the last two weeks in film

at some point i watched a league of ordinary gentlemen with the potts’. it’s a documentary about the professional bowling association and the changes it has gone through in the last couple of years since it was bought by some ex-microsoft employees and given a new image. it follows a few of the better players through some of the season. they discuss bowling, its history, the changes, etc. i thought it was pretty interesting, although it’s one of those documentaries where it feels like they’re making fun of the subject matter (due to editing) as much as they are documenting it. earlier last week i watched the extras on the dvd by myself before returning it to netflix.
earlier last week i watched bubble. it’s a story of a few people in a small town that work at a doll factory. all unknown actors from the area it was filmed in were used to make the film. it was also done with digital. it runs short, and i didn’t think it was a real strong movie. from watching the extras, i know they basically let the actors use their real lives and experiences in scenes, with just a basic framework and direction for the plot. it’s all an interesting idea, and some aspects of it are good, but overall i came away somewhat ambivalent about the movie as a whole.
also earlier last week i watched samaritan girl. it’s a korean film about two girls who become prostitute and manager in order to save money for a trip to europe. the one prostituting ends up dieing and the other has a hard time dealing with it. her way of coping with the situation drives a wedge between the relationship between her and her father (her mother is dead), and eventually the father finds it impossible to deal with things. while some of the plot seemed kind of unrealistic, i thought the last half of the film was pretty strong and i really liked the way it ended.
saturday night i watched cool hand luke. i’d actually never seen it before. while it’s a somewhat slow paced film, and some of the acting and dialogue is kind of hokey, overall it’s a pretty cool movie. obviously there are things from it that have entered collective culture. what i was kind of surprised by was some of the religious symbolism in the film. i’m not really sure what the implication was, but i can kind of see what some of it might be. anyway, i thought the concept for the character and the way things work out was an interesting take for hollywood. i don’t watch many films from the late 60’s though, so maybe this was a lot more common during that era of film. the car washing scene, while somewhat hokey…or maybe not merely somewhat…was still pretty nice visually. but in the end, i can see how a lot of disenfranchised people could find themselves identifying with the main character, and wishing they could handle life and adversity as well as he does in the film.