Crazy Movie Lady 2

January 25-31
47. No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. A Martin Scorcese documentary film. You can definitely tell this was done by a Hollywood director (with a large budget-- LOTS of archival footage), not just because of its epic length (2 discs, 2 parts, 207 minutes), but also because of the camera shots. I don't know what it is about a camera shot that moves around and in front of a person smoothly that really gets me going. I love it. Circling and passing them, too. I like historical films but it helps if you like the person featured. I had no familiarity with his music before watching this and did not come to like it. I like the instrumentation and some of the lyrics. I do not like the way he sings and that he sounds so different in speech and in song. Very odd. If someone else sang it, in a different way and articulating, I'm pretty sure I would love his music... I do like that he refuses to not transform his sound despite how many people are angered by it. That said, I had to force myself to watch the last 45 minutes of this film. I liked that they played most of his influences in this film. I liked them better than him.
48. Human Remains. In class movie. Amusing. I liked it actually though it became a bit repetitive to see the dictators.
49. O Dreamland. British Free Cinema film about a tacky little amusement park. There was some hilariously raucous laughter.
50. Mama Don't Allow. British Free Cinema. Also in class. About the mixing of classes in a jazz club. I liked the dancing and music but it dragged on a bit too long to have no dialogue. And this was still only 25 minutes or so.
51. King Corn. Followed 2 east coast guys who moved to Iowa to grow an acre of corn and track the change in the corn industry since their great-grandfathers were farmers and tractor creators in that same small town. A lot more interesting than you would think though it began to drag toward the end. When they talked about how bad corn-fed diets are for cattle, it was the first time I considered not eating beef. The consideration was brief because I then thought all food has some crazy practices and you can never know where any of it comes from. Yeah. I definitely want to work more vegetables and meat-free meals into my diet and I eat less beef than I did as a kid (subbing ground turkey for burgers, meatloaf and Mexican food, and eating more chicken), but I cannot ever see myself eating NO beef. It would shake my whole world and I'd probably die. Lol.
52. The Good German. SO melodramatic. Bad acting all around. Disappointing, really considering the cast, Skip this. Do not ever watch it. I did so you don't have to. Accept my sacrifice.
53. The 39 Steps. Another Hitchcock film. This one was about spies and a man falsely accused of murder. I liked it because I didn't expect the ending. The love stories are getting a bit boring and predictable. Way too much like Saboteur, though. Too many similarities.
54. Hurricane Katrina: The Storm That Drowned A City. It didn't really present any new information for me as a person who engorges herself with Katrina information. I prefer films less about the mechanics of the storm and its effects and more about the people impacted. There was also a huge mix of tenses which annoyed me more than anything. Some people were obviously asked to speak like the storm hadn't come yet and others asked to speak about it in past tense. You can speak about something as huge as Katrina in past tense because we all know what happened. So those who were speaking in present tense felt stilted and false.
55. Recycled Life. Oscar-nominated short film about Guatemalan trash pickers at the most toxic dump in Central America. Surprisingly uplifting. I expected it to be more depressing than it was.
56. Chronicle of a Summer. Experimental French cinema verite film where filmmakers ask their characters questions on camera, then film them watching the film and ask them how they feel about it. Then the filmmakers talk about it. Taxing at times but sometimes interesting.
57. The Devil Came on Horseback. Another Oscar nominee. About the genocide in Darfur with a lot of extremely graphic images. Focused on a military observer who took a lot of photographs in his 6 months in the Sudanese region. I couldn't connect with his character.
58. Iron Man. Amusing. The ending was a bit trite. The last fight scene I should say but a pretty exciting film up until that point. I also liked that the ubiquitous "love story" in American action films (Which, really, can we stop this, please? I don't need thrillers, romantic comedy style! *and face*) wasn't overly forced. It would've been even nicer if it wasn't there but I will take what I can get. The villain was too obvious, too. Overall, though, not bad.
58. Incident at Loch Ness. HUHlarious. The producer looked sooo uptight in this editing of the film. Werner Herzog (famous documentarian whose film was the subject of this movie) looked absolutely annoyed by most of the things his producer did. The music heightened the bumbling feeling of everyone scurrying to get in favor with Werner. HILARITY!!! I loved Russell Williams, the Oscar and Emmy award-winning sound guy who was working on this film. At first because he was black, then because of his personality. AWESOME! I have to stop and guffaw at this movie every few minutes. So funny!! And then the fact that they all showed up the first day (except Werner of course) wearing these RIDICULOUS day glow orange and grey (yes, as ugly as you think, probably uglier with the white reflectors) neck to ankle jumpsuits. Utterly ridiculous. The suits and the film. Lolololol. What category do you even put this film in? So insane. I'm going with fiction. Too funny and still I'm just so I don't know how to put this into words. Now that I'm reading the dvd cover I'm realizing this is the fictionalized making of the making of a documentary directed by Herzog. Even funnier and odder.
59. Me, You and Everyone We Know. It was odd, but not in a way that bothered me oddly enough. Rashan didn't like it at all. There were definitely parts I was appalled by but I didnt hate it. Would I watch it again? Yes. If I had the option of watching something else? Probably not. The movie was just there for me.
60. I Remember Me. Fast opening then a slow pace with one person talking. It seems kind of boring and a departure from the open which makes it odd. I'm not a fan of the photography. Lots of unnecessary panning and tilting and zooming in interviews, some bad focus. Planned interviews looked very odd with the huge white background. I wanted more observational scenes, more fact, and fewer anecdotes from people impacted by the disease disparagingly called Yuppie Flu to the chagrin of those who have it.

*Number 48 was supposed to be The Future of Food but it was so BORING that I couldn't even force myself to get halfway through the 88 minutes. Sigh. Disappointing. How am I supposed to reach my goal when the most I can't even FORCE myself to watch the most boring of films because it's not worth the investment.