SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 7/13

The rest of my reviews from July...

IN THEATRES...

* Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp, an interesting man overcomes the conflicting message of the commentary his profilers give him, proving personality always wins.

* I'm So Excited, a light-hearted trifle from Pedro Almodovar. As Duran Duran once said, "doesn't have to be serious."

* Only God Forgives. Hey, Gosling, hurry up with my damn croissants.

* Pacific Rim is here to save your summer.

* Red 2, the old men need some Viagra, but the ladies have a good time anyway.

* The Wolverine, just the kind of do-over we were hoping for. Go get 'em, bub!

My Oregonian columns...

* July 5: The Chinese drama Beijing Flickers and the documentary A Girl and a Gun, alongside Rossellni's "Solitude Trilogy"

* July 12: Augustine, a historical drama; Survival Prayer, a meditative documentary; and V/H/S/2, a total piece of crap.

* July 19: A documentary on Big Star, a tribute to Les Blank, and the Serbian gay rights comedy The Parade.

* July 26: Hava Nagila: The Movie traces the history of the famous song; Men in Suits looks at the actors who dress as our favorite movie creatures; and the not-so-fantastic Fantastic World of Juan Orol is a biopic of the Mexican Ed Wood.

* August 2: Get In Bed With Ulysses and let James Joyce put you to sleep; or look at dramas based on real life, the human trafficking story Eden and James Cromwell in Still Mine. 

ON BD/DVD...

* The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Luc Besson's botched adaptation of the beloved Jacques Tardi comic book.

* Foolish Wives, the silent classic from Erich von Stroheim, newly mastered in HD.

* In Another Country, a romantic triptych teaming French actress Isabelle Huppert with South Korean director Hong Sang-soo.

 * Mayerling, the 1957 television production with Audrey Hepburn, long thought to be lost, finds its way into the world at last.

* Niagara, featuring Marilyn Monroe's sole turn as a femme fatale.

* Summer and Smoke, a minor adaptation of Tennessee Williams distinguished by a fantastic performance from Geraldine Page.

* Twixt, Francis Ford Coppola's mess of a vampire movie. 

* Wuthering Heights, Andrea Arnold's stripped down take on Emily Brontë.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 6/13

While I was neglecting this site, I was still watching a lot of movies. Here's proof.

Oh, and I was also redesigning my other site! Have a look. See what I'm working on. Buy some signed books. confessions123.com

IN THEATRES...

* Before Midnight, the latest in the ongoing relationship series is its deepest and most emotionally fraught, and quite easily the best. Once again starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, directed by Richard Linklater.

 * The Bling Ring, the latest from Sofia Coppola, telling a tale of disaffected Bonnies and their tagalong Clyde.

* Byzantium, Neil Jordan's all-too-serious return to the vampire genre.

* Dirty Wars, a documentary about the covert strikes happening outside the approved combat zones in the War on Teror.

* Man of Steel, is neither worth loving or hating. It's boring and fun and long and loud and dazzling and doltish all at the same time.  

* Monsters University, a Pixar prequel that's funny, if not as fresh as the original.

* Much Ado About Nothing, Joss Whedon's backyard retelling of the Bard.

* Some Girl(s), starring Adam Brody as a writer lacking in self-awareness taking a tour of his old flames. From a script by Neil LaBute.

My Oregonian columns...

* June 14: French animation gets arty in The Painting;  Disney's Pete's Dragon flies back to the big screen; and a life re-examined in Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal.

* June 21: Another visit with Andre Gregory in Before and After Dinner, the nuclear power doc Pandora's Promise, and a sleazy Italian slasher flick from 1973, Torso.

* June 28: the dark Australian comedy 100 Bloody Acres; Doin' it in the Park's wild history of NYC pick-up basketball; and a revival of the classic Grant/Hepburn crime/romance hybrid Charade.

ON BD/DVD....

* Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, documenting the history of the great Jewish songwriters of the American stage.

*  First Family, a tepid 1980 White House satire from writer/director Buck Henry and star Bob Newhart that lacks any political bite.

* Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film, a worthy introduction to the more abstract side of cinema.

* The Great Gatsby: Midnight in Manhattan, a short BBC documentary about F. Scott Fitzgerald and his best-known novel. Bonus: a 1975 teleplay with David Hemmings as the author.

* Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, Werner Herzog's refashioning of a longer documentary looking at the life of fur trappers in Siberia.

* The Key, a dark wartime drama from Carol Reed. With William Holden and Sophia Loren.

* A Night to Remember, a screwball mystery with Loretta Young, released in 1942.

* Second-Hand Hearts, a romantic flop that kicked off the '80s for Hal Ashby. 

* Whoopee! A good-time musical with Eddie Cantor. Two-strip Technicolar from 1930!

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 5/13

IN THEATRES...

* Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach, having found a new muse in Greta Gerwig, strikes out anew.

* Gimme the Loot, street-level cinema verite following two graffiti artists preparing for a big tag.

* The Great Gatsby in 3D has two-wasted dimensions. Shtick and spectacle from Baz Luhrmann.

* The Iceman, a biopic about one of America's most notorious contract killers. Michael Shannon lends the role intensity, but the script only touches the material gingerly.

* The Purge, Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey in a tense little thriller with inklings of political allegory.

* Sightseers, the new film from Ben Wheatley, a rebel in search of applause. Take a tour of misanthropy.

My Oregonian columns:

* May 3: the food documentary The Food Hunters, Harold Lloyd's classic Safety Last! newly restored, and the 18th-annual HP Lovecraft Film Festival.

* May 10: a two-week film noir festival at Cinema 21; Rock Hudson starring in John Frankenheimer's whacky psych-out Seconds, and the political/social documentary The Mosque in Morgantown.

* May 17: a rare noir Fallguy; Luis Bunuel directs Catherine Deneuve in Tristana; and Guy Pearce sends 33 Postcards

* May 23: Douglas Fairbanks as The Thief of Bagdad; Paul McCartney gives us a Wings Rockshow; the Experimental Film Festival 2013.

* May 30: Take a visit to Skull World; look at the making of two different forms of art with Becoming Traviata and Bel Borba Aqui; get gay married for a greencard in I Do.

* June 7: underground crime fiction by way of Flamingos; the activist-focused environmental documentary Elemental; and Stress Position, an agitprop art school prank.

ON BD/DVD...

* Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing, a 1973 disjointed road-trip romance from Alan J. Pakula.

* Save the Date, a wedding-centric sorta rom-com with Alison Brie and Lizzy Caplan, co-written and featuring artwork by cartoonist Jeffrey Brown.

* Wake of the Red Witch, a seafaring, bodice-ripping potboiler with John Wayne.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 2/13

It seems that this is becoming the time of year I fall behind. Just around the Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle. The good news is, unlike last year, I am not nearly as buried as I was last year, and so should be catching up much faster this time. Stay tuned.

Regardless, here are films I did manage to review in February, including work for my new gig at the Oregonian.

IN THEATRES...

* Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse, a documentary about a tragic night in Portland's recent past. Currently doing the festival circuit.

* Jack the Giant Slayer, the fantasy adventure picture from Bryan Singer never grows into being what it really wants to be. Or so it would seem.

* Side Effects, Steven Soderbergh caps his career with an efficient and entertaining psychological thriller.

Oregonian columns:

* February 15: I cover a shorts program featuring local African American directors, as well as a screening of the first Best Picture Oscar Winner, Wings.

* February 22: The ethnic drama Bless Me, Ultima and the amazing Eddie Pepitone documentary, The Bitter Buddha.

* March 1: The Arrow Awards, a compilation of commercials from the UK that won industry accolades, and Koch, a new documentary about the legendary New York mayor, completed just before his death.

ON BD/DVD...

* Beauty is Embarrassing: The Wayne White Story, a fun documentary about one of the pop artists responsible for some of the sets and puppets on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse."

* The Boogie Man Will Get You, a slapstick flop from 1942, starring Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre, both playing on their image as villains.

* Hello I Must Be Going, an indie starring-vehicle for Melanie Lynskey that is rich with emotion and possessed of a raw honesty.

* The Hour: Season Two, the second cycle for the entertaining suspense soap from the BBC. Sadly, it has been cancelled, making this the de-facto finale.

* How Green Was My Valley, John Ford's nostalgic look at a working village in Wales at the turn of the 20th Century. Winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 1941.

* I Wish, a heartfelt and heart-warming portrait of childhood from Japanese director Hirakazu Kore-eda.

* A Simple Life, a surprisingly moving portrayal of old age from Chinese director Anne Hui.

