The Dune (2014) New York Jewish Film festival

Don't get your hopes up he's only in it for about 90 seconds if that

I am kind of puzzled about how to explain this film. The problem is the construction of the film is so deliberate that trying to explain I run the risk of wrecking the film. However in order to give you something to go on I will say that  the film concerns a detective trying to sort out the case of a man who ends up washed up on a dune. There is way more to it than that with lots of ideas and themes running through the film but that should get you started.

This is a very moody, brooding film that looks great, is wonderfully acted and if you're very patient is a very nice little film. This is not a big and booming film, rather it is quiet and reflective. Its a film were silences and looks say a great deal and any words are used sparingly and economically for maximum effect. If you don't like that sort of thing stay away.

Because the film is so deliberately structured I find it hard to discuss the film.

I will say I like the film. I will also say that it took me a while to click with it.  I think the best description for the film is that it's a short story instead of a novel.  There aren't grand thematic sweeps but small issues being addressed.

I like it but when it was done I was ready for something meatier.

Worth a look when the film plays January 15th. For details and tickets you can go to the film's festival page here.

Nightcap 1/11/15 Remembering Taylor Negron, roundtable discussions and Randi's links

I am sadden by the passing of Taylor Negron. He may never have been a well known name but he was a well known face. He was frequently the bright spot in many an iffy movie. He was also a great comic and great storyteller.

Perhaps the best way to remember him is to listen to him tell a story...

Thank you to Randi for telling me of his passing and sharing the link above.
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This week’s Night cap is mostly video. Randi ran across the Hollywood Reporter roundtables on the various best of the year films and performances and sent me the links. If you want som interesting discussion you may want to give some or all of them a look see.















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Earlier today we started our coverage of the New York Jewish Film Festival. Look for the films of the day to be films from the festival. When that ends in about two weeks we’ll be going back to covering short films. I should also point out that as part of the NYJFF mix there will be some coverage of shorts playing the festival.

This week is going to be crazy busy- look for some short films from Hubert, coverage of some new releases coming to theaters at the end of the week as well as a couple more of  the films playing at the Museum of the Moving Image's First Look Festival. It will be multiple posts every day.
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Stray thought-

I saw INTERSTELLAR this week.

I was considering writing it up as an On Further Review piece, but I find I have almost nothing to say, it's a silly, over-hyped film.  It's Nolan trying to remake 2001 as a pumped up B film. Its not really worth noticing.
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And as always we’re ending with Randi’s links

Evelyn Nesbit-Super Model
Mark Schultz melts down about FOXCATCHER
The Magna Carta
Tomm Moore on SONG OF THE SEA
Shooting SUPERMAN WITH A GO PRO
On INTERSTELLAR'S music
There She Is!! complete and what it is
2000 ping pong balls and mouse traps
Gravity Falls intro

The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer (2014) New York Jewish Film Festival

Opening night film for the New York Jewish Film Festival is The Muses of Isaac Bashevis Singer a look at the work of Isaac Bashevis  Singer as told by his harem (his term) of translators..

...actually it's told by his translators and biographers, who in this case are all women.

The translators were necessary because when singer wrote he did so in Yiddish. His words then had to be translated into English from there, Unhappy with the translations and not wanting to have other peoples names attached to his work (John Updike did some translations)  he set about translating his own work himself.

A truly enjoyable film it reveals a great deal about Singer as a man and a writer. By having his translators tell us about doing the work, which Singer oversaw, we come as close as we can get to having the man explain his work to us. Its very cool. I particularly love the moment where the author of an adaption of Yentl explains how Singer said that one character would not say that she loved another character but instead wanted them which in plied something deeper. She said that the simple change of a phrase changed the entire play.

As a writer and an occasional dabbler in Singer's work my eyes were opened not only about Singer and his work but the process of writing and of translating the written word, even something you wrote yourself, into another language.

This is a neat little film and a great way to open this year's Jewish Film Festival. Very much recommended.

