Weekend Movie Report

Word up, bitches. Here's a rundown on the movies I watched this weekend:
First up, the lady and I caught Gremlins (Joe Dante) at the Paramount on Saturday afternoon. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and it didn't disappoint. Dante is a really inventive, anarchic director, and the movie was much darker and nastier than I remembered, with lots of film buff in-jokes. And, even though it starts out cutesy and gooey, this is not a cutesy and gooey kids' movie.
Last night at the Alamo Drafthouse downtown, we saw Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-Wai). I loved Kar-Wai's "Chungking Express," and was expecting something similar, but "Ashes of Time" was a lot different, both visually and formally. Both films focus on multiple viewpoints rather than a single protagonist and share an interest in shifting identities and the passage of time, but "Ashes" was a period martial arts story with intentionally choppy, confusing dialogue and editing, and cinematography and music that veered from beautiful to ugly to wildly inappropriate to something out of a perfume commercial. It took nearly half the movie to adjust to its rhythm and content, but once I did, I think I ended up liking it. I'm still not entirely sure, but I definitely wasn't bored. As a bonus, a local karate school showed off some of their moves before the film. The pair that fought each other were great, and the woman who demonstrated her strength in the fields of agility and flexibility was probably the highlight of the demonstration. She could bend over backwards while a dude sat on her stomach! She made me even more aware of my beergut. The other demonstrations of karate moves were just boring, though. I mean, I've seen "Flashdance,"* people, so I've seen it all before and better.

Here's what I watched on video:
The Aviator's Wife and A Good Marriage (Eric Rohmer) The first two installments in Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series. Both excellent.
Pinocchio (Hamilton Luske, Ben Sharpsteen) Another one I hadn't seen since I was a kid. A little too moralistic and preachy, but who cares? I really liked it.
Red River (Howard Hawks) Hawks is one of the best. This isn't one of my favorites, but it's still pretty great.

*I haven't seen "Flashdance."