Friday, August 30, 2002

This is the third Welles I've seen (after Kane, Othello, and Touch Of Evil) and the second one I've totally lost my shit over. Touch Of Evil is the other one I really love. I think I had the same problem with Kane that many who see it for the first time do, its been built up so much that there is no way for it to ever live up. I only saw it for the first time a couple years ago (after I had already seen Othello and Touch Of Evil) and while I understood that it was a triumph of filmmaking, and it made me uderstand some Simpsons jokes that had previously flown over my head, it just didn't resonate with me. It doesn't help that I had seen most of the film in other contexts anyways. Lady From Shanghai came out of nowhere for me, so it makes sense that it would have more of an impact. [more]

Posted by gdd @ 10:06 AM CST [Link]

Thursday, August 29, 2002

I feel I like a little distance from this to truly judge it as a film, since I have a lot of affinity and sympathy for the skateboarding subculture. However I really enjoyed this, and as a documentary I feel like it was quite successful. It realy educated and enlightened me about a groups of people and their influence that I would have remained ignorant of otherwise. [more]

Posted by gdd @ 09:37 PM CST [Link]

Tuesday, August 27, 2002

Recent events have kept me from keeping up my update ratio as well as I might like. However, there's a new pinball on the street. If you see one anywhere, please drop a buck in and play a couple games. The industry thanks you. As a way of catching up, here are some brief notes on things I've seen recently [more]

Posted by gdd @ 10:21 AM CST [Link]

I realized recently that I have like four movie channels which broadcast interesting films to varying degrees, and decided to start taking advantage of it. Of the four (IFC, American Movie Classics, Turner Classic Movies, Fox Movie Channel) TCM is by far the best. Its lineup is heavy with older films and noteworthy directors, and barely a day goes by when I don't find something worth taping. Additionally, I have yet to see them broadcast a film in anything other than its original aspect ratio. This is more than I can say for IFC, whose programming is almost as interesting as TCM's, except they consistently show pan and scan versions of films, which I refuse to watch. AMC is also bad in this regard, but their lineup is less interesting so it doesn't really bother me as much. FMC tries to balance things, showing both pan and scan and letterboxed versions of widescreen films so that you can watch according to your preference. This actually doesn't bother me really, except when I discover something like Visconti's The Leopard being shown after the letterboxed version has already been broadcast. That one hurt. Anyways, I already have like two weeks worth of viewing on tape now, and thats cool by me. [more]

Posted by gdd @ 10:10 AM CST [Link]

Wednesday, August 21, 2002

I had never heard of this film by Italian director Luchino Visconti and somehow didn't notice it in the Film Center's calendar for this month when I went through it. After reading a blurb in The Onion's Picks section I decided to check it out.
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Posted by gdd @ 10:17 AM CST [Link]

Tuesday, August 20, 2002

Two classic old Billy Wilders I hadn't seen before. Actually I don't think I've really seen much of any Bill Wilders before. Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot are about it prior to last weekend.

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Posted by gdd @ 10:08 AM CST [Link]

Monday, August 5, 2002

Up there with Minority Report as disappointment of the year, for many of the same reasons. This post contains even more massive spoilers than usual.
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Posted by gdd @ 07:39 PM CST [Link]

It is impossible for me to have any kind of critical or emotional distance from this film, Sam Jones' documentary on the making of Wilco's modern pop classic Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I am a Chicagoan, a musician, and a drooling Wilco fan. This film contains places I have seen shows, places I have played shows, places I haves recorded, and people I know. To think that I can view this with a strictly critical or aesthetic eye is pretty ridiculous. Also, for a bunch of personal reasons, the film happened to catch me a point when its subject hit home particularly hard. With all that in mind, I will say that this is a wonderful work, and if any film this year connects with me as deeply I will be pretty amazed.
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Posted by gdd @ 05:05 PM CST [Link]

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