the naked spur (1953)

(Anthology Film Archives, 9 Sept 2015). Anthology's Robert Ryan retro pays off bigtime. Robert Ryan here is giddy and physical. Watch him get dragged over a pile of dirt in a cave. Ralph Meeker plays an ex-soldier still wearing a uniform with cool stripes down the pants. Ralph Meeker is great at relaxing. Watch him just lie back on the ground while Jimmy Stewart shoots at Ryan.

phoenix (petzold, 2014, in german)

(IFC, 7 Sept 2015). I like how Ronald Zehrfeld's jacket collar is turned up.

frances ha (baumbach, 2012)

(IFC, 14 Sept 2013). This has been playing at IFC since May 17! And it was a full house! I sat in the last seat against the wall in the first row in Cinema 3 and the view was actually great. Best friend Sophie was more sympathetic than when I saw this in the spring. Benji is cute. Always happy to see Josh Hamilton. Gerwig forever.

pierrot le fou (godard, 1965)

(Anthology Film Archives, 14 Sept 2013). Belmondo is only shirtless in his first scene. But the striped shirt he wears for much of the movie is great. And his sailor get-up works nicely too. It's possible I didn't notice Jean-Pierre Léaud's cameo when I saw this before.

touch of evil (welles, 1958)

(Anthology Film Archives, 14 Sept 2013). I wonder how many times I've seen this. Great as always. I got there a few minutes late, and when the guy took my ticket, he said, "Get up there!" I walked in about 30 seconds before Hank Quinlan's first appearance. This time I really liked the shots of Charlton Heston speeding down the daytime city side streets.

la peau douce (the soft skin) (truffaut, 1964, in french)

Modernity in black and white. Light switches, ignition buttons, gas nozzles, cranks. Sunken living rooms. And fast cars.

สัตว์ประหลาด (tropical malady) (weerasethakul, 2004, in thai)

kinky boots (2005)

Joel Edgerton takes over his father's shoe company in Northampton, England. He meets a drag queen. Antics ensue. One scene goes something like this...

"Northampton's not North! It's Midlands"

"No, Charlie, Tottenham Court Road is Midlands."

Handsomely photographed and a pleasure to watch.

nostalgia (tarkovsky, 1983, in russian and italian)

A Russian writer hangs around Italy. His assistant yells at him. He takes a long walk across an emptied pool with a lit candle in his hand.

My favorite parts are the flashbacks to Russia and the plays with scale. At some point, we see into a room with dirt and stuff on the floor, except the dirt and stuff sort of look like they are a whole countryside. Later on, there is a scene of a landscape with a Russian cottage and then the camera pans back and whoa.

седьмой спутник (герман, 1967, in russian)

Petrograd or thereabouts, 1918 or thenabouts. A bunch of tsarist army officers are held captive in a swank palace or something. Later on in the movie, there is some great Russian Civil War action.

Some people spell the director's name "German". Others spell it "Gherman" or "Guerman" so that you won't pronounce it the same way as the nationality.

Like in other Aleksei German movies, there is beautiful snow. There are also cool hats.

Andrei Popov is very sympathetic in the main role.

хрусталёв, машину! = Khrustalyov, My Car! (герман, 1998, in russian)

Moscow, 1953. Everyone's worried about the bad shit that may go down if they stumble into the secret police's radar. Or maybe everyone's tired of worrying about this shit after years of said shit.

Some people spell the director's name "German". Others spell it "Gherman" or "Guerman" so that you won't pronounce it the same way as the nationality.

Like in other Aleksei German movies, there's lots of good snow.

Unlike the early Aleksei German movies, this one is full of noise. Rollerskates. Fancy cars. Musical instruments. Many-roomed apartments full of weird objects. Hanging laundry. Spitting. Hitting. Unilateral pronouncements. Lots of lines but little dialogue. Characters rarely react to what the other characters say. A lot of characters in a small space with a lot of other characters they don't like.

Yuri Tsurilo is effective and big as the main character, whose name is not Khrustalyov.

проверка на дорогах (герман, 1971, in russian)

Somewhere not far from Pskov, 1940s. The Russian partisans do what they can against the German army.

Some people spell the director's name "German". Others spell it "Gherman" or "Guerman" so that you won't pronounce it the same way as the nationality. In English, the movie tends to get called "Trial on the Road".

The snow looks really great in this movie. So do the birch trees.

Vladimir Zamanskiy is perfect as Lazarev. Close-ups of his no-bullshit face and bright eyes are appreciated.

The jester from Andrei Rublev - Rolan Bykov - plays the leader of the partisans. Andrei Rublev himself - Anatoliy Solonitsyn - plays the leader's right hand man. The bellmaker from Andrei Rublev (as well as Ivan from Ivan's Childhood (a.k.a. My Name is Ivan)) - Nikolai Burlyaev - brings great manic energy to his scenes as a captive of the partisans.

For another great partisan movie, see Elem Klimov's "Come and See".

the fall of otrar (1991, in kazakh)

Central Asia, early 1200s. People in the city of Ürgenç debate how seriously to worry about Genghis Khan. (Ürgenç rules the Khwarezmian Empire (which includes Persia)). Meanwhile, the city of Otrar lies at the northeastern edge of the Khwarezmian empire and so people there know that they should worry a lot.

This film is beautifully shot. It might be an accident that the movie uses a variety of film stocks, but it seems to me that just makes it better. Each time the film stock changes, you're struck how gorgeous the new footage is.

Everything is awesome. Genghis Khan's scenes are awesome.

Aleksei German (the Russian director of such hits as "Khrustaliov, My Car!") wrote the movie.

cave of forgotten dreams (herzog, 2010)

Albino crocodiles!

71 : into the fire (2010, in korean)

Korea. 1950. The North Korean army is advancing rapidly. A relatively untrained group of student soldiers is left alone to defend a place.

Very well-photographed.

The reason to see this movie is Cha Seung-Won, playing a North Korean officer. He's in maybe 10% of the movie. 6'2" of magnificent presence. The white cap looks fantastic on him.

There are two shots that I would like to turn into wallpaper for my house. Both have the sun behind him. One happens when he goes to speak to the student soldiers. The other happens on the field from which he's staging a battle.

the freshman (1990)

Matthew Broderick becomes involved with a shady Little Italy businessman, his family, a komodo dragon, and a goofy young B. D. Wong.

I love Bruno Kirby.

Matthew Broderick looks good in tshirt and sweatpants.

hot fuzz (edgar wright, 2007)

Masterfully made. Timothy Dalton is delicious. Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall are fantastic as the Andy's.

zack and miri make a porno (kevin smith, 2008)

Justin Long is freaky good as a gay porn star. I like to think that his performance was inspired by Trevor Knight.

wedding present (1936)

Cary Grant lights a match on his shoe. And sings the Schnitzelbank song!

this is the night (1932)

Cary Grant as a javelin thrower.

The first two thirds of the movie are a joy, including some sequences that aren't really song and dance, but rhythmic studies on dialogue and movement and sound effects.

The last third is weighed down by the resolution of the Lili Damita / Roland Young arc.