Inside Man

It's as if somebody told Spike Lee, "You better go out and prove you can make a commercial movie." He even went so far as to insert a hypothetical, "What if?" shoot-out, because the movie didn't have one otherwise. Great acting all around, and a welcome "theme' at the end. 95% Thriller. 5% Essay on racism and ethnicity.

The Gang's All Here

Busby Berkeley's 1943 musical is filled with phallic symbols and hallucinogenic imagery. It's also really corny. I guess in 1943, all you had to do was encourage people to buy war bonds, and you could wear as much fruit on your head as you wanted.

Thank You for Smoking

Okay. Granted it was the book-on-tape, But I have been familiar with this book without having read it for ten years and I always thought it would make a great movie. Turns out, it's a very good movie. Aaron Eckhart is great in it, and it certainly accomplishes something great. It stays on it's politically incorrect, satirical tract to the end. I would have never believed the tense mood of politically correctness at a Hollywood film conservatory. It's reminiscent of the early nineties. In spite of this mood, almost everyone smokes. But when director Jason Reitman asked for a show of hands of who in the audience smoked, most people did NOT raise their hands. Telling.

A History of Violence

Twenty years ago, The Fly blew me away. Ask anybody. It's one of the movies that made me want to make movies. Twenty years later, and my second viewing of A History of Violence, it's nice to know that I can still have my bowels rocked by a movie. A History of Violence is less about violence and more about violent movies. I swear by this, despite the comments of the film's writer, Josh Olson, during Q&A tonight. He believes the film is about people's secret identities. What Cronenberg has slipped in though is a satire of a violent culture: movies. Cronenberg exploits the notion that movies glorify violence and has us secretly cheering, for example, when the son kicks the bully's ass at school or Viggo pushes a guy's nose into his brain. Then, while we're still soaking in the son's victory, Viggo berates the son for solving his problems with violence then smacks the kid across the mouth for good measure. This perfect storm of conflicted feelings is exactly what all the film school geeks aspire to achieve; but few ever will. It's Cronenberg's sophisticated understanding of these conflicted sentiments and the film grammar that can display them that makes him a guy who can smack me across the face any time he wants.

Slither

I was on board with this as soon as I saw the alien, which looked unmistakably like a disembodied vagina. Phallic symbols and bizarre reproductive zombies are good; but the wise-cracks most of the characters made in times of crisis really made it worth it. Kudos to Elizabeth Banks and Gregg Henry for diving right off the deep end into this; what "Troma" would be like with money.

V for Vendetta

Wants to be political, but loses it's point near the end. Most of this is a red herring. And the main character plays the whole thing in an inanimate mask. Natalie Portman brings her head-shaving ferocity, though, which makes this watchable.

The Miracle of Morgan's Creek

Preston Sturges' 1944 comedy, I think, must have forced critics to coin the term "wacky." Thoroughly funny and ridiculous, and was so obviously an influence on the Coens, there are names and events lifted from this movie.