2026 Movie Discussion Thread

[Dolfan in NYC]

I watched Zootopia 2 with the family over Christmas.  Two things are crazy:

1) It's basically the exact same story as part 1.  Like, it's even referenced in the movie that it's the same story. 

2) It's now a few dollars/yen/yuan away from hitting $1.5 billion in the box office draw.  This makes it Disney's highest grossing animated film ever.  So expect a lot more more of Judy & Nick in the near future. 

(It took ALL of my self-control from not posting that meme. Your welcome.)

 

[Log]

Watched Bugonia yesterday. I thought it was a lot of fun. Probably Yorgos’ most accessible movie, which is pretty funny. I just love that people keep giving that weirdo millions of dollars to make his movies. 

[odessasteps]

 

[odessasteps]

Metropolis is set in 2026. More or less dystopian the real 2026. 

 

[Contentious C]

More. Our robots are stupider.

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies watched today....

KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

In every generation, there's a Buffy The Vampire Slayer movie/show out there.

KPop Demon Hunters is very much a movie that exemplified 2025. The encroaching darkness around the world that has to be covered up with pop singers. Taylor Swift being engaged to Travis Kelce and there being a 3 hour movie about her concert tour plus an hour and some change movie released in theaters for hew new album. Lunatics that could be said to be demon possessed in charge of governments and enslaving people's minds and spirits due to outdated notions of what the world should be. Throwing people into vans, bombing settlements while media companies in America are slowly being forced into obedience through mergers and acquisitions. The world of KPop Demon Hunters isn't that different from our world - pop music is used to satiate people's minds.

To be honest, KPop Demon Hunters doesn't really do anything new as a movie. It's almost a movie version of the Buffy episode "Once More With Feeling" except in the fact that these songs are seriously top tier. ("Soda Pop" and "Golden" will be in my head for the forseeable future). The initial setup and premise of the movie is great to watch - Rumi (Arden Cho/Ejae), Mira (May Hong/Audrey Nuna), and Zoey (Ji-young Yoo/Rei Ami) are Kpop singers giving a concert while their plane is taken over by demons and they have to make an entrance from the sky.

All that is great until the Saja Boys after its leader Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop/Andrew Choi) has a plan to capture souls for a demon king Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun) that introduces a rival pop group. (Someone should check if BTS aren't demons and aren't trying to enslave our souls).

The story goes through an almost pedestrian progression - Rumi is part demon and tries to cover it up from the rest of the group, lending itself to queer coding and also a bit Guillermo del Toro's Blade to it. Rumi and Jinu meet in secret as Rumi learns more about him until the idol awards where the demons attack during "Golden" and "Takedown." "Takedown" as a song was supposed to be about the Saja Boys, but was really about Rumi.

At a gathering that wouldn't be out of place in Ghostbusters, everyone is enslaved until Rumi recognizes her past and who she really is; she fights back against the demons, causing Mira and Zoey to snap out of it and fight too. The demon king is defeated after Jinu sacrifices himself a la Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. (Honestly, the writers for this must have binge watched Buffy).

The movie ends with Huntrix celebrating their victory although remnants of the demon world (the crow with the top hat) are shown.

KPop Demon Hunters is bright and colorful and is like a music video. A lot of the visuals reminded me a bit of the KPop music videos I would see at Korean BBQ spots although there's something less Stepford Wife-y about KPop Demon Hunters in comparison.

Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta relisten to "Golden."

Black Christmas (1974) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

"Nash, you couldn't pick your nose if there weren't written instructions."

Black Christmas is very much a giallo film. It has some of the same hallmarks of those movies made from Argento, Fulci, and Bava, although it's a bit more simplified. A sorority house is terrorized a few days before Christmas with prank phone call (I half way expected the caller to start sounding like Donald Duck a la Fulci's New York Ripper). The thing that keeps Black Christmas similar to giallo is a general sense of mistrust and dread. Christmas in this appears cold and unfeeling, with a child being found dead in a park and sorority sisters dead in an attic.

What Black Christmas does to build the suspense is to start the movie with POV shots, much like Friday the 13th did in the early 1980s. The difference with Black Christmas and Friday the 13th is the killer isn't going through the house killing everyone, it's a slow gradual buildup. For the majority of the movie, the police aren't aware of the murderer, since they are focused on the phone calls. There's a sense of tension as the scenes split between Jess on the phone, the man at the phone company trying to trace the call, and Lt. Fuller (John Saxon) listening in on the call.

In some respects, the focus on the women in Black Christmas reminded me of Sergio Martino's Torso - like Torso, Black Christmas takes place at a college campus although there's less of an apparent friendship beyond the opening scenes.

Although Jess Bradford is the main character, Margot Kidder's character Barb is a standout as she simply doesn't give a fuck and is drunk. She gives her sorority house phone number as "Fellatio 60" to Nash after drinking a beer at the police station (honestly, she's like a dream girl, she doesn't care and she'll get drunk everywhere). The house lady Mrs. Mac (Marian Waldman) seems to find alcohol bottles everywhere (and drinks them). In a somewhat comedic scene, she blames the cat for everything while the father of one of the missing women finds her.

Black Christmas as a movie is a great slasher/thriller and there's a lot of influence on later movies. I could even sense an influence on The Holdovers with how Mrs. Mac acted towards the women living in the sorority house.

Scarface (1932) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

You know it's bad when there's a disclaimer at the start of the movie that basically says, "Please please please don't look up to the characters in this movie! These are actually bad people!" The effect is the opposite of what was intended. It didn't work. Nor does the people talking to the newspaper publisher as he breaks the fourth wall to address the audience and calling for gun control and enforcement of immigration laws, "some of them aren't even citizens," as well as martial law.

