Crazy Movie Lady

On my never-ending (well December 31st-ending) quest to watch 750 movies this year, here are the 20 movies I watched this week. That's right in the last 7 days. It's not a game, kids. I had to make up for the time I lost before this was my resolution.

January 19- 24
27. Helvetica. An Independent Lens film. (That's an arm of PBS. The more controversial, modern documentary films.) I was definitely thinking of my sister the graphic designer while watching this. She has created fonts before and wants to use my handwriting to create a font. I've always wanted my handwriting to be a font so as long as we split the proceeds, I'm cool with that! :) When I see Helvetica I think of Crate and Barrel. Gorgeous, clean lines. Modern, efficient, unobtrusive. Some amazing photograph. Amusing to see people obsessed with a font. But it's EVERYWHERE!!! Target, AmericanAirlines, American Apparel, USPS, NY subway, the words United States on space shuttles, Sesame Street, Do Not Enter signs, Texaco. I could really go on and on and on. Loved the scene with an artist pointing out all the Helvetica with the whimsical music. Lol.
28. Spellbound. Alfred Hitchcock film about psychoanalysis and how a dream could be used to solve a murder. I liked it.
29. Through A Glass Darkly. A Swedish film which won an Academy Award. It's about a schizophrenic and the search for God.Interesting film. I don't really know what to say about it except it made me thoughtful. I can see why it won an Oscar. The main actress is EXCELLENT.
30. His Girl Friday. Another Cary Grant film. Cute.
31. The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Y'all already know I love Tammy Faye. She was such a sweet lady. Why was this film narrated by RuPaul??? Hilarity! I don't like the puppet transitions between scenes. Odd. This movie took me to church and reiterated why I liked Tammy Faye.
32. Cannonball: The Life and Legacy of Julian Adderly. I wanted to hear more from the film's topic but was captivated by the music. Student film from people in my program.
33. Dial M for Murder. I don't think it was supposed to, but it amused me! :-) Lol.
34. The Bicycle Thief. Another in class neorealist film from Italy. Not bad. I kind of like it.
35. The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer's. Awesome start to the story. Loved it. Then it got really technical and medical which felt almost like I was falsely lured into an emotional attachment to characters who won't be developed. Some of those characters were eventually developed but a couple were introduced, then ignored. It was odd. One story line was great and could've really been their main story line away from the medical stuff because of all the twists in it.
36. Medium Cool. It was ok. I didn't love it.
37. Saboteur. Another Hitchcock film. It's brought on a new goal. (Yes, I know this is getting ridiculous... much like Grey's Anatomy... SMH. Sigh. Shonda. Please get your show.) To watch all Hitchcock films by the end of the year. I picked up this one because I've already seen 5 since the beginning of the year. With a goal of 750, I know I can fit in the rest of his films. Lol. This wasn't one of his best. Incredibly unbelievable and not enough of his trademark amazing shots.
38. The Gleaners and I. Odd documentary about an old lady-- the filmmaker-- and her obsession with French trash collectors. They glean food and trash. It was amusing in some ways, appalling in others the amount of waste. She became obsessed with her hand and passing trucks which was odd. At times it seemed like she was just flitting about the country picking up trash and filming people picking up trash. Like she had assistants whose job it was to find the locations and she would pick one and say, "D'accord, journee ici au'jourdhui! Une voyage!" (Okay a journey here today! A trip!) Again, odd/amusing/perplexing. It took me months of passing over this movie to watch it and it was among the better films. Not among the best, but the better.
39. Ansel Adams. An American Experience documentary. I came into this with a preconceived dislike of sorts of the artist. I realized while watching it that this arises mostly out of my dislike with black and white landscapes. Black and white photographs of people? Love. Of landscapes? Not so much. I want to see the beauty of nature in color. I dated a guy once who loved Ansel and I thought we couldn't marry if it meant you would want to place these austere photographs throughout our home. As you can see, it didn't work out. I'm also not so much on the nature doc which this becomes in some ways by virtue of the artist's obsession with the Yosemite valley. I was pulled in early by one person describing it as religious. I absolutely see the God in that area. But then 45 minutes in with 52 minutes left I was ready to check out. But my goal must be met and I've already invested so much time. I'm learning something, though. About the difficulty of a documentary so heavy on photographs with so little video. It creates a sense of eye wash, no matter how beautiful because you don't have a choice to turn the page.
40. Reservoir Dogs. Can someone tell me why Quentin Tarantino is so obsessed with the word nigger and talking about black people like animals? Because that is the entire reason I can't get into his movies.
41. La Vie En Rose. French movie about the life of Edith Piaf. I liked it a lot. I didn't even mind the time jumping which might ordinarily annoy me.
42. I Confess. Another Hitchcock film. RIVETING. Loved it. The ending I couldn't tear my eyes away.
43. Through Deaf Eyes. I really liked it. I felt like I was already in on deaf culture a little bit because of "Sound and Fury," a documentary on cochlear implants I saw last year. I liked that one, too. This one was a little long (they seemed to get a bit lost in the history and some of the performances and film vignettes made little sense to me, possibly because I'm hearing rather than deaf) but still overall intriguing.
44. Marnie. Wow. Hitchcock is so funny. This movie amused me at first. Then it seemed to drag some. The end was a bit pat.
45. Broken Flowers. For real? That was the worst ending ever.
46. F.or the B.ible T.ells Me So. About deeply religious C.hristian families with gay children and their struggles to accept their children for who they are. Neither side fully convinced me but I did come away with the same aversion to extremists I've always had. I broke up this title because I don't feel like dealing with long conversations on my blog on the topic. WAY too controversial.