TJE 7/20 - Baraka (1992)

I saw the last half hour or so of "Baraka" a long time ago, and I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be. There were all these images of concentration camps, a funeral on the Ganges river, Whirling Dervishes, ancient stone images, beautiful landscapes, and starry night skies. I couldn't piece together any kind of narrative, but I kept trying to. What was it all about? What did it all mean? A decade later I finally saw the whole movie, and found some answers.

( Read more... )

TJE 7/21 - Boys Town (1938)

A few days ago I reviewed "Angels With Dirty Faces," which was notable for one standout performance by James Cagney. He was nominated for the Oscar that year, but lost to Spencer Tracy for playing Father Flanagan in "Boys Town." Now Cagney's performance is held up as one of the defining roles of his career, while Tracy's seems to be fondly regarded mostly out of nostalgia. So I watched both films, and it's pretty clear why Tracy got the Oscar. "Boys Town," despite its reputation for being sentimental and maudlin, is a much better movie than "Angels With Dirty Faces."
( Read more... )

TJE 7/22 - The Turin Horse (2011)

We begin with the famous anecdote about Friedrich Nietzche, who one day encountered a horse being beaten by his driver in the street, and intervened. He was so overcome by the incident, it may have contributed to a mental breakdown that Nietzche suffered and never fully recovered from. The film suggests that it will tell us what happened to the unfortunate horse and its driver, but I'm not sure that it really does.
( Read more... )

TJE 7/23 – The Dark Knight Rises (No Spoilers)

Here's how we're going to do this. Review posted today will be a spoiler free as I can possibly keep it. Review posted tomorrow will go into all the analysis of the things that you shouldn't know about before watching the latest Christopher Nolan Batman film. Got it? Great. Onward!
( Read more... )

TJE 7/24 – The Dark Knight Rises (With Spoilers)

This is your final spoiler warning. Here goes.
( Read more... )

TJE 7/25 - Keyhole (2012)

A Guy Maddin film is always an odd thing to experience. The Canadian filmmaker, known for "Brand Upon the Brain," "My Winnipeg," and "The Saddest Music in the World," was clearly born in the wrong decade. He prefers the styles and sensibilities of films from the 1920s and 1930s. He works predominantly in black and white, borrowing imagery and common tropes from the Prohibition and Depression eras, and uses a surreal, expressionist style that can be narratively incoherent.
( Read more... )