Given the rapid fire cultural and political references in the film, it might not hold up as well as Dog Day Afternoon in the long run, but it was one of my favorite films in ‘06. I think it might be one of the films that comes to define the mid-aughts — representing our anxieties, values, and place in the world. When the Levees Broke condensed a lot of emotion, residual suspicion and frustration, about one of many key failures by the Bush administration. The films also made me a fan of Terrence Blanchard, who created fantastic (if similar) scores for both films. I’ve heard some of his music for 25th Hour, but I haven’t seen the movie itself. I will soon.

After his last two films, I’m more receptive to Miracle at St. Anna than I would’ve been otherwise. I’m interested to see how Spike Lee operates within the structure of a war movie.

I’m trying to keep my expectations in check for The Dark Knight, but I can’t wait to see it. The best things are still there from Batman Begins and the dead weight thrown overboard (namely Katie Holmes). We also have Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart. Batman is the only superhero franchise I’ve looked forward to. I’ve avoided Superman, Fantastic 4, and the last Spiderman so far.

Joel, that is interesting what you write about The Prestige and Nolan in general. It’s interesting because I just saw Memento again for the first time in a long time about a month ago. As much as I still enjoy the heck out of it, I have to admit I don’t think it’s held up quite as well as I thought it would. Maybe it’s because with repeat viewings, the going backwards gimmick feels more like a gimmick and actually makes the film more easily “remembered,” in great detail by a person who’s seen it, as the appearance of seemingly strange scenes leads back to the thought of what came before it to get Guy Pearce at that point. It’s still an impressive film in many ways but I do see what you’re saying about it teetering on the edge of its own concept.

Interestingly, whereas I agree that his other films have endings that sort of sabotage the excellence that came before (Batman Begins I can always tolerate because despite the somewhat silly and certainly excessively inflated ending, everything that leads up to it is a great origins story… If it had just had a tighter ending it would have been almost perfect.) I think Memento’s ending still redeems whatever missteps the narrative may have taken. I just love that ending. It’s brilliant, it’s sad, and it puts an entirely different spin on the protagonist that the viewer must attempt to reconcile with what they’ve seen before.

I really am looking forward to The Dark Knight. For one thing, I’m hoping Nolan has improved dramatically when it comes to filming action, which was one of the weak links of Batman Begins (though he covered for himself nicely by making the action sequences, mostly, more about the surprise of Batman doing whatever he was doing). The Dark Knight trailer is very good, but I hope the film remains a continuation of the character study of Batman/Bruce Wayne first and foremost, as the trailer seemed focused a great deal more on The Joker (nothing wrong with this, since he’s Batman’s most reliable nemesis) and a lot of action.

I enjoyed Inside Man when I saw it but I’ve never revisited it. I do like how Spike Lee uses the heist movie to make a Spike Lee joint, with a lot of interesting points, but despite the good performances and good story “hook,” I just never quite liked it as much as I wish I did. In some ways, I found myself with Roger Ebert’s fairly contrarian review in which he suggested Spike Lee was doing a Sidney Lumet, Dog Day Afternoon homage a little too earnestly (I think he wrote that the problem is that, while characters actually refer to Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico in the film, the problem is the audience has seen those films as well).

She Hate Me was a real misfire, the kind of which was, again, interesting enough to see but I’ve never seen it again and don’t plan to. Spike has never been one of the more consistent filmmakers, whether it comes to specific films (I love the very beginning of He Got Game, and again the ending is strong but man the whole midsection of that film is largely a huge mess) or his overall filmography. But, as others have written, I’d rather see a Spike misfire than most directors’ average outing. I actually just saw Jungle Fever again last week and though I don’t think it’s among his top tier of films, it’s a good solid film. I’m really looking forward to The Miracle at St. Anna. I’ve admittedly never seen his Katrina documentary, for reasons not dissimilar from what you write, Joel, and I’ve planned to for a while so I probably should focus on doing that in the near future.

I had a movieless weekend. Yes, I know some of you are recoiling in horror at such a thought and are seriously questioning my passion for film and credentials as a human being.

