Andrew POE!
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Posts posted by Andrew POE!
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Movies today....had it ready to go and then just fell asleep.
Mallrats (Peacock, leaving on 4/30) - 2/5 stars
SpoilerHaving seen Clerks years ago, I thoroughly enjoyed that movie and had loved what Kevin Smith as a director did with that movie.
With Mallrats, he tries to do something with a larger budget but it just doesn't work as well. The movie is setup similarly to Fast Times At Ridgemont High but just drags.
None of the characters are even remotely interesting and it's hard to consider either Brodie (Jason Lee) or T.S. (Jeremy London) that likeable or relatable since both characters never achieve a comeuppance, especially T.S. There's a 'pep talk' from Stan Lee to Brodie but it seemed a bit tonally out of place and almost there for convenience rather than an actual character arc.
"Bros will be bros" type of humor seems indicative of the 1990s in general. The running gag with Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) busting through the wall of changing rooms where Gwen (Joey Lauren Adams) is changing becomes a bit old after awhile as is the Magic Eye puzzle with Willam (Ethan Suplee). Some of the aspects are funny but not nearly as humorous as it should be. The comic book references are cute given the characters.
The conclusion of the movie came together way too easily; it's almost as if there were no one telling Kevin Smith 'no' on anything he did or how to write better characters.
Cinematography has a "Made for TV movie" look to it and seems very much like a low budget effort without much in the way of pizzazz or anything interesting. Everything has a drab look to it; I did like the hallway scene with Brodie and Shannon (Bill Affleck) and how that was shot. But beyond that, it was a slog to watch this.
Oh and "snootchie bootchie" is an annoying catchphrase.
The only thing that redeemed it were Claire Forlani, Shannen Doherty, and Joey Lauren Adams being game to participate.
Something Wild (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 4.5/5 stars
SpoilerSomething Wild taps into the same seediness as Blue Velvet; it also taps into Godard's Breathless. Two people on the opposite ends of life drawn into a mutual attraction. The difference being between Breathless and Something Wild is we don't see the crime that Lulu (Melanie Griffith) committed at the start of the movie - well, other than Charlie (Jeff Daniels) not paying a restaurant bill.
As the movie progresses during the first hour or so, Lulu nee Audrey has something that Charlie's life lacks: a sense of adventure and spontaneity. Charlie's life at the start of the movie is locked into working on Wall Street and into being a stock broker with an impending divorce. We as an audience never see his children directly in other than pictures of them shown. The only 'wild' aspect to his life is his ability to lie and his inability to pay restaurant bills.
Lulu at the start of the movie is as much of a mystery to the audience as she is to Charlie. Like Isabella Rosselini's character in Blue Velvet, Lulu draws Charlie into S&M sexual passion between the two. She has Charlie meet her mother and claiming they are married; Audrey's mother figure out that it isn't the case but doesn't tell her.
Audrey and Charlie go to Audrey's high school reunion and there's something real and palpable about Audrey doing this and continuing the lie with Charlie playing along. For a lot of people after high school, they still didn't have it together. Audrey demonstrates this regret while Charlie regrets being divorced and seeing this as a new opportunity. The two meet Ray (Ray Liotta) at the reunion and the movie takes a drastic turn.
Tone wise, the journey of self-discovery for Charlie and Audrey shifts into a noir-like chase as Charlie tracks after Audrey and Ray. It somewhat reminded me of the later Under The Silver Lake as Andrew Garfield's character has a sense of paranoia as he is tracking after something related to a girl's disappearance. Here, Charlie changes out of his suit and tie and wears clothes he bought at a convenience store.
Charlie and Audrey get away and leave Ray behind in a restaurant. Ray tracks down to Charlie's house and Charlie kills Ray. The movie ends as it started back in New York City and back with Charlie leaving a restaurant.
For me, I liked what Jonathan Demme did with Something Wild. The movie is a love story but it's also a journey of discovery and a noir movie. Although the tone aspects weren't quite congruent, the movie is shot extremely well and I loved how Demme used locations in the movie. I loved one shot as Jeff Daniels staggers back to a convertible at the high school reunion with the banner torn down on the side leaving "Revisited" up.
Something Wild is Something Else as a movie.
Act of Valor (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 2/5 stars
SpoilerSurprisingly has better characters than Ray Mendoza's other movie Warfare. No, the acting isn't going to be that good or that memorable. Yes, it's a very jingoistic piece of American chest thumping about the US military - it is rather propagandist at times. Yes, the antagonists are tropes of Muslim and other ethnic cultures and the movie completely ignores their culture while Americans are nameless, faceless men that wear gear and shoot guns. But this isn't a movie made by John Ford but it has a similar spirit to his war movies.
What was depicted may not have any basis in reality and if it were to happen, it would have happened already.
Still, I liked the relationship between Rorke James Engel (Rorke Denver) and Dave Nolan (Dave Hansen). Their line readings were a bit flat but their relationship is surprisingly not a toxic masculine relationship between two men. The characterization of Rorke's character being a lover of art and poetry is a bit refreshing and somewhat shows that all not military characters mindlessly engage in service without a degree of reflection.
The conversation between Christo (Alex Veadov) and the member of the US military went from friendly to aggressive in no time flat though.
The highlight for the movie is the cinematography. The camera being used Canon EOS 5D Mark II gave tremendous shots and there were quite a few I liked - the wide angle shot of US and Mexican forces meeting up, the overhead shots during the rescue towards the start of the movie, and some of the shots in the Mexican town were great too.
Act of Valor isn't a good movie acting wise, but is okay cinematography wise.
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17 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:
How many Cronenberg movies have you seen so far? This sounds like recommendation time...
I saw eXistenZ in college and A History of Violence sometime after college. I know, I need to drown myself in his work lol
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Movies today....
Valhalla Rising (Mubi, leaving on 5/3) - 1/5 star
SpoilerFrom watching Valhalla Rising, I can't tell if Nicolas Winding Refn is a good director that's actually bad or a bad director that's actually good. I can't tell if he's like Uwe Boll with a great DP or Tommy Wiseau with actual actors. Drive is a classic of form and function, Bronson is carried by Tom Hardy (and his being naked the entire time if you're into that sort of thing). Valhalla Rising seemingly has nothing happening. The first 30 minutes or so is riveting due to the lack of dialogue and just functions purely on visual storytelling.
It's just when people start talking that the movie starts to lose it. Listen to riveting dialogue like "That's a river" and "I'll show them what a man of God looks like."
The whole emphasis on the movie is on One Eyed (fellow Death Stranding alumni Mads Mikkelsen). Who is he? Where did he come from? Why was he captured in the first place? How did he lose sight of one of his eyes? The movie doesn't really answer any of these questions. There's scenes in which it appears to show his 'past' (or maybe it's a nightmare? I don't know).
What makes the movie compelling are the incredible shots achieved and the Mogwai-like soundtrack. The cinematography broaches Malick and Tarkovsky although so much of the movie just feels like a Calvin Klein ad or a fragrance commercial. It tries to derive a meaning where there's so little to do so. At least Malick and Tarkovsky have more functional movies. Refn just wants to be them.
I can't wait for Death Stranding 2 though and see Refn in that.
The Shrouds (saw in the theater) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerHaving not been as familiar with Cronenberg as I should be (but thoroughly enjoyed the Cronenberg inspired The Substance), The Shrouds seems to be somewhat more subdued versus its inspiration.
Vincent Cassel plays Karsh is an obvious Cronenberg stand-in albeit more rich. He drives a Tesla and owns the technology behind “spying on your relative in the grave” tech of The Shrouds.
What went through my mind was who exactly was involved with the desecration of the graves on his site. At first, I thought it was the woman Karsh went on a date with (a sophisticated “catfish” if you will), then the thought went to Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt)’s husband due to a sense of anger towards Karsh but that wasn’t the case either.
Much of the movie isn’t about who desecrated the graves but what it means for Karsh while he’s alive and his wife is dead. For someone obsessed with death and what it means after death has occurred to a body, Karsh is a bit cut off. He never really have a cathartic moment, but rather puts everyone at ill ease to express his emotions (see the reaction to seeing the graves for the first time from his date and her acting like she was about to vomit). Karsh starts the movie screaming while looking at his wife and is told "your teeth are rotting due to grief." He later undresses and dons the shrouds himself and has a FaceTime call with a protestor in Iceland who claims the shrouds contain an increased level of radioactivity.
I loved the scenes where Karsh discusses the three theories about what happened with Terry (Diane Kruger). I wondered if Karsh did hire a hitman and lied about it not being true. The scenes with Maury (Guy Pearce) recounting who is after him and what they did to his hand had me wondering if he were telling the truth; the next scene, Terry says that he's a schizophrenic and he's lying. What the truth and what the lie is unknown.
The ending was a bit of a letdown and had me wondering if it were a dream and not a reality. Again, it goes back to the truth and the lie. Of course, was Soo-Min affected by cancer due to her involvement with Karsh since she had the same thing that happened to Rebecca (Diana Kruger) that happened to her.
The cinematography with The Shrouds is incredible and everything has a damp wetness to it after a rainstorm. Toronto looks stylish, rich, and exclusive in its isolation.
The Shrouds is really a great way to introduce to David Cronenberg and I’ll dive into the rest of his work soon.
