emperor tomato ketchup (extended version) - 8/10
Well, this isn't my favorite Terayama film, but he's one of the best directors ever (and my main influence) and I wouldn't rate any of his films lower than an 8, so............. anyway, I was only familiar with the shorter version from the EXPERIMENTAL IMAGE WORKS series (I think this was on volume 5), but the long version is amazing. Gritty, dirty, surreal, hilarious, dark as hell.. just brilliant.
straight story - 11/10
By far David Lynch's best film. I'd seen it before and thought it was his best -- now, after seeing it again, I think it's one of the best films of all time. Maybe it's because Lynch didn't write it... either way, Lynch proves he's actually a good DIRECTOR, for once. That's long been my criticism with Lynch... though I like his films okay, I don't find him particularly talented; it's all about Mary Sweeney's editing, Badalamenti's music, and whatever actresses and co-scriptwriters he's working with at the time. Hence why Inland Empire doesn't work so well. Anyway, Lynch's biggest strength is comedy -- I've always looked at most of his films as overblown comedies ("yOUR NAME! WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR NAME?!" from Lost Highway made me laugh so hard I cried once). Instead of relegating it to the best, this film is, at times, purely comedic, which works beautifully -- though it's touching, and the end made me cry. The music, low-key atmosphere, subject matter, pacing, dialogue, and characters reminded me very much of Jon Jost... anywho, the performance by 80 year old Richard Farnsworth was absolutely MINDBLOWING; I can't believe how great he was -- they wrote his degenerative hips into the movie itself. He works SO HARD in this movie... he really pushes himself to the limit. Sissy Spacek is amazing, her best role since Robert Altman's masterpiece "3 Women". Harry Dean Stanton is unreal... with his small role, he says so much without saying anything at all... also kinda neat he was in this film, since the atmosphere reminded me of Paris, Texas at times (which he is in, and is easily one of the best films ever).
seagull diner - 8/10
Beautiful film.