Note on Ratings:
Must See: Five Stars. Has a good chance of being on the top ten recommended at the end of the year.
Recommended Entertainment: Four stars for fun.
Recommended Exploration: Four stars from making you a better person.
Good: Three stars. You'll never be sorry you saw a good film.
Lame: Two Stars. Hire the handicapped. Usually not actually so much bad as silly or predictable or pointless or manipulative or Hollywood crap.
Bad: One Star. Waste of time. No redeeming features. Not noteworthy in its lameness.
Awful: No star. Surprisingly bad. Bad on a grand scale, or in an original way. Stunning. Inspires rage or anhedonia. Examples: Van Helsing, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Jan 03: The Return: Russian Father suddenly appears after many years absence and takes his two sons on a very odd fishing trip. Minimum of dialog; lots of character and storytelling. Absorbing characters. Lyrical photgraphy. Enigmatic story poetic resolution. Remarkable 'about the film" feature. Must see.
Jan 04 [tues]: House of Flying Daggers: A love story with beautiful wide-screen and costumes; fine dance and bamboo forest set-pieces. I think it is probably Better than Hero. Very pretty. But mushy and romantic... not in a bad way, but in a way that a Hong Kong martial arts epic really shouldn't be. So I liked Hero better, for pretty juvenile and manly reason. Plenty of entertainment, though. Recommended entertainment.
Jan 05 [wed]: The Very Long Engagement: French, Tatou, World War I; five men condemned to die for self-mutilation to avoid service. Good.
Jan 12 [Tues]: Hotel Rwanda. Honorable. Terrible. Wrenching. Bad things happened in Rwanda. I read "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch, so I knew the plot. It was pretty tough watching, but not so tough that you can't stand it. And very good. A Must See.
Jan 16 [Sun]: the Circle
Director Jafar Panahi; women in fundamentalist Iran. Frustrating. Doesn't tell you what's going on. But the director did it on purpose, so stay patient. The frustration is worth it. Strong characters and themes, and strong, intelligent filmmaking. Recommended Exploration.
Jan 18 [Tues]: The Woodsman
[netflix blurb] After spending 10 years in prison on charges of sexually abusing small children, Walter (Kevin Bacon) is released and works hard to regain some sense of normalcy in his life. He lands a job working in a lumberyard and beings a halting romance with a woman he meets named Vickie (Kyra Sedgwick). Co-stars Benjamin Bratt, Mos Def and David Alan Grier. Kevin Bacon. Exquisitely creepy. Not pretty creepy. REAL creepy. Not Wes Craven creepy. REAL creepy. Very human. I was afraid it would be forced to develop according to predictable expectations, but I didn't see it coming. Recommended Exploration.
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