The Great Happiness Space (2006)
Rating ... B (61)
Men have put women so high up on pedestals that women are paying other (read: actually desirable) men to topple them. This process occurs across Japan at what's called a host club. Host clubs are derivative of hostess clubs where high salary betas drop their loose change on obsequious women - for both business and pleasure - called hostesses who feign interest in their conversations while alcohol flows liberally. In the male counterpart, female customers indulge in fantasy relationships with a host, and they'll pay whatever price - any cost is worth it for the alpha.
The Great Happiness Space mostly follows a man named Issei, top host at an Osaka club, as he darts between women, all of whom harbor the same illusions about him falling in love with her and one day becoming her husband. The women swoon in the presence of a classic alpha: "When I'm talking to Issei, mysteriously I feel happy!" (cf, betas: "I was almost raped!") The hosts, however fun and colloquial, are also very procedural in how they seduce women and capitalize on their desires. Hosts typically open with light compliments to expunge any tension before switching to what Issei calls "scolding," and more studious PUA's would call negs. The negs (think teasing insults) reinforce the high value of the host and establish subtle dominance, which the hosts then use to browbeat the women to spend more. Women see the same host many times with the impression the fling will become a love relationship, so the hosts draw out the experience as much as possible and delay both sex and any verbal professions of love. There's even a special seat with a hefty price tag where the other customers aren't visible to provide the woman with the appearance she has no competition.
The women aren't at all oblivious to the game at hand, but are willing participants through all the manipulation for the slim chance at an alpha. Hilariously enough most of the customers are hostesses or sex workers themselves with the money to blow, even though several of them acknowledge that it would be smarter to save up. There's an amusing meta incident where Issei explains that one of the patrons interviewed in the documentary specifically requested the opportunity so she could tailor her words to provoke an emotional reaction in Issei which might bring the two of them closer. As she rationalizes her futile attempts to land Issei as an investment, the documentarian cross-cuts in reaction shots of Issei who states how he despises her coercion and that he can't stand her. This illustrates the dilemma rather nicely; the men offer the illusion of availability, the women bite and grow attracted to the hosts even to the point of saying they are in love. Meanwhile the women visit multiple host clubs, saying the same thing to every host; this indicates the women do not truly want a relationship with any particular host as they claim, and this fact is well known among the hosts. Thus it is a game where women lose if they give up and return home empty-handed and men lose if they commit to a woman who only seeks them as a challenge. The funny thing is that one of the hosts interviewed, regardless of the knowledge gained from his position, still believes in the simple, soul-mate type of love and says at some point he wants that type of person in his life. This ends the film and serves as a counterpoint to the far more complex industry we've just seen, where relationships cannot form because neither party will assume the risk that the other is genuine. Mistrust and machination fill the space where happiness used to be.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Friday, January 14, 2011
Magic Everywhere in This Ditch!
The Prestige (2006)
Rating ... A- (89)
Every great director has at least three movies ... or films. Christopher Nolan's first is called Memento. Nolan shows you something ordinary. A wronged man, a quest for revenge. He tells you this story. Perhaps he asks you to interpret, to analyze, to understand what seems normal. But of course, it probably isn't. His second film is called Batman Begins. The director takes an ordinary man and makes him do something extraordinary. Now you're seeing something different. A tale where vengeance is channeled. Where misfortune becomes the catalyst for betterment - personal, then societal. But you wouldn't clap yet. Because two crowd pleasers isn't necessarily a habit. It could still be an anomaly. That's why every hat trick has a third score ... the hardest part - the part we call "The Prestige."
I write lame introductions, but you get the picture. Nolan's tallied three in a row, and if there's anything disappointing about The Prestige it's that the film seems like a namesake swap - he's made Memento disappear... and then bring it back under a different title. Allow me to explain. If Memento was a film about self-delusion - that people need to fool themselves to add meaning to their lives, than The Prestige picks up the same conceit and runs with it. As consolation, at least the film runs far and fast.
This time we've got two obsessed protagonists. Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play understudies with a knack for prestidigitation; they're seeking to infuse the art of magic with something bold and unprecedented. Magicians' current repetoires are shopworn. The natives are restless. What does it take to create a truly awe-inspiring trick? The duo's first encounter with greatness is chilling, to be frank. Angiers (Jackman) and Borden (Bale) observe an elderly Chinese illusionist capable of making reasonably-sized objects materialize out of nowhere. He feigns disability in the public eye to dissuade people from the secret - he possesses great strength, and is able to slip the objects from pinned between his legs and under his robe onto the pedestals where they "appear." The illusionist operates in two modes; he's either living the show or training for it. His parable is an early indicator of the remarkable sacrifice needed to uphold wonder and mystery in society.
Riddles and enigmas are always captivating, so what's the threat here? The answer is the same feature that distinguishes Angier and Borden from one another. They're both so entranced with magic it becomes a rivalry, but they've got differing motivations. Borden is concerned with perfecting the craft; he pierces the guise of the illusionist and the appearing objects trick from the get-go because he shares the same viewpoint. His version of the Transported Man is solved with the easiest answer but the method is sophisticated enough for audiences to doubt simplicity - the only prerequisite is a lifetime(s) of sacrifice. Borden is extreme, but plays by the rules of the game.
Angier dabbles with the same, but he's backed by Cutter (Michael Caine) and his numerous tools. Each new apparatus results in a slicker, smoother trick; the approach makes sense for Angier because his concern is primarily emotional. He understands the amazement successful magic has on an audience, and he thrives on producing such an effect. The secret to the trick is immaterial compared to the result. It's no surprise he ultimately turns to science to gain the biggest and baddest toy.
MF-ing Tesla could almost sum up that line of inquiry. And what trick does Angier purchase to enable his version of the Transported Man? Nolan loses a chunk of his fanbase with this letdown: there's no trick. With Tesla's device, he's actually physically able to teleport. Badass, right? Score one for science ... THE END.
Were you watching closely? What did he mean, anyways? Consider each man's ethos again, figuratively. Borden is low-tech but talented. His ability enables him to blur the truth - that guy didn't really just teleport - enough so audiences choose to believe something magical over what they know to be true. Now look at Angier; the truth is in plain sight. There's no secret. It doesn't take exceptional skill to accomplish the trick. That's just how it is. It only figures that Tesla's note implores Angier to destroy the machine rather than use it; here, science is an unforgiving way of understanding that nothing is special or magical. Tesla's invention reveals how little importance human life has because it too can be easily replicated. Angier's cloned selves fret over whether they're the "man in the box" or living the prestige; the tragedy of his last rendition of the Transported Man is that the distinction no longer matters. Whose version do you choose?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Melon Collie and the Skull-astic Aptitude Test
Night at the Museum (2006)
Rating ... C- (31)
Usually I try to resist the urge to describe movies in terms of other movies, but in the case of Night at the Museum and its conspicuous lack of personality I'll gladly make an exception, since this film is basically National Treasure with no real story, which may not sound like such a bad thing until you realize the narrative was responsible for all of Treasure's hilariously improbable situations, and that Nick Cage desecrating the Declaration of Independence with conveniently on-hand lemon juice or Sean Bean worrying about "being seen" while stranding Cage at the North Pole is essentially the only reason anybody would want to watch this kind of film. That's generalization, of course, since Night at the Museum's silly shenanigans involving Ben Stiller maintaining security at a museum whose nightlife causes its manakins to spring to life and its simplistic, one-size-fits-all solutions to personal problems (Atilla the Hun just needs fatherly attention to soothe his malevolent nature, warring cultures are brothers underneath or similar in some vague manner) are unlikely to overtly displease adults and will probably sail over the heads of kids ensconced in the museum's fancifully hollow CGI creations. To be fair, Night at the Museum is deliberately crafted as harmless, sorta-seasonal entertainment, but even throwaway routines have a particular audience they attempt to appeal to, which makes one wonder the logic behind ditching the childlike curiosity and intrigue out of the history-infused - and obviously adolescent - tale to instead incorporate the grown-up disbelief of Ben Stiller as his usual bewildered everyman, complete with Shrek-ish, self-congratulatory referencing to politics and cinema alike. Unfortunately, though tonal approach may be Night at the Museum's biggest discrepancy it isn't the film's biggest worry, seeing as Museum's story is comprised almost entirely of awfully bland subplots (notably Stiller's activist agenda to become deserving of his son's respect, as well as a few amorous, anonymous pairings), numerous fakeouts (Stiller is "fired" at least twice, and characters "expire" even more frequently) and incontinuities, the most blatant of which occuring when Robin Williams confesses he's not actually Teddy Roosevelt but rather just wax, and can't help Stiller out of his bind, though later Stiller's gal pal gets tips for her thesis from the real Sacagawea. Normally such a fallacy is meaningless, an innocuous inconsistency, but here the distinction makes quite the difference, since when discussing the importance of knowledge, National Treasure's campy earnestness implies a reflexive, interactive perspective on history, merely suggesting how it should be, while Night at the Museum's cozy stances and elastic applicability of emotion settles for simply telling it to kids like it isn't.
