Days of Cinema

TOP 10, PERSONAL

01. Stellet Licht (Carlos Reygadas, 100)
02. Inland Empire (David Lynch, 90)
03. Meduzot (Etgar Keret & Shira Geffen, 90)
04. The Violin (Francisco Vargas, 90)
05. The Assassination of Jesse James… (Andrew Dominik, 85)
06. La Zona (Rodrigo Pla, 85)
07. La Influencia (Pedro Aguilera, 80)
08. Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant, 80)
09. Drama/Mex (Gerardo Naranjo, 80)
10. Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 80)

Highlights: Cochochi, Ladrones Viejos, Black Book & The Golden Door

TOP 10, COMMERCIAL RELEASES (MEXICO)

01. Stellet Licht (Carlos Reygadas, 100)
02. Inland Empire (David Lynch, 90)
03. The Violin (Francisco Vargas, 90)
04. The Assassination of Jesse James… (Andrew Dominik, 85)
05. Drama/Mex (Gerardo Naranjo, 80)
06. Letters From Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood, 80)
07. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven, 80)
08. The Golden Door (Emmanuel Crialese, 80)
09. El Cielo Dividido (Julián Hernández, 80)
10. El Viaje Hacia El Mar (Guillermo Casanova, 80)

I know I have been out of my blog for some time, I got a new job as a teacher, and I’m very happy. It consumes most of my time, especially as I have people supervising my first semester teaching and I got to impress. But I’ve been following all the movies that are coming out, and I have spent a lot of time at La Muestra, the always fantastic showcase the Cineteca Nacional brings us. It’s a one-only opportunity because most of the films playing will wait to wait for months, maybe years for them to get distributed here in Mexico. This year the selection is for the most part amazing.

Here is a list of some films I’ve see at the Muestra, and also other titles I have cached in their theatrical runs. The best films I’ve seen are by far La Influencia by Pedro Aguilera, and Paranoid Park by Gus Van Sant. While in commercial releases, two European films standout: The Golden Door & Black Book.

La Influencia (80)

Paranoid Park (80)

Black Book (75)

The Golden Door (75)

Quemar Las Naves (70)

Across The Universe (66)

A Casa de Alice (65)

La Vida En Corto (65)

Shut Up and Sing (60)

Bee Movie (55)

La Leyenda de la Nahuala (55)

El Cobrador: In God We Trust (55)

Fraude: México 2006 (50)

Malos Hábitos (50)

Belle Toujours (45)

Beowulf (40)

Propiedad Ajena (35)

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

Country: USA

Director: Dennis Dugan

Probably the best intentioned film of the year, but it just falls into cliche and even offensive subjects. Adam Sandler, what a character, why does it feel like he has a movie out every month? But he's got charisma and that is shown at the box office. Credibility issues? Believe me, is the number one problem with the film. But let's ignore that, the execution of the film is so poor, the same old jokes, reminded me of the Mexican comedies during de 70s that would just make everyone fall or smash a cake and people would actually embrace that. The most touching aspect of the film is the way they are trying to help one of the kids, who seems to be gay, though it is never confirmed. I really loved how they managed to make those scenes so charming. Production wise, the film is boring, a step back for Sandler, visually... Jessica Beil is hot.

After more than a freaking week trying to post something, I finally did it! it works now, I have no idea what happened to this, so I just try deleting the blog and then something happen and I didn't have to delete it and now I'm very happy. I've seen a couple of movies since I got home from Morelia, will be writing my thoughts on those.

Thanks for your comments!

- SANTIAGO ULLOA

Cine Azteca has my first thoughts on the festival, El Orfanato is still the most popular film in the festival, Del Toro is very popular here. The film has grown badly on me, still a good effort.

Films:

1. Silent Light (97)
   
2. Cochochi (79)
3. Deficit (70)
4. The Orphanage (69-70)
5. Atonement (57)
6. El Pasado (51)

More Here....

I'll be writing more thoughts on Cine Azteca probably tomorrow along with about another 4 films I plan to watch, it is kind of difficult for me since I don't have a labtop, so I actually writing from home.
 

