Andrew POE! Posted May 12 Posted May 12 1 hour ago, J.H. said: How would in observed Henry Hill gets busted day? 6:55am Get-up, do line of coke, put gun in paper bag 7-9am Pick-up relative at hospital. D Dr op off silencers at friends house 9-11am start sauce. "Red Lead" which includes meatballs, sausage with tomato gravy. 12pm-3pm Have relative watch sauce. Prepare to make drug deal Dear lord Henry Hill was a spectacular Sleazeball! James You gotta loop "Jump into the Fire" on repeat during all of that. 1
Andrew POE! Posted May 12 Posted May 12 Selected movies today... Black Phone 2 (Peacock, leaving on 5/15) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler Black Phone 2 completely jettisoned the childhood trauma/child abuse narrative of The Black Phone to turn it into a Freddy Kruger-like nightmare world where The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) can throw people around and control Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) in her dreams. Finney Blake (Mason Thames) is still dealing with his memories of surviving The Grabber the first time around, but the movie is more focused on Gwen. The movie seems more like a stylish exercise than a fully formed narrative at times. The style it has is great though - the grainy footage for the dream world is like something from 1980s horror movie. Having Finney and Gwen going to Alpine Lake Camp is evocative of Friday The 13th's Camp Crystal Lake (but minus people having sex, so what the fuck do they do in the daytime hours? It seems like they wake up just to fall asleep again apparently). More characters are introduced and seemingly are just there to serve as filler. Armando (Demian Bichir) runs the camp with his niece Mustang (Arianna Rivas). The only interesting thing about them? Mustang was named after a horse. Thankfully, she wasn't named Mr. Ed because if Armando watched the show, that would result in a lifetime of resentment. Barbara (Maev Beaty) and Kenneth (Graham Abbey) are only there so Mustang and Gwen can call them out for being Christians and that's about it. Absolutely nothing is learned about these filler characters; in many of the 1980s horror movie inspirations like Friday The 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street, these characters would have been systematically killed off by The Grabber. Why wouldn't The Grabber invade their dreams too and kill them? Why just Gwen? Armando knew The Grabber as "Bill," who worked at the camp. He talks to The Grabber on radio, but nothing happens to him. Finney talks to The Grabber from a payphone as The Grabber vows to make him pay, yet...he doesn't. In other movies, such threats would result in actual murders. But nope, it's just Gwen, even though Gwen is now able to control herself in her dreams. The Grabber is probably the stupidest horror villain at this point. But the name of the game with this is the 1980s style and that's it. I did love one scene where Finney answers the phone near the lake and the camera pans around to show the dead children talking to him. The climatic scene has some of the best Tangerine Dream aping synth soundtrack since Under The Silver Lake as Gwen and Finney fight back against The Grabber and 'kill him.' The ending scene with Gwen talking to her mother Hope (Anna Lore) has a great synth score as it shows that Hope is now in Heaven through what she describes. The movie ends as they leave Camp Crystal Lake, I mean Alpine Lake Camp. Black Phone 2 isn't too good, but just merely average and drags on a bit too long for what it's trying to do. Bolero (Mubi, leaving on 6/1) - 3/5 stars Spoiler From watching Bolero, I can't exactly tell what is supposed to be conveyed. Fran (Francois Chaignaud) visits town to see his mom and they can't get a car started. The mom leaves and Fran goes into a bathroom. A Stranger by the Lake-like encounter happens, which turns into a musicless dance and a lot of people come into the bathroom to watch. The apocalypse apparently happened, either because of the dance or just during it, it's unclear. I'll never look at Ravel's Bolero the same way again, at least until I watch Blake Edwards' "10" or that new Exit 8 movie. Lou Reed's Berlin (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Lou Reed's Berlin feels a bit like a callback to Lou Reed's early days in the Velvet Underground where Andy Warhol would project footage in the background during his band's performances. Julian Schnabel does the same thing as Emmanuelle Seigner walks around in grainy footage that vaguely connect to the story in the songs. I can't help but to feel the footage detracted from the performances, but these are NYC artistic types, who's to tell Schnabel his idea is a bad idea? As it is, the songs speak for themselves. Lou Reed in this has a look of amusement and sadness, almost in equal measure, as he performs an album that he's never done live before. Schnabel's camera always finds Reed with closeups in his glasses, looking like a tenured college professor of English with a guitar than a 'godfather of