The Accountant 2 (saw in the theaters) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerThe Accountant 2 isn't as good as The Accountant. A lot of the fun of The Accountant was Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) figuring out the mystery around the same time as the audience in terms of what was going on and how everything tied together. It made me feel as smart as Affleck's character to notice the details and how the details worked.
With The Accountant 2, there is less of focusing on how Christian Wolff thinks and more on his brother Brax (Jon Bernthal) picking on him for Wolff being neurodivergent and Brax refusing to understand how Wolff thinks. Even if I don't understand Christian Wolff and why his thought process would lead him to stick with Brax, it's as manipulative as Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman and their characters were in Rain Man. Except this time, Raymond is firing high powered assault rifles in Mexico. If they wanted to have a better story, Brax meeting Wolff on his terms and accepting him for who he is rather than trying to 'fix' Wolff for something he can't control and is wired differently than almost everyone else in the movie.
The other aspect that isn't as good with The Accountant 2 is they are straining to be like John Wick. Harbour Neuroscience Center is turned into The Continental but for the neurodivergent. I did love the scenes that were Red Rooms-like where the center hacked into a woman's computer to find a picture of the person who met with Ray King (J.K. Simmons) at the start of the movie. Although it was a bit 'gimmicky' and bit of 'let the smartest people in the room do this' while Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) wants no part of it. (She must have not seen the movie Snowden).
I had to snort derisively when one of the characters was part of a family that came from El Salvador to escape MS-13. Nowadays, they would get found and sent back to El Salvador from the current administration because why care about them as human beings? The Accountant 2 at that point is definitely fiction.
The other great scenes were Christian line dancing to the same song from American Honey with and getting a number from Angie (Dominique Domingo). (I kept waiting on Wolff to say to his brother "Do you like apples?" "Yeah." "I got a girl's number, how do you like them apples?" in a 'wink wink, nudge nudge' to his being in Good Will Hunting, but oh well). The freeze frame at the end of the scene was magnificent.
Still, The Accountant 2 isn't anything new but it is exciting and a decent action flick if you ignore it straying from the original premise and being obvious sequel bait.
Annie Hall (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerEvery guy has an Annie Hall in their relationship history.
Back in 2012, a friend of mine was involved with a woman who he realized later wasn't really his type. At the time, they would see each other every weekend and go out to dinner. One night, they go to a bar and she got a few drinks in her and she completely changed. She tried to get him to feel up her legs and he realized something really icky - she didn't shave her legs and they were hairy. They had a mutual attraction towards each other, but his was getting less and less by the time the night ended.
The next day, she breaks up with him on Skype.
The point is, Annie Hall is not so much about Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) as it is about Alvin Singer (Woody Allen). The movie starts with Singer talking to the camera about his issues in his life, including turning 40. Annie Hall isn't introduced until about 30 minutes into the movie and even then it's almost as an accident.
The scene after meeting for the first time is rather interesting; Annie Hall is almost as awkward and self-conscious as Singer is. I found the choice of having Annie Hall wearing menswear to be interesting too - it's said that Woody Allen doesn't know how to write for the female voice. Oftentimes, the female character (especially Annie Hall) is an extension of himself that they serve as obstacle to overcome rather than an actual person in a relationship. So it doesn't seem uncommon to see a female character to wear a necktie and misbuttoned sweater while going away from playing tennis.
This aspect of the male character choosing for the female character extends to what Annie Hall does. She gets told to read some books about death, do singing in a nightclub, and take courses at a college. She vocalizes her issues with that but gets shot down.
Immediately after meeting for the first time, Singer and Hall stand in line to watch Ingmar Bergman's Face To Face (which I need to see) while a person behind them has the male character talk about Fellini being self-indulgent as a director. Singer then addresses the camera where the person behind them informs him he teaches at Columbia about the television media only for Allen/Singer to grab the person quoted and have him wonder how he got to teach anything.
During that scene I referenced, neither Annie Hall nor the guy's date says anything to the camera. All we see is what Allen chooses to share with us.
The fact is, the character addressing the audience, seems to be exclusively of the main character Alvin Singer rather than other characters or rather than Annie Hall. I wonder how the movie would go if Annie Hall also addressed the camera and said, "well, the real story goes..." For a movie called Annie Hall, we never hear anything from her.
Most of the movie's structure consists of a largely linear progression through Singer and Hall's relationship. Towards the end of the movie, Hall seems to adopt behaviors Singer has after returning from California and breaking up with him before going back to California. We never hear from Hall's perspective, only from Singer's perspective. Yet, compared to the previous scenes and to the great detail presented, what happened to Hall is described by Singer rather curtly.
The thing that's impressive about Annie Hall is how scenes are constructed and how shots are done in this movie. From watching it, I wondered, "If I were making a movie that's somewhat autobiographical, would this be how I would do it?" A lot of aspects are rather funny and it's amazing to see the number of cameo scenes from people that would later become stars (like Christopher Walken, Sigourney Weaver, and Jeff Goldblum.
For the most part, Annie Hall is really great.
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Movies today....
American Honey (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 4.5/5 stars
SpoilerFor a director that mostly delves into poverty and despair in the United Kingdom, Andrea Arnold seems particularly adept at turning her eyes to America in American Honey.
The movie's structure is of a road trip; Star (Sasha Lane) joins up with a group of young teenagers that she follows into a Kmart. Her and Jake (Shia LaBeouf) make eyes and literally "find love in a hopeless place" with each other (and to quote the song blasting in Kmart during the scene). Jake works for Krystal (Riley Keough) who is like Blake from Glengarry Glen Ross but attractive and gorgeous and equally as evil and manipulative. Krystal gives Star money and expects to be paid back.
What's interesting is these group of teenagers have aspirations of making money for the sake of it, while singing along with E-40's "Choices (Nope)" and repeating a mantra at Krystal's urging about "I got money." Yet none of them really get money when Krystal takes a large portion of it. It's entirely hopeless and hedonistic; Star, Jake and others peddle magazine subscriptions at various places as they drive around various states. They find solace in rap and hip hop, as if they as mostly white teenagers could understand that type of music. They drop the “n-word” without realizing that was not for them to do so. I found it surprising that law enforcement never got involved to stop what they were doing with their scam or one of the former people (like the three guys from Texas) never tracked them down either.
The magazine selling scheme truly shows how hopeless it is for teenagers or those in college to make it in America today. In earlier times, they were able to work at a factory or in manufacturing to make a livelihood. When that dried up and was sent overseas, it became retail. And when that dried up, what is left? It's a Ponzi scheme that doesn't benefit them or give them food; they are really no different than Star was at the start of the movie with dumpster diving for food. Except they smoke weed, drink, jump over a bonfire, and stay at hotels out of The Florida Project.
What I loved was the musical choices seem to illustrate the characters at a particular moment. Like mentioned, E-40's "Choices (Nope)" shows the characters in a party environment before Krystal lectures them about making money. Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" shows Star and Jake riding away from the Texas men with their car, in perpetual bliss. Lady A's "American Honey" had the group singing along with the lyrics, reminiscent of the sing-along to “Tiny Dancer” from Almost Famous.
The drawback with American Honey is some of the story treads and acting isn't quite as strong as it needed to be. The movie's structure is almost too loose. But the technical aspects including the cinematography, direction, and editing override that so it's not that hard to watch a movie like this.
The ending has the teenagers at a bonfire when Jake gives Star a turtle. Throughout the movie, Jake always talks about giving Star a "gift." Star takes a necklace and gives it to someone else. Star takes the turtle and gives it to the lake. It's easy to see the turtle as Jake wanting he and Star to have a future, but there's a sense of finality to it. Jake purposely pulls Star away from the group as they go around the fire and seems to communicate in that to separate and exclude her. Star, sensing that, lets go of the turtle then swims into the lake and goes underwater. Star rises out of the water and it's silent - no music, no voices, or no sound except for nature.
NOTE: This is my 2,000th movie watched since last year.
American Honey is a great work from Andrea Arnold and takes a bit to get used to, but is worth it.
A Most Wanted Man (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerA Most Wanted Man seems to move a bit slower compared to other spy thrillers; unlike other John Le Carre novels turned into movies, the main character isn't part of MI6 or dealing with the Cold War. Instead, the main character Gunther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is part of a German anti-terrorism unit.
Bachmann, at least in Hoffman's hands, resembles a bit of Orson Welles' lead character in The Third Man as well as Gene Hackman in The Conversation. Bachmann isn't trusting of the United States much less his own German government. He finds out about and tracks down a Chechnyan Muslim named Issa Karpov (Grigoriy Dobrygin) who quite literally swims into Hamburg at the start of the movie. At the same time, Bachmann is tracking a financier named Dr. Faisal Abdullah (Homayoun Ershadi), who is suspected of financing terrorism.
As the movie progresses, others become involved in Bachmann's operation like Annabel Richter (Rachel McAdams), who helps Karpov obtain asylum, and Tommy Brue (Willem Dafoe), whose father's bank financed the Russia military at one point. Each of the characters involved with the operation are compromised and have no choice but to participate as they set up the recording of Dr. Abdullah directing some of the money to a shipping firm suspected to be involved in terrorism.
