Viewing Log: 2015
An on-going list of films I watched for the first time in 2015, arranged in the order in which I saw them.
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145 titles
- DirectorAndrzej ZulawskiStarsRomy SchneiderFabio TestiJacques DutroncServais Mont, a photographer, meets Nadine Chevalier who earns her money starring in cheap soft-core movies. Trying to help her, he borrows the money from the loan sharks to finance the theatrical production of 'Richard III' and gives Nadine a part. Nadine is torn apart between Servais, for whom she is falling in love, and her husband Jacques, to whom she has moral obligations.
- 8/10
- DirectorGeoff MurphyStarsBruno LawrenceAlison RoutledgePete SmithA scientist awakens to find himself alone in the world. In a desperate attempt to search for others, he finds only two who have their own agenda.A film of three acts, in which each act becomes progressively weaker. The atmospheric, darkly comic last man on earth fantasy of the first is great; the Adam & Eve in the new Eden frolic of the second is fun if insignificant; the mystical love triangle finale is just frustrating. A film that always seems on the cusp of something (a clue, a revelation, a feeling), but continually denies the audience anything concrete.
- 7/10
- DirectorEdward D. Wood Jr.StarsEdward D. Wood Jr.Bela LugosiLyle TalbotA psychiatrist tells the stories of a transvestite (Glen or Glenda) and a pseudohermaphrodite (Alan or Anne).Although elements of the film are as incompetent as one might expect given Wood's reputation & the quality of his later "Plan 9", there is nonetheless a fearlessness & originality that makes the experience of the film entirely unique. The astounding nightmarish sequence is not only an expression of genuine surrealism analogous to Cocteau, it manages to predict the entire career of David Lynch decades before Lynch was even a name.
- 7/10
- DirectorMatthew HolnessStarsMatthew HolnessRoger Ashton-GriffithsEdward HalstedAn author of a book series called "The Reprisaliser", lives a lonely life which he can't seem to seperate from from his fiction. At the end of his tether, he comes into the possession of a gun.Continues the nostalgic appropriation of Marenghi's Darkplace; this time rejecting the influences of Hammer Horror and the Italian B-movie for the kind of grim vigilante drama that defined the 1970s. Although framed as a comedy the tone is aggressively depressing; the character's escape into his own violent fiction providing a release from a landscape as bleak and soulless as the vast urban structures that define it.
- 7/10
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsHenry FondaVera MilesAnthony QuayleIn 1953, an innocent man named Christopher Emanuel "Manny" Balestrero is arrested after being mistaken for an armed robber.A typical Hitchcockian motif delivered in an atypical style. Here the filmmaker pares back his stylisations to deliver a story "ripped from the headlines." There's a grittiness & almost procedural-like actuality to the way the thing develops, but this only seems to make the (real life) story feel all the more preposterous & far-fetched. I prefer Hitchcock when he's pushing the Freudian analysis & dreamlike abstraction.
- 7/10
- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsAlicia SilverstoneStacey DashBrittany MurphyShallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.
- 7/10
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsUdo KierKirsten OlesenHenning JensenMedea is in Corinth with Jason and their two young sons. King Kreon wants to reward Jason for his exploits: he gives the hand of his daughter, Glauce, to Jason as well as the promise of the throne. In exchange, Medea and the boys are to be banished. Jason explains that his actions ensure a rich future for Medea and her sons. She asks that she be allowed to stay; Kreon refuses. She asks for one more day, and begs Jason to seek the king's permission to allow their sons to stay in Corinth. Jason agrees and Medea prepares a gift for her sons to give to Glauce. Will Medea leave peacefully?Nowhere near Pasolini's extraordinary, hallucinatory & sympathetic take on the same legend. Nonetheless, Trier's typically arduous appropriation of Medea as another condemnation of hypocrisy & the subjugation of women plays like the superior version of the filmmaker's own Breaking the Waves. Once again, wilful suffering leads to spiritual transcendence, but without the overt manipulation/provocation of his later film.
- 8/10
- DirectorClive BarkerStarsCraig ShefferDavid CronenbergAnne BobbyA troubled young man is drawn to a mythical place called Midian where a variety of friendly monsters are hiding from humanity. Meanwhile, a sadistic serial killer is looking for a patsy.
- 7/10
- DirectorAbel FerraraStarsLili TaylorChristopher WalkenAnnabella SciorraA New York philosophy grad student turns into a vampire after getting bitten by one, and then tries to come to terms with her new lifestyle and frequent craving for human blood.Ferrara beats the audience over the head with his vampirism as drug addiction analogy until it no longer seems intelligent and instead becomes rather dull. The difficulty here is this; after establishing the central metaphor, Ferrara & writer Nicholas St. John have no idea where to take it. While beautifully filmed & performed, the end result feels academic; its philosophical musings obvious to the point of cliché.
- 6/10
- DirectorThom AndersenStarsEncke KingBen AlexanderJim BackusA documentary on how Los Angeles has been used and depicted in the movies.
- 10/10
- DirectorPaul SchraderStarsMichael J. FoxGena RowlandsJoan JettA pair of siblings must choose whether to pursue their dream of touring with their rock band or support their family and stay in Cleveland, Ohio.A dizzying retreat from the amazing & imaginative stylisations of Schrader's previous work. While the performances are great and the film is emotionally engaging, it just feels like a TV movie; the direction is bland & unadventurous, erring on the side of soap-opera. You'd hardly guess this was the work of the same filmmaker that had just directed such visually sophisticated masterpieces as American Gigolo & Mishima.