* The Vertical Ray of the Sun, a lyrical Vietnamese film telling a tale of three sisters, originally released in 2000. Directed by Tran Anh Hung.

* White Zombie, the Bela Lugosi cult hit that is credited with starting off the zombie genre.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 1/13

My reviews for non-Criterion movies written in the first month of 2013.

IN THEATRES...

* 56 Up, another seven years in the life of Michael Apted's groundbreaking documentary series.

* Amour, Michael Haneke's drama of old age. Reserved and emotionally powerful.

* Barbara, an enthralling German drama about one woman exiled to the country in East Germany, ca. 1980.

* Gangster Squad. The low-bar for 2013 has been set. Here's your challenge, movie industry: don't do worse than this.

* Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunter. I'm a sucker for Gemma Arterton so I went to see her as Gretel, and now I'm a sucker for this movie.

* The Impossible, a good movie about surviving a tsunami, despite the ethnic whitewash.

* The Last Stand, teaming Arnold Schwarzenegger with awesome  director Jee-woon Kim. It's not as good as his Korean movies, but it's better than most Arnie movies.

* Mama, starring recent Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain. She had a whole week to enjoy her win before this stinker hit.

* Rust and Bone, Marion Cotillard in a dark drama from the director of A Prophet.

Dick Tracy by Brent Schoonover 

ON BD/DVD...

* 5 Broken Cameras, the Oscar-nominated documentary made from one Palestinian man's personal video diary.

* Dangerous Liaisons, a 2012 Chinese update of the French novel, transplanting it to Shanghai in the 1930s and starring Zhang Ziyi and Cecilia Cheung.

* Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty's ambitious 1990 comic strip adaptation was a head of its time.

* Doctor Zhivago. Not the good David Lean version, but the boring 2002 TV version.

* Enlightened: The Complete First Season, an unfocused but entertaining HBO series from actress Laura Dern and filmmaker Mike White.

* The Good Doctor, the director who gave us Kisses returns with an ethically curious medical drama with Orlando Bloom.

* Indiscreet, the Stanley Donen romance film reteaming Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman appears to be geting better with age.

* A Man Vanishes, Shohei Imamura's 1967 breakthrough. In addition to the main film, there are also five documentaries the Japanese director made in the years leading up to Vengeance is Mine.

* Misfits: Season Two. Well, you can't win them all. Sophomore slump?

* Mrs. Miniver, sincere propaganda done as a moving drama by William Wyler, buoyed by an understanding performance from Greer Garson.

* Post Mortem, a strange kind of love story form Chile.

* The Quiet Man, John Ford's romantic classic starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara is now a stunning Blu-Ray release.

* Searching for Sugar Man, one of 2012's best documentaries is also a great rock-'n'-roll story.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 12/12

My reviews for non-Criterion movies, plus other articles, written in December.

IN THEATRES... 

* Django Unchained. Quentin Tarantino continues to play his perfect game.

* Hitchcock, the biopic of the Master of Suspense centered around the making of Psycho. With Anthony Hopkins as Hitch and Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh. It's actually quite fun.

* Jack Reacher, a no-nonsense action pic from Tom Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie.

I also wrote this article for the mini Wes Anderson film festival coming to Portland for Christmas!

ON BD/DVD...

* 10 Years, a surprising, funny, and honest high-school reunion movie.

* Alps, the strange second feature from the director of Dogtooth.

* Baron Blood, a 1972 monster/slasher movie from Mario Bava, featuring Joseph Cotten as the monster.

* Beloved Infidel, a stick-up-the-butt portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald's last love affair. Starring Gregory Peck and Deborah Kerr.

* Justified: The Complete Third Season, one of my favorite TV shows gets its third go-around. An Elmore Leonard adaptation starring Timothy Olyphant.

* Looper, the second time around with Rian Johnson's time travel film is just as good, if not better.

Also, be sure to read Natalie Nourigat's Looper reaction comics.

* Lord Jim, Peter O'Toole may star, but James Mason steals the show in Richard Brooks' adaptaton of a Joseph Conrad novel.

* Oklahoma Crude, a quirky 1970s western with a sociopolitical twist. Starring George C. Scott and Faye Dunaway, directed by Stanley Kramer.

* The Point: The Definitive Collector's Edition, an upgrade for the Harry Nilsson-penned animated special from 1971.