These careful laid plans makes what happened in the end a bit of a shock. Bachmann had met with Dieter Mohr (Rainer Bock) and CIA's Martha Sullivan (Robin Wright) and had assurances from them that nothing would happen to Dr. Abdullah or Karpov. Instead, they are captured. As Bachrmann noted during the meeting, "if you take out [Dr. Abdullah], who'll take his place? Who knows because you'll have created a void." It seems in this case, taking out suspected financiers of terrorism and a suspected terrorist is more important than actually having them in their backpockets.
Anton Corbijn's reputation as a director is he was a photographer before he became a director. That aspect shows in Benoit Delhomme's cinematography. Every scene is well lit and well shot and contributes to an elevated sense of tension. The drawback is A Most Wanted Man is not the most interesting movie to watch. It's just merely adequate, even though Hoffman, Defoe and McAdams did tremendous work in their characters, with Hoffman proving capable. It's sad that this movie was Hoffman's last role while he was alive. I imagine he would have became more willing to participate in spy thrillers after this.
Even then, A Most Wanted Man is wanted for a lot of things and wanted less for others.
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Movies today. Finally done with the move.
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerWith movies, it can't be helped but for them to make a political statement in some form or fashion. Some are more overt and some are less so. At the time, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was released, the United States (and the world really) was in the midst of the Iraq War where a President was toppled a government in the false pretension of a country leader having weapons of mass destruction. Seeing it again but 20 years later, the United States has their own Chancellor Palpatine in the White House (except far more stupid and equally as old). The people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 elections are rooting for the Galactic Empire when they show up dressed as Obi Wan Kenobi or Padme in the movie theater, full stop.
With watching this movie 20 years later, some aspects haven't aged as well as they should. The "green screen" acting took me out of the game for any emotional investment every time - it's crazy how CGI has advanced that much since this movie was in theaters. A lot of the scenes - barring the truly excellent opening scene with a tracking shot and then the eventual landing inside the battlecruiser - seem to consist of "actor stands or sits, says their lines, cuts to the other actor standing or sitting, then saying their lines." While various CGI is swirling past them and robbing the movie of the emotion involved.
George Lucas as a director is one of the best action movie directors ever. Revenge of the Sith is proof of this. It's not hard to be involved in how the action occurs on screen, even if you know where the story is going. Even when seeing this 20 years earlier, the conclusion is going to be Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) becomes Darth Vader. It's just "how" he is going to become Darth Vader.
The problem then becomes the dialogue for this movie is flat and seems clinical, likely due to the 'green screen.' Some actors involved like Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine is able to work in subtlety as he convinces Anakin to become a Sith and turn to the dark side of the Force (it's not just the famous "do you recall the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise" scenes but the scene where Anakin kills Count Dooku and immediately regrets it). The rest including Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, Christensen, and Natalie Portman sound too detached in their acting and this movie isn't their best work.
Then the scene transitions and editing looked like something out of "My First Time Editing A Movie" seminar. Look, it's four bar wipes! Then nine circle wipes! Let's have a giant ship come into view as it cuts from Palpatine's head! I wonder what else this editing program does? It's a bit embarassing to watch, even given a director like George Lucas.
In some ways, the first hour or so of ROTS is the best part as Anakin and Obi Wan rescue Palpatine and escape from the ship as General Grevious escapes. A lot of political intrigue is played up as the Jedi Council wonders whether to trust Anakin and asking him to spy on Palpatine. The plotting for the first hour is excellent. It's just after Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) is thrown outside that the movie begins to speed through the plot points. Order 66 happens and it's a significant event in the movie - yet it's sped through in a montage with Obi Wan and Yoda (Frank Oz) able to escape.
Despite acting and plot issues, Revenge of the Sith is truly a spectacle to see in the theater.
Moonstruck (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerMoonstruck in a lot of ways is an earlier echo of Joan Micklin Silver's Crossing Delancey. There are a lot of differences between the two - Loretta (Cher) has her life done by the book and with her in control like Amy Sherman's character Isabelle. Loretta is confident in herself and teaches her beau Johnny (Danny Aiello) how to propose marriage. ("You have to use a ring." "My pinky ring? This is my favorite ring."). Johnny is completely hen-pecked and strung along - his relationship with Loretta has her mothering him and he's fine with it. He leaves to visit his actual mother who is dying in Italy....while Loretta watches his plane leave, a woman tells her she 'cursed' the plane due to her sister.
Like Isabelle encountering Sam, Loretta encounters Ronny (Nicholas Cage) through another's action (instead of a matchmaking grandmother, it's her own fiancee). Ronny hangs up on her and Loretta makes it a point to visit him at work. Ronny is completely beside himself to explain what happened to his hand and how he blames Johnny for the accident.
The relationship between men and women are brought up a lot throughout the movie. The man being a wolf is an image within the movie - Loretta sees this with the couple that runs the liquor store ("You're looking at him like a wolf," the wife says). Loretta describes Ronny as a wolf as well. "You got ensnared and like a wolf you bite off your own hand to free yourself." Men in this movie are animals (one of the first things Loretta says about Ronny is "he's an animal"). Ronny in a lot of ways is like a werewolf with his hair being general unkempt until he goes to the opera. Loretta's mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis) asks several men like Perry (John Mahoney) and Johnny "Why do men chase women?" The answer varies - Johnny surmises it's 'the fear of death' and Perry it's to be in the pursuit essentially.
One of the prevailing lines in the movie is in a monologue from Nicholas Cage: "We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die." With Moonstruck, several sets of characters experience "loving the wrong people." Loretta loves Ronny even though they both shouldn't and they have an overwhelming and mutual attraction to each other. Loretta's dad Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) loves his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette). Rose loves Perry, who definitely loved the wrong person with trying to date one of his students. It's only in the end does "loving the wrong people" lead to a good outcome; Johnny calls off the engagement because his mother recovered.
While Crossing Delancey is wrapped up in its Jewish heritage and identity, Moonstruck is wrapped up in its Italian heritage and identity. The characters in Moonstruck are very New York City, very working class. Cosmo is a plumber. Loretta works as a book-keeper for a funeral home. Ronny works for a bakery. Johnny also works at a bakery. The other aspect is the focus on La Boheme and Italian opera; like an opera, the movie's story is on the loves of its characters and the somewhat comical way they are separated.
Watching this movie, the cinematography is great with a lot of great shots of New York City. Seeing the Twin Towers at the start of the movie is somewhat sad, given they are gone. Although they are gone, with Moonstruck, love and marriage remains.
And like a fella once said, ain't that a kick in the head.
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8 hours ago, odessasteps said:
Douglas Sirk gonna Douglas Sirk.
I saw the original John Stahl 1934 version, not the later Douglas Sirk version.
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Only one movie today. Moving isn't fun.
Imitation of Life (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerImitation of Life and its premise is an imitation of progress.
Within the United States, there are two famous products that had to change their 'mascots' of real actual people to something non-specific. Aunt Jemima is based on former slave Nancy Green, who didn't create the pancake recipe but is depicted as the image synonymous with Aunt Jemima. The other is Uncle Ben's Rice, which took it's likeness from a maitre d'hotel named Frank Brown.
In Imitation of Life, Delilah (Louise Beavers) goes to the wrong address and meets Beatrice Pullman (Claudette Colbert). Due to Beatrice's hectic life as a widow and caring for her daughter Jessie (Juanita Quigley), Delilah decides to help out as a housekeeper and wants to bring her daughter Peola (Sebie Hendricks).
While living there, Delilah is quite proficient at making pancakes using a secret recipe that she shares with Beatrice. Beatrice decides that the best thing to do with such a secret is to make money off of it. After all, it is the American Way.
With Imitation of Life, Delilah and Beatrice have a friendship that can be mistrued as being 'progressive,' especially given the time the movie was made. Having a white woman and a black woman become friends in the 1930s (and on screen no less!) seems a lot more advanced than it is thought to be. But in a lot of ways, Beatrice took advantage of Delilah and took it for free. Beatrice meets with various business owners to open a spot to sell pancakes without really having the money to do so. It's entirely on credit and on the promise to pay with Beatrice haggling her way to do this. Delilah sadly isn't able to get away with as much and if anything she is a 'meal ticket' for Beatrice.
If Imitation of Life were done later and done today, the 'chickens would come home to roost' between Beatrice and Delilah. In a post-Sinners world, the contributions of an African American woman leading to a Causasian woman to become rich would naturally have a showdown over Delilah feeling she is owed more than enough in Beatrice's business empire. It's her likeness and her recipe. Several times, we see a flashing neon image of Delilah smiling as she flips pancakes along with the number of boxes sold.
Then we get to Fredi Washington as Peola, age 19. Washington is tremendous in the role and displays a relatable sense of emotion to the character; as she says "I'm black but I want to be white." I found it interesting that Washington, Colbert, and Rochelle Hudson (Jessie at age 18) could look like they are related - when Washington is a product of biracial heritage and is kicking against the pricks for being put into a culture that she doesn't feel totally comfortable with while having her mother remind her of the culture she was born into. The scenes toward the end with the funeral of Delilah is utterly devastating to watch.
Sadly, the movie doesn't focus on either of these aspects for that long. Instead, it's the quite frankly gross love triangle between Beatrice, her daughter Jessie and Stephen Archer (Warren William). Jessie loves Stephen and Stephen seems to love her back too (I'm not sure, I didn't really pay attention to the scenes depicting the relationship between the two). Beatrice wants to marry Stephen I guess - although Stephen finding himself having to dig himself out of a mill would have been the best place for him.
