God I miss Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Brad Renfro, and especially River Phoenix. All young actors with an incredible amount of talent that the American cinema will never quite replace. Phoenix had an elemental presence on screen. He was wise, full of life, and had a weight of vulnerability about him that I hadn't seen since Clift or Dean. I always greatly enjoyed his work and never any more than in this early Van Sant film.
I think I'm on the somewhat unpopular side when it comes to Van Sant. Although I greatly admire his later, more experimental work (Elephant, Gerry, etc), I definitely prefer some of his other films. I guess I like it when he takes himself a little less seriously, like he does here.
Idaho is beautifully shot, a fun concoction of about every genre, and full of Van Sant's playful, stylistic flair. It's breezy with a good deal of heart and still feels fresh, vital, and tonally quite unique. Van Sant's versatility continues to fascinate, one of the most interesting directors out there who seems to be able to do most anything. About as bold and liberated as they come, I look forward to seeing where he goes next.
Other contenders for 1991: I still have some things to see from this year. These include: David Mamet's Homicide, Ken Loach's Riff Raff, David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse, Hal Hartley's Theory of Achievement, Ambition, and Surviving Desire, Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, Stanley Kwan's Actress, Arnaud Desplechin's La Vie Des Morts, Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, Bruce Beresford's Black Robe, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise's Beauty and the Beast, Cedric Kahn's Bar des rails, Philippe Garrel's J'entends plus la guitare, Martha Coolidge's Rambling Rose, and Jon Avnet's Fried Green Tomatoes. At some point, I'll need to revisit Oliver Stone's JFK. It's been too long since I've seen it to know where it'd place on this list. But from this year, I really like The Coen Brothers' Barton Fink and Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs. I love Abbas Kiarostami's And Life Goes On. And my closest runner-up is Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh.
1/10/11 I watched Richard Linklater's Slacker. Original, courageous, and often formally fairly daring. But it is "slack", and almost always resolutely un-cinematic. Linklater has a way with casting and actors though, and given its context, it's quite the debut.
1/30/11 I watched David Mamet's Homicide. There are people who are serious fans of Mamet's oblique approach to language and filmmaking, but I can't say I'm really one of them. Mantegna turns in a strong performance, but much of the rest of the cast feels a bit uninspired.
9/15/11 I watched Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse. Heady and complex, Rivette's work continues to elude me a little. There are many interesting ideas at work around the artist life, but Rivette's uncompromising and lengthy methods leave me a little lukewarm.
10/25/18 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Aspen. Another fascinating doc by Wiseman that is most remarkable in Wiseman's effort to capture as many sides as he possibly can of the affluent Colorado mountain community.
6/15/19 I watched Claire Denis' Keep It for Yourself. It is a wonderful early work by Denis that shows off her incredible eye, ear, and like Jarmusch, incredible feel for the outsider. It is essential Denis that deserves to be seen and talked about.
4/2/20 I finally watched Stanley Kwan's Actress. It is a film I have been wanting to see for more than twenty years. Usually with that type of expectation comes disappointment but not this time. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous - in its cinematography, set design and wardrobe - it is utterly unique as a biopic. By consistently merging interviews with people that knew Ruan and actual foootage of her with fictional shots and scenes, Kwan is able to create a character we know in deeper and different ways than cinema has previously allowed. A film that is a key precursor to In the Mood for Love and one that warmly invites us to dig deeper into China's cinema of the past.
6/29/20 I watched Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust. It is a deep and highly stylized meditation on race. It is not always easy to follow but the depth of feeling is mostly affecting.
I think I'm on the somewhat unpopular side when it comes to Van Sant. Although I greatly admire his later, more experimental work (Elephant, Gerry, etc), I definitely prefer some of his other films. I guess I like it when he takes himself a little less seriously, like he does here.
