ph: Paulo Sutch
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The War Within (2005)
A Pakistani involved in a planned attack in New York City experiences a crisis of conscience.
Less a study of the terrorist's mind than a successful examination how we are unintentionally breeding them with our own war against terrorism.
Lydia Davis: Suddenly Afraid
Suddenly Afraid
because she couldn't write the name of what she was: a wa wam owm owamn womn
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
William S. Burroughs: The Cat Inside
The Land of the Dead...A reek of boiling sewage, coal gas and burning plastics...oil patches...roller coasters and Ferris wheels overgrown with rank weeds and vines. I can't find Ruski. I am calling his name..."Ruski! Ruski! Ruski!"
A deep feeling of sadness and foreboding.
"I shouldn't have brought him out here!"
I wake up with tears streaming down my face.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Man on Fire (1957)
A wealthy businessman whose wife has divorced him is bitter about the divorce and prevents his ex-wife from seeing their child.
A 50s precursor to Kramer vs. Kramer, well made and handling the delicate topic quite impartially.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
A climatologist tries to figure out a way to save the world from abrupt global warming and he must get to his young son in New York, which is being taken over by a new ice age.
Once again the director lets the world end effectively, but with a very uninspired script.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
William S. Burroughs: The Cat Inside
Fifteen years ago I dreamt I had caught a white cat on a hook and line. For some reason I was about to reject the creature and throw it back, but it rubbed against me, mewling piteously.
Since I adopted Ruski, the cat dreams are vivid and frequent. Often I dream that Ruski has jumped onto my bed. Of course this sometimes happens, and Fletch is a constant visitor, jumping up on the bed and cuddling against me, purring so loud I can't sleep.
Ghosts of Mars (2001)
A story of human colonists on Mars who must be rescued after becoming possessed by vengeful Martian ghosts.
This is like Assault on Precinct 13 set into a sci-fi context, but compared to that masterpiece this has a very messy script, mediocre performances and a silly, superfluous and irritating flashback-in-a-flashback dramaturgy.
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.
Compared to the director's more recent work this is a surprisingly subdued and focused attempt, his most 'mature' movie since Jackie Brown.