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Il Grido
(Antonioni, 1957)

The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)

-30-
(Webb, 1959)

Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)

Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)

The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)

Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)

The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)

In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)

That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)

The Fox
(Rydell, 1967)

Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)

Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)

At Long Last Love
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Brewster McCloud
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Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Mike's Murder
(Bridges, 1984)

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The Moon's Our Home
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(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
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Saint Joan
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The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
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Dark of the Sun
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Skidoo
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Last Summer
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Diary of a Mad Housewife
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Tropic of Cancer
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I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
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Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
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'Doc'
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Drive, He Said
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W.C. Fields and Me
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Looking for Mr. Goodbar
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Hot Stuff
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Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
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Rich Kids
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Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
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The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
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God's Angry Man
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Fast-Walking
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Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
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When the Wind Blows
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Housekeeping
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Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Running on Empty
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Drowning by Numbers
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Haunted Summer
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City of Hope
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The Baby of Macon
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King of the Hill
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Dadetown
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SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

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October 2

A Serious Man

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Denby on "Zodiac"

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Zodiac is superbly made," writes New Yorker critic David Denby, "but it's also a strange piece of work. As [it] goes on and on, and it becomes clear that no denouement is possible (the crime was never solved), we have to ask what the reason for all this cinematic blind-alleying might be. Any honest neurotic could probably tell you: the emotional payoff of an obsession is not attaining some longed-for goal -- it's the obsession itself, which fulfills certain needs. If it didn't, it wouldn't be an obsession.

"Jake Gyllenhaal's Robert Graysmith, whom no one takes seriously at first, wants to prove himself as a sleuth, perhaps, but his real need is to be absorbed in the search. For Fincher, I would guess, the identity of the killer is less important than the vast effort of almost (but not quite) finding him. He teaches us -- and we absorb the lesson uneasily -- that truth, like some vision that recedes as we draw near it, will never quite yield to our most ardent pursuit.

"The great film critic Manny Farber once praised what he called 'termite art,' by which he meant the kind of small, stubborn movie that chews its way through a narrow piece of turf. David Fincher's Zodiac is mollusk art: the movie keeps elaborating itself out of its own discharge, hardening its emotions, anxieties, and energies into a shell of obsession."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on March 14, 2007 at 12:50 PM

comment #1

romeoisbleeding says ...

Great observation. Phew!! it reminds me of a line Jake says near the end of the movie which of course escapes me now but he says something like.."Sometimes it is ok to believe things that you cannot prove". if anyone cares to correct me here go right ahead. I think I got the point of what he was saying but not the exact text.

Posted by romeoisbleeding at March 14, 2007 6:08 PM

comment #2

Joshua Mooney says ...

I'm stunned by the over-hype for this mediocre movie. It had no center, no narrative thurst, no POV. What was Graysmith's motivation for all this obsession? Gyllenhal was okay, but he certainly didn't answer that question, and neither (more to the point) did the filmmakers. What remains for me are three amazing performances (in this order) Ruffalo, Downey, and John Caroll Lynch. Ruffalo was astounding. Easily one of the most sophisticated, weird and nuanced performances I've seen in the last 5 years in any Hollywood film, and I assume that's down to him, as opposed to Fincher.

I have no idea why Denby is pulling his punches. Then again, I usually disgree with him.

Posted by Joshua Mooney at March 15, 2007 1:43 PM

comment #3