Down to the cathedral

Encounters at the End of the World

Crit

I always forget exactly what it is I love about Werner Herzog's documentaries, or maybe I just can't really articulate exactly what it is. But this reminds me: skewed, occasionally brilliant perspective (screw the penguins, let's look at unicellular monsters); non-sequitur interviews (why don't chimpanzees, as intellectually sophisticated as they are, domesticate goats?); and shots as breathtaking as any you'll see (under the ice, e.g., or inside the volcano). If Werner did not exist (and I'm not altogether convinced he does), we would have to invent him.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

Crit

At last I go down the corridor to the Criterion's two recently opened screens and discover that screening rooms 8 and 9 seat 24 and 30 patrons, respectively, and the projection seems to originate from DVD. Whatever: the seats are big enough to accommodate what our race evolves into in WALL-E, they recline, and they provide airline-style retractable armrests on one side and solid tables (w/ Big Gulp-sized cupholders) on the other. Could be worse.
The film does an admirable job of acknowledging all the easy truths about steroids, then calling bullshit on them. The filmmaker, Chris Bell, is especially interested in the topic, having for the most part resisted the temptation to juice, despite weightlifting and wrestling ambitions, and having seen his brothers juice for years, with significant but hardly careermaking results.
What this is about more than steroids is the hypocrisy of sports governing organizations and U.S. politicians (Joe Biden in particular is caught in a self-pitying rant of steroidal proportions). And while my perception that Barry Bonds is an asshole, that perception was in place long before the question of whether he's a cheating asshole ever came up.

Trailers

• Vicky Cristina Barcelona--Woody Allen's 5 is no longer quite automatic for me, but if he casts Javier Bardem, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, and My Future Wife Patricia Clarkson, then puts the name of one of my favorite cities in the title, I can forget about The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and Cassandra's Dream for a while.