The Squid and the Whale

Jesse: Fine, fine stuff. I loved the script, characters, performances. 16mm makes for nice view. One of about a half dozen films in a generation or more that captures 'that feel' inside a divorce. Filmed in 23 days. Great opening scene, good ending. 4.8/5

Beth: I guess it was ok. Well-made and well-acted, but hell, we'd just seen some other really good ones. of course i can't remember now what those were, but it made this pale a bit in comparison. Maybe i'll try to watch it again someday.

Walmart: The High Cost of a Low Price

Jesse: Well, I hope the jig is up. This documentary ain't great, but Mal-wart sucks. I hope everyone across the wide, paved nation can see this. And begin to connect the dots between their choices (Freedum ain't Free!) and everything in this world. Filmaker Greenwald may have trigger-happy approach to moviemaking, but in the somatic state of things, we're already in overtime. 3/5

Beth: The movie had its flaws, but the overall message was well-communicated. Even a ninny could see the light after this one, I'd hope. So now i need to send this movie to my friends in Memphis, where Wal-Mart is king. Then they'd see, too.

Wheel of Time

Werner's exploration of Tibetan Buddhism. Lovely beings. Nicely understated, behind the scenes feel. Sand Mandalas, thousand of years history and personal consort with the Dalai Lama, what more could you want? . 3.5/5

Beth: I slept well through this lovely movie of colorful monks and religious ferverists prostrating their way to the buddhist mecca.

Flag Wars

Jesse: Columbus, Ohio. Why not? 'Little', ordinary people shred neighborly-ness and each other. Rousseau would cringe. Forget it, Ohio. Sad. Marvin Gaye asked "What's going on?". 3/5

Beth: Like the documentaries, though this one dragged a bit. A fine lesson in gentrification.

Lord of War/White Diamond

Lord of War
Jesse: 1/5 Kay, so this movie epitomizes what historically stinks about Hollywood. They take a great story (surfacially and otherwise)--and Oyeah can they pay for it- and flub it up like nobody's business. The Church of the Holy Double Standard and Our Father of Contradictions are in full efficacy here as Nick Cage (a good actor continuing his 'One outa ten ain't bad' streak) sleepwalks through a hammy, watered down script. Opposite him is yet another model (she ain't no actress!) and a series of women with one-minute roles as 'hottie waitress he beds', etc. Come On! How many times will we sit through another thinly veiled exploration of western society's' ills by-way-of sex, mtv action edits and coke snorting?!?! Or is it the other way? I can't tell anymore
Aha! That's the point.
Allright, so I'm getting away from the point of this blog, which was to share good movies, say nice things. Life is short, right? Too short to waste your time watching the same plot over and over. To short to be spoon fed the lies we'd like to believe, sugar-coated with bling bling, lite fantasy and a trite ending. So get out of my living room!!!!
Whew! Now I can get back to exhorting on what I love about movies....

Beth: It was an action movie, and that I like. But yes, it was sloppy and egrarious, and I sure wish someone else had been handed that script. We rolled our eyes many times.

the White Diamond
Jesse: 3.5/5 Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man, and so many more) does it again. I found the (dreamer) human subject of this documentary unforgiveably boring. And Werner (that's Vvvverner, baby) 's narration approximates the voice I imagine for the gates of Hell. But it's the incidental cinemotography of the landscape along with the soundtrack and even the musings in narration that are a joy. Beautiful, timeless, even profound. [Plug here for Herzog's Lessons of Darkness]
For some film makers it can seem effortless.

Beth: I don't know why Werner made this movie. This was the story without end. Maybe if I had more interest in balloons, or artificial flight, or the dreams and musings of wacky people drawn out into 10 minute soliloquies, I might have enjoyed it more. But I don't - I fell asleep.

Operation Dreamland/Gunner Palace/Paradise Now

Jesse:
The Middle East. The beginning of civilization and the End(?) to some. Operation Dreamland and Gunner Palace are documentaries filmed in Iraq during the--sorry 'after' the War was over. The Ernie Pyle/follow the grunts around modus is about all you get here. For some viewers that may crave this, this may be all you could ask for. There is a purity of expression in the simplicity of daily life shown here. For that you see how these you men and women struggle to define Why (they are in) Iraq. To do so amid all the violence and bloodshed I struggle to understand.
Ultimately as documentaries, they are both frustrating. 2/5

Paradise Now, on the other hand. Israel. Imperfect. It's raw; a live wire. It expands the consciousness to the humanity on the other side for those of us lucky enough not to have been born there. It lays bare the tingling heart. 4.75/5
-Jesse