The Protector (2006)
Rating ... C- (34)
(Apologies in advance if I seem poorly versed but this Muay Thai thing is new to me - after all, I haven't see Ong-Bak yet - though I must admit that ... ) Watching a movie like the The Protector ignore everything that's supposed to make martial arts films awesome (or at least not awful) by default is basically akin to grilling a waiter on the intricacies of their restaurant's wine list then ordering water. Traditionally martial arts films managed mediocrity or more via the Bond formula - if you kick enough ass with enough technical proficiency and style, your film can only be faulted so much. Not so with The Protector, whose poorly conceived, effects-heavy combat only amplifies its remaining faults (read: the rest of the movie) and nudges its caliber down to that of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. Truthfully some of Jaa's acrobatics are pretty amazing, though usually only when he's evading, considering when on the attack most of The Protector falls into the Why Bother Dept. specializing in fake bone breaks, cut scene combat, and sound effects-saturated slaps and kicks. There's no point in following the narrative - via The Protector's lazy rehash of small-town-warrior-in-the-big-city shenanigans and crime syndicate nonsense (this gang steals noble elephants to cook at their exotic restaurant - don't ask) and egregiously absent exposition/transition scenes (possibly a product of Harvey 'Hacksaw' Weinstein's frenzious editing) the story is almost as inscrutable as it is insignificant, while directorial missteps arise at nearly every junction; from lame attempts at awesomeness through slow motion to crappy cinematography (save the film's duo of extended fight sequences - probably the only shots that last longer than a few seconds) to irritating, alternating languages and obvious sound cues (wrestler-like baddies on the prowl-- cue power metal), it's not unusual to find one or more mistakes being made in virtually every scene. Then, of course, there's always some too-pat, fortune-cookie wisdom to be gained from the whole ordeal, since Tony Jaa's numerous flashbacks to the good ol' days taking care of royal elephants at his tribal homeland aren't going to annoyingly show up for no reason... Initially The Protector's thematic territory was pick and choose; my preferred take was that the elephants glorify the great kings of battle (this is SPARTAAAAAAAAA territory, basically) and their pious combat (thus affirming the film's own brand of battle, and also explaining the two laughably pathetic video-game fight sequences that seem to resemble a pallid knock-off of the far superior Dynasty Warriors series) in contrast to today's hifalutin' weaponry, though after concluding narration that blatantly announces the film's intentions it turns out such imagery was simply a vague reprimand of society's negligence of the "old ways" - whatever that means, naturally, since The Protector can't be bothered to fill audiences in on the particulars except that its practitioners are "right" and "just." From whence comes only irony, however, considering that for a film so convinced of the sanctimony of its particular brand of old school martial arts, it sure uses remarkably few of them.
Rating ... C- (31)
Usually I try to resist the urge to describe movies in terms of other movies, but in the case of Night at the Museum and its conspicuous lack of personality I'll gladly make an exception, since this film is basically National Treasure with no real story, which may not sound like such a bad thing until you realize the narrative was responsible for all of Treasure's hilariously improbable situations, and that Nick Cage desecrating the Declaration of Independence with conveniently on-hand lemon juice or Sean Bean worrying about "being seen" while stranding Cage at the North Pole is essentially the only reason anybody would want to watch this kind of film. That's generalization, of course, since Night at the Museum's silly shenanigans involving Ben Stiller maintaining security at a museum whose nightlife causes its manakins to spring to life and its simplistic, one-size-fits-all solutions to personal problems (Atilla the Hun just needs fatherly attention to soothe his malevolent nature, warring cultures are brothers underneath or similar in some vague manner) are unlikely to overtly displease adults and will probably sail over the heads of kids ensconced in the museum's fancifully hollow CGI creations. To be fair, Night at the Museum is deliberately crafted as harmless, sorta-seasonal entertainment, but even throwaway routines have a particular audience they attempt to appeal to, which makes one wonder the logic behind ditching the childlike curiosity and intrigue out of the history-infused - and obviously adolescent - tale to instead incorporate the grown-up disbelief of Ben Stiller as his usual bewildered everyman, complete with Shrek-ish, self-congratulatory referencing to politics and cinema alike. Unfortunately, though tonal approach may be Night at the Museum's biggest discrepancy it isn't the film's biggest worry, seeing as Museum's story is comprised almost entirely of awfully bland subplots (notably Stiller's activist agenda to become deserving of his son's respect, as well as a few amorous, anonymous pairings), numerous fakeouts (Stiller is "fired" at least twice, and characters "expire" even more frequently) and incontinuities, the most blatant of which occuring when Robin Williams confesses he's not actually Teddy Roosevelt but rather just wax, and can't help Stiller out of his bind, though later Stiller's gal pal gets tips for her thesis from the real Sacagawea. Normally such a fallacy is meaningless, an innocuous inconsistency, but here the distinction makes quite the difference, since when discussing the importance of knowledge, National Treasure's campy earnestness implies a reflexive, interactive perspective on history, merely suggesting how it should be, while Night at the Museum's cozy stances and elastic applicability of emotion settles for simply telling it to kids like it isn't.
The Protector (2006)
Rating ... C- (34)
(Apologies in advance if I seem poorly versed but this Muay Thai thing is new to me - after all, I haven't see Ong-Bak yet - though I must admit that ... ) Watching a movie like the The Protector ignore everything that's supposed to make martial arts films awesome (or at least not awful) by default is basically akin to grilling a waiter on the intricacies of their restaurant's wine list then ordering water. Traditionally martial arts films managed mediocrity or more via the Bond formula - if you kick enough ass with enough technical proficiency and style, your film can only be faulted so much. Not so with The Protector, whose poorly conceived, effects-heavy combat only amplifies its remaining faults (read: the rest of the movie) and nudges its caliber down to that of Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. Truthfully some of Jaa's acrobatics are pretty amazing, though usually only when he's evading, considering when on the attack most of The Protector falls into the Why Bother Dept. specializing in fake bone breaks, cut scene combat, and sound effects-saturated slaps and kicks. There's no point in following the narrative - via The Protector's lazy rehash of small-town-warrior-in-the-big-city shenanigans and crime syndicate nonsense (this gang steals noble elephants to cook at their exotic restaurant - don't ask) and egregiously absent exposition/transition scenes (possibly a product of Harvey 'Hacksaw' Weinstein's frenzious editing) the story is almost as inscrutable as it is insignificant, while directorial missteps arise at nearly every junction; from lame attempts at awesomeness through slow motion to crappy cinematography (save the film's duo of extended fight sequences - probably the only shots that last longer than a few seconds) to irritating, alternating languages and obvious sound cues (wrestler-like baddies on the prowl-- cue power metal), it's not unusual to find one or more mistakes being made in virtually every scene. Then, of course, there's always some too-pat, fortune-cookie wisdom to be gained from the whole ordeal, since Tony Jaa's numerous flashbacks to the good ol' days taking care of royal elephants at his tribal homeland aren't going to annoyingly show up for no reason... Initially The Protector's thematic territory was pick and choose; my preferred take was that the elephants glorify the great kings of battle (this is SPARTAAAAAAAAA territory, basically) and their pious combat (thus affirming the film's own brand of battle, and also explaining the two laughably pathetic video-game fight sequences that seem to resemble a pallid knock-off of the far superior Dynasty Warriors series) in contrast to today's hifalutin' weaponry, though after concluding narration that blatantly announces the film's intentions it turns out such imagery was simply a vague reprimand of society's negligence of the "old ways" - whatever that means, naturally, since The Protector can't be bothered to fill audiences in on the particulars except that its practitioners are "right" and "just." From whence comes only irony, however, considering that for a film so convinced of the sanctimony of its particular brand of old school martial arts, it sure uses remarkably few of them.