The movie ends with Beatrice telling Stephen to wait and sees her daughter to reminscient about meeting Delilah for the first time.
"I want my quack quack," said a young Jessie. I want a better movie, I said.
Imitation of Life is a melodrama that barely meets the demands of the subject matter and skirts away from actually having a stance. Delilah and Beatrice's relationship should lead to resentment, but yet it doesn't. Most of the heart of the movie is with Peola and her mother Delilah; one memorable scene for me is with Peola working and denying her own mother at a store.
It's easy to hate Imitation of Life for what it doesn't do well, but it's a nice attempt with the subject matter. It could have been better, but at the time it came out, it's merely good enough.
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Just one movie today....it's been hectic trying to move.
Unstoppable (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerIn a lot of ways to me, this movie feels like "Jaws with a train" than a straight up disaster movie. Denzel Washington as Frank Barnes and Chris Pine as Will Colson have a similar dynamic to Paul Schrader's Blue Collar. The pressure from management and ownership to exert their force was in Blue Collar as well - and seemingly like everything involved with American business even today, they fail to account for it to fail. Frank and Will start with working against each other to then working with each other to stop a train from derailing.
Tony Scott in this movie has a great and efficient editing to this movie and there isn't a lot of needless exposition. A lot of what's done initially is parallel stories - Frank and Will working through their day, while Connie (Rosario Dawson) is dealing with management and coordinating stopping the train along with Ned (Lew Temple) trying to race along to catch up. None of the story threads are confusing and add to the plot really well.
I loved the changes in film stock that's done throughout the movie - some of the footage is slowed down a bit then sped back up. News broadcast footage is interspersed in the movie as well. I loved the camerawork involved as the train cars go over the camera.
Also, the women picked to play Frank's daughters Nicole (Elizabeth Mathis) and Maya (Meagan Tandy) are smoking hot.
Unstoppable is just a great thrill ride from start to finish.
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Movies today...
The Other Side of the Door (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 2.5/5 stars
SpoilerRather average low budget horror movie that does something slightly unique with preying on a mother's grief and cultural tourism. Sarah Wayne Callies as Maria is the highlight of the entire movie.
I loved how Johannes Roberts and his DP Maxime Alexandre shot this movie and used lighting and camera angles to work in the horror atmosphere.
Not too outstanding but not too terrible either.
Eddie The Eagle (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerA bit of a standard biopic with an odd duck (or eagle I guess) named Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) who wants to compete in the Olympics. Egerton did a great job emphasizing Eddie's facial expressions with the oversized glasses. Hugh Jackman plays his coach Bronson Peary.
Eddie The Eagle as a movie is a bit sentimental but has a lot of a retro '80s aesthetic working in its favor; the synth heavy soundtrack helps. I loved the needle drop of "Bolero" as Peary is telling Eddie Edwards to think of Bo Derek while he's ski-jumping; that bit was clever. Of course, it also does the trick of having popular songs like "You Make My Dreams Come True" during a montage.
A lot of the relationships in the movie is Eddie Edwards having a belief in himself and having to prove people wrong; save for Peary, not that many characters in the movie see Edwards even having a chance to land a ski jump, much less compete. It's interesting that the British olympic sports authority want 61 meters to be the minimum to get on the team, when that's not even close to actual records. I somewhat wished the movie spent a bit of time on the UK team coming around on Eddie Edwards instead of treating him as an object of derision and mockery.
Eddie The Eagle has a lot of nice cinematography with nice wide angle shots of the ski jump inclines and POV shots as Eddie makes his jumps (before crashing in some cases). For a movie sent in the 1980s, the digital camerawork does seem a bit out of place to me.
Even then, Eddie The Eagle is a winner.
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7 hours ago, odessasteps said:
The Academy is apparently going to try and implement rules that you must see all the nominees in a category before you can vote.
Good luck w that.
They can do what I did the past year and they could very easily see all the nominees.
Although I imagine some of them will get assistants to watch the movies for them and tell them what happened.
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I don't want to think about how many movies I saw in the theaters last year. It was over 300 movies at least. Anyway...movies today.
Silverado (Netflix, leaving on 4/30, J.H. will be happy) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerSilverado is a great Western done in the age of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Those films inform Silverado as does Westerns of the past like Stagecoach, High Noon, 3:10 To Yuma, The Searchers, and Red River.
There are a lot of magnificent shots throughout the movie - the shot of the town prior to the climax of the movie is just gorgeous - and cinematography is a step above. I loved the scene where Mal (Danny Glover) and Emmett (Scott Glenn) meet where Emmett is recovering and how that was shot.
Danny Glover is an absolute badass in this. "I don't want to hurt you and you don't want to die" before he guns down some bad guys. I wished they switched the relationship between his character and Rae (Lynn Whitfield) from brother and sister to husband and wife. It would have made Mal's concern for Rae a bit more realistic, but can't win them all.
This is the only Western I've seen with Kevin Costner where he wasn't boring or a complete killjoy. It's hard to believe that the same actor that did this did Horizon: An American Saga, which was a completely mirthless affair. I saw parts of Open Range years ago and it was true there too.
Kevin Kline is completely awesome in this as well. A hole gets shot through his character's undergarments and he still is able to shoot the guy shooting at him.
The story isn't very deep and there isn't much in the way of characterization or character arcs. Normally with that, I would rate it lower or even give it 1 star. But with this, the overriding sense of fun, the craft involved, and pure filmmaking spectacle made up for it.
Silverado would have been incredible to see in a movie theater.
Good Thanks, You? (Mubi, leaving on 4/30) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerAlmost a counterpoint to the later How To Have Sex. Where How To Have Sex is about UK women on holiday in Greece, this is about a college student named Amy (Jasmine Jobson) have to deal with the aftermath of a rape and telling people about it, only to get told the prosecution wasn't likely. A lot of the same techniques in How To Have Sex appear in Good Thanks, You? as well (with the rapid cuts and a sense of tension).
There's a statistic out that 200,000 to 400,000 rape kits in the United States are awaiting processing. I imagine in the United Kingdom there's similar statistics and issues that women like Amy are faced with after such events.
Polytechnique (Mubi, leaving on 4/30) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerLike Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station and Christopher Nolan's Following & Memento, it's interesting to see the seeds of Denis Villeneuve's style as a filmmaker starting with Polytechnique. What shows up and refined in Incendies and in Prisoners is on display here.
The narrative structure of the movie concerns three characters - the gunman (Maxim Gaudette), Jean-Francois (Sebastien Huberdeau) and Valerie (Karine Vanasse). The gunman is depicted as having a hodrum existence and sharing a flat with another guy. Blaming feminists doesn't really solve his problems nor did shooting/killing women; the extent of his issues is much greater than to be blamed on feminists, and should be blamed on himself. The fact that the shooting occurred much earlier than Columbine in the US is chilling to think about.
Jean-Francois is depicted as a guy who is struggling through his courses and with survivor's guilt. In a way, he can similar to Jake Gyllenhaal's character in Prisoners and he's trapped within his guilt. He tries to save victims with First AId kits at the copy station and laments to Valerie that he didn't do enough as she's wheeled away. He stumbles into a party playing loud music to hide from the shooter. The movie shows his life after the shooting and he is struggling even in the aftermath. The scene where he takes his life with a hose from his exhaust pipe of his car is incredibly sad to think about.
The gunman's assertation that "feminists are taking jobs that they shouldn't" stands in contrast to Val. Val meets with an interviewer who questions why she wants to do the type of engineering she is studying because "it's easier....to start a family." The presumption that is even appropriate to say in an interview is a bit of an abuse - Val is powerless and feels like she has to do the internship. We see the aftermath of her life after the shooting and the lines about what she wants to have for her child. "If it's a boy, I'll teach him to love. If it's a girl, I'll tell her the world is hers" is incredible to think about.
I love the black and white cinematography and unusual camerawork (including a lot of sideways shots and upside down camera setups) in Polytechnique.
It leaves a lot to think about.
The Legend of Ochi (saw in the theaters) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerThe Legend of Ochi stylistically feels like Wes Anderson doing a Steven Spielberg produced ‘80s fantasy movie. The movie has touches of 1980s children’s fantasy movies - E.T., The Goonies, The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and maybe Mac & Me. The problem with The Legend of Ochi is its world building and lore isn’t as interesting as it thinks it is.
The actors involved - Willem DaFoe as Maxim, Helena Zengel as Yuri, Finn Wolfhard as Petro and the Bjork like Emily Watson as Dasha - prove to willing to participate despite some of the script being a bit lackluster.
However, it makes up for it with pathos and just purely visual storytelling (an almost Spielbergian style to it too). I loved the scenes where Yuri and the baby Ochi interact. The first time is purely magical as a caterpillar crawls on Yuri’s finger then on the Ochi. The bond is unspoken yet communicated in that scene - nature binds them together as does the wilderness.
When Yuri escapes, she is obviously not prepared. She goes into a grocery store (which has a very Eastern European flair to it) and gets bitten by the Ochi. They eventually escape and drive until the stolen car falls apart. Yuri is rescued by Dasha who injects with the blood of a bat and explains the wider world. “A bird can’t be return, it is covered by the stench of man,” meaning even if Yuri and Ochi reach their goal, there is no guarantee that the baby Ochi would be accepted.
