close), but doesn't come close the emotional maturity or even humor of his later works. 7/10 RIYL: Annie Hall

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Tony Takitani (Jun Ichikawa, 2004)

I am currently reading Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (500 pages down, 100 to go!), and while I like it, I'm not as in love with it as I had hoped I would be. It's my first venture into Murakami, so Ichikawa's Tony Takitani gave me another outlet in which to check out Murakami's craft. While the sparseness of the film (which is much like that of Japon, only loneliness is reinforced, not contradicted, in the long shots here) makes for some fresh, thoughtful filmmaking, I thought that unlike Japon, I felt very little for the characters, even when they are emotionally devastated. It is so subtle that I couldn't build the necessary relationship with Tony that would have been essential to feel pity; but perhaps, in the end, that's Ichikawa's point. Tony doesn't make those necessary relationships either, not with his father, and not even, I would argue, with his wife. The story revolves around Tony Takitani, who is completely alone and isn't particularly bothered by it until he is in his 40s and meets Eiko. She is much younger than him, and unlocks in him some human emotions that he had not earlier been able to access. They marry, but she has a major shopping addiction. She buys tons of designer clothes, eventually filling up a whole room with them. While it's not particularly problematic financially, Tony is worried by this, because he (rightly) thinks that it is symptomatic of some sort of hole in Eiko, something he cannot fill. This obsession of Eiko's leads to tragedy, and Tony's realization of who he really is. At 75 minutes long, Tony Takitani is short and slight, but in a good way. There is a small amount of dialogue, mostly melancholy shots and sideways pans out of each scene (which got on my nerves about halfway through the film). Either Ichikawa failed for me in making Tony a truly separate person, one whom I could not feel much for, or he succeeded mightily in portraying a melancholy most people don't feel. Either way, it's worth seeing, but didn't fully impress me. 6.5/10 RIYL: Reygadas, Bergman

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Japon (Carlos Reygadas, 2002)

After only two films (Japon and the equally wonderful Battle in Heaven), Carlos Reygadas is already one of the filmmakers I respect most. I saw Battle in Heaven earlier this year, and was taken aback by the utter patience and beauty Reygadas infused into the film. The long, meticulous shots, the unflinching view we're given of people's mistakes, and the sincere quest for salvation were all just shocking. I haven't seen many other films that were that pain-stakingly occupied with portraying a mood. Japon is the same way. The exploration of sexuality and religion that Reygadas expands upon in Battle is set in motion in Japon. The protagonist, an unnamed artist, probably from Mexico City, goes to rugged mountainside Mexico country to kill himself. The first scene, where the artist puts a bird out of his misery and then gets a ride from a hunter who takes the suicide plan in stride, brought tears to my eyes, as the truckful of men listen to classical music and Reygadas shoots this rough terrain with so much love. The audience can already see, as the artist may or may not come to, that the world is beautiful and worth living for. And finding the beauty in "ugly" things is another preoccupation of Reygadas' work. The artist eventually ends up staying with Ascen, an elderly woman who lives by herself in the mountains and is being taken total advantage of by her grandson. The artist is at first mildly annoyed by Ascen, but eventually finds something in her that he needs. The landscape really is a main character in this film, and the scene where the artist lays on a plateau with a dead horse is particularly gorgeous. I don't want to say too much more about the plot of the film, which picks up a little bit in the second half, because it's surprising and touching, and, most of all, completely real. Some have called Reygadas pretentious for his long shots and non-professional actors, but he does an amazing job at bringing out the beautiful and the important, for lack of a better word, out of the ordinary. I can't wait for Reygadas' Silent Light, due in 2007, and sounds like he picks up on his same themes again. Reygadas is really one of the best and most promising filmmakers in the New Mexican Cinema genre, and seems to be one that won't abandon Mexican film once he gets a bit of fame. 9/10 RIYL: Inarritu/Cuaron

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Ken Park (Larry Clark and Ed Lachman, 2002)