I really liked The Prestige both times I saw it. I enjoyed its magic trick structure, cleverness, and acting. It didn’t matter to me that I suspected the nature of its main reveal well before it came. Like so many films it is discovering all the ins and outs of one rather than the thing itself that holds my interest. I like puzzles and films that primarily function as one, and The Prestige was a visually stunning picture, well acted as has been previously noted (I even thought Jackson, who I generally don’t much care for as an actor, was well cast for his natural tendency towards theatricality and for his physicality), and intriguing throughout. I didn’t find myself wishing for a character to better relate to, Christian Bale is such a fine and quietly charismatic performer that he made the highly driven, personally dubious, conflicted, and shaded actions and choices of his characters completely engaging.

LOL. Too true, Hedwig.

Alexander, I completely agree with you about Donnie Brasco. In my opinion it’s one of Depp’s best roles after Ed Wood (Ed Wood remains the best in my opinion).

Prestige grew on me. I missed certain things on the first viewing.

I am only interested in The Dark Knight for Heath Ledger, that is it.

I’m excited for the Dark Knight…and also a might bit apprehensive about it.

I also think 25th Hour is Lee’s strongest movie in a long time. Inside Man has a lot of little things going on in it too but it’s really just a thriller and yet I think it’s one of Lee’s most concise and satisfying directorial efforts. He’s able to punctuate the narrative with little political comments, but they never overwhelm the film like they do in so many of his movies.

Anyway, I revisited 25th Hour a year ago and I thought it held up really well. Great supporting cast too.

I must admit, I didn’t have the stomach to sit through all of Lee’s Katrina doc. What I saw was very well-made and affecting, but coming on the heels of so much Katrina coverage it was just too much for me. I suppose that speaks to the brilliance of Lee’s work, because he crafted a heartbreaking portrait of that disaster. Maybe now would be a good time to revisit it.

Alexander, I need to see 25th Hour again. I didn’t so much love Inside Man or She Hate Me and I’m longing for the Spike Lee of 1990. Jungle Fever is another great one after the two you mention. I didn’t see his Katrina doc.

I loved the Prestige as a late night trip to the theater, but I haven’t revisited it to notice its flaws. Part of me doesn’t want to…

Wow, Hedwig, Richard Dreyfuss! Where has he gone?

The Prestige was Nolan going too far, almost forgetting that an audience would likely want to relate, even vaguely, to somebody in the film. The casting of Bowie as Tesla was genius, though.

Hedwig, it’s funny how you and I are often in LiC at approximately the same time, you getting up and I preparing to go to bed. The wonders of these Internets.

First of all: I fully second Allison’s recommendation of Water Lilies. It was one of my favorites at the Rotterdam festival. It makes you remember exactly what it was like to be a 15-yo girl…and then be very, very happy you’re not any more. I’ve been planning to write about it for ages, but I struggled with my Dutch review for a long time and then just felt a bit talked out.

Also, I love the coincidences that come up in the watercooler. See, I didn’t actually watch many movies this weekend. I did see Repo Man on Friday, and have a blog post half-done. On Saturday I got really, extremely, embarrassingly drunk at a party (kids, eat a good meal before you drink!)…and as a result, I spent most of Sunday lying on my bed surfing channels. And I came across The Big Fix starring, yes, Richard Dreyfuss! I kinda loved it. It’s a detective movie, but it’s actually more about what it was like AFTER the sixties, and what happened to all the idealists. It was made in 1978, and well, my mind was admittedly a bit blurry, but I liked it a lot.

I’m interested in Public Enemies, actually. Michael Mann movies are generally interesting as pure movies, in any case, and well, Depp + Bale + Wenham + Ribisi…sound good to me!

Agreed on the Prestige being Nolan’s weakest film. It focuses too much on the gimmicks, and forgets, you know, relatability. Although it was refreshing not to be told who to root for. And casting Bowie as Tesla, well, that’s just genius.

I’d talk more, but I have to leave soon, and need to have breakfast and, you know, get dressed before that.

It’s going to be very tough to beat the Milius version of Dillinger, especially with an ostensibly glammed-up cast, but if there’s one director who could elevate the rather generic and action-centric script into something special I’d say it’s Michael Mann. Besides, as Craig points out, about Mann, it’s part of his raison de’etre to “aestheticize” things… I’ve sworn off of H-E, but having read about Wells ranting about Depp (and, perhaps, Bale and others) cast in Public Enemies, I do think one Depp performance that seems to have been forgotten with regards to this whole matter, and which would seem to contradict the point that Depp is “too pretty” to play “tough,” is, I think, one of his very best, Donnie Brasco. I think Depp can play tough, and while the Public Enemies script may not be the best vehicle for that display–though there are a couple of scenes that stick out which Depp should work wonders with… this screenplay’s Dillinger, though, is sort of the perfect Mann antihero criminal, a professional who utilizes violence with significant reluctance and who has his own code of ethics by which he lives and dies. The contrasts with Purvis are made pretty clear right off the bat, as well as the two guys’ similarities, and the plot brings the two closer and closer together, so this seems to be very much in Mann’s wheelhouse.