Eventually, Yuri and Ochi reach their goal and a beautiful set of scenes occurred towards the end. There’s virtually no dialogue as Yuri and Ochi communicate with Ochi’s mother and Ochi is returned. The ending aspires to Steven Spielberg’s aesthetics and it’s absolutely glorious.
The soundtrack is god tier. David Longstreth at times reminds me of John Williams but is much more subtle as flutes and piccolos dot the soundscape.
The drawback with the Legend of Ochi as I mentioned is the scripting and the world building. It’s stylish but a bit empty and it seems more of a homage than a lived in world. DaFoe’s character explains the tragic backstories for many of the children composed of the protectors and hunters of the Ochi. Why the society is setup this way is not really known, but we’re told and show that humans and Ochi once lived in peace. How long that lasts and what broke the peace is never mentioned or explained.
Also, the sound mix for Yuri was a bit low and some of the lighting was a bit dim during the movie.
Even though the story and world is a bit lackluster, The Legend of Ochi is a great time at the movie.
It’s cool. Kthanxbye
The Wedding Banquet (2025) (saw in the theaters) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerI liked The Wedding Banquet a lot, although having a late showing start at 9:40 (after stupid AMC ads/trailers/Coca Cola Ad/Nicole Kidman, it was around 10 pm start time) didn't help me. There are portions of the movie I'm literally drawing a blank on due to achieving a state of 'brain sleep.' I was awake but I was asleep too. I don't recommend watching movies in this state at all.
This result me re-watching it on streaming or getting the Blu Ray and reviewing it better.
As it is, the performances were really good and the story of the movie is more about earning a parent's acceptance for who the people are. Lily Gladstone as Lee and Kelly Marie Tran as Angela are just supernaturally cute together with Bowen Yang as Chris actually being decent as well. Han Gi-chan as Min had a bit of a flat reading (likely due to English not being his native language).
The real centerpiece were Joan Chen as May and Youn Yun-jung as Ja-Young. "I want you to love who you want because I couldn't" was a great line as Ja-Young was asked about her wedding.
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Movies today....
No Hard Feelings (Netflix, leaving on 4/20) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerNo Hard Feelings is a raunchy comedy but it surprisingly has a lot of heart and character growth. It speaks to the maturity of its two main characters - Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) and Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). Within the broader scope of the movie is about a seaside town losing its charm and the characters feeling like outsiders to it; they feel trapped by their lives and are both afraid of confronting escaping. "You have push in to pull it out" is a throwaway line about a finger trap but is also used later in the movie when Maddie confronts Percy at a Princeton party. There’s a deeper meaning that can be interpreted: you have push inward on yourself in order to pull out of something preventing you from leaving.
The other thing that is at play is classism. Maddie sees the Craigslist ad as a way to get back at the rich people of the town that made her life worse. She'll take their money and their car and be able to save her house. In a way, Maddie is a similar character path as Lawrence's character Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook. The character is as screwed up as Pat and Tiffany were in that movie. Percy's parents Laird (Matthew Broderick) and Allison (Laura Benanti) want their sheltered child to finally grow up. I found the casting of Broderick to be a nice touch - it was a 'nice wink' to Broderick's character Ferris Bueller when he talked about how he was as a teenager. In a lot of ways, Maddie and Percy's relationship is a subversion on 'the older woman, younger man' tropes found in The Graduate (except Percy isn't stopping Maddie from getting married in the end).
I found it interesting how Percy was shaped as a character. Meeting the character, it is entirely comical how unaware he is of everything around him. (I could relate because I was sheltered as a kid too). The difference being it's close to college age - Percy at some point has to grow up and change. Maddie in the guise of obtaining a need for herself tries to seduce Percy rather comically. I loved the scenes while they are skinny dipping - seeing a naked Jennifer Lawrence throw sand and suplex a teenager owes to raunchy comedy traditions while showing a new wrinkle in the formula.
Over time, like any other romantic comedy, both characters realize that the other character fulfilled a need they were missing and end up together. The difference being that the need they needed wasn't romantic - it was the other character showed them another way. Percy goes to Princeton and will find love his own way without his parents doing it for him. Maddie sells her house and moves to California and burns the letter returned to her for her dad. They both get closure as they drive off into the sunset.
No Hard Feelings had some interesting cinematography - Nassau County is practically beautiful and sun kissed - I loved the scene where Maddie is on the hood of the car as Percy crashes it into the oncoming tide and how that was shot. The opening scenes had nice usage of time lapse shots and there are a lot of midrange shots of the actors.
The drawback is No Hard Feelings while had decent character writing and character arc is it feels a bit more conventional. It tries to be Risky Business in the age of Will Ferrell / Kristen Wiig but it mostly works. Having the needle drop of Bob Seger at the end felt intentional and like a callback to Risky Business. Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman were game for the material and made the movie work better as a result.
No Hard Feelings is a decent comedy with nice dramatic elements and tremendous heart.
The Damned Don't Cry (Max, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerThe Damned Don't Cry is as much of a film noir as it is a psychological drama and a "woman's movie." Joan Crawford deliver tremendous nuance as Ethel Whitehead / Lorna Hansen Forbes as her character has a complicated history. It's easy to see who Ethel Whitehead was at the start of the movie in flashback and there are a few scenes, like the one where Forbes sees a painting of a young boy that reminds her of her son. Had the movie focused on Whitehead's progression into becoming Forbes and the social strata she joins, it would have been something. Additionally, having gangsters clean themselves up and starting corporations would have been interesting as well. Instead both of these plot threads are merely footnotes.
Instead, it turns into non-descript men carrying the focus of the movie with Crawford, who is the lead, being set to the side. I can agree with Bosley Crowther that Kent Smith is so milquetoast as Martin Blackford that it doesn't matter if he's in it or not. His character developing courage all of a sudden and shooting people at the end seems out of place.
Still, The Damned Don't Cry came at an interesting time in films as late 1940s noirs gave way to early 1950s dramas.
Pride & Prejudice (2005) (saw in the theaters) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerI was going to catch Pride & Prejudice on Peacock before it left last month but decided to watch it on a theater instead.
Pride & Prejudice is positively glorious with the opening shot. The shot is sun kissed, beautiful and idyllic as it presents the English countryside near a manor for Longbourn. After that, there's a gorgeous tracking shot that follows Elizabeth Bennet (Keira Knightley) as she's lost in thought in her book and goes inside with the camera peeking in as her sister plays the piano, Elizabeth's parents (Brenda Blethyn & Donald Sutherland) discuss Charles Bingley (Simon Woods) moving next door before returning to Elizabeth and it cuts to the next scene.
I had read Pride & Prejudice years ago and found myself not really be enthralled by the book (yet the ardent Austen scholars aren't enthralled by this movie, so there you go). This version tries to present the characters in the book with a sense of realism (well, as much as can be possible). Everyone in the movie speak with an elevated manner of speaking and the put-downs are a bit more hilarious and require some degree of thinking. I really loved the scene with Keira Knightley as Elizabeth and Matthew MacFadyen as Mr. Darcy where Elizabeth confronts him about his actions regarding George Wickham (Rupert Friend). The conversations appear to be for those in the period and seem naturalistic.
The other scenes I loved in Pride & Prejudice were the dance scenes after the start of the movie. The camera has an intense focus on central characters like Elizabeth and Jane (Rosamund Pike) as they move through the room. I especially love later scenes where Darcy and Elizabeth discuss while dancing as the camera follows between the two back and forth and the scenes with Elizabeth and the utterly helpless Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander).
A scene that made me bust out laughing was Mr. Collins talking about his garden with his new wife and Elizabeth and those two just walk out of the room and close the door than to hear his poor social skills. (Mr. Collins brings hope to any man; if he can get married, any man can get married).
The best scenes were the ones with Mr. Darcy's aunt Lady Catherine (Judi Dench). Dench can just freeze the room with an intonation; I loved how she tells Mr. Collins and his wife to switch places before the guests were to even sit down.
Throughout the movie, the cinematography is just incredible with the usage of tracking shots and landscape views of the English countryside. I loved a scene where Elizabeth sees Mr. Darcy and his sister Georgiana (Tamzin Merchant). There's a quick cut on Darcy and Georgiana, then it cuts to Elizabeth's eye in view, then to Elizabeth going outside in a huff. I loved the Lawrence of Arabia-like match cut as Elizabeth blows into a feather and it cuts into a burning flame on a terrace.
Pride & Prejudice for the most part is a great bit of cinema.
Malignant (Max, leaving on 4/26) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerThis movie is a nice Wes Craven meets giallo horror mesh. Annabelle Wallis as Madison / Emily is the vein of Fulci / Argento's giallo horror heroines until the truth is learned in the last 45 minutes or so.
Some of the combat scenes were a bit ridiculous to watch, but great horror movie from James Wan.
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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:
*shakes head* If you say so. You'd have to pay me to deal with any of that shit, to watch any of THAT shit for sure. I'd still have to dump a pint of vodka in my giant Coke. And probably sneak out to go see Sinners (or more likely The Shrouds) anyway.
I'll be seeing The Shrouds this upcoming weekend and will have to drive about 30 minutes out of the way to do so, but it'll be worth it.
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5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:
WHY DO YOU GO TO SEE THESE THINGS?!