Even like today, those in power offer solutions to violent crime that's worse than the criminals committing it.

Most of what Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) does is on behalf of Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins but not the one you're thinking of that made Longlegs). Tony Camonte doesn't go around gunning down civilians for the hell of it - although two kids playing hopscotch get caught up in gunfire. Tony Camonte simply does what he does because he can and he will. He has no other motivation but to do so. He wants what his boss has - his girlfriend Poppy (Karen Morley).

A lot of Scarface is over jealousy. Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) serves as the 'right hand man' to Tony (much like was done in the Brian De Palma remake), but crosses the line with his affair with Cesca (Ann Dvorak). The scene where Tony visits Guino is tragic and visceral. Tony guns down Guino while Cesca weeps over him. Tony holds her up and takes her away, almost lamenting what he did. Cesca shows up later, out of the shadows, like an angel of death, before she and Tony lock down in the office. She's then shot and killed, leading Tony to escape. Tony is gunned down in the streets.

A lot of the movie is really what true capitalism is, but Tony functions as an almost anarchist agent of change. The money that Tony Camonte accumulates for alcohol sales and taking over territory violently would make someone believe that Tony Camonte represents 'them.' But Tony pads only his pocket, as he tells Poppy, he looks at the sign for "The World Is Yours" and thinks it's speaking to him.

Scarface moves along almost briskly with a lot of the scenes ahead of its time. I really loved the opening shot of Scarface, which in an almost continuous shot, was incredible. The camera follows the lit streetlight down then pans over to the person walking inside a restaurant. The camera pans over and stops at a table with several gangsters. One of them gets up to go to the phone then the camera pans over to a figure in shadows. The figure fires several shots from a gun and the camera pans back to the person who went to the phone. That person is now lying dead. What makes that work is the tracking shot didn't have anything unnecessary, everything shown visually told the viewer what to be observing.

What should be mentioned is how Scarface has a sense of humor (which lends itself to making Tony a sympathetic character). One scene that stands out is the scene where Tony's secretary Angelo (Vince Barnett) tells the person on the phone "I can't hear you" during the middle of guns being fired. It's an extraordinary bit of physical comedy. This shows up after the gunfire ends and Tony picks up a Tommy gun. He shows it to Lovo and excitedly says, "Look what I found!" The end of the scene where Tony asserts control through the Tommy gun has Poppy hilariously tossing a loaded gun to Tony and he catching it.

Like always in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, Scarface had to deal with the Hays Code deciding what artists should be doing on movies they are making. Howard Hughes said 'screw them' and told Howard Hawks to trust his gut with making Scarface. Even then, with scenes added and with the disclaimer at the start, that's not good enough for the Hays Code. There can be a direct correlation between the Hays Code of the 1930s and 1940s and Angel Studios of today.

Even then, Scarface is a triumph to watch.

Also watched David Bowie: Last Five Years documentary. 

[Log]

Sinners…holy shit. That was a trip. I rewatched One Battle this afternoon and then Sinners tonight. So cool to see such interesting swings in big budget, wide release movies. 2025 was a really strong year for movies, imo. 

[Zimbra]

23 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

(It took ALL of my self-control from not posting that meme. Your welcome.)

 

[zendragon]

On 12/31/2025 at 9:03 PM, Dolfan in NYC said:

I watched Zootopia 2 with the family over Christmas.  Two things are crazy:

1) It's basically the exact same story as part 1.  Like, it's even referenced in the movie that it's the same story. 

2) It's now a few dollars/yen/yuan away from hitting $1.5 billion in the box office draw.  This makes it Disney's highest grossing animated film ever.  So expect a lot more more of Judy & Nick in the near future. 

(It took ALL of my self-control from not posting that meme. Your welcome.)

 

It the year of the Snake in China so that's apparently adding to the popularity ... also I have no idea what meme you are talking about

 

16 hours ago, odessasteps said:

 

I don't think I realized John Wayne had such a long career

[odessasteps]

Amazing if legitimate.

[HarryArchieGus]

22 hours ago, Log said:

Watched Bugonia yesterday. I thought it was a lot of fun. Probably Yorgos’ most accessible movie, which is pretty funny. I just love that people keep giving that weirdo millions of dollars to make his movies. 

Absolultey! I'd have to believe Emma Stone is the key to those millions of dollars. I have such admiration for Stone taking on these challenges and getting these incredible movies into mainstream theatres. It probably is his most accessible until it's not. I might nominate the Favourite for widest appeal - either way, not standard 'norm' fair. 




 

[Dolfan in NYC]

1 hour ago, zendragon said:

It the year of the Snake in China so that's apparently adding to the popularity ... also I have no idea what meme you are talking about

Consider yourself lucky.  

HOWEVER...  should you wish to die 10,000 deaths

"Judy Hopps I will survive"

and ... steel yourself

 

Anywho...

[Pete]

12 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Consider yourself lucky.  

HOWEVER...  should you wish to die 10,000 deaths

"Judy Hopps I will survive"

and ... steel yourself

 

Anywho...

He speaks the truth. WTF is wrong with people.

[Raziel]

2 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Consider yourself lucky.  

HOWEVER...  should you wish to die 10,000 deaths

"Judy Hopps I will survive"

and ... steel yourself

 

Anywho...

DO NOT STARE INTO THE ABYSS!

[odessasteps]

5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Amazing if legitimate.

