Pussy Power

206. Teeth (2007, directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein) wants in its black little heart to be a vicious satire of teen-age sexual mores, focusing on one girl's discovery of the power of her hoohah. Because said hoohah is the mythical vagina dentata, and because all of the men in our heroine's life are colossal pricks, it doesn't take long before severed...ahem...members are littering the landscape. This all sounds more shocking than it really is, because the film is entirely too gentle for its premise, and when it does finally get nasty, it telegraphs its shocks. It doesn't go for the metaphorical jellies, unfortunately. The vague misandry that informs this film does it no favors either, though it's probably unavoidable given the premise. Jess Weixler is fine as our heroine, but the script does her no favors as it takes her from abstinence-spouting good-girl to castrating femme fatale in one unconvincing arc. That she makes something out of this is fairly surprising. Meh. Not bad. Not great.

207. Lust, Caution (2007, directed by Ang Lee) seemed a lot like Paul Verhoeven's Black Book for long stretches of its running time, so when it actually arrived at its conclusion it kind of blindsided me, because it's a conclusion that the ever-commercial Verhoeven (even in the arthouse) would never have entertained. But it's kind of perfect. The story follows a young woman who gets involved with an acting company just before the Japanese occupation of China. The company begins to play at being members of the resistance, only to have it end badly. Four years later, they are recruited by the resistance proper to kill the man they originally targeted, the collaborating Mr. Yee. The main agent in both plots is Wong Chia Chi, played by the very willing Wei Tang, who paid a professional price for her willingness to do very explicit nude scenes with Tony Leung as Mr. Yee (Leung, both male and a huge star, paid no price at all). Leung is superb, it should be said. This is one of his best performances, especially given that the movie is really about him, and conceals this until the very end. I liked this a lot.

208. I don't remember much about the Narnia books. I read them when I was a pre-teen, and that was longer ago than I care to admit having been alive. So I had no real investment in the accuracy of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008, directed by Andrew Adamson), except to note that I don't remember the book being as blatantly up-front about its deus ex machina ending. But I could be mistaken. This is a marvel of production design and special effects, but it's not very engaging as drama except when temptation comes the way of our young heroes in the form of the White Witch, as played by the wonderful Tilda Swinton. It's almost enough to get me to watch the first film. Almost.

209. Luchino Visconti is probably my favorite Italian director, mainly on the strength of three films: The Leopard, Senso, and Rocco and His Brothers. Especially the last one. Rocco, made in 1960, shows the director at the crossroads, still clinging to his neorealist roots, but falling in love with the glamour of movie stars at the same time, and pushing his own tendency towards melodrama into the realm of the operatic. You can see the evolution of the director's career summarized in the course of this movie. The result is a delerious bitches brew that culminates in one of the most dazzling cross-cut sequences in film. Although each of the five Parondi brothers gets a chapter in the movie, the film revolves around Rocco and Simone, who are polar opposites linked by bonds of blood and by their separate relationships with Nadia, a prostitute who lives in their building. Rocco is a saint. Simone is a sinner. Both character traits are shown to be equally destructive. Both brothers find their calling in the boxing ring, and this is one of the best boxing movies ever made. In the way it's constructed, you can hardly miss that this film is a progenitur of The Godfather, of Raging Bull, of Mean Streets. This film offers Alain Delon at his most approachable, a stark contrast to the cold, calculating persona he adopted later. Equally good is Anna Girardot. This is one of my favorite films.