Five Film Friday

Alternate Alliterative Title:

"Philip's Failure to Find Five Minutes to Fashion (and Finish) a Fitting Tribute to Two Fine DVDs"

It's been a lousy coupla weeks for me to keep up with a blog that, as much as I (sometimes) enjoy writing, doesn't pay a bloody penny (or generate comments). That said, I need to clear the decks and do an unfortunately brief run-down of two fantastic releases by (who else?) The Criterion Collection: THE COMPLETE JEAN VIGO and Chang-dong Lee's SECRET SUNSHINE. So I'll bang these out and clear my to-do list (and conscience) so as to enjoy a weekend getaway with my bride.

Hello, "Joe!"

After campaigning to review UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (aka 2010's Palme d'Or winner) for GreenCine, I got the assignment. And now I'm a bit terrified. Part of it is that many other much smarter and more qualified folks have already spilled ink about the thing. I’m not so much standing on the shoulders of giants as I am clawing my way up their backs. But worse is the fact that, other than a charming short, I've never seen another film by Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul.

This holiday weekend, I began to remedy this bit of cine-oblivion on my part by taking in SYNDROMES AND A CENTURY, Weerasethakul's fourth feature. I'd hoped to catch up with all of his work prior to the Tuesday, July 12th DVD release of BOONMEE but, realistically, that's not going to happen. What follows are my flop sweat-drenched ruminations on SYNDROMES.