Apparently legit. Something like £6 an issue.

[Curt McGirt]

14 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

George Raft

Every time someone mentions him I think of Junior Soprano saying "He was handsome... like George Raft." And of course, Raft was friends with Bugsy Siegel and probably other mobsters. 

I love it in Black Christmas when the house lady goes in the bathroom, opens the top of the toilet bowl and takes out a bottle of gin. 

Okay Google isn't helping. What is the deal with the Year of the Snake now. It apparently was last year as well? Are we doomed? (When aren't we doomed?)

[zendragon]

Chinese Zodiac 

[odessasteps]

 

george raft in casino royale. 

“This gun shoots backwards. I just killed myself.” 

[elizium]

On 1/1/2026 at 2:32 PM, odessasteps said:

 

I'm just glad that Alec Robbins can finally be legally married to Betty Boop

[Curt McGirt]

9 hours ago, zendragon said:

Chinese Zodiac 

"COOOOOOOOOO-CAINE!"

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today....

Ghost in the Shell (1995) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 12/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

While I understand and respect what Ghost in the Shell did in Japanese animation to have a mature story, I couldn't help but to feel that it was only 'half the story.' Motoko (Atsuko Tanaka) is to investigate the Puppet Master (Iemasa Kayumi) who is able to hack into 'cyber brains' that are housed in 'shells,' or bodies made to look like humans. A lot of the themes and style is lifted from Blade Runner and RoboCop.

A lot of the movie feels like a 'first act' rather than a complete arc; the movie ends with Motoko having the Puppet Master in her and in a different body, wondering where to go next.

It's fun to watch and the animation is great, but a lot of the dialogue feels like exposition, as characters explain how things are related within the story.

We Bury The Dead (saw in the theaters) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Like is prone to happen every January, movies get released to theater chains that lack any sort of award buzz or marketing push. It seems to be the only time that theater chains like AMC and Regal take any form of risk with their movies.

In this case, the risk didn't pay off.

We Bury The Dead for me was nearly sleep inducing and it was not out of boredom on my behalf. I'm not prone to be bored with a movie and I have seen some movies that are considered boring to watch. This is different with the combination of music, sound, and atmosphere rendering me to drift in and out of consciousness for the entire movie. The Damned that I saw around this time last year did the same to someone else in the theater, but I found it captivating.

We Bury The Dead just wasn't captivating and drift through its story with uninteresting visuals and flat atmosphere.

Ava (Daisy Ridley) goes to Tasmania in the aftermath of a disaster in a seaside town after the United States military unleashed a weapon that left 500,000 people dead and massive protests in Washington DC. The movie doesn't really dwell on this premise, which would have made a more interesting movie to watch. The 'hows,' 'whys,' 'whats,' and 'whos' involved of the events leading up to it would had a compelling story as people involved try to piece it together.

Instead, the movie is about memories, unspoken issues, and lack of trust for Ava and her husband, who is lost in Tasmania at a resort in the aftermath. Ava meets various men including Clay (Brenton Thwaites) as part of the relief effort and the two sneak away to find Ava's husband. The early parts of the movie were a bit of a mediation on Covid-19 lockdown, as the military organized people into places and were administering a cure. In this case, that involves shooting the undead that have come back to life. They meet Riley (Mark Coles Smith), who is fixated on his dead wife and separates the two.

Rather than recanting the plot, eventually Ava and Clay get to the resort and find Ava's husband dead. They send him on a burning boat into the ocean.

The worst parts of the movie besides what I mentioned is the fact that it feels very 'computer generated.' The overhead shots don't have a realistic sense of location and seem AI created. The movie does have a great musical choices, PJ Harvey's "You Said Something" shows up in a scene where Ava recalls her wedding while dancing with Riley, Can's "Vitamin C" appears while Ava and Clay are in a swimming pool, and Metric's "Help I'm Alive" plays at the ending.

It's just don't expect me to remember everything with this movie.

The Plague (saw in the theaters) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

This is probably the most uncomfortable movie I've seen in quite awhile. It feels like Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and Michael Haneke's Funny Games meets Abbas Kiarostami's Where Is The Friend's House?. When I left the theater, two women shot out like a rocket for the exit. They wouldn't even slow down for me to ask them anything.

The atmosphere throughout this movie is foreboding, on the first frame. Bodies jump into the water, one by one, as ominous music bellows.

The movie shows the secret world of 13 year old boys, in the eyes of Ben (Everett Blunck). The desire for social acceptance and the avoidance of social alienation is relatable - every male has gone through this before. "The plague" isn't an actual disease (in this case), much like 'cooties' wasn't and 'Ligma' wasn't either. The other boys at the water polo camp tell Ben about Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) and how he is to be avoided due to 'having the plague.' Eli is shown wearing a shirt, even during practices, because he is hiding pimples and rashes.

The movie ramps up the tension with every hall way shot, every lonely corridor, every empty locker room. In some respects, there's some parallels to Brian De Palma's Carrie as Eli is isolated and regarded as an outcast; Ben is a calm, sensitive, soft spoken boy in comparison to bragging machoism of the other boys. The boys sneaking out and breaking things, like a water pipe, is an example of their acting out. Eli touches Ben during this outing, which, in Ben's mind, gave him 'the plague.' He then washes himself with the open water pipe.

As the movie progresses, it's evident that Ben is now considered an outcast too. One scene that's equally touching and hilarious was after Ben ran away and called his mom from a payphone. Daddy Wags (Joel Edgerton) finds Ben and describes to him his teens, 20s, and 30s. "This is the most depressing pep talk ever," says Ben. "Just be yourself," Daddy Wags tells Ben.