They don't show up on regular streaming usually and I keep hoping I'll find an Angel Studios movie that is as satisfying as a normal movie. Rule Breakers was the only one of theirs from this year that was good.
I'm using an A List slot for it and there were no more showings of The Wedding Banquet that day. I'll buy a ticket for The Wedding Banquet on Monday night using reward points lol
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Movies today....
The Estate (Netflix, leaving on 4/19) - 2.5/5 stars
SpoilerSurprisingly hilarious dark comedy that moves similarly to Succession but with Hank from Californication and Tara from United States of Tara as relatives.
Very Todd Solondz-like with its humor of making fun of an aunt dying and the scenes with them trying to catch the sex offender from Hilda (Kathleen Turner)'s high school years flashing people. The climatic scenes were hilarious in its chaotic nature.
The King of Kings (saw in the theaters) - 2/5 stars
Spoiler“Pick up and leave her/I want you fever” -Momma, “I Want You (Fever)”
Song was stuck in my head during the entire movie.
In case you’re wondering, the movie isn’t about WWE wrestler Triple H.
The King of Kings takes an emotional story that’s told in Christianity and supplies it with the most pedestrian voice acting I’ve ever heard. The visuals were okay and not nearly at the top (I kept getting distracted by the people’s heads and how they all seemingly have no chins or nipples). Oscar Isaacs as Jesus was flat throughout the movie, I barely recognized Kenneth Branagh (go back to doing Shakespeare or Agatha Christie novels, all is forgiven) and seeing Ben Kingsley and Mark Hamill’s names made me sad. Pierce Brosnan sounded almost David Bowie-like as Pilate and made me wonder if people seeing this would see The Last Temptation of Christ.
The scenes after the resurrection of Christ were the most imaginative. I loved the anime-esque way where Dickens’ son Walter (Roman Griffin Davis) was rescued in the water.
I saw this movie with the worst audience I’ve ever encountered at a movie theater where one kid was having an emotional breakdown over something and his parents didn’t pull him out or tell him to shut up. I’m presuming he was wrapped up in the movie but come on, control your damn kids. Tell them acting out in public ruins the experience for everyone else. It made me wonder if it were the movie or the jackoff kid crying out in public at inopportune times part of the movie. Why take this kid to hear the story of Jesus when he can't control himself in public. Youth is wasted on the young.
Not the worst Angel Studios movie but not the best either. At least it’s not Homeward or Bonhoeffer.
Sinners (saw in the theaters) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerThe musical heritage of America is from the African American experience. The African American experience brought forth the blues and jazz. Stolen people working for colonizers on stolen lands as they imagine a homeland that they can never return to. Sure, they can visit it, but the people they were related to are long gone. The blues depicts the pain, the joy, the love, and the hardship of black men and women having to endure a freedom they finally get but never enjoy the respect they deserve. The music of the blues is beautiful because it comes from a real place.
The white experience in America is vastly different. People from my heritage never created anything musically advanced in America; most of our musical traditions come from Europe. Classical music from men in countries like Germany, Austria, Italy, and France wearing powdered wigs and informed by the Church to express a beauty for a religious deity. This doesn't mean that the white experience in music doesn't lack pain, joy, love, and hardship; rural music from Ireland as folk music as it becomes bluegrass in the Appalachian accomplishes this.
The simple truth is white people listen to the blues and they copy, they colonize. Big Mama Thornton's “Hound Dog” is a pain of a woman scorn while Elvis Presley's “Hound Dog” is a man copying the pain he heard from Thornton without really understanding it. Black music that was bracing and confrontational is now safe and sanitary for a white audience. I will not understand the pain, joy, love, and hardship that an African American has gone through from their forefathers, but I can appreciate and confront my own biases of my experience.
Religion for African American and Caucasian Americans is vastly different too. African American experience in church is more of a cry from the ground to the heavens and a confession that is long, deep, and real. Caucasian American experience in church is like its classical music; it's pretty, and ornate, and way too cold – the joke is “white church is an air conditioned church” is true. They blast the damn AC even in the winter.
Sinners draws from this as the premise. Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers, Smoke and Stack (surprised there wasn't a third called Lightning but oh well). I wasn't aware of Jordan playing the two parts and literally wonder if there were a different person cast. Jordan plays both characters with completely different demeanors. Smoke walks into the room as the biggest cock of the place and you better know it. Stack is cool and less forthcoming, but when something goes down, he'll be ready. Their loves are different as well – Smoke is estranged from his ex-wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Stack tries to avoid his ex Mary (Hailee Steinfield). The two characters have a dynamic that calls to mind Paul Newman/Robert Redford 1930s era flicks like Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and The Sting. The characters like each other, but can easily hate each other.
With Sinners, Smoke and Stack recruit people for a new juke joint they are starting. Juke joints serve as a cultural gathering place and a haven for the characters in the movie; some are field hands, some work in town, some are breaking rocks in the hot sun, fought the law and the law won. They can find a good dance, a good woman, a good man, a good drink, and a good blues song. The movie uses a lot of what Kurosawa did with The Seven Samurai as Smoke and Stack slowly build up 'their army' for this juke joint. The usage of music reminds me of another 1930s set movie, O Brother Where Art Thou? and its usage of music throughout the movie. Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) sings and plays the blues like no one's business. Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) plays piano and harmonica and doesn't trust that Sammie even understands the damn blues due to his age. Pearline (Jayme Lawson) is able to stomp the floor as she sings and it feels like the earth is trembling. Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo (Yao) bring supplies and Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) guards the door.
On the opposite end are the vampires. Sinners specifically calls them out as vampires and talks to the vampire mythos. Remmick (Jack O'Connell) turns two Klansmen into vampires. What's interesting goes back to what I talked about earlier with white musical culture in America. The vampires are literally copiers and colonizers; they play bluegrass and desire to partake in the blues. It would appear to be innocuous, but like record labels that want to make black music safe for white audiences, they suck the blood out and turn the victim into a vampire. It goes back to what Malcolm X said about the white suppressors at the time - “Unless we call one white man, by name, a ‘devil,’ we are not speaking of any individual white man. We are speaking of the collective white man’s historical record. We are speaking of the collective white man’s cruelties, and evils, and greeds, that have seen him act like a devil toward the non-white man.” The vampires are literal 'white devils' with the presentation of 'we're about love' as they evilly convert anyone bitten into a vampire too.
Sinners in addition to calling them out as vampires, uses a lot of what's done in Hammer Dracula films. A vampire cannot understand a room unless he or she is invited. Silver is toxic to them. Stakes kill them. Garlic kills them. Everything that Robert Rodriguez did in From Dusk Till Dawn and what was done in Bordello of Blood is done here against the background of black music versus white music, blues musicians versus Klansmen in Mississippi. The heroes obviously are the blues.
What really stuck out to me was the cinematography and camerawork in Sinners. I loved a scene early on as the camera follows Bo and Grace's daughter from Bo's store into the store where Grace is working; Grace leaves the store then the camera follows her into Bo's store. Also, a similar tracking shot happened in the juke joint as the camera follows Mary from outside back into the joint after confronting the vampires.
Within the juke joint is a completely insane, beautiful and incredible scene that occurs as Sammie Moore plays. All of past and future music converge in the juke joint; we see the continent of Africa, we see someone resembling Jimi Hendrix playing an electric guitar, we see the Chinese experience. The camera follows around the room as the experience is overwhelming, exhilarating and proof of the power of cinema. Ryan Coogler joins the masters of cinema in Kurosawa, Ford, and Fellini in capturing an audience in those scenes and capturing me in my viewing.
As mentioned with the music within the movie being like O Brother Where Art Thou?, the score is simply amazing. I got chills during one piece where a dobro is fighting against an orchestra as the tension and terror is captured in the piece; it gave me as many goosebumps as the score in The Brutalist did.
Sinners should honestly be nominated for the Oscars in 2026 for every award. Ryan Coogler is a genius of our time.
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Movies today....
Cleaners (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerHigh school teenage angst is not just left to American filmmakers like John Hughes and George Lucas, other directors can participate in that too.
Glenn Barit's anthology movie Cleaners has a lot in common with Hughes; every character involved in the vignettes are of similar archetypes as those found in The Breakfast Club. Some of the vignettes worked and some didn't - I liked the second vignette with Stephanie (Ianna Taguinod) as she tries out for a dance team and has an bowel movement accident.
National Language Month's vignette has kids that wouldn't look out of my place at a My Chemical Romance concert and thinking that their dance partner Angeli (Gianne Rivera) got killed. Prom's vignette rings true and is about an embarrassing subject. And Youth Council is about the limits of a popular kid who's dad is a mayor. The final vignette is like the kids in The Breakfast Club going wild in the library.
Cleaners for the most part works and the visual style is unique and interesting. It isn't a classic, but it's a great effort. Capturing the high school experience in the Philippines isn't done that often.
A Few Miles South (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerA bit too gross for me. I liked how the cuts in scenes denoted a passage of time and indicate an action that's already past. The story is easy to figure out even without dialogue.
Live From Shiva's Dance Floor (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerAlthough the subject of this documentary short is pretentious and enjoy the smells of his own farts, it's a bit interesting to hear Timothy "Speed" Levitch talk through what New York City means to him in a post-9/11 world.
I'm amazed that a Richard Linklater movie didn't have anyone from Texas (although the talk at the end about the buffalo being at the 9/11 memorial is vaguely Texan).
