Joe Sixpack's Film Blog -- June, 2004

June, 2004

06/30/04

"50 First Dates" (2004)

06/29/04

"Queen Christina" (1936)

06/26/04

"Mary Of Scotland" (1936)

06/19/04

"The Station Agent" (2003)

06/11-18/04

"The West Wing: Complete First Season" (NBC, 1999)
The best part is I could just feel my IQ going back up. Nice to watch it without commercials, too.

06/13/04

"Amalie" (2003)
Wow... was this sugary French bon-bon really as wildly popular a film as it seemed at the time? Were Americans really so starved for something fresh and un-machinegunny that this glib bit of fluff won over so many intelligent viewers? I dunno... I found this flick to be facile, gimmicky and overly precious... There was very little center to it, and little more than eye candy and easy, predigested, prefab absurdism. Audrey Tautou is cute, sure, but what the hell were people raving about her acting for? She doesn't really do that much here. I mean, I understand the impulse to seek out a feelgood film, but this simply seemed to lack substance. In fact, I found it pretty irritating, overall. Maybe it was better in the theatres, with a full house guffawing over all the little jokes and cutesy conceits... In the cold glare of the VCR, though, it definitely didn't wow moi.

"Ah, Wilderness" (MGM, 1935)
More slow-moving than outright hokey, this misty-eyed recollection of small-town American life at the start of the 20th Century takes place in 1906 in a time when automobiles were new and World Wars had not yet been imagined. Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery helm this cast, old duffers presiding of the parade of youth, as brash lads and winsome girls take tentative steps into maturity, following their high school graduation. The film does evoke the idyll of life in the elm-lined streets, with firecrackers going off on the Fourth of July and the nation still blushing at the knowledge it hadn't yet acquired. Whether the country was ever actually this innocent or pure is a matter for conjecture... But there is an authentic ring to much of the county-fair wholesomeness. While the local talent shows and poetry recitations would probably bore a modern kid to tears, there is something compelling about a world without smog, cell phones or TV commercials... For a nostalgia-drenched trip down the primrose path, this is one fine slice of Americana.

06/11/04

"The Americanization Of Emily" (MGM, 1964)

06/04/04

"Saturday Night And Sunday Morning" (1964)

06/03/04

"Rabbit-Proof Fence" (2003)

06/02/04

"The Girl With Green Eyes" (1964)

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