http://kennelco.com/film_diary Bad writing about movies Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:57:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (1974) dir. Luigi Batzella viewed: 08/18/08 Talk about suffering for art.  Or maybe suffering because of it. Nude for Satan was meant to be a nice pairing for a double feature with Vampyros lesbos (1971).  I hope that you can imagine the theme of the pairing from the titles alone.  However, I didn't manage ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/19/nude-for-satan/ (1971) dir. Jesus Franco viewed: 08/16/08 You know, it's funny, but I'd never seen a Jesus Franco film before.  He's one of these living legends of cult/horror/exploitation/weirdness.  Still kickin'.  My interest in this film (yeah, I know the title suggests a lot), stemmed from my childhood, from a book I had on ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/17/vampyros-lesbos/ (2008) dir. Ben Stiller viewed: 08/16/08 at at AMC Loews Metreon 16 with IMAX, SF, CA The question of the day may be which is funnier, Tropic Thunder or Pineapple Express (2008), the two big comedies that have hit theaters in the last two weeks.  For me, it's hands-down Pineapple Express, and you ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/17/tropic-thunder/ (2007) dir. Claude Lelouch viewed: 08/15/08 at Opera Plaza Cinemas, SF, CA Roman de gare, a French thriller/mystery that has lingered in San Francisco cinemas for a few months, turns out to be not nearly as compelling as I had hoped.  There seemed to be a small handful of French thrillers.  I ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/17/roman-de-gare/ (1954) dir. Jacques Becker viewed: 08/14/08 "Hands off the loot."  That's what Touchez pas au grisbi roughly translates to.  It's French noir, an interesting contrast to American noir or even American filmmaking in general in some ways.  It's one of several notable French noir or crime films that I've been meaning to ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/15/touchez-pas-au-grisbi/ (2007) dir. Tamara Jenkins viewed: 08/12/08 The Savages is a family dramedy about dealing with a parent with dementia, coping with estrangement, self, and many other things.  Oddly, it reminded me to an extent of a sort of female Noah Baumbach story, a New York middle-class tale of family, in which the ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/13/the-savages/ (2007) dir. Greg Mclean viewed: 08/09/08 It's amazing that there are so many movies out there in the world that something as odd and specific as a horror film genre of giant creatures of the order crocodilia could exist, but I am proposing that it does.  Most recently, there was the film ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/11/rogue/ (2008) dir. James Marsh viewed: 08/08/08 at Embarcadero Cinemas, SF, CA The title of the film "Man on Wire" comes from the police report that detailed the arrest and description of the public nuisance charge perpetrated by Philippe Petit in August of 1974.  Simply descriptive but cannot begin to capture the enormity ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/11/man-on-wire/ (2008) dir. David Gordon Green viewed: 08/08/08 at Century San Francisco Centre, SF, CA The latest comedy (and this seems to be measured by almost every week) from producer Judd Apatow, he of Superbad (2007), Knocked Up (2007), and The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) among many others, is probably the funniest of the films with his ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/10/pineapple-express/ (1965) dir. Jean-Luc Godard viewed: 08/06/08 Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most significant and challenging directors in cinema.  It's kind of amazing how many important films he made in the 1960's.  It's also amazing how radically he approached the issue of cinema, the issues of cinema.  It's still striking, even now, ... http://kennelco.com/film_diary/2008/08/07/pierrot-le-fou/