Capote - really good
Good Night and Good Luck - good

I bought a comedy album by Albert Brooks when I was 12–”A Star is Bought”–and was absolutely amazed and confused. I laughed really hard, but I couldn’t share its punchlines at school; unlike Steve Martin, say, or Richard Pryor or George Carlin, who if nothing else came with value-added profanities, and who always drew an appreciative laugh from the kids who might otherwise have punched me, Brooks…. well, how could I explain that his parody of the “Mr. Jaws” records was about the funniest damn thing I’d heard?

I was able to find on video at a local hole-in-the-wall Real Life, his and Harry Shearer’s absolutely brilliant send-up of reality television made thirty years ahead of its time (riffing on the contemporaneous PBS documentary ‘inside’–and destructive of–a family’s home). Mauer and Bruns have rhapsodized about that wonder elsewhere on this blog.

And although I got almost none of the specific angst pervading his next two films–Modern Romance and Lost in America–I got the existential genius of the arrogant, doomed-to-failure character “Albert Brooks.”

I’m kind of just gushing here. I’ve watched everything since–and even relished The Mother–but haven’t seen anything close to that early genius.

So, with great trepidation but also great hopes, I thought I’d post the trailer for his new flick, Looking for Comedy in the Moslem World. The trailer hits a couple high notes, and squawks awkwardly (and sounds almost Catskillsy, in the worst way) in a few instances. But…. here’s hoping I have a devil of a time talking to my colleagues, those ones who might otherwise punch me, about why this movie is funny.

watched this last night. it was recommended by someone who reads the blog but doesn’t comment (and i’m hoping that perhaps she will now). i liked it very much but am not sure if i agree with the ny times et al that this is a perfect film and almodovar’s best. some of these reviews focus on almodovar’s take on genre, noir, in particular, and yes, this is a very cleverly done noir. or more accurately it is a blending of the noir with high melodrama (almodovar’s great preoccupation). of course these two genres do seem like mirror images–the cynicism of the noir being perhaps the flipside of melodrama’s immersion in pure emotion–but maybe this wouldn’t have occurred to me if i hadn’t seen this film. the film isn’t just a formal exercise in genre re-invention–it explores desire, narrative desire in particular (again the territory of noir and melodrama) and cinematic desire. at the centre of all this desiring is gael garcia bernal (who everybody desires). however, i felt that the film, which has this glossy sheen that all of almodovar’s recent films seem to have, ends up holding the audience out–i didn’t feel emotionally drawn into this narrative the way i was with all about my mother. others?

another note: the film was rated nc17. however, there’s no sexual activity here that seems to merit this rating. i’m assuming that it is the mere fact that the activity in question is homosexual that drew the rating. but we don’t see genitalia any more than in a history of violence and that film’s sex scenes (especially the oral sex scene) are far more protracted and explicit. sexual organs are occasionally outlined against cloth, but far more innocently than in the average beer commercial.

watched this in two sessions–not because the film is so long but because one of us has trouble staying awake to watch anything that isn’t a korean soap-opera. i am a big fan of the kusturica films i’ve seen (arizona dream, underground) and had been meaning to get around to seeing his early stuff for quite some time now. this is really very good. it helps to know something about yugoslavian history (which i took a crash course in between sessions) for without it the political allegory doesn’t quite come across, but as kusturica says in an interview included on the dvd, it is a poetic-political film and i think would be affecting even without much historical knowledge. but i would recommend doing some brief reading online at least before watching. i’ll note a few random things briefly:
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I’m not going to make a huge case for Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants–it is what it is and nothing more. Its three-hankie girlpower shtick was affecting primarily due to the young actors playing the central roles (in particular, America Ferrera and Alexis Bledel). Still, Nicola and I enjoyed it and recommend it to those few reading this blog who enjoy, on the rare ocassion, a solid unassuming genre flick.