Melons (At A Loss) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerInteresting intersection of confronting misogyny ("she's got big melons") and sharing personal grief in a story about the speaker's aunt. Smashing the plate makes sense.
Voices of the Morning (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerInteresting video essay about a Muslim woman both inside and outside of culture. Music is from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who had collaborated with Ry Cooder (some of the guitar lines sound like his). Images on top of each other denotes tranquility but also upheaval too.
The Ballad of Wallis Island (saw at the theaters) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerA bumper sticker I have on my car is of Nick Drake. This particular bumper sticker is from the cover of his album Bryter Layter as he stares at the camera with his shoes in front of his feet. It conjures an image of comfort but also of uncertainty. Nick Drake died at an early age 26, just one year shy of being in the infamous "27 Club." Knowing that about him, it makes me wonder why he couldn't get out of the way of himself and why life didn't deal him a better hand to make him successful.
With The Ballad of Wallis Island, the impetus of the story is about a twice over millionaire Charles (Tim Key) who used his National Lottery winnings to book the reunion of a folk rock duo, McGwyer Mortimer. McGwyer Mortimer of course isn't a real band. Similar to what was done in the most recent version of A Star Is Born, songs were created for this movie and were sung by the on-screen duo, Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) and Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan).
What's interesting is the fictitious band called to mind actual bands for me. McGwyer and Mortimer's split reminded me a lot of Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan. Rice and Hannigan had split up in a fashion that quite a few fans felt was acrimonious. Rice had indicated that 'they had run their creative course,' while Hannigan felt she was 'no longer needed in the band.' The truth of the split is likely "a mutual decision" (like what McGwyer and Mortimer disagreed on in the movie) and a bad breakup too.
With the early parts of the movie, much of the comedy is on Charlie's awkwardness and social isolation. It's easy to relate to and laugh at the humor in those situations. Charlie and Herb comically butt heads with McGwyer regarding Charlie as a weird fan - "I'll just take the money and run and file a restraining order on him," McGwyer says in a phone booth conversation. I loved the early scenes where McGwyer asks for Charlie to close the door while he's changing and Charlie of course does and....stays in the room. Then later, when McGwyer is leaving, he steps on a plate of rice and slips.
The real fireworks begin when Mortimer and her husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen) arrive on a boat too. McGwyer is of course mad that he wasn't told about this arrangement and Mortimer is taken aback by the fact that McGwyer got 500,000 British pounds to play the gig.
At that point, The Ballad of Wallis Island begins to resemble a bit of another movie about another island - Bergman Island. McGwyer and Mortimer's relationship is at an impasse throughout the entire movie. Unlike Bergman Island and its couple that are married, McGwyer and Mortimer were once in love but now are not. McGwyer suggests doing a reunion tour in small locations, but Mortimer feels that McGwyer is stuck on the past. Her life has moved on, but his hasn't. He really can't get out of the way of himself and play the better hand to be successful.
With Charlie, there is a humorous side that reveals a real hurt to him. His wife, who died five years prior, was a fan of McGwyer Mortimer. Charlie had booked the concert as a way of honoring her and invites the local shopkeeper Amanda (Sian Clifford) to join him. Herb finds one of the Chinese lanterns in the ocean and that inspired him to stick with the gig even after Nell Mortimer leaves.
I loved the ending sequence as Chris Pinner, McGwyer's real name, leaves the money behind and signs a guitar for Charlie.
With The Ballad of Wallis Island, I loved how the movie was shot. The cinematography brought out the greys and greens of the island and the movie had nice usage of mid-range shots of the actors. There were a lot of wide angle shots of the coastline as both McGwyer and Mortimer arrive to the island. In a lot of ways, the beginning and ending were similar to a Rohmer film, which had the protagonists leave in the same matter they arrive. Charlie is playing a record at the start of the movie and at the end of the movie.
The lone drawback is there weren't as much with Carey Mulligan in this movie. Mulligan is an incredible actress; she can make even a terrible movie like Suffragette more tolerable with simply her presence.
Even then, The Ballad of Wallis Island has great songs to hear and is a nice place to visit for a few hours.
Light Years (Mubi, leaving on 4/22) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerYour enjoyment for this documentary is going to depend on how much you like minutiae of filmmaking. It's essentially watching a director direct actors for a film. If you're fine with a director telling an actor to repeat a line to place a particular emphasis on the emotion of the word, or watch as they scramble to film despite how late it is, then this is great.
If you'd rather watch something else, this will be very boring for you.
I liked it but as a documentary to use an analogy, watching how the sausage made isn't as interesting as hearing from the sausagemakers make the sausage. Film directors live and die by the details; so focusing on the details is a requirement.
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Movies today...had to do a bunch of work stuff so not as much.
The Ugly Stepsister (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerLike Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, Emilie Blichfeldt's The Ugly Stepsister functions as much of a body horror film about feminine beauty today as it is a cinematic Rorschach test. The difference being is The Ugly Stepsister is much more subtle in its application - there isn't a hallway that looks exactly like the hallway in The Shining for example. It's more in tone and approach.
The Ugly Stepsister uses a lot of soft focus lenses during the dream sequence - it denotes a break with reality as Elvira (Lea Myren) imagines her life better than it actually is. Elvira as a character functions much like Pearl did in Ti West's Pearl. In fact, they have the same goals - Pearl wants to go to Hollywood to become rich and famous while Elvira wants to lose weight and marry a prince. The end goal being a life better than what she currently has.
The similarities continue with the choice for lead actresses. Lea Myren shares similarities with Mia Goth in terms of expressiveness on camera - like Goth, Myren's face is fully involved with her emotions on screen. She acts disappointed when she can barely fit in her dress and delirious when she tries on her sister's shoe that doesn't fit. She cries when she's chopping off her toes and her visceral reaction to expelling the tapeworm (don't go into this movie eating any food seriously).
In addition to Ti West's Pearl, there's some Kubrick inspirations throughout the movie. The historic setting is inspired by Barry Lyndon (but also a lot of Visconti's The Leopard and L'Innocente); during the 'eye operation' scene, Elvira is strapped down like Alex in A Clockwork Orange. I liked the POV shot used as Elvira's eyes fill with blood, which calls back to the elevator filling with blood in The Shining.
There's symbolism going on with the movie as well. A few times in the movie, Elvira is involved with cake. During the opening scenes before the title credits, cake is thrown at her. At one point, Alma (Flo Fagerli) feeds her cake. Cake can be considered a way for a woman to regain her power, although in this instance, it's more about a loss of control. There's also a dichtomy between Elvira and her sister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess) - Agnes sleeps downstairs with maggots crawling on her from her decaying father and Elvira sleeps with a tapeworm in her. I noticed Elvira was fed spaghetti, which can look like tapeworms too.
The ballet sequences call to mind The Black Swan but also reminded me of Lucile Hadžihalilović's Innocence. Like in that movie, ballet is used to subjugate women; the instructor at first tells Elvira to be in the very back row on account of her looks. Elvira at that point decides to use a tapeworm to control her figure and make herself appear more desirable.
I liked the usage of dolly zoom in the dance hall scene where the camera focuses on Elvira's face as her sister Agnes runs away and leaves behind the shoe.
The scenes toward the end with Elvira crawling down the stairs reminded me a bit of Death Becomes Her as well; a female character crawling along the stairs was a notable image in the movie. In a lot of ways, Elvira and Agnes' relationship could be considered like Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn's relationship and abuse of magical powers to gain a step ahead. Agnes being met by her mother is dreamlike and seems something out of Death Becomes Her as well.
I would be remissed if I didn't mention the soundtrack and usage of music. I loved the usage of synthesizers throughout the movie plus classical music in the ball room scene - it was a very Kubrick-esque touch.
For the most part, The Ugly Stepsister is a terrific debut and is a great body horror movie. The drawback for me is some of the scenes dragged a bit (especially towards the middle as Elvira changes herself to be more acceptable). The thing is none of the characters (save for Alma) really treated Elvira that well. It was an abusive and domineering relationship, especially with Elvira and her stepmother Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp). With knowing the story of Cinderella, there would not be a good end for The Ugly Stepsister.
Still, I would love to see what Emilie Blichfeldt does next.
Safe Conduct (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerFor a movie about an interesting time of history like the French film industry in World War II, Safe Conduct is surprisingly low stakes and...plays it safe (pun intended). The story for the movie is split in two: we follow Jean Devaivre (Jacques Gamblin) and Jean Aurenche (Denis Podalydes). Aurenche's story is a bit abbreviated and there isn't as much of an apparent resolution. He is with his wife at the end of the movie and that's it. Davaivre's story involves him being a part of the French Resistance and there's a long sequence of his meeting with ungratefrul Brits in England then parachuting back into France.
Compared to other works from Tavernier, I felt lukewarm towards this movie and it wasn't very compelling to watch. The run time seemed a bit overly long and a lot of the film could have been edited down better. Captain Conan, which came out in 1996, was more of a better story due to focusing on just one character. This tries to do too much and fails at both.
I did like the film references throughout the movie and the scenes showing the movies being filmed, but I can't really say I remember that much about Safe Conduct.
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1 minute ago, AxB said:
Karla Sofia Gascon has booked a follow-up movie project, after Emilia Perez. She's playing a Psychiatrist 'who embodies both God and the Devil' in something called "The Life Lift"... with Vincent Gallo.