While watching this, it made me reflect on my own years when I was 13. In a lot of ways, I was both Ben and Eli and I never felt like I fit in. Ben acted the way I did growing up - a sense of confidence in some respects, but anxiety and awkwardness most of the time.

Throughout the movie, Eli joked about cutting a finger off until towards the end. Ben tells Eli just to get himself together and not spend the rest of his life this way. Eli then proceeds to cut off his own finger, in the most Haneke-esque way. Daddy Wags takes Eli to the hospital in the middle of a rainstorm. Ben goes back to the middle school dance, camera focused on him as he begins to dance, much like was done in Mauvais Sang. Ben dances by himself as the camera goes to his POV and is a mass of confusion (which is true to those years for a 13 year old boy).

What I loved throughout The Plague is how shots were composited. Cross fades were used in the movie - two of my favorites were this. I loved the cross fade from Ben's face to the glass windows near the pool, with Ben's eyes matching the vertical beams. Another great crossfade was from a vending machine towards the end to the open door to the dance, with people dancing around. There's also a great use of split diopter as Ben is standing further back with the open door in the foreground of the shot.

With this as Charlie Polinger's first feature film, I really can't wait to see what he does next. He took a lot of Kubrick and Haneke as inspirations to make a movie that perfectly describes the awkward teenage years. What works against the movie is some of the acting is a mixed bag. Blunck is decent as an actor, but he does need more work under his belt. The other boys in the movie were a bit bland, but that's to be expected with the type of characters they are playing (bullying teenagers).

Go frigging see The Plague.

Watched The Criminal Code and A Chinese Ghost Story on Criterion Channel and The Maze Runner on Netflix. 

[odessasteps]

Watched The League of Gentlemen, a1960 British heist film where a bunch of former Army officers plot to rob a bank. Full of recognizable actors like Jack Hawkins, roger Livesey and Richard Attenborough. On TCM and Criterion channel. 

[odessasteps]

Watched I love you again, the 9th of 14 Powell/Loy pictures.

Tea- totaler Larry Wilson gets bonked on the head and suffers amnesia and then remembers he used to be a con man. His wife Kay is so bored by Larry she wants a divorce. But the new/old Larry fAlls in love with her (again). He also concocts a scheme to fake having oil on land he wants to sell, using the Little Beaver troopers to tell their rich parents about it. Two of the kids are Alfalfa from Our Gang and an uncredited Robert Blake. 
 

good but a notch below the better Thin Man entries. On the TCM, app. 
 

 

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today....

We Won't Grow Old Together (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Marty Supreme didn't suddenly invent the genre of "half decent men having affairs and being miserable." It has always been there. We Won't Grow Old Together is about an affair between two people that really doesn't work, but they insist on trying, then not trying, then trying again. The endless cycle of heartbreak, reconciliation, and breakup; no matter how terrible they are to each other, they still see each other. It's not quite An Affair To Remember, it's an affair to forget.

Jean (Jean Yanne) is a filmmaker who has an affair with Catherine (Marlene Jobert). The movie starts with the two in bed, wondering about continuing their affair. They say they'll stop seeing each other, then continues. Jean and Catherine dine with Catherine's parents (Christine Fabrega, Jacques Galland) who are charmed by the two together and meet with them.

Jean is also married to Francoise (Macha Meril), who is rarely seen in the movie but has the most impact. Jean's attitude is completely different with Francoise and takes on a less mean spirited approach. He teases her about her job and going away for a bit and wondered how they were married for 11 years. Jean and Catherine's affair has been occurring for over 6 years at point. Francoise appears later in the movie, acting as a 'go between' for Jean and Catherine's parents to find out where Catherine is.

The thing with how the story is told is through ellipsis, absence of details, and detached time. The events for Jean and Catherine breaking up and coming back together is almost at an indeterminable time, yet the movie presents it as happening in sequential order. One scene that stuck out to me was Jean telling nasty things to Catherine about her looks and about how no one wants her and leaving the car. Catherine sits in the car for a bit, the scene ends. The next scene shows Jean walking back from the alley to the car and greeting Catherine, as if what he just said didn't happen.

Throughout the movie, Jean laments about the money he doesn't have. He starts the movie having bread and butter for breakfast and later complains about how the dinner with the parents left him broke. So Catherine choosing to leave him and marry an unseen sales director breaks him. Catherine's parents tells Jean that he was never happy when he was together with Catherine.

What's interesting is how the film director Maurice Pialat did scenes with the two characters together. During their affair, the camera has Jean and Catherine appear in the same shot as they would do things together. They would sit on the beach together after a swim in the ocean. Catherine would sit in the grass while Jean sits on a bench. After Catherine's abrupt disappearance, Jean looks for everywhere, suspecting the worse. After all, as he relayed to her parents, she threatened suicide, pills, and slitting her wrists, so the audience's mind naturally goes to her being found dead. Instead, she appears while Jean is at a friend's apartment.

With Catherine's reappearance, the shots are framed differently. Catherine is drawn back from Jean as the camera had to pan around the room to see her during their first conversation in awhile. Jean offers to drive Catherine, which throughout the movie is the source of their arguments. They get a coffee together but Catherine purposely sits further away. This makes the scenes together result in separate shots. Catherine speaks as the camera is on her. Jean speaks then the camera is on him. Pialat uses the actual breakup to show that Catherine no longer wants to be with Jean and reflects that with shot compositions.

