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My friend Jesse works at the Asian American Film Festival every year,
and this year is no exception. He was kind enough to get me in to see

Café Lumière

at the Castro on Sunday night.

This was the new(ish) Hou Hsiao-hsien movie. Shot in Tokyo,
it explicitly establishes itself in the opening credits as being an
homage to Ozu Yasujiro. Critics have jumped on the bandwagon,
calling this film a Tokyo Story for the 21st century.

I take issue with this comparison.

Granted, the camerawork, composition, and
pacing are all pretty Ozu. And a number of establishing shots and at least one
scene were direct copies from Ozu’s work. But the narration completely lacks
Ozu’s detachment and insight, and that’s really the key piece of the
puzzle (at least for me, opinions may vary).

Ozu famously gave his characters time and space to breathe so that the audience could
examine their relationships in great detail. By contrast, Hsiao-hsien gives them breathing
room so that we can watch them mope. He is unable to examine their relationships in any meaningful way. Certainly not in an Ozu-esque way. Relationships here are just a backdrop for introspection-as-spectacle.

If this truly is the movie Ozu would have made had he lived long enough,
then it’s probably a good thing he didn’t.

It did have a lot of neat shots of trains and train stations in Tokyo, though.

According to IMDB, these are the “10 Best Pictures” and “10 Best Popcorn Movies” of 2005. I’ll bet you can’t guess which list is which in 10 seconds or fewer.

For an added challenge, three movies in each list have been whited-out. Give up? Click-drag your mouse over the lists to reveal the hidden answers!

A week ago I was finally able to see my friend Mike’s absolutely amazing film,
The Carniverous Syndrome in 3D. Mike has been a carniverous plant enthusiast for a long time and he spent the last couple years making timelapse 3d movies of them. To do this, he constructed a lego robot that takes pictures of a plant over the course of days, moving it back and forth in tiny degrees in order to get stereoscopic separation.

I saw the robot in action at Mike’s place about a year ago. I still don’t understand how he managed to get the precision required - the teeth in lego gears have a fair amount of ‘play’ between them, and the tolerances for the camera movements must have been tiny.

He also did some really crazy 3d graphics using hand-written scripts (I forget the language - Mike?).

Anyway, the net result is truly incredible. You will never see anything like this. Click on the image below to learn more or even buy the DVD (comes with 3d glasses!).

An amusing note
about the upcoming Edward R. Murrow biopic:

They opted to use archive footage of Joseph McCarthy instead of using an actor to portray the senator. Clooney had said that when the movie had undergone test screenings, audience members felt that the McCarthy character was overacting a bit, not realizing that it was the actual McCarthy through archive footage.

Enron - The Smartest Guys in the Room
Resists the obvious temptations to self-righteous indignation; actually tries to paint millionaire crooks as somehow tragic. Bad guys nonetheless make themselves look plenty bad. I say hang ‘em from the highest power line.

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
For anyone who was once an eight-year old, the final stage of Grief is not Acceptance; it is Indifference.

Kingdom of Heaven
A chore.

Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Like Bambi met Blackadder and kicked his ass. WTF?

Double Dare
Documentary about female stunt-doubles in Hollywood: aging Linda Carter double is Master, spry Lucy Lawless double is Apprentice trying to get the gig in Kill Bill. Overall, awesome. It didn’t have enough Xena but then again, what does?