Tom & Alissa

Here’s edition 1 of “What the Wilkinsons Watched”.

I have no idea what I watched last year and decided that was no good - I track what I read, don’t I? So we’ve both been tracking what we watch (me in the back of a wee little moleskine).

A few notes before we begin:
1. It may seem that we only watch movies. Not true; we do watch a lot, but we tend to spend a lot of time thinking and talking about them afterwards. Some people watch TV in the evenings . . . we watch movies.
2. It may seem that we only watch bizarre, inaccessible, or foreign films. Not true; but sometimes those are the ones we like.
3. With very few exceptions, we watch all movies together so as to foster dialogue.

As I will state over and over again, please check ratings of movies to see if they meet your standards before you watch them. We’re a filmmaker and a film critic, so we see stuff that not everyone perhaps wants to see.

January 1
Training Day - To start off the year, an undercover narcotic cop movie. We seem to see a lot of these, or maybe it just is a good topic for a movie. In any case, I liked it. Not for the faint of heart.
Pan’s Labyrinth - We were vaguely disappointed, based on the hype. Taken as a fairy tale, it’s more acceptable, but I wanted an extension to the story, more lore, more to dig into. I wanted to care more. Plus, there was a lot of the gross-out factor. The bit with the mandrake was good.

January 2
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - We saw trailers for this way back when, but only got around to seeing it now. It was actually very good. If nothing else, it will give you a great appreciation for the relative humanity of the American healthcare system. Funny in places. A must-see for anyone in the medical industry.

January 3
Door in the Floor - So, this was great, but the best part was how literary it was. There’s a splendid section in the DVD special features where John Irving talks about adapting novels to film, and he’s just profound and insightful.

January 4
The Proposition - Again, not for the faint of heart. However, I loved it and fully understand why it ended up on a lot of “best of” lists. A western set in the Australian outback, written by singer Nick Cave. Beautifully shot and disturbing.

January 5
M.A.S.H. - The IFC center is having a Robert Altman retrospective in honor of his passing this December. I’d never seen M.A.S.H. (either the film or the TV series), but when I worked for Bill Womer back in college he used to call me “Radar” and I never got it. Now I do. Plus, this was thoroughly enjoyable. I suspect it’s a bit more crass than the TV show, but the acting . . . ahh, superb.

January 7
Shortcuts - Another Altman. This made me suddenly understand why P.T. Anderson is considered Altman’s heir. It’s based on an assortment of Raymond Carver short stories, which threw me for a loop. I’d read a few in college but forgotten them, and suddenly I knew what was going to happen on screen and I thought perhaps I’d developed ESP. No, it turns out, my subconscious just logged the stories without my conscious picking up on it. Lily Tomlin & Tom Waits are great as a drunk couple with a serious love/hate relationship.

January 11
Bridget Jones’ Diary - I watched this alone for about the millionth time while I was cleaning up the apartment. Tom gave me this and 10 Things I Hate About You for Christmas (with a note, “From Your Own Mr. Darcy”) because he knows I love them. Bridget makes me laugh.

January 12
Children of Men - By far the best movie we’ve seen this year. We kept trying to see it and missing it or finding sold-out screenings. It was totally worth the wait. Excellent storytelling, and Tom was completely impressed with the way it was shot. Futuristic without involving rockets and hovercrafts. And I nearly cried at points.

January 13
10 Things I Hate About You - Again, we were cleaning up the apartment. Fun as always.

Thank You for Smoking - This one we really loved. It’s very funny, very well-written and very intelligent. Makes you understand how someone can actually spend their life convincing people of things they don’t believe are true.

January 14
4 - A Russian film we rented because it was on someone’s top ten list. This person also had David Lynch’s Inland Empire on their top ten list. Yeah. There were moments of brilliance, but overall it just didn’t hang together very well, and there’s some really disturbing bits. We essentially lose a couple of the characters after the first forty minutes. Blah. Tom fell asleep, if that tells you anything.

January 15
Nashville - Another Altman classic. Funny, insightful, and charming, plus it leads you toward a conclusion that you can’t pinpoint.

January 16
A Scanner Darkly - We watched this last night. I think I liked it, but I had to fight to keep up. This is the one where artists went in and “animated” the acted film, frame by frame. The acting was uniformly good (who would think to put Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., and Woody Harrelson in the same movie?) but if you don’t like scifi you probably won’t like this, though it’s not exactly scifi. If you’re a film geek you’ll probably want to see it, though. Whether or not it’s the best movie ever, it’s certainly important.

That winds it up to today.