Zander’s Weblog

Picture-perfect exemplar of the coming-out-in-high-school genre, done British style. Ben Silverstone gives an inspired performance. The passage into adulthood spurred by the intoxication of hormones is archetypal. The gay version thereof is a less well know but equally well-trodden path. A more recent cinematic foray, American style, is Dorian Blues (2004), which is equally well done, lighter in style, and with a more refined psychology. Both are excellent and worth a view.

One of Gus Van Sant’s first films, shot in B&W and apparently with little to no budget. A very rough, gritty, fictional tumble through the seamy side of Portland, OR, circa 1977. Not much of a story and the acting was pretty bad. There was a trail-off ending but with minimal plot there’s not much to resolve.

A very amusing documentary about the development of this now ubiquitous type face. Originally named “Neue Haas Grotesk”, the name was changed to make the font more appealing to the US market. Font designers talking about fonts reminds me a lot of wine connoisseurs talking about wine.

Jeremy Irons, Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Scott Coffey–what’s not to like? Well, plenty actually. Unless a Lynchian trance state is your idea of a good time. About as difficult to get through as Eraserhead. Good luck.

This film was slow to grab me, but it did. The terribly self-conscious, erotic, and near hallucinogenic filmmaking proved to be a magnificent reflection of the protagonist. Intimate and disturbing.

Wow, what a warped fantasy. Elizabeth was unstable, capricious, and immature, while the Spanish were stupid evil monkeys. Like reaching in to a bag of pecans and coming out with a handful of cockroaches.

Your typical western with a high body count. I wish it hadn’t been Russell Crowe as the villain, but otherwise had fine performances by Christian Bale and Logan Lerman (as a father and son). The latter reminded me of Christian Slater in The Name of the Rose–should have a very nice career. I also liked the psychological skeleton of the story.

Loved it. Michael McMillian was fabulous as Dorian and Steven C. Fletcher as his caricature homophobic father. What a hoot–I was ROFL.

Michael McMillian I like Ryan Phillippe, which made the film tolerable. The best line he delivers, which sums up the film very well is, “With all due respect, sir, fuck the president.” But it was no Deer Hunter. And at the end, they blew it big time by not having him walk across that border.

El Crimen del padre Amaro, a 2002 film by Carlos Carrera, caused a stir in Mexico not only because heartthrob Gael García Bernal played the lead, but because it painted a picture of widespread corruption involving the Catholic church. This side of the border, to this viewer anyway, the film seemed quaint. Probably the result of 8 years of Bush/Cheney, who give new life to duplicity and evil.