[Loy]

more....

"Art School Confidential"-after creating a modern masterpiece with "Ghost World" (and it is. shut up you...), Terry Zwigoff and Dan Clowes team up again to adapt another Zwigoff storyline for film. The result? It's a good film. I just can't get excited about it. Why? Two words-"Ghost World". "GW" was such an amazing combination of talent and originality that ANYTHING these guys'll do together will always be compared to it. I know it's unfair, I know I'm supposed to give this one a chance, and I'll probably be able to in another year or so. Right now, I can't help compare and contrast a perfectly well made, sarcastically funny, visually muted (in a way that elevates this whole thing) film to a flat out masterpiece....fuck, I'm a bad reviewer.....

"Thank You For Smoking"-some of you might think I hated this film because I'm a smoker. No, I hate this film because of the rank hypocrisy that surrounds it. Is it a good film? Uhhhh....yes and no. It's funny when it's supposed to be, sad when it's supposed to be....it's a well-oiled machine...a perfectly executed film that doesn't deviate from anything you thought was going to happen. This, however, is the film's biggest fault. It's too generic. It's what Kevin Murphy would've called a black comedy with a side of social commentary that you'd order at the McDonald-like multiplexes of the future. The film reminds you that film (and art in general) isn't about fulfilling expectations but challenging them and going beyond them.

Oh yeah, the hypocrisy? See, the director said in an interview that this film isn't an anti-smoking film. See, it's a satire on spin. And even though he refuses to show people smoke on screen, and even though anybody connected to tobacco is either a bloodthirsty ghoul or a bumbling dolt, he's not attacking smokers, but giving them a choice as to whether they want to smoke or not (I swear he actually said all this)....in other words, he's guilty of doing the same thing this too-safe-for-it's-own-good "satire" is supposedly attacking.

Neil Young-Heart Of Gold-it's Neil Young in the Grand Old Opry filmed by the guy who did "Stop Making Sense". Do I REALLY need to explain how cool this film is?

No Direction Home-A documentary about Bob Dylan by Martin Scorcese...one American Master telling the story of another American Master....once again, do I REALLY need to explain how cool this film is?

RoboVampire-so bad it's good, this film....wow...I'm trying to figure out how to explain. See, one of the games you start playing as you're watching this is "what connected the scene before this to thise one?". As far as I can tell, the film-makers took the footage cut from 4 or 5 different films and spliced them together, figuring that audiences would make up their own storylines. It's got Rambo-type action, then it's got this Robocop thing, then it's got hopping vampires, then the drug cartel attacks itself, even when they're attacking the enemies, and a girl gets "tortured" in the most atrociously fake torture scene since "S nuff"....again, do I REALLY have to explain how cool this film is?