128 - Rubber

    An audience, stationed in the desert, watches as a tire from a junkyard becomes sentient, and attacks as small down, blowing up victim's heads with psychic powers.
    As campy as the summary sounds, this was a really unusual movie.  Reading reviews of the movie is a frustrating experience, because it's a very hard movie to review.  Some people really didn't get it.  Some people are convinced they understood it, but seemed to think that it was lacking in depth.  Some people completely understand it, but that tends to blind us to the weaknesses in there.
    I'm not positive if I completely understand it.  While I'm pretty sure that I understand an overall picture of what the movie was about, I think there were a few sections that I wasn't grasping in the intended way.
    For the most part, the movie is an exploration of how much the audience is willing to suspend disbelief, as well as the relationship between observation, story, the audience, the players… it's a complex mess of ideas.  While I found this approach very enjoyable, and really unpredictable, the movie could still stand to be trimmed a little.  The sequences that intended to give depth to the tire were interesting, but the more they were used, the less interested I became.  I liked little things, like the tire watching Nascar.
    The technical work was remarkable.  I have no sense of exactly how they managed to get the tire to roll in some of the longer shots, particularly at such an even speed.  I can think of one method, but I think it would have shown.  Both the tire, and the movement of the camera feel very smooth, which seems like it would have been very difficult to accomplish.
    I don't know if I could suggest this to many people.  It's really interesting, but it provokes very unusual, and probably unpredictable, reactions.
     I've categorized this as both drama and horror.  I was hesitant to put horror on it, even though there is a fair amount of head-exploding gore.  The dramatic aspects of the movie are much bigger than the horror aspects.

127 - The World's End

    Five friends are called back together to try to complete a pub crawl they attempted in 1990.  As the crawl progresses, their relationships are explored, and a strange conspiracy comes out.
    I saw Shaun of the Dead on the original theatrical release, and I enjoyed it.  I knew I liked it, but I remember being amazed at how little the audience laughed at stuff that was really pretty funny.  When I saw Hot Fuzz in theaters, I didn't care for it quite as much as Shaun, but that was because I didn't have the same action movie background as I do with zombie movies.  Ever since those initial screenings, I came back to the movies on DVD and then on Blu-ray, and they keep getting better.  I appreciate the spectacular direction and editing, the acting, deliveries, timing, and most of all, the tightly wound script.  But not all of that was obvious during the first viewing.
    Because of this, I know that my initial feelings about The World's End are not likely to reflect my feelings later on.
    That being said, this was still very enjoyable, but it wasn't quite up to the same level of brilliance I'm used to.  Part of this could be that Pegg's lead is hard to like.  He's pathetic, and a jerk, but most of that is addressed late in the movie.  The problem is that we've already spent the first half hour disliking him, and the second half hour not minding him.
    The cast is fairly large, but I suppose it's on par with Shaun of the Dead.  This usually tends to make it a bit harder to feel like each character gets an opportunity to develop.
    What actually seemed more surprising about the movie was the direction it turned at the very end.  I knew about most of the plot up through until the last ten minutes, but then I expected the movie to end.  Suddenly, there's another ending.  I suppose they did this in both Shaun and Hot Fuzz, but I've gotten used to those ones.  This second ending is much larger scale, and a bit bleak.
    I have no idea exactly how I'll feel about this one later, but for now, it's a very good movie, but I'll have to see it a few more times to straighten my thoughts out.

126 - Labyrinth

    A girl wishes that her infant brother would be taken away by the Goblin King, and he takes him.  She works her way through a labyrinth in an effort to reach her brother before a deadline results in him being taken permanently.
    A slice of 80s nostalgia that I never saw.  I think I had heard some complaints about it at a young age, and I took those as gospel.  It's a really strange movie, and it's not just the weirdness - it's the shifts in tone, the mix of styles and approach that make this strange.
    David Bowie plays the Goblin King, and even though he's the antagonist, he keeps this movie alive.  There are tons of muppets, and Jennifer Connelly's leading role.  Neither of those things are engrossing.  The muppets capture the imagination for about a minute, but then they actually get really dull.  There are some really fantastic sequences, and some excellent effects work.  In particular, the Escher-based sequence at the end is wonderful.
    Bowie's king is strange, but he brings all his charisma to the picture, and it's hard to ignore him.  He moves in a fascinating way, posing almost non-stop.  There's been a bit written about his crotch in this movie, and I can confirm, it's really strange.  It re-frames the way that the whole story can be interpreted.
    The one sequence that I had a real problem with was the Chilly Down song.  The song is weak, the effects work is terrible, and it goes on way too long without much of a point.
    There's a good chance that this movie would be much better if I saw it when I was younger.  I still have fond memories of Legend, even though it moves really slow when I see it as an adult.

