Peter Schilling

Anger, Armies, and Some Good Sex

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An Evening With Kenneth Anger. Friday night at 7:30 at the Walker Art Center Cinema. Holy tapdancing cats, there’s a ton of intriguing movie choices opening Friday. Army of Shadows, the crazy Existentialist-Noir-French Resistance picture, is in town for a few days at the Oak Street Cinema (and here’s my review, from an earlier showing … Read more

Once Again, Much Ado About Nothing

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Step right up, everybody: it’s Oscar time once again. Early this morning, probably far too early for an actor or actress with late-night tendencies, the Academy’s stuffed shirts (and Selma Hayek) made their announcements to a quivering world. I’m sure that Baghdad is quiet now, if only to reflect on Dreamgirls getting the shaft. I … Read more

Two Busted Kings and A Little Princess

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Old Joy and Pan’s Labyrinth Old Joy, 2006. Directed by Kelly Reichardt, written by Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond. Starring Daniel London and Will Oldham. Now showing at the Oak Street Cinema. Old Joy begins with a phone call between friends. Mark (Daniel London) is seen talking with his old college pal Kurt (Will Oldham) about … Read more

Good Intentions Do Not A Great War Film Make

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Letters From Iwo Jima, 2006. Directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Iris Yamashita. Starring Kazunari Ninomiya, Ken Watanabe, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase, Shido Nakamura, and Hiroshi Watanabe. Now showing at the Uptown Theater. During World War II, the Marines used to tell their recruits that they were being trained so hard so that they might … Read more

Dumb and Dumber

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Idiocracy, 2006. Directed by Mike Judge, written by Judge and Etan Cohen. Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepherd, Terry Crews, and the narration of Earl Mann. A film so fundamentally lame that I’m not even going to provide you with a blurry still. This travesty is available anywhere you can rent lousy DVDs. Everybody … Read more

The Mighty, Mighty Catfight

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Notes on a Scandal, 2006. Directed by Richard Eyre, written by Patrick Marber. Starring Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy, and Andrew Simpson. Now showing at the Uptown Theatre. Rare is the occasion when the movie houses have a good movie in them, much less two that open on one weekend. Children of Men opened … Read more

Can Children of Men Save the World?

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Children of Men, 2006. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron, written by Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk Ostby. The incredible camera work is courtesy of Emmanuel Lubezki. Starring Clive Owen, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Pam Ferris, Julianne Moore, Chiwetel Ojiofor, Michael Caine, Charlie Hunnam, Danny Huston, and Peter Mullan. Now showing in theaters … Read more

Conversations Real and Imagined: The Depraved

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Die Buchse der Pandora (Pandora’s Box), 1929. Directed by G. W. Pabst, written by Pabst, Joseph Fleisler, Ladislaus Vajda and Frank Wedekind. Starring (and how!) Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Francis Lederer, Carl Goetz, Krafft-Raschig, Alice Roberts and Gustav Diessl. Now available in a handsome DVD from The Criterion Collection. She was a girl from Cherryvale, … Read more

Their Grandparent's Waltz

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Sweet Land, 2006. Written and directed by Ali Selim. Starring Elizabeth Reaser, Tim Guinee, Alan Cumming, John Heard, Alex Kingston, Ned Beatty, Lois Smith, Patrick Heusinger, and Stephen Pelinski. Now showing at the Edina Cinema (and a few others around the Twin Cities). Someday I’ll be wise and watch movies like Sweet Land when they … Read more