Do a Beryl Roll!
Blood Diamond (2006)
Rating ... F (9)
Edward Zwick wouldn't recognize subtlety if it bit him on the nose, which explains why Blood Diamond is a disaster of epic proportions. A dramatization of illegal diamond trafficking in Africa, Blood Diamond is a the bourgeoisie primer on how citizens of the third world are killing each other for bling bling - "bling BANG" as the film glibly puts it - that joins the ranks of Bobby, Running with Scissors, and Little Children as the year's proponents of laughable, over-the-top melodrama. If conversation between actual human beings was a sandwich, these films would be like smothering it with mayonnaise so you can't taste any of the original components.
But it is not enough to simply offer hysteria; like many others Blood Diamond goes one step further to also hand-hold audiences through offensive commentary with patronizing, simple-minded film-making. To illustrate the title, Zwick includes a scene where DiCaprio apprehends shepherds smuggling diamonds into Liberia sewn under the skin of their flock. When eviscerated, the diamonds are of course bloodied... Blood ... Diamond! Blood Diamond, geddit? (Cue close-up.) Several scenes occur in flashback and Zwick splashes garish yellow filter over each to denote that we are watching "how it all played out" footage. He plays to the pathos cheap seats with tactics like a sound bridge from a baby's wails into generic African music. Other shots are hyper-stylized for no discernable reason, like an argument between Djimon Honsou (another film of his where all of his lines seem to have been written in CAPS LOCK) and Leonardo DiCaprio where the camera 360's around them before coming to rest, just as an explosion rocks the background.
Characterizations don't fare any better. Connelly's character is written as an idealistic harpy. Zwick does not make any attempt to elaborate on the RUF rebels who displayed as hulking, growling brutes waving rifles to the accompaniment of hip-hop; they are simply villainous barbarians meant to send a shiver up the SWPL spine. DiCaprio's easy progression from mercenary to activist situates him as an audience stand-in. His change of heart embodies the spirit writer Charles Leavitt details with his dime-novel dialogue urging folks to get up, get out there, and do ... uh, something. Then again, I am surprised the film even acknowledges its viewers to begin with; Blood Diamond is less a movie, and more sociopolitical porn so self-congratulatory an audience is scarcely required.
Rating ... F (9)
Edward Zwick wouldn't recognize subtlety if it bit him on the nose, which explains why Blood Diamond is a disaster of epic proportions. A dramatization of illegal diamond trafficking in Africa, Blood Diamond is a the bourgeoisie primer on how citizens of the third world are killing each other for bling bling - "bling BANG" as the film glibly puts it - that joins the ranks of Bobby, Running with Scissors, and Little Children as the year's proponents of laughable, over-the-top melodrama. If conversation between actual human beings was a sandwich, these films would be like smothering it with mayonnaise so you can't taste any of the original components.
But it is not enough to simply offer hysteria; like many others Blood Diamond goes one step further to also hand-hold audiences through offensive commentary with patronizing, simple-minded film-making. To illustrate the title, Zwick includes a scene where DiCaprio apprehends shepherds smuggling diamonds into Liberia sewn under the skin of their flock. When eviscerated, the diamonds are of course bloodied... Blood ... Diamond! Blood Diamond, geddit? (Cue close-up.) Several scenes occur in flashback and Zwick splashes garish yellow filter over each to denote that we are watching "how it all played out" footage. He plays to the pathos cheap seats with tactics like a sound bridge from a baby's wails into generic African music. Other shots are hyper-stylized for no discernable reason, like an argument between Djimon Honsou (another film of his where all of his lines seem to have been written in CAPS LOCK) and Leonardo DiCaprio where the camera 360's around them before coming to rest, just as an explosion rocks the background.
Characterizations don't fare any better. Connelly's character is written as an idealistic harpy. Zwick does not make any attempt to elaborate on the RUF rebels who displayed as hulking, growling brutes waving rifles to the accompaniment of hip-hop; they are simply villainous barbarians meant to send a shiver up the SWPL spine. DiCaprio's easy progression from mercenary to activist situates him as an audience stand-in. His change of heart embodies the spirit writer Charles Leavitt details with his dime-novel dialogue urging folks to get up, get out there, and do ... uh, something. Then again, I am surprised the film even acknowledges its viewers to begin with; Blood Diamond is less a movie, and more sociopolitical porn so self-congratulatory an audience is scarcely required.
She Blinded Me with Pseudo-Science!
The Fountain (2006)
Rating ... D+ (25)
For whatever little it's worth, The Fountain constitutes what is the most favorably I've ever looked upon one of Darren Aronofsky's films, though when the competition consists of the wannabe brainy dementia of Pi and the patronizing monotony of Requiem for a Dream, whose head-splitting trauma was the cinematic equivalent of writing lines (while getting punched in the stomach ... repeatedly), it's not difficult to see why. Fortunately The Fountain errs less towards the latter, Aronofsky's little Sonata in D Minor, where D stands for DRUGS OMG DRUGS ARE BAD GUYS! DRUGS WILL KILL YOU AND IF YOU TAKE DRUGS YOU WILL DIE, but the problem remains that all Aronofsky has really done with The Fountain is swapped out his suffocating sermonizing of Requiem for a Dream for Pi's bag of tricks, which basically consists of taking some elementary philosophical understanding (not mathematical babble this time but Buddhist theory - just look for the shadow Tai Chi) and not only poorly developing its importance and relevance to the story but also buffing up the film's credibility by inserting artificial contrivances that "verify" the film's logic. In this case, Aronofsky retains his idiotic fixation with geometric patterns, another hold-over from Pi (instead of having spirals laughably surface in the mise-en-scene - someone's tie, a Go board, etc - Aronofsky opts for some shapeless, explosion-esque form whose sole discernable purpose is to force audiences to create connections between objects, despite how logically there's no real similarity, in the hopes they'll interpret the gesture as meaningful, basically a charlatan's game of I-Spy - look, a nebula! A cell! A spikey acorn!), and also experiments with some new-age, chronological wankery. (The Fountain takes place in three seperate time periods - 16th, 21st, 26th century - and whether or not the two noncurrent eras are simply fictional fragments of the present one is deliberately ambiguous, presumably because the function of such a framework is to distract audiences from The Fountain's simplicity and childishness and delineate what is otherwise a straightforward story.) Aronofsky doesn't see fit to develop any character, insteading aiming at short-sighted displays of drama (Jackman smashes things when he's ang, er, ANGRY - multiple times, as though further displays of outrage actually serve to clarify the emotion), and as a result The Fountain wears thin even at ninety minutes, the last twenty of which slam in with melodramatic might on the foundation of Aronofsky's undeveloped, adolescent romance (characterized mostly by vague, meaningless dialogue - "Each moment ... inside and outside ... feels different!"), and serve only to demonstrate Jackman's acceptance of his wife's death and wrist-slap the prospects of eternal life. Because Aronofsky is so unwilling to invest in the characters that should be the lifeblood of his film, yet delights in the flashy shortcuts that serve as replacement pathos, it's difficult to interpret Aronofsky's over-ambition as anything other than a plea for attention. Either way, let's just hope he doesn't revert back to films about addiction.