The film plays January 14th.For more information and tickets go to the film's festival webpage.

Gangs of Wasseypur opens Friday-it's one of the greatest crime films you'll ever see

Opening Friday is The Gangs of Wassepeur and you have to go see it.

You do. You really do.

Trust me you do.

The easiest way to describe it as one of the greatest gangster films ever made. I’m very seriously about that, it is one of the greatest achievements in film you’ll ever see. No it’s not perfect, it’s five and half hours, covers 60 years of time and rambles all over the place but the overall effect is to leave you exhilarated and exhausted and wanting more.

I’ve seen the film a couple of time now and it floors me every time.

Here’s the review we ran when the film played Sundance back in 2013:

Epic, and I do mean epic, decades spanning tale of crime, revenge and struggles for control. This is a film that in it's way and complexity kind of dwarfs most other crime sagas and manages to stand alone among an elite group of similar crime films say The Godfather Saga, Once Upon a Time in America and maybe one or two others.

Beginning in the now with a group of men shooting up a house and "killing" everyone inside the film flashes back to before the Partition of India and Pakistan when England gave the countries Independence. Salid Khan impersonates a well known train robber. Thrown out of Wasseypur with his wife he takes a job in a mine. Once the partition comes and mines fall into private hands Khan is hired to help Ramadhir Singh get his mine up and running and to maintain control. However Singh fears Khan and has him killed. This sparks a sixty year battle between the families as Khan's son vows revenge, becoming a big time criminal in the process and setting the families on to a bloody path of destruction.

Running just under five and a half hours, the two films that tell the entire story are simply amazing.

For most people who think of Bollywood films as being huge bloated stories with the occasional big dance number this film is going to be a surprise. Yes, there are songs but they move the story along acting as an additional narrator. There are no big dance numbers only life on the street, the homes and jails. The music is incidental.

The violence when it comes is realistic and uncomfortable. people die badly, blood flows. Only toward the very end does the film slip, momentarily into a slightly unrealistic moment where the blood is a tad too red, but it's for effect. Until then, and even after, you feel each stab, each gun shot, each smash with a rock, and it's jarring.

The film isn't perfect, some of the shifts in tone can be a bit jarring, and for me the second half is a bit too talky when compared to the first. Then again I was watching the second half of the film sometime around 2AM on New Years Eve so I was getting a bit sleepy- and yet I pushed through because I had to see how it all came out.

To be honest I need to see the film again. I need to see it and take some notes and really write the film up. When I saw the film on New Years I simply was watching the film for pleasure. The idea was to start the film and then pick it up in the morning, I wasn't planning on falling into it and ending up being up until 4AM hoping to see how it all ended. I need to see the film again when I can really make all of the connections and see everything that is happening.

I should also mention that this is based on true stories, with various incidents woven together to make a one long story

If you're at Sundance you owe it to yourself to try and see the film (though be warned it is five hours twenty something minutes long before intermissions) If you're not at Sundance do make an effort to see it when it plays near you- and I'm guessing this will play near many of you.

I’m telling you about the film now so you’ll plan to see it-it’s over five and a half hours long so you just can’t wander in randomly.

Trust me go see the film it will be one of the best film going experiences you’ll have all year.

For tickets and more information (including word on director Q&As go to the Film Society of Lincoln Center Webpage.

Hard To Be A God (2013) First Look Festival 2015

In name only science fiction film from Aleksei German that was ten years in the making and was finished by his son after he passed away. HARD TO BE A GOD is based on a novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky who also wrote the novel that Tarkovsky's STALKER is based on and it's even more obtuse.

The film follows what happens to one scientist after he and 30 of his colleagues are sent to the planet  Arkanar  for study. The planet was chosen simply because it was easier to get to than some of the other choices. Arkanar is a world roughly 800 years behind our own, but its anything like the Renaissance ever happened and barbarism and anti-intellectualism won the day. We watch as one of the earth scientists tries to save the intellectuals who are hunted, nudge the culture forward and not kill anyone in the process.

