Week in Review #1

I'm gonna watch a movie a day except Sundays and read a book a week. I am then gonna review all of it on here.
Book:

Breakfast of Champions By Kurt Vonnegut
The book was interesting, but I was never stirred up emotionally. This book however is beyond criticism since it realizes this in the book itself. Kurt Vonnegut wrote himself in the book and talked about books that explain everything are stupid. This book describes everything about everyone in it from past to their measurements. It was pretty entertaining and better than Cat's Cradle, but definately worse than Slaughterhouse-five.
*** out of ****
Movies:
I'm gonna rank the ones from best to worst of this week.
1. Landscape in the Mist

I love these types of movies that seemed grounded in realism, but have surreal events and images that occur in them. One particular scene deals with a hand coming out of the water which was eerie yet brilliant. It reminded me of La Dolce Vita when the helicopter took it away. It was the longest movie I saw this week, but seemed to go by fast. This was my first film by Theo Angelopoulos and I hope to see more by him.
**** out of ****
2. Kanal

Andrjez Wajda directed one of my favorite films, Ashes and Diamonds. This film is considered one of his masterpieces and some prefer this to Ashes and Diamonds. I prefer Ashes and Diamonds still, but I can easily understand people's preferences. This is one of the grimmest depictions of war I've ever seen which seems rather odd with the lack of violence compared to modern films. It showed war as dehumanizing and degrading. A group of resistance fighters have to take to the sewers or they die. They all die anyways which makes it even worse. It was amazing.
**** out of ****
3. The Virgin Suicides

Sofia Coppola is one of my favorite modern directors just because of Lost in Translation. Some thought it was boring, but I loved the style and atmoshphere the film had. I expected more out of this film, but I wasn't too disappointed. The style and atmosphere was almost as enjoyable, but from the previews and pictures, I was just expecting more. The soundtrack was pretty bitching. It was really good and I was glad I bought it.
**** out of ****
4. Punch-Drunk Love

Paul Thomas Anderson failed me on this one. He seemed more interested in his style than actually presenting a story. There was some scenes I cracked a smile, but I think this just went over my head. I'll probably rewatch in a couple of weeks because a reviewer at DVDEmpire said he didn't like it the first time so I'll give it another try later. For now its....
** out of ****
5?. Mirror

This film is directed by Andrei Tarkovsky who directed Andrei Rublev. This film just seemed way too difficult for me. It didn't seem indulgent just too difficult. It was a new type of cinematic language that I have never seen before. There is a plot somewhat built off of his memories and so on. I definately need to rewatch it.
**? out of ****