alternative music.' Watching Anohni singing "Candy Says" makes the song have an extremely personal reaction for her; that's honestly the highlight of the movie. Lou Reed speaks more than sings, but what he performs evokes a reaction for him and for the audience. It’s much like the later years of Leonard Cohen as he stares mortality in the face while doing a concert tour. Reed feels like he’s doing the same as he recounts how Caroline had her kids taken away and he momentarily struggles for words, yet hits it at the right moment. Or asking “How do you think It feels?” Or rocking out towards the end of “Oh Jim.” Or the choir singing “Sad Song” repeatedly while Reed says lowly. Berlin at the time it was recorded was a statement of anger and anguish: real kids cried when he told them their mother were taken. In 2007 in Brooklyn, the performance of the album is a benediction, a statement of denouement. A man’s life work is nearing the end or at least a final phase. Concert films have a way of making someone watching it drawn into the experience and into the songs. Lou Reed's Berlin is no different. Cabaret (saw in the theaters) - 5/5 stars Spoiler Cabaret is and isn't a LGBTQ movie. It's done in such a way that it's subtle. It's a 'musical,' but really it's more like a drama that uses music, much like Liza Minnelli's mother Judy Garland did in Meet Me In St. Louis or 1954's A Star Is Born. Minnelli's character Sally Bowles dances in the world of the cabaret show, but really she wants something more. She wants something more than the dreary life she leads where she has to share an apartment with three other people. The shared world of the cabaret with its performers doesn't really come out and say what is happening. If the movie were more forward on that, it likely wouldn't have been released. But it's little side remarks here and there. A woman entertains a man, but a remark is made that hints that the woman is transgendered. In some ways, the movie if it were done today would have been more forthcoming with its sexuality. Sally Bowles meets Brian Roberts (Michael York), an educated Englishman who is moving to Berlin in 1931 to work as a tutor. Roberts can be considered a stand-in for Christopher Isherwood, who wrote the novel that the musical is based on. Roberts isn't interested in sex or the members of the opposite sex ("the last three attempts ended in disaster," as he tells Sally). "But sex would ruin a friendship," Sally says. The thing is Brian's homosexuality is subtle as well. The movie doesn't come out and say it - but the car ride back to the apartment with Baron Maximilian von Heune (Helmet Griem) have them exchanging knowing looks, knowing sighs, and knowing glances. It can be told through those things that something more happened. "Screw him," Sally says. "I did," says Brian, without missing a beat. The movie doesn't really dwell on Roberts' romantic feelings for von Heune, but the baron sends 300 marks to be split between Sally and Brian. The baron got 'called away to family issues in Argentina.' Brian knows the truth. The baron would get killed if the truth was found out. What hangs over Cabaret is the rise of Nazism. The movie doesn't hit you over the head with it, but it's interesting how during musical numbers, Nazism wielding a hammer and smashing everything is apparent. During one musical sequence, a man that kicked out a Nazi is beaten to death, in rhythm with the music. Fritz Wendel (Pritz Wepper) and Natalia Landauer (Marisa Berenson) are married in a Jewish wedding; Natalia tries to hide the fact that she's Jewish and Fritz has papers drawn up to say that he's not. Sally and Brian are there to witness the wedding as there is no other sound but them exchanging their vows and the rabbi blessing the union. Their future is unknown; like millions of them in Germany, they will surely die. The baron and Brian drive past where a man was killed. "The Nazis are nothing but a street gang," the baron says. "We can control them?" The Nazis slowly but surely takes over Berlin then the countryside. A beautiful sequence that turns ugly is with "Tomorrow Belongs To Me." The song is beautiful....until the camera pans down the person singing it, revealing the Nazi insignia. Others join the Hitler Youth (Mark Lambert / Oliver Collingnon) in the song. The baron and Brian leave. Brian says, "Oh you think you can control them?" The thing is Nazism hasn't really gone away. Today, it sadly is more in control than ever; those in power in the United States would echo and repeat many of the Nazism tenets. They are white nationalists, they want to 'free' the United States from immigrants, they send ICE agents to round up immigrants and to shoot/kill those that protest against them. They would want our actors, entertainers, and musicians to do the same as the Cabaret does in this movie. "Shut up and entertain us!" they would say. "Leave your politics out of it!" The cabaret show interjects their politics into it, but sadly they are ignored or not threatened. The song "If You Could See Her" mocks