2026 Movie Discussion Thread

[Technico Support]

On 5/1/2026 at 9:47 PM, Raziel said:

I can't tell you how disappointed I was when Sleeping Dogs came out and I saw it wasn't an adaption of the amazing 2012 Video Game.

Sleeping Dogs remains one of my biggest video games disappointments.  I got a ways into it and was really loving it, when I hit a mission I couldn't pass and just gave it up.  There was a mission where there's an unavoidable shootout with multiple guys in some little one story building with a bunch of tables, and the only way to succeed is to perfectly slide across one table at a time, and each time you need to shoot these guys as you slid to fill up some meter.  Like maybe it was a bullet time/slo mo meter that only fills by using it successfully, so it's like "slide, slow time, shoot perfectly, meter fills, repeat."  You couldn't succeed without filling the meter each time, but getting the shots perfectly to fill it was a labor.  Even dumber is that the room was in Quonset hut type place and you could have easily just driven around the back side if the game allowed more mission freedom, but nope, the game made you go do this ridiculously hard shootout.  The control scheme was also weird, making this so wonky and un-fun, and the fact that this was the only way to beat it was so dumb and gimmicky.  

Edited May 5 by Technico Support

[J.H.]

Douglas dubbed it "My Sex Trilogy"

James

Edited May 5 by J.H.

[Curt McGirt]

I bet he has a real sex trilogy that is better than all of those movies. The tell-all would be fantastic.

[Zimbra]

Michael Douglas said he got throat cancer from eating pussy too good, I guarantee he has fuck stories that would shrivel your soul.

[odessasteps]

Since we discussed it recently 

[Tabe]

7 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Ah yes, Disclosure.  The third (and least) in what the Rewatchables pod described as the "Michael Douglas' Dick Gets Him in Trouble Trilogy."

I will hear no slander of movies with peak Demi Moore in them.

[Andrew POE!]

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Since we discussed it recently 

I didn't like the scene, but keep in the scene in it and put the warning at the start. 

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today...

The Infiltrator (Netflix, leaving on 5/7) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

I found myself liking The Infiltrator despite watching it spread out over two days (with watching The Wizard of the Kremlin and having to sleep in between).

The movie does certain things really well - the opening tracking shot set to "Tom Sawyer" and then later a tracking shot set to "Eminence Front" is very much as Scorsese as possible with the melding of music and camerawork found in Goodfellas. But then at times, the drama dragged and seemed almost rudderless. It's building to Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) taking down those involved with the Columbia drug smuggling ring at the end during Mazur's cover wedding to Kathy Ertz (Diane Kruger).

For the most part, it's a well acted, well shot movie; the cinematography has a grimy, seedy dark look to it that reminded me a bit of David Fincher's Se7en. Then contrasting that with the elegant visuals and locations gives the movie a more distinctive look.

It's not exactly the best biopic of similar subjects (American Made as a movie I found to be a lot better), but it's not terrible either.

These Three (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Had These Three stuck with the original play and the later 1961 version, I think it would have been a landmark movie. There are times in which it comes close - body language and close seating of Martha (Miriam Hopkins) and Karen (Merle Oberon), knowing glances between the two in some scenes give the impression that there is a queer romance between the two. Instead, it's Karen falling in love with local doctor Joseph Cardin (Joel McCrea) and Martha being a tad jealous. The children's rumors about it would matter if a society was completely closed off to relationships and completely Puritan. As it is, I couldn't help but to think "who cares?" when it comes up that there was something 'improper' about Martha's desire for Dr. Cardin. This is the Great Depression - what's 'improper' is how the movie going audience isn't able to find anything to eat or any jobs!

In an effort to completely remove the lesbian subtext as well as a suicide renders the entire movie nearly pointless. This was changed to appease Will Hays and to adhere to the Hays Code. In some alternate universe, the real version of These Three exists - Martha and Karen are torn asunder due to the mean rumors of children about their relationship between the two, no Dr. Cardin exists, and Aunt Lily (Catharine Doucet) would be just as much of a busybody as she is in this version.i guess if I want 1930s lesbian romance, I’ll have to watch Madchen in Uniform.

Despite my complaints about the censorship, the acting for this is where the movie shines. The standout is Bonita Granville as Mary, who acted at least 20 years ahead of her time as Bonita. Through her acting, you can see where Karen Balkin as Mary in The Children's Hour got it; she's almost on the level of Jodie Foster as a child actor. If Bonita Granville were a child actor in the 1960s/1970s, she would be doing the challenging roles. So much of the movie is focused on her rather than on Martha being upset about Karen and Dr. Cardin being in love.

The scene in question where Mary forces Rosalie (Marcia Mae Jones) to say she saw something she didn't is a malevolent energy on screen. Then, later when Dr. Cardin, Martha, and Karen confront Mary and Rosalie, there's practically an ear splitting scream as the camera focuses on Mary's face.

There's also really great location shooting - the first 15 minutes or so had a 'lived in' quality to the scenes that John Ford would also do in The Grapes of Wrath. It eventually goes into the almost standard "people stand in a room and act" acting that 1930s movies did too much.

The conclusion for the movie didn't quite sit well with me, considering I saw The Children's Hour first. There shouldn't be a 'happy ending' for this. Martha shouldn't have gone to Mrs. Tilford (Alma Kruger)'s house with Rosalie and Mrs. Tilford found out the truth about Mary. There shouldn't be a scene where Karen and Dr. Cardin are in Vienna. It should have ended in tears. The Hays Code injecting 'morals' into this movie was ill planned, ill suited, and ill written.

Not every movie needs to have a 'moral' lesson.

Selena (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

I grew up with my mother playing Selena and Gloria Estefan all the time.

High school me was like, "Fuck, my parents are such a drag to deal with. My mom listens to this Spanish music. I just want to listen to Radiohead and Elliott Smith in peace on my headphones and be a moody teenager!" Keep in mind, I'm not a Mexican American. Neither is my mom. She's just fluent in Spanish to the point that she could pass for a native speaker (she told me at one point she could switch the pronunciation of words based on what province in Mexico a person she spoke to lived).