* The Sarah Silverman Program: Season Three. I love Sarah Silverman. 'nuff said.

* Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, the reboot of the BBC perennial is the smarter ancestor to Downton Abbey. So of course it got cancelled.

* The Well-Digger's Daughter, esteemed French actor Daniel Auteuil adapts Marcel Pagnol.

To cap it off, the DVD Talk writers have voted for their best discs of 2012. Here are the results! I personally wrote the blurbs for the David Lean/Noël Coward boxed set and also Les vampires. 

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 11/23

My reviews of non-Criterion movies for November.

IN THEATRES...

* Anna Karenina, in which Joe Wright goes as crazy as his heroine and throws cinema under the train. But in a good way!

* Killing Them Softly, the reteaming of Brad Pitt and his The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford director takes on and dismantles the crime genre the same way they did the Western.

* A Liar's Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman sounded like a good idea. In 3D, animated, built with audio recordings by the late comedian. Too bad it sucks.

* Life of Pi. The 3D or the tiger? Definitely worth seeing in the theater to see Ang Lee's beautiful adoption of the extra dimension, but expect to be underwhelmed by the story.

* Lincoln. Day-Lewis. Spielberg. 'nuff said.

* Silver Linings Playbook, in which David O'Russell asks, "How is Bradley Cooper not himself?" You may need a tissue for this one. Either from crying or...er, um...Jennifer Lawrence. (Yeah, I went for that joke.)

* Skyfall, Sam Mendes joins the Bond franchise, makes it legitimately good.

* Smashed, an underdeveloped but well-meaning tale of addiction with Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul.

Also, if you live near Portland, you should stop by Cinema 21 for their three-film, weeklong Bogart celebration "You'll Take It and Like It." I wrote about it for the Mercury.

ON BD/DVD...

* D.W. Griffith's Abraham Lincoln, a 1930 biopic in which the grandfather of cinema and the father of John Huston make the 16th President seem like a real dud.

* Comic Book Confidential: 20th Anniversary Edition, an entertaining snapshot of the comics scene in the 1980s.

* The Day He Arrives, an existential quandary, and arthouse take on Groundhog Day, from Korean director Hong Sangsoo.

* Film Noir Collection, Volume One: Olive Films bundles together four of its noir and not-so-noir titles for a pretty solid collection of 1950s B-movies.

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 and 2: Ultimate Edition. Or how I spent my Thanksgiving.

* John Cage: Journeys in Sound, an informative documentary about the avant-garde composer.

* Long Day's Journey Into Night, Sidney Lumet's masterful staging of the Eugene O'Neill drama, with Katharine Hepburn in the lead.

* Die Nibelungen, Fritz Lang's epic silent film adaptation of the classic Nordic poem. From 1925.

* People Like Us, a mainstream drama with surprising depth. Starring Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks.

* Ramrod, a dark western with Joel McCrea and Veronica Lake, the stars of Sullivan's Travels.

* We Can't Go Home Again & Don't Expect Too Much, the lost experimental film of Nicholas Ray paired with a documentary about its making.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 10/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies through October.

IN THEATRES...

* Argo, Ben Affleck takes a true story about a fake movie and turns it into genuine cinema.

* Bill W., a documentary about the man behind Alcoholics Anonymous

* Chicken with Plums, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi's disappointing follow-up to Persepolis. 

* Flight, starring Denzel Washington and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Apparently even turkeys can fly upside down.

* Seven Pyschopaths, the comedy is dark and funny, the action appropriately visceral, but the second film from the director of In Bruges isn't as smart as it thinks it is.

* Sinister, half a good horror movie, half a bad one, and the better half doesn't make it worth the time.

* If you live in Portland is to attend the Alfred Hitchcock festival at Cinema 21. Here is what I wrote up for the Mercury.

ON BD/DVD...

* Bird of Paradise, a pre-Code picture from King Vidor, indulging in island fantasy cliches.

* Black Sunday, Mario Bava's 1960 horror debut is spooky and sexy.

* Chained, Jennifer Lynch's psychological horror movie doesn't quite link up.

* Cinderella, Disney's animated fairy tale comes to Blu-Ray. It looks marvelous, even if it is one of the studio's more middling efforts.

* Confessions of an Opium Eater, in which Vincent Price goes on a trip through Chinatown.