Shot in black and white and made to look like the worst medieval town imaginable the film has an almost tactile feel. You can almost feel the poo, pee , mud, snot and filth of the planet's everyday existence.This is a very dirty place. I suspect that Terry Gilliam is jealous since he clearly has up the ante of JABBERWOCKY.

While the film looks and feels great, I don't know if the film adds up to much. More a rambling series of seemingly random events rather than a straight narrative the film bobs and weaves and dances around it's themes and points for the better part of three hours. If you don't click with it all, and if you don't have a good deal of patience you're going to get board really fast. This isn't the random fractured story lines of say Tarkovsky's ANDRE RUBLEV, this is a seemingly random bunch of bits that slowly begin to tie itself together,

I was just about done about an hour into the film. I kind of knew what was what and really wondered why the hell the film was going to ramble on for two more hours. I know some people have loved this film, but personally its too little meat wrapped up in too much bread.

If you want to see a sort of film that kind of is about something and you'll be able to read a great deal into give it a go, for me, there are any number of better shorter science fiction and non science fiction riffs on the same themes.

The film plays at the Museum of the Moving Image tomorrow Sunday at 730. for tickets and more information go to the films festival web page.

Enter Pyongyang (2014)

Enter Pyongyang from JT Singh on Vimeo.

I found this film through this article.

Propaganda or no it's still really cool

La Cravate (The Severed Heads) (1957)

Alejandro Jodorowksy's films have included some level of silent-clowning, from the little comic routine in the second-half of El Topo to the remarkable play of hands in Santa Sangre and even the autobiographic nods in The Dance of Reality. This stems from his training as a mime under Etienne Decroux and working with Marcel Marceau, which finds great expression in the silent short La Cravate. Thought lost for five decades, a copy of the 20-minute film was found in a German attic in 2006.

Adapted from a story by Thomas Mann, the film centers on a man (Jodorowsky) uncomfortable with his own skin, hobbling around and fidgeting with a violet tie. He meets a woman who collects heads, and he swaps out his own head for others in order to woo another woman (who's not necessarily into him).

It's strange seeing Jodorowsky so young, which is odd to write, yet that gawkiness and bug-eyedness lends his silent clown an endearing quality. There's a discomfort in his own skin, and the film is about finding a kind of comfort or acceptance of the self. There's not so much a mind/body split going on as there's a general discomfort with the self and where one fits and what roles one plays and one's social obligations. It's no surprise when Jodorowsky's body (now wearing the head of a bully) knots the violet tie into something like a noose.

Beyond its importance for Jodorowsky completists as a directorial debut, La Cravate is in part notable for its use of color. Small touches of color and choices for outfits have remarkable personality, like a square of orange on a blue hat box, or a grayed-out pair of cleaners using a similarly muted yellow bug sprayer. Some images almost reminded me of a bright proto-John Waters. Jodorowsky's also finds some surreal visuals that stick despite his limited budget--a game of chess played with red apples and d'Anjou pears. Though maybe the low budget and the cardboard sets heighten the off-kilter charm of the imagery.

What makes La Cravate most memorable is the skill at physicality since this movie feels like a mime routine made as a film. Jodorowosky's out-of-sorts gait matches his character, and he makes the most of this mode when dealing in visual and physical comedy. Maybe my favorite scene in the film is a moment alienation. Jodorowsky's character (wearing another man's head), stands in the middle of a city in flux, and each bustling citizen has the odd look of an alien in posture and appearance.

One of these days I'll sit down with all of Jodorowsky's films and watch them in order, because I sense there's more here in La Cravate and in Fando y Lis that becomes realized in greater form later on, like colors in a painting reticulated and given shape and prominence.

Eruption of Kilauea 1959-1960

The Eruption of Kilaeua Volcano 1959-60 is wicked cool. Yea I know it’s a government information film, but in it’s 28 minutes there are some really cool images.