- 7/10
- DirectorMike HodgesStarsMel SmithGriff Rhys JonesJoanne PearceA trio of moronic aliens crash-land on Earth and become celebrities, while a fourth alien, who arrives separately, finds himself ignored.Mike Hodges directed some powerful and provocative films; this isn't one of them. Although the cheap and cheerful production design and approach to sci-fi iconography is initially quite amusing, the film itself is more annoying than funny, while the efforts to satirise celebrity (or the cult of celebrity) are obvious and weak. At the end you have to ask, is it a film about moronic characters, or just a moronic film?
- 3/10
- DirectorPrinceMichael BallhausStarsPrinceJerome BentonKristin Scott ThomasTwo con artist brothers attempt to swindle a soon-to-be wealthy heiress, but things get complicated when one falls in love with her.
- 7/10
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsSteve McQueenAli MacGrawBen JohnsonA recently-released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.Peckinpah injecting some of his trademark style (and trademark violence) into a routine genre assignment. The results aren't as powerful or as memorable as many of the director's more personal projects, but nonetheless there are some amazing sequences, moments & supporting characters littered throughout, with the natural screen presence/chemistry between McQueen & McGraw giving the action a much needed human element.
- 7/10
- DirectorJean-Claude BrisseauStarsBruno CremerEmmanuelle DebeverMaría Luisa GarcíaA strict father imposes impossible guidelines on his disabled daughter which reflect his secret, tortured life.
- 8/10
- DirectorPeter BogdanovichStarsAudrey HepburnBen GazzaraPatti HansenA madcap private-eye caper about a team of detectives who are following, and are being followed by, a group of beautiful women.
- 10/10
- DirectorJean-Claude BrisseauStarsVincent GasperitschMaría Luisa GarcíaFrançois NégretBruno is 14. When his grandmother dies, he returns to Bagnolet with his mother who is rarely there. At school he meets Jean-Roger, who introduces him to a group of delinquents.
- 10/10
- DirectorClint EastwoodStarsBradley CooperSienna MillerKyle GallnerNavy S.E.A.L. sniper Chris Kyle's pinpoint accuracy saves countless lives on the battlefield and turns him into a legend. Back home with his family after four tours of duty, however, Chris finds that it is the war he can't leave behind.Eastwood's filmmaking has become as dull, reactionary & conservative as his personal politics. His monotonous colour scheme of desert storm beige, archaic approach to coverage & generally unadventurous editing seem only to reinforce the idea that this is a "serious" film. The jingoism, bible thumping & tasteless celebration of a killer for Oscar-bait credibility stinks of the worst kind of propaganda. A hateful film.
- 3/10
- DirectorSam PeckinpahStarsJames CoburnKris KristoffersonRichard JaeckelPat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.The usual superlatives hold true; this is Peckinpah's final statement on the end of the "west", on violence, on masculinity, on the passing of tradition. When Garrett shoots out his own reflection following the death of the Kid, it communicates so much about this loss of identity, the self-hated & the disillusionment felt by those who saw their country slowly slip away from them as one generation gave in to the next.
- 10/10
- DirectorCosta-GavrasStarsYves MontandSimone SignoretGabriele FerzettiA high-ranking official is forced to confess to high treason.
- 9/10
- DirectorAlfred HitchcockStarsRobert DonatMadeleine CarrollLucie MannheimA man in London tries to help a counter-espionage agent, but when the agent is killed and the man stands accused, he must go on the run to save himself and stop a spy ring that is trying to steal top-secret information.
- 5/10
- DirectorJean-Claude BrisseauStarsCoralie RevelSabrina SeyvecouRoger MiremontNathalie teaches Sandrine that sexual transgression can cause violent pleasure and give those who use it a powerful weapon to climb the social hierarchy. They decide to get a job in a bank, a place where victims abound.The least of Brisseau's erotic cycle is at its best when showcasing the playful sexuality of its central characters & their attempts to exploit the male-dominated world of office politics. Later shifts towards post-Eyes Wide Shut level psychodrama & proto-Fifty Shades style S&M horror plunge the movie towards a level of self-parody, with none of the deeper existentialism that elevated the filmmaker's subsequent work.
- 6/10
- DirectorJean-Claude BrisseauStarsVanessa ParadisBruno CremerLudmila MikaëlFrancois, 49, is a happily married teacher. Concerned that rebellious student Mathilde is going to be expelled he sets out to help her but is soon drawn into a passionate relationship with her which has devastating consequences.Another Brisseau personal fantasy; here elevated by interesting theoretical discussions on human behaviour, nature and the cosmos. The standard "teacher seduced by student" wish-fulfilment is very French and not so interesting, but the vague (if undeveloped) hints at the metaphysical (if not actually "supernatural") push the interpretation of the characters' relationship into a more exciting and provocative sphere.
- 8/10
- DirectorDonald PetrieStarsSandra BullockMichael CaineBenjamin BrattAn F.B.I. Agent must go undercover in the Miss United States beauty pageant to prevent a group from bombing the event.Harmless enough light entertainment, but with too great a reliance on jokes about Bullock's "plain" tomboy masculinity in contrast to the airhead empowerment of the beauty pageant, as social spectacle; still not enough emphasis on the mystery/procedural aspects of the plot. Could have been approached as a giallo take on Pygmalion (with potential terrorist replacing black-gloved killer), but instead it's just fluff.
- 5/10
- DirectorLee TamahoriStarsPierce BrosnanHalle BerryRosamund PikeJames Bond is sent to investigate the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a diamond mogul, who is funding the development of an international space weapon.A Bond film that embraces the illogical nature of the character and runs wild with it. The entertainment value is through the roof; the imaginative plot involving face-swopping villains, ice fortresses, a laser shooting satellite and cars that turn invisible. Bad CGI action sequences unfortunately break up the party; bending cinematic credibility beyond breaking point and pushing the franchise towards DTV oblivion.
- 6/10