First-Time Viewings: August, 2011

Well, August turned out to be a real personal ass-kicker but I did manage to plow my way through twenty or so new and old films I hadn't seen before. The dregs of the bunch were, not surprisingly, newer films like 30 Minutes or Less (a real waste of a talented cast) and Insidious, which I was particularly disappointed with since I really enjoyed James Wan's previous films.



Among the best films I caught up with in August were a few that I wrote on here, American Grindhouse, Cat in the Bag, Claire Dolan, Blonde Ambition and Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie. I also really found much to admire in the seventies spooker Cathy's Curse, the Madonna directed Filth and Wisdom, the early Joe Sarno work Moonlighting Wives, Sam Fuller's Pickup on South Street, the Peter Guralnick produced and written documentary Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll, Norman J. Warren's terrific Satan's Slave, James Gunn's distinctive and disturbing Super and the Tom Hardy BBC production of Wuthering Heights.









Theatrically the two best films I caught were Woody Allen's lovely Midnight in Paris and the funny and moving My Idiot Brother.









I has mixed reactions towards a handful of others but still recommend the George Hilton-Erika Blanc Euro-Western I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Millennium Mambo, Michael Winner's Scorpio, a later Joe Sarno film Tigresses and Other Man-eaters and Blake Edwards' The Carey Treatment.

All in all a pretty good movie-watching month with several really great discoveries.







Pre-2011 Films:



American Grindhouse ****1/2

Cat in the Bag ****1/2

Cathy's Curse ***1/2

Claire Dolan *****

Filth and Wisdom ***1/2

I Am Sartana, Trade Your Guns for a Coffin ***

Law Abiding Citizen 1/2 *

Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie ****1/2

Millennium Mambo ***

Moonlighting Wives ***1/2

Ondine **1/2

Pickup on South Street ****

Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll ****1/2

Satan's Slave ***1/2

Scorpio ***







Super ****

The Carey Treatment ***

Tigresses and Other Man-eaters ***

Travelling Saleslady **1/2

Wuthering Heights (2009) ***1/2



2011 Films:



30 Minutes or Less *1/2

Conan the Barbarian **1/2

Crazy, Stupid, Love ***1/2

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark **1/2

Insidious *1/2

Midnight in Paris ****1/2

Our Idiot Brother ****