Larry Clark is one of the most divisive filmmakers in the independent world, I think. I mean, just look at this post I made of stills from the film, and how much controversy erupts from a film most people HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN. Now that's a divisive filmmaker. And most people haven't actually seen Ken Park, as it's never been released theatrically or on DVD in the United States; in fact, it more or less disappeared after its appearance at the Toronto Film Festival (I think). I believe that in the immediate post 9/11 climate in the US (although this film has absolutely nothing to do with terrorism, I know that), controversial art was pushed to the side, and no distribution companies wanted to pick this one up. If you've seen This Film is Not Yet Rated, you understand why the industry would be so hostile toward a film this sexually explicit. And explicit it is - everything you might have heard about the movie is true, there's sex in almost every scene, and none of it simulated. As well as graphic sex, there's incest, murder, suicide, drugs, and just general teen ennui. Again, no wonder this hasn't gotten distribution. But all the controversy around Ken Park, and around Clark and screenwriter Harmony Korine (who had a falling-out with Clark around this time) themselves, has shadowed the fact that this is actually a good, thought-provoking movie. Call it Kids for the new millenium; actually, it works pretty well as a sequel of sorts to the first Clark-Korine collaboration, looking at the same kinds of kids, only in a suburban environment, and ten years later. They're aware of things like AIDS and the dangers of partying too hard, but they don't really care. Or, if they do, they're hiding it well. Onto the movie itself: there are some stellar performances, especially from James Ransone as the absolutely insane Tate. Tate isn't in the least likeable in the movie, but Ransone kept me from hating him. Also pretty good is Tiffany Limos as Peaches, although there's so much drama on her imdb page that I wonder what the big deal is. Apparently she was dating Clark at the time of the filming. Hm. I love the framing of the story of a group of friends who marginally know Ken Park, but we never (really, except in one scene) see the kids hanging out. The movie beginning with the end of Ken Park's life (a brilliant scene) and ending with right before the end of his life ("Aren't you glad your mother didn't abort you?" is one of my favorite final lines) was a great stylistic choice. The performances are solid, the direction of Clark and Ed Lachman is solid, and Korine's screenplay is solid. The result is less than perfect, but much more than some would have you believe. 8.5/10 RIYL: Kids, Gummo

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Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (Gough Lewis, 1999)

While watching documentaries focused on a single person, I often have trouble differentiating my feelings toward the person from my feelings toward the actual film. This is why I didn't much like Overnight, the story of Troy Duffy, a true douchebag who wrote a terrible movie and thought he was invincible - I couldn't stand to watch the whole thing. This is where my problem with Sex: The Annabel Chong Story comes in. As a film, it's not particularly good - apparently director Gough Lewis was an ex-boyfriend of Chong, who staged several scenes (the cutting one in particular); the editing is terrible; and Gough isn't very good at getting interviewees to say interesting, enlightening things. Chong herself, though (real name: Grace), is incredibly interesting and provocative. A gender studies undergrad who started doing porn either because she had already had sex with everyone on campus (what she tells her fan club) or because she wanted to take away the stigma associated with sex work (what she tells her gender studies class), she constantly tries to defend her decision to do porn by spouting feminist theory. While I agree with Grace's decision (it is, in fact, her body and her choice) and with some of the reasons she gives for doing it, it is also obvious that she is a very damaged, emotionally fragile young woman who desperately wants attention. Attention is the reason Grace decides to do the "world's biggest gang bang," having sex with 251 men in 10 hours (when Grace's record is beaten only months later, it's hard not to feel bad for her). Footage from the shoot is interspersed in the documentary, and it is, at times, painful to watch, both because of the physical pain Grace seems to be in at times, and because of the danger Grace puts herself in for sexually transmitted diseases (especially AIDS). The disease issue is discussed in depth in the film, and Grace says that if she did get AIDS from the gang bang, it would be worth it (because "sex is worth dying for," one of the most ridiculous things she says), but I got the definite feeling that she was just saying these things to seem in charge. In charge, Grace is not. Although she says she's doing porn for feminist reasons, there's always a sleazy man in the background, telling her what to do or what to say. I believe porn can be an empowering thing, but not the male-dominated, patriarchial form Grace has entangled herself in. But enough about Grace's ideas! The movie is stilted and not very well paced, as in the scenes where Grace has to reveal herself to her traditional Singaporian family - what could have been moving is instead just uncomfortable. Lewis isn't a good filmmaker, but Sex deserves to be seen, as it is so thought-provoking, whether you agree with Grace or not. 6/10

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Lunacy (Jan Svankmajer, 2005)

