Adventures in Cultural Consumption:
Dazed and Confused: Fast Times at Ridgemont High minus all the social issues, so more enjoyable if unsubstantial. Responsible for my having "Low Rider" running through my head all day.
The Social Network: Suffice it to say that here as elsewhere, Zadie Smith has it right. Still a good movie even if it doesn't have any real understanding of the motivations of its main character.
Gimme Shelter: Probably my favorite documentary, if only because it happened accidentally. Better on musical-historical terms than Don't Look Back, which missed the really incendiary Dylan tour of Britain, and I Am Trying to Break Your Heart. But manages to capture some genuine and unanticipated emotions from Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, otherwise rather like getting blood from a stone.
A Woman Is A Woman: The troublesome sexual politics aside, I liked it. Godard trying to be arty or serious is too obscure. Trying to be comedic, it's actually... fun.
A Canterbury Tale: The identity of the culprit in the central mystery is revealed to the audience after about 15 minutes; the characters themselves figure it out about an 1:15 in; the character responsible admits to it at 1:30, and the last 30 minutes is the main characters wandering around Canterbury. And yet... there's something at the end that makes the movie much greater than the sum of its parts.
"Thou shalt not extinguish thine anger, but shall master it,
that thy conscience may not be blunted by adjustment
to wrong causes."
-The Dutch Ten Commandments to Foil the Nazis
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