* Detachment, an arty drama about teachers overstuffs the lesson plan, but Adrien Brody and thre rest of the cast are great.

* Fear and Desire, the "lost" first film of Stanley Kubrick.

* Mad Men: Season Five, the best show on television keeps getting better.

* The Penalty, a potent silent film starring Lon Chaney as a double-amputee bent on revenge.

* Shut Up and Play the Hits, the documentary about LCD Soundsystem's last gig; features the full three-hour concert.

* Three Secrets, Robert Wise's 1950 melodrama about a trio of women who may or may not be the mother of a young boy stranded on a mountain.

* The Woodmans, a moving documentary about late photographer Francesca Woodman and the effect her suicide has had on her family.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 9/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies from September.

IN THEATRES...

* Bachelorette, Kirsten Dunst and Isla Fisher lead a great cast into some crass territory the night before the wedding.

* Compliance, dramatizing real-life events about extreme prank calls made on fast food restaurants and their employees, a film to test your ethical fortitude.

* For a Good Time, Call..., or as I like to call it Phone Sex and the City. I know that's not funny, but neither is the movie.

* Looper, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a time-bending hitman. From the director of Brick and The Brothers Bloom.

* The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's latest bid for a slot amongst the American classics of the 1970s. I'd say he got there.

* Red Hook Summer, the latest Spike Lee film, takes us back to some familiar ground to tackle difficult subject matter in a fiercely compelling fashion.

ON BD/DVD...

* The Babymakers, perhaps the least funny comedy of the year. I like Paul Schneider and Olivia Munn, but there's no salvaging this weak script. Directed by Jay Chandrasekhar (Supertroopers).

* Battle Circus, a 1950s Korean War movie in which Humphrey Bogart, I kid you not, provides the template for Hawkeye Pierce.

* Bored to Death: The Complete Third Season is unfortunately also the last of this literary comedy with Jason Schwartzman.

* Damsels in Distress, Whit Stillman's return to cinema proves he is as charming and anachronistic as ever. Plus, Greta Gerwig!

* The Dark Mirror, a psychological thriller from Robert Siodmak, starring Olivia De Havilland as twins, one of whom may be a murderer.

* Korczak, Andrzej Wajda's devastating drama about a doctor in the Warsaw ghetto in WWII.

* The Loved Ones. Inventing a new genre: torture prom. Absolute trash.

* Macbeth, Orson Welles' skewed version of Shakespeare finally makes it to DVD.

* Man-Trap, a post-noir love triangle gone wrong.

* My Son John, Leo McCarey's 1952 propaganda drama. "Mama, I think our boy may be a Commie."

* Pursued, an excellent melding of western and romance starring an appropriately fatalistic Robert Mitchum.

* The Salt of Life, another charming slice of Italian life from the director of Mid-August Lunch.

* Secret Beyond the Door, in which Fritz Lang attempts to do a cover version of Hitchcock's Rebecca.

* Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich, a fluffy 1958 documentary noted for its use of the Cinerama widescreen format--which the Blu-Ray does an awesome job replicating.

BLAST FROM MY OWN PAST: LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD - #478

I am surprised this never made it over here from my Confessions of a Pop Fan blog, where I reviewed the film during its revival run. I think maybe when the Criterion was announced I intended to do a separate piece. I'd still like to one day, as I think one's impression of Resnais' masterpiece changes viewing to viewing, but in the meantime, here are my thoughts from April, 2008.

Last Year at Marienbad is a rumination on an affair. Twelve months before, X (Giorgio Albertazzi) met A (Delphine Seyrig) and the two had an affair--or so he says and so she denies. The "plot" of the film is X trying to get her to admit to what happened. They had made an agreement to meet after the year was up, so that she could remove herself from her husband, M (Sacha Pitoeff). The film is structured as a string of elliptical, poetic remembrances, the same event revisited in multiple ways, the setting and the circumstance changing. The director, Alain Resnais (Hiroshima, Mon Amour), is attempting to replicate the variables of memory and the flickering flames of passion. A romance may be alive for the man in one way, but alive for the woman in a completely different way, and fear of the future will alter its existence even further.

So it goes, over and over, M's insistence, A's denial, an off-hand admittance, a retreat. All the while, M circles the room, looking like a holdover from Dr. Frankenstein's lab, luring other men, including X, into a card game they can never hope to win. The game is another series of patterns, a sequence of cards displayed the same way each time, removed in a different order, but always with the same result.