Rating ... D+ (25)
For whatever little it's worth, The Fountain constitutes what is the most favorably I've ever looked upon one of Darren Aronofsky's films, though when the competition consists of the wannabe brainy dementia of Pi and the patronizing monotony of Requiem for a Dream, whose head-splitting trauma was the cinematic equivalent of writing lines (while getting punched in the stomach ... repeatedly), it's not difficult to see why. Fortunately The Fountain errs less towards the latter, Aronofsky's little Sonata in D Minor, where D stands for DRUGS OMG DRUGS ARE BAD GUYS! DRUGS WILL KILL YOU AND IF YOU TAKE DRUGS YOU WILL DIE, but the problem remains that all Aronofsky has really done with The Fountain is swapped out his suffocating sermonizing of Requiem for a Dream for Pi's bag of tricks, which basically consists of taking some elementary philosophical understanding (not mathematical babble this time but Buddhist theory - just look for the shadow Tai Chi) and not only poorly developing its importance and relevance to the story but also buffing up the film's credibility by inserting artificial contrivances that "verify" the film's logic. In this case, Aronofsky retains his idiotic fixation with geometric patterns, another hold-over from Pi (instead of having spirals laughably surface in the mise-en-scene - someone's tie, a Go board, etc - Aronofsky opts for some shapeless, explosion-esque form whose sole discernable purpose is to force audiences to create connections between objects, despite how logically there's no real similarity, in the hopes they'll interpret the gesture as meaningful, basically a charlatan's game of I-Spy - look, a nebula! A cell! A spikey acorn!), and also experiments with some new-age, chronological wankery. (The Fountain takes place in three seperate time periods - 16th, 21st, 26th century - and whether or not the two noncurrent eras are simply fictional fragments of the present one is deliberately ambiguous, presumably because the function of such a framework is to distract audiences from The Fountain's simplicity and childishness and delineate what is otherwise a straightforward story.) Aronofsky doesn't see fit to develop any character, insteading aiming at short-sighted displays of drama (Jackman smashes things when he's ang, er, ANGRY - multiple times, as though further displays of outrage actually serve to clarify the emotion), and as a result The Fountain wears thin even at ninety minutes, the last twenty of which slam in with melodramatic might on the foundation of Aronofsky's undeveloped, adolescent romance (characterized mostly by vague, meaningless dialogue - "Each moment ... inside and outside ... feels different!"), and serve only to demonstrate Jackman's acceptance of his wife's death and wrist-slap the prospects of eternal life. Because Aronofsky is so unwilling to invest in the characters that should be the lifeblood of his film, yet delights in the flashy shortcuts that serve as replacement pathos, it's difficult to interpret Aronofsky's over-ambition as anything other than a plea for attention. Either way, let's just hope he doesn't revert back to films about addiction.
In the Sprawl of the Mountain King
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2006)
Rating ... A- (81)
In 2003's less-than-fulfulling The Last Samurai, director Edward Zwick tackled collective outdatedness and moral dilemma in a foreign land with paint-by-numbers plotting, wildly inconsistent tone, and overall simultaneous cake-having and eating. Thematic stances remained as obligatorily vague as possible ("open to interpretation") while technological and spiritual withering was portrayed with highly bewildering corporeality as it was shown that guns bested katanas. Ultimately his questionable tactics and/or omissions betrayed general ineptitude and allowed room for Tom Cruise to utter such baffling statements (this particular one in response to the idea of control over one's fate) as "A man does what he can ... until his destiny becomes apparent!" though had Zwick endeavored to take a more assured approach to his material, the result may have been something resembling the soft-spoken grandeur and distressing uncertainty of Kekexili: Mountain Patrol.
Reminiscent of 2004's suitably harrowing Touching the Void, Kekexili is a docudrama that recreates the exploits of a governmentally-unofficial patrol of Tibetan woodsmen banded together to fend off poachers of the antelope indigenous to the Kekexili plain. At a brisk 89 minutes, Kekexili is simple in story but tenacious in scope. Of course, it helps immensely that director Lu Chuan is such a arresting teller of tales in terms of the visual canvas (to the degree that many of his infrequent interchanges are rendered unnecessary) considering cinematography is effectively employed to substantiate virtually every point Kekexili sets out to make. The most frequently revisited tactic is the film's palpable use of extreme-long shot distance, where action occurs both in the foreground and at the far corners of the camera's grasp. Simultaneously evoking the patrol's inherent diminuitiveness in the vastness of nature and instilling Kekexili with a touch of doubt and unease, Lu Chuan's imagery parallels his characters' tangible and ethical dubiety. In a time of underfunding and material hardship for the group, immediate concerns range from car trouble to missing members, but the most unnerving uncertainty that looms over the patrol is quite simply whether or not their actions will leave a lasting effect on the antelope population. In perhaps the most stunning example of Kekexili's visual technique, the camera observes placidly as two party members must stay behind on account of insufficient supplies, their subsistence in jeopardy, while light refraction causes the images of the men to waver in the afternoon sun. Contrary to its primary implications of compromised values and moral equivocacy, Kekexili is a film of remarkable clarity.
Rating ... A- (81)
In 2003's less-than-fulfulling The Last Samurai, director Edward Zwick tackled collective outdatedness and moral dilemma in a foreign land with paint-by-numbers plotting, wildly inconsistent tone, and overall simultaneous cake-having and eating. Thematic stances remained as obligatorily vague as possible ("open to interpretation") while technological and spiritual withering was portrayed with highly bewildering corporeality as it was shown that guns bested katanas. Ultimately his questionable tactics and/or omissions betrayed general ineptitude and allowed room for Tom Cruise to utter such baffling statements (this particular one in response to the idea of control over one's fate) as "A man does what he can ... until his destiny becomes apparent!" though had Zwick endeavored to take a more assured approach to his material, the result may have been something resembling the soft-spoken grandeur and distressing uncertainty of Kekexili: Mountain Patrol.
Reminiscent of 2004's suitably harrowing Touching the Void, Kekexili is a docudrama that recreates the exploits of a governmentally-unofficial patrol of Tibetan woodsmen banded together to fend off poachers of the antelope indigenous to the Kekexili plain. At a brisk 89 minutes, Kekexili is simple in story but tenacious in scope. Of course, it helps immensely that director Lu Chuan is such a arresting teller of tales in terms of the visual canvas (to the degree that many of his infrequent interchanges are rendered unnecessary) considering cinematography is effectively employed to substantiate virtually every point Kekexili sets out to make. The most frequently revisited tactic is the film's palpable use of extreme-long shot distance, where action occurs both in the foreground and at the far corners of the camera's grasp. Simultaneously evoking the patrol's inherent diminuitiveness in the vastness of nature and instilling Kekexili with a touch of doubt and unease, Lu Chuan's imagery parallels his characters' tangible and ethical dubiety. In a time of underfunding and material hardship for the group, immediate concerns range from car trouble to missing members, but the most unnerving uncertainty that looms over the patrol is quite simply whether or not their actions will leave a lasting effect on the antelope population. In perhaps the most stunning example of Kekexili's visual technique, the camera observes placidly as two party members must stay behind on account of insufficient supplies, their subsistence in jeopardy, while light refraction causes the images of the men to waver in the afternoon sun. Contrary to its primary implications of compromised values and moral equivocacy, Kekexili is a film of remarkable clarity.
Spin Doctor Inarritu and the Global Lolocaust
Babel (2006)
Rating ... F (8)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it; Oscartrash director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu returns with yet another fragmented melodrama where several seemingly disparate storylines slowly intertwine before developing into outright hysteria, with a maximum of blue-in-the-face "dramatic" acting and a modicum of insight. After last year's face-palm fiasco at the Academy, I'd call Babel a Crash redux if Inarritu hadn't pioneered the shlock style himself. By this point it is clear that Oscar films are not those who rise above simple-mindedness and pointlessness; they're the ones who go to the greatest lengths to conceal its existence.
There are four separate stories in Babel, and as is becoming customary in films that flaunt their artificial sense of connectivity, the stories arbitrarily overlap, regardless of the fact the characters from one story do not have meaningful interaction with characters in the others. As usual Inarritu toys with the chronology, and as usual it's merely a gimmick; the narrative is equally inane in all forms - forwards, backwards or jumbled up. In Morocco, the upper-class Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett take a vacation to a podunk village whose language they don't even speak ("to be alone," Pitt states dumbly, when prompted of why), before getting shot by two local boys testing the range on their rifle. In Mexico, irrelevantly, Pitt and Blanchett's nanny attends her son's wedding with the kids she's supervising, and in Japan irrelevantly across the globe, a deaf girl experiences sexual frustration.
