Blue is the Warmest Color

"The camera’s gaze is a deeply complicated element in Blue is the Warmest Color, a three-hour French romance that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Who is looking? And how are they (we?) looking? These are questions that continually need to be asked, and if anything is frustrating about the picture, it’s that the answers keep changing." - Josh Larsen

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #470
Filmspotting #467

The World's End

You could argue that the strongest moments in The World’s End are those that come before its sudden, science-fiction twist. Wright’s default speed is spastic – quick edits, fast pans – and he’s a master of that sort of style, but the unexpected pleasure of the movie’s opening third is the underplayed comedy that’s largely wrung from inaction. Each of the men greets Gary’s proposal with a slight variation on the same exasperated sigh. Later, there’s a dryly funny shot of these forcibly reunited friends sitting around a table unsure of what to talk about. - Josh Larsen

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #457

Enough Said

Enough Said made the cut for Filmspotting's Top 5 list of 2013 pleasant surprises.

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"Holofcener's films (which include Lovely and Amazing and Friends with Money) show characters as real people: self-interested, jealous, regretful, loving, but not always likable. Enough Said was purposefully designed to be a more mainstream film than Holofcener's earlier work, but it packs no less of an emotional punch. The movie is about two divorcees, both with teenage daughters, who are facing loneliness and the fraught relationships with and memories of exes." -Bullseye

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #471
Bullseye 2013-10-08

The Act of Killing

The audacity of Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn’s documentary The Act Of Killing is evident right from the opening scene, which has colorfully clad dancers and actors emerging from the mouth of a giant fish sculpture to cavort beneath a waterfall, with the sunlight glimmering off their finery. It’s a beautiful, funny tableau, given a layer of meta by the offscreen presence of someone barking orders at the performers, yelling at them to be more natural and happy, and less “fake.” All in all, not a standard way to kick off a movie about genocide... -Noel Murray

See screening details here.

2013 Filmspotting Golden Brick Nominee

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting 2013 Golden Brick Preview
Bullseye 2013-07-23

Inside Llewellyn Davis

"Inside Llewyn Davis depicts what seems to be only one chapter in an ongoing struggle. It alludes to tumult prior to the events of the film, and leaves Llewyn no better than it found him, though he may be a little wiser. In some respects, Inside Llewyn Davis resembles the Coens’ 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou?, another song-filled movie rich with sounds from a past chapter in the history of American music. Yet if Llewyn has a cousin in the Coen filmography, it’s Barton Fink, another young talent forced to look at the machinery of how art gets processed and sold. But where Barton Fink sometimes resembled a horror movie, Inside Llewyn Davis plays like an elegy. Its conclusions are more regretful than angry, and while the conflict between art and commerce is no less central, there’s much more emphasis on that conflict’s personal toll." - Keith Phipps via The Dissolve

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Bullseye 2013-12-03

Nebraska by Alexander Payne

"Shot in bleakly beautiful black and white by Phedon Papamichael and featuring lovely music from Mark Orton (there’s a plaintive horn that sometimes goes off on mariachi-like curlicues), Nebraska is an unhurried movie, content to match Woody’s slow, deliberate steps. Like Woody, it falters on occasion (June Squibb has the thankless part of Woody’s harridan of a wife), yet it still affected me greatly. There’s a deep sorrow here about the way families frequently fail to communicate, even when death is staring them in the face." - Josh Larsen

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #469

Mud by Jeff Nichols

"It’s still dark when the two boys sneak away to investigate a piece of local lore. They’ve heard rumors of a boat stuck up in a tree on a nearby island. So they slip onto a skiff and brave the open water of the big river. And there it is – perched 30 feet up, perhaps left in a hurricane’s wake. There’s something else on the island too: a stranger who calls himself Mud (Matthew McConaughey) and who makes the boys a deal. If they bring him food and parts for the boat, he’ll give them his gun..." -Adam Larsen

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #444
Filmspotting #451

Springbreakers

"Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, an avant-garde riff on girls-gone-wild culture, is the work of a provocateur without much purpose. In some ways I admire the movie’s decision to neither moralize nor celebrate the hedonism on display, to allow the audience to be part of the creative/interpretive process. Yet if some filmmakers  – a Korine contemporary like Cristian Mungiu, for instance – do this as a gift to viewers, Korine’s approach is quite different. He prefers to drop a stink bomb." -Josh Larsen (2/4 stars)

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #439

The Gatekeepers

"Throughout The Gatekeepers, a startling documentary about the secret Israeli internal security agency known as Shin Bet, the audience confronts a common hypothetical: Counterterrorism agents have identified the whereabouts of a high-value target in the West Bank or the Gaza strip, and that target can be wiped out, provided that the collateral damage—buildings, neighborhoods, women, children—is considered acceptable. Where does that line get drawn? Depends on who does the drawing. And what are the long-term consequences of such bombings? By all accounts, severe. For the six retired former heads Shin Bet gathered for The Gatekeepers, situations like this one weren’t hypothetical, but part of their mission to contain threats from the occupied territories and protect the state of Israel." - Scott Tobias via The A.V Club

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013

Post Tenebras Lux

"With Post Tenebras Lux, his fourth feature, Reygadas splits the difference between his first two efforts and that gorgeously restrained third: Once again, he details a faltering marriage with as much directness as he can muster, but his taste for elusive symbols and non sequiturs returns with a vengeance, and it can be hard to discern how some elements relate to the others.

