the jerk (carl reiner, 1979)

not nearly as funny as i anticipated but it’s one of the most compulsively likable movies i’ve seen in a while.  it’s stupid beyond belief (with some truly hilarious moments) and has an all-too-familiar trajectory, yet by movie’s end i was won over and i have no idea why.  maybe it’s bernadette peters’ adorable, weepy, trumpet-toting marie or a dog named shithead.  the disco scene is also golden.  it could also be that this kind of silliness is rarely matched with heart, trite as it may be.

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tetro (francis ford coppola, 2009)

impressive in its ability to be both overstuffed and too thinly laid, coppola’s tetro is a bombastic and sprawling mess whose ambition outreaches what the film comes anywhere near achieving.  a slow-burning two acts gives way to an unwieldy and semi-retarded third that renders the entire thing vacuous.  there’s too much of an emphasis placed on conventional story elements and characters to simply be content with coppola’s filmmaking prowess–coppola may be a great director but a third rate writer at best, at least when it comes to original material.  (i haven’t seen the conversation but that can hardly be considered original as it’s essentially a remake of blow-up.)  there are some very good performances in the film, especially from maribel verdu.  imagery and style recall other great films and filmmakers, but there’s no love or joy to be found–tetro instead plays out like the desperate act of an artist out of his time trying to assert himself in a new context that has no room for him and his dated sensibilities.  give me wong kar wai’s buenos aires paean cum aesthetic free-for-all happy together over this any day of the week.