The ending has Jean driving with Catherine and dropping her off. He's told not to do anything risky, since Catherine has a possible idea to his state of mind. Jean drives off as the movie ends showing Catherine swimming in the ocean. What's shown appears to be 'behind the scenes' footage in some respects as music plays over the scenes. In some respects, this could be Jean remembering his time with Catherine albeit through the lens of film (since he is a filmmaker after all).

We Won't Grow Old Together as a movie shows that even an affair can succumb to the mundane and rigor of life. Two people who don't end up together can still try despite how it's bad for both of them.

Mars One (Netflix, leaving on 1/4) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Mars One uses as the background the election of Jair Bolsanero although it doesn't really shape the story (as much as the election of Donald Trump wouldn't shape a similar movie in America). What seems to be at the heart of the story is the fact that a family members can have different objectives for what they seek in happiness.

The story I felt the most was Tercia (Rejane Faria)'s. Having various tragic events happen around her including a YouTube influencer threatening to kill himself only for it to be a 'prank' would bother anyone. After that, Tercia sees someone get shot at a dance, sees a man pass out on a bus while thinking he was leaning on her, and encounters the influencer again as a homeless man. The scene where she encountered him and grabs him while smashing the camera is cathartic. Then, she overhears on the radio that the bus she was going to ride was involved in a car wreck with casualties onboard. "I'm alive."

Deivinho (Cicero Lucas)'s story is also equally moving in having to decide between pleasing his parents Tercia and Wellington (Carlos Francisco) to be a football player or to follow his dream of science through watching Neil Degrasse Tyson videos and going to hear him speak. Deivinho has no other way to respond and his father seemingly doesn't listen when he hints at not doing a football tryout. His sister Eunice (Camilia Damiao) got him a ticket for the event, but neither Deivinho nor Eunice tell the parents. And it seems like often in the movie that any disagreement with what the kids want to do result in an argument with the parents.

Eunice's story has her meeting a woman in a nightclub named Joana (Ana Hilario) and starting a relationship with her. One scene I really liked was after they begin the relationship and decide to move in together. "Saigon" is playing on Eunice's phone and both make love near the stairway. The shot of Joana's hair as she moves lower on Eunice is a great shot; the hair entangles in Eunice's face. What's interesting is Joana's parents are more okay with their daughter dating Eunice than Eunice's parents are. When Eunice introduces Joana to her parents, it's during a football match. The shot of Wellington and Tercia looking at the two while holding hands has a nice slow gradual pan over to the parents.

The last 20 minutes or so of the movie is where 'everything falls apart' for our characters. Wellington has been fired from his job on account of his co-worker robbing the manager's apartment (what should have clued Wellington in is the co-worker's talk of revolution and swimming in tenants' pools). Deivinho crashes his bicycle out of frustration (in a great shot showing his shoes going skyward). Tercia has just assaulted the YouTube influencer. Eunice has to come by on account of Deivinho's accident.

Yet despite everything breaking, the family in this sticks together as the final shot has them staring skyward at night. "How much will it cost?" "Millions of dollars, dad." "Well....we'll find a way."

Gabriel Martins created a great family drama that's relatable regardless of language and regardless of politics.

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (HBO Max) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

On Becoming A Guinea Fowl was what I thought Garden State should have been. The sins of the past roaring into the present with a main character who appears withdrawn, but is processing grief in her own way. The thing is Shula (Susan Chardy) does appear withdrawn, almost comically so. The way camera angles present her sitting there while relatives react hysterically to a person's death.

The movie starting with her driving down the road in a bejeweled mask and seeing a body lying on the road. She recognizes who it is and tries to call her father, who doesn't recognize her voice. But he wants her to pay his rent and also pay for his taxi (which is funny to think about). Shula is like a lot of people who have to do better than their parents and are almost embarrassed by them and their relatives. Nsansa (Elizabeth Chisela) appears, drunk, and calls for the police to come get the body, who is their Uncle Fred. The police tell her they can't because the vehicle is being used for something else.

On Becoming A Guinea Fowl is not about the mystery of what caused Fred's death, but is about what Fred did in the past coming back into light. The funeral visitation is almost Lynchian - strange rituals to those outside of it, but perfectly acceptable to those within. It calls to mind for me Shiva Baby, which is also a movie about a character returning to a family and the audience observing the funeral customs in that movie too. With Fred's funeral, women crawling on their knees when greeted. Shula serving food to the widow while on her knees then being told that she can't. The men of the family not getting up and getting their own food and relaying what they want on their plates. That's why the ending scenes are so wild - once the formalities and customs are broken down, the family members fight like animals over blankets.

What's interesting is the video Bupe (Esther Singini) records about her Uncle Fred - we never hear actually what was said. Shula dictates what Bupe apparently said to someone typing it out for the funeral program. In another scene does what happened to Bupe actually is explained. Shula talks to her dad (Henry B.J. Phiri) with the camera setup being further drawn back. Bupe while a child had a baby with Fred. Shula's father tries to hand wave it away, but Shula wants there to be accountability for Fred's actions. "What do you want me to do? Dig up the corpse?" asks her father.

The thing that On Becoming A Guinea Fowl confronts is trauma and what happened to children due to relatives taken advantage of them. The movie uses a children program as memories of Shula, but one of them shows the crux of the movie: the guinea fowl warns other animals of an incoming predator. Yet Shula, Bupe, and Nsansa not got any kind of warning that their own uncle was a predator too. They just have to move forward now and process it. For Shula, it's passive indifference. For Bupe, it's fainting. For Nsansa, it's alcohol.

