Before Sunrise - 1995 - 4 Stars

Actors: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Director: Richard Linklater

Before Sunrise is a film that's easy to hate. It's certainly sentimental, and it's painfully sincere. In fact, the sincerity of the two main characters is their defining characteristic. Before Sunrise asks a question, 'What if two attractive people, a man and a woman, met one another and began speaking honestly? What would happen if they spent a night together?'

Before Sunrise works because while its characters are romantic, it itself is not especially so - I don't think its characters' long conversations are words from the director's mouth, or that we're supposed to believe that either person has a 'foolish' perspective that we as viewers are inherently superior to. Rather, it's a film about the promise and wonder of youth (and youthful love) coupled with the fear of losing that youth.

Starship Troopers - 1997 - 3½ Stars

Actors: Casper Van Dien, Denise Richards

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Starship Troopers is basically two movies - one is standard sci-fi fare about destroying colonies of gigantic space bugs. the other involves the sly observation that much of our education and athletic training can easily be used in the service of killing things.

One of the best parts about Starship Troopers is that its exposition is hidden inside a fascistic 'newscast' which always manages to sound chipper and stoic even when it's reporting bad news. The entire world of Starship Troopers is never quite explained - for instance, we never know why there's now a worldwide government or why humanity is at war with giant space bugs. It's a welcome change from films that try to overload with exposition, so as to assure the viewer that the 'good guys' are definitely in the right (or perhaps the wrong, e.g. District 9).

Lawrence Of Arabia - 1962 - 4 Stars

Actors: Peter O'Toole, Alec Guinness

Director: David Lean

Note: Some Spoilers Ahead?

Lawrence of Arabia is a remarkable feat in filmmaking. Just about every other scene, I asked, 'How the hell did they do this?' Hundreds of extras, hundreds of camels, out in the middle of nowhere in a desert. Lean doesn't keep the shots tight to fool us into thinking things are on a grander scale than they are - sometimes the camera is put so far away from the action that I have no idea how it was conceived to be put there in the first place.

The desert is a major character in the film, and Lean does a marvelous job of conveying just how hot it must be, day after day after day. I was reminded of The Searchers, and Wikipedia notes that The Searchers was a major influence on this movie.

The music is also brilliant - the theme is unforgettable, though that may be because of its use in Spaceballs. (I finally get that 'Nice dissolve' joke, it only took 20+ years).

Where the film falls apart for me is the characterization of Lawrence himself - we go through the film, he's in nearly every scene, and yet I feel I barely know anything more about him than when the film started. He's presented as a scholar, but his scholarly facade falls away halfway through the movie. Maybe it's me - maybe the notion of 'fighting for freedom' is so often revealed to be an empty concept that I can't take seriously people who purport to do so, especially under the aegis of the British during their colonial period.

The Double Life of Veronique - 1991 - 3 Stars

Actors: Irene Jacob, Phillipe Volter

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski

The Double Life of Veronique falls into that category of film that has to be watched a second time, but is not interesting enough to merit a second watch. Irene Jacob's Veronica takes a trip to Poland where her exact double (Weronica) glimpses her riding a bus. Then some unusual stuff happens, and then the film ends.

There's clearly a lot in here about the nature of identity, how environment shapes who we are, and the role of art in guiding us into our adult selves. Still, this film seems like a flight of fancy for the Cannes crowd - I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to care about in it.

Best Worst Movie - 2008 - No rating

Director: Michael Paul Stephenson

Subject: Troll 2, the 'worst movie of all time'

Movies are an unusual art form - unlike most other forms of art, they require a large group to make. Best Worst Movie is about what happens when some of that large group realize they've been in a historically terrible movie, and their reaction to it.

I'm not sure this was the director's intended subject, but Best Worst Movie seems to be about man's need to create something and receive affirmation for it. Most of the people in the film do not seem to be ashamed to be associated with Troll 2 - in fact, our film's protagonist seems to love it. If groups of strangers are willing to applaud the actors for their role in this debacle, they will be there to receive it.

Zelig - 1983 - 2½ Stars

Actors: Woody Allen, Mia Farrow

Director: Woody Allen

Zelig is one of those ultra-clever concepts for a film that just falls flat for me on execution. A mockumentary about a famous man of the 1920s and 30s, Zelig reworks old photographs to add Allen's absurd visage. It also uses new camera footage, made to look like it's from that era, to construct this fictional portrait.

In a world where Forrest Gump made this sort of digital re-imagining commonplace, Zelig's technical feats don't really compare. Apart from that, the movie is highly inventive, lampooning the nature of mass media at the time, old films, newsreels, etc. But many of the jokes fall flat, and the story held no interest to me. Woody Allen films are great - if you don't like one, there's only forty more to choose from.