The film is essentially an explanation of what happened and when the volcano erupted in 1959 and 60 with color footage illustrating it. That’s really it, but it’s way more than enough.

The power and the wicked cool nature of the film come from the images of the eruption just running without cutaways. Yes we get the the typical lava flows, but we get huge geysers of lava flying in into the air. We watch as one eruption goes from nothing to spewing molten material hundreds of feet in the air in seconds. As the narration says there is no manipulation of the speed, what we are seeing happened exactly as it happens. The film also manages to give us a sense of scale for everything that is really lacking in most other films on volcanos.

I’ve always thought volcanos were neat, but after seeing this I think they are more so. You have to track the film down and see it BIG.

The film can be found on the Super Volacano DVD from Alpha Video or on You Tube.

New York Jewish Film Festival starts January 14th

The New York Jewish Film Festival kicks ass.

I know that statement isn’t going to sit well with a good portion of the staid patrons of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum who want to be above terms like kick ass, but let’s face it this festival is kick ass and fantastic way to start the film year. On the basis of this year’s programing I’m adding it to my must see festivals of the year.

I’ve been going to the festival off and on for years and I’ve been covering it for Unseen for the last four. The first two years I only saw a couple of films due largely to scheduling conflicts. Last year I waded in waist deep and saw about a dozen films. This year I pushed off and went for a swim and I’ll have seen around 25 films by the time it all ends.

The thing that is so cool about the films is that even though they are running as part of a Jewish Film Festival the films aren’t ipso facto of interest just to Jewish people. If you’re looking at the title of the festival and thinking you won’t find something you like think again- consider Angels of the Revolution about Avante Garde artists colliding with natives in Siberia, The GoGo Boys about Cannon Films or the Polger Variant about three sisters who are world class chess players. Whatever connection they have to the Jewish experience, the films also speak to a wider audience. Hell their side bars on New York Noir and Anti War films have nothing to do with being Jewish, they are just excellent films (I dare you to find any Jewish reference in the Japanese war film Fires on the Plains).

While all of the films are good there are a couple of truly great films in the festivals and you really must make an effort to see them:

King of Nerac is one of the best films about creation I’ve seen. The film is a portrait of David Breuer-Weil over two years and its amazing. Yes you get to see his art but you get to know the man and understand how and why he creates. Its wonderful and there is a good chance it will be on one of my best of year lists of 2015.

Equally good on another subject The Zionist Idea is a fantastic explanation of the whole Zionist movement. It’s an almost three hour look that surprised the hell out of me in its examination of the subject from all angles. No matter what side you are in regard to the existence of Israel you really must see the film since it will give you food for thought.

And one of my new favorite films is Deli Man who runs a Jewish Deli in Huston. Actually its more about the history of  deli and an examination of tradition.  More to the point this is food porn for anyone who loves going to places like the Carnegie Deli. This is a must see-though if you go have dinner plans afterward because you are going to want to have a huge sandwich with some matzo ball soup.

There are other good and great films, and starting Sunday I’ll be reviewing them a couple of days before each screen, but why wait go to the website and pick some titles and buy some tickets. Trust me there is some truly great stuff screening and you really need to make an effort to go.

For more information and tickets go to the New York Jewish Film Festival Website.

A few words on PREDESTINATION (2014) (corrected)

The Spierig Brothers’ PREDESTINATION is based on a Robert Heinlien story called "-All You Zombies-" but it has nothing to do with zombies.  Written in one day the story is as trippy and mind bending a story as Heinlein has ever put  on paper.

The plot of the film, as little as I dare tell you, has a temporal police man going back in time trying to try and stop the one criminal who has eluded him for his whole career.

Thats' all I can say. This puzzle box of a film is the sort of thing you need to know as little about as possible when you see it the first time. Trust me the less you know the better you'll be.

Sticking amazingly close to the source novel this is one of the best adaptions of a Heinlein story as you'll ever see. Certainly its the most faithful. I'm guessing the fidelity to the story is the result of it being the sort of thing that can not be tinkered with lest it all fall apart.

