Monday, January 23, 2006
Movies I watched over the holiday period:
Moog This is a rather rambling documentary. It explores the late Robert Moog's somewhat mystical views of his and various musicians connection to his famous analog synth. It features lots of hippy nonsense, some great moog performances, including Mixmaster Mike and Money Mark, and the DVD comes with amazing Moog emulation software. 7/10
Proof A prize winning play gets turned into a slightly stilted movie. It cover familiar ground w/r/t the connection between maths and madness, but is delightfully meandering and open-ended. Fantastic performances from Paltrow, Gyllenhaal and Hopkins make it v watchable, but you feel like it might have had more impact on the stage. 6/10
Amores Perros This has been sitting unwatched on my shelf for almost 4 years. It is absolutely kick-*uckin'-ass awesome. It's got dog fighting, car crashes, and gangsters, but it's actually an incredibly delicate, sensitive film about love, lust and dying. It is structurally reminiscent of Pulp Fiction or Crash, but so much more compelling. Brilliant. 10/10
Anglagard AKA House of Angels. This is a cult Swedish film, by a British director, about a small Swedish village. It's well written, well acted, and really different in tone to anything Hollywood would make. It has chick-flick themes, but never becomes sentimental. Possibly the best date-movie ever. 9/10
Lord of War This was recommended to me, thanks to its incredible opening sequence. It has a lot of flashy cinematography and SFX, but is rather vapid. Big themes about third world trade and gun-running, but the slickness of a cheap thriller. It's "Based on real events" which may salvage it ethically, but it still feels exploitative. 5/10
A Good Woman Lady Windemere's Fan dolled up for the big screen. It boasts sparkling Wildean wit, lush Riviera backdrops and Scarlett Johansson made to look almost fetishistically ugly. A must see for the latter. 8/10
Moog This is a rather rambling documentary. It explores the late Robert Moog's somewhat mystical views of his and various musicians connection to his famous analog synth. It features lots of hippy nonsense, some great moog performances, including Mixmaster Mike and Money Mark, and the DVD comes with amazing Moog emulation software. 7/10
Proof A prize winning play gets turned into a slightly stilted movie. It cover familiar ground w/r/t the connection between maths and madness, but is delightfully meandering and open-ended. Fantastic performances from Paltrow, Gyllenhaal and Hopkins make it v watchable, but you feel like it might have had more impact on the stage. 6/10
Amores Perros This has been sitting unwatched on my shelf for almost 4 years. It is absolutely kick-*uckin'-ass awesome. It's got dog fighting, car crashes, and gangsters, but it's actually an incredibly delicate, sensitive film about love, lust and dying. It is structurally reminiscent of Pulp Fiction or Crash, but so much more compelling. Brilliant. 10/10
Anglagard AKA House of Angels. This is a cult Swedish film, by a British director, about a small Swedish village. It's well written, well acted, and really different in tone to anything Hollywood would make. It has chick-flick themes, but never becomes sentimental. Possibly the best date-movie ever. 9/10
Lord of War This was recommended to me, thanks to its incredible opening sequence. It has a lot of flashy cinematography and SFX, but is rather vapid. Big themes about third world trade and gun-running, but the slickness of a cheap thriller. It's "Based on real events" which may salvage it ethically, but it still feels exploitative. 5/10
A Good Woman Lady Windemere's Fan dolled up for the big screen. It boasts sparkling Wildean wit, lush Riviera backdrops and Scarlett Johansson made to look almost fetishistically ugly. A must see for the latter. 8/10
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