Like a true Oscar contender, Babel belongs to the school of drama without development. Each story is conspicuously contrived to result in melodramatic bouts of moaning and wailing - none more so than a laughably tense border crossing and its aftermath. (Pitt's Mexican nanny attempts to bluff border patrol that the two white children in her car are her nieces, rather than telling them - I dunno - that she's their nanny?) The story in Japan at least has some interest in understanding its character, but that well runs dry rather quickly and Inarritu repeatedly resorts to technical pomp by cutting out the sound - because she's deaf geddit? - and razzle-dazzling audiences with strobe light display.
The points of order on Inarritu's thematic agenda range from despicable to mind-bogglingly stupid. He complacently smuggles in an unnecessary tangent during the first half of the film that involves incest in the Moroccan village. We are not offered reasons for its occurrence or resolution of the subplot - it is simply something to take at face value as daily village life. Am I supposed to be impressed at the sheer volume of global diversity Inarritu can simplify into melodrama? Minutes later, Brad Pitt flags down a minivan to locate a hospital for his wife, but fails because he cannot speak the language of the driver, which for the remainder of the film stands unparalleled in its dumbfounding, literal advocacy of one-language-ism. Perhaps one day Inarritu will learn to be creative, rather than being creative about faking his lack of anything worth saying.
Rating ... F (8)
If it ain't broke, don't fix it; Oscartrash director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu returns with yet another fragmented melodrama where several seemingly disparate storylines slowly intertwine before developing into outright hysteria, with a maximum of blue-in-the-face "dramatic" acting and a modicum of insight. After last year's face-palm fiasco at the Academy, I'd call Babel a Crash redux if Inarritu hadn't pioneered the shlock style himself. By this point it is clear that Oscar films are not those who rise above simple-mindedness and pointlessness; they're the ones who go to the greatest lengths to conceal its existence.
There are four separate stories in Babel, and as is becoming customary in films that flaunt their artificial sense of connectivity, the stories arbitrarily overlap, regardless of the fact the characters from one story do not have meaningful interaction with characters in the others. As usual Inarritu toys with the chronology, and as usual it's merely a gimmick; the narrative is equally inane in all forms - forwards, backwards or jumbled up. In Morocco, the upper-class Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett take a vacation to a podunk village whose language they don't even speak ("to be alone," Pitt states dumbly, when prompted of why), before getting shot by two local boys testing the range on their rifle. In Mexico, irrelevantly, Pitt and Blanchett's nanny attends her son's wedding with the kids she's supervising, and in Japan irrelevantly across the globe, a deaf girl experiences sexual frustration.
Like a true Oscar contender, Babel belongs to the school of drama without development. Each story is conspicuously contrived to result in melodramatic bouts of moaning and wailing - none more so than a laughably tense border crossing and its aftermath. (Pitt's Mexican nanny attempts to bluff border patrol that the two white children in her car are her nieces, rather than telling them - I dunno - that she's their nanny?) The story in Japan at least has some interest in understanding its character, but that well runs dry rather quickly and Inarritu repeatedly resorts to technical pomp by cutting out the sound - because she's deaf geddit? - and razzle-dazzling audiences with strobe light display.
The points of order on Inarritu's thematic agenda range from despicable to mind-bogglingly stupid. He complacently smuggles in an unnecessary tangent during the first half of the film that involves incest in the Moroccan village. We are not offered reasons for its occurrence or resolution of the subplot - it is simply something to take at face value as daily village life. Am I supposed to be impressed at the sheer volume of global diversity Inarritu can simplify into melodrama? Minutes later, Brad Pitt flags down a minivan to locate a hospital for his wife, but fails because he cannot speak the language of the driver, which for the remainder of the film stands unparalleled in its dumbfounding, literal advocacy of one-language-ism. Perhaps one day Inarritu will learn to be creative, rather than being creative about faking his lack of anything worth saying.
D'Scent of a Woman
The Descent (2006)
Rating ... C- (35)
Adhesion Contract (hereafter referred to as "The Agreement"), constructed and forcibly signed __ day __ month 20__, contracted between parties Hollywood (hereafter referred to as "lol goldmine") and The Viewer (hereafter referred to as "totalnub") on the subject of disasters. (Hereafter referred to as "teh pwn")
Section 1. Index of and Willful Abstention from Teh Pwn
Based on the invaluable knowledge bestowed upon totalnub by lol goldmine, the totalnub do solemnly swear to never again venture forth into, and hereby acknowledge how completely fucked totalnub would be in such an occurrence, in the presence of any of the following instances of teh pwn:
Tornadoes
Volcanoes
Meteorite Impacts
Hurricanes
Freak Changes in the Global Climate
Floods
Forest Fires
Insect Invasions
Disease
Nuclear Weapons
Buses
Cruise Boats
Fishing Boats
U-Boats
Any Boats What-So-Fricking-Ever
Airplanes
Space Shuttles
Aliens
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Any Plans From Outer Space
Outer Space
Space
Trading Spaces
Mel Gibson
Deterioration of the Earth's magnetic field as a result of its Inner Core no longer spinning
Addendum, 9-5-06: Cave Explorations
Section 2. Adherence to and Proliferation of Teh Pwn
Furthermore, the totalnub willingly agree to uphold and plant in others the notion that aforementioned occurrences of teh pwn retain an overwhelming probability to occur despite what experts or common sense may dictate.
Section 3. The Descent
Based on the mutual aims of lol goldmine and totalnub, the parties heretofore agree upon the following:
1. The inclusion of at least five (hereafter referred to as "5") manufactured "boo frights," which will be accompanied by appropriate increases in volume, which in the event the story (hereafter referred to as "wut happens") cannot comply will consist of one protagonist (hereafter referred to as "don't char-acter") sneaking up on another don't char-acter.
2. The survival of at least one don't char-acter present in wut happens, and the perishing of at least three don't char-acters.
3. lol goldmine can furnish one instance of emotional heft (hereafter referred to as "the emo"), PROVIDED THAT the emo consists of brief cutting to no more than two specific memories of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which shall be unexplored and unrelated to the progression of wut happens.
4. The totalnub demand the presence of Gollum-esque cave dwellers (hereafter referred to as "Goblin Spelunkers") opposing the don't char-acters in the light of the inherent unbelievability that the forces of nature could ever act as a hindrance to the don't char-acters' iniation through wut happens.
5. lol goldmine will accomodate half-baked allegorical undertones involving ONLY female don't char-acters in contention to primitive male Goblin Spelunkers that reside in the damp, dark, bloody, otherwise feminine three-prong cave system.
6. lol goldmine will comply with the constraints cited in the Idiotic Fad Clause residing in Section XIV of the Collaboration Agreement entitled OMFG DISASTER! in which the resolution of wut happens is to be characterized not by relief or rumination but instead one instance of aforementioned boo frights and so-deemed inconclusiveness regarding the emo.
Section 4. Cancellation of and Renegotiation of The Agreement.
lol.
In witness whereof, the parties hereto have deemed this agreement demonstrative of their respective intentions and executable by their present representatives.