So a Regal movie theater showing Selena on May 5th seems a bit...cultural approximation? Selena as a singer inspired a lot of Hispanic women that look like her and were happy that they felt like 'they had their own.' They had their own Madonna. Their own Mariah Carey. Their own Tina Turner.

The movie does a lot of other musical biopics do....we see the rise of the singer and the peak of their success. We also see what happened tragically to Selena.

What I liked is the fact that Gregory Nava directed it - he gives the movie a bit of a 'grit' to it. The story of Selena Quintanilla-Perez (Jennifer Lopez) is really the story of her father Abraham (Edward James Olmos) having his band kicked out of an American club for being "Mexican" and then kicked out of a Hispanic club for "not playing music that we can dance to." Abraham pretty much gave up on even making a career in music and had kids. All that changed when his daughter Selena (Becky Lee Meza / Jennifer Pena) starts singing.

The scenes where he decides to buy instruments second hand and shows his wife Marcella (Constance Marie) is actually pretty funny. The daughter Suzette (Jackie Guerra) is made to play drums. The brother A.B. (Jacob Vargas) is made to play bass. Selena is given a microphone to sing. They're like, "Dad, we're just kids, we want to play outside! We don't want to play music right now!" They almost sound like The Shaggs for a few minutes (Can you imagine Selena singing "My Pal Foot Foot" while her brother and sister figure out how to play music?). Fortunately for us (and for the movie), Selena and her brother and sister doesn't sound like The Shaggs. They figure out how to play music.

The movie has Abraham opening a Mexican restaurant because "gringos love Mexican food." (Sadly, we do. Right now, people are going to Mexican/Hispanic restaurants because it's "Cinco de Mayo, man!"). There's a really great tracking shot as the camera follows Abraham taking a hot plate to a table and back to the kitchen. Eventually, the restaurant folds because "Reaganomics happened." Abraham and his family sell their house and live with his uncle.

From there, the movie shows the grueling touring schedule that Selena and her family does; it fast forwards to when Selena is older and is singing as an adult. What seems to prevalent is the (very relatable) aspect of Abraham not wanting Selena to surrender her innocence and his not really able to let go. He has his reasons - he's not like Joseph Jackson in Michael, but he's close. A scene where he tells Selena that she 'has to be twice as perfect' because 'we're not American enough for Americans and Mexican enough for Mexicans' is the root of what is the issue for him. He feels that he's not accepted in the United States, even after being born there and living there. It goes back to what Gregory Nava did with El Norte; the wider culture of America, the people that look like me, seemingly has a problem with Hispanic heritage. Ideally, it shouldn't matter. People like Abraham and Selena shouldn't be told to 'go home' because they are home.

What complicates things is Selena meeting Chris Perez (Jon Seda). Chris is completely unlike anything Selena knows - he has long hair and plays metal. Chris is kinda simple, almost sweetly so. Selena and Chris end up getting married, pretty much behind Abraham's back. The scene where Chris is accepted by the family gave me a lump in my throat. Abraham hugs Chris, calls him 'son,' and welcomes him to the family is really a great moment in the movie.

Even though the movie is a standard biopic, there are touches where it's different. The scenes with split screens at a concert in Mexico and the stage almost breaks is a nice stylish touch. I also liked the scenes later in the movie where it shows the aftermath of Selena winning a Grammy and doing a fashion show - there's at least two or three different film types (16mm, 35mm, and camcorder footage too) within those scenes. It's different enough to stand out. There's also a lot of closeups of Jennifer Lopez's face - to the point that you can see the lipstick color she has on and the blemishes in her face. I don't think later movies with Jennifer Lopez did as many closeups of her like that.

I wasn't as keen on the scenes where Yolanda (Lupe Ontiveros) has gunned down Selena and the police swarming her with Selena's family in the hospital. It seems a bit 'rushed,' but I think that's due to the nature of Selena's murder. At that point, Selena's story has ended. The scene leading up to it flashes back to an earlier point in the movie where a young Selena is looking at the moon and dreaming of her career. An older Selena is singing and then a rose falls onto the stage; that scene seems like a dream/symbolic of her death. We never see Selena getting shot, just the suddenness of her death.

For the most part, Selena isn't that bad as a movie. And Selena is a very pretty person and a great singer too. I still like my Radiohead and Elliott Smith though.

Watched A Wild Patience Has Taken Me Here short film on Criterion Channel. 

[zendragon]

There's a local tribute act called Anything for Selenas that plays every towns street fair it seems

I also once saw Thunder Rosa sing Bitty Bitty Bomba as her own entrance music

 

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today...

Melvin Goes To Dinner (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Melvin Goes to Dinner really is completely uninteresting to watch. It at times tries to approach My Dinner With Andre, but the disjointed nature of how it does things takes me completely out of it. With these types of 'conversation movies,' the trick is to have the conversation actually be the centerpiece. When a character talks about going somewhere or seeing someone, there isn't a flashback to show what that person is saying. The process allows for there to be a trust in the audience to fill in the blanks and to create their own images in their mind.

This overuses flashbacks to the point that it disrupts the movie. Surely, there's some funny moments - David Cross as a seminar leader that Melvin (Michael Blieden) attends with the thought that he was going on a date, the guy that thought he was God (Jack Black) that Melvin sees at a hospital, the "Plumbers Don't Wear Ties" like photograph stills of Joey (Matt Price) going to Houston and partying with two flight attendants at a bar.

But the rest of the time is filled with inane conversations that aren't compelling to watch. It's not like watching Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn reconnecting after years. It's attractive people lamenting their dating life - Joey is debating having an affair, Melvin talks about his go nowhere affair, Alex (Stephanie Courtney) seemingly has nothing going on in her life, and Sarah (Annabelle Gurwitch) is really pretty and talks about seeing her ex-boyfriend (Bob Odenkirk) after breaking up with him four years ago.

Then the reveal at the end that Sarah was the woman in Houston following Joey down the street and later sees him the next morning in the hotel bar.

At various points half way through, I started browsing the web or getting distracted by other things.