Some viewers are going to find Last Year at Marienbad maddening, particularly the first time they see it. The screenplay is by experimental French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet, whose book Jealousy used similar tactics to show a suspicious husband driving himself insane, and I so hated it when it was assigned to me in my first semester of college I've never read another of the man's books. Marienbad will require less of your time, but the film almost demands more patience and concentration, because Resnais, working with director of photography Sacha Vierny and art director Jacques Saulnier, has created such a gorgeous film, it's hard not to stop paying attention to what is happening and just stare. (Special mention must also be given to editor Henri Colpi, because Marienbad is the kind of picture that most likely really came alive in the cutting room.)

Shot at various locations in Bavaria, the opulent estates and posh interiors used for X and A's wanderings are tremendous. More distracting, however, is Delphine Seyrig. Outfitted in gowns from Chanel, she is one of the most dazzling women to ever appear on a movie screen. In some scenes, she wears a dress made entirely of feathers that is to drool over. With her inky black hair and pale skin, Seyrig is practically otherworldly. Though on the surface she must portray a chilly demeanor, her lies are apparent in her face and tentative movements. There seems little debate that A is the woman X is looking for. If she's not, if he really is mistaken, then she surely wishes he wasn't. If his tale is invented, then the variations are merely bait in a fishing expedition. Concoct enough scenarios, and maybe she'll agree to one of them.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 8/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies from August.

IN THEATRES...

* 2 Days in New York, the new one from Julie Delpy. Really, if I were Chris Rock, I'd have tapped out after 12 hours.

* The Bourne Legacy, the underprivileged stepchild of the Bourne series still manages to be enjoyable despite some deficiencies.

* The Campaign, the Will Ferrell/Zach Galifianakis comedy is best at insult humor, not so much at political satire.

* Celeste and Jesse Forever, an almost-there down-to-earth rom-com, co-written by and starring Rashida Jones. I love her, but the script loses focus and eventually lost me.

* Dark Horse, Todd Solondz hates comedy almost as much as he hates you. And fat people. And everyyyyyyyyonnnnne!

* Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, Miike remakes Kobayashi in 3D, but without any other added dimension.

* The Imposter, a twisted true crime documentary about a story that's so out there, you almost won't believe it.

* Killer Joe, a depraved new scorcher from William Friedkin, starring Matthew McConaughey his most finger-lickin' good role.

* Lawless, Nick Cave writes, John Hillcoat directs, and Tom Hardy stars. Mm-hmm.

* Oslo, August 31, a heartfelt new personal drama from the director of Reprise.

* Paranorman, the second effort from Laika suffers from some growing pains. Great animation, but an overly wordy script.

* Searching for Sugar Man, an amazing music documentary uncovering the secret history of the artist known as Rodriguez.

* Sleepwalk with Me, in which Mike Birbiglia tries to make friends and influence them to understand his problems.

ON BD/DVD...

* The Devil's Needle, and other Tales of Vice and Redemption, three silent films tackling the worst of Amercia's sins, ca. 1915.

* Fernando Di Leo's Madness, starring Joe Dallesandro as a human 2x4. It's neither mad nor is it any good. Discuss.

* Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection, gathering the director's Sniffles and Hubie & Bertie cartoons under one cover.

* Misfits: Season One, a clever superpowers show from England.

* Monsieur Lazhar, a surprising example of quality feel-good cinema, adding a nice spin to the inspirational teacher genre.

* Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, an astonishing remodel of the police drama as existential parable. From Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the director of Climates. Best movie of this whole batch!

* Private Hell 36, a tightly wound noir with Ida Lupino. Directed by Don Siegel.

* Les Vampires, the 1915 silent crime serial from Louis Feuillade.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 7/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies in July.

IN THEATRES...

* The Amazing Spider-Man, the improbable relaunch that could.

* Beasts of the Southern Wild, a noble effort with great acting and beautiful cinematography, but overbearing music and a muddled script.

* The Dark Knight Rises, maybe the most anticipated movie of the year. But must what goes up also come down?

* Ruby Sparks, a would-be deconstruction of the "manic pixie girl" concept that doesn't have the gumption to take it all the way. Noble debut writing effort from actress Zoe Cassavetes, however, and she's also really good in the movie.

