More retro movie thoughts...

(And, finally...also from August '07)

I'm treating Netflix as my own private film school. I've gotten really annoyed with Blockbuster, who A) only stocks 40 copies of the latest Lindsay Lohan movie, B) overcharges and C) randomly cuts scenes it finds to be offensive. (Always involving sex, and never violence. You know, I would respect it if they just refused to stock certain films, but re-cutting what the writer, director and studio produced? How is that even legal?)

"Lantana" (2001)
A wonderful little Australian drama/thriller starring Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey and Geoffrey Rush, directed by Ray Lawrence. It's difficult to describe without giving away to many details of the plot…but let's just say it concerns a half-dozen or so characters interacting due to the disappearance of a woman. (Most of the reviews at the time it came out went ahead and said exactly which character disappeared, but since it doesn't happen until halfway through the movie, I think it's important not to spoil it. Also, the film does a great job of setting up a couple of different possibilities as to which female character it is…you'll enjoy it more if it's left open.) See it because of the lovely character-driven plot (reminded me a lot of John Sayles' "Lone Star") and the phenomenal acting. That last bit might be unfairly hurt if you're used to watching LaPaglia on "Without a Trace," where he plays a very similar character to the depressed detective he plays here. This is one you'll want to watch more than once.

"The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007)
Or, as I like to call it, "The Bourne Disequilibrium." If you're bad about motion sickness, you might want to wait for video on this one. I was forewarned and so I sat on the back row at the theatre, and it still made me queasy. As we all know by now, this is the third (and last?) of the film series starring Matt Damon as an amnesiac killing machine trained by the U.S. government. Since this is a new release, you can find a zillion other reviews of it, so these are just my observations: Shaky cam: why? Fighting is chaotic; we get it, move on. Do not go to the restroom during the film – the plot moves so quickly, you'll be completely lost by the time you get back. The acting is great, of course. This one follows a trend in action films that I happen to like, where we see the hero exhibiting physical and even emotional vulnerability. For those of us who thought "Terminator 2" was more interesting than the first one, this is a good thing. Completely worth your $7. One quibble: what happened to Julia Stiles? She throws off more heat in one frame of "10 Things I Hate About You" than in the entire Bourne trilogy. Maybe she's going for cold and rational, but she just comes across as wooden. For a better portrayal of the cold/rational thing, see Exhibit A: Allen, Joan.

"Live Free or Die Hard" (2007)
I saw this directly after seeing Bourne…interesting double-header. I love Bruce Willis, and I've always had a soft spot for the "Die Hard" movies, believe it or not. Something about the fact that they had him running around barefoot through most of the first film…this man is no cyborg. Again, you can read plenty of reviews, so I'm just going to give you my reactions: Timothy Olyphant as bad guy…something's not working here. I loved him as the sketchy/sexy drug dealer in "Go," but when I see him try to be a bad guy here or in his "angry" scenes in "Deadwood," I just don't believe it. One of the things that worked best about the first two "Die Hard"s was the sense of claustrophobia, which they lost a bit in the third film. Even though this takes place in several cities over a, what 36-hour or so period? it still had that urgency for me. Throwing car into helicopter: cool. Riding fighter jet to the ground: preposterous, especially for a senior citizen. When people are shouting, "Oh, come on!" at a "Die Hard" movie, you know it's out there.

"Secretary" (2002)
Can I just say I'm developing a major crush on Maggie Gyllenhaal? Not in a sexual way; I just think she's awesome. And I loved this movie. She plays Lee, an emotionally disturbed young woman, recently out of the mental hospital, who still struggles not to cut herself in between making stabs (oops!) at starting a normal life. She lands a job working for a delightfully OCD attorney played by James Spader. (Now, really…when you read "delightfully OCD," could you really picture anyone but James Spader?) It's the quirkiest of the quirky love stories, even if the ending is a little too neat (and even if Spader swallows half of his dialogue). My girl Maggie is just a joy to watch; you don't even realize how the character's gaining strength throughout until you go back and watch her at the beginning again. A lot of people may hate this one and find it horrible and demeaning, but I loved it because I identified so much with Lee, thanks to Gyllenhaal's performance. Do not see if you have no appreciation for S&M; it figures pretty prominently in the plot.

"Layer Cake" (2004)
I put this one on my queue after seeing "Casino Royale" – I want to see everything Daniel Craig's ever made, including the home movies. This one's a British crime/thriller also starring British crime/thriller go-to guy Colm Meaney and the guy who played Katanga in "Raiders of the Lost Ark," along with New Dumbledore (a.k.a Michael Gambon) in a key role. Craig plays a straitlaced, routine-oriented drug dealer with plans to get out early and clean, until the "layer cake" of the criminal life sucks him in. Very splicy plot, sometimes hard to follow…just roll with it; I promise it all makes sense in the end. In the meantime, there are some fun matched edits to enjoy. Also a little Sienna Miller (before she exploded), if you're into that sort of thing. It's the first time I'd seen her in a film, and I was kind of turned off because she looks like a drugged-out Jessica Simpson in her first scene, but I'm sure she's a lovely person. I didn't like the ending – thought it was too gimmicky/look how clever we are, a la "The Departed". If you get the DVD, there are two alternate endings, and I liked the second one better. Overall, a fun, well-written film that I can't believe I missed the first time around.

"El Mariachi" (1992)
My Robert Rodriquez-love cannot be complete until I've seen it…and now I have. This one comes on a DVD with the better-financed sequel "Desperado," as well as Rodriguez's early short film "Bedhead." This is the studio version, of course, after more than the legendary $7,000 it took to shoot had been spent cleaning it up and distributing it. Fortunately, the DVD includes sequences of the original video (which Rodriguez used to edit), so you can still see what he produced. No, it's not perfect. The female lead, Domino, supposedly has this "ferocious body" which we never get to see because every shot of her is a freaky full-face close-up…Too many shots cut off the speakers' chins and mouths…One set, a bar, is lit differently every time, which wreaks havoc on our sense of time (now it's day time, now it's not…)…Said bar's interior and exterior match up not one bit. Still, it's a phenomenal accomplishment. Rodriguez shot this with literally no crew, which, if you've ever been on a film set, is just mind-boggling to think about. It's worth it to watch a second time with his commentary – he's great about explaining all the tricks you can use to shoot a low budget film. (Hint: a little bit of planning goes a long way. A lot of edits go even further.) What was interesting to me was that he shot at least large chunks of it MOS (without sound), like Francois Truffaut did with "The 400 Blows." That's a great way to save time and money, because you don't have to worry about keeping the set totally quiet while you shoot. However, it means that you have to go back and record audio for every scene after it's shot and then try to sync it up. That's one reason why there are so many cuts in this one – every time the actors start to look like they're in a Samarai film, he just cuts away, even if it's in the middle of a line. If you're a film geek, this one's a must-see.

That's it for now…I've got "Borat" in the queue, as well as a bio-pic of Francis Bacon that allegedly features some Daniel Craig frontal nudity (woo-hoo!), so stay tuned…