yet points out how Antisemitism is a horrific stance, but is so under the radar that it couldn't be noticeable. The MC (Joel Grey) sings the song to a person in an ape costume. "If you could see her through my eyes, / She wouldn't look Jewish at all" intersects the hatred of the viewpoints with an absurd imagery. Those in the audience don't really pick up on it - it doesn't lead to riots or to the MC being threatened. It's just 'part of the show.' The movie has Sally Bowles as the focus throughout the movie. One scene I really loved was the usage of closeups of Sally after she kisses Brian. The camera does a match cut from when the two kiss to the beginning of "Maybe This Time." The song is much like Judy Garland's song in A Star Is Born, "Born In A Trunk." The song exemplifies Bowles/Liza Minnelli much like Vicki Lester/Garland was exemplified with "Born In A Trunk." Sally Bowles finds herself being pregnant - the movie never really establishes who the father could be. There's rapid cuts between the possible fathers - is it the Baron, Brian, or even the MC? Who knows. Sally pictures herself as a mother and doesn't like the image. A ball going down the stairs (calling back to the baby carriage in Battleship Potemkin) has Sally picking up the ball and giving it back to a boy, representing her son. She decides to go through the abortion, but the movie doesn't come out and say. "Where is your fur coat?" Brian asks. It was established earlier that an abortion would cost Sally her fur coat due to the price of it. "Don't you realize what you did?" Brian asks. "Oh, it was one of my whims," she says. Sally realizes what she did, but she desired her freedom more than anything. The truth of her being able to make it and become a film star is out of reach for her now. So the finale number "Cabaret" has white hot fear shoot across her face as she talks about someone she knew in the song; you can read it in her expressions. "Come to the Cabaret," Sally sings. But she is saying in between the words, "Please come, my life is in ruins and I have nothing else in my life." So the cabaret ends, but, like the start of the movie, we see a reflection of those in the audience of the show. Only this time, there's those that are members of the Nazi party in attendance. Here we are now, entertain us, they silently say. Bob Fosse's camera frames shots perfectly - I really loved how the scenes where Brian, Sally, Fritz, and Natalia have all four perfectly in the frame as they talk. The camera focuses on things naturally that would be looked at during a musical performance. Faces, feet, and body parts. Fosse uses a lot of quick cuts between faces in one scene as they watch the musical performances at the cabaret show. Cabaret as a movie is absolutely a classic.
HarryArchieGus Posted May 12 Posted May 12 10 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: You gotta loop "Jump into the Fire" on repeat during all of that. "We can make each other happy!" (Oh Oh!)... plus 'Memo from Tuner' by Jagger, 'Magic Bus' by the Who, 'Monkey Man' by the Stones, 'Mannish Boy' by Muddy, and 'What is Life' by George. Genius work from Marty and Ms. Schoonmaker. 1
Andrew POE! Posted May 13 Posted May 13 Movies today...not as much today with work and offline stuff going on. Crosscurrent (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler With Crosscurrent, I found myself actually liking it even with the story threads being more implied than explicit. While watching it, I couldn't help but to think about Werner Herzog's films about journeying on rivers in Peru - Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. The journeys in those movies are journeys of madness as Klaus Kinski plays characters that lose crew members and his mind through the journey. The end goals for those are crazed and fantastic - finding El Dorado or building an opera house. With this, Gao Chun (Qin Hao)'s journey is more symbolic, personal, and grounded. He is piloting a boat to take a load of baby fish up the Yangtze River. Everywhere he turns, he finds An Lu (Xin Zhilei), who appears in places along the river. What she is exactly isn't known or directed spoken - yet they have sex a few of the times when they meet, so it's obvious they have romantic connection. An Lu changes every time she reappears, becoming younger and in an almost Benjamin Button-like fashion. Much like Kinski in Herzog's movies, the crew abandons Gao Chun. Gao Chun is questioned about his abilities - Wu Sheng (Wu Lipeng) contends that he's not even a captain anyway, since his father gave him the boat. The journey was started due to a local Chinese legend about catching a black fish and putting it in a pot of water until the fish dies. The story goes that as the fish dies, a deceased father's spirit is released. The fish never dies even without being fed. All Gao Chun has is the boat and a book of poetry. Throughout the movie in stunning photography, poetry is shown on screen. At first, I thought the poems were written from people named. Instead, the poetry is after the name