Most Stephen King movies are terribly flawed, but I’ll always have a soft spot for The Shawshank Redemption, which may be a tad schmaltzy but it’s sort of the Italian dessert of schmaltz–so amazingly delicious that, no matter how much you know you shouldn’t like it and eat it, you do because… it’s so good. (It’s too bad Darabont got caught in the trap of trying to strike lightning in a bottle two more times before giving up on being the neo-Capra of today as someone above said as regards to The Mist.) And I also think very highly of The Dead Zone, which is a much better film than it’s usually given credit for. It’s one of my favorite Cronenberg films, along with Scanners, The Fly, Spider and (his masterpiece) Dead Ringers. I’ll probably get booed for this but I’ve always agreed with King, at least to an extent, about The Shining, though his efforts to “correct” Kubrick’s attempt are simply horrid. Chuck, being a King aficianado, what do you think of other books by him, like The Tommyknockers and Rose Madder? I like a good deal of King but can’t call myself a real fan or anything. Oh yeah, Misery is pretty good as a book and film, for what it is, I thought.

Craig, I’m actually glad to hear Tautou has moved on from Amelie and other earlier performances.

Busy DVD night. Not to pat myself on the back too much for buying a Blu-Ray player but I am increasingly pleased with it, as it really does enhance the picture quality of all DVDs. I saw 25th Hour, which I love and consider Spike Lee’s masterpiece (dare I say it’s my favorite Spike Lee joint, just beating out the superlative Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X). One of my favorite films of the decade, it just gets better and better every time I see it. It becomes more moving with each viewing as well. Some of my favorite characterizations in a fairly recent film. Many critics assaulted it for being overdirected, and perhaps it is, but unlike the ambitious relative failure of Summer of Sam, Lee uses all of his cinematic ranting to create a haunting portrait of a wounded city and a tortured country with fine symbolic creations (leaving the black-Italian angst of seemingly all his earlier New York City films, Lee examines the richly patriotic and “tribal” Irish, and their eponymous role in New York City, pre- and post-9/11, most emphatically portrayed by the number of Irish-American firefighters, the troubled liberal Jewish high school teacher, the materialistic Wall Street animal, etceteras).

I also saw a recently recorded-from-TCM Edgar G. Ulmer film, The Strange Woman, starring Hedy Lamarr and George Sanders. Intriguing nineteenth century, New England noir, with a brutally evil Lamarr almost eating men alive like a beautiful venus fly trap. By no means a great film, it’s quite flawed with a few too many characters shifting their moral compasses for the film to remain consistently plausible and there’s a general slightness to it–as though it’s all just a Lamarr vehicle–that hinders it from being better. Some fine cinematography. Sanders is good fun. The final twenty minutes or so is very predictable, though.

The Prestige. It still feels like a magician film made by Fritz Lang, and I like a lot of it, and I like the traits it shares with Christopher Nolan’s previous films (the murky concept of justice, and the obsession of those seeking either justice or vengeance that plays itself out with tragic consequences for all) but I think it’s his weakest film, most damaged by a plot twist that seems borderline archaic. Bale and Jackman give good performances; Michael Caine, again, can’t do anything wrong these days, it would seem; Johansson is a cycpher, and a distracting, fairly wooden one at that. There are several things to like, but the film just fails to add up for me in a completely satisfying way.

I checked out the trailer and skimmed some reviews. So I’m definitely going to go whenever it arrives.

Whenever that will be…

I saw so many trailers, they’re all kind of a blur. A bunch of them I’d seen many times before. Nothing is really jumping out.

Has anybody seen Flawless? I’m considering it but short for time and wondering if it’s worth the trip this week. Anybody?