Czech stop-motion animator Jan Svankmajer's new film is billed, at least on its IMDB page, as a horror film, and while there are some terrifying elements, I would call it more of a exploration of morality. At least, it's not a horror film in the traditional sense. A young man who has just lost his mother, who had been institutionalized, accepts a ride from a Marquis. Jean ends up staying at the Marquis' house for a few days, witnesses a bizarre religious ritual, and plays an unwilling part in the Marquis' therapy. Once Jean and the Marquis get to the local institution, and meet Dr. Murlloppe and his "daughter" Charlotte, all pretenses of normalcy are gone. The scenes at the institution before the revolution (the less said about the plot, the better your viewing experience will be) are surreally wonderful: patients doing "art therapy" by painting a naked woman, feathers and chickens everywhere, and even a living reproduction of "Liberty Leading the People." When Dr. Coulmiere enters the movie, the real horror comes through, and as he explains the thirteen corporal punishments used to fix the mind, chills ran down my spine. The last ten minutes of the film, with treatment thirteen and Charlotte and Coulmiere's discussion, are truly terrifying, and speak to the depths of depravity possible in every human's soul. Svankmajer's point can easily be simplified, as he does in his taped introduction to the film, to the fact that both extremes - complete liberty and complete control - can be equally bad, but add in Svankmajer's trademark animation present between each scene, that of pieces of meat and organs sliding around and doing human-esque things, add a layer of complexity and imagery to that moral. Maybe Svankmajer just wanted to make a scary, creepy film based on the writings of de Sade and Poe, but I think there's a lot underneath the surface. This is a movie that's horror stays with you, without much blood or creeps. I definitely recommend it, if you can find it. 8/10 RIYL: Little Otik

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Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1979)

The first film in Fassbinder's BRD trilogy detailing women's lives in post-war Germany, Marriage of Maria Braun is the story of, obviously, Maria Braun, who marries a Hermann in the middle of a bombing (in the stunning first scene, where Maria has to chase down an official and lay down on the ground with him to get him to sign the lisense) and has her husband immediately leave for the front. Maria is left without a husband after only half a day and a night, and supports herself and her mother and grandfather by selling illegal goods and eventually working in a bar frequented by American soldiers. Maria is obsessed with finding Hermann alive, but when she is told by a fellow soldier that he is dead, she starts a relationship with an African-American soldier, Bill, and becomes pregnant by him. Hermann then shows up, and things get even more complicated by there, with Hermann going to jail for Maria, and then eventually leaving for Canada. In the meantime, Maria gets a job with Karl Oswald, a French industrialist, and becomes the epitome of a post-war independant woman. All of this, all the things that Maria does to make her life better, however, is all for Hermann, and when she finds out his secret in the final scene, it has devastating consequences, in one of my favorite endings in a long time. Hanna Schygulla as Maria is a wonder; one of Fassbinder's regular cast members (I love when directors do that), she portrays Maria as a seemingly strong, very sexy and resourceful, but ultimately lonely and vulnerable woman who does everything in her life for an ideal. The movie takes many twists and turns, but never seems manipulated. Instead, it is real, and these characters are all manifestations of ourselves. Maria's motivations may seem fantastical, but they make perfect sense in this crazy world that has changed so much after World War II. This is my second favorite Fassbinder (after Chinese Roulette), and a revelation of post-war Germany - compare this with Italian neo-realist post-war Italy, and you get two completely different worlds! 9/10 RIYL: Pasolini, but more lush and personal

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Day of the Dead (George A. Romero, 1985)

Dawn of the Dead is arguably the best horror movie ever, and pretty much the best zombie movie ever (even the 2004 remake is pretty damn good). So even though 1985's Day of the Dead, with its bleak world view and claustrophobic feel, is a good movie, it doesn't stand a chance next to its predecessor. Set a few years (I think) after DotD, it involves some of the only survivors of the zombie plague. Instead of hiding in a mall, they are now in an underground bunker, and divided into three strict groups: military, scientists who want to study the zombies, and civilians who want nothing more than to live out their last days happily. They are living underground, in a bunker where they both hide from the zombies, and trap some so Dr. Frankenstein (as he's called) can do experiments on them. The doctor has a pet, Bub, who is a really likeable zombie who can talk (sort of), recognize everyday objects, and have enough emotions to become attached to the doctor. Bub is really the best part of the movie, and when he salutes in his final scene, you want to cheer. Romero again is making a statement on human nature, and how we are our own worst enemies, even when faces with the undead. There's fighting within the groups, which turns, inevitably, to violence and bloodshed. In the end, the heroine Sarah and her colleagues are running as much from the military as they are from the zombies. The movie is tense and angry until the zombies inevitably get into the compound, and when they do, there's a lot of really great and unique gore. The social commentary doesn't work as well as in Dawn, but for a likeable zombie hero and some better than average gore, you can't go wrong with Romero. 7/10 RIYL: The Dead series (many elements that were supposed to be in Day appear and are expanded upon in 2005's Land of the Dead)

