Kung Fu Panda (2008)

It was meant to be.

District 9 (2009)

This film begins as a fascinating political allegory on the motifs of segregation and xenophobia but degenerates into a typical action movie shoot-em-up. No one comes out looking good in this film. Except, possibly, for the aliens.

The Parking Lot Movie (2010)

This movie began as a Buddhist meditation and gradually crescendoed into a montage of rage and frustration against humanity before then settling down into an existential comment on man's relationship with control.

Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)

An amazing, heartbreaking film by Louis Malle. Takes place at a French boarding school during WWII. Please see it. Based upon actual events of the director's life.

Escabana in da Moonlight (2000)

A deer hunter in Michigan needs to "bag a buck" so that, at 43, he doesn't become the oldest member of his family never to have done so. I wouldn't have though it possible to combine goofiness and mysticism, but that's precisely what this film does. Jeff Daniels writes, directs, and stars. If you want to call it that.

Blue State (2007)

Nice movie about political convictions, vows upheld, and vows reconsidered. Premise: In 2004, the main character vows to move to Canada if W. is re-elected. He is and he does. The film manages to represent a number of different political views without appearing awkward and preachy. The actress who plays Sookie on True Blood is the female lead. (Actors listed on the Netflix blurb: Breckin Meyer, Anna Paquin, and Mike Bell.) Some Canadians don't like folks from the United States.

Exit through the Gift Shop (2010)

This is a film documenting the rocketting success of artist Thierry Guetta, otherwise known as Mr. Brainwash. I come away from this film with conflicted feelings. I don't relish seeing the art business as a joke, and this is, in very large part, how the film portrays it. At the same time, I think that art and market are connected as an expression of a third, larger, cultural phenomenon. Mr. Brainwash is successful, which means that, at some level, his work speaks to people. The fact that I don't care for most of the art should be irrelevant to an evaluation of its historical place. The fact remains, however, that this film leaves a bad taste in my mouth and a heightened personal conviction that art and the art business -- should not be this way.

Between Science and Garbage (2003)

A presentation of Living Cinema. Bob Ostertag and Pierre Hebert's evolving collection of multimedia performances beginning one week after September 11 and ending with the US/UK invasion of Iraq in March 2003. I will not explain it. It is a powerful piece and, as such, is a success if only because it makes me think, simply, monosyllabically, art yes, war no. It is viscerally disturbing while being programmatic.

shrink (2009)

Kevin Spacey is a pot-smoking therapist to the stars who is mourning his wife after her suicide. I liked this movie quite a bit. Things don't resolve, exactly, but they do work out.

Special (2006)

Cervantes told the same basic story of the human drive toward heroism four hundred years ago except without the drug. Haverman substitutes an antidepressent for the tales of chivalry that unhinged Cervantes' protagonist. An intriguing movie.

Oyster Farmer (2004)

A drifter makes his way to an Australian village and works with eighth generation oyster farmers. He has mailed himself a package of stolen money that gets lost. He falls in love with a local girl. There are other storylines that run parallel and that concern the lives and romances, etc., of the other oyster farmers. I can recognize that this was a good movie, but it did little for me. I found the characters rather dull-witted.

Mary and Max (2008)

A clay-mation film about the long pen-palship between a young Australian girl and a middle-aged NYC man with Asperger's. It was supposed to be uplifting and celebratory of the human spirit... and I suppose it was, but my God it was depressing... Sad, lonely people in a sad, lonely world.

Bubble (2006)

This is a movie that takes place in a depressed Ohio town whose main industry is the manufacture of dolls. There is a strange love triangle that takes place among three workers at the doll factory. The complete absence of affect -- facial, vocal, emotional, etc. -- in all of the characters underscores a certain ubiquitous psychopathic ethos throughout. There's a murder, and it's pretty obvious whodunnit. The most interesting bit was the closing montage of doll parts. I may be missing something about this movie, but I doubt it. Steven Soderbergh directed.

