CINEMANIA:

Margin Call (J.C. Chandor, USA, 2011)

Ben Livant: 

I feel obligated to comment on this film and I don't know why.  I guess it's because I wrote a review of Ides of March and since I did that labour, I reckon I should extend the same effort to Margin Call.  For it's the superior picture in my estimation.  It's better because it attends to an investment bank backroom rather than the campaign office of a political candidate.

This focus alone puts us within the range of real power in America.  Ides of March will come as a cold splash of disillusionment to anyone who still believes that the Democratic Party nominates its presidential candidate through a fair and honorable process that ultimately serves the interests of regular working folks.

Ishtar (Elaine May, USA, 1987)

Ben Livant:

I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking, Ben, for Kevin's Gate - Waterworld you doing... Ishtar nothing better to watch at your house?  In fact, I have a fairly large stack of post-60s Godard and a fair few neo-realist classics by Rossellini, in case you've forgotten, and a few others besides, something by John Huston, I've forgotten, gotta check the case.Why I became curious enough to seek out Ishtar hardly matters.  As does the film itself.

Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, Mexico, 2013)

Ben Livant:

Well, it's frustrating if you care and irritating if you don't.  I don't.  So it's irritating.  Mind you, it's frustrating that I don't care.  But how can you?  Post Tenebras Lux is not impressionistic.  It is not cubist.  It is not surreal.  It is idiosyncratic.  No doubt, it all means this and that to the film-maker, although only just this and that, I bet.

Fruitvale Station (Ryan Coogler, USA, 2013)

Ben Livant:

Damn!  How many times do I have to watch "Wallace" get shot?

I joke to protect myself.

Next month, my older boy will be 22-years old.  Oscar Grant III was 22-years old the day a cop killed him.  So...  you know...

Not that I know.  As if I am the person who needs to protect himself.  What do I know?  White man, living in Victoria, BC, Canada, just next door to the spiffy Rockland neighbourhood,  a few blocks away from tweedy Oak Bay.

All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, USA, 2013)

Ben Livant:

I feel awkward writing about this film.  I mean, in just a few more sentences, I will have used more words than Our Man does in all of All Is Lost.  Not that I think the film is some sort of sacred church, a work of art so sublime, it is best to worship silently.  It is simply too basic for that, too primal, too either/or.

Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, USA, 2013)

Dan, when I badgered you to tell me your Oscar picks so I could pick the same picks, I had not yet seen Gravity.  You may recall that after you selecting Gravity for all the technical awards, I went back and reversed your bet on it for best director - having already devoted best picture to 12 Years A Slave - to go with American Hustle.  Wrong!  Even though I still reckon David O.