The Clock (Christian Marclay, 2010)

10/10
6:00pm-11:00pm
I have been chomping at the bit to see Christian Marclay's The Clock since I first read about it after it won the Silver Lion at Vienna way back in 2011. It finally made its way to Montreal's Musee d'Arts Contemporain for a couple of months and I caught 5 hours of it last night.
If you haven't heard about it, The Clock is a 24-hour long video compilation culled from clips referencing time from thousands of movies, and playing out in real time. So, for example, when it's 7:23pm in real life, The Clock is showing a clip from a movie when it's 7:23pm (or thereabouts). But it's much more than just a collection of clips of clocks smashed together. The clips are edited together in incredibly cleverly ways, often including overlapping or mixed sound, that makes the whole thing feel like a giant, neverending film experience taking placeover the course of a day. Marclay also manipulates the scenes in clever ways - a character in a French movie from the 50's picks a phone and dials a number at 8:11pm, and the call is answered by Fox Mulder at 8:11pm in the 2000's, and so on.
And the longer you watch it, the more references you catch. For example, at 6:30pm, a character might make reference to having to eat dinner in a half hour. At 7:00pm, if you pay attention, you'll likely see a clip from that same movie of the character doing just that. It's this kind of hunting (as well as the fun in recognizing clips and figuring out what movie they're from) that makes it so easy to keep watching. Despite being constantly aware of the passing time, the 5 hours I spent genuinely blew by, until the last half hour when my stomach kept reminding me I hadn't had dinner yet.
Another fascinating thing is to see what common actions happen at a given time across a multitude of movies. When I came in at 6pm, there were a lot of scenes with people coming home from work, or commuting, or sitting down to dinner. At 7-8pm, a lot of scenes of people getting ready to go out or children being put to bed. At 8pm there were a surprising amount of scenes at the theatre. From 9-11pm, lots of stuff taking place in bed (rarely sexual, however), lots of plots being hatched behind closed doors under cover of night. The shift in tone, from the lightness of the evening to the darker themes that permeate the film events that occur at night, is also very noticeable. Another thing The Clock maybe points out unintentionally is just how many plot points in movies revolve around characters being late for something.
I'm planning to head back to The Clock next Saturday to catch it during the day. I would really like to see what clips Marclay came up with for the obscure 2am-5am times, and even though the museum does give it a few full 24-hour showings, I doubt I'll be able to make it to those. Hopefully one day we'll be able to access it on the internet at our leisure, kind of like the 24-hour music video for Pharrell Williams' "Happy".
All that to say, if you have a chance to see The Clock somewhere near you, don't miss the opportunity. It is a completely unique, fascinating and overwhelming experience. Here is a bootleg clip someone made from 10:15pm to 10:35pm if you're interested in a sampling.

10:00am-4:00pm
I went back on Saturday and watched from 10:00am to 4:00pm and enjoyed myself again immensely. The major difference is the wide variety of things that take place during the day, I found it considerably more wide open than the earlier night scenes that I had seen. Lots more outdoors stuff, obviously. And a surprising (but I guess it shouldn't be) amount of train scenes. As expected, lots of classroom and office scenes too.
One thing I enjoyed watching was the progression of characters waking up. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the brunt of them, which I imagine take place between 6am and 8am, but it was still fun to see. Almost everybody waking up after 10am in a movie is either lazy or late (like real life, more or less). Marlon Brando had a good one at 11:30am from a film I didn't recognize where, upon being handed the newspaper, remarks with some bemusement that other people must be awake as well. The latest I remember before I left was Jeff Daniels at 3:30pm.
I'm more curious than ever about the 1am - 5am ish timeslots, so I really hope this gets streamed over the internet or something one day. Or that it comes through Montreal again and I can commit to staying overnight to watch it.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)

8/10
Pretty much as advertised, but I mean that in a good way. If you've seen the trailer, you know well what to expect. In fact I wish I hadn't seen the trailer (or hadn't seen it as many times as I did) because I felt a lot of the movie's funnier parts were already shown. But it was still very enjoyable, lots of fun, light fare. All the cameos from Wes Anderson regulars are fun, the movie is very stylish and always a pleasure to look at, and the plotting is surprisingly clever and intricate. My only complaints are for a slow beginning and an abrupt ending. And I would have enjoyed an even longer middle section, as it felt like the fun was over too fast. But better than overstaying its welcome, I guess. Anyway it was a good time, and every one in our group of 7 enjoyed themselves which is a rarity, so I can't imagine who this wouldn't appeal to.