Here's a film largely set in rural Mexico, for instance, yet there are two scenes that cut away randomly to an English rugby team preparing for scrimmage. The semiotics are hard to explain — and perhaps they carry a personal meaning for Reygadas that he's content not to share with the audience — but the startling majesty of his image-making mostly serves as its own justification." - Scott Tobias via NPR

Netflix

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013

The Spectacular Now

The film comes from a novel by Tim Tharpe, adapted by the "(500) Days of Summer" writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The film's director is James Ponsoldt, whose previous features were "Off the Black" in 2006 and, six years later, the alcohol-soaked recovery drama "Smashed." Addiction provides a theme here as well, but at its best, and despite a nagging series of shortcuts and sentimental flourishes near the end, "The Spectacular Now" has the wisdom and the skill to fold the characters' various problems inside other things. The movie may be about a budding alcoholic and his caretaker-inclined girlfriend, but this is a complicated boy and a complicated girl, both of serious value, on the verge of becoming fuller versions of themselves, a little worse yet infinitely better for wear." - Michael Phillips via The Chicago Tribune

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013

The Wind Rises

The film’s heart lies in Jiro’s innovative career and in his touching bond with Nahoko. They cross paths again at a mountain resort that she visits as a tuberculosis sufferer in the company of her father (who, in an offhand detail, seems to share Jiro’s loping gait). Mindful of her illness, Jiro and Nahoko marry quickly, and their relationship is shaped by their dwindling time together. After a coughing fit, hers is basically the only blood we see, perhaps notable in a movie about warplanes." -Nicolas Rapold via the NYT's

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013

Beyond the Hills

"A sneaky sort of exorcism film from director Cristian Mungiu, Beyond the Hills takes place in a Romanian monastery that offers solace to troubled women – if they’re willing to follow the rules. Anything other than complete subservience suggests a weakness of faith or, worse, possible possession. Yet if Beyond the Hills is an exorcism movie, the scariest thing about it is that there isn’t a demon to be found." -Josh Larsen

Filmspotting #472 - Best of 2013
Filmspotting #438
Filmspotting #451

The Wolf of Wall Street

"After going unexpectedly kid-friendly for 2011’s “Hugo” (his first PG movie in two decades), Scorsese could hardly have followed with a more dramatic about-face than “Wolf,” which skirts the very outer limits of the R rating with its nonstop barrage of drug-fueled decadence, all put across with a sinister smile. In the first reel alone, which aptly sets the tone for what’s to come, Belfort (DiCaprio) can be seen snorting coke off a prostitute’s backside, getting fellated while driving his white Ferrari, and nearly crashing his private helicopter while high on a homemade cocktail of Quaaludes, Xanax and morphine (the last one “because it’s awesome”). If some of the advance hype suggested that “Wolf” was going to be a kind of “Goodfellas” on Wall Street, in reality it’s more like the jittery, paranoid third act of that movie stretched out to three hours, starting at a fever pitch and heading toward the nuclear.' - Scott Foundas via Variety

Filmspotting #472

American Hustle

"Irving is the central figure of American Hustle, but not by much. Just as integral to the story is Sydney Prosser, Irving’s mistress and partner in con. Sydney is played by Amy Adams, who has long ago shaken up her comedienne image, yet this is the first time I’ve really bought her as the snake in the grass (she had her moments in The Master, but wasn’t quite this consistent). Sydney is as clever as Irving, as well as something he’s not: merciless. Adams brings a venom to the performance that you can even sense in her vulnerable scenes. Just because Sydney is crying doesn’t mean she won’t bite." - Josh Larsen

Filmspotting #472

The Great Escape by Angus Deaton

The world is a better place than it used to be. People are wealthier and healthier, and live longer lives. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many have left gaping inequalities between people and between nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, starting 250 years ago, some parts of the world began to experience sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's hugely unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and he addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind.

Kobo $26.55
Amazon $16.17


NYT Book Review 2013-12-22

A Donny Hathaway Collection

This Christmas by Donny Hathaway is a song that Jesse Thorn never gets sick of hearing around Christmas. If you want to know why listen to this:




Bullseye 2013-12-17

Dr. White by Gucci Mane

According to Andrew Noz the strangest thing about Weird by Gucci Mane is that the chorus evolves into a version of Jingle Bells even though it was never marketed as a Christmas song, has nothing to do with Christmas otherwise and was likely not even recorded around Christmas.

Bullseye 2013-12-17

Best Christmas Ever by Ronnie Spector

"Ronnie Spector was the lead singer of the 1960s girl group The Ronettes. Along with her sister and cousin, she sang on five Top 40 hits, most notably Be My Baby, which still gets regular airplay on oldies stations. [...]

Spector spoke with Jesse in 2010 and explained that Christmas has always been a part of her life. When she was six years old, she sat on Santa’s lap at Macy’s and fell in love with everything about the holiday. The Ronettes recorded “Frosty the Snowman,” “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” and “Sleigh Ride” for the album and, since their release in 1963, all three songs have become holiday classics." - Bullseye

Bullseye 2013-12-17

Climate Change and Faith Collide in Kiribati by Brian Reed

This week's entire episode of TAL follows a group of car salesmen in Long Island as they try to reach their monthly quote of sales for their dealership. TAL producer Brian Reed follows Manny Rosales, one of the staff who keeps a lower profile on the showroom.

In 2010, Reed was awarded the Above the Fray Fellowship by the John Alexander Project, which provides funding for young journalists. Reed used the fellowship funding to produce a story called "Climate Change and Faith Collide in Kiribati," about rising sea levels in a tiny island nation in the Central Pacific Ocean. You can listen to the story over on the NPR Morning Edition site here.

This American Life #513: 129 Cars