The President’s Analyst: 1967: dir. Theodore J. Flicker. Seen on DVD (June 12).
I caught part of The President’s Analyst one night on Bravo, during the brief period about 8 years ago when I actually had cable TV, and it was one of the weirdest things I’d ever seen. I was dying to see it again, but it didn’t show up on cable (and then I stopped having cable) and I couldn’t find it at the video store.
Category: films seen in 2004
Super Size Me (2004)
Super Size Me: 2004, dir. Morgan Spurlock. Seen at Dobie (May 23).
Super Size Me is a documentary that centers around a stunt: the filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock, decides he will eat nothing but food from McDonald’s for 30 days. That’s the gimmick that attracts people to this movie.
And it’s working: the movie is earning a surprising amount of money in its limited run. It’s nowhere near being a summer blockbuster but it’s become surprisingly popular. It’s this year’s Little Movie That Could. I love it when this happens.
Shattered Glass (2003)
Shattered Glass: 2003, dir. Billy Ray. Seen on DVD (May 22).
I forgot about this movie and when my boyfriend brought home Shattered Glass on DVD, someone mentioned Philip Glass and I was expecting to see some kind of weird musical documentary until I remembered, oh, Stephen Glass. Right.
Shattered Glass is the story of how Stephen Glass, a journalist for The New Republic, faked a bunch of articles for that magazine. More specifically, it’s the story about how he was caught.
The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996)
The Truth About Cats & Dogs: 1996, dir. Michael Lehmann. Seen on DVD (May 15).
The Truth About Cats & Dogs is a cute little movie. It is such an amiable, cute movie that even my boyfriend likes it, and he dislikes romantic comedy generally. (He hated Amelie but I still like him.)
Remember the days when Janeane Garafalo was hot in her short-round-brunette way? Remember when she shone in those funny-sidekick roles? Then she tried to take the lead in romantic comedies, which didn’t quite work. But we still loved her and we all wanted to be cool like her.
Now she’s a scary skinny blonde who rants about politics on the radio. It’s a sad world.
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and 2 (2003/4)
Kill Bill Vol. 1: 2003, dir. Quentin Tarantino. Seen on DVD (May 9).
Kill Bill Vol. 2: 2004, dir. Quentin Tarantino. Seen at Alamo Lake Creek (May 9).
Some people think Quentin Tarantino is a genius. Some think he’s an overrated asshole.
Me, I think he’s a huuuuge damn film geek who has a pleasing knack for slipping tons of entertaining obscure film references into a movie without ruining the movie either for film buffs or people who wouldn’t get the jokes.
Desperado (1995)
Desperado: 1995, dir. Robert Rodriguez. Seen on DVD (May 12).
We rented a DVD with El Mariachi on one side and Desperado (its sequel) on the other, and my boyfriend saw the movies before I did. He told me I might as well skip Desperado, it was terrible. I believe his summary was “Robert Rodriguez trying to be Jerry Bruckheimer in Mexico.”
El Mariachi (1992)
El Mariachi: 1992, dir. Robert Rodriguez. Seen on DVD (May 8).
I remember Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi when I was in grad school at UT. Everyone thought he was going to be the Next Big Thing. And he made El Mariachi for what, $7,000?
Memento (2000)
Memento: 2000, dir. Christopher Nolan. Seen on DVD (April 21).
It’s been about a month since I saw Memento and I am truly sorry I hadn’t written about the movie earlier. I couldn’t write about it immediately after seeing it because it was intense and I wanted to think a little about what I’d seen. Now I’ve maybe waited too long.
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Sweet and Lowdown: 1999, dir. Woody Allen. Seen on DVD (April 14).
Do I have to write anything about Sweet and Lowdown other than to say that I didn’t like this movie at all, it was a real disappointment, and a huge waste of my time?
Okay. I’ll be brief.
Once upon a time, I liked Woody Allen films. But after seeing Hollywood Ending, I gave up. Then I heard he had made some small, entertaining films like he had done back in the day of Take the Money and Run, and that Sweet and Lowdown was an entertaining film along those lines.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: 2004, dir. Michel Gondry. Seen at Alamo Village (April 10).
I am writing this review much later than I intended, but it took awhile for me to get my thoughts in order about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It doesn’t matter that it’s been nearly a month, I still think Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a beautiful, splendid movie. And now at least I don’t have to worry so much about spoiling the movie for other people, since the buzz has been out and about and most people know the general premise. (If you haven’t seen it and don’t know, you probably don’t want to read the rest of this.)
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