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The Adjuster (Atom Egoyan, 1991)

As if you weren't sick of reading about Atom Egoyan films by now (this is my last one for a while, though!), I rented The Adjuster the other night. Much like Exotica, the film starts with scenes of seemingly incomprehensible things, like a group of adults in a theater taking notes on hardcore pornography, and a woman comforting, then seducing, a sick homeless man on the subway (who turns out to be her husband, as they like to play games like that). Again like Exotica, the pieces come together to form a cohesive and intriguing picture of, as Egoyan puts it, believable people doing believeable things in unbelievable ways. Noah, the insurance adjuster of the title, lives with his wife Hera, her sister Seta, and their child, Simon. He gets very involved in the lives of people whose insurance claims he is helping along, which usually means sleeping with them, male or female. Noah and Hera barely speak, and when they do, in my favorite scene of the film, Hera asks him if she makes him feel stupid when she asks something that deserves consideration and he answers mindlessly. He denies it, even seems confused by the question, but Hera knows what's going on in their marriage. Noah and family live in a deserted housing development, of which they are the only one - the developer promised more houses in the future, but for now, they are the only ones in this imaginary ideal. Add to that a couple, Bubba and Mimi, who are into voyeurism, and go so far as to rent out Noah's house for a "movie." Whether or not we think that these characters and/or their actions are actually believable, Egoyan presents them as real people with real problems and fears, ones that we can relate to, as they are us in the extreme. Again, I watched the film partially with Egoyan's commentary on, and it really illuminated a lot of things about the film that I otherwise would not have caught. This film is pretty avant-garde when compared to Egoyan's other work, and deserves to be seen. The ideas he started slowly unfolding in The Adjuster would come to fruition in a more mature way a few years later in Exotica, but this movie is definitely part of the process, a movie that deserves to be seen more than once to get the full impact. 7/10 RIYL: Denys Arcand

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Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)

Lars von Trier is the master of making beautifully depressing films. Breaking the Waves is a perfect companion piece to Dancer in the Dark (or vice versa, actually) in its tragic, yet strangely optimistic, view of the world. Bess (played stunningly by Emily Watson in, get this, her first film role) is a ridiculously (but not unbelievably) naive, childlike Scotswoman who lives in an isolated village ruled by an almost medieval, Calvinist theocracy. She decides to marry an outsider, Jan, and almost immediately, he is called away to work on a ship, like many other Scots, and is paralyzed in an accident. Paralyzed from the neck down, Jan requests, then demands, that Bess sleep with other men and tell him about it, so he never loses the feeling of love. Although Bess is highly religious, she does this, because she believes God will heal Jan if she follows Jan's request. Things spin out of control from there, to the inevitable tragic conclusion; but, at the very end of the film, we are left with the feeling that Bess did, in fact, do the right thing, no matter what everyone else said. The acting and direction are both so wonderful, it's almost useless to talk about them. The film deals with such huge and heavy issues, but in such a way that you are wrapped up in the story in front of you while watching the movie, and only afterward do the issues slap you in the face. Bess is at once a child-woman, easily abused and manipulated; and a fighter, a woman who does what she thinks is right, no matter what the cost. Many have called von Trier a misogynist, and although in this film, there are scenes of violence against Bess that are almost unwatchable, I think that he makes believable and realistic female characters who deal with their flaws, instead of either saintly or terrible women found in so many other male filmmakers' films. Breaking the Waves is the first part in von Trier's "golden heart" trilogy, films that deal with essentially good women who are tried by the outside world. Another question the film raises is that of God, and of religion and morality, the whole deal: Who can say what is good? Who (but God, to Bess) can judge someone? The elders in the community exclude women and give them no say, and once Bess starts acting outside her role, she is excommunicated. Bess has frequent talks with God (she voices both parts, a very chilling effect), and she thinks that God approves of what she does for Jan. Who can tell her otherwise? Everyone in the film but Jan calls Bess stupid and weak, and only Jan can see her good qualities. What does this say about love, about religion, about life? So many amazing questions. von Trier, raised by Jewish Communists in a nudist colony, turned to Catholicism in 1995 in a form of rebellion. If Breaking the Waves is any sign, these questions are ones that engage him and make him stronger, and the audience, as well. A very interesting, controversial man, von Trier makes beautiful pictures, and this is his best. 9/10 RIYL: Festen (Dogme 95's true triumph, with similar themes of sex and family)