The 5th Morelia Film Festival starts tomorrow, I've been going to the festival since its first edition and I have seen the transformation of the third most important festival in the country, just after Guadalajara and FICCO. I currentely live in Mexico City, but I was actually born in the beautiful capital of the Mexican state Michoacan. Even though the list of films is HUGE, it is always impossible to see more than 20 films. Last year I was able to catch 15 films, from those I considered 4 films as 'outstanding': "Broken Sky", "The Road to Guatanamo", "Volver" and "News From Afar."

Last year I was able to touch Guillermo Del Toro, I know that sounds so minimal, but hey he is a great director, or at least when he's not directing Hollywood films. The competition is divided in 4 sections, all awarding Mexican productios: Best Mexican Short, Best Short from Michoacan, Best Documentary and for the first time Best Mexican Feature. The films in competition I'm mostly looking forward are the Toronto winners "Cochochi" and "La Zona", hopefully I'll be able to catch both of them.

The 'premiere' screenings will bring better selections, many titles from Cannes and Venice. I will be writing my thoughts in this blog, but I was delighted to get an invitation from Carlos Reyes, from the excellent blog Cine Azteca. I know about 2 people visit my blog and colaborating at his blog will hopefully bring more visitors to my blog, not to mention that he 'hooked' me up with the fest and I got special privaleges, more movies!

These is the list of films I'm looking forward the most:

1. My Blueberry Nights (Wong Kar Wai)
2. La Zona (Rodrigo Pla)
3. Cochochi (Israel Cardenas y Laura Guzman)
4. Ser Isla (Eun-Hee Ihm) (seen it, but supposely there is an 'extended' version?)
5. Ladrones Viejos, Las Leyendas del Artegio (Everardo Gonzalez)
6. Voleurs de Chevaux (Micha Wald)
7. El Pasado (Hector Babenco)
8. The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)
9. Luz Silenciosa (Carlos Reygadas)
10. Moliere (Laurent Tirad)

others: "Paranoid Park" (Van Sant), "Bug" (Friednick), "Year of the Nail" (Cuaron) and "A Portrait of Diego" (Figueroa & Lopez)

18 years in the making, and The Simpsons movie dissapoints like no other film this year. Is not as bad as I'm making it to be, but it is a very empty film, few laughs but overall very noisy. It's great to see they didn't ruin the visuals by making the cartoon 3-dimensional. I have seen both versions, with English audio and Spanish audio, the latino track is by far the most effective, the people behind this really took courage in changing a couple of things and relating it to our culture. Something impressing since The Simpsons are the 'idea' most people have of an American Family. For me, this is the best T.V. show ever, and after watching the film I felt that it was just another episoide but extended. It tries too hard to look profound, it goes from questioning religion and faith and even touches the current environmental problems lol. I guess I miss the lighter touch of the series, meant only to entertain or at least give a message in a pure and naturalistic way. I would suggest you to go watch the SOUTH PARK movie, that one is actually terrific!

Style over substance. At first thought, it was a beautifully looking film, a stunning cinematography and out-of-this-world techs. I gotta say though, it was a bit intimidating watching all those bodies full of muscles. The problem with the film is it's obsessive intention of entertaining visually and not taking the responsability of recreating a beautiful epic story. We're not given much time to care about the characters, Snyder slightly introduces them and immediately tries to hide all the plotholes through bloody battles. The story is simply too shallow to entertain, unless you love video games, because to me, this was just a videogame. Unfortunately, we're not given the chance to touch the control. Most of the performances were over the top, except maybe for the lead actor, who I must admit was very funny, but sometimes unintentionally funny.

A stimulating thriller that will satisfy any fanboy of action flicks. I found this film to be as powerful in content as Scorsese's The Departed. You're probably wondering, why the low grade?, It is simple, is there any reason why Paul Greengrass is making us suffer with that hideous and horrible looking hand-camera work? Seriously, I'm not against these type of cinematography, but Greengrass uses it so excessively I got a headche. I began to wonder if Greengrass has the creativy to innovate, I mean, I know his trying to do so. All of his films look the same, not only the camera work, but also the editing and sound mixing. Matt Damon, he's an interesting actor, and shines on screen when doing action films, but I've always had a problem watching him. He never transmits anything through his eyes. At the end, The Bourne Ultimatum is successful, but also exhausting. I thought this was better than his oscar-nominated film United 93.