Shirin (Abbas Kiarostami, 2008)

7.5/10
Abbas Kiarostami's film of voyeurism, role-reversal, redefining and questioning the definition of an "audience", what have you - for 90 minutes we watch a hundred or so Iranian woman watch a film, from a head-on point of view. Which is to say the movie is projected "behind" us, the viewers. We never see the movie and only hear the soundtrack, and the all-female audience's (there are some men in the audience but always seated behind the women and never focused on directly) reactions help us piece the narrative together, though voice-overs and dialogue make it easy enough to follow. The other caveat is that the audience we're watching isn't really watching a film - they're merely looking at a point of light occasionally obscured by cardboard cutouts to create the appropriate reflections and shadows, are told how to act by Kiarostami, and the entire "Shirin" soundtrack to the movie they're watching has been added after. I've read from people who got equally caught up in the narrative and the reactions and found themselves crying along with the audience, but I was too intrigued by the technical aspects of the movie to get very caught up in the (highly melodramatic) "non-film". An endlessly interesting movie, but not always while you're watching it.

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)

8.5/10
Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1932 vampire tale and his first talkie, although it's practically silent and that only adds to its incredible atmosphere. Beautiful, haunting, and genuinely creepy, it's so easy to get caught up in Dreyer's masterful direction and camera tricks that it's easy to forgive the rather mundane plot.

Invictus (Clint Eastwood, 2009)

5/10
Has to go down as one of the least subtle films of recent memory. Eastwood makes everything as plain as day as possible and leaves literally nothing for the viewer to think about for him/herself. The movie is well photographed (especially the rugby scenes) and the performances are fine across the board (although neither Freeman nor Damon are really exerting themselves here) but it lurches forward with such rigidity that it's hard to feel any emotion about it at all. Painfully average and all the more disappointing for it.

I Am Not Your Friend (Gyorgy Palfi, 2009)

3/10
"I am not your friend is a film of improvisations – not only from the part of the nine amateur actors, but from the D.O.P, the director and the scriptwriters as well. The story unfolded itself instantly by the reactions and ideas of actors during the 20 days of shooting and developed into what is presented to the audience."
Yeah, but that doesn't make it a good or even interesting movie. A concept that probably had a lot more potential on paper.

Paranormal Activity (Oren Peli, 2007)

4/10
Cobbling together a series of creepy albeit repetitive vignettes (film some weird happening at night, watch it the next day, talk about how scary it is, repeat) does not a good movie make. The two main characters embody so many horror character clichés (the impotent female and the skeptical male at their most basic) you find yourself cheering for the ghost or demon, or whatever it may be. I'll give the film credit for originality and not relying on gore or ever truly answering the question of what's haunting the two, but I was hoping for a lot better after all the hype.

Precious (Lee Daniels, 2009)

7/10
For the first half I wasn't feeling it but credit to the filmmakers because it's almost impossible to be not won over, if only in part, by the end of the movie. There's things I liked (namely the acting, especially by Mo'nique) and things I didn't like: the movie at times feels like a large-scale (no pun intended) after school special, and there are definitely some mawkish moments, not least the insipid dedication at the end. If the acting wasn't as good as it is, its flaws and inconsistencies would not be so easily overlooked, I think.

A Colt is My Passport (Takashi Nomura, 1967)

10/10
Last Nikkatsu movie, and hands down the best one. Combines all the over-the-top humor, romance, double-crossing, and violence from the previous four. The story isn't new territory but the story is told very well, the film is directed with flair, the soundtrack is exceptional, and Joe Shishido's moody main character seems to be both inspired by and sowing the seeds for the Spaghetti Western anti-heroes of the era. In fact it's hard to believe this movie was never remade as a Western because it's certainly ripe for it. If you want all the best of the Nikkatsu movies in one 84-minute chunk, start here.

A Serious Man (Ethan Coen & Joel Coen, 2009)

8/10
The first half is fantastic, funnier than any comedy I've seen all year, and does a great job evoking (well I assume, I was never there) a Midwestern Jewish community in the late 60's. The second half is a bit of a downshift and things get almost too stereotypically "Coens" for me (this coming from a huge Coens Bros fan) - the existential questions, the abrupt ending, the jarring character turns...they've been done before and with greater effect in Barton Fink, Fargo and NCFOM and it feels like the brothers are going through the motions to a degree here. That said, A Serious Man is still a very good, enjoyable, and incredibly well-acted film, but it's a notch below their "A" material.

Beefcake (Thom Fitzgerald, 1998)

3/10
Part-movie, part-documentary about the nude male modelling scene and Bob Mizer's Athletic Modelling Guild in the 50's...the content is interesting and there's definitely a good story to be told here but this movie fails spectacularly. The interviews with the models (including Jack LaLanne), now mostly in their 60's, are revealing and at turns heart-warming and heartbreaking...but they're too few in between as most of the movie is made up of dramatic recreations of events that occured with terrible actors and laughably cheap looking sets. The movie messily splices actual footage shot by Mizer in the 50's with black-and-white recreations (sometimes featuring actors bearing very little resemblance to their real-life counterparts) which occasionally turn to full-color for no apparent reason. The film also makes the grave mistake of talking down to the viewer and pleading for acceptance at the end instead of letting the audience come to its own conclusions. It seems way too geared to people who already had an interest in this sort of thing, and makes a pretty lousy attempt to engage outsiders (like myself).

Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lyne, 1987)

7/10 Good, taut, suspenseful thriller. The cast is all very good, and of course Glenn Close especially. My only gripe is the sheer number of dumb/illogical decisions made by Michael Douglas' character and his family during the course of his harassment.