Sex, Okra, and Salted Butter

I liked this movie about a West African paterfamilias in Paris adjusting to some major life changes. It is light, but not frivolous. There’s the sense of a philosophy behind the lightness…a comic, as opposed to a tragic view of life. The comic sense of life doesn’t ignore loss, conflict, and unrequited desire, but neither does it ignore the small things, the everyday graces that make life bearable—not the least of which is a lively sense of humor. While I found a lot to admire in this film, I have the feeling that it won’t stick with me for too long. Maybe that’s a consequence of the comic tone, I don’t know. LC said the acting wasn’t that great and I admit that it wasn’t awe-inspiring. There was no sense of the mysteries of life being opened up to you, which was kind of how I felt about another recent movie based on a similar premise: 35 Shots of Rum. That film’s patriarch had a kind of heroic aura. He was a man’s man and a lady’s man and an everyman all in one. The patriarch of Sex, Okra and Salted Butter was just a man, warts and all, but a well-meaning one at heart.

A State of Mind

Communists do the strangest things. This documentary shows two female gymnasts and their families preparing for the 2004 Mass Games in Pyongyang, North Korea. Life under a communist despot seems a lot like the cult I was in, just colder and with less food. The filmmakers now give guided tours of North Korea. Capitalists do the strangest things too.

By the way, Kim Jong-Il, you're a no good ditcher.

The Puffy Chair

L: A sometimes funny, often annoying movie about attractive looking but unattractively behaved 20 somethings on a road trip. Beware; there is uneccesary baby talk that makes parts of the movie unbearable. (Is it ever necessary though?)
P: Would make a pretty good short story or Al Queda recruitment film.

Tokyo Sonata

A strange blend of torture porn and domestic drama in which a middle class Japanese family is drawn and quartered then reanimated by the magnetic power of home.

Palindromes

This movie is for people fed up with joy, love and happiness. Certain kinds of masochists and nihilists will love it. Pain, cruelty, and humiliation are the stocks in trade. There is no hope in this universe, no chance of redemption or even consolation. Only a kind of stoic striving after dignity and a cynical irony used to fend off the relentless assault of an entirely hostile world. Bleak stuff and agonizing at times, but admirable in its uncompromising sincerity and sympathy for the downtrodden.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

An engaging film on how to succeed at the business of art. I had to wash myself afterwards, but I liked it.

Four Christmases

L: Maybe four funny scenes but many more bad ones.
P: Misanthropic, Malthusian diatribe packaged as romantic comedy. Is there such a thing as a masterpiece of insincerity?

The Valet

L: Cute and predictable, so much so that I could only pay half attention. I was still right.

Bruno

P: Some people will do anything to be on TV. This movie is of those people, by those people, for those people.
L: I laughed out loud a few times but this movie is not very good. I was embarrassed about laughing. Borat was much better.

Two Days in Paris

P: Surprised to be more charmed than annoyed by this bittersweet comedy about the liminal space between a girl's last breakup and her first marriage.
L: That dude was pretty annoying and it was hard for me to believe that Julie Delpy hadn't dumped his whiny ass already. Lots of talk, lots of Paris. I guess overall I liked it, but he was really annoying (so was she but not nearly as bad).