The Borrowed Cyrus and Darius knitted together the largest empire known before or since. Their method was innovative, to allow local control preserving the culture and gods. What they added was infrastructure: roads, a universal set of laws (the first case law) weights and monetary system. The system was perhaps the least corrupt of any… Continue reading Alexander (2004)
Tag: 2000s
Films released in the 2000s
# Inspector Bellamy (2009)
Mystery Man I was never a champion of Chabrol, but I am amazed at what he left as his last film. The film is superficially framed as a detective story but as it progresses it slowly turns inside out as it becomes a discovery about the nature of the detective. This is done so surreptitiously… Continue reading # Inspector Bellamy (2009)
How Art Made the World (2005-)
The Skull in the Livingroom Here is a strange idea for a documentary. Make a movie about why movies work, why we cling to them and how they invent our humanity. Tell a story about storytelling. It is put together by a man who himself is a good storyteller; he is presumably a good teacher.… Continue reading How Art Made the World (2005-)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Space Opera Over on FilmsFolding there is a discussion on architecture in film and luckily enough this comes along as a great example of space used intensively and to support the definition of world and some narrative elements. It isn’t art. It breaks no new ground and the elements of the story are insipid. But… Continue reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Burdens Sometimes the celebration a film has garnered becomes a burden. This is perhaps the most burdened of all the films I know. The Criterion DVD has a French TeeVee program made when the film was released. It features French intellectual celebrities (which is what France has instead of real intellectuals) tooting salvation in every… Continue reading Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
The Forgotten (2004)
Two Faces Readers of my other comments on Julianne Moore know that I credit her with being one of the few actresses that can do “folded” acting. That’s where the actor presents us with two characters, one usually _in_ the story and another that engages in a separate, often contradictory conversation with the viewer, with… Continue reading The Forgotten (2004)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Puppets This has jokes that often work. It has a genuine pathos that is surprisingly rare and is now the trademark of Apatow productions. It has Hawaii and two women, one pretty the other a beauty. It has a deftly comic foil in the “other boyfriend.” It has some frontal male nudity that probably should… Continue reading Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Freaky Friday (2003)
Borrowed Eyes I am convinced that many movies are about movies as a matter of demand. When we enter that darkened room, we often expect not be taken to another real reality, but to a movie reality that has some degree of self-awareness. A great many of these movies have some sort of body-shifting. The… Continue reading Freaky Friday (2003)
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Flying Eye This movie was great fun and all the fun was in the eye. If you know the original, it justified itself as a character development project: people thrust into an isolated, life and death situation — various challenges to overcome, various group dynamics to confront. It was about what used to called drama.… Continue reading Flight of the Phoenix (2004)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Still Not Found Never have I been so disappointed. This movie is right up my alley: I’m studying so-called “folded” films. A fine example is when you have a movie that has a play inside it and the reality of the two blur, like with “French Lieutenant’s Woman.” This has another layer, the “neverland” which… Continue reading Finding Neverland (2004)