So I have been taking
summer classes at CCNY this past June, and…Yeah, you got it, I’ve been busy.
List and brief
commentary on films seen in June below, but I’ll say this: June was spent
catching up on last year’s flicks that I missed due to school, etc.
Obviously I am not as
into this blog as I used to be. I gotta get my mind right boss. I’ve got a lot
of other things going on.
Gone Girl (2014;
David Fincher) What a weird flick! Like a 21st century version of
Leave Her to Heaven.
Charlie Victor Romeo
(2013; Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels and Karlyn Michelson) Good, but the
actual play was much more intense.
Red Hollywood (1996,
2014; Thom Andersen & Noël Burch)
Darby O’Gill and the
Little People (1959; Robert Stevenson) Dopey story, great effects.
Big Eyes (2014; Tim
Burton) Mediocre, like a bad TV-movie.
Inherent Vice (2014;
written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, based on the novel by Thomas
Pynchon) Anderson claims the Zucker Brothers (Airplane!) was an influence, but
I think this flick is more like a Monte Hellman movie than one of the Z-Bros.’s
goofball parodies.
Life Itself (2014;
Steve James) (documentary on life and death of Roger Ebert)
The Bad News Bears
(1976; Michael Ritchie) CLASSIC!
KRIK? KRAK!: Tales of
a Nightmare (1988; Jac Avila & Vanyoska Gee) At Spectacle
Critical Paranoia:
Dark Night Rising (2015; Ernest J. Ramon) At Spectacle
Maps to the Stars
(2014; David Cronenberg) Oh yeah, this is a horror film. Like Gone Girl, a good
movie where all this implausible shit happens but the flick is done so well,
it’s almost believable.
Empire of the Sun
(1987; Steven Spielberg; screenplay by Tom Stoppard, based on the novel by J.G.
Ballard) One of Spielberg’s best, where his obsession with childhood finally
goes up against something of meaning.
Oh! What a Lovely War
(1969; Richard Attenborough) Fantastic anti-war criticism and black comedy, via
musical score of the WWI era.
A Field in England
(2013; Ben Wheatley) Great flick!
The Romantic
Englishwoman (1975; Joseph Losey) Dull.
Home of the Brave
(1949; Mark Robson) Well meaning.
Stranger on the Prowl
(1953; Joseph Losey) Good, but not essential.
The Zero Theorem
(2013; Terry Gilliam) Wonderfully cryptic tale; I really liked it: Gilliam
rules!
At the Mountains of
Madness (2011; Michele Botticelli; short) Neat and faithful adaptation of the
H.P. Lovecraft novella.
Husbands and Wives
(1992; Woody Allen) Wow, the truth about Mia!
The Witch Who Came
From the Sea (1976; Matt Cimber) Snooze.
The Fall of Rock and
Roll (1989; Zoran Pezo, Vladimir Slavica and Goran Gajić) (Serbian title Kako je propao rokenrol is literally, “How
Rock'n'Roll Was Ruined”) Sad thinking about the war torn madhouse the nation
became a couple of years later.
Twelve
Monkeys (1996; Terry Gilliam) New fave!
Coonskin (1975; Ralph
Bakshi) CLASSIC that I own!
The Lord of the Rings
(1978; Ralph Bakshi) Much better than I remember. Psychedelic
black-light-poster animation! (And the reason why The Empire Strikes Back is an
incomplete movie!)
The Mechanic (1972;
Michael Winner) CLASSIC, with not-so-subtle queer subtext. It's also a remake of All About Eve. Honest!
The Birds (1963;
Alfred Hitchcock) Classic!
Birth of the Living
Dead (2013; Rob Kuhns) documentary about Romero’s classic
The Imitation Game
(2014; Morten Tyldum) Disappointing because it’s a standard
TV-movie/Masterpiece Theater biopic. Should have been more creative, more
indicative of Turing’s mental state. A missed opportunity.
What I Read in June (* = read
before)
“A Study in Emerald”
by Neil Gaiman (2003; short story)
Syllabus: Notes From an
Accidental Professor by Lynda Barry
(2014) [read for class, but a great book nonetheless]
Relish: My Life in
the Kitchen by Lucy Kinsley
(2013; graphic novel)
“The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod” by Philip Jose Farmer
(1968; short story)
Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation
Why by G. Willow Wilson,
Jacob Wyatt & Adrian Alphona (2015; graphic novel)
*) Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan &
George Clayton Johnson (1967)
Other Lives by Peter Bagge (2010; graphic
novel)
“The Empire of the
Ants” by H.G. Wells (1905; short story) Wells metaphor about South American
rebellion
Other Stuff by Peter Bagge (2013; graphic
novel; collection)
“The Trip Treatment”
by Michael Pollan (2015; very long nonfiction article from The New Yorker)
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