The thought occurred to me while watching this - this is what actors feel like they have to do when they aren't landing television roles, or a role in a blockbuster movie, or even work with a big name director. They make it on their own; I just wish what was made was better and interesting.

Watched Shinjuku Boys short film on Criterion Channel. 

Tricia's Wedding (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

I imagine that a version of this today about Donald Trump going to the Kennedy Center would have a drag queen Trump squirting ketchup packets from his ear and a drag queen Melania staring into the camera while a skinny malnourished man as Kid Rock yells about how he's a cowboy, baby.

As it is, this is just incredible to watch.

Sylvester sings incredibly as Coretta Scott King. The pope shows up. Pat Nixon wonders why Colonel Sanders is being invited. The wedding vows is the height of hilariousness. Someone pours LSD into the drink and it turns into something out of Climax. People get naked. "Oh no, she's being fucked with a baseball bat. Wait, that's an ax handle." "Is it a funeral?" *dozes off*

Pure chaos. Just turn a camera on and go.

This short film is a wonder of editing as the scenes cut at precise moments and the humor resembles a lot of the dark humor of the late 1960s movies.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (HBO Max) - 0.5/5 star

Spoiler

For whatever reason, I'm trying to watch the Mortal Kombat movies before Mortal Kombat II comes out (instead of watching another movie in my endless 'death race').

I can't tell if this movie is bad because they didn't feel like spending any money or it's bad because someone above the director approved it and overrode the director's call. The movie picks up at the end of Mortal Kombat (1995) and....a lot of the actors look different. Liu Kang is still Robin Shou. Kitana is still Talisa Soto. But everyone else is different and it's noticeable. Rayden is played by James Remar and Remar lacks the sarcastic energy of Christopher Lambert. Lambert made you wonder if Rayden was really a bad guy with how he acted towards Liu Kang.

The entire opening scene feels like a Made for VHS Power Rangers episode with putties (I mean ninjas) appearing out of nowhere. Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson) appears and...his costume looks really noticably bad. There's really bad CGI and special effects. Rayden and Shao Kahn jump and you can see the green screen. Someone looked at the footage and was like, "Fuck it, it's fine."

That's the way the whole movie looks. The first one was cheesy, but a degree of care was placed in the sets, the acting, the fighting choreography, and special effects. Mortal Kombat felt like a homage to Chinese martial arts films. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation feels like a parody of Chinese martial arts films.

Rayden eventually changes into a costume that can only be described as something you'd see on someone coming out of Urban Outfitters or a boy band music video. Jax (Lynn "Red" Williams) has metallic arms that are obviously made out of plastic. Characters get tossed on screen for the sole purpose of fighting people. There's no explanation - the thought would be they would come back. Scorpion (J.J. Perry / Ed Boon) captured Kitana, but he never comes back. Sub-Zero (Keith Cooke) appears and is the older brother of Sub-Zero from the first movie; he never plays a part in the finale. Nightwolf (Litefoot) appears to help Liu Kang unlock a power within, but he doesn't play a part.

The finale with the various characters - Liu Kang, Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess), Kitana, and Jax - against Shao Kahn's allies Mileena (Dana Hee), Motaro (Deron McBee) in the worst costume I've ever seen, Smoke (Ridley Tsui) and Shao Kahn just feels like they ran out of time. Liu Kang and Shao Kahn's fight as unlocked animals looks like really bad CGI that was never given a chance to polish up. Then there's the final battle where one of the Elder God appears and says that Shao Kahn and Liu Kang will fight in....Mortal Kombat (right at the same time a dude yells out "Mortal Kombat!" and the theme starts).

Honestly, that scene is the best scene in the movie because it's purely by accident that it worked.

Filmmaking is hard, I get it. This movie probably should have never been released.

 

 

[JLSigman]

11 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (HBO Max) - 0.5/5 star

  Hide contents

For whatever reason, I'm trying to watch the Mortal Kombat movies before Mortal Kombat II comes out (instead of watching another movie in my endless 'death race').

I can't tell if this movie is bad because they didn't feel like spending any money or it's bad because someone above the director approved it and overrode the director's call. The movie picks up at the end of Mortal Kombat (1995) and....a lot of the actors look different. Liu Kang is still Robin Shou. Kitana is still Talisa Soto. But everyone else is different and it's noticeable. Rayden is played by James Remar and Remar lacks the sarcastic energy of Christopher Lambert. Lambert made you wonder if Rayden was really a bad guy with how he acted towards Liu Kang.

The entire opening scene feels like a Made for VHS Power Rangers episode with putties (I mean ninjas) appearing out of nowhere. Shao Kahn (Brian Thompson) appears and...his costume looks really noticably bad. There's really bad CGI and special effects. Rayden and Shao Kahn jump and you can see the green screen. Someone looked at the footage and was like, "Fuck it, it's fine."

That's the way the whole movie looks. The first one was cheesy, but a degree of care was placed in the sets, the acting, the fighting choreography, and special effects. Mortal Kombat felt like a homage to Chinese martial arts films. Mortal Kombat: Annihilation feels like a parody of Chinese martial arts films.

Rayden eventually changes into a costume that can only be described as something you'd see on someone coming out of Urban Outfitters or a boy band music video. Jax (Lynn "Red" Williams) has metallic arms that are obviously made out of plastic. Characters get tossed on screen for the sole purpose of fighting people. There's no explanation - the thought would be they would come back. Scorpion (J.J. Perry / Ed Boon) captured Kitana, but he never comes back. Sub-Zero (Keith Cooke) appears and is the older brother of Sub-Zero from the first movie; he never plays a part in the finale. Nightwolf (Litefoot) appears to help Liu Kang unlock a power within, but he doesn't play a part.

The finale with the various characters - Liu Kang, Sonya Blade (Sandra Hess), Kitana, and Jax - against Shao Kahn's allies Mileena (Dana Hee), Motaro (Deron McBee) in the worst costume I've ever seen, Smoke (Ridley Tsui) and Shao Kahn just feels like they ran out of time. Liu Kang and Shao Kahn's fight as unlocked animals looks like really bad CGI that was never given a chance to polish up. Then there's the final battle where one of the Elder God appears and says that Shao Kahn and Liu Kang will fight in....Mortal Kombat (right at the same time a dude yells out "Mortal Kombat!" and the theme starts).