125 - Berberian Sound Studio

    An Englishman is hired to do the sound work for an Italian horror film.
    I wish I had more to say about this movie, but it's a very difficult movie to put into words.
    There isn't much of a story, except that the director, and probably the producer, are far too demanding, and are fairly cruel.  The sound engineer (I think that's his position, although he seems to do occasional foley work, and there's someone else in the studio who has a different sound jobs) feels increasingly isolated, partly because of the language barrier, but also because he's being picked on most of the time.
    It's a fascinating movie, if only because we learn next to nothing about the movie they're recording for.  We hear what scenes are about, and we hear the sound and music for it, but we never see any footage.  We're left to figure things out for ourselves.
    I think there was a lot I didn't understand in this movie, and I'm reluctant to judge it.  The sound is designed for experiencing in a theater, and there's a huge amount of dialogue I couldn't understand.  Not just the stuff in Italian, but even lines in English were often whispered or mumbled.
    It's hard to describe this as falling into a particular genre, either.  There's the sounds of horror, but most of the movie is about a sense of isolation and becoming consumed with your work.

124 - Blue Summer

    Two high school friends drive a van around for a week during the Summer, before heading off to college.  They meet lots of girls, and have a variety of adventures.
    I found this on Netflix, and I wasn't sure what to expect.  But it was made in the 70s, which is one of the last decades I need to work on.  And it's not horror, so that's a start.
    I was amazed to find that this was a 70s soft-core porn flick!  While Netflix listed it as not rated, IMDB lists it as being rated X.  While there are long sex scenes, it's clearly soft-core.
    The music is mostly a band called Sleepy Hollow, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were connected to the director in some way.  The music is remarkably fun for stuff that wasn't "big" music.  The direction was competent, but not remarkable in any way.
    The girls were all modestly attractive, but nothing that stood out.
    There are a few special points I'd like to make about this one.  First, it captures a different era very well.  The guys listen to some pretty campy stuff in their van.  They drink beer, lots of it, and lots of it while driving.  You have no idea how strange that looks now.  The second point is something that a lot of the reviews on IMDB have remarked on.  There's an unexpectedly poignant scene in the middle of this, when one of the guys has sex with a middle-aged lady, who has a son his age.  There's some awkward tension here, and it's interesting to see the movie suddenly give one of the female parts some depth.
    Otherwise, there's a hilarious bit where a guy is going down on some girl, and she reaches for, and takes a drink from a can of beer.

123 - Apocalypse Now

    An army captain is sent on a mission to kill a renegade colonel during the Vietnam War.
    Another classic that I've never seen.  I'm pleased to have seen it, since it is remarkably well shot, and something about it rings very realistic, even as the events seem a little unbelievable.
    The scope of the picture is massive.  Big, wide shots, and lots of people.  And yet, it never feels like everyone is just an extra.
    It's a really dark movie.  I usually distance myself from characters in war movies, but this is a unique case.  I don't identify with anyone, except possibly Sheen's lead, but that's because I think he's aware of the insanity around him.  It's hard to identify with anyone else, since almost everyone in the movie is crazy in some way.
    Brando's Kurtz is almost a red herring.  He gives structure to the movie, but Sheen's confrontation with him seems to be almost irrelevant in the face of the way everything else runs.
    (Not to mention that I've never cared for Brando.)

