2000-2009: Favorite filmmakers of the decade in no particular order

Wong Kar Wei

I said this about “My Blueberry Nights” (2007), and it remains true: Wong Kar Wei often makes movies that are better than movies better than his. His sometimes kinetic, sometimes ethereal flicks are more often visual poetry than bricks-and-mortar narrative, but Wong and his longtime partner, insane Aussie cinematographer Christopher Doyle, often construct the most arresting and moving images in movies today.

BEST FILM OF THE DECADE: “In the Mood for Love” (2000). Watch it. Hate it the first time you see it. Tell people Wong Kar Wei’s overrated. Watch it again. Realize it’s a masterpiece. Tell people it’s a masterpiece. Backtrack when they point out that you found it “overrated” not even two months ago. Tell them you were in a “different place” then. Tell everyone you told you hated it earlier that “you really need to see it twice to, you know, really get it.” Prepare for your friends to like you less.
BIGGEST MISCUE: “My Blueberry Nights” (2007)
GO-TO ACTOR: Tony Leung
FIRST PROJECT: The screenplay “Choi wan kuk” (1982), which translates to “Rainbow Cloud Song.” … It probably sucks.
UP NEXT? “The Grand Master” (2010), starring Tony Leung. A martial arts movie, I think.

The Top 10 so far and the craptastic, forthcoming fall movie season

So, it’s been an interesting first half of the moviegoing year. There’s been a decent number of fantastic movies, most of them surprises or lesser-known movies (which, actually, is a serious problem no matter how many cinephiles like championing shit you’ve never heard of). The last eight months were also the best shot you’ll have this year of seeing a wicked-awesome flick, but more on that in this very insightful hyperlink. Right now…

REVIEW: ‘Inglourious Basterds’

Eli Roth, left, and Bratt Pitt in "Inglourious Basterds"

Some people are upset with so-called “spoilers” in this review. Yes, I suppose by definition there are “spoilers” in this review. However, 90 percent of the reviews written about “Inglourious Basterds” have discussed the movie’s ending at length because it’s the most controversial part of the movie (and why at least 50 percent of the audience is going to go see it).

So, uh… alert. … Spoilers ahead… I guess.

The final scene of “Inglourious Basterds” ends with U.S. soldier Lt. Aldo Raine whipping out a six-inch knife to carve a Swastika into the head of a Nazi colonel in the middle of the woods. After driving the blade about half an inch into the man’s forehead, Raine, played hilariously by Brad Pitt, slowly drags the knife to make his mark. Blood spills out of the colonel’s forehead. He screams, clutching the French soil in agony. Out of context it’s a terribly gruesome moment. After two-plus hours of similar World War II-based carnage, it’s only… kind of gruesome.

‘Basterds’ on Friday or Quentin Tarantino’s butt-crazy Top 20 list

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” comes out this Friday. I’ll just post something Tarantino-related everyday because, fuck it, I’ve been waiting for this movie for, like, five years. Back when Sly Stone and Adam Sandler were supposed to be in it.

Quentin Tarantino named his Top 20 favorite movies from 1992 to the present. Why 1992? Because that’s the year he became a bonafide director, the year “Reservoir Dogs” came out. Good times.

TRAILER REVIEW: ‘Inglourious Basterds’ or wienerschnitzel-lickin’ fingers and so forth

Lt. Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt, sits in front of a captured Nazi soldier.

“I’m gonna assume you know who we are,” he says.

“Everybody in the German army has heard of you,” the Nazi says.