Two of the most terrible people in the world in one movie!
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42 minutes ago, Contentious C said:
Well, wasn't the crux of 28 Weeks that certain people could be symptomless carriers? It's still Boyle and Garland writing and directing, so yeah, they'll figure something out.
I'm just pissed they didn't do a "28 Months Later". Like, c'mon, hit all the time measurements!
You know they're just wanting to do 28 Decades Later and 28 Centuries Later.
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Movies today....
Captain Conan (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 4/5 stars
SpoilerCompared to other films in his oeuvre, Captain Conan is a much more 'commercialized' or 'Hollywood-ized' film from Bertrand Tavernier. The movie is more conventional but is fitting with themes throughout Tavernier's career. The themes are of the humanity in a rascal and in a misfit. This began in The Clockmaker.
Seeing this compared to A Sunday in the Country or A Week's Vacation, it's hard to believe this movie is from the same director. With this movie, Conan (Philippe Torreton) is a masculine figure who goes by his own rules even when French leadership says the opposite. Those two movies mentioned have more reflective and feminine figures as lead characters. I wouldn't have been surprised if Quentin Tarantino had seen this movie when creating Inglorious Basterds and creating Lt. Aldo Ray. Both men are cut from a similar cloth, although with Inglorious Basterds, it's a more specific purpose. With Captain Conan, it's main character is lost amidst the sea change of a war's aftermath.
Much of the story of the movie is not about Conan, but is about Norbert (Samuel Le Bihan). Norbert becomes Conan's friend and is asked to serve as a defense attorney then a prosecutor. France is participating in WWI and the war has ended not even an hour into the movie. Yet, in the rush to find something to do, soldiers commit crimes like stealing blankets that make them worthy of punishment. A robbery is committed by soldiers, yet a soldier afraid for his life named Erlane (Pierre Val) is sentenced to death for desertion and giving plans to the enemy. Those in the leadership role are just as bad as those committing crimes in a lot of cases.
The epilogue showing a dying Conan presents that even hidden heroes that win a war come with a price. Conan is shown to be as reflective as the characters in The Clockmaker, A Week's Vacation and A Sunday in the Country, but it's after the fact
It All Starts Today (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 5/5 stars
SpoilerUtterly amazing movie. Bertrand Tavernier challenges not only Ken Loach but Mike Leigh and The Dardenne Brothers in this very starkly realistic movie about a school administrator and teacher Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton) fighting for his school and against the malaise that engulfs his town. Torreton joins Marianne Jean Baptiste in inhabiting a character in a small measurement of time; he doesn't appear as an actor playing character, he simply is the character during the movie.
Lefebvre experiences heartbreak as he tries to balance his life, his relationships and his school. A lot of the circumstances for the children is awful due to the way the town is. One teacher Mrs. Delacourt (Francoise Bette) said "these kids don't know how to talk and how to even say 'hello.' They just know 'I'm hungry," "I'm cold," "I'm thirsty." All they know is survival." Lefebvre tries to reach outside of the school and expresses anger at social services that comes in. One scene that's pivotal is the school nurse talks to a politician and told that the budget for social services is enough, even though "those numbers are just vague," she says.
I liked the scene where Lefebvre talks to the mayor (Gerard Giroudon) about the cut to the $5 meal program: "They'll say they want a job, then money then a flat. If I don't give that to them, then they'll vote far right."
Tavernier does a lot of interesting shots and setups during the movie; I loved the usage of voiceover as Lefebvre narrates his thoughts about his father being a miner. Then towards the end he narrates what he wrote. "We'll tell our children it was hard, but our fathers were lords. And this is their legacy: A pile of stones and the courage to lift them."
One scene I loved for the realism is the inspector (L.627's Didier Bezace) evaluating Lefebvre's teaching of a class. Anyone who has been a teacher knows the experience of this and their stomach was tying into knots watching the inspector sit and take a phone call then casually offer feedback without realizing what the teacher is going through.
The handheld camera movement in the scene where Laetitia, her brother and her mother are found is utterly devastating. The scenes after that really demonstrates the conflict in Levebvre as he wishes he did more and feels powerless regardless of what happened.
The scenes toward the end are simply magical with the water bottles and the band playing at the school.
It All Starts Today is a triumph.
Homefront (Max, leaving on 4/17) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerAfter watching nothing but French movies for two days (to the point I'm hearing French in my sleep and je parle francais maintenant), I figure I should watch a low mental investment movie with Jason Statham in it.
Where there's Statham, there's action.
The movie is a hamburger. Statham takes Liam Neeson's spot and plays a father with a very particularly set of skills that he's honed over a very long career. Statham plays Phil Broker, who was a DEA agent that got a guy and his son killed. He and his daughter Maddy (Izabela Vidovic) move to a small town Louisiana and runs afoul of a guy named Gator (James Franco). Franco acts pretty scuzzy which isn't that far from how he actually is. Kate Bosworth did a great job as Cassie, a redneck meth head whose son got beaten up by Maddy. Winona Ryder as Sheryl acted like later career Winona Ryder always does.
There isn't anything too memorable although seeing Statham steal a police car was hilarious.
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Movies today.....watched a four hour movie and a 2 hour and 26 minute movie today. Woof.
L.627 (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 2/5 stars
SpoilerAfter seeing the entralling A Week's Vacation and A Sunday in the Country, seeing a movie Bertrand Tavernier did several years later is a bit different. L.627 as a movie just is barely interesting. Didier Bezace as Lucien "Lulu" Marguet tries his best with the material, but his character is completely rudderless.
It ends up being Bertrand Tavernier as a director showcasing what he's learned and what he focuses on. The character writing isn't as strong as his past efforts.
Throughout the movie, it seems the French police are barely good at their jobs and the scenes are repetitive; rough up one guy, tail another guy, interrogate a guy, have one of the officers fuck it up because he talks into a radio in front of a suspect due to his inability to pay attention to people he's looking at, wash rinse repeat.
L.627 is worth watching for Bertrand Tavernier's work as a director and some decent "made for TV" like cinematography, but that's it.
The Egg And I (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3/5 stars
SpoilerRelatively inoffensive comedy (well, despite the casual racism) that more than likely inspired George Roy Hill's Funny Farm. The dance scene where Bob (Fred MacMurray) and Betty (Claudette Colbert) bump into other people showed up in Groundhog Day.
This movie is easy to see why MacMurray was in Disney comedies and My Three Sons; he portrays an oblivious (yet hilarious) husband who is trying to start a chicken farm. The opening scenes were hilarious as he relays his plans after serving in WWII.
The movie does lose steam a bit, but isn't too bad.
I think I've seen this before without realizing it - I watched this with my dad years ago.
The Undeclared War (Criterion Channel, leaving on 4/30) - 3.5/5 stars
SpoilerThe Undeclared War is an unyielding monolith of a documentary. The length and breadth of a period of conflict in French history is covered as Bertrand Tavernier talks to soldiers that served for the French army. He purposely avoids talking to career soldiers, politicians and others that benefited from France's war (although they call it a "law enforcement exercise") in shaping the story of the documentary.
From protests in Grenoble to what electricians did to maintain the electrified fence to how the people in the region regarded the soldiers involved to everything in between, The Undeclared War is a nearly exhaustive search for meaning within war. What I liked were the ancedotes people shared. A communism supporter gets sentenced to two years for refusing to serve then decides to serve anyway. A soldier rolls around in the dirt after his leg is damaged in a harrowing story, which resulted in his amputation and pension from the state.
While watching this, it made me reflect on if there would be a similar documentary about US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan wars. After all, the story of a country sending their young and their poor to wage their wars is not anything new. What's troubling is seeing some of the soldiers share an inability to find jobs after their service ended. Tavernier as a postscript talks of their careers in the years later and meeting a jazz musician who had seen his 'Round Midnight.
The other thing that was interesting is even though these weren't intellectuals or university students that served, they did have interests like reading Proust or one of the people talked about nicknames from movies like Bitter Rice (which I need to watch). It does show the difference between French and American culture.
The drawback with The Undeclared War is it's over 4 hours long and it's not for the weak.
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1 hour ago, HarryArchieGus said:
Saw'r Misericordia today and loved it. It's like Kaurismaki meets Hitchcock with a lil dollop of Pedro. Cahiers du Cinema suggested it was the best of 2024. I welcome it to the conversation at least. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wk2SgBIoF4
I felt like I didn't understand it when I watched it. I'm going to get the Blu Ray and rewatch it.
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37 minutes ago, Travis Sheldon said:
Tombstone and Wyatt Earp are two movies that even though they deal with the same characters and situations, the way they're presented could not be more opposite.
I've been a Tombstone fan since the initial release because it's a fun movie, where Wyatt Earp feels more like a movie I need to watch for a paper that's due on Monday.
Tombstone all day for me.
If you add Kevin Costner to anything, it's automatically boring. (although Bull Durham and Field of Dreams are the exceptions and so is The Big Chill where he plays a dead body)
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2025 Movie Discussion Thread
in MOVIES & TV
Posted
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I saw the original version of Crimes of the Future and...yeech. It was like Cronenberg shot it at a college on a weekend.
Criterion Channel has quite a few Cronenberg movies up right now, including Dead Ringers.