122 - ATM

    Three co-workers are being stalked by a killer who has trapped them in an ATM lobby.
    A simple premise, and it's not bad.  Usually these stories are pretty good.  They aren't great movies, worthy of many viewings, but they keep the audience entertained and tense through their running time.  This could have been a pretty standard one, but the ending is a bit weak.
    We never learn anything about the villain in this movie, except that he wears a parka, and that he has planned his actions very carefully.
    On the flip side, we learn far too much about the protagonists.  Mostly, that they're really not that bright.  They don't seem to grasp that there's a camera mounted right above the ATM.  They don't come to the obvious conclusion that the killer is avoiding being seen on camera.  (Somehow, this is the big reveal at the end.  Who cares?  It's obvious to anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of how ATMs work!)
    The only other reveal at the end is this bizarre idea that the survivor at the ATM is framed for other people who died.  The problem is… this doesn't make any sense.  Two people were killed outside the ATM.  In both cases, it would be easy to show that this person was inside the ATM the entire time.
    The short version is that this is a movie that could have been a decent thriller, but instead of polishing the script a bit further, they opted to leave it unfinished.

121 - Man of Steel

    The infant Kal-El is sent from his dying homeworld, landing on Earth.  He grows up, learns of his heritage, and is eventually challenged by some remaining members of his homeworld's military force, led by General Zod.
    I've read some really mixed thoughts about this.  Even after seeing it, I feel very conflicted.  There's some nice direction here, and the overall look of the picture is nice.  Superman's appearance and movement is handled well.  He doesn't play the part with the same winking look as the original, and doesn't seem to be as confident,  which is kind of nice.
    The plot is good.  It's a bit more complex that prior Superman movies have been.  Zod is an interesting villain.  They've done a good job of giving him a reasonable point of view, but they've also matched him well to Superman.
    The things that weren't done right are a little more abstract.  There's a large scale fight near the middle of the movie, mostly taking place in the middle of heartland America.  I didn't like this fight.  Somehow, the level of destruction seemed overdone, and kind of wrong for the stakes at that point.  The ending battle, which is really massive, is way, way bigger than I think I've ever seen.  It's kind of… distressing.  Buildings falling all over the place.
    This made me think a little about what kind of destruction I can enjoy.  When I first saw The Avengers, I thought that it seemed like the destruction was kind of limited.  Then when I saw it again, it seemed much bigger.  The more I've watched that, I've realized what makes that destruction work.  We see people in peril, and we see the heroes do what they can to keep people out of danger.  Heroes don't just defeat the villain - they save people.  That's the weakness here.  Superman doesn't really focus on saving strangers.  He saves Lois Lane during the big finish, and during the last moments of his fight, he saves a few anonymous people.
    This kind of complaint is a little off.  One of the ideas that has been difficult for viewers to accept is that this movie is an origin.  Superman is only just discovering what he is, what he can do, and how he should be.  The problem is, it's still unsatisfying.

    I also have one other problem, but it's really weird.  I have issues with seeing Superman hovering.  He just floats, which I would be fine with, but there doesn't seem to be a reason why he can fly.  When he starts off, he tries just doing massive jumps, like the Hulk.  That makes sense.  Once he starts flying, I can't justify how it is that he's doing that.
    (I looked it up on wikipedia.  Somehow, the explanation isn't satisfying.)

    I don't know if I'll revisit this one.  I still enjoy the first two Superman movies, but this one just didn't resonate with me.

120 - Iron Man 3

    Tony Stark deals with his personal issues following the events of The Avengers, as well as a new threat in a mysterious terrorist called The Mandarin.
    At a solid two hours, it's an exhausting movie.  When Downy is on camera, he brings an energy to the dialogue, which really makes every scene a demanding one.  I never thought that Iron Man 2 was a weak movie (though I should probably revisit that one) but I still could say that this one is somewhere between the first and the second.
    The story is good, and it probably balances nicely between being too complicated, and resolving too cleanly.  The characters are built nicely on the foundation of the other movies.  The exception is that Happy Hogan is still not quite there.  He's still played for comic relief.  At least in this one, he does something interesting, but it still doesn't fit into the plot effectively.   
    Stark is an unusual characters, because he's so completely private.  It's hard to say how much of his behavior is an effort to hide, and how much of that behavior is what he honestly is.  The result of a character being so secretive is that the smallest personal scenes become much more fulfilling.  It's the same with the modern Bond movies.  When there's a single quiet moment, and we understand that Bond has certain feelings, it resonates very effectively.
    I don't feel quite as great about the main plot of this movie.  It seems a little unbalanced.  The Mandarin, the attacks, most of that stuff is really strong, and it feels very appropriate for the tone of this movie.  Seeing the characters injected with Extremis seem to be more cartoonish than the rest of the movie.  I suppose this imbalance was in effect with The Avengers as well, so I don't know how much I could complain.

