Cinema Mishmash

My favorite film from the 2009 Chicago International Film Festival, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother, doesn’t so much defy classification as much as it conglomerates genres in a way that seems as unusual as it is natural. Those who have seen Bong’s 2006 sea monster romp, The Host, will sense an immediate familiarity with Bong’s blending of [...]

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The prologue to Antichrist, Lars von Trier’s latest cinematic provocation, is among the most moving, sumptuous, beautiful imagery ever set to a score and projected for an audience. Washed in a blue monochrome, the slow-motion sequence both takes your breath away and paralyzes you. It is so beautiful, in fact, that it nearly anesthetizes you [...]

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Aside from being a kind and gracious soul (as displayed again at his appearance tonight at the film’s North American debut at the Chicago International Film Festival), John Woo is a talented filmmaker. He is well known for the visual flourish he brings to action sequences, which is tirelessly put to use is Red Cliff, [...]

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One of the nicest things about a film festival is the surprise delight, if you are bold enough to take a chance on a film and lucky enough for it to pay off. Not that choosing The Girl on the Train as the first film to see at the Chicago International Film Festival was that big [...]

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Director Carlos Reygadas doesn’t have a very simple explanation for why he entitled his feature film debut Japón, given that the film is set in Mexico and populated by Mexican characters who do not do or say anything remotely Asian. Reygadas claims that the title captures the film’s tone, revealing his own broad conception of [...]

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While a lot of attention will be given to the fact that director Brian Caunter and his Columbia College Chicago colleagues landed the very recognizable Frank Vincent (The Sopranos, Goodfellas, etc.) for their feature debut, I was more excited to see the late cameo by Stacey Keach. There wasn’t an art house cinema in my hometown, [...]

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Battle in Heaven is my introduction to Mexican Director Carlos Reygadas. Over the last several years, I have had an unseen copy of his feature directorial debut, Japon (2002), both on VHS tape from cable (since discarded) and on a DVR recording (on two different systems that have since been replaced). After experiencing Battle in [...]

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Hearing clapping at the end of a film is unusual these days (in most American cinemas, anyway, outside of special screenings with actors or filmmakers in attendance). Hearing clapping at the end of a film screening in my home theater is more unusual. That kind of expression seems a little silly, especially when the “audience” [...]

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If the societal revenge flick genre didn’t exist before, it does now with Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, a multi-threaded re-imagining in which Hitler and the Nazis get what’s coming a lot sooner than historical truth and, as one would expect from the reining cineaste auteur, with a visual and narrative flourish that no one could [...]

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Breaking and Entering, the last film by director Anthony Minghella before his tragic early death, has so much going for it on its surface that it’s true value — the ideas that lie underneath — almost go undetected. That just might be the definition for the ideal of entertainment cinema. The surface here is adorned [...]

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And the award for the most misguided holocaust drama goes to . . . The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. This film is so misguided in its concept, it’s story, it’s motivations, and it’s message that it would have been a great consolation had the acting and production design also been poor. Sadly, though, David [...]

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If Two Lovers is indeed Joaquin Phoenix’s last film, it contains a final performance he can be proud of (if, based upon his bizarre public appearances, he even cares). Likewise, we are treated to fine performances by Gweneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw as the titular competing interests for the affection of Phoenix’s Leonard, a young man with [...]

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The conspiratorial story of the seemingly cannibalistic demise General Motor’s EV1 and a handful of other cars that you’ve never heard of (despite their having been manufactured within the last decade) is taylor-made for a compelling documentary. What a shame, then, that this documentary isn’t more compelling. Nonetheless, the story is so important, and the [...]

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Filmmaker Ari Folman had difficultly getting financing for Waltz with Bashir, in part because no one would embrace the idea of making an animated documentary. Although animation has grown far outside the confines of the children’s “cartoon,” apparently Folman’s idea of an animated memoir, exploring his mental block surrounding his military service during the Israeli [...]

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The difficulty with films which are released under a studio’s marketing campaign of secrecy (e.g., What is “Cloverfield,” What is “The Happening,” What does “Seven Pounds” mean?) is that unless the hype generates large initial box office draw (like Cloverfield), and enough word-of-mouth to cause a second wave of interest, the majority of moviegoers will [...]

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