Nymphomaniac Vol. I & II (Lars von Trier, 2013)

6.5/10
Nymphomaniac is less a coherent film and more a lengthy therapy session by and for its creator, Lars von Trier, as he tries, as he did in Antichrist, to pin down and figure out the fairer sex. In a 4+ hour movie, this goes in a lot of directions. Sometimes the experiences of the central female Joe are funny, sometimes erotic, sometimes hideous, sometimes silly, sometimes mundane, and everything else in between. What's disappointing about Nymphomaniac is that it's essentially what it promises on the tin - when I imagined a long movie by this title from this director starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, it wasn't worlds away from what I ended up getting. Both of von Trier's last two movies, Antichrist and Melancholia, were extremely unique. Nymphomaniac feels considerably less so, to the point of even quoting a scene from Antichrist directly.
In the end I feel like this was more of an "exploration" of female sexuality and addiction than any kind of real definitive statement. You get some glimpses of von Trier's honest opinions (male/female double standards) but it's clear he's also just as happy to be the provocateur (its main character's unsettling sympathy towards pedophiles, a misanthropic but painfully predictable ending). I thought the movie had an interesting, kind of built-in "anti-reflex" to any accusations of misogyny, as to accuse the film and the actions and desires of its female lead of being misogynyst, would, in fact, be misogynyst in itself. If it were a man as the lead instead, no one would accuse it of being misandrist. So why should the reverse be true? So I did enjoy that aspect, and that kind of way it made, I think, an empowering point about women.
I'm modestly curious about the unedited version that's supposed to be released later, but I probably won't rush to see it. If these two pared down parts are messy and scattershot, the long version is probably even more so.

The Iceman (Ariel Vroman, 2012)

6/10
As a fan of Michael Shannon, I wanted to see this movie for a while. It came on TV the other day so I watched it, and it's easy to understand why it slipped under the critical radar. Despite a solid cast and very good performances by just about everybody, the direction and plotting are so by-the-numbers that the movie never elevates itself to anything beyond "movie of the week" status. The story of film's subject, Richard Kuklinski, the family man-slash-contract killer, is such a strange and unique one that it deserves a way more interesting movie than what it was given here.

Now You See Me (Louis Leterrier, 2013)

2/10
I thought this looked fun when I saw the previews, so I recorded it off the movie channel the other day. I was very wrong. In fact, it's kind of shocking just how not fun Now You See Me is, considering its premise and cast. In the course of plotting its con-artist magicians versus its FBI agents, it somehow leaves the human element entirely by the wayside and strands you without a single character on either side to cheer for. The FBI agents (featuring a truly horrible performance by Mark Ruffalo) are stubborn and unlikeable, and its four magicians were probably sketched as anti-heroes on paper, but just come off as smug jerks, to a man. And Morgan Freeman is around to play the wry old man caught in the middle in a shtick you got tired of fifteen years ago.
So with no rooting interest on either side, we have to look to the plotting of the story to find some entertainment, but even that's a dud. The movie doesn't so much deceive the audience with a series of clever illusions to keep them on their toes as much as it outright insults them and jerks them around with one groan inducing twist (or lie) after another. It seems to be desperately struggling to justify its own existence but just becomes progressively more ludicrous and unlikeable.

Philomena (Stephen Frears, 2013)

8/10
I liked this very much too. A gently touching, sad, sometimes funny, sometimes very scary movie with a great performance by Judi Dench. Steve Coogan also brings a welcome bit of levity, often without saying anything. I was surprised to find he wrote the screenplay, which was also well done. It maybe moves a bit too speedily at the beginning when it could have afforded to take its time, but it's smooth sailing after that. The movie is rightly unshowy - director Stephen Frears takes a less is more approach, letting the often-incredible story and the strong lead performances do the legwork. It's a smart choice and pays off greatly. I didn't really know much what to expect going in, or if I'd even like it at all, but it's hard to imagine anyone not being moved by Philomena's story. Recommended.

Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)

9/10
I enjoyed this very much. Joaquin Phoenix was incredible, it was very easy to forget the fact that he spent almost the entire movie acting against himself, so to speak. It was an incredibly tight year for Best Actor but seeing some of the incredible performances left out in the cold (Phoenix, Hanks) makes Bale's nod seem like even more of a bad joke. OK no shots at American Hustle in my next review, I promise. Maybe.
There's not much to say that hasn't already been said. Spike Jonze deserves a truckload of credit for an amazing, believable story set in a future that never feels too "futuristic" or alien, as well as for dealing with a fairly out-there idea with a lot of seriousness, maturity and sensitivity. The movie was also gorgeously photographed, which didn't hurt.
I wouldn't say I was surprised at how much (or many times) this movie touched me emotionally, given what I had read about it, but that didn't make the fact that it did any less impressive.
If I had a minor complaint it would be to say the ending felt a little rushed and even a little out of step with the rest of the film, as if a problem was needed immediately to bring about a resolution with which to end the film...but it still worked well.