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King Kong (2005)
The eighth wonder of the world.
Filmmaker(s): Peter Jackson

In 1933 New York, an overly ambitious movie producer coerces his cast and hired ship crew to travel to mysterious Skull Island, where they encounter Kong, a giant ape who is immediately smitten with the leading lady.

The Tempest We can all celebrate. Jackson has now solidly replaced Spielberg. Most folks know that the 1933 "Kong" changed the world in fundamental ways. The world of movie imagination was in its earliest phases, so quite apart from the innovations of animation and dramatic scoring, the...


Published November 28, 2022
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King Corn (2007)
You Are What You Eat.
Filmmaker(s): Aaron Woolf

King Corn is a fun and crusading journey into the digestive tract of our fast food nation where one ultra-industrial, pesticide-laden, heavily-subsidized commodity dominates the food pyramid from top to bottom – corn. Fueled by curiosity and a dash of naiveté, two college buddies return to their ancestral home of Greene, Iowa to figure out how a modest kernel conquered America. With the help of some real farmers, oodles of fertilizer and government aide, and some genetically modified seeds, the friends manage to grow one acre of corn. Along the way, they unlock the hilarious absurdities and scary but hidden truths about America’s modern food system in this engrossing and eye-opening documentary.

Field of Dreams Modern documentaries fascinate me. In theory, the documentary category is an investigation, explanation or essay on something, presumably something both real and true. Because there is the supposition that the thing is interesting of worth hearing about for some reason, one assumes that most...


Published November 28, 2022
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I Am Love (2009)
Filmmaker(s): Luca Guadagnino

Emma has left Russia to live with her husband in Italy. Now a member of a powerful industrial family, she is the respected mother of three, but feels unfulfilled. One day, Antonio, a talented chef and her son's friend, makes her senses kindle.

Outsides That Penetrate This is an amazing construction, turned to profound and lasting effect. Rarely do sophisticated technique and human insight coincide, and I think we have producer/actress Tilda Swinton to thank. Quite apart from everything else, the woman learned Italian for this, with a Russian...


Published November 27, 2022
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Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (1978)
Filmmaker(s): Raúl Ruiz

Two narrators, one seen and one unseen, discuss possible connections between a series of paintings. The on-screen narrator walks through three-dimensional reproductions of each painting, featuring real people, sometimes moving, in an effort to explain the series' significance.

Thieves There’s a blanket term in film criticism, reflexivity. Its an odd word. It denotes something where outside and inside are merged or mixed, where viewer and viewed overlap. And yet the word itself is not reflexive, it stands aloof. While the root comes from reflection,...


Published November 27, 2022
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Field of Dreams (1989)
All his life, Ray Kinsella was searching for his dreams. Then one day, his dreams came looking for him.
Filmmaker(s): Phil Alden Robinson

Ray Kinsella is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice's directions don't stop -- even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play.

Mann’s Book Odd how you remember movies. My memory is of the sickly sweet score and Costner’s obnoxious fawning manner. All that sentimental BS about baseball that is intended to trap the casual viewer. But in re-seeing this, I remember how very clever it is. It is...


Published November 26, 2022
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My Favorite Year (1982)
The year the dreams came true.
Filmmaker(s): Richard Benjamin

Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the variety show he writes for. But when Swann arrives, he fails to live up to his silver screen image. Instead, he's a drunken womanizer who suffers from stage fright. Benjy is assigned to look after him before the show, and it's all he can do to keep his former idol from going completely off the rails.

Drinkin and Humpin with Many I especially appreciate films that fold reality — that somehow build parallel layers of reality and illusion. Here is the oldest formula for folding, but done better than anywhere I know. On the first layer, we have the reality of O’Toole, a once-energetic...


Published November 26, 2022
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The Incredibles (2004)
Meet the Parrs, a family of superheroes.
Filmmaker(s): Brad Bird

Bob Parr has given up his superhero days to log in time as an insurance adjuster and raise his three children with his formerly heroic wife in suburbia. But when he receives a mysterious assignment, it's time to get back into costume.

Pixar is Invincible All movies are about other movies. Most simply quote them, and most of these are bad. Some are very clever quoters, like Tarantino. But still mere quoters. A few weeks ago, I saw “Van Helsing” which impressed the daylights out of me. It...


Published November 26, 2022
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Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
There was nothing to hold onto - except each other.
Filmmaker(s): Don Siegel

A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Pods, Plots and Plodders Once in a while Hollywood produces a movie that decades later gets adopted by American industrialised secondary education. That’s because teachers confuse various notions of ideas and think that movies are a great teaching tool. So to teach the evils of...


Published November 26, 2022
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Ten Canoes (2009)
Ten canoes, three wives, one hundred and fifty spears...trouble

A story within a story within a story. In Australia's Northern Territory, an Aboriginal narrator tells a story about his ancestors on a goose hunt. A youngster on the hunt is being tempted to adultery with his elder brother's wife, so an elder tells him a story from the mythical past about how evil can slip in and cause havoc unless prevented by virtue according to customary tribal law.

Yolngu Goose-eggs Sometimes all you need is magic. At least it seems so, when you see the real thing. If you happened to see Baz Luhmann's ‘Australia’ and was confused, see this instead. It is the genuine article, about the magic, told with magic. It is...


Published November 25, 2022
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Anatomy of Hell (2004)
Filmmaker(s): Catherine Breillat

A man rescues a woman from a suicide attempt in a gay nightclub. Walking the streets together, she propositions him: She'll pay him to visit her at her isolated house for four consecutive nights. There he will silently watch her. He's reluctant, but agrees. As the four nights progress, they become more intimate with each other, and a mutual fascination/revulsion develops. By the end of the four-day "contract", these two total strangers will have had a profound impact on each other.

The Grace of Stupidity, the Beauty of Blood Some of us are more nimble than others at being and some of us hide it well, but it is the human condition to be stupid. We all are and that’s that. The best we can hope for...


Published November 25, 2022
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