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Reviews
Matador (1986)
Almodovar Parades his Infantilism
Of the dozen-or-so Almodovar films I've seen, Matador is the least satisfying and most disturbing. "Disturbing," not as in provocative, but in revealing the director's infantile obsession with Eros and Thanatos--eroticism and death. It's treated merely as something to drag the viewer through, like Mike Leigh or Peter Greenaway would do...or Leos Carax at his most insouciant. Gratuitousness masquerading as something substantive. Stay away, unless you want to ponder the alchemical potentiality of mixing blood and semen. Ugh! Now, that is not to say that there aren't some good performances. But, I'll take Bunuel or Emil Jannings honestly examining how the 'release' and 'rupture in consciousness' in sexual arousal/fulfillment and violent passion are similar and how the confuse us--and the camera. Try Antonioni's "Desert Rose" or Val Lewton.
The Killing Fields (1984)
Great Movie, flawed by didactic elements
The Killing Fields has endured as an excellent film about post-colonial wars in Southeast Asia. The cinematography, acting and music are all superb, as is the script. However, it is at points over-the-top (as was the journalism of its main character, NY Times correspondent Syndey Schanberg) in blaming the U.S. for the civil war and the inhumanity of the Khmer Rouge. How many times and ways can you blow up Coca Cola? I'm nearly convinced that they actually paid for product placement--the poison-beverage showed up so often in the movie as a metaphor for American materialism, decadence, soft imperialism, corruption, etc. Vending machines, bottle distribution facilities, restaurant signs...Coke is always being spilled--almost as much as blood. (For the most blatant placement of Coke products--nay, a two-hour commercial for the product--see, no, don't see!, "Strictly Ballroom"). Additionally, the Schanberg/Waterson character's self-righteousness and persistent blaming of US policy ("Maybe we didn't realize that so-much tonnage of bombs and billions of dollars spent on it's military could unleash such insanity" or some garbage like that). Still, a very powerful film.