Honestly, that scene is the best scene in the movie because it's purely by accident that it worked.

Filmmaking is hard, I get it. This movie probably should have never been released.

 

 

The only good thing about this is Ray Park doing Rayden's stunts. The whole thing was a disaster from start to finish. 

[Curt McGirt]

Doesn't that hit most of the "worst films ever" lists out there?

[J.H.]

Wow, Ray Park...

James

 

Edited May 7 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

2 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Doesn't that hit most of the "worst films ever" lists out there?

It does and I apparently wasn't aware of it when I started watching it. 

[Contentious C]

8 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Doesn't that hit most of the "worst films ever" lists out there?

... But is it worse than The Crow: Wicked Prayer ?

I couldn't tell you, I haven't seen it. But if it's on HBO, I'll get around to it after finishing Hamnet.

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today...had to do work things.

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (Peacock, leaving on 5/11) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

In some respects, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a reverse version of Roman Holiday. In that, an aristocratic woman pretends to be a common person and courts a newspaper reporter. With this, it's a common person courting an aristocrat and being part of their lifestyle albeit briefly. Mrs. Harris (Lesley Manville) is not part of any middle/upper class in England, much less in France. Her desire to go to Paris, to the House of Dior, and to buy a dress is born out of a desire to feel beautiful, feel elegant, and feel womanly. Her life consists of saving up her money and living by herself since her husband was MIA then KIA in World War II.

What's interesting is the fact that the movie has failure be a frequent brush for Mrs. Harris. She at first doesn't think she'll get to go to Paris after losing 100 pounds at a track race. She's resigned to the fact that it won't work out - until things start coming into place for her. Her husband's pension is now hers, the reward for a diamond is given to her, and Archie (Jason Isaacs) wins money at the track for her. "Today's my lucky day," indeed.

When arriving in Paris, Mrs. Harris manages to get herself into a showing for Dior's clothing and meets Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson). The highlight for the movie is the fashion being shown to them; the colors, lighting, and details in the clothing is beautifully shown in an extended sequence. Mrs. Harris wants to buy a dress called Temptation and Dior team agrees to make a dress after someone else buys Temptation, but it will take longer.

While waiting Mrs. Harris becomes part of the lives of the people working at Dior. She becomes friends with Andre Lauvel (Lucas Bravo) and the practically Audrey Hepburn-like Natasha (Alba Baptista); Andre and Natasha have a shared interest in Sartre's philosophy. Andre and Natasha both want more out of life, which Mrs. Harris helps to facilitate. Even Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) rubs up against Mrs. Harris, but is won over too.

It would be thought that this type of movie would lead to a romantic interest for Mrs. Harris, but that's not the case. It's not that falling in love for her is important; what's more important for her is her sense of kindness and having it win out in the end for her. Mrs. Harris lets Pamela (Rose WIlliams) borrow her dress for a party, but Pamela catches it on fire and it shows up in the paper. (Personally, I would think the dress wouldn't fit on Pamela's proportions and it catching on fire would be the least of her worries, what with her breasts popping out of it and all).

In the end, when Ada Harris returns to London, she learns of what happened to the House of Dior. She receives a dress and a note. Claudine is now President of the company, Andre and Natasha are now dating, Madame Avallon (Guilaine Londez) sees her husband arrested (to be honest, the side story with Avallon wasn't as well developed as I liked), and the Marquis has a bouquet of Princess Margaret roses for Mrs. Harris.

She goes to a dance and sees Archie; everyone stops in their tracks and looks at her in the Temptation dress. In the end, it seems that Archie and Ada will find love after all.

With this movie, it is a bit of a throwback to those earlier movies like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's, but it's practically gorgeous to look at for the production design, set design, and cinematography. It won't break any new ground story wise, but it doesn't need to. Lesley Manville as an actor is able to make any story shine (as she did in this year's Midwinter Break and another movie I reviewed Ordinary Love).

Some aspects of the story weren't as well developed as I'd liked, but that can't really be faulted.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris shows that all you need is kindness, the right clothes, and a winning personality.

Clerks (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4.5/5 stars

Spoiler

I would purport that Clerks is part of 'guys' cinema' or 'lads' cinema.' The thing is, it doesn't position itself as being part of it. But it seems to be true of independent cinema in the 1990s - most of the notable independent movies had male directors and therefore a male viewpoint. Quentin Tarantino had Reservoir Dogs, Jon Favreau had Swingers, Richard Linklater had Slacker (which Kevin Smith thanked and cited Linklater as an influence), you had Hollywood productions like Rounders and Glengarry Glen Ross that reinforce a male perspective, and Clerks is this too.

The thing about it is Clerks doesn't have a story; Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) proclaims throughout the movie that "I'm not even supposed to be here." It functions as a series of vignettes that are linear as it depicts the course of a day. Dante talks with Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), who is sardonic and nearly monotone in his line delivery (yet completely hilarious - "You know I'm your hero").

What makes this is a 'guy's cinema' movie is the fact that the movie is focused on relationships and men's relationships with women. Women are viewed in hostility or even as untrustworthy. Dante talks about Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer) who broke his heart and there's an announcement of her pending nuptials in the local paper. Dante has a relationship with Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), whom he spends time with near the start of the movie until he finds out that Veronica gave a customer what's called a 'snowball.' He then becomes mad at her for 'sucking 37 guys' dicks' ("In a row?" someone asks). The fact that both of these women did what they wanted out of their choice is lost on Dante. Veronica did what she did before she even met Dante. Caitlin did what she did after she broke up with Dante (and cheated on him with a guy they went to high school with).

As would be noted in Bridesmaids, Dante is both the cause and solution to his own problems.

The questionable sexual politics extends to other characters - Jay (Jason Mewes) proudly proclaims his masculinity and how 'he loves women.' Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) tells Dante "You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you." The guy that wants a porn magazine while using the bathroom (then dies) and Caitlin is traumatized through what she thought was sex with Dante. Most of the time it's played up for laughs and there isn't really a response for it.

