Old stuff catch-all
Now Playing: Movies I've recently re-visited
Beyond Re-Animator- Wow. I enjoyed this one a great deal at the Sci-Fi marathon last spring, and much less so in the comfort of my own home. It certainly confirmed my worst suspicions that this is pretty much the definition of a marathon movie, in which genre geeks can yuk it up through the cheeseball stuff and roar with the delight during the gross over-the-top moments. Really it's not a very good movie, which I already knew but was overlooking since I had so much fun the first time. Also, setting Combs off to the side in favor of the terrible romantic lead guy was a bad idea too.
Rating: *1/2.

GoodFellas- this is an old favorite I've seen a whole bunch of times already, but it never gets old. One thing that seemed clearer than ever this time was how revolutionary the film was to see mob life primarily as a job instead of, say, a family obligation as Coppola did. Sure, Henry may go on and on about how great his life was, but Scorsese undermines his tales of glamour with more mundane realities (some examples: the well-dressed girlfriends are kinda ragged-looking, the gangsters' parties serve cold cuts, the restaurants are decorated in cheap-looking paper stuff). Just as much as TAXI DRIVER- which I've also recently re-visited- GOODFELLAS is a film about an unreliable narrator, with the difference being that Travis demonizes what he has while Henry romanticizes what he's lost.
Rating: ****.

Spellbound- Still a good time, but doesn't weave the same spell the second viewing. Forearmed with the outcome of the Bee, the competition loses a great deal of punch (the "darjeeling" scene and the Harry stuff aside). I now prefer the early character-establishing vignettes to the competition, since the kids are inherently fascinating by virtue of their distinctiveness. Also, it's cool that the filmmakers saved my favorite kids (Harry and April) for last. Harry is great, though a source of discomfort for me as well, since I recognize much of him in my memories of myself at that age. I like April mostly because of how levelheaded she seems to be in spite of (or maybe because of) her loopy parents (a friend complained about how they were treated like yokels, but I didn't mind so much since this point of view so keenly echoes April's).
Rating: ***.

The Secret Lives of Dentists- for most of its running time, this film doesn't feel like a masterpiece, since most of its power comes from how keenly it evokes the small details of the family's life, particularly in the interaction of the kids. Really, the kids are key to the success of the film, since had their performances not felt so natural and on-target the sense of reality would've been completely lost. Ultra-convincing family life established, the film works its way through perfectly-seen conflicts and crises, anchored by great performances from Campbell Scott and Hope Davis. Don't really have much in the way of new stuff to say about this one, other than I still find it miraculous that, after a decade or so of irrelevance, Alan Rudolph was able to make this, a masterpiece by any yardstick.