Five Months - One Post

Because of the ~5 month gap between when we joined the theater and when we started this blog, we're going to run through what we saw so far this summer. We're reconstructing this from flyers, so some of the months might be wrong.

It's funny -- students have to see 30 movies to make the membership pay off. It looks like we've already managed that. In July, we saw nearly three a week! October has been slow, because the semester started and graduate school sucks. The first parenthetical is Ross, the second is Kate. If there is only one, it is generally Ross, because he got there first.


June
Goldfinger (Yeah, baby)(The source of 90% of James Bond cliches)

Mad Hot Ballroom (Dancing Kids are cute -- but what might be cuter?)

Mondovino (Incoherent AND irrelevant -- we almost walked out of this one)

Dr. Strangelove (Fantabulous)(One of my favorite films)

Eros (Interesting, but not essential. We both liked Wong Kar Wai's best)(More than that, I felt the three parts declined in quality: one, two, three)

Travellers and Magicians(The story is very simple, but the camera/digital work very effectively make the mythical parts feel like a separate world. We both liked this one; it definitely benefits from the big screen.) (The acting was great. Now I want to visit Bhutan)


July
Turtles Can Fly (Absolutely gut-wrenching)(The writeup indicated that it was the first film to come out of occupied Iraq, so we expected it to be sad. What we didn't expect was children disarming mines--in some cases, with their teeth, because they had lost their arms. One of the better movies we saw)

3-Iron (Watch it. Now. No really, drop everything and rent it. The director captures time so effectively that we were comparing him to Tarkovsky. That, of course, is just about the highest praise I can give) (I felt this was hands down the best current film we saw)

Saving Face (Fun! Not terrible deep/clever, but more so than most romantic comedies.) (I liked this one much better than Ross did--it examines issues of culture very deftly.)

March of the Penguins (What's cuter than a baby penguin? A WHOLE PILE of baby penguins. We grew to hate this film, but only because it played so long at the Michigan that lots of other films -- like Grizzly Man -- never opened there.) (The audience was also composed of small children and old folks who apparently hadn't been to a movie for 20 years. Managed to make a nature documentary 1)interesting 2)genuinely sad 3) sexy)

Apres Vous (Kate liked it ok, I walked out. Read a cursory description, and you'll probably know whether you like it or not.) (On the whole, not worth your time unless you're really into french romantic comedies).

Murderball (As cool as it looks, though if you're paying to see it, it's probably worth waiting for DVD)

Creature from the Black Lagoon (in 3-D!) (yup.)

The Godfather (Ohhhh...)

The Godfather, ptII (Double Ohhhh...)

The Wizard of Oz (Neat. Kate couldn't go and I [Ross] ended up leaving maybe an hour in. But the new print is really nice.)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly(70mm. Nuff said.) (The audience was mostly 14 year old boys, but I absolutely adore this movie, and it was gorgeous on the big screen. A fantasitically well-paced film. A must-see for everyone, even those who think they don't like westerns)

August
Broken Flowers (Pretty good. I didn't like the ending, for reasons that don't fit in parentheses very well.) (I liked the ending, also for reasons that don't fit in parentheses)

The Beautiful Country (Not paced incredibly well, but some of the scenes are pretty amazing.) (The lead actor is fantastic.)

2001: A Space Odyssey (70mm! The Starchild is HUGE)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) (Very cool -- especially because they opened it with the original Looney Tune that accompanied it. Does anybody know if this was originally in color?)

Double Indemnity (Not bad -- maybe noir fans have more to say about it?)

A Night at the Opera (Also accompanied by a Looney Tune -- "What's Opera Doc?")


September
The Aristocrats (Surprisingly coherent.) (Ross really liked it, but Kate thought it got kind of old after a while. Highlights were Whoopie Goldberg, Steven Wright, and the guy from Full House)

Psycho(R. hadn't seen it before. Yes, indeed, it is a classic.) (It is surprisingly scary, concidering that you don't actually see all that much violence. I'd take this over a gore-fest any day. I jumped at least twice)

The Animation Show (x2--someone loves animation. I'll give you two guesses)
(yes he does! And Ross firmly believes that anybody who gets the chance should see it!)

Junebug (Ross liked this ALOT. The leading man is really flat, but everything else was great.) (The highlight of the whole thing was the crazy artist)

2046 (I have a theory about this being an elaborate reply to the New Criticism, in addition to being really good (post a comment if you want elaboration). I think it's a rare example of a movie without a lot of exterior shots that is still much better on the big screen) (This was really visually striking. I think that I need to see it again)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (The staff organist wrote a new score the night before, and it was amazing. Have we mentioned that The Michigan is awesome?) (The Michigan is one of 40 theaters in the nation with its origninal organ, and the only one to employ a staff organist. The score was so seemless, I forgot it was there. The film was also fantastic, although it would probably suffer terribly without the organ.)


October
Wild Strawberries(Indeed, it is a classic) (I had not seen it, and I thought that it was one of the best films I'd seen all year. It struck a deep deep chord. Perfect pacing. Those clever swedes...)

Thumbsucker(One word...ballsucker. We hated this about as much as we hated Mondovino, though we didn't walk out since we were always waiting for another scene with Keanu. Others have pointed out that alot of the acting was pretty good, and the cinematography was at times interesting -- R. maintains that this just shows how incompetent the director is.) (Ditto. I should never find myself bored in a movie, yet there were several times when I was bored for upwards of 10 minutes at a time! And I should never be in the position of wanting Keanu Reeves to come back on the screen. The main three actors were very good, which only served to highlight the badness of the rest.)