Here's a brief round-up of what I watched last week:
I am breezing though Altman's "Tanner '88." Briefly, it's wonderful. Hilarious and insightful. I'm constantly shocked by how such a dated film can have such relevant themes. I'm also really picking up on Altman's use of ambient sound and seeing how it influenced other filmmakers. Pretty cool stuff. I find that "Tanner" really plays more like a 6 hour film than an 11-part miniseries. No complaint, though.
I watched the Criterion edition of Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train." It's 3 short films put together all containing foreigners on an odyssey through Nashville haunted by The King. The vinettes are loosely tied together by a motel and one night. All the performances and wonderful and Jarmusch's care for the minutia is heartwarming. I love this film and "Coffee and Cigarettes," but I can't figure out how Jarmusch is so successful outside of the norms and structures of conventional filmmaking.
4/4
I saw The Cloon's "The American" Thursday night. The experience was a blast. My friend and I were the only two people in the audience at 10. It was a neat film. Fine. Detailed. In control. Deliberate but not slow. I thought The Cloon under-acted a bit too much, and some of the dialogue was pretty heavy in its sparseness, but it was a pretty badass character study. For more on this, see Ken Dusold's review on this website.
3/4
Lastly, I watched "Murder, My Sweet," the old noir. Like all great noir, it's the same damn thing I've seen outta every movie from this time period, but I loved it for all its awesomeness and atrociousness. Dick Powell makes a pretty good Marlowe. Though it lacks a bit of snap, wittiness and zippiness, if you are a noir fan, it's an essential.
3/4
That's all from me.
-TJ
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