119 - The Accidental Spy

    A salesman winds up falling into a story of drug production and wild chases after he's informed that his unknown father has just died.
    This was a really hard movie to summarize.  In fact, the plot is mostly irrelevant.  The point is to enjoy Jackie Chan's action sequences.
    It's a good one, but like many of his features, the plot tends to get in the way of the fun.
    I can recommend one sequence in particular.  It starts in some kind of massage parlor, and Chan runs the whole thing from there, to a rooftop, to a marketplace, and eventually to some back alleys.
    Chan is at his best when there's a strong pace, lots of humor, and ideally, longer shots.  This was actually the weakest point of this one - there are too many shots that are really fast.  The excellent choreography of Chan's stunt team is one of them strongest things these movies have to offer, and fast edits take a lot of the charm out of them.
     Man, I miss Rumble in the Bronx.  I've been wanting to see that again for awhile now.

118 - The Caller

    A recently divorced lady moves into a small apartment, where she starts getting peculiar phone calls from a previous resident.  The phone calls are actually coming from a point in the past.  As the lady in the past talks to her, it turns out that she's crazy.
    I wasn't as thrilled with this as I watched it, but over the last couple hours, I've had better feelings about it.  There have been a few movies that have dealt with characters speaking to someone from another time by telephone (though I can only think of Frequency for some reason.)  I don't have strong feelings about these.  They always feel like a Twilight Zone ripoff, with some heaping of sentimentality as the characters have some kind of epiphany about their lives.
    This movie takes what could have been some trite exploration of lost youth, and turns it into a fairly difficult situation.  The woman in the past is a bit crazy, and decides to take out some sense of being wronged on the girl in the present.  Since they never meet, and the difference in time makes reporting the woman to be impossible, it becomes an impossible kind of problem.  In the past, she has all the power, and can kill or mutilate at will.
    Despite this interesting angle, the story still progresses slowly.  The limited cast betrays the budget, and the storyline involving her ex-husband is uncomfortable to watch.  It's hard to care about a character that doesn't seem to care about herself.
    One tiny little thing.  There's a scene in a grocery store, which is clearly a Foodtown location.  I'm pretty sure that Foodtown is local only to NJ and NY.  This movie was supposedly filmed entirely in Puerto Rico. 

117 - Phase IV

    Some kind of solar - or cosmic - event has a strange impact on Earth.  It triggers some strange change in the way that some ants behave, turning their actions more intelligent.  A pair of researchers are sent into the desert to investigate.
    I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts together on this one.  It's a peculiar movie, with fairly little dialogue, but lots of photography of ants.  It's fascinating.  It moves slowly, but it plays out like some kind of Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type of story.
    At first, I wasn't sure if this was going to turn into a horror movie, but it's much more firmly a sci-fi picture.  The cast is minimal, with most of the movie just taking place between two characters.  There's a third, and then two secondary characters.
    One thing that is very notable about this movie is that it was directed by Saul Bass.  It's the only movie he directed.  He does have an eye for composition.  Despite being released in 1974, with some fairly cheap effects, they don't get in the way of this story.
    I don't know if I could recommend this to too many people.  It's still interesting, and a bit strange.  I'd probably feel better about the movie if it were trimmed down a little.  Maybe if it were chopped down to about an hour, it would be really great.
    Strangely, I kept thinking of Fantastic Planet as I watched this.  I think it was the synthesizer music.

116 - The Fog

    On the centennial celebration of a small coastal town, the ghosts of people killed by the founders return to exact revenge.
    This was John Carpenter's first feature after Halloween, and I think he was under pressure to repeat his success.  Despite his pressure, it seems like a remarkably different movie than Halloween.  He was trying to distance himself from the slasher image, while still indulging it in.  The pacing on this movie is slow and deliberate, but what's mostly fascinating is his photography.  The camera usually pulls back pretty far, and there is a whole lot of landscape to see.  The colors are fantastic.
    The story is a mixed bag.  To start, the premise is a little cliche.  The deceased returning to take revenge on the children is a little too "golden arm" for me.  But the underlying point, about America being settled by a bunch of evil deeds and murder, is well taken.  There isn't that much development, but it doesn't seem to be needed.
    I can understand why this doesn't have the frantic following that Halloween does.  The villains in this aren't as distinct as Michael Myers was.  This is much more satisfying, artistically, and thus, it feels a little more like it should be the preferred movie as I get older.  Still, my favorite of Carpenter's work is his short, Cigarette Burns.

