Gabrielle

Adaptation of a Conrad short story - fertile material for films; see also The Duellists - that's as pitch-perfect a bit of filmmaking as I've seen lately, from veteran Patrice Chereau, that unfolds with Hitchcockian precision and foreboding grace whilst remanining resolutely intimate in telling the tale of a haute bourgeois gentleman's disillusionment and downfall because of his wife's leaving - and then returning to - his house one afternoon. Pascal Gregory is a study in fraying control as the man and Isabelle Huppert is his sphinx-like wife. As the story builds, with Gregory beginning as utterly assured and triumphant, and finally prowling his own cavernous mausoleum of a mansion like a starved lion, it delivers a merciless punchline. Both its poise as cinema and the subtle but scalpel-sharp character study show up a helluva lot of shit that passes for incisive filmmaking these days.

FLYING BALLS (a spy movie spoof on ping pong).

This movie needs more of Christopher Walken and less of everything else.

Don't bother!

Just watched a tour de force of noir horror, as it reveals a detective hero -- in the most nuanced perf I've seen in years reaches deep into himself to uncover aspects of his personality that have their roots deep in Jung's collective unconscious, while at the same time achieving feats of physical comedy that suggest of a blend of Buster Keaton and Steve Martin. And poisoned sushi.

As this superhuman cop gradually uncovers a sinister plot to take over the city, we meet a white-haired corporate villain whose slightest glance contains a menace that makes Hannibal Lecter look like a girl scout -- the actor, who exploded onto the national stage in the early 90s with his scene-stealing rendition of a party animal in "Carlito's Way," ratchets up the tension to almost unbearable levels as he leads his minions in a terrifying plot to....well, something, I'm not quite sure, but it's terrifying. Edward G. Robinson on angel dust might just barely nudge the seismograph needle that is sent whipping like a puppy's tale by this incarnation of pure evil.

I cannot account for the way in which critical acclaim has passed by this remarkable film, or the way in which some have dismissed it as "shlock-horror-comedy" -- if all of the above virtues did not earn it a place in the Pantheon, then surely the riveting and Charles Laughton-esque stylings of "Toyota" the baboon would be enough to consolidate its rightful place there.

Fans of such films as "Big Trouble in Little China" may find much to learn from this film, as it expands on those themes and then blows them up into towering and clown-proportioned richness and a kind of narrative orgasm of pure and uninhibited....something, again I'm not quite sure....before a work of genius, one is always fumbling for the words, for "les mots juste" that will do it justice.

Suffice it to say that my life is now divided into two distinct periods, that which came before "Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD" and that which comes after.

Marj,

"This may be one of the best reviews I've ever read, here or anywhere -- "

I see you have learned the art of hyperbole at the same master's knee that I did.

Check out the extra segment on the DVD, in which Nick Gianasi "spills the beans" about working for Troma -- I especially like his comment to the effect that "most directors teach that less is more...however (director) believes that MORE is more....lots more!" His legal troubles regarding sexual harassment of a monkey are also....illuminating.

Gromit -- Do you know who Clooney was mimicking in O Brother? Of course he was doing much more than mimicking.

Btw, even though I haven't seen NCFOM, I think those who have would attest that these are very different movies.

I've seen all of the Coens films except for Intolerable Cruelty.

I have a fairly good idea how they make films.

One thing I forgot to mention about O Brother is how great it all looks. It's a visually brilliant film.

I'm sure No Country will have some visually amazing scenes, create a helluva mood, have some splendid characters with memorable dialogue. Practically the same film then.

Little Children is on MaxHD and I really, REALLY loved this film.