year of the dog is very good. probably the weakest of white’s major films but still very good. it treads more on chuck and buck territory than on that of the good girl (the other two major films–the others seem like films he writes to be able to make these films) and doesn’t evoke either the discomfort of the former or the existential melancholy of the latter, but shares with both its comic generosity and refusal to judge or even take up predictable positions on the idiosyncrasies of its characters. as you may remember from the ads, this is about a woman who has few human relationships and all but falls apart when her dog suddenly dies. i’m not going to say too much more about the plot at this point except to note that, among other things, it functions as an antidote to the world view of films such as notes on a scandal which cannot imagine the single, sexually inactive woman as anything but a sociopath in waiting. the protagonist here too engages in some fairly questionable behaviour, but its source is located elsewhere, in an over-abundance of love, not the lack of it.
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in the book blog we have talked quite a bit about the fact that it is hard for fictions about 9.11 to free themselves from the overwhelming symbolism of that day. one would imagine that films about the middle east must deal with this problem constantly. in a radio interview from the extras, director amos gitai says something like, “we are used to being on the news. when something like the tsunami happens and we are not on the evening news, we feel disappointed.” this film tries, successfully i think, to eek a story out of the symbolism, without deluding itself for a second that the symbolism can be bypassed. (more…)

So, slowly and with great relish I’ve been working my way through the collection of “Not Just the Best of The Larry Sanders Show,” and it’s no great surprise–to me, nor I imagine to any of you–how awesome the series is. And the collection, which cherry-picks 23 episodes from the entire run of the season, is excellent ‘though not quite the full run we fans might hope for, and we all (non-fans and fans alike) deserve. But it’s what we got. I recommend.

But I want to put in a plug for the extras, which… well, get pretty astounding. There are deleted scenes and some commentaries–intriguing, slightly illustrative, not bad. But still ye olde extras. There are some interviews with various cast members, done by a faceless interviewer, and those too can be fun–but this is all conventional stuff. Then there are these often very long, often quite moving, always strange and personal interviews between Garry Shandling and various guest or co-stars. I’m only into disc 2, but just disc one has this session between Garry and Alec Baldwin, who popped up for a cameo in season one, that is worth seeing even if you skip the shows. (more…)

Two strong recommendations, for films which I only coincidentally saw in sequence yet share a comic narrative structure that seems complementary: the very funny Superbad and the very unnerving, sly and riveting The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. Both detail a one-night quest (for booze and sex, for medical attention) marked by many small and unforeseen conflicts and a reframing of the quest by journey’s (failed?) end, and both films display a compelling comic humanism, despite the derisive energies (scatological and satirical) which underpin the filmmakers’ visions. In each, the detailed and energetic search (to get laid, to get cured) is something of a mcguffin, and the movies open up to broad and specific portraitures of how we treat one another (and how we ought to treat one another). (more…)

This is a haunting, deeply affecting film, directed by Ki-duk Kim (of 3-Iron and Spring Summer Autumn Winter). I’m not sure how to review it without spoilers, so be alerted. A teenage schoolgirl raises money to go to Europe for her and her friend by prostituting herself; the friend helps to set up the encounters with men and stands guard despite being disgusted by what they are doing. When the first girl dies, her friend sleeps with all the men who had sex with the dead girl, and returns the money to them. It is a sort of homage to her dead friend, and she achieves a kind of peace as she crosses off the names of former johns, and overcomes her earlier disgust. Meanwhile, her father discovers what his daughter has been doing, is distraught and wreaks a measure of retribution on the men. He then sets off on a trip with his daughter to visit the grave of his wife, her mother. (more…)