Also, no mention of trailers this week? I happened to watch mine, which usually means I’m not planning on seeing the movies. Before Stop-Loss: Street Kings (eh, I’m scared away because of Harsh Times but I like the inclusion of Lupe Fiasco on the soundtrack), Son of Rambow (intrigued, especially by Craig’s recommendations), and Defiance (very interested in this, but has massive potential to disappoint).

Elsewhere I caught trailers for Baby Mama and Made of Honor. Holy Crap.

So what about Flawless? RT isn’t helping me and I can’t read a review on principle….

I liked Ocean’s 13 for what it was. Compared to a lot of the crap that comes out in summer, it was light and refreshing, if not exactly earth shattering. The supporting cast definitely felt like they were just a contractual obligation, but you have to admit Casey Affleck made the most of it. I though this little bit was one of the best parts of the whole thing.

Knocked Up I enjoyed while I was watching it, but I’ve found it hasn’t really stuck with me.

Thanks for your thoughts on Alex, Nick. I think one of the interesting things about PP is that he’s hard to pin down. It’s difficult to tell what’s going through his mind. I don’t think he’s an uncaring monster though. He was obviously impacted by what had happened. ***spoiler*** it really was an accident though so I’m not sure if I blame him for not wanting to take responsibility for it.

What Alex Was Thinking: Okay, well I have written my review but it is long and is going t take me a while to proof read. Anyway, you are right, I think that it was difficult to know exactly what Alex was thinking and I will not pretend I know the answer to that because I do not. Did Alex even know what he was thinking? So much was going on in his life; his mind must have been spinning. I think that after a while *spoiler, maybe, I do not know * he realized that the investigation was going nowhere and that he would probably not be caught, but for some reason he was still plagued by guilt.

I am off to re-watch it, not that I think it will help.

First, I saw two horror flicks, Wendigo and The Shaft free through onDemand cable on Friday afternoon after a three hour drive home. I figured Wendigo might be entertaining because it had Patricia Clarkson. She’s a reliable actress, but all she does here is act blasé. The film is a serial killer flick decked out in an arthouse drama’s pretentions, and it wasn’t effective as either. The Shaft is a Sci-Fi Channel-quality horror movie about a killer elevator (with Naomi Watts as a perky reporter). It almost won me over in a so-bad-it’s-good way (one of the scenes features a group of pregnant women giving birth in the elevator, complete with cork-popping sound effects), but I took a nap three quarters of the way in and woke up for the credits.

I saw Ocean’s 13 and Knocked Up at a friend’s house Saturday night. 13 had some impressive art design (the exterior architecture of The Bank looked cool, similar to the Burj al Arab in Dubai), but I thought it was the weakest of the three sequels. It’s fun escapism, but not particularly memorable. The appearances of the “lesser” group members (Casey Affleck, Bernie Mac, Shaobo Qin, etc.) seemed more like contractually obligated cameos than parts of the plot. Knocked Up was very funny. Don’t have much else to say about it. Yesterday I saw Matchstick Men on cable. Kind of ho-hum for Ridley Scott, but it wasn’t bad.

That said, I did like the realistic casting of the 1973 Dillinger. We’ll see in a year or so how Mann’s sexied up take on the story works. Like I said, Christian Bale will definitely bring a different perspective on Melvin Purvis, just by looks alone.

I mixed up IFC and Film Forum. I’ll continue to keep an eye out for Alexandra.

The delicious irony for me is that it’s an F’ing MICHAEL MANN movie, whom he totally adores…and Michael Mann’s movies are ALWAYS prettied up. It’s practically his whole goddamn raison d’etre, making the universe sexier looking one film at a time.

Wells is a total f’ing clod. Cutting back my time there to once every few days has been the smartest thing I’ve done in ages.

As Ryan pointed out in his article over at A.D., in the 1973 the actors looked the parts, particularly Purvis. Mann’s version will certainly be a glamorized one, particularly Purvis played by Christian Bale.

Ahhh….where to begin…

Alexander, I think you might like Priceless, especially if you like Ms. Tautou…though she was nothing like her Amelie character…which is good in my opinion.

Boarding gate won’t appeal to all tastes, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Best if not taken too seriously.

Jeff, I’m going to take “the less said the better” at face value, but if you’d care to elaborate, I’d love to hear about it via email.

Sam, thanks for that wonderful Alexandra review. It’s always impossible for me to tell when IFC things are going to make it to LA (it was IFC, right?), but I’ll keep an eye out for it.

