The Fountain Darren Aronofsky 2006 USA 5th time A young research-scientist obsessed and plagued with death fights to cure his wife of cancer while a 1,000 year journey through space and time is embarked upon.
Pi and Requiem for a Dream where remarkable for their cunning visual styles and chilling penetration of the human psyche. The Fountain has both of those, plus more thematic depth than I could have expected, making Aronofsky's third effort his best to date. How he developed as a storyteller so much in the seven year time-span between Requiem and this is beyond me... But, I have to say, it must be one of the most visually stunning films to come along since 2001: A Space Odyssey The future scenes, among others, where by far some of the most lavishly original images to grace my eyes in a while; and when I learned that he did not use CGI in the creation of these scenes, I was only further impressed.
The Departed Martin Scorsese 2006 USA/Hong Kong 2nd time A gangster pretends to be a cop, informing the Mob, whilst a cop pretends to be a gangster, informing the police.
I can't help but think the academy really only gave Scorsese the oscar to make up for lost awards and past times. This certainly wasn't his best; maybe not even one of his ten best. But that just goes to show of what caliber Scorsese is. I highly enjoyed this film, on the basis of cop versus criminal. It was very entertaining an interesting. But this is certainly more an actor's film than a director's film. The performances are all excellent... And Marky Mark Wahlberg officially has three movies that are worth a damn.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Larry Charles 2006 USA 2nd time A local television personality from the middle east sets foot in America with a camera crew to make a documentary based in New York City, but finds himself on an epic journey to Hollywood in search of Pamela Anderson.
Probably the funniest film I've seen in a while. Just the sort of offensive mind-fuck that tickles my fancy. It certainly goes the extra mile, in terms of b-grade comedies. My only complaint--as is my complaint with films like Anchorman and Napoleon Dynamite--is that, while they're a good laugh, the catch on in pop culture at a disgusting rate, and then the morons that I loath but put up with on a daily basis start quoting lines at a criminal rate.
Apocolypto Mel Gibson 2006 USA 1st time Upon being captured for human sacrifice, a young Mayan man stuggles to survive.
Really, really good. Surprisingly, Moses does not make a cameo, and I don't think he killed more than three Jews. Go figure. No, seriously, despite the fact that Mel Gibson is a horrible human being who will most certainly burn in hell, assuming it exists, this was an excellent film; I'm not sure how much of it was historically correct, but it provided a very interesting view of Mayan society. This is the sort of movie I'd like to see appearing in theaters more often. I have to hand it to the man though... He sure does know how to take a film with a commercially unpopular premise, and turn it into a mega-million dollar epic that the studio's will actually support. Good on him and his weird, creepy elitist-agenda.
La Lettre The Letter Michel Gondry 1998 France 1st time An adolescent hears out the advice of his older brother upon falling in love with a young girl.
Classic Gondry. His first widely distributed short film, long before the years of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I much liked it; any man who says they cannot relate to it is a liar. Also, I believe this marks the start of that Gondry-styled surrealism... And, based upon its surreality alone, this short contained what could have been one of my favorite moments in Gondry's surrealism.
One Day... Michel Gondry 2001 USA 1st time A man's life-sized feces follow him out of the bathroom and accuse him of attempted murder before claiming to be his son.
Fucking hilarious. I love Gondry's sense of humor. So bizarre... I'm sure this had to be one of those sitting-around-the-office moments, when he just decided "I should do something with that gigantic crap-costume in my basement." I can't really say too much more about a short film with David Cross dressed as a giant shit.
Peacon Pie Michel Gondry 2003 USA 1st time A man drives a bed on wheels while singing the Elvis tune "Peacon Pie".
This reminded me of these really poorly made commercials we used to get around here in the late 90s, early 00s, of a local mattress dealership... I can't remember what the guy called himself, but he was really successful in the area, and all of his commercials involved him driving around on his mattress-car in his pajamas... They were almost identical to this short. Yeah, well, then he was convicted for embezzlement and false advertisement, and his stores closed down. Well, I can't really say anything that isn't in the plot outline, it's quite simple... Just a fun 90 second clip made while on the set of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
"Somebody told me when the bomb hits, everybody in a two mile radius will be instantly sublimated, but if you lay face down on the ground for some time, avoiding the residual ripples of heat, you might survive, permanently fucked up and twisted like you're always underwater refracted. But if you do go gas, there's nothing you can do if the air that was once you is mingled and mashed with the kicked up molecules of the enemy's former body. Big-kid-tested, motherf--ker approved."
