December 2007 Reviews

Bad Santa (December Reviews)

These are the reviews and other as-
signments I'm working on this month.

Amazon DVDs: Breathless - Criterion Collection (special feat-
ures), Romance & Cigarettes (dir. John Turturro; starring James Gandolfini and Kate Winslet), Naked Boys Singing!, Amy Winehouse - I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London, When Night Is Falling, and State of Play [two-disc set] (with Bill Nighy and James McAvoy!).

[Romance & Cigarettes has been taking some serious critical hits, but I gotta say: I enjoyed it. If you're at all curious—take a chance.]

Amazon Theatricals: Starting Out in the Evening (Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose) and
Married Life (Chris Cooper and Patricia Clarkson).

Now playing: Click for I'm Not There, How to Cook Your Life, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Gone Baby Gone, and Lars and the Real Girl.

Idolator: Contributed my lists to this year's Pop Critics Poll.

Resonance DVDs: Breathless and Mala Noche.

Click here, here, and here
for my previous Godard re-
views, and here for an alter-
nate version of Mala Noche.

Seattle Sound: Best of Seattle 2007 film feature
and an interview with produc-
er Alexis Ferris (Police Beat, Cthulhu).

Seattle Film Blog: Still Lives - The Films of Pedro Costa, top 30 list,
and revamped versions of Mouchette (new images and for-
matting) and a chat with Robinson Devor (new images).



Endnote: Bad Santa isn't my favorite holiday movie,
but it comes close. At the very least, it's the most foul-mouth-
ed and least sentimental. My favorite? It's a Wonderful Life.
Sentimental perhaps, but Capra earns every tear. Images
from The Sydney Morning Herald and Cinema Scope.