Although visually arresting, I thought Tarsem Singh’s THE CELL was inuman, inhumane, and tawdry. THE FALL is also visually gorgeous. It’s also clever, imaginative, and touching.
All in One of a Kind
David Fincher's THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
The special effects are the most impressive I’ve seen since Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
Lilo & Stitch
This movie is one of the sweetest movies I’ve seen in years. And I mean that as a sincere compliment.
Gil Kenan's CITY OF EMBER
This extraordinary family film reminded me of the sense of wonder I experienced as a child reading my way through the best of the children’s fantasy and science fiction collection of my local public library.
Alex Proyas' GARAGE DAYS
Alex Proyas’ GARAGE DAYS is light years distant from DARK CITY. First of all, it’s a comedy. Second, it’s also a melodrama that concentrates on characters, sort of a “tale of death of youthful optimism” crossed with “sex drugs and rock ‘n roll.”
Alex Proyas' “DARK CITY”
This is what I wrote in my blog when, once upon a time in Indiana, I found myself working late at night with the TV turned on:
Disney's “THE BLACK CAULDRON”
A classic this isn’t, but for the fan of animation, it’s a must.
The story is simple: in the early 1920’s a young German mail-order bride, gramophone in hand, comes to rural Minnesota to meet her Norwegian husband to be.
Darren Aronofsky’s “THE FOUNTAIN”
This dizzying and perplexing movie bathes the viewer in a warm and beautiful gauze of, love, death, loss, and redemption. Forget the narrative and go with the flow.
Michel Gondry's THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP
What a sweet film this is. Not that it's all pleasant -- it isn't. But we do get to see inside someone's head, someone for whom dreams are reality and a way of dealing with the complexities of day to day life.
Powell & Pressburger's A CANTERBURY TALE
I admit to being somewhat of an Anglophile, so I was prepared to like A Canterbury Tale as delivered by the crisply produced Criterion DVD.
Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS (Kino edition)
This 1927 film contains two of the most spectacular transformational scenes ever committed to film: 1. The giant machine’s transformation into “Moloch” 2. The robot’s transformation into the false Maria
Mamoru Oshii's AVALON
# VERY cool
# incredible visual style
# methodically plotted
# beautifully acted
Wim Wenders' WINGS OF DESIRE
This is a personal movie. By that I mean that how you react to it is very much dependent on your personality and your outlook on life, plus your willingness to let a story unfold that has less linear direction and story than more declarative, plot-driven films.
This is the best "road picture" I've seen in years. What starts out as quirky and off-center ends up as thoughtful, almost elegiac.
This is a delightful, weird, and fascinating film. It bears re-watchng and study, and each time it does not lose its charm.
Park Chan Wook's “OLDBOY”
While watching this Korean film the word that popped into my head was “Kafka-esque.” Bad stuff happens to an innocent man for no apparent reason and he has to deal with it without knowing why he is being tormented.
Frank Miller, Quentin Tarantino, and Robert Rodriguez's "SIN CITY"
It was the dame’s earrings … They kept jangling in my mind, like tolling Easter bells out of some giant, hollow, cavernous cathedral … dark, inky shadows … except for those damn earrings… like golden beacons in a monochrome Dark City …