Easily the best of the The Spierig Brothers’films (Undead was gross fun but didn't add up to much, Daybreakers was a bland vampire/noir rething) the film works because they play the film pretty much straight from start to finish. Other than one smart ass song reference very late in the game the film treats it all seriously.

I think the film is a great deal of fun in  mess with your head sort of way. Certainly the first time through the film is a great experience (hence my insistence you avoid discussion of the film until you see it). I completely understand why the film has won as many awards as it has.

My sole reservation about the film, and one that in no way reflects whether you should see it or not, is how is the film going to be viewed the second and third or fourth time through. How will this play when you know what its going on?  I have an idea but I can't discuss that now.

Whatever you think the answer to that question is going to be, the only way to even begin to ponder it is to see the film the first time which will make second and third viewings a necessity. Take my advice and go see the film..

The film hits theaters tomorrow

(A big thank you to David Macpherson for pointing out I had the wrong author of the source novel. I stand corrected)

Storyteller (2010)

Nicolas Provost head trip bending of the Las Vegas Skyline into something alien and wickedly cool.

The calera passes along the nighttime skyline of the city and the artist reflects it back on itself with the result that we are now no longer in Vegas but out in space and the city is huge spaceships or more likely some where else where giant object drift by. Maybe its a real life video game...

And it's not the parts we recognize thats facinating it's the parts that aren't the parts where the reflections connect that are wild

I wish I had seen this huge-huge and in 3D- dear god that would be so wickedly awesome....

You have to track this down and play it really big and sit way up close. This is beyond cool.

Soif (2014)

Black and white line drawings morph and change through a variety of motifs many having to do with fish, women and bottles.

Strange hypnotic film is said to be by the director about the life a woman and her drinking habit. That maybe what he feels it is, and I can see why he says that, but somewhere in this film there is something more, something else entirely.  Forgive me for arguing with the director but watching the film one can't help but see more to it,. Yes granted its clearly unintentional but there is the notions of evolution and even de-evolution in there. I'm sure there is more because I kept wanting to stop the film in order to take notes, but the morphing and changing was so hypnotic I didn't want to break the spell.

A neat little film.

Next Floor (2008)

Denis Villeneuve's wicked little confection is full of meaning and laughs as a large group of gourmands gorge themselves on all sorts of fancy food- eating until they literally crash through the floor only to keep on eating... The film is virtually wordless with the only word spoken being the title meaning that all of the waiters have to move down one floor.

Its a twisted but accurate look at how the we over indulge and keep going despite the fact that we know things are going horribly wrong.

A beautiful to look at film, I can't imagine what they spent on this short, but I'm glad I they did since it has great impact and really makes you think.

A big thank you to Peter for putting this on my radar.


Next Floor from Centre Phi | Phi Centre on Vimeo.

Staves Winter Trees (2014)

THE STAVES WINTER TREES from Karni and Saul on Vimeo.
Beautifully animated music video made at the Aardman Studios by Karni and Saul.

I have nothing much to say except see it.

(My job is to point you to great films consider yourself pointed)

Nightcap 1/4/15 On shorts, silent films plus Randi's Links

Gerard Chamberlain helps Alec Kubas-Meyer get a drink of water in the short film REEL

Thursday we started what was supposed to be another solid month of short films, but the New York Jewish Film festival kind of took over the second half of the month. This shouldn’t be taken to mean that there is a shortage of short films, rather it simply means that films of a more timely notion showed up. Later this week I’ll have a curtain raiser to NYJFF, but for now I want to talk about shorts.

I know some of you think there are too many shorts and that people who shouldn’t be making films are cranking out crap, but I’m here to tell you there are some great shorts out there. As with every year a whole bunch of the best films I saw in 2014 were shorts. I would gladly take a Jerimiah Kipp short horror film over some of the full length crap turned out from Hollywood's studios. Equally I would take one Dam Keeper over most of the computer generated crap turned out by most animation studios.