They do have a moment where they overcome. The aunties find Shula and Nsansa in a storage room and asks them, "Have we not been suffering too?" Nsansa and Shula find themselves crying as do the aunts. Later, Shula and Nsansa sneak into the hospital and lie on the bed with Bupe. Their togetherness brings closure.

On Becoming A Guinea Fowl as a movie is very different than most other family dramas. The takes are long takes, the shots linger, and the music is practically nightmare inducing. Having Shula act as much of an outsider even with being part of the family is brilliant move. One scene that exemplifies this is Shula being on a Zoom call for work and her aunts interrupting her to go get her mother for the funeral. The thought that "hey, I'm still doing work to provide for us!" doesn't enter the equation.

Going back to the ending, during the arguments, Shula appears with the children that Fred fathered and the grandmother. Shula begins to emit a sound, much like a guinea fowl.

She's warning other people of a predator in their midst.

Only Angels Have Wings (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

It's easy to say that without Only Angels Have Wings, there wouldn't have been Raiders of the Lost Ark or the James Bond series or maybe The Aviator. A lot of the modern cinematic lexicon and thought process that exists about the "Hollywood blockbuster" came from Only Angels Have Wings.

The movie starts at a location in South America; what's shown and introduced is the location with an outsider to the area named Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur). The first two characters Lee meet resemble main characters and it would thought to be a movie about Lee becoming friends with Joe Souther (Noah Beery Jr) and another guy that works for Barranca Airways. Lee meets the owner of the airways "Dutchy" Van Ruyter (Sig Ruman). This sense of a character being plopped into the middle of the established action may have been what was done in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

10 minutes into the movie, Cary Grant has one of the best entrances in a movie as Geoff Carter. His entrance is only topped by Rita Hayward herself in 1946's Gilda. Carter appears in a white hat and a suit and it's hard not for anyone (man or woman) to be taken away by it. Women want to be with him, men want to hang out with him to get some pointers (and maybe a few want to be with him too). The thing with the movie is infatuation and desire to be part of the gang is contagious. Quite a few of the shots have multiple people in the frame as if it's 'us against the world.'

Only Angels Have Wings has probably the best first 30 minutes of a movie. Joe Souther crashes and dies in the crash and it's genuinely thrilling to watch. The camera cuts back and forth between the various actors as they are watching the plane and shouting instructions to avoid the crash. The hope is that the crash doesn't occur, yet it does. The aftermath is gut wrenching; the pilots and Geoff make morbid jokes about Joe, while Bonnie Lee is obviously angry at disregarding his life even after he's gone.

What I found amazing in the first hour is how the scenes were shot where Jean Arthur is playing the piano. There's no closeup of the hands (stunt player); the camera position is fixed on the group gathered around as Lee starts to play. It appears as though Jean Arthur really is playing the piano.

The movie progresses through the trials and tribulations of the airline and it's clear that the movie is a romance, but not in the way that you would think. It's not a romance between Geoff and Bonnie; it's a romance between Geoff and his loyalty to his men and to the airline. A new person is brought in named Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) that was a pilot under a different name. The other pilots and Geoff viewed him as suspect on account of leaping out of a plane while his engineer was still in it. Bat's wife Judy (Heyward) is shown as well and even with Judy's knowledgeable glance, she recognizes Geoff from a previous relationship.

With this in mind, Bat MacPherson spends the rest of his time in the movie trying to 'prove himself' to Geoff Carter. Bat's first assignment was to take a doctor to pick up a miner in the mountains; he takes on the assignments that are too dangerous to do on account of his experience. Yet, Geoff Carter (and the other pilots) are to never Judy how they know Bat.

The last 30 minutes or so of the movie has Bat and Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell) risking life just to return the plane back to Barranca after testing it out (the shot of the plane being on fire is incredible). What I liked was towards the end as Geoff and Bonnie were about to declare their love for each other and Bonnie were to give her final goodbyes. A radio call comes in and Geoff, arm in a sling, agrees to pilot a plane. "Heads I go, tails I stay," as Geoff flips the coin that Dabb had. It lands on heads and Bonnie Smith is given the coin. She looks at it, realizing what was shown earlier - the coin is double sided. She smiles as she watches Geoff Carter flies away. The adventures continue, but we'll never see them.

A modern Hollywood would have taken that ending and decided that there should be an Only Angels Have Wings II or even Only Angels Have Wings III. The great thing about Only Angels Have Wings is it didn't need a sequel. The story within it was complete and gave a complete arc for the characters involved. Even secondary characters had personality and importance and weren't just 'fodder' for the main characters. A lot of the interactions between Geoff and Bonnie was due to their individual interactions with the secondary characters.

There's a reason why Only Angels Have Wings is considered a classic movie.

Also saw The Alleys on Netflix, which is an okay drama from Jordan. 

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Framed (Criterion Channel, leaving on 1/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Framed as a noir and as a movie makes zero sense. It has a very good opening - a guy driving a truck in danger of crashing due to no brakes that was exciting to watch. Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford) only took the job because he couldn't find anything else. He goes into a cafe and meets a woman Paula Craig (Janis Carter) who is extraordinarily good looking - the way she's captured in her first appearance lets you know this.

Then it turns out that Paula Craig and another guy Steve Price (Barry Sullivan) are working together and have nefarious plans for Mike Lambert on account of Lambert looking like Price. Oh, and did I mention that Lambert has a college degree in mine engineering and Price is the manager at the bank? I bet if the movie went further Lambert would also have a degree in chemistry and Price would have a master's in English literature and French poetry.

The movie's story literally cobbles together things because the characters are there.

