Birdsong (Albert Serra, 2008)

7/10
Albert Serra's follow-up to Honor de Cavalleria, another take on a famous journey, this time that of the Three Wise Men. This one's a bit different because our protagonists actually arrive at their destination, and we spend quite a bit of time with other characters (namely Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, waiting for the Wise Men). Even though the movie is black and white (more like silver) it's gorgeous and contains numerous breathtaking sequences and still more supreeeemely long takes. I liked Honor de Cavalleria a bit more but this one was still pretty spellbinding. Can't wait to see what Serra comes up with next.

Honor de Cavalleria (Quixotic) (Albert Serra, 2006)

7/10
Albert Serra's (looong) "take" on Don Quixote and his pal Sancho, this is a very nuanced film that has bored and will bore many to death. I wasn't really bored by it but I didn't find it the revelation it's been hyped as either. The movie does manage to be surprisingly touching and it's always fun to look at though. I have his follow-up, Birdsong, and I'm looking forward to watching that since it's apparently even beetter (and slower!)

Night Mayor (Guy Maddin, 2009)

8/10
Guy Maddin's short film made for the NFB, available to watch free on the NFB's website: here.
I liked the story, the music, and especially the guy's voice. Interesting and worth a look if you have 14 minutes to spare.

Jesus Christ Saviour (Peter Geyer, 2008)

7.5/10
Better synopsis than I could come up with:

"On November 20 1971, Klaus Kinski wanted “to tell mankind’s most exciting story – The story of Jesus Christ”. But he couldn’t. The stage performance of the scandal-ridden actor kept being interrupted by an audience that did not want a sermon, but a discussion instead.

Jesus Christ Saviour by Peter Geyer shows a tumultuous evening of back and forth insults, the struggle of an actor to have his say, a theatrical happening in a time critical of authority and the spectacular failure of an attempt to better the world through literary means. Making use of all available picture and sound clips from the evening, Geyer creates an intimate impression of the live experience, a testimony to an extraordinary moment and an exceptional artist."

More a historical document than a documentary, I can't imagine anyone not a Kinski diehard would find this very interesting (Kinski's ramblings are certainly boring at times) but I'm glad I saw it. It's quite amazing how instantly hostile the crowd is. I think Kinski leaves the stage in anger four times total. Watching him still struggle to recite his text at midnight on the auditorium floor to a hundred or so hangers-on looking completely drained is both amusing and sad. As far as I can tell, the recital remains unfinished in the film. I wonder if there's a copy of the full text available somewhere. This movie appears to be the first release from "Kinski Productions" so I wonder if there's more unearthed/unavailable Kinski coming to DVD in the near future (how about Kinski Paganini, as awful as it's said to be, for starters??).

Hunger (Steve McQueen, 2008)

9.5/10
Wow, this movie bowled me over. Sensational on every level, it's also deeply harrowing and almost impossible to watch without a perpetual grimace on one's face. Michael Fassbender's physical transformation is one of the most grotesque and honest performances put to screen in a long time. About the only thing you can fault the movie before is first-timer Steve McQueen's heavy-handed direction, with its endless long takes certain to earn criticism for being too "pretentious" or "arty for art's sake"...but I wasn't too bothered. And I had to admire him for it, not many directors in their debut films would have the balls to try some of the shots McQueen pulls off. Remarkable.

Badlands (Terrance Malick, 1973)

8.5/10
Beautifully filmed and just the kind of story I'm drawn to (rebel/s without a cause, road movie, coming of age, etc). Martin Sheen is fantastic and Sissy Spacek is also very good. This is a movie that deserves a better fate because it seems to have gotten marginalized over the years. We can start by upgrading the pathetic no-frills DVD it's available on. Criterion??

Until the Light Takes Us (Aaron Aites & Audrey Ewell, 2008)

7/10
A black metal documentary centering on the church burnings and murders in Norway in the early 90's. Not exactly a beginners guide to the genre, the movie focuses primarily on Darkthrone, Burzum and Mayhem and almost completely ignores the first and latter waves (which is fine if you're familiar to the genre but newcomers may be left bewildered). The documentary is messy, jumping all over the place and there's often seemingly little logic put into the order of the scenes and interviews. A "subplot" involving a Norwegian painter of black metal related art is distracting and superfluous, almost as if it's included purely because it was filmed and not because it has much relevance. More compelling are the interviews with Burzum's Varg Vikernes from prison (a disturbingly engaging and charismatic storyteller, given his past), Darkthrone's Fenriz (though overfilmed), and rare home video and rehearsal footage. Members of Immortal, Ulver, Satyricon, Thorns, Emperor, and more also feature.

Chloe (Atom Egoyan, 2009)

7.5/10
When it's firing on all cylinders, it's really good. When it's not, it's pretty darn cliché and humdrum. The acting of Seyfried, Moore and Neeson (with less to do than the other two but still fully capable) is top notch and the chemistry between Seyfriend and Moore is scintillating. Unfortunately the script takes numerous dips into clichés of the romantic thriller genre and it's too bad because there's a really good movie in here, caught in the trappings of the genre.

A Night to Remember (Roy Ward Baker, 1958)

8.5/10
Roy Ward Baker's 1958 film about the sinking of the Titanic achieves a depth of humanity that Cameron's 1997 film never did. A Night to Remember succeeds by focusing instead on the minutae of the lives of various passengers (a child's abandoned hobby horse, a passenger going back to get her lucky stuffed pig), and its close attention to historical accuracy, as best as possible with the knowledge of the times. In fact this movie inspired Cameron so much he lifted several scenes and characters wholesale from the film (the musicians who continue to play as the ship goes down, for instance) but lost something along the way. Of course the knee-jerk reaction is to insist anything is better than Cameron's version, especially something made almost 40 years prior, but in this case it's plainly true in my opinion.