That is until Randal letting Dante have it after their fight in the store. "Oh, fuck you! Fuck you, pal! Jesus, there you go again trying to pass the buck. I'm the source of all your misery. Who closed the store to play hockey? Who closed the store to go to a wake? Who tried to win back his ex girlfriend without even discussing how he felt with his present one? You wanna blame somebody? Blame yourself." Dante doesn't see himself as the problem until the very end. He realizes that a relationship is built on actual trust of another person - he'll visit Caitlin in the hospital and talk with Veronica. Whether it leads to a continued romantic relationship with either one isn't important.

Even then, Clerks works for the fact that there's an easy, conversational flow to the dialogue and what's shown is compelling to watch. Kevin Smith filming it in black and white is like a lot of earlier directors in cinema like Godard and Fellini. The visuals for the movie are really simple - oftentimes, shots of the convenience store, outside the convenience store with Jay and Silent Bob, and inside the video store (Randal says the movies at the store suck but eager eyed people will see Drugstore Cowboy and Children of a Lesser God on the racks).

After reading David Skolnick's review (https://boxd.it/eea6DV), I realized and remembered that I too worked crappy retail jobs. The thing about the time that Clerks came out is that jobs like Dante and Randal's jobs were considered 'lower income jobs.' Grown adults weren't supposed to be working there. No one went to college with aspirations to be a video store clerk or a convenience store clerk. The fact is that this is indicative of the US economy; the choice that people think they have to consume or buy items is a 'false choice' or 'no choice.' "What am I supposed to do? Drink this coffee hot?" is the type of consumer choice people have. Asking where something is without looking for it is another choice. Asking for something that's not carried is a choice. Same with renting Navy Seals. Someone walking into a convenience store to rile up the customers about cigarettes when he's a gum salesman is an example of this. It also feeds into the "title dictates behavior" argument that Dante and Randal have. It also feeds into the discussion about independent contractors working on the second Death Star - when a ruling government or class makes the rules of a society, other people have no other choice but to comply.

The frequent refrain is "this job would be so great if it weren't for the fucking customers" shows that these choices blind people from being better humans to retail employees. This explains how people get labeled as "Karens" for possibly unreasonably high expectations of retail. "Our job, monkeys pressing buttons could do this," Randal tells Dante at one point. Customers doing this, like crying about foul language in front of them, or selling cigarettes to a kid, or looking for the perfect milk jug or the perfect eggs, or asking a video store clerk which movies someone should get is indicative of this. The 'whys' behind their behavior doesn't make sense, but the retail clerks are there to endure it despite the low pay.

Ideally, this shouldn't be what a country's economy is reduced to - I shouldn't have been to having to work 20 jobs in the two years after college. The friends that I knew in high school and college seemingly had better lives and had better luck; their skills and abilities lead them down a path that didn't interest me.

For the most part with Clerks, it's emblematic of the 1990s and the type of movies that Hollywood would start allowing to be made and given a budget to make. It would be awhile before we start seeing another film movement like that. It was the ladies' turn after all to make 'ladies' cinema.'

The Sheep Detectives (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

The Sheep Detectives in addition to being a Knives Out / Agatha Christie murder mystery, is also an allegory on community, acceptance, and togetherness. The shepherd analogy is common in the Bible - where it is taught that Jesus is a shepherd who leads His flock. (There's a funny scene where one of the sheep says a church is where God lives, and he's also bread, a shepherd, and a lamb too). The flock doesn't necessarily mean everyone is the same (unlike the way Southern Baptist Church would teach or the way those claiming to be Republicans would think). A flock is different and individual and....everyone has a name. Even a name like Wooleyes.

Within the movie, it talks a bit about a 'winter lamb' being an outcast to a flock. Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) is a grown-up 'winter lamb.' He doesn't consider himself to be belonging to a flock, but yet he stays. He's like those outsiders that a community has that they learn to accept or maybe tolerate. Sebastian's back story with George (Hugh Jackman) is due to the fact that George bought him from a carnival and took him home; away from the fighting and the spectacle and the ridicule. With the three little lambs that are rambunctiousness and full of energy, they are told to stay away by Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart) from a 'winter lamb' (Tommy Birchall). George feeds the 'winter lamb' from a bottle (honestly the animation for the 'winter lamb' and the voice acting is pure cuteness).

What's interesting is all of the change in the community, in the flock has an impetus with Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). It's telling that George named Lily after his late wife; it's likely that he saw the good qualities in the sheep that his wife carried. A common line throughout the movie is how human eyes are used to judge and determine a person's soul; which is true to life most of the time. Lily notices Rebecca (Molly Gordon)'s eyes during the scene when everyone is gathered together for the reading of the will. Rebecca seems bothered, yet scared at the same time.

Even with the philosophical and moralistic aspects of the movie, the main crux, the "MacGuffin" if you will, is nearly a standard murder mystery, not unlike the ones that Kenneth Brannagh did (which I still need to watch his works for that and yes the four freaking hour version of Hamlet too). Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) seems a bit too clever too quickly (even after the book that Lily and the other sheep gave him) and is able to surmise that Rebecca wasn't the killer. This is after both he and Lily thought that she committed the murder. The thought would be that the movie would spend a bit more time on the other suspects and their motives for them to be ruled out. The other characters involved aren't as well rounded, even as Derry quickly goes through interviewing them and determines that they didn't do it. Instead, the movie lands on Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine) despite his helping Tim Derry out at the start of the movie. If Matthews did it, why would he even suggest that Derry look inside the camper? Wouldn't he want him to NOT look inside the camper or hope that he gets distracted by something else?

When Derry looks in the camper, he almost immediately turns around and decides everything is in order; Matthews points the glass and the chair out to him. I know the movie tried to paint Matthews as feeling himself to be 'oh so clever' for having committed the murder, but both characters from act I to the end did complete 360 spins. The night of the murder, the movie does cuts to various characters including Tim Derry and Sebastian. I thought the story would go where Sebastian is somehow the murderer; Sebastian jokingly says that he did it and lays out. My thought was he did that on purpose because he really did it. (I guess I should be glad I didn't write this movie).