Jeff Cunningham (Edgar Buchanan) that Mike Lambert hit while he was backing out at the start, wants to restart a mine and walks into the office for mining. Lambert is standing right there and agrees to help Cunningham with the mine. Cunningham wants to celebrate which involves buying a new hat and buying Lambert a hot meal. Cunningham goes into the bank where Price is the manager and gets turned down for a bank loan.

Then after Price, Craig, and Lambert meet together where it would be thought that Price and Craig's trap would be sprung (whatever that entails), they go for a drive. In probably the most confusingly shot sequence I've seen in awhile, the camera cuts between the three characters. Craig is holding a wrench while Lambert has fallen asleep. Craig has the wrench up and instead, hits Price, knocking him out. The camera cuts to Craig with her arms out stretched near Price and then Price is shown hunched over. Somehow, all three didn't die (I guess Price wasn't driving that fast). Lambert is pulled from the car by Craig and Craig gets the car to careen over a cliff.

Newspapers show that Price is now dead. Remember Cunningham? Now because he happens to be sitting there with nothing to do, he gets charged with murder. On account of, get this, he went into the bank and argued with Price about the bank loan. I realize that Hollywood doesn't believe that the US justice system makes any sense (and it doesn't), but even that wouldn't be a case that someone like Pam Bondi would do (although I don't know, she might).

Lambert decides to clear Cunningham's name and tracks down the secretary Jane Woodworth (Barbara Woodell) who took a phone call for Price. Jane's husband Jack (Jim Bannon) talks to someone....the movie never explains who to get the police. Lambert is now on the run.

Lambert gets back to his place and sees Paula Craig. Craig wants to run away with Lambert and prepares tea (with a great shot of a box of poison). Craig puts poison in Lambert's tea then....changes her mind about poisoning Lambert. HUH? Why do an action if you change your mind? (Because she's a woman, says Hollywood screenwriter Ben Maddow. That's what women do in 1940s. Excuse me while I slap my secretary's butt).

Craig goes to the bank with a key and somehow....Lambert gets there too while Craig is cleared out the safety deposit box. Craig goes to leave and...sees the police with great shots of everyone in the bank. Lambert somehow got Cunningham freed and revealed that Craig did the murder of Steve Price, which also doesn't make sense. But it's 1940s Hollywood and this movie has to do something to get finished. It doesn't matter if it didn't make any sense.

This movie would be nearly unredeemable if it weren't for Glenn Ford, Janis Carter, and Barry Sullivan being committed for their roles. There are times at which the movie does display competent direction with shots are done and how it builds tension (although the murder of Steve Price was the lone amateurish scene). The movie at the start implied a greater impact or knowledge for the characters; as if Lambert was known by Paula Craig and Steve Price before meeting them and more would be revealed about their connections. Except the movie didn't go down that route and did something else entirely.

Also, that scene where Lambert pawns his watch at the bar for $10, walks into a dice game, and makes back double what he spent and buys back the watch for $20. I wish I had that kind of luck in Vegas.

Sometimes, if you have great locations and maybe a story, you'll have a movie.

Framed deserves to be broken apart.

The Secret Agent (watched in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

It wouldn't be fair to compare The Secret Agent with I'm Still Here. Both movies use the 'past as present' and cycle history from 1970s Brazil to today, but that's where the similarities end. (To be honest, I think 1970s Brazil is as close to 2020s America as any of us would admit, so we'll likely see a movie 20-30 years from now that strike a similar tone).

The Secret Agent is a jumble of tones and of images and at times it lands. At other times, it doesn't, with introduced story threads not truly having significance in the final story.

The movie starts with a person driving a yellow VW bug named Armando / Marcelo (Wagner Moura) stopping at an Esso gas station. There's a dead body in the parking lot, covered up with cardboard. The police then arrive, with Armando seemingly thinking it's about the dead body. No, they are just there to fuck with him because they can; they search his car and his trunk, then let him drive off.

Armando finally reaches his destination and meets a woman named Elza (Maria Fernanda Candido) for lodging. Armando goes under the name of Marcelo and is to work at the office of identification, just to search for where there is a record of his wife Fatima at the office. Helping him on this search is Anisio (Buda Lira), who also keeps secret his involvement with Armando. The office is made to be a 'police station' temporarily with Armando meeting the police chief Euclides (Roberio Diogenes).

The title "Secret Agent" isn't in allusion to any governmental or spy work that any character does; it's more to do with Armando (and others) 'hiding in plain sight.' Armando is sought after by Augusto (Roney Villela) and Bobbi (Gabriel Leone), like something out of 1947's The Killers. Euclides becomes aware of their search in a scene where those two ride along in a police car with Euclides and one of his officers Arlindo (Italo Martinis). Also, 'hiding in plain sight' is Hans (Udo Kier), who can be considered a 'silver Jew' due to his hair and complexion that Euclides mistakes to be a German soldier from WWII. Elsa and a couple from Angola Thereeza Vitoria (Isabel Zuaa) and Antonio (Lucinio Januario) that learn of Armando's true identity at a party are also 'hiding in plain sight.'

The Secret Agent is about a very paranoid time in world history - elements of American films like The Conversation (the present day history students listening in to recorded conversations), Nashville (a vehicle driving around and blasting a message), and The Godfather (the restaurant meal is setup almost the same as the hit in that movie, not to mention the horse's leg being swapped with the severed leg in the morgue).

