2009 April | Coosa Creek Cinema

Offkey Solo

By Rick, on April 29th, 2009 |

In a movie purportedly about schizophrenia, much depends upon the actor playing the schizophrenic. At a basic level, we must buy the fact that he or she actually has the disorder. In A Beautiful Mind, we had to believe that John Nash talks to people only he can see and believes himself caught up in [...]

Ordet Part I: Strange Days and Stranger Nights

By Rick, on April 28th, 2009 |

Many think Ordet is Carl Theodore Dreyer’s masterpiece; that of course ignores his other masterpieces The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr, and Day of Wrath. Although differing in subject matter, they are bound by similar concerns, and even if I can’t say I like one better than another, it’s true that Ordet brings all [...]

Counting Down the Naughties

By Rick, on April 27th, 2009 |

My friend Ibetolis has a cool thing going over at Film for the Soul. He’s counting down the 2000’s in film. How it works is he takes a year and invites any and all to provide a write-up on a movie from that year. He’s into the 2001’s at present, and a piece I published [...]

The Weekly DVD Post: Australia

By Rick, on April 25th, 2009 |

After a week off, the Weekly returns with a not altogether obvious choice. Australia got fairly dismal reviews: it was only 54% at Rotten Tomatoes, where the summary reads “Built on lavish vistas and impeccable production, Australia is unfortunately burdened with thinly drawn characters and a lack of originality.” Yeah, and so’s your mother. Well [...]

Trailer Lazy: The Hunt for Gollum

By Rick, on April 23rd, 2009 |

Hunt For Gollum – Trailer Oneby HuntForGollum

This seems to be about as independent as you can get. Funded by fans and friends of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” it was written and directed by Chris Bouchard, based on notes found in the appendix of Tolkien’s work. It follows Aragorn as he hunts for [...]

Leeloo Love

By Rick, on April 22nd, 2009 |

Mul-ti-pass

The Fifth Element lifts its ending from a Bond film and its look from Blade Runner, but I love it nevertheless. And no, it’s not just Milla Jovovich as Leeloo, who is actually . . . well, if you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil it for you, but suffice it to say that [...]

TOERIFC: April Edition

By Rick, on April 20th, 2009 |

Why is this woman unhappy? Is it because she’s been shot from such an unflattering angle? Or that she’s in yet another morose Bergman film? Find out over at Bill’s place today at 10 am EST in our April TOERIFC extravaganza. As usual, when Bill posts his article, I’ll change the link on the [...]

Openings: Andrei Rublev

By Rick, on April 17th, 2009 |

Here’s the famous — and famously enigmatic — opening sequence of Andrei Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev.

We open on a shot of the balloon in front of a massive church; the camera pans down from its crown. It is misshapen, phallic, with a bulbous, swollen upper end and a bottom end [...]

Trailer Lazy: Moon

By Rick, on April 14th, 2009 |

I’m so not up to date with the happenin’ movie scene. I have no idea, really, what movies are coming out this summer. Is Wolverine due out? What about The Dark Knight? That was last Summer? Oh.

The bad thing about this is that I don’t get handy blog-fodder like Ain’t-It-Cool News or SpoutBlog by breathlessly [...]

Lost in Adventureland

By Rick, on April 13th, 2009 |

At the end of Greg Mattola’s Adventureland, one of my companions turned to me and said “This movie most definitely didn’t make me want to be a teenager again,” and I suppose that is a compliment. Certainly, it’s no Summer of ‘42, it’s not a wistful, fond remembrance of a misspent youth, shot with nostalgia [...]