movie review: the matrix reloaded. i give it two stars and one of those stars is for prettiness and one of those stars is for kung fu in leather. worst line: i just love you too damn much. worst moment: the matrix vagina shot. second worst moment: when neo fights fifty smiths and since it's a technically impossible scene, our beloved filmmakers decided to go CGI, catapulting us (the viewers) into a video game. Made me ache for some LOTR graphics. i feel compelled to say, trinity still has the finest ass i've ever seen on a woman. wish i could say the same for keanu. plot was kinda muddled (gli wachowskis didn't privelage clarity so much in this movie -- keep them just confused enough, they say, and they'll never stop to wonder whether or not this is smart or just cloudy). **

another movie review: red heart, white dust. with a name like that, it must be foreign. director: maurizzio lignano (just breaking into the scene). i give it three stars, one for loveliness, one for script, one for acting. no kung fu in leather though, so i can't give it four. best line: love is the movement towards perfection. worst line (which immediately followed the other in dialogue, which was so funny i hesitate to say it was the worst): the heart is an egg. best moment: dark haired woman in a white dress giving birth on the side of a small street-- with the stillest face. all you see is the white dress become red, her head thrown back and her black hair stuck with sweat to her face and neck. instead of having the sweet maternal postpartum moment, the camera just lets you see the top of the baby's dark head peeking out through the skirt. she just lays there. it's really amazing. the worst moment: i thought the camera was silly and self-concious about filming windows. everything was seen through a window or shot in front of a window. i understand it's thematic relevance (the transparent boundry, the voyeuristic impulse of the medium, etc. etc.) but it was a bit heavy handed for me. somehow it doesn't seem fair to me that european film makers tend to inherently have a more compelling natural environment (the claustraphobic architecture juxtaposed with these vast fields and the like). u.s. indi films are so often set in new york -- it's like they can't find anywhere else visually interesting enough to house their stories. which i'm pretty convinced is just slack on their parts. anyway, ***. that's my review.