Welcome back! Well, to some of you, anyway. To the rest of you, glad you decided to stop by and I hope that this humble column helps you navigate the stacks of new releases each week. My goal is to point you toward titles of interest and warn you away from those films that seek to do nothing but leech away your time and give you nothing in return.
Full disclosure: I have not seen many of these titles and what follows are not necessarily reviews. It is my opinion based upon what I know of the titles I pluck from the new release lists that I peruse. The opinions I give based on the new releases are my own, and my recommendations upon them are based on my personal interest. In any case, I hope you enjoy and perhaps find something you like or a title to point me towards.
The Spirit (also Blu-ray). I am sure that this PotW selection will have many foaming at the mouths, others confused, and still others plain old disgusted. I don't know what to tell you, but let me try. I cannot defend The Spirit as a good movie, but it is one that is so bizarre, weird, terrible, and brilliant that I get the feeling I will be able to watch this over and over again and not get bored. It takes the phrase "comic book movie" to a whole new level, skipping the adaptation part and going straight to shooting the panels, bypassing the part where the heart and character on the page is imbued with moving life required when bringing real life people into the equation. At the very least it is a movie that took a chance made by someone who is working outside of the Hollywood machine. Like it or loathe it, it is not business as usual.
The Reader. The film is a good one that is bolstered by fantastic performances. It is fascinating; I watched this film and was unsure exactly what it was about. Was it Michael's sexual awakening and subsequent shuttering? Perhaps it is about German guilt — are there varying degrees? Perhaps it is about illiteracy? It speaks to all of these things, but is never terribly thorough in its treatment of any of them; however, the performances are utterly captivating and the themes fade into the background of the story.
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