of the cities that are along Yangtze River. Where the poetry originates is almost unknown too - did Gao Chun's father write it, did Gao Chun write it, or did An Lu write it? During one meeting between Chun and Lu, he takes the book from her and starts ripping out pages, not wanting her to experience what he went through. So it's likely that Gao Chun wrote it somehow, during the journey or before. The boat goes to the Three Gorges and Gao Chun visits a town where the people were moved and a new city was built. With other Chinese filmmakers like Jia Zhangke, they focus on the political and governmental control over the group of people living there; people weren't given a choice to move. With this, Yang Chao has Qin Hao appearing almost Monica Vitti-like, a lonely figure against the empty spaces and the large structures. Crosscurrent is more in common with Antonioni at points versus other Chinese films. Eventually, Gao Chun is stabbed after directing someone to a pier. The fish that he was supposed to carry was released from one of his crew members that abandoned the boat; there were consequences after all. Even after for a 'risk premium' to take the fish up the river. Gao Chun somehow despite the wounds goes to the source of the Yangtze River, a dry barren place and finds a Buddhist monk. An Lu's name is on a headstone. Was she ever alive at all or did Gao Chun imagine it? Is this journey like the journey on the River Styx in Greek mythology? Perhaps so as Gao Chun sits and the movie ends showing footage of people along the river in 16mm. Crosscurrent as a movie isn't readily understood, even for me. It's possible that I'm completely wrong about what Yang Chao intended. But it's beautifully filmed and photographed. Sometimes that's enough. Not Fade Away (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler If Not Fade Away had been released in the time of its story's depiction using film stock and equipment of the era, it would have been part of "New Hollywood" / "American New Wave," albeit a lesser part of it. At times, the story just doesn't come together, but when it does, it works. Much like the garage band that Douglas Damiano (John Magaro) forms. Not Fade Away feels like a 'vanity project' for director David Chase, just like Much Ado About Nothing from Joss Whedon did in the same year. There's something possibly personal going on with Not Fade Away - Damiano and his band are Jersey kids getting hooked onto the blues through The Rolling Stones and wanting to make a serious go of doing a band. Doug frequently butts heads with his father Pat (James Gandolfini). At various times in the movie, they seem to want to get something going, but they reach a calamity that cannot be overcome. It mainly involves a power struggle in the back between Doug and Gene (Jack Huston) over singing duties and Doug's relationship with Grace (Bella Heathcote). The band gets an audition with Jerry Ragovoy (Brad Garrett), who asks for them to perform seven nights a week and learn 25 songs; the actual work for being a rock band seems to dissway. Wells (Will Brill) gets into a motorcycle accident. With the band on hold, Doug decides to go to film school in California with Grace in tow. Doug sees Charlie Watts at a party as Watts is leaving. The ending honestly wasn't very good - Doug walks around downtown LA, goes into the Cinerama, while Grace asks towards the camera "what is America's two biggest innovations: nuclear weapons or rock and roll?" She ends the movie dancing, both their fates unknown. Despite my lukewarm feeling about the story, the movie is lifted up through its black and white filming and its soundtrack. It had initially been in color and I think it wouldn't have been enjoyable for me in color; in black and white, it's very much evocative of the era, the long haired and shaggy characters looking like members of the Rolling Stones and Magaro having a resemblance to Bob Dylan. Not Fade Away is an above average, but it's not anything that revolutionary for 2010s cinema.
Brian Fowler Posted May 13 Posted May 13 (edited) Black Phone 2 is just so nice to look at that I barely cared about the story. Edited May 13 by Brian Fowler 1
Mister TV Posted May 13 Posted May 13 10 hours ago, Andrew POE! said: Movies today...not as much today with work and offline stuff going on. Crosscurrent (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Reveal hidden contents With Crosscurrent, I found myself actually liking it even with the story threads being more implied than explicit. While watching it, I couldn't help but to think about Werner Herzog's films about journeying on rivers in Peru - Aguirre, Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo. The journeys in those movies are journeys of madness as Klaus Kinski plays characters that lose crew members and his mind through the journey. The end goals for those are crazed and fantastic - finding El Dorado or building an opera house. With this, Gao Chun (Qin Hao)'s journey is more symbolic, personal, and grounded. He is piloting a boat to take a load of