115 - The Five-Year Engagement

    A couple go through an extended engagement period, which stresses their relationship.
    More than one person had told my wife that this was a great movie, so we watched it.  It also ties more closely into our lives, since we've just moved to Michigan, where my wife will be a grad student.
    I never have high hopes for romantic comedies.  The format tends to lean toward stories that have no greater meaning other than making the audience feel good to see the couple work things out.  This is a peculiar movie in that regard, because it has such mixed messages that it seems more nuanced than romances usually are.
    On the other hand, this movie is completely packed with 'wacky.'  I don't mind wacky too much, but it's a dangerous area to work in.  Some of it can be hilarious, but it usually relies on not developing characters, and keeping them in their wacky traits to the exclusion of building a real character.  The quality of these characters is entirely dependent on how much you like their schtick.  Most of them play out fine, but there are just too many of them.
    Normally, the main characters in romantic comedies are the most boring.  They aren't too wacky, since we want the audience to identify with them.  In this movie, Jason Segel's character transitions to being a wacky character.  This is one of the most pleasing arcs in the movie.
    So, I found myself much more conflicted about this movie.  It's mostly an enjoyable picture.  But it could have been really solidly great.  The mixed messages about commitment, marriage, finding the 'right person' are all interesting, but somehow, there's just too much material here.  For a movie that is about two hours long, it could have been trimmed down, and that may have helped it.
    On a side note, I like Jason Segel.  Since seeing his part in Freaks and Geeks, I've identified with him.

114 - The Omen

    The antichrist is born, and unknowingly adopted by an ambassador.  As the child gets older, a variety of odd and evil occurrences surround him.  The parents get suspicious, and a reporter helps them dig up the truth.
    I saw the remake of this, which came out in 2006.  While that version didn't stick with me, I was amazed at how close it was to the original version.  Some of the same shots, and it seems to follow the exact same structure.
    It's interesting that there doesn't seem to be any critical aversion to covering a song as faithfully as possible, but that when it's done to a film, it's very annoying.

    The music is a strange point for me.  I feel like it's become a very cliche, and almost silly way of selling the idea of Damien being the antichrist.  But the more I think of it, I wonder if my perception has been colored by the references I've seen to it.  The music also seems to spell things out too clearly.  How would a more traditional score have made the movie play out?  What if the music weren't out there, telling the audience that Damien is evil?  What if the audience had to figure out what was happening as the characters figured it out?
    I also read that the original script called for a different ending - in which Damien was stopped.  It's hard to imagine how that would play out.
    This is an interesting piece of horror, but it's hard to say that it's an especially great one.

113 - Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film

    Documentary focusing on specifically American trends in horror movies.
    Not as interesting, nor as in-depth as that horror documentary hosted by Mark Gatiss, but still a bit interesting for the focus on American work.
    When I watch these things, I invariably start thinking about my own relationship to horror.  I don't think I'm unique in this regard either, but I have a very low tolerance for real-life horrible situations.  I don't handle conflict well, and I really feel strongly in favor of preventing crime.  Yet, I find horror movies entirely compelling.  I don't try to live vicariously through them.  Most of the time, I don't wish to prove myself in the same situation.
    I think horror situations bring out both the best and the worst in people, and part of it depends your inclination.  I have a protective bent when I think about these things.  While I wouldn't have much of a desire to fight the enemy, I would be interested in saving others, and getting them to safety.  There's only one exception to this, and that's the zombie scenario.  I would still be interested in helping others, but I think I would be less willing to sacrifice myself to that end.
    This is getting off topic.

    The main idea that this hammered home was the parallel between historical events, how that affected the national consciousness, and how that was reflected in the horror trends.  Most of these are pretty obvious.  Fears of assimilation, fears of atomic-age stuff, movements toward and away from the everyday horrors.
    Actually, this is reminding me of Parents.  I really wish some of these horror resources would give that one some credit.
    Nothing too interesting to see here.  A decent time-filler, but I don't think any of the observations stuck with me.

