Jordan Hoffman Dot Com

I am not a Tarkovsky scholar, I only know that USUALLY during non-narrative (or highly opaque) films, I start to get restless. But Tarkovsky manages to mesmerize me.

As a sci-fi buff, naturally, I am more likely to want to rewatch Solaris or Stalker, but this meditation on memory – with a virtually impossible to follow plot – somehow manages to hold the interest.

It’s the camera moves, the dripping water, the changing film stocks, the close-ups, the slo-mo, the sense of loss.

Can’t wait to read up on this movie and find out what all that symbolism was actually about.

Holy crud.

John Byrne’s Crew is one of the best Star Trek comics runs ever. EVER. And it is just WALL to WALL fan service.

It follows the career path of Number One – and hardcore fans know I don’t mean Will Riker. I mean the first iteration of Majel Barrett on the Enterprise.

Basically five distinct episodes – but what episodes!

They are in keeping with the adventure of TOS, but really take advantage of the medium – setting the tales in situations that would be unfilmable even with an insane budget. Issue 5 is in a void!

And Robert April (and his doctor wife) are in it. How hardcore is that?!

While I was watching it, I was giving it all sorts of benefits of the doubt. Now that some time has passed, I’m confident in labeling it pseudo-intellectual garbage.

Some cool individual scenes, though.

When you get right down to it, this is my favorite concert film of all time. More than The Last Waltz, more than Stop Making Sense.

It has my favorite cut of all time. Just when the hardcore bass groove in “Echoes Part I” begins, we cut to that famous tracking shot BEHIND the band. We see the stacks of gear (Pink Floyd. London.) and then we see. . .the other cameras shooting US. For its time, so far out. For today, even: FAR OUT.

There are three edits of this film. As it happens, the best one, 1974, only exists on VHS and LaserDisc. But you can replicate it with the DVD by flipping between the 1972 and 2003 cuts.

1972 consists of just the songs.

1974 consists of the songs, plus the (staged) recording footage of “Dark Side of the Moon” plus some verite stuff (eating pie) and some interview footage. It is the best cut.

2003 is a “director’s cut” which is, essentially, 1974 with all sorts of dumbass tinkering. Basically, Jar-Jar is all over it. Lame footage of space and alternate black and white (non-Pompeii) footage. It’s a bunch of screensavers tinkering with one of the most beloved films ever. Eff it.

But that aside, if you haven’t seen this. . . well. . . I don’t know how it will land if you didn’t first fall in love with this back in the day.

How many of us were led to this from “The Wall” only to be baffled by the free form, lyric-less performances? This film is a treasure.

A few of Philip Roth’s books have been adapted to film, but they’ve never really clicked. (Goodbye, Columbus came close.) Bye, Bye Braverman, not based on a Roth book, is the closest to catching the Roth gestalt on film.

What is billed as a comedy is actually drowning in pain. First generation Jewish-American intellectuals, still figuring out why they aren’t lampshades, pile into a Volkswagen and get lost on the way to Brooklyn. It’s a heady mix of subtext and borscht belt.

Frankly, if you aren’t Jewish, or at least very studied up on this particular moment in New York Jewish thought, this movie will sail right by you.

I had heard this movie is bad. It isn’t bad. It certainly isn’t boring. Its story – based on truth – has so many turns that it begins to feel like absurdist melodrama.

Angelina Jolie looks wonderful in her 30s hats and outfits – and her performance, when she isn’t screaming, is fine. Eastwood always knows how to fine character actors you’ve never seen before to come in for a scene and wow you, too.

The movie is long and uneven, but I don’t know who to blame. I think it is just a hard story to adapt.

Looks gorgeous on Blu-ray.

A meditation on war and memory that is more “interesting” than anything else.

The animation works very well for its subject – to have shot it any other way would have just been non-actors talking – but, in this case, I think I could have used a little more traditional 3-act storytelling, though. Very evocative, mood-driven piece.

I’ll leave the politics out, but I still don’t understand why Israel has spent over 20 years hanging their heads over an incident where they did none of the killing. Where are the Arab movies about the atrocities they actually committed with their own hands?

1/2

Okay, maybe I feel bad for dissing on Neelix so much. He isn’t so bad. He’s a far better character than Chakotay or B’Ellana, I’ll tell you that much.

In this one, he must protect a little girl whose mother may or may not have been killed on an away mission.

Two great stories here. In one, the next clone of Weyoun has a “defect” which recognizes peace as the answer for the Dominion and tries to defect to Odo. In the other, Nog gets all Milo Minderbender when Chief O’Brien needs something. Somehow, the serious religious-themed part and the solid comedy work nicely.

Above: Odo and Weyoun in Pieta.

Species 8472 has recreated Starfleet Headquarters (down to Boothby himself!) in an effort to train their ranks to become human so they can infiltrate Earth and DESTROY! Or so it is thought. Could everyone just really be afraid of everyone else? Is Kim Jong-Il watching this?

The crazies are back. And this time, Dr. Bashir wakes up the mousy one to discover a stone cold fox underneath. What at first you think is an Awakenings or Flowers for Algernon twist is more just a bad dating tips twist. Way to go, Dr. Bashir.

Does B’Ellana really still need a pep talk explaining how “Voyager is your family now” – five years in?

Ugh.