Screening Log: 30 November 2011

1. Young Adult (2011, Jason Reitman) I’m not exactly a fan, but it does have two major things going for it: Patton Oswalt actually basically acting like Patton Oswalt (and utterly playing down the handicap aspect), and Charlize Theron, who isn’t even trying to gain audience sympathy. She’s majestically sour and unlikable. Too bad the third act is such a fucking wreck, confirming the wreckiness of what preceded it. [advance screening]

2. /Chungking Express/ (1996, Wong Kar-Wai) Hadn’t watched this all the way through since, like, 1999. Still prefer In the Mood for Love, but it remains a blast. Is there a more frivolous great movie? Even silly Pre-Code musicals tend to have a little heft. Both stories are simply thin, and that’s not a knock. Dorky note: prior to this I’ve only seen the version released in America by Miramax and QT’s sadly disbanded Rolling Thunder Pictures. Was shocked — okay, mildly shocked — to note that the ritualistic playing of Dennis Brown’s “Things in Life” in the first part and “California Dreamin’” in the second are, in the version on the Criterion Blu (and presumably the original version), played diegetically, i.e., the sound we hear is the faint, muddled one from the nearby boom box. Whereas in the original Miramax/Rolling Thunder version both songs were clearly fake-diegetic, i.e., a professional, overpowering version of the song blasted in in post, but which acted as though it was part of the scene. (The version at the top is the former, the one on the Criterion Blu.) ANYWAY. [Blu-Ray — I bought this disc two years ago and only last night got to watch it, as I only now live with a Blu player]