112 - 7 Below

    A group of people wind up stranded in a spooky house during a huge storm.  Coincidentally, a series of murders took place during a storm 100 years prior.
    After finishing Atrocious, I wanted to watch a modern horror movie that was shot competently.  No reliance on shaky-cam work.  I wanted a thoroughly plotted movie.  7 Below features Val Kilmer on the cover art!  How could it be bad?
    It's derivative, and pretty dull.  Val Kilmer is given top billing for about two days worth of work.  There are some bizarre turns of character, and some really strange things like a character gaining an accent about 3/4 of the way through the movie.
    I wasn't sure if I wanted to say that I didn't understand it.  I think I did, but I'm not positive.
    The one thing that this movie made me think about was the use of storms as a plot device in movies.  I don't mind using it as a way to keep characters stuck inside.  I have some more contempt for the use of storms as an atmospheric tool.  Using lightning to punctuate scenes or reveal someone creeping up actually seems lazy to me.  I don't mind using it as a cliche, as it is in Clue.  Here it seems like an excuse to poorly light everything.
    Utterly forgettable.

111 - Atrocious

    A family goes for a vacation at a country house.  Two of the teens are in the habit of shooting video of everything.  A few weird things happen, they explore the hedge maze outside, and something bad happens.
    As I watched this, I realized that the found-footage genre is a serious problem.  It's a powerful tool, and it can make some incredible productions.  But it also lowered the bar for entry into film production.  The format glosses over so many weak points.  Bad sound?  Bad characters?  No plot?  Not enough revealed?  Poor film quality?  Poor cinematography?  All of it can be excused with this format.
    There are some instances where I've been really impressed at how effective the format is.  The Paranormal Activity movies have done an exceptional job of building a mythos, and overcoming the inherent barriers to found footage.  I really loved some of the work in the first V/H/S movie as well.  This movie just doesn't have enough of a story to warrant a feature-length found footage movie.
    To begin with, there isn't a sense of dread to the story.  It takes until the halfway point before anything creepy happens, and then it's a dog's off-screen death.  This would be a reasonable start, but it should have happened about 15-20 minutes earlier.
    There's a pretty decent location for this movie.  The house is interesting, and the property around it seems like a great place for some creepy goings-on.  Instead, we spend so much time wandering around the maze with a night vision lens on.  The last act is pretty long, and we spend most of that time running around in the dark, with two payoffs.  Then they get back to the house, and the story is able to finish up.
    Which brings me to the problem with the ending.  It's revealed that nothing supernatural has happened.  And I'll spoil the ending - it turns out the mother is nuts, and she killed everyone.  The mother is only shown probably two or three times during the movie.  She never displays any strange behavior.  The twist that she was crazy would be a very nice one, but it only works if there was an adequate setup for the payoff.  Strangely, I think it would have been more effective if it turned out that the younger brother was crazy.

110 - 8 1/2

    A director is intending to start work on a new project.  Surrounded by his business and personal relationships, he isn't is overwhelmed and fantasizes and flashes back on his past, exploring his relationships, and the demands on his life.
    I hardly know what to say.  It's beautifully shot.  The artistic sensibility is unique, and there are some remarkably complex sequences.  And the story is unique.  The personal nature of it isn't lost on me, but it isn't a very accessible movie.
    Strangely, as I watched this, I realized that the movie is mostly an exploration of the demands that are placed on the director, and despite that, I never felt like I got any insight to his feelings.  He comes across as mildly annoyed sometimes, but otherwise seems to be pretty distant.
    The vignettes we see of his life are vague, but it's possible to ascribe meaning to them.  That meaning never feels explicit.  There's one line, close to the end, when the director is told "You know, I understand what you want to say.  You're trying to say you can't do without us."  I suppose that's as clear as the movie gets.  It's about the relationship between an artist's ability to work, and the people who surround him, influencing the work.
    What bothered me was that there wasn't a clear language to the direction.  It wasn't clear when we saw a flashback, or a fantasy.  We had to figure that out for ourselves.  I found myself confused through most of it, and wondering if the logic of the picture would be clearer if I spoke Italian.
    It's a very personal movie.  And it's very influential, both in content and in the direction.  In particular, I noticed several sequences that reminded me a lot of Boogie Nights, where the main character is walking around, and speaks with several people in sequence.  Lots of people moving in and out of frame, and the camera dancing around them.  Remarkable blocking, but the difficulty with following a narrative was a real problem.