yesterday, ingmar bergam, today, michelangelo antonioni. a retrospective would be in order but i’ll be damned if i feel like it.

With often astonishing aesthetic designs and an unfortunate lack of narrative drive, Tom Tykwer’s Perfume and Christian Volckman’s Renaissance are very much worth seeing–but are neither of them really worth investing past the seeing. (more…)

Sublimely naïve yet boisterously entertaining, Hairspray may be the best movie musical since Grease. Its celebration of human tolerance, cross-cultural communication, desegregation, and interracial romance may be simplistic, but it is a simplicity enhanced by a light-hearted irreverence and a collection of infectiously toe-tapping show tunes by Marc Sherman (South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut). Adam Shankman stages everything with eccentric, enthusiastic flair (he directs and choreographs). No slice and dice MTV-style editing here, but a loving tribute to what makes the American musical great: strong material, excellent acting and singing, soaring highs and a climatic set-piece that made me want to dance in the aisle (don’t worry Arnab, I didn’t). Sure it lacks John Waters’ squalidly romantic nostalgia for the Baltimore of his childhood, but that doesn’t mean Hairspray–a campy, magical confection for all tastes–isn’t a supremely confident work of pop culture.

Everytime I see the trailer for this film I feel the fury of righteous indignation (”that’s not how anybody should roll in anybody’s house” I scream to myself); I even want to boo the screen but I haven’t. Nathan Lee’s review in the Village Voice, however, is a hoot and a smart rejoinder to straight gentiles like myself. And Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor get credit for a rewrite, which is interesting, but probably not interesting enough for me to see the film. Still, Nathan Lee rocks!

Viewed this with the wife a couple of days ago, and it truly caught me by surprise. Whimsical, silly, fantastical, heartbreaking, glorious, honest and joyful, Paris Je T’aime is a delight. At two hours these eighteen short films/vingettes (each shot in a separate arondissement) almost beg to be watched on DVD, but there is something to be said for seeing them all at once as there is only a couple of duds (surprisingly, Alphonso Cuaron turns in a particularly banal sequence), a number of enjoyable throwaways (often built around a comic anagnorisis), and many true gems. (more…)