In the end, Tim Derry figures that Matthew did it and the two sheep brothers (Brett Goldstein) bashed his car because they finally get to bash something. (Honestly, they and the Zebros from Zootopia 2 are two of the gleefully dumb characters in recent movies). Rebecca gets the sheep and the camper.

She comes with the sheep from Caleb (Tosin Cole)'s farm who have joined the flock. She reads to them as they assumed the position of listening (despite being cute and lovely sheep). The 'winter lamb' now has a name of George in an absolutely sweet scene. Lily looks to the skin and see that Sebastian indeed became a cloud. I honestly got a bit misty eyed there.

The Sheep Detectives is a great mystery movie with a lot of heart.

Watched #blackmendream short film on Criterion Channel. 

[odessasteps]

I saw a tweet the other day from Kevin about how much his mother disliked Clerks when she saw it the first time.

[odessasteps]

 

[Mister TV]

42 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

Selected movies today...had to do work things.

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (Peacock, leaving on 5/11) - 4/5 stars

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In some respects, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a reverse version of Roman Holiday. In that, an aristocratic woman pretends to be a common person and courts a newspaper reporter. With this, it's a common person courting an aristocrat and being part of their lifestyle albeit briefly. Mrs. Harris (Lesley Manville) is not part of any middle/upper class in England, much less in France. Her desire to go to Paris, to the House of Dior, and to buy a dress is born out of a desire to feel beautiful, feel elegant, and feel womanly. Her life consists of saving up her money and living by herself since her husband was MIA then KIA in World War II.

What's interesting is the fact that the movie has failure be a frequent brush for Mrs. Harris. She at first doesn't think she'll get to go to Paris after losing 100 pounds at a track race. She's resigned to the fact that it won't work out - until things start coming into place for her. Her husband's pension is now hers, the reward for a diamond is given to her, and Archie (Jason Isaacs) wins money at the track for her. "Today's my lucky day," indeed.

When arriving in Paris, Mrs. Harris manages to get herself into a showing for Dior's clothing and meets Marquis de Chassagne (Lambert Wilson). The highlight for the movie is the fashion being shown to them; the colors, lighting, and details in the clothing is beautifully shown in an extended sequence. Mrs. Harris wants to buy a dress called Temptation and Dior team agrees to make a dress after someone else buys Temptation, but it will take longer.

While waiting Mrs. Harris becomes part of the lives of the people working at Dior. She becomes friends with Andre Lauvel (Lucas Bravo) and the practically Audrey Hepburn-like Natasha (Alba Baptista); Andre and Natasha have a shared interest in Sartre's philosophy. Andre and Natasha both want more out of life, which Mrs. Harris helps to facilitate. Even Claudine Colbert (Isabelle Huppert) rubs up against Mrs. Harris, but is won over too.

It would be thought that this type of movie would lead to a romantic interest for Mrs. Harris, but that's not the case. It's not that falling in love for her is important; what's more important for her is her sense of kindness and having it win out in the end for her. Mrs. Harris lets Pamela (Rose WIlliams) borrow her dress for a party, but Pamela catches it on fire and it shows up in the paper. (Personally, I would think the dress wouldn't fit on Pamela's proportions and it catching on fire would be the least of her worries, what with her breasts popping out of it and all).

In the end, when Ada Harris returns to London, she learns of what happened to the House of Dior. She receives a dress and a note. Claudine is now President of the company, Andre and Natasha are now dating, Madame Avallon (Guilaine Londez) sees her husband arrested (to be honest, the side story with Avallon wasn't as well developed as I liked), and the Marquis has a bouquet of Princess Margaret roses for Mrs. Harris.

She goes to a dance and sees Archie; everyone stops in their tracks and looks at her in the Temptation dress. In the end, it seems that Archie and Ada will find love after all.

With this movie, it is a bit of a throwback to those earlier movies like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's, but it's practically gorgeous to look at for the production design, set design, and cinematography. It won't break any new ground story wise, but it doesn't need to. Lesley Manville as an actor is able to make any story shine (as she did in this year's Midwinter Break and another movie I reviewed Ordinary Love).

Some aspects of the story weren't as well developed as I'd liked, but that can't really be faulted.

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris shows that all you need is kindness, the right clothes, and a winning personality.

Clerks (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4.5/5 stars

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I would purport that Clerks is part of 'guys' cinema' or 'lads' cinema.' The thing is, it doesn't position itself as being part of it. But it seems to be true of independent cinema in the 1990s - most of the notable independent movies had male directors and therefore a male viewpoint. Quentin Tarantino had Reservoir Dogs, Jon Favreau had Swingers, Richard Linklater had Slacker (which Kevin Smith thanked and cited Linklater as an influence), you had Hollywood productions like Rounders and Glengarry Glen Ross that reinforce a male perspective, and Clerks is this too.

The thing about it is Clerks doesn't have a story; Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) proclaims throughout the movie that "I'm not even supposed to be here." It functions as a series of vignettes that are linear as it depicts the course of a day. Dante talks with Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson), who is sardonic and nearly monotone in his line delivery (yet completely hilarious - "You know I'm your hero").

What makes this is a 'guy's cinema' movie is the fact that the movie is focused on relationships and men's relationships with women. Women are viewed in hostility or even as untrustworthy. Dante talks about Caitlin (Lisa Spoonauer) who broke his heart and there's an announcement of her pending nuptials in the local paper. Dante has a relationship with Veronica (Marilyn Ghigliotti), whom he spends time with near the start of the movie until he finds out that Veronica gave a customer what's called a 'snowball.' He then becomes mad at her for 'sucking 37 guys' dicks' ("In a row?" someone asks). The fact that both of these women did what they wanted out of their choice is lost on Dante. Veronica did what she did before she even met Dante. Caitlin did what she did after she broke up with Dante (and cheated on him with a guy they went to high school with).

As would be noted in Bridesmaids, Dante is both the cause and solution to his own problems.

