Friends
Tuesday, May 28, 2002
      ( 4:28 AM ) Nancy McCann  
SUNDAY 6/2
SECRET - WOW!

SATURDAY 6/1
MALUNDE - excellent
ABANDONED - grim
NYNKE - eh

FRIDAY 5/31
4:30pm - DAVID HOCKNEY - Loved it, learned more at this than in any given Art History class in college. That's Art HISTORY, not Art
7:00pm CINEMANIA - I'm normal, I really am, I'm not like them

THURSDAY 5/30
10:00 SUPER 8 STORIES - fun, fun, fun, if you like that sort of thing

WEDNESDAY 5/29
burned out

TUESDAY 5/28
10:00 am My wife is an Actress - Some amusing moments, but the main character was such a creep
12:00 pm Rain - American Gothic boring, violent, who cares about these characters and their motivations and relationships?
2:00pm Sex and Lucia - My first response was - "this is the greatest!" then I remembered not everyone is as sophisticated as I am and I'm not always as alert as I was when I saw this. Pay attention and this will pay off.
7:00pm Yellow Asphalt - Everyone is unhappy in Israel - a sour slice of life - well done and illuminating
9:30pm Princess Blade - fun, slight, hokey at times, as one would expect

MONDAY 5/27
11:00 am MAYA -The first 3/4 of the movie celebrates the joys of childhood - 12/13 year olds Maya and her cousin Sanjay run wild, steal candy and pastries from street vendors, climb rocks, scare themselves witless with large snakes in the forest, try to ditch Maya's bratty little brother, get grounded, sneak out anyway, and generally have a delightful summer vacation -- then Maya gets her period for the first time -- and everything changes. Well, what came next was a shock to me -- the movie's tag line was, "Child abuse exists in all cultures, in all countries, although declared illegal by the government of India, 5,000 to 15,000 girls are abused in this manner each year." Won't blow the ending in case anyone sees the film later (not likely). Ask me about it, if you dare.

SUNDAY 5/26
SECRET FEST - Ive been wanting to see this movie for 20 years!

SATURDAY 5/25
SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE ... a very sweet movie
SELF MADE HERO - an excellent movie
DAS EXPERIMENT - This is the one folks, Moritz Bleibtreu - wow I can't recommend this one too highly
13 CONVERSATIONS - Glad I gave it a second chance

FRIDAY 5/24
12 PM - COCKETTES -- loved it! Well made documentary - fun to watch - interesting subject - just about everything I could ask for
2 PM - what did i see? uh oh can't remember -- ** it was Parallel Lives about a couple breaking up -- endless footage of them not talking to each other, not looking at each other, being miserable, no wonder I had trouble remembering it
4:30 SAVAGE SOUL - Nice scenery, continuity problems, John Malcovich needs to work on his French accent - hehe
A woman I spoke to on Monday described this as a 'storyteller's movie' -- good description
7:00 LAST CALL - I love Jeremy Irons so I can't be objective here

THURSDAY 5/23
10AM -- READ MY LIPS -- This is a well made movie with an new twist - criminal opportunities in lip reading. Our heroine is unattractive, in the fine tradition of "plain" Jane Fontaine, and teams up with a petty crook to explore some exciting illegal escapades. Then one day, he notices that the girl has cleavage. I found him to be the unattractive one. I was surprised to see him smoking in a corporate culture office -- are people allowed to do that in France, or was that a way of showing how much of a bad boy he was? My final word: a fine example of the "What Some Women Won't Do To Get A Man!" style of movie.

TUESDAY 5/21
10AM -- QUITTING -- Wondering what's being quit? I did. This ain't no Trainspotting. A Chinese reality (almost) show. All actors play themselves, even the nuts in the nuthouse (they were great). According to Ray I slept for 10-15 minutes; don't think I missed much. I do recommend this for Sinophiles.

And that's all for me until Thursday.

MONDAY 5/20
10 AM -- Mad Love -- Poor, tragic Juana La Loca, the early 16th century was tough on everyone -- was she mad or just obsessive/compulsive? Delightful costumes, music and all the things one expects from an historical drama. If you like this sort of thing it is definitely worth seeing.