* Savages, Oliver Stone's proof that the only losing proposition bigger than the War on Drugs is his movie about the War on Drugs. Contender for worst of the year.

* To Rome With Love, Woody Allen's tribute to Italy is a pleasant comedic quartet.

* Total Recall, a surprisingly action-packed remake with Colin Farrell. Go watch the punching and the shooting and don't worry about it.

* Trishna. It's a bummer summer with Michael Winterbottom adapting Thomas Hardy. Pity poor Freida Pinto. 

* The Watch, your summer safeguard against laughing. Trust me. You won't. Starring Stiller, Vaughn, Hill, and a bunch of dead air.

Also, if you're in Portland, the NW Film Center is starting Mark Cousins' epic movie about movies, The Story of Film: An Odyssey this week. It's five parts, spread over all of August. I wrote it up for the Portland Mercury.

Annnnnd, Shawn Levy at The Oregonian did a round-up of Portland comics folks, asking them their opinions about superhero movies. Included are Brian Michael Bendis, Jeff Parker, Natalie Nourigat, Dylan Meconis, David Chelsea, and many others. And, naturally, yours truly. It's a pretty neat round-table. Read the full version online here.

ON BD/DVD...

* 1900, Gerard Depardieu and Robert De Niro star in Bernardo Bertolucci's sprawling, mad epic.

* Force of Evil, a sharp gangster picture from 1948, with John Garfield as a mob lawyer looking to take his gambling racket to the big time.

* The Last of England, Derek Jarman's post-apocalyptic poem. A vision of the future from the vantage point of the 1980s.

* Panda! Go, Panda! an early kids movie from Hayao Miyazaki.

* Rio Grande, a pre-Quiet Man teaming of John Wayne, John Ford, and Maureen O'Hara.

* La terra trema, Luchino Visconti's second feature, is a classic of Italian Neorealism.

* Treme: The Complete Second Season. HBO's most challenging show is a lot like life. And, hey, ain't life worth it?

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 6/12

My reviews of non-Criterion movies from the last month:

IN THEATRES...

All artwork by Natalie Nourigat. Be sure to read her comic strip reviews of Brave and Prometheus.  

* Brave, the latest Pixar hits the bullseye. Their first with a girl hero does not disappoint, even if the 3D does.

* Lola Versus herself, as played by Greta Gerwig.

* Magic Mike is coming from you. Watch out for his wand! Steven Soderbergh's latest is ridiculous fun.

* Moonrise Kingdom, a charming rumination on the divide between childhood and growing up from Wes Anderson. Wonderful.

* Prometheus: Now if only Ridley Scott could make a prequel to my disappointment.

* Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a surprisingly emotional comedy about the apocalypse. Starring Steve Carrel, Keira Knightley, and a ton of funny cameos.

ON DVD/BD...

* The Innkeepers, a middling ghost story from Ti West.

* King of Devil's Island, a bummer of a drama set in a reform school in early-20th-Century Norway.

SIDELINE: A LENA DUNHAM MEA CULPA

When I ran my review of Tiny Furniture on this blog, I added a coda dismissing Lena Dunham's HBO series Girls. Based on the pilot, it appeared we were in for just a retread of all the irksome traits of her full-length feature: self-important, entitled myopia magnified to a level of false importance. Worse, as the series sank in, it started to look like Girls was going to merely be a post-college Sex and the City [review]. There was the promiscuous blonde girl, the virginal brunette, the uptight responsible one, and the neurotic writer doing her best to fail at relationships. Yeah, I know, this is such a Charlotte thing for me to say, but I didn't like it.

The debate kept going elsewhere, however, and it got heated enough and was interesting enough that I felt compelled to give Girls a chance and follow my own three-installment rule. This rule says that any piece of art, particularly serialized art, deserves three chapters or episodes or issues to find its footing and let you know what it's all about. If a show or a comic book or whatever can't hook you in three, then you have every right to move on.

And sure enough, by episode three, a disarming vulnerability had crept into Girls. Dunham not only revealed a larger capacity for examination than she'd previously shown, but it also became evident that the earlier self-involvement had possibly been defensive and, in reality, she was becoming increasingly aware of her own place in the world. Better yet, she understood the people around her and could, indeed, dig into the lives of the characters she was bringing along with her for this endeavor. As the writer, director, and star, it would have been easy to make Girl rather than Girls, but over the coure of the first season, all the supporting cast got their due and grew into meaningful people.

