Roger Ebert:"...What is the point of ``Days of Heaven (1978)''--the payoff, the message? This is a movie made by a man who knew how something felt, and found a way to evoke it in us. That feeling is how a child feels when it lives precariously, and then is delivered into security and joy, and then has it all taken away again--and blinks away the tears and says it doesn't hurt."
Ebert, you fuckin’ rule. rogerebert.com

no excuses: it took me far too many years to finally sit down and watch The Last Picture Show (1971) entirely from beginning to end. and though this American masterpiece was the launch pad for a raft of individual talent, it's whole remains greater than its parts, a remarkable feat given the illustrious writer, crew and cast. famously set in the "tiny, dying town of Anarene, Texas", filmed entirely in parched black and white, there is one scene embedded as firmly in my head as in my heart: Ben Johnson and Timothy Bottoms share a quiet talk while fishing on a cloudy day when straying sunlight sets their images magically aglow. we learn from the director that this effect, which arrives with stopwatch timing, was completely serendipitous. Peter Bogdanovich explains (in the director's track) that he originally had other plans for the scene - the intention to capture it in one, unbroken take - but serendipity, and motion picture history, stealthfully intervened.

it's not to be overlooked that the popular Danish title for this film is "Der HollenTrip", for if 2001: A Space Odyessy is the cinematic equivilant of LSD, Altered States (1980) is bad acid for sure. tucked away at the wee tip of William Hurt's career (his screen debut), this film was a lively entry in the weary convention of mad scientist tales – effectively fusing action and sci-fi genres – actually inspired by the scientific commotion surrounding a series of '70s isolation-tank experiments conducted by Dr. John Lilly. thoughtful, exciting and weird, this is the standout film of director Ken Russell (working from a screenplay/novel by Paddy Chayefsky), who pulls out the stops with a some of the most hallucinatory, mind-blowing imagery ever committed to mainstream film. Altered States begins strong (with one of the most memorable opening sequences ever) and just keeps getting better.

there's more here than you might comfortably care to to know about any mother, but The Mother (2003), richly deserves her telling. director Roger Michell's work is fascinating to observe (Enduring Love, Notting Hill) and frequently distinctive for it's deadly brutal human accuracy (Amanda Peet's brief restaurant scene in Changing Lanes deserves a special award for sheer whallop alone). abreast of co-star Daniel Craig, british actress Anne Reid (a tour de fource performance ) embodies a bleached - yet lingering - beauty as she undertakes the sobering journey of the title character, an examination of societal and family bounds, self-perception and sexual passion reclaimed. this is a wise, masterful film layered in rich, natural light and sounds, often as beautiful as it is excruciating.

i can't seem to help myself: i confess to a compulsion for penning elaborate draft treatments of imagined sequels of my favorite all-time films. sure enough, i've done it for Forbidden Planet, Body Heat, and even The Thing, but in the case of Invaders from Mars (1953), my obsession hit an all-time high, actually getting all the way to a shooting script and even a short intro reel. drafting a handful cast of long-suffering friends, i was determined to re-master the Menzies sci-fi classic (son of rocket scientist staves off an army of giant green mutants) with my own, updated homage, picking up the original storyline thirty-some years later, where young David is now a middle-aged newspaper reporter dogged by (you guessed it) a terrible mounting suspicion and those "darn headaches". oh well - all trademark and copyright infringements aside, it was sure fun while it lasted...

CANDY! :: WALLPAPER 1 - INVADERS FROM MARS, 1953


CANDY! :: WALLPAPER 2 - INVADERS FROM MARS, 1953

what is it about children and insane asylums that warms my heart? Walter Murch is a marvelously reknown film technician, who has attached his name and considerable talents to films ranging from Apocalypse Now, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The English Patient (let's throw in The Godfather: Part 3 in for good measure). as Director, his name can be applied to only one: Return to Oz (1985). this curiously strange, enchanting work is clearly a labor of love, and - to say the least - the most literal and authentic adaptation of the original Oz stories by Frank L. Baum to date. but beware: this is not the candy slice you were ever allowed to keep from your halloween beggings as a child. nonetheless it is a sweet and savory find indeed - though definitely of a distinctly dark confection. Pumpkin heads, knome kings, evil witches, homesick girls, friends made in far-off off land. enjoy this rich and rare ride, you will find few that compare to it. fyi: here's an excellent unabridged audio book of Baum's original tale available at Audible.com, if you're interested.

karma, fate, faith - oh, those sisters. Jill and Karen Sprecher (director/writer and writer, respectively) filmed their exquisite Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001) in only eight short weeks, even after money problems forced them to chop their budget in half and then their shooting schedule by a week. a stunning ensemble cast (notably Alan Arkin, Clea DuVall, and Matthew McConaughey, among many others) shape a small raft of lives afloat in New York City, all in search of an certain elusive something. i have always loved and adored film - a tender thing to be just sitting there and have one kiss me back. this film is a gift, one of the best of the year (nice interview with Jill here, Reel.com).

for my way of thinking, one of the most stirring aspects of director Isao Takahata's remarkable Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is not so much that it is anime, but that such a story would even be chosen to be depicted in anime, rather than conventional live-action. as such, it becomes a painting within a heart, and such a very haunted one. working from the popular semi-autobiographical novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, the film depicts the civilian firebombing of Japan in late WWII, and within it, the struggle to survive of orphans Seita and his young sister Setsuko. bombs, death, grief, cartoons all. and i have never encountered two characters more memorable, or real, in any other film.