There are good shorts out there, you just have to be willing to take a the time to watch them.

Yea I know places like You Tube and Vimeo are filled to the brim with lousy shorts, but there are tons of good ones too.

If you want to take the guess work out of what’s good or bad short wise might I make the suggestion that all you need do it look at what some film festivals are programing and go with that. If you take a look at any of the short films at DOC NYC or The New York International Children’s Film Festival you are more than likely to hit a whole bunch of great shorts. I’m guessing if you can run down what they show you’ll love 90% of them. If you take the offerings at Tribeca or Sundance you’re going to end up with a whole lot of good stuff but you’ll also end up with some “WTF was that” stuff. The success rate with Tribeca or Sundance is going to be lower on the love to hate ratio, but at the same time you’ll see more stuff that’s just interesting.

The thing with shorts is you’ll have to be willing to try films. Since most shorts run only a couple of minutes why not try a bunch? As friend of Unseen Joe Bendel wrote me in an email earlier this year:
I'm... willing to cover a film of any length if it addresses a subject I'm interested in
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What’s happening this month is that we’ll be giving you shorts through next weekend. At that point we’ll be switching over to ab out two weeks of films from the New York Jewish Film Festival. When the coverage of that ends we’ll go back for more shorts which will run straight into February for several days.

Where the last month of shorts were largely just reviews, this time out we’re mixing some reviews with links to the actual shorts. I’m telling you to watch the shorts so why not give you the chance to see the films? If we’re providing a link we recommend the film.

I need to point out that the mix of films includes some old silent films as well as modern day ones. Toward the end of the run you’ll be seeing Super Hooper Dyne Lizzies with Billy Bevan which is a wacked out car comedy. I’ve also linked to Laurel and Hardy’s Two Tars which concerns the boys out on a date which goes nowhere, literally, when they get caught in a traffic jam. Tempers flare and it isn’t long before cars are being dismantled.

If you like the mix then do yourself a favor and start searching the web for more films- and when you find a good short throw it our way so we can share it with the readers.
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Since New Years I've been  watching a good number of silent films with the result there is going to be a week or so of reviews coming toward the end of March. I'm having a really good time watching them since with a bunch of them I had no idea the films even existed.

There were a few I saw which are not getting reviews here at Unseen but I wanted to mention them in passing.

There is a 1913 version of SPARTACUS out on DVD from Alpha home video. The film has thing at the beginning about how fact mingles with fiction, but trust me its 95% fiction. Yes its about the slave revolt but  its also a weird ass romance-just don't ask me to explain it I don't get it. Its not a particularly good film, but it is spectacular with a large cast fighting in and out of arena. On that sort of level it's worth seeing for fans of gladiator movies or morbidly curious about how the story has been messed up for a century.

I finally saw DW Griffith HEARTS OF THE WORLD his propaganda film about the Germans tormenting th Gish sisters during WW1. Its  pure propaganda and just plain silly for all the wrong reasons. Griffith supposedly regretted making the film because of moral issues. Personally I think outside of the time it was made it would have been much too silly to believe.

Similarly is the Thomas Edison produced THE UNBELIEVER about a rich guy who goes to war and has an Epiphany concerning god and people's worth.  While made in a point and shoot style of film making that was dying when the film was released (thanks to Griffith) the film is a better and more spectacular propaganda piece. I could actually watch this again.Containing an early appearance of Erich Von Strohiem (billed as Karl) the middle section of the film essentially tells the whole HEARTS OF THE WORLD plot in 25 minutes- and does so better.  If you can get past the anti-German POV and the preaching about god, this is an enjoyable little film
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And now Randi's Links:

The hottest place to eat in Britain is prison
Times Square 1870-2010
The UNBROKEN screenplay
Best Animated Characters of 2014
BBC pictures of the year
Strange Victorian Christmas events
The beauty, the journalist and the Titanic
Comment section BINGO
Clear frozen lake

Flying Man (2014)

What if a flying vigilante with super strength showed up and started killing off bad guys? How would the world, how would the bad guys, react?