By the finale, Dunham had done what she could not do in Tiny Furniture: bring her fictional persona to a point of new understanding that allows for a true emotional breakthrough. And not one just tacked on, but earned. Her character, Hannah, had gone from someone I rebuked as being terrible to someone I actually empathized with. She's still terrible--and in two different, powerful scenes in the last two episodes, other characters tell her not only how terrible she is, but exactly why--but yet, aren't we all?

I bring this up now because, in reviewing Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones' Lola Versus, I found myself not only thinking of Dunham's work, but also Jennifer Westfeldt's Friends with Kids [review]. The one thing all of these cinematic efforts have in common is that they portray the lives of (mostly) white people living comfortably in New York, walking a strange and achingly thin line between self-serious drama and satire, seemingly oblivious to how good they have it. In Lola Versus, do all those references to Kombucha and vegan food and the like amount to a critique of trend chasing or does all of these things fall into the characters (and, by default, their creators) being exactly what they pretend they aren't? (Expect this to come up again this summer when the Lee Toland Krieger-directed Celeste and Jesse Forever lands in theaters [review].) Striking a balance between emulation and exhumation is something Whit Stillman regularly pulls off (his recent Damsels in Distress is a very good example), managing a sort of erudite Fitzgeraldian tone of simultaneous adoration and amusement. It's also something I think Lena Dunham has now figured out. The jury is still out on the rest.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I was wrong about Girls. I take back what I said. Mea culpa, Lena Dunham.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 5/12

Still working to get my groove back, but things are getting more focused, batteries are charging. I am keeping track of every week missed, still, so hopefully there will be a flurry of activity this summer.

In the meantime, I did see a couple of movies this past month and I ended up writing about them...

IN THEATRES...

* Bernie, Richard Linklater reteams with Jack Black for a semi-successful comedic take on the true crime genre.

* The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest is big on laughs and small on story, but if you like his stuff, the giggles win.

* Men in Black III. What does that make? At least two times too many? Josh Brolin is pretty great, though.

* Snow White and the Huntsmen. No glib line here. I actually like a review I wrote for once. I tried something different. Please read it.

* I also covered Portland's sixth-annual Queer Documentary Film Festival with a round-up of the event for the Mercury. I am hoping Jobriath A.D. gets out there and is seen by many, many people.

ON DVD/BD...

* Fat City, an excellent boxing drama from John Huston, starring Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges.

* Spin a Dark Web, a 1956 British crime thriller, short on thrills but tall on Britishness. The photography stands out more than anything else.

SIDELINE: MORE REVIEWS FOR 3/12

A round-up of the non-Criterion movies I saw in March, 2012.

The Hunger Games art by Ross Campbell

IN THEATRES...

* The Conquest, a biopic of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The satirized starts to become the seducer...

* Friend with Kids, a truly adult "no strings attached" comedy with an exceptional cast.

* The Hunger Games, odds are I sorta kind love this movie. A smart adaptation of the books makes for one pleasing blockbuster.

* Jeff, Who Lives at Home, a preciously magical comedy. Or magically precious. I can't remember which. Either way, it's very good.

* John Carter, a mixed bag of sci-fi action and deathly dull exposition.

Natalie Nourigat

ON DVD/BD...

* Conversation Piece, the elegant penultimate film from Luchino Visconti.

* The Double Hour, this recent Italian thriller is a must-see. The debut of director Giuseppe Capotondi, and starring Filippo Timi

* Downton Abbey: Season 2, or Gosford Park Goes to War.

* Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone, an in-depth documentary on the seminal Los Angeles rock band

* Looney Tunes Super Stars: Pepé le Pew, I should have reviewed this as if it were a tragedy, not a comedy.

* Public Image Limited - Live at Rockpalast 1983, a classic live concert from Lydon & Co.

* The Sitter, the latest in the decline of David Gordon Green. A tepid comedy starring Jonah Hill.

* This is Not a Movie: Three Edward Furlongs, one bad script. 

* Tyrannosaur, a brutal social drama about the cycle of violence from British actor Paddy Considine

* La Visita (The Vistor), a bittersweet 1960s romantic comedy starring 8 1/2's Sandra Milo