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Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike, 1999)

Being a pretty big Miike fan, and having heard about how outrageous and violent this movie is, I was expecting a lot. Dead or Alive doesn't necessarily disappoint, but it doesn't really deliver, either. It is the story of a cop, Jojima, with a very sick daughter, who is incredibly involved in his job, much to the chagrin of both his superiors on the take and the criminals on the street. Ryu is a yazuka boss (I think) with a brother who's studied in the United States, and wants no part in his brother's business. When Jojima and Ryu's paths cross, as they inevitably do, it means a lot of fighting and explosions. And one really cool gunfight in a club where probably fifty people die. Dead or Alive is an entertaining cop film that gives a little insight into the relationship between the Japanese and the Chinese in Japan. Apparently there's a lot of tension between the two groups, a tension that fuels a lot of the violence in the film. Again, there's a lot of cool, stylized violence, but there's not too much more to it than that. The ending, though, is what divides people so strongly about this film, and is probably the single most ridiculous thing I've seen in a movie in a long, long time. It's worth seeing, if just for the last thirty seconds. Really. I hope that the next two films in the series are just as entertaining as this one. 6/10 RIYL: Quentin Tarantino

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Society (Brian Yuzna, 1989)

Brian Yuzna was a producer of Reanimator, one of my favorite horror-comedy films of all time. He struck out on his own with Society, a similarly themed movie that blends horror and gore with humor and even cultural critique. The film is about Billy, a young, priviledged man, who feels that there's something different about his family. Everyone he talks to about this fear, though, either thinks he's crazy or gets killed. Surprise of surprises, there is something different about his family, and other members of the community, and the pretty gross final thirty minutes shows us what Billy had feared all along. It is a typical 80s horror film in a lot of ways - there are pretty but vapid blonde girls, a brunette temptress, wacky friends, and lots of terrible slang. The acting, as could be predicted, is pretty bad, but that's part of what makes this such an enjoyable b-movie. Acting aside, the plot really unravels in the final scene. Usually, that doesn't bother me in horror films, but since Yuzna brings out the big, disgusting gore guns in the final scene (at times, I had no idea what was going on, which was both an enjoyable and frustrating thing), there should have been some coherance of story. There wasn't. There are way more questions than answers at the end, and stupid questions at that. The good people (for the most part) survive, and the bad guys are left ambiguously. An enjoyable film, but not particularly scary nor funny; other films have done this better, but it's still worth a watch. It also has one of the creepiest pseudo-catchphrases in recent memory: "You're going to make a wonderful contribution to society." 6/10 RIYL: Reanimator, Dead Alive

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Next of Kin (Atom Egoyan, 1984)

Another entry in my Atom Egoyan fest, Next of Kin is Egoyan's first feature, shot on basically nothing, yet is pretty impressive. Peter lives at home, doing nothing, and his parents eventually decide to take him to family therapy. Through his favorite activity, pretending, he finds the file of an Armenian family who gave their son up for adoption at a very young age, and are still grieving the loss. Peter decides to meet up with the family, and pretend to be the long-lost Bedros. While Peter is lily-white and bears no resemblance to the family (parents George and Sonya and daughter Azah), their willingness to believe is so strong that they welcome him with open arms. Although there is some sexual tension between Peter and Azah (she probably realizes he's lying, but never acknowledges it outright), he becomes a part of the family, and a unifying part at that. The ending of the story is appropriate and not very predictable, and the performances are all pretty strong. My favorite part about this DVD, though, was the amazing commentary by Egoyan himself. If I respected the talent of this man before, I respect his eloquence and intelligence even more now. The commentary is everything an interesting commentary should be: intelligent, interesting, funny, and inspiring. Egoyan isn't afraid to tear apart his first film, pointing out his faults and stubbornness as a first-time director, yet encouraging new filmmakers at the same time. I would encourage anyone interested in films or making films to listen to this commentary, as it's really the kind you hope for with such an intelligent, interesting film. 8/10 (including the commentary) RIYL: Exotica

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