Rating ... C- (35)
Adhesion Contract (hereafter referred to as "The Agreement"), constructed and forcibly signed __ day __ month 20__, contracted between parties Hollywood (hereafter referred to as "lol goldmine") and The Viewer (hereafter referred to as "totalnub") on the subject of disasters. (Hereafter referred to as "teh pwn")
Section 1. Index of and Willful Abstention from Teh Pwn
Based on the invaluable knowledge bestowed upon totalnub by lol goldmine, the totalnub do solemnly swear to never again venture forth into, and hereby acknowledge how completely fucked totalnub would be in such an occurrence, in the presence of any of the following instances of teh pwn:
Tornadoes
Volcanoes
Meteorite Impacts
Hurricanes
Freak Changes in the Global Climate
Floods
Forest Fires
Insect Invasions
Disease
Nuclear Weapons
Buses
Cruise Boats
Fishing Boats
U-Boats
Any Boats What-So-Fricking-Ever
Airplanes
Space Shuttles
Aliens
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Any Plans From Outer Space
Outer Space
Space
Trading Spaces
Mel Gibson
Deterioration of the Earth's magnetic field as a result of its Inner Core no longer spinning
Addendum, 9-5-06: Cave Explorations
Section 2. Adherence to and Proliferation of Teh Pwn
Furthermore, the totalnub willingly agree to uphold and plant in others the notion that aforementioned occurrences of teh pwn retain an overwhelming probability to occur despite what experts or common sense may dictate.
Section 3. The Descent
Based on the mutual aims of lol goldmine and totalnub, the parties heretofore agree upon the following:
1. The inclusion of at least five (hereafter referred to as "5") manufactured "boo frights," which will be accompanied by appropriate increases in volume, which in the event the story (hereafter referred to as "wut happens") cannot comply will consist of one protagonist (hereafter referred to as "don't char-acter") sneaking up on another don't char-acter.
2. The survival of at least one don't char-acter present in wut happens, and the perishing of at least three don't char-acters.
3. lol goldmine can furnish one instance of emotional heft (hereafter referred to as "the emo"), PROVIDED THAT the emo consists of brief cutting to no more than two specific memories of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which shall be unexplored and unrelated to the progression of wut happens.
4. The totalnub demand the presence of Gollum-esque cave dwellers (hereafter referred to as "Goblin Spelunkers") opposing the don't char-acters in the light of the inherent unbelievability that the forces of nature could ever act as a hindrance to the don't char-acters' iniation through wut happens.
5. lol goldmine will accomodate half-baked allegorical undertones involving ONLY female don't char-acters in contention to primitive male Goblin Spelunkers that reside in the damp, dark, bloody, otherwise feminine three-prong cave system.
6. lol goldmine will comply with the constraints cited in the Idiotic Fad Clause residing in Section XIV of the Collaboration Agreement entitled OMFG DISASTER! in which the resolution of wut happens is to be characterized not by relief or rumination but instead one instance of aforementioned boo frights and so-deemed inconclusiveness regarding the emo.
Section 4. Cancellation of and Renegotiation of The Agreement.
lol.
In witness whereof, the parties hereto have deemed this agreement demonstrative of their respective intentions and executable by their present representatives.
Secret Mermaid Spy Network
Aquamarine (2006)
Rating ... A (97)
Ever heard the expression "White Lightning?" If Burt Reynold's filmography comes to mind we're probably on the same wavelength, but I unavoidably associate the term with an oddly relevant tidbit of Magic history and yet another admittedly hilarious rules nightmare from the - big surprise here - post-Academy bannings period where unsuspecting opponents were faced with a game-breaking triad of Knight tokens that came out of nowhere. By default my mind tends to wander towards Magic in the absence of anything suitably diverting, and after the initial temptation to disregard Aquamarine as unusually amusing teeny-bopper fluff, the film's bombshell ending of down-to-earth wisdom and euphoric, magical uplift triggered by gradual understanding and careful causality left me swooning. Not all surprises merit comparisons to Waylay and White Lightning but a perceptive character study-cum-dissection of love and infatuation masquerading as kiddie-lit fodder is quite simply the best Trojan horse I've seen since ever.
As fortune would have it, the term also suitably describes one of the first things you'll notice about Aquamarine. It's sweltering outside, though not the belligerent red-hot of Do the Right Thing. Rather it's the squinty brand of a noonday sun whose white-hot glare bombards our protagonists - a pair of tweener girls killing time at the beach and trying to forget the separation anxiety resulting from one of them moving away. Like all blissfully solipsistic kiddos, Claire and Hailey haven't entirely ruled out the possibility of an instant solution to their irrevocable quandry, and the film wryly coincides with their fantasies with the advent of its eponymous mermaid, an effervescent concoction of bouncy energy and irresistable scatterbrain who helpfully offers them a wish if they can snag her a mate to demonstrate that love exists - a concept unfamiliar to her species but nevertheless kickass because it means rescinding her arranged marriage.
Exceptional in its careful positioning of girls in delicate adolescence, Aquamarine alternates between sunny exposition and its characters' vivacious exploits, many of which end up revealing some adorable facet of naiveté concerning how the girls perceive themselves and their environment. Claire and Hailey keep mindful tabulation of other gals who flaunt their assets, predictably expressive of feelings of inadequacy associated with an uncomfortable age, and a run-in with effusive starfish earrings sweetly suggests the degree to which the girls' self-image is based on how other people view them. Dopey one-liners are no stranger to Jessica Bendinger and John Quaintance's screenplay but its unforced interactions spectacularly develop the nuanced relations between the trio of protagonists. Even before Aquamarine enters the picture the film is hard at work, nimbly scrutinizing Claire and Haley's friendship and elevating what could have easily been sluffed off as Cosmo BFF status into a genuine bond where the girls' shared trust, openness, and jocundity does not completely mask undercurrents of emotional fissure and self-interest. After Claire and Hailey's beachfront conversation, they happen upon Claire's grandparents who playfully pretend to have disposed of lifeguard and local hottie Raymond - much to the girl's dismay - as way of bonding with them via acknowledgement of their current fascinations. Moments later, Hailey reproduces the same trite fakeout upon Claire to implicitly derive self-worth by inciting her friend's fluster at her looming absence. Later that evening when the girls become abnormally skittish during a power flux they spontaneously serenade their friendship with silhouetted reaffirmation, but considering we've already been presented with multiple instances where the two have subtly exercised coercion and manipulation over the other, audiences are obviously not intended to interpret the pledge at face value.
When Aquamarine finally bursts onto the scene, she plays the part of role model to the girls and completely commandeers their activities. (It's worth a wish, after all.) The blonde routine is a riot but her presence is more an awesome force that radiates relative poise and physical maturity. Claire and Hailey sneak out to meet Aquamarine at nightfall but can't bail her out of the town swimming pool until morning where they stumble upon her in a supplies locker; before getting dressed, Aquamarine surveys her lower body swap - minus tail, plus legs - and exhibits noticeable delight at her newfound derrière, causing the girls to recoil at the perceived lewdness, yet Claire's following peek between clasped fingers betrays their conflicting stance concerning sexuality. For a spell the trio pursues Raymond, straining to construct elaborate scenarios to manipulate him to fall in love with Aquamarine, but the film is far too naturalistic to fall slave to its own premise. The snug, commonplace setting and casual acting is actually reminiscient of Italian Neorealism (kinda facetious and kinda sincere about that one!), and accordingly this section of the film remains dedicated to fleshing out relationships. Whereas the more reserved Claire tends to support Aquamarine from afar, Hailey connects with the mermaid instantaneously; the two find common ground in their headstrong personalities, culminating in a terrific scene where Aquamarine's confidence in love falters and Hailey curtails her attempt to flee not by reason or reassurance but rather self-degradation. As Hailey confesses her own confusion and insecurity, she is able to reconnect with Aquamarine through mutual vulnerability. Elizabeth Allen's use of extreme long distance here elegantly emphasizes the girls' emotional anchor as they are flanked by competing forces represented in the shot's physical terrain. So breathless are the grace and discerning of the film's exposition that it's easy to ignore the spirit of its numerous music montages - not exactly an approach considered quality in the making, but here it's a blast of fresh air to see the technique restored after a number of annoying suburban malaise films hijacked it a while back for the purpose of emo wankery and lazy drama, subverting its original purpose of turning things you don't particularly desire to watch people talk their way through into plain fun.