The movie doesn't fully resolve itself, even with the 2+ hour run time. A lot of the story threads, like who were the two men that came to the university Armando worked, were dramatic to watch, but ultimately seemed a bit lacking. While I liked the scenes for showing that kleptocrats interfering with public university and their research (they only wanted research into leather tanning rather than any other significant research), it seemed to not have a resolution. The man involved hired Augusto and Bobbi to find Armando, but that's just it. The scene with the severed leg attacking people in the park was funny, but ultimately irrelevant to the story. The purpose seemed to be that even in 1970s Brazil, the news media is just as culpable to publish stories that serve as distractions. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?).

While I love the stylistic choices for camerawork and shots taken for the movie and the overall cinematography look, I found myself a bit disappointed. Compared to I'm Still Here, The Secret Agent didn't conclude as well as it did. I'm Still Here left me a bit emotional. With The Secret Agent, there is a sense of closure with present day Fernando (also played by Maura) receiving a flash drive of his father's recordings. Armando's fate is much like cinema of the 1970s - they never meet good ends, like Jake in Chinatown.

I did like the sequence where the 'walls are closing in' on Armando as the assassins begin to locate him - it reminded me a bit of a similar sequence in No Country For Old Men.

For the most part, The Secret Agent is a great in style but not great in story.

Superman (1978) (watched in the theaters) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Superman (1978) is such a weird weird movie. What makes it weird is countless number of things - what's introduced at the start of the movie has no bearing upon its conclusion. It feels almost entirely like a 'first act' even as the movie concludes. Marlon Brando gets top billing despite being in the movie for maybe 15 minutes. Gene Hackman gets second billing despite introduced an hour into the movie then sporadically after that.

Superman came out a year after Star Wars and it shows. There's FOUR screenwriters (including the author of The Godfather Mario Puzo) and about SEVEN people doing the continuity. Even though it's a 2 hour runtime, so much of the movie feels like 'something' was left out.

The scenes on Krypton with Brando as Jor-El sentencing three people (including Terrence Stamp as General Zod) to the "Phantom Zone" feels like a strange drug-induced sci-fi movie. The lighting is weird with the suits brighter than the actors' faces, obviously on purpose. Brando hams it up and acts like he doesn't really understand half the words he's saying, looking off into the distance for most of his shots (obviously reading cue cards too). His baby with Lara (Susannah York) get rocked off of Krypton as everything falls apart.

Once Jonathan Kent (Glenn Ford) and Martha Kent (Phyllis Thaxter) find a baby Kal-El, Superman (1978) resembles a sped up American Graffiti. The shots are absolutely gorgeous in those scenes - I especially loved the shot after Jonathan's death where Clark (Jeff East) is standing in a field. I would have loved to have seen a Superman movie more about this, but with this one, it was already nearly 45 minutes into the movie.

Clark Kent takes what he found in the barn and goes to the Arctic and throws it into the water. It turns into the Fortress of Solitude while Jor-El intones instructions and then there's a time lapse. We get Superman (Christopher Reeve) flying away.

It then goes to Daily Planet and quite honestly it resembles the newsroom in All The President's Men. I almost wonder if Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Kent (Reeve) would be seated diagonally from each other like Woodward and Bernstein were in All The President's Men. Lane is introduced to Kent rather briskly and Lane is to interview the President of the US and to leave via helicopter.

Honestly, this is where the movie goes off the rails a bit. A robber tries to steal from Lane and Clark Kent catches the bullet. Throughout the sections with Kent and later with Superman, I liked how Reeve had an almost Woody Allen demeanor to his character of Clark Kent. A lot of the comedy is in the scenes between Kent and Lane then Superman and Lane.

Probably the best scenes were the interview and flight around the city; Lane wondering in a voiceover if Superman could read her mind is great feminine fantasy. In a completely different movie, it would be a great romantic character comedy/drama. But yet it's not in this case.

I guess I need to talk about Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, which seems completely out of place in this movie. Hackman's Luthor is more at home with the 1970s James Bond movie villains than anything related to the actual comic book. His 'plan' literally doesn't make any sense (buying up land then using missiles to trigger the San Andreas fault to break up California? Ummm, okay). Eve Teschmacher (Valerine Perrine) saving Superman is due to one of the missiles going to her hometown of Hackensack, NJ, which seems really really convenient.

Then the last 20 minutes or so is....some terrible writing. Superman stops one of the missiles, the other goes into the San Andreas, but Superman somehow seals it up. Yet he's too late to save Lois Lane, who dies a pretty grisly death. Then he somehow goes backwards in time (?) then flying around the Earth backwards. He's able to rescue Lois Lane then somehow drop off Luthor and Otis (Ned Beatty) at a prison. Despite you know:
* Superman was underground the time the missiles were flying toward California.
* Lex Luthor was transmitting at a frequency that only Superman could hear.
* Lois Lane was driving and her car got out of gas, which places her at the point where the missile hit the San Andreas.
* So how was Superman able to stop the missile AND grab Luthor and Otis?
* He literally would have to be THREE places at once: spinning backwards, plugging up the San Andreas, and capturing Luthor and Otis.

Editing throughout the movie just seems so haphazard as to how scenes are put together. Superman (1978) feels like a movie done under the worst deadline imaginable with the shortest deadline possible. Maybe they have said 'fuck it' and recast Jor-El. Brando wasn't the biggest problem with Superman, the writing and plot was.

So maybe in comparison, 2025's Superman is a better movie. The story makes more sense (despite the namelessness of the countries in that movie and how they definitely aren't Israel and definitely aren't Palestine, no way). Still, John Williams' score and Margot Kidder and Christopher Reeve made a nearly bad movie almost....super.