Blips and Quips

Recent Films I've Seen and Enjoyed

• Strange Days- I was on a kathryn bigelow kick for a spell, which started with this film. Grossly underated, Days is a massive production sci-fi thriller pedelling apocolyptic paranoia. It's rabid glimpse into streetlife and the crooked cops who police it, parrallels with genre-relatives but stands alone as the cooky idealistic cousin.
• Ghost Dog- "Broken Flowers" has the critics in a flurry, as did many of Jim Jarmusch's films. Ghost Dog: The way of the Samurai is as compelling as it is ambiguous. Culturely cruel and aesthetically harsh, Ghost Dog triumps in its peculiar naration--readings of Samurai codes, but flounders with pretentious scenes and dialouge. Jarmusch attempts a culture juxaposition with two masculine, loyalty-based brotherhoods: mafia and samurai, all the while infusing various sub-cultures. If nothing else, Ghost Dog is worth viewing (oddly enough) for its sound. Wu-Tang-Clan's RZA is responsible.
• Crash- Ensamble pieces are a dime a dozen-- good ensamble pieces rest with Crash. Written like a impromptu essay on race, crime, and culture, Crash explores social barries, structures and institutions while highlighting and demonizing its players. Its examanation is harsh and seeminly unmeditated. Crash works circular--nonchantly connecting all its charachters in various dramaticlly scripted scenes. One by one, each charachter reaches his/her arch moment--the pinnacle inner change or awakening--by the aid of the other charchters, whether through reasonability or folly.