The questionable sexual politics extends to other characters - Jay (Jason Mewes) proudly proclaims his masculinity and how 'he loves women.' Silent Bob (Kevin Smith) tells Dante "You know, there's a million fine looking women in the world, dude. But they don't all bring you lasagna at work. Most of 'em just cheat on you." The guy that wants a porn magazine while using the bathroom (then dies) and Caitlin is traumatized through what she thought was sex with Dante. Most of the time it's played up for laughs and there isn't really a response for it.

That is until Randal letting Dante have it after their fight in the store. "Oh, fuck you! Fuck you, pal! Jesus, there you go again trying to pass the buck. I'm the source of all your misery. Who closed the store to play hockey? Who closed the store to go to a wake? Who tried to win back his ex girlfriend without even discussing how he felt with his present one? You wanna blame somebody? Blame yourself." Dante doesn't see himself as the problem until the very end. He realizes that a relationship is built on actual trust of another person - he'll visit Caitlin in the hospital and talk with Veronica. Whether it leads to a continued romantic relationship with either one isn't important.

Even then, Clerks works for the fact that there's an easy, conversational flow to the dialogue and what's shown is compelling to watch. Kevin Smith filming it in black and white is like a lot of earlier directors in cinema like Godard and Fellini. The visuals for the movie are really simple - oftentimes, shots of the convenience store, outside the convenience store with Jay and Silent Bob, and inside the video store (Randal says the movies at the store suck but eager eyed people will see Drugstore Cowboy and Children of a Lesser God on the racks).

After reading David Skolnick's review (https://boxd.it/eea6DV), I realized and remembered that I too worked crappy retail jobs. The thing about the time that Clerks came out is that jobs like Dante and Randal's jobs were considered 'lower income jobs.' Grown adults weren't supposed to be working there. No one went to college with aspirations to be a video store clerk or a convenience store clerk. The fact is that this is indicative of the US economy; the choice that people think they have to consume or buy items is a 'false choice' or 'no choice.' "What am I supposed to do? Drink this coffee hot?" is the type of consumer choice people have. Asking where something is without looking for it is another choice. Asking for something that's not carried is a choice. Same with renting Navy Seals. Someone walking into a convenience store to rile up the customers about cigarettes when he's a gum salesman is an example of this. It also feeds into the "title dictates behavior" argument that Dante and Randal have. It also feeds into the discussion about independent contractors working on the second Death Star - when a ruling government or class makes the rules of a society, other people have no other choice but to comply.

The frequent refrain is "this job would be so great if it weren't for the fucking customers" shows that these choices blind people from being better humans to retail employees. This explains how people get labeled as "Karens" for possibly unreasonably high expectations of retail. "Our job, monkeys pressing buttons could do this," Randal tells Dante at one point. Customers doing this, like crying about foul language in front of them, or selling cigarettes to a kid, or looking for the perfect milk jug or the perfect eggs, or asking a video store clerk which movies someone should get is indicative of this. The 'whys' behind their behavior doesn't make sense, but the retail clerks are there to endure it despite the low pay.

Ideally, this shouldn't be what a country's economy is reduced to - I shouldn't have been to having to work 20 jobs in the two years after college. The friends that I knew in high school and college seemingly had better lives and had better luck; their skills and abilities lead them down a path that didn't interest me.

For the most part with Clerks, it's emblematic of the 1990s and the type of movies that Hollywood would start allowing to be made and given a budget to make. It would be awhile before we start seeing another film movement like that. It was the ladies' turn after all to make 'ladies' cinema.'

The Sheep Detectives (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

  Reveal hidden contents

The Sheep Detectives in addition to being a Knives Out / Agatha Christie murder mystery, is also an allegory on community, acceptance, and togetherness. The shepherd analogy is common in the Bible - where it is taught that Jesus is a shepherd who leads His flock. (There's a funny scene where one of the sheep says a church is where God lives, and he's also bread, a shepherd, and a lamb too). The flock doesn't necessarily mean everyone is the same (unlike the way Southern Baptist Church would teach or the way those claiming to be Republicans would think). A flock is different and individual and....everyone has a name. Even a name like Wooleyes.

Within the movie, it talks a bit about a 'winter lamb' being an outcast to a flock. Sebastian (Bryan Cranston) is a grown-up 'winter lamb.' He doesn't consider himself to be belonging to a flock, but yet he stays. He's like those outsiders that a community has that they learn to accept or maybe tolerate. Sebastian's back story with George (Hugh Jackman) is due to the fact that George bought him from a carnival and took him home; away from the fighting and the spectacle and the ridicule. With the three little lambs that are rambunctiousness and full of energy, they are told to stay away by Sir Richfield (Patrick Stewart) from a 'winter lamb' (Tommy Birchall). George feeds the 'winter lamb' from a bottle (honestly the animation for the 'winter lamb' and the voice acting is pure cuteness).

What's interesting is all of the change in the community, in the flock has an impetus with Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). It's telling that George named Lily after his late wife; it's likely that he saw the good qualities in the sheep that his wife carried. A common line throughout the movie is how human eyes are used to judge and determine a person's soul; which is true to life most of the time. Lily notices Rebecca (Molly Gordon)'s eyes during the scene when everyone is gathered together for the reading of the will. Rebecca seems bothered, yet scared at the same time.

Even with the philosophical and moralistic aspects of the movie, the main crux, the "MacGuffin" if you will, is nearly a standard murder mystery, not unlike the ones that Kenneth Brannagh did (which I still need to watch his works for that and yes the four freaking hour version of Hamlet too). Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun) seems a bit too clever too quickly (even after the book that Lily and the other sheep gave him) and is able to surmise that Rebecca wasn't the killer. This is after both he and Lily thought that she committed the murder. The thought would be that the movie would spend a bit more time on the other suspects and their motives for them to be ruled out. The other characters involved aren't as well rounded, even as Derry quickly goes through interviewing them and determines that they didn't do it. Instead, the movie lands on Elliot Matthews (Nicholas Galitzine) despite his helping Tim Derry out at the start of the movie. If Matthews did it, why would he even suggest that Derry look inside the camper? Wouldn't he want him to NOT look inside the camper or hope that he gets distracted by something else?