12PM -- Sunshine State -- an above average, yet typical John Sayles view of life on the west coast of Florida. Some very fine acting and not just from Angela Basset (who is as good as can be).

First scheduling error -- missed Happy Times

FRIDAY (at the Rendezvous) 5/17

10:00 am -- Door to Door William Macy was excellent in the role of a salesman with cerebrial palsy. A very sweet movie, but clear-eyed and not saccharine at all. Helen Mirren (forgive me darling) needs to work on her American accent.

12:00 pm -- Soft for Digging -- this sucked, but was not as bad as...

2:00 pm -- Shag Carpet Sunset -- which really sucked.

Fortunately for me the quarters were very crowded at the rendezvous and I was forced to sit between the two most attractive men at the press screenings, if not the festival. I had all kinds of naughty thoughts I'll not bore you with, but that certainly helped me through those two Friday afternoon movies.

THURSDAY 5/16

12:00 pm -- Family Fundamentals -- I'm so glad I was raised Unitarian --this guy really knows how to make a documentary -- very memorable.

2:00 pm -- Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner -- you have NEVER seen a movie like this before -- The subtitles were in excellent idiomatic English. The plot has everything; love, betrayal, jealousy, revenge, forgiveness, redemption, etc. And just when I was expecting a Hollywood-style 'hero takes revenge on the bad guys' ending, they totally surprised me. This movie is worth it, if you have any interest in indigenous cultures, or universal human themes.
Rather slow at first, don't give up, it really gets going after a while. Where else can you see three bad guys chasing a naked man for miles across the ice? But all the raw meat they ate was certainly more authentic than I needed. Of course, it was difficult to tell some of the characters apart. Just looking at the credits was mind boggling. All the names of the actors and characters overlapped and seemed so similar. GO SEE THIS MOVIE Sorry to be so incoherent.

WEDNESDAY 5/15

10:00 am -- The Mirror of Maya Deren -- I am a fan of hers and have read her book "Divine Horsemen" so I found this very informative -- don't know if folks who don't know her would like it as well as I did.

12:15 pm -- The Trip -- not my favorite movie -- but ok and pleasant enough -- the all important relationships, what the movie was supposedly about, didn't seem that real to me.

2:00 pm -- 13 Coversations About One Thing -- slept through this one (my fault) I think I will see it during the regular screenings. Everyone who remained awake seemed to like it.

TUESDAY 5/14

10:00 am -- Khaled -- sweet, sad boys life, well done, cute kid and i guess life is like that sometimes, but talk about depressing -- only the ending made it bearable -- carolyn i think we saw something similar at secret one year with dirk bogard.

12:00 pm -- Versus -- couldn't face the gory splatterfest -- ate my book and read my lunch, explored MOHI, the noisy movie sounded horrible from outside the theater (after all it was a horror movie) -- people left, if in not droves, in large groups, didn't hear any positive comments.

2:00 pm -- Take Care of my Cat -- an incomprehensible slice of twenty-something-Korean-girls life. They seemed only to have fun when together in restaurants ... and the cat wasn't that cute, or smart or anything.

I also heard that Sweet Dreams are Made of These was very good. Das Experiment was very good but hard to take. Last Wedding (title?) was so-so
from Friday's press screenings.

MONDAY 5/13

10:00 am -- Tecknolust -- the science made no sense but who cares, Tilda was fabulous as geeky scientist, Rosetta Stone and her three glamorous clones Ruby, Marina and Olive who give new meaning to the term monochromatic. I liked the men in the movie and Karen Black's role was mercifully small. Great fun all in all!

12:00 pm -- Cherish -- Good, fairly standard plot, kept me interested, but the soundtrack drove me insane. The heroine listened to the greatest hits of all time (60s, 70s, 80) radio. My friend Melissa, one or two years younger than me said it was the best thing about the movie. The title of the movie is the first song on the soundtrack . . .

2:00 pm -- Lovely and Amazing -- The review said, easygoing, low-key, subtle -- all codewords for 'SNOOZER" Well developed characters that some people might find interesting.
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