Idaho is beautifully shot, a fun concoction of about every genre, and full of Van Sant's playful, stylistic flair. It's breezy with a good deal of heart and still feels fresh, vital, and tonally quite unique. Van Sant's versatility continues to fascinate, one of the most interesting directors out there who seems to be able to do most anything. About as bold and liberated as they come, I look forward to seeing where he goes next.
Other contenders for 1991: I still have some things to see from this year. These include: David Mamet's Homicide, Ken Loach's Riff Raff, David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August, Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse, Hal Hartley's Theory of Achievement, Ambition, and Surviving Desire, Martin Scorsese's Cape Fear, Stanley Kwan's Actress, Arnaud Desplechin's La Vie Des Morts, Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, Bruce Beresford's Black Robe, Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise's Beauty and the Beast, Cedric Kahn's Bar des rails, Philippe Garrel's J'entends plus la guitare, Martha Coolidge's Rambling Rose, and Jon Avnet's Fried Green Tomatoes. At some point, I'll need to revisit Oliver Stone's JFK. It's been too long since I've seen it to know where it'd place on this list. But from this year, I really like The Coen Brothers' Barton Fink and Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs. I love Abbas Kiarostami's And Life Goes On. And my closest runner-up is Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh.
1/10/11 I watched Richard Linklater's Slacker. Original, courageous, and often formally fairly daring. But it is "slack", and almost always resolutely un-cinematic. Linklater has a way with casting and actors though, and given its context, it's quite the debut.
1/30/11 I watched David Mamet's Homicide. There are people who are serious fans of Mamet's oblique approach to language and filmmaking, but I can't say I'm really one of them. Mantegna turns in a strong performance, but much of the rest of the cast feels a bit uninspired.
9/15/11 I watched Jacques Rivette's La belle noiseuse. Heady and complex, Rivette's work continues to elude me a little. There are many interesting ideas at work around the artist life, but Rivette's uncompromising and lengthy methods leave me a little lukewarm.
10/25/18 I watched Frederick Wiseman's Aspen. Another fascinating doc by Wiseman that is most remarkable in Wiseman's effort to capture as many sides as he possibly can of the affluent Colorado mountain community.
6/15/19 I watched Claire Denis' Keep It for Yourself. It is a wonderful early work by Denis that shows off her incredible eye, ear, and like Jarmusch, incredible feel for the outsider. It is essential Denis that deserves to be seen and talked about.
4/2/20 I finally watched Stanley Kwan's Actress. It is a film I have been wanting to see for more than twenty years. Usually with that type of expectation comes disappointment but not this time. Aside from being absolutely gorgeous - in its cinematography, set design and wardrobe - it is utterly unique as a biopic. By consistently merging interviews with people that knew Ruan and actual foootage of her with fictional shots and scenes, Kwan is able to create a character we know in deeper and different ways than cinema has previously allowed. A film that is a key precursor to In the Mood for Love and one that warmly invites us to dig deeper into China's cinema of the past.
6/29/20 I watched Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust. It is a deep and highly stylized meditation on race. It is not always easy to follow but the depth of feeling is mostly affecting.
1/18/22 I watched Andre S Labarthe's The Scorsese Machine. Nothing incredibly new or memorable here with the exception of when Scorsese is asked to explain what his seventies films were trying to accomplish with respect to cinema's past.
5/20/22 I watched Arnaud Desplechin's La vie des morts. It's a film I have been wanting to see for more than 25 years that did not disappoint when I finally was able to track it down. Before even making his first feature, Desplechin demonstrates his very special ability working with an ensemble of some of France's greatest actors. And already so much of Desplechin's style is there - the edginess of the editing, the natural and almost laconic warmth and intimacy of the moments and his comfort in depicting the youth, particularly many of the females of his generation.
7/16/22 I watched Christopher Munch's The Hours and Times. Aside from a couple of moving scenes, when Lennon breaks out in dance for one, I never was that absorbed in the film or filmmaking.
1/14/24 I watched Agnes Varda's Jacquot de Nantes. Extremely insightful for fans of Demy but you have to be very curious and okay with Varda's usual whimsy.