Marcus Alqueres' film is a truly great superhero story takes things into all sort of unexpected places. Yea the stories of the comics are fun to read, but what would happen if it really happened? What would the police do, what would the crooks? This film gives us an idea.

Apparently the response to the film has been so good that a feature film maybe coming. I'm both happy about that and a little frightened. I'm happy because the film is the work of filmmakers with a load of talent who have made a film that deals with a lot of questions that have always been hanging around in the mind of most superhero fans. On the other hand I'm afraid that expanding the story will lead to missteps and a lessening of effect. What I can hope for is that the studio heads stay well enough away and just let the guys make the damn film.

One of the best superhero films I've ever seen.

Superman with a Go-Pro

Three minute, utterly cool film of what happens when Superman decides to return a lost Go-Pro camera.

Awesome, just awesome.

Thanks to Ken for sending this my way

The Comic King of Guatemala (2013)

The Comic King of Guatemala from George Clipp on Vimeo.
Marvelous look at the first comic shop in Guatemala.

Inteviews with the owners and customers reveal their love of comics and the importance of comics as an art form and a means of expression.

As I've done with several of these short film reviews I've included links to the films because whatever I can say won't do justice to the film. Do yourself a favor and just take nine minutes and watch this because it's really that good,

Thanks to Randi for sending it my way.

2014 Best of the year and favorites Part 2: BEST OF THE BEST

I don't care where you're from being quoted in a movie trailer is wickedly cool and one of the highlights of 2014

These are the Best of the Best. They are the films, the moments and other things that are as close to a ten best list as I can muster. Normally I don't break the list like this but these are just so amazing that they leaned forward a bit and demanded their own list. There is no order, these are all the best of the best.

I AM BIG BIRD- watching the life of Caroll Spinney play out I had my own replay as well. Tears  flowed from everyone at the screening and the entire audience at the BAM screening wanted to hug him. One of the most joyously emotional films...nay experiences of my entire life. This is what movies should do.

THE SEVEN FIVE- true life tale of corruption plays better than any fictional drama. Wow and wow and wow. I can't wait to see it again

THE BODY- brilliant horror film is dead on perfect. All films of any length should be this perfect.

SLAYING THE BADGER-What happened to Greg LeMond makes for the best thriller of the year. I've seen it several times now and I'm riveted every damn time

NEXT GOAL WINS- This movie will make you feel good. Its not so much about winning but being simply able to do what you love...one of the best film going experiences of the year.

GREAT PASSAGE- a group of people make a dictionary and change themselves for the better. I have no idea what to say but it sounds dumb but is truly magical.

BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL-when the film ended everyone in the screening room, all ten of us, looked at each other and wondered where the hell this film had come from and why hadn't we heard of it. A film about doing what you love because thats what you have to do. I smiled for weeks after seeing this film.

The PASOLINI screening was one of those legendary experiences people will talk about for decades afterward. One guy in the audience decided to take Abel Ferrara to task for his portrait of Pasolini and the fireworks that resulted were the stuff of New York Film Festival legend.

THE MINIONS- Jeremiah Kipp is a horror genius. His short film about following the Witch's Path is as scary a film as you'll see all year. Mark my words he is going to be huge.

Eddie Rouse in RAT PACK RAT give a performance for the ages. It has to be one of the greatest performances I've ever seen and the bitch of it is it will never be noticed by anyone especially Oscar

Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo in FOXCATCHER give career defining performances that let you know just how good they really are

DAUGHTER- a touching drama thats' also an nail biting action film. Who would have thought it could happen?

SALT OF THE EARTH  seeing the pictures of Sebastião Salgado larger than life and explained by the artist is just awe inspiring.

BANK LADY- Form over content mixes with great content to make for one hell of a crime drama. 