Nick, you still might really like Stop-Loss, don’t let my disappointment impact you. There were great parts, but they were squeezed in with some not-so-great parts. Much better in many ways than some of the other Iraq movies to come down the pike. Still, I’d recommend you reverse your order of preference. I’d like to hear more about what you think of Alex in Paranoid Park. Feel free to elaborate here or on the review thread…or I can wait until your own review. I found him a little impenetrable and I’m wondering what you thought he was thinking.

It sounds like we’re sort of on the same page with PP Joel, even if I liked it a bit more overall. I suppose I really ought to get off my ass and see Taxi now. I still haven’t even seen King of Kong…

Also glad to hear JJ works on the small screen. I guess it’s about time I rewatched it and Zodiac.

Opinions are so widely mixed on The Mist, I guess I’m just going to have to break down one of these days and see for myself. Horror just isn’t really my genre, though I always liked that short story, as implausible as it might be.

Nice pick with Dillinger Alison! What inspired you? The upcoming Mann film? Water Lilies is coming to the COL-COA Festival here in April. I’ll put it on my list as one to check out. Paul had recommended one too, but I’ll have to go back and see what that was…

I meant to comment on your terrific Band’s review Evan, but I haven’t had the time to do it yet. Really glad you liked it. So simple and yet so satisfying. It’s the kind of movie that just couldn’t be done right in America…at least not from a major studio.

Raising Arizona is my sentimental favorite Coen because that’s the one where I lost my Coen virginity. The first is always the most special…

I don’t have a dog in the King fight. I’ve enjoyed much of what I’ve read of his, though I find him uneven. Movie-wise has been very hit and miss. Love The Dead Zone, don’t remember Salem’s Lot well at all. Carrie of course. I like The Shining, but over the years it’s waned in terms of my favorite Kubrick films.

It sounds like I liked Snow Angels somewhat more than you Paul. Kate I thought was fine. Se was a little too movie-star beautiful, but it kind of fit the character for me. I found some of the individual stories to be more interesting than the movie as a whole. I could’ve spent the whole movie with whatsisname and Olivia Thirlby.

Paul, isn’t Melonie Diaz in IBTC? It was kind of on my radar for that reason alone, though it sounds like a bit of a disappointment.

Thanks for the head’s up on Mutum Daniel.

And I think your point about the target market of Stop-Loss is an important one. It’s something teens and early 20s should be watching for sure. Forget about the politics behind the war, but the consequences of said war should be talked about and once again the news media is largely dropping the ball on this one.

I do speak Portuguese, but I’m a bit rusty since it’s been a few years since I was in Brazil. It started to come back when I was in Portugal a little over a year ago, and surrounded by the language again – only problem is that the way they speak it in Brazil is almost completely different than the way they speak it in Portugal. Not just the accent; there’s different vocabulary and even the word order is mixed around.

It’s a beautiful language, particularly the way the Brazilians speak it. I’m partial to the Bahiano accent since I studied in Salvador da Bahia. :-)

Thanks for the info on Mutum, Daniel. Yes, I am very interested in Brazil. I lived and studied there for a short time. Sounds like a great film; hopefully it will make its way to NYC very soon.

Oh, and there was an infant in the theater who rotated between fits of crying, moaning, and hiccuping throughout the entire film. Do you know how annoying hiccuping is?

Yesterday I back-to-backed Run, Fatboy, Run and Stop-Loss.

Fatboy is not what you expect from Simon Pegg’s previous hits, but it’s not terrible, either. Probably the most conventional plot on screen this year. The casting is great across the board and some of the comedy works, but I can’t justify recommending a special trip just for it.

Stop-Loss is, in my opinion, the first important movie about the war in Iraq so far. It packed an emotional punch and made a convincing statement about the war, something no film has done yet for me, and I’ve seen quite a few of them (http://getafilm.blogspot.com/2008/03/war-in-iraq-5-years-116-movies.html). My expectations were really low so perhaps my reaction is inflated a bit, but I was really taken by it. Some of the scenes were a little melodramatic, as you all mentioned, but the reality of the whole thing was enough to overshadow any dramatization. Certainly it’s not a challenge to the already mentioned war classics, but for being made during the war the perspective it offers is quite impressive, and I think it will age well with those in its target market.