Humboldt County (2008)

A bit of a buzz-kill, this film exemplifies those pot-narratives that feature dispossessed souls living between euphoria and paranoia. There are many scenes involving pot-growing and gun-toting. Still, Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs managed to get to a decent story about family, responsibility, and enduring love.

A Town Called Panic (2009)

An animated film from France featuring a plastic cowboy, horse, and Indian. The cowboy and the Indian buy 50 million bricks, by mistake (they ordered 500 on-line, but they leaned too hard on the zero key). This movie jumps the shark in so many ways it's not funny. But it is funny. And it's animated. And it's French.

...What the hell else do you want?

Blade Runner (1982)

Yep -- still great.
I keep forgetting that Harrison Ford stars in it. So do lots of people I've known. Forget, not star.

Countryman (1982)

Dickie Jobson, the director, dedicated this film to Bob Marley. The plot was a bit convoluted, although the international intrigue involving a supposed CIA conspiracy was not entirely beyond believability. All in all, Countryman took itself way too seriously.

Swedish Auto (2006)

A shy young mechanic in Virginia rescues a girl that he loves and her morphine-addicted mother from an abusive relationship. The acting was decent, and the film was un-self-conscious, unlike many indies.

My Winnipeg (2007)

A compelling, ethereal meditation on the auteur's frigid, sleep-walking, home town. Not quite documentarian, not quite fictional. Beautiful and strange.

The Human Centipede (2009)

...connected via the gastric system...

There was no good reason to make this film; there was no good reason to watch it.
I wish they hadn't made this film; I wish I hadn't watched it.
Time to go wash my head out.

The Pleasure of Being Robbed (2008)

This is an hypnotic movie about a goofy girl from NYC who steals things. There's a cute scene with a polar bear at the Central Park Zoo. End credits include the dedication: "For the curious, the distractions of life, the heart broken, & anyone who's had the pleasure of being robbed." Monk introduces and plays "Pannonica."

Scooby-Doo (2002)

This movie has three things to recommend it:
1. Velma's hot. (But, then again, she always was...)
2. Matthew Lillard's Shaggy voice is uncanny.
3. Rowan Atkinson.

True Grit (1969)

Ain't nobody in this whole durned movie can act 'ceptin' Bobby Duvall. And the Duke only had but one lung, by this point. But it's still a right fine piece of cinema. All three hours and one minute of it. Don't think so? Well, fill your hand, you son of a bitch!

Cocaine Angel (2006)

No.

The Secret of Kells (2009)

This is a beautifully stylized animated film narrating the events surrounding the creation of Ireland's national treasure from the ninth century, The Book of Kells. The movie is a pleasure to the eye and to the ear, as well, as there is much wonderful Celtic music.

Alice (1988)

Experimental combination traditional film/stop motion by Jan Svankmajer that tells the story by Lewis Carroll. Watching felt like reading a book. Stop motion animation is always both creepy and highbrow. After sitting through this movie, the world looked different, for a little while.

True Stories (1986)

David Byrne's movie is quintessential 80s fare. John Waters has met his straight man. The film was a little slow toward the end, with the talent show, but, ultimately, Fyne's marriage and the girl in the road tied things up, nicely.

Against the Wall: Quality of Life (2006)

Poorly written preachy movie about graffiti and class-consciousness. (Not the one with Samuel L. Jackson.) Exceptionally bad dialogue. There was, however, an interesting parallel drawn between ephemeral Chinese sand mandalas and graffiti art. In the final scene, one of the two main characters paints over his own graffitti mural of his friend's funeral. Some compelling montage and interesting music. Nothing more, however.

Factotum (2005)

I like anything with Henry Chinaski in it. Matt Dillon looks more like Bukowski than Rourke did. That's what counts more than anything else in these kinds of movies. Long live the Buke.

Shelf Life (2004)

This film, like many other indies, straddles the fence between awkward and artsy. It is a delightful little work with an interesting ending. It takes place in a public library and, therefore, cannot help but have dark comic nuance.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

The Coen brothers can do no wrong. How else could I possibly begin a year's worth of movie-watching? Fuck it, Dude. Let's go bowling!