A friend in the movie business keeps a film diary in which he notes not only the names of films he sees and the dates on which he sees them, but the conditions under which he sees them (whether the theater was crowded or not, and whether the crowd was rowdy or listless) and a few notes about his reaction.
It's a great idea, and one I should adopt. While I write, on average, something more than 100 reviews a year, I very rarely make any notes right after watching a film (and hardly any while watching -- it does no good, as I can never read my handwriting when the lights come up). If I'm not going to review a film, I don't bother making notes; the movie will either impress itself upon my consciousness or not. That's not always fair.
How we respond to a given movie has a lot to do with temporal environmental factors. I imagine I've forgotten thousands of movies I've seen, and some of them were probably pretty good.
For a movie critic there are certain obvious efficiencies in having such a database. Put it on a computer, make it searchable and seed each entry with keywords. When deadlines rush you, a few keystrokes might offer a release valve -- you might be able to make something out of a sidearmed allusion.
So maybe I'm going to start doing that. What if I start this week?
It's a good time to start, because I'm just getting into my heaviest movie-watching season, the run-up to the award voting season. (I'll be casting a couple of ballots in mid-December and, while in the big picture, I don't take these things all that seriously, I am diligent about seeing and considering as many films as possible.) This is the time of year when studios want me to see their product, when they provide me with streaming links, rent out theaters for screenings and send me DVDs with ominous warnings about prison sentences should the content contained therein be pirated.
Here's a non-exhaustive list of what I've watched since last week's MovieStyle section was published, in rough chronological order, with notes:
Keep On Keepin' On -- I watched a stream of Alan Hicks' documentary about Pine Bluff's Clark Terry, the legendary jazz trumpeter who, as it turns out, is also a much gentler mentor than J.K. Simmons' character in Whiplash, on the morning of Nov. 14. You can read my review above . (Unless you're in Northwest Arkansas, where presumably it'll open later this year.)
Citizenfour -- I watched Laura Poitras' doc about the revelations of Edward Snowden via a link on the afternoon of Nov. 14. It's scheduled to open in Arkansas on Wednesday -- if so, my review will run on Nov. 28.
After that I watched the just-released Blu-rays of Shirley Clarke's long-suppressed out-of-print direct cinema documentaries Portrait of Jason (1967) and Ornette: Made in America (1985). That evening we watched a bit of The Lego Movie on DVD before switching over and catching Magic Mike (which had been in our iTunes list for months).
I spent a little time on the morning of Nov. 15 checking out a screener disc of Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac, which I know I need to watch in its entirety before voting. I did the same with Force Majeure, to which I'm anxious to return.
In the afternoon we watched Interstellar in a theater with real people. I didn't hate it, and wasn't confused by it. I'll write more about it at some point.
On Nov. 16 I re-watched a good part of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist, thanks to a new Blu-ray edition that's being issued by Raro Video on Tuesday. I also skimmed through Criterion Collection's new Les Blank collection, Always for Pleasure, which comes out on the same day and is composed of all 14 of Blank's documentaries plus new interviews with the late director's sons. I'm already pretty familiar with most of Blank's works, but I wanted to look at the restoration, and it's beautiful. I'm planning to write about both these releases, if not in this section of the newspaper, on the blood, dirt & angels (blooddirtangels.com) blog.
We hosted a dinner party that evening, so no more movie watching for me.
On Nov. 17, I watched an advance DVD of Leonard Cohen: Live in Dublin as I edited a couple of reviews. That evening we streamed Alex Perry Ross' Listen Up, Philip, which I hope will open here before the end of the year. It provides Jason Schwartzman with his best role since Rushmore.
On Nov. 18, there was a 10 a.m. screening of The Theory of Everything at Cinemark Colonel Glenn 18. I'll review it when it opens, but chances are, it's exactly what you think it is. I watched a DVD of Marco Bellocchio's 2012 film Dormant Beauty -- which has just been released on DVD -- that afternoon.
I'm writing this column on Nov. 19 -- which is pretty late -- but I'm planning to check out Guardians of the Galaxy again by the end of the week, and there's a screening for A Most Violent Year set for Thursday morning. I've got a link to the Nick Cave movie 20,000 Days on Earth; I'm planning on watching it this afternoon. I'm also planning on checking out a screening link for a film called A Five Star Life because it's from Music Box Films, a distributor that puts out a lot of good movies that tend to fly under the radar.
If the weather's nice today, I might sneak out and play nine holes this afternoon. Depends on what shows up in the mail -- and the email.
So that's (nearly) a week in the movie-watching life of your friendly neighborhood film critic. I'm not complaining or (I hope) gloating. This is just how I'll be living from now until around Dec. 21.
Email:
blooddirtangels.com
MovieStyle on 11/21/2014