When Derry looks in the camper, he almost immediately turns around and decides everything is in order; Matthews points the glass and the chair out to him. I know the movie tried to paint Matthews as feeling himself to be 'oh so clever' for having committed the murder, but both characters from act I to the end did complete 360 spins. The night of the murder, the movie does cuts to various characters including Tim Derry and Sebastian. I thought the story would go where Sebastian is somehow the murderer; Sebastian jokingly says that he did it and lays out. My thought was he did that on purpose because he really did it. (I guess I should be glad I didn't write this movie).

In the end, Tim Derry figures that Matthew did it and the two sheep brothers (Brett Goldstein) bashed his car because they finally get to bash something. (Honestly, they and the Zebros from Zootopia 2 are two of the gleefully dumb characters in recent movies). Rebecca gets the sheep and the camper.

She comes with the sheep from Caleb (Tosin Cole)'s farm who have joined the flock. She reads to them as they assumed the position of listening (despite being cute and lovely sheep). The 'winter lamb' now has a name of George in an absolutely sweet scene. Lily looks to the skin and see that Sebastian indeed became a cloud. I honestly got a bit misty eyed there.

The Sheep Detectives is a great mystery movie with a lot of heart.

Watched #blackmendream short film on Criterion Channel. 

Dante and Randall were college aged but not in college, customer service jobs like their’s were what you did in your early 20’s if you didn’t go to college, a trade school, or went to school locally and needed to work. Video store clerk was a desired job back then, it was way easier than fast food and had the most cache of slightly above minimum wage jobs. I was 20, working in a video store and taking classes at a community college when Clerks came out, it felt more like a documentary than a work of fiction the first time I saw it. 

[J.T.]

8 hours ago, odessasteps said:

 

They mostly come out at night... mostly..

[Andrew POE!]

9 hours ago, Mister TV said:

Dante and Randall were college aged but not in college, customer service jobs like their’s were what you did in your early 20’s if you didn’t go to college, a trade school, or went to school locally and needed to work. Video store clerk was a desired job back then, it was way easier than fast food and had the most cache of slightly above minimum wage jobs. I was 20, working in a video store and taking classes at a community college when Clerks came out, it felt more like a documentary than a work of fiction the first time I saw it. 

Video store clerk where I lived wasn't as desirable. It's weird, but we had two Blockbuster Videos in town. I never saw that many people actually go into them (even as a little kid). My mom would take me, but we never really rented videos. She wouldn't like any of them despite the clerks' best efforts to help her. My dad had the type of job where he would watch something on premium cable, fall asleep nearly immediately, and my mom would object to whatever it was he was watching (usually during his being asleep while watching Wishmaster). 

About the time that DVDs were gaining prominence, my dad would buy more DVDs, so we found ourselves not really going to Blockbuster Video. 

EDIT: This isn't to say video stores weren't important in the late 1980s/1990s, it's just when I came of age with them, they were gone. 

Edited May 8 by Andrew POE!

[HarryArchieGus]

9 hours ago, Mister TV said:

Dante and Randall were college aged but not in college, customer service jobs like their’s were what you did in your early 20’s if you didn’t go to college, a trade school, or went to school locally and needed to work. Video store clerk was a desired job back then, it was way easier than fast food and had the most cache of slightly above minimum wage jobs. I was 20, working in a video store and taking classes at a community college when Clerks came out, it felt more like a documentary than a work of fiction the first time I saw it. 

Similar experience. Video clerked while attending school. I remember meeting a lot of nice ppl. Some elderly women in particular who were very pleased with my recommendations. I remember Match Point in particular being a huge hit. The job got lame when the push to sell phones and phone plans came in. That's when I cut. Tho much rarer, Video Clerk is still a job here in Toronto. I love having an option to rent Blu/DVD, and use it regularly. Some of my most recent (and loved) rentals include: Silkwood (Mike Nichols), Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean and That Cold Day in the Park (both Robert Altman), Dogfight (Nancy Savoca),  Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer), Don't Drink the Water (Woody Allen), Dark Habits (Pedro Almodovar), and Leonardo Da Vinci (Ken Burns). All stuff not available on our streamers.  

[Andrew POE!]

40 minutes ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Similar experience. Video clerked while attending school. I remember meeting a lot of nice ppl. Some elderly women in particular who were very pleased with my recommendations. I remember Match Point in particular being a huge hit. The job got lame when the push to sell phones and phone plans came in. That's when I cut. Tho much rarer, Video Clerk is still a job here in Toronto. I love having an option to rent Blu/DVD, and use it regularly. Some of my most recent (and loved) rentals include: Silkwood (Mike Nichols), Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean and That Cold Day in the Park (both Robert Altman), Dogfight (Nancy Savoca),  Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Eric Rohmer), Don't Drink the Water (Woody Allen), Dark Habits (Pedro Almodovar), and Leonardo Da Vinci (Ken Burns). All stuff not available on our streamers.  

I'll have to look for Silkwood, Boyfriends and Girlfriends, Don't Drink the Water, the Ken Burns documentary. I got reviews floating around for the others (although I wish I could re-watch Dark Habits since I watched that when I was somewhat tired and gave it a lower rating smh). 

[Curt McGirt]

Andrew, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? It seems like you were born after the boom where it would have been more desirable to be a clerk. Like when I grew up we had no Blockbuster and three indie video stores (Krenz, Family, Broadway), one small chain (Circus), and videos at the local Kroger. Granted this was a small town (Marion, IL) where the only industry was the federal pen where they held Gotti and Pete Rose. 

[Andrew POE!]

48 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Andrew, if you don't mind me asking, how old are you? It seems like you were born after the boom where it would have been more desirable to be a clerk. Like when I grew up we had no Blockbuster and three indie video stores (Krenz, Family, Broadway), one small chain (Circus), and videos at the local Kroger. Granted this was a small town (Marion, IL) where the only industry was the federal pen where they held Gotti and Pete Rose. 

I'm 45.  

I think I may have been too sheltered as a kid though. The town I lived in didn't really have videos at the local Kroger either.