Aquamarine momentarily stumbles when it allows its inventive spins on familiar material to degenerate into well-trodden tenets of pop teen romance. The film's sensitive treatment of usually hackneyed territory is laudable; Claire's apprehension toward water due to her parents' drowning isn't played like an after-school special, but rather mentioned only when logically necessary, and later beautifully conveyed during a continuous dissolve between the mermaid arrving on the waves of the storm and Claire writhing in bed, denoting the unconscious leverage impressed upon her in order to viscerally demonstrate the emotional laceration of past events, effectively taking a clunker phobia subplot and transforming it - quite simply - into brilliant filmmaking. An innocuous tip the girls suggest to Aquamarine before her date with Raymond - "Be yourself ... minus the tail!" - momentarily registers as variation on Disney's brand of simplistic message-mongering but under scrutiny speaks to one aspect of the girls' conflict: the pressure to fit society's mold of love relationships by making individual concessions. Nevertheless, the film's vision is occasionally undermined by its refusal to provide equal treatment for other material. (The pool's impudent queen bee Cecilia provides a reasonable foil but after she gets her wings clipped the film just stops before the finish line. Her subplot should end with reconciliation rather than comeuppance.)
At a cursory glance designed as catnip for tweener femmes, Aquamarine's intimacy and depth ultimately suggest the marketing to be an appropriate aperture from film to target audience, and not a mechanism that excludes other age groups. Certainly there is nothing discriminative about the film's most magical scene, a moment of surprise calm punctuated by a swift zoom-out (indicative of a broader perspective, a shift in the girls' mindset that they're perhaps a step closer towards accepting having to make sacrifices when faced with unfairness and conflicting needs) and the dispersal of stormy stratocumulus into clear skies, a touching metaphor for an interpretation of love unclouded by romance and mysticism. Unlike an end of turn Waylay to the dome from a legendary Kyle Rose creation, Aquamarine is the kind of White Lightning at whose impact I will gladly flinch.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Breeding? More Like INbreeding!
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Aquamarine (97)
The Prestige (89)
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (81)
She's the Man (79)
Flushed Away (76)
The Devil Wears Prada (71)
Casino Royale (69)
Brick (67)
Monster House (65)
Duck Season (64)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (63)
An Inconvenient Truth (63)
Three Times (62)
"Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society" (62)
Déjà Vu (62)
The Great Happiness Space (61)
How to Eat Fried Worms (61)
Old Joy (60)
Brave Story (60)
L'Enfant (59)
Wordplay (59)
Samurai Warriors 2 (58)
A Prairie Home Companion (58)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (58)
Fearless (57)
Stick It (57)
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (57)
Mongolian Ping Pong (56)
Mission Impossible III (56)
Sketches of Frank Gehry (56)
Marie Antoinette (55)
Curse of the Golden Flower (55)
District B-13 (55)
The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (54)
Volver (54)
The Heart of the Game (54)
Idiocracy (53)
The Hidden Blade (53)
The Painted Veil (53)
Children of Men (52)
The Departed (52)
A Scanner Darkly (52)
Just My Luck (51)
Cars (51)
Crank (51)
Woman Is the Future of Man (51)
La Moustache (50)
Unaccompanied Minors (50)
Pulse (50)
Silent Hill (50)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (49)
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (49)
Inside Man (49)
A Good Woman (49)
Blood Tea and Red String (48)
Infamous (48)
Jesus Camp (48)
Jackass Number Two (48)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (48)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (47)
Hoot (47)
Half Nelson (47)
The Science of Sleep (47)
Underworld Evolution (46)
The Lake House (46)
Charlotte's Web (46)
Quinceanera (46)
Lucky Number Slevin (45)
The Great Yokai War (45)
Sleeping Dogs Lie (45)
For Your Consideration (45)
Clean (44)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (44)
Friends with Money (44)
Scoop (44)
10 Items or Less (43)
Happy Feet (43)
Tideland (43)
ATL (43)
Superman Returns (43)
Accepted (42)
Letters from Iwo Jima (42)
Stormbreaker (42)
Renaissance (42)
The Break-Up (41)
Apocalypto (41)
Nanny McPhee (41)
The Woods (41)
Down in the Valley (41)
Thank You for Smoking (40)
When A Stranger Calls (40)
The Queen (40)
Night Watch (40)
The U.S. vs John Lennon (40)
Failure to Launch (39)
The Pink Panther (39)
Perfume: Story of a Murderer (39)
Find Me Guilty (39)
Miami Vice (38)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (38)
The History Boys (38)
The Sentinel (38)
16 Blocks (38)
The Promise (37)
Scary Movie 4 (37)
The Good Shepherd (37)
Yo-Yo Girl Cop (37)
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (36)
The Notorious Bettie Page (36)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (36)
Winter Passing (36)
Running Scared (36)
Who Killed the Electric Car? (35)
Pan's Labyrinth (35)
Over the Hedge (35)
The Descent (35)
Ultraviolet (35)
Borat: Subtitle Etc (34)
Stranger than Fiction (34)
The Protector (34)
Aachi and Ssipak (34)
Akeelah and the Bee (34)
A Good Year (33)
The Guardian (33)
Open Season (33)
Firewall (33)
The Benchwarmers (33)
Azumi (32)
Curious George (32)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (32)
Take the Lead (32)
Clerks II (32)
Invincible (31)
Hollywoodland (31)
Notes on a Scandal (31)
Night at the Museum (31)
The Wicker Man (31)
Yonna in the Solitary Fortress [m] (30)
Man of the Year (30)
Deliver Us from Evil (30)
Last Holiday (30)
The Puffy Chair (29)
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (29)
Wii Sports (29)
The Last King of Scotland (29)
"High School Musical" (29)
The Da Vinci Code (28)
Art School Confidential (28)
The Holiday (28)
The Good German (28)
We Are Marshall (28)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (27)
All the King's Men (27)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (27)
The Proposition (27)
The Pursuit of Happyness (27)
Battle in Heaven (26)
Lady in the Water (26)
United 93 (26)
Dreamgirls (26)
Water (26)
The Fountain (25)
Rocky Balboa (25)
The Illusionist (25)
Fast Food Nation (25)
Annapolis (24)
BloodRayne (24)
Step Up (24)
The Nativity Story (24)
Snakes on a Plane (24)
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress (23)
Eragon (23)
Doogal (23)
The Night Listener (23)
RV (23)
Final Destination 3 (22)
Barnyard (22)
Don't Come Knocking (22)
Manderlay (22)
The Laws of Eternity (21)
The Ant Bully (21)
X-Men: The Last Stand (21)
Strangers with Candy (21)
Ice Age: The Meltdown (20)
V for Vendetta (20)
The Wild (20)
My Super-Ex Girlfriend (20)
Grandma's Boy (19)
Eight Below (19)
Poseidon (19)
Catch a Fire (19)
Crossover (18)
Wah Wah (18)
Something New (18)
Little Miss Sunshine (18)
Nacho Libre (17)
Flags of Our Fathers (17)
Edmond (17)
Why We Fight (17)
Shortbus (16)
Slither (16)
On a Clear Day (16)
Unknown White Male (16)
Everyone's Hero (15)
CSA: Confederate States of America (15)
Al Franken: God Spoke (15)
Imagine Me and You (15)
Lonesome Jim (14)
The Black Dahlia (14)
Flyboys (14)
Hard Candy (14)
Stay Alive (13)
School for Scoundrels (13)
American Dreamz (13)
Glory Road (13)
The Grudge 2 (12)
Wassup Rockers (12)
Gridiron Gang (12)
Big Momma's House 2 (11)
The Libertine (11)
Sherrybaby (11)
