japh

the footage in the wild blue yonder is entrancing, and the soundtrack works well with it. it's the kind of footage you never see. the mundane world of space. the underwater footage is also mesmerizing.

but the ridiculous plot with its naive alien meanderings - would extra-terrestrials who somehow have isolated earth as a place to travel, put all that effort and technology to the task, be so utterly stupid? the absurd overacting by brad dourif (although what more could he have done with those lines)? why, werner, why? which came first, access to the footage or the idea? because the film really comes across as the results of someone who found himself with really fantastic space/underwater footage and wanted to use it somehow. the plot, of sorts, feels painfully stitched around this - unnecessarily so. excise the plot and it's still a beautiful film, meditating on our obsession with exploring outer/inner reaches.

still, it's not like this dud will prevent me from potentially enjoying any future herzog works. i will go out of my way to see them, regardless. i suppose it's just that after enjoying so many of his films that this one stands out for me as singularly disappointing.

a couple of years after finishing fitzcarraldo, werner herzog took on where the green ants dream.

it's a film much lighter in emotional intensity, but covers the serious topic of aborigine land claims. wandjuk and roy marika are wonderful as the two aborigine leads (wandjuk's didgeridoo playing is a treat), helping to provoke the sense of injustice the film raises. i can't imagine how the film was received in australia in 1984, but it must have made an impact and stirred the controversial pot.

the pace of this film is slowed down, giving us an overview of landscape and lifestyle. as well, there is some good humour tucked away within this potentially heavy subject matter. bruce spence does a good turn as a mining employee stuck between his company loyalties and his growing understanding of the aborigine way of life. i really like what herzog has done here, although the film does feel a bit heavy handed at moments (there are a few scenes which he mentions regretting he didn't shoot differently in the commentary track to the film). regardless, the work holds up well to continue to illustrate the ongoing issue of land rights not just in australia, but for aboriginal peoples around the world. combined with the stellar acting, where the green ants dream remains well worth watching.

i've been busy over here. there's video & sounds & and goodness.

it wasn't until later that i realised steve buscemi's interview was a remake. had i been aware i would have watched the original. why remake something only four years old?

without having all of this in mind, though, i enjoyed the film. it is clever and sneaky and keeps you guessing. in the end i didn't care for either of the characters, as they both seem far too self-absorbed. but their the slow reveal of their motivations is well executed. buscemi is one of those actor/directors who is full of surprises. despite being a likely unnecessary remake, i'd still recommend this.

i like the little note in his wikipedia bio about john waters wanting him to play waters if there is ever a biopic done. i'd pay to see that any day.

with the excellently long title of the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford, you get the inkling you are in for a long one. at 160 min it is indeed long, but incredibly watchable.

i don't know enough about jesse james & the whole mythos to get into hair-splitting detail. i do know, though, that the film's slow, meditative pace is captivating. and that brad pitt, casey affleck & sam rockwell all do the western film tradition a good turn with their contemplative performances. isn't this what a good western should be? like the zombie genre, the western is best served with a heaping side of existentialism.

this is another one of those films i was skeptical of, but which blew my expectations away. i don't want to like brad pitt, but he does so many damn good roles that i can't help but admire his acting (admittedly, he didn't take off for me until 1995 in se7ven - although i think i liked him in kalifornia i can hardly remember that one anymore). when i look at his list of work, though, i admit i have skipped every third or fourth film. life's too short to take a 90 minute chance on some of them.

i almost forgot the name of the film. seriously, i had to sit here for a second trying to remember it. i worked that hard to block it out.

he was a quiet man is one of those films that sound good on paper. quirky plot, christian slater, a bureaucratic nightmare. but it quickly unravels as trying too damn hard. some of the writing didn't make the leap from page to mouth very well, and overall the mix of serious/quirky didn't work. it reminded me of that other disappointing filmbomb breakfast of champions. a film to skip.

good thing slater is already working for tv or this could have hurt his career (but, then, is working for tv a disparaging concept any more? or just the natural progression of life in hollywoodland?).

volver. didn't like it. wanted to. but didn't.

i think i would have liked the whole thing better if it really had been a magical realist approach, rather than a deflating of the unreal. in the end it felt really uninteresting to me. the acting was fine, the filmmaking was alright, but the final result left me wanting. there is nothing in particular to disparage here, just a film that didn't make me care about it. i was left feeling blah, like this was plodding over too-familiar ground. like it was a european film from the thirty or forty years ago (which i'd rather watch any day).

i don't know. sometimes it's hard to articulate what your gut is telling you. all i know is that my gut told me to stay away from this one if i ever come near it again.

i loved kitchen confidential and assumed i'd get a kick out of his turn as travel host. but there are so many goofy skits & references in his no reservations show that it grows tiresome.

when he talks about food, though, look out. his passion is infectious. and this coming from a vegan who wouldn't go within a mile of most of what he consumes. but i like his overall ethos of challenging his palate, and self, by engaging the world whole-heartedly.

the show is at its best when he leaves his comfort zone, when he goes far out into the jungle or obscure marketplaces. this is when he is reflective and inspired. the episodes in vegas and new jersey simply made me want to stop watching the show. they didn't teach us anything or make us yearn to try something new. they were just excuses to make silly references & look pop-cultural.

regardless of his ideas, i imagine bourdain would be a fun guy to sit down and have some drinks and food with. he isn't entirely afraid to look like a fool (although i get the sense he'd prefer to look cool), and is self-aware enough to make fun of his own misgivings (like mocking his own constant and inappropriate apocalypse now references while in malaysia). sadly, his contempt for my hezbollah-like vegan kin would likely not bring us together over bread in this life.

daft punk's electroma felt like it could have been trimmed down. significantly. cut into, perhaps, three music videos. for example:

1) robots travel and become human
2) robots fail at becoming human
3) robots travel, decide existence no longer has meaning and self-destruct

there is beautiful cinematography here, but it dwells and wanders at length for no explicable reason. for instance, the car scene at the beginning is shot from nearly every conceivable angle which begins to feel academic and pointless. the reason i propose the film is really only a couple of music videos is because the actual running time of 74 min is forced. all of the extraneous shots seem like attempts to extend the film beyond a more reasonable fifteen minutes.

at times electroma reminded me of the maligned brown bunny - but gallo used the extended travel shots to give us a sense of journey (personal/literal), whereas the robots' journey feels, well, nothing more than mechanical. at times the electroma felt like a car commercial with all of its emphasis on shiny bits and technical camera work.

would i watch this again? no. would i recommend it? sadly, probably not.