STARRED UP- probably one of the best prison films ever may have a soapy story but it doesn't matter its ballsy enough to make you sit up and take notice.

DAM KEEPER- Short animated film about a dam keeper who is makes a friend and well--this is just amazing

SONG OF THE SEA- Thomm Moore is a genius. This follow up to BOOK OF KELLS will have your mouth hanging open. It will break your heart and then heal it.

LOOK OF SILENCE- Joshua Oppenhiemer's follow up to THE ACT OF KILLING floored me both times I saw it. It maybe better than the earlier film but I'm not sure since four months on I'm still numb from it. May be this time he'll get an Oscar

SHE'S BEAUTIFUL WHEN SHE'S ANGRY screening at DOC NYC was magic. Not only did the film carry me along hearing all the women in the audience react to the film drove many of the films points home

Julian Richings in everything. Why had I never heard of him before he appeared in so many movies at Fantasia? He's one of the best actors ever.

BIRDMAN-form  reinforces content. Quite possibly a perfect example of cinematic art. Perfect or nearly so on every level

Bill Plympton's CHEATIN- as lyrically beautiful a film as you will ever see. The best thing that Plymton has ever done which makes it one of the best animated films you'll ever see.

Meeting Mark Breland at the CHAMPS screening was just really really cool. I followed his career since before the Olympics and to get to set next to him and just talk was an absolute cool thing.

The second half minus the return to the Shire of THE HOBBIT BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES. If only Peter Jackson had focused this much on character over spectacle the other 7 hours of Hobbit film would have been the equal to his LOTR

Lastly my favorite movie moment of the year was when for the first time in a long time I got my dad to the movies to see ON ANY SUNDAY:THE NEXT CHAPTER. I had seen the film before but its about motorcycles so I had to take my dad. We got popcorn and sodas and sat down in a completely empty movie theater and had a blast. No one in the place meant we could talk and joke and provide a running commentary. It was wonderful and a something I will always treasure.

For now that's it. As this posts I've already seen some 2015 films that will end up on this list. Hopefully that's a good sign for the next cinematic year.

Cours du soir (Evening Classes) (1967)

Jacques Tati doesn't play Monsiuer Hulot in the 27-minute short Cours du soir, but he sort of does. Directed by Nicolas Ribowski and shot on the set of Tati's masterpiece PlayTime, Cours du soir is a series of routines presented by Tati to a class of would-be Hulots demonstrating the art of comedy and pantomime. Some of the gags are reminiscent of Tati's past works, such as Monsieur Hulot's Holiday and Jour de fete (and ditto the short L'ecole des facteurs). When demonstrating a routine involving postmen on bicycles, the classroom even looks to the back of the room, as if acknowledging this bit of the short as a kind of retrospective act.

What's present in Cours du soir isn't so much a Hulot original but more of a lecture about Hulot-the-idea and about Tati's films and about observational comedy. Much of the humor comes from depictions of inexperience. Tati mugs for the camera as he mimics a beginning-smoker distastefully having a cigarette, and he shows a knack for anti-coordination when doing a tennis warm-up. The students themselves--a motley collection of dimbulbs and tyros (one of whom reminded me of Paul Begala, oddly)--demonstrate a certain kind of odd comedy from their inability to do pratfalls as well as Tati/Hulot.

It's bumbling, and it's funny as a counterpoint to Tati, maybe highlighting the Italian notion of sprezzatura, a kind of effortlessness and nonchalance that comes only through the mastery of an action. Tati has a certain sprezzatura about his gait and his manner and little gestures. This maybe says more about his body of work than Cour du soir itself, though.

Cours du soir is light on laughs and quite small given the scope of Mon Oncle and PlayTime and Tati's later works, and yet I actually found myself charmed by its wit. Maybe the film is more for Tati completists only--in some ways, it's like a sketchbook or a notebook rather than a full comic treatise.

"For homework, practice everywhere you can," the teacher tells his class once it's dismissed. For Tati, comedy can be made everywhere, from anything, with practice and attention.