The Covenant (10)
Beerfest (10)
John Tucker Must Die (10)
The Last Kiss (10)
Blood Diamond (9)
The Shaggy Dog (9)
World Trade Center (9)
The Insatiable (8)
Babel (8)
Deck the Halls (7)
Trust the Man (7)
Peaceful Warrior (7)
Shadowboxer (6)
Freedomland (6)
Basic Instinct 2 (6)
Hair High (6)
Material Girls (5)
Princess (5)
Click (5)
You, Me and Dupree (4)
Zoom (4)
Let's Go to Prison (4)
Bobby (3)
Tsotsi (3)
Facing the Giants (3)
Pledge This! (2)
Running with Scissors (2)
Candy (2)
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2)
Live Freaky Die Freaky (1)
America: From Freedom to Fascism (1)
Little Man (1)
Little Children (1)
Date Movie (1)
Phat Girlz (1)
Eagerly Awaiting
Bubble
Children of Mana
"Death Note"
"Flag"
Inland Empire
Kingdom Hearts II
Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"
The Right of the Weakest
"Save Me! Lollipop"
Tales of Legendia
Least Anticipated
Brothers of the Head
Dead Man's Shoes
Death of a President
Factotum
Fateless
Final Fantasy XII
Fur
Heading South
Lassie
13 (Tzameti)
Twelve and Holding
1. Aquamarine
2. The Prestige
3. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
4. She's the Man
5. Flushed Away
6. The Devil Wears Prada
7. Casino Royale
8. Brick
9. Monster House
-
Aquamarine (97)
The Prestige (89)
Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (81)
She's the Man (79)
Flushed Away (76)
The Devil Wears Prada (71)
Casino Royale (69)
Brick (67)
Monster House (65)
Duck Season (64)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (63)
An Inconvenient Truth (63)
Three Times (62)
"Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society" (62)
Déjà Vu (62)
The Great Happiness Space (61)
How to Eat Fried Worms (61)
Old Joy (60)
Brave Story (60)
L'Enfant (59)
Wordplay (59)
Samurai Warriors 2 (58)
A Prairie Home Companion (58)
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (58)
Fearless (57)
Stick It (57)
Dave Chappelle's Block Party (57)
Mongolian Ping Pong (56)
Mission Impossible III (56)
Sketches of Frank Gehry (56)
Marie Antoinette (55)
Curse of the Golden Flower (55)
District B-13 (55)
The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters (54)
Volver (54)
The Heart of the Game (54)
Idiocracy (53)
The Hidden Blade (53)
The Painted Veil (53)
Children of Men (52)
The Departed (52)
A Scanner Darkly (52)
Just My Luck (51)
Cars (51)
Crank (51)
Woman Is the Future of Man (51)
La Moustache (50)
Unaccompanied Minors (50)
Pulse (50)
Silent Hill (50)
Neil Young: Heart of Gold (49)
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (49)
Inside Man (49)
A Good Woman (49)
Blood Tea and Red String (48)
Infamous (48)
Jesus Camp (48)
Jackass Number Two (48)
The Devil and Daniel Johnston (48)
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (47)
Hoot (47)
Half Nelson (47)
The Science of Sleep (47)
Underworld Evolution (46)
The Lake House (46)
Charlotte's Web (46)
Quinceanera (46)
Lucky Number Slevin (45)
The Great Yokai War (45)
Sleeping Dogs Lie (45)
For Your Consideration (45)
Clean (44)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (44)
Friends with Money (44)
Scoop (44)
10 Items or Less (43)
Happy Feet (43)
Tideland (43)
ATL (43)
Superman Returns (43)
Accepted (42)
Letters from Iwo Jima (42)
Stormbreaker (42)
Renaissance (42)
The Break-Up (41)
Apocalypto (41)
Nanny McPhee (41)
The Woods (41)
Down in the Valley (41)
Thank You for Smoking (40)
When A Stranger Calls (40)
The Queen (40)
Night Watch (40)
The U.S. vs John Lennon (40)
Failure to Launch (39)
The Pink Panther (39)
Perfume: Story of a Murderer (39)
Find Me Guilty (39)
Miami Vice (38)
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (38)
The History Boys (38)
The Sentinel (38)
16 Blocks (38)
The Promise (37)
Scary Movie 4 (37)
The Good Shepherd (37)
Yo-Yo Girl Cop (37)
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (36)
The Notorious Bettie Page (36)
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (36)
Winter Passing (36)
Running Scared (36)
Who Killed the Electric Car? (35)
Pan's Labyrinth (35)
Over the Hedge (35)
The Descent (35)
Ultraviolet (35)
Borat: Subtitle Etc (34)
Stranger than Fiction (34)
The Protector (34)
Aachi and Ssipak (34)
Akeelah and the Bee (34)
A Good Year (33)
The Guardian (33)
Open Season (33)
Firewall (33)
The Benchwarmers (33)
Azumi (32)
Curious George (32)
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (32)
Take the Lead (32)
Clerks II (32)
Invincible (31)
Hollywoodland (31)
Notes on a Scandal (31)
Night at the Museum (31)
The Wicker Man (31)
Yonna in the Solitary Fortress [m] (30)
Man of the Year (30)
Deliver Us from Evil (30)
Last Holiday (30)
The Puffy Chair (29)
Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny (29)
Wii Sports (29)
The Last King of Scotland (29)
"High School Musical" (29)
The Da Vinci Code (28)
Art School Confidential (28)
The Holiday (28)
The Good German (28)
We Are Marshall (28)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (27)
All the King's Men (27)
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (27)
The Proposition (27)
The Pursuit of Happyness (27)
Battle in Heaven (26)
Lady in the Water (26)
United 93 (26)
Dreamgirls (26)
Water (26)
The Fountain (25)
Rocky Balboa (25)
The Illusionist (25)
Fast Food Nation (25)
Annapolis (24)
BloodRayne (24)
Step Up (24)
The Nativity Story (24)
Snakes on a Plane (24)
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress (23)
Eragon (23)
Doogal (23)
The Night Listener (23)
RV (23)
Final Destination 3 (22)
Barnyard (22)
Don't Come Knocking (22)
Manderlay (22)
The Laws of Eternity (21)
The Ant Bully (21)
X-Men: The Last Stand (21)
Strangers with Candy (21)
Ice Age: The Meltdown (20)
V for Vendetta (20)
The Wild (20)
My Super-Ex Girlfriend (20)
Grandma's Boy (19)
Eight Below (19)
Poseidon (19)
Catch a Fire (19)
Crossover (18)
Wah Wah (18)
Something New (18)
Little Miss Sunshine (18)
Nacho Libre (17)
Flags of Our Fathers (17)
Edmond (17)
Why We Fight (17)
Shortbus (16)
Slither (16)
On a Clear Day (16)
Unknown White Male (16)
Everyone's Hero (15)
CSA: Confederate States of America (15)
Al Franken: God Spoke (15)
Imagine Me and You (15)
Lonesome Jim (14)
The Black Dahlia (14)
Flyboys (14)
Hard Candy (14)
Stay Alive (13)
School for Scoundrels (13)
American Dreamz (13)
Glory Road (13)
The Grudge 2 (12)
Wassup Rockers (12)
Gridiron Gang (12)
Big Momma's House 2 (11)
The Libertine (11)
Sherrybaby (11)
The Covenant (10)
Beerfest (10)
John Tucker Must Die (10)
The Last Kiss (10)
Blood Diamond (9)
The Shaggy Dog (9)
World Trade Center (9)
The Insatiable (8)
Babel (8)
Deck the Halls (7)
Trust the Man (7)
Peaceful Warrior (7)
Shadowboxer (6)
Freedomland (6)
Basic Instinct 2 (6)
Hair High (6)
Material Girls (5)
Princess (5)
Click (5)
You, Me and Dupree (4)
Zoom (4)
Let's Go to Prison (4)
Bobby (3)
Tsotsi (3)
Facing the Giants (3)
Pledge This! (2)
Running with Scissors (2)
Candy (2)
Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2)
Live Freaky Die Freaky (1)
America: From Freedom to Fascism (1)
Little Man (1)
Little Children (1)
Date Movie (1)
Phat Girlz (1)
Eagerly Awaiting
Bubble
Children of Mana
"Death Note"
"Flag"
Inland Empire
Kingdom Hearts II
Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"
The Right of the Weakest
"Save Me! Lollipop"
Tales of Legendia
Least Anticipated
Brothers of the Head
Dead Man's Shoes
Death of a President
Factotum
Fateless
Final Fantasy XII
Fur
Heading South
Lassie
13 (Tzameti)
Twelve and Holding
1. Aquamarine
2. The Prestige
3. Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
4. She's the Man
5. Flushed Away
6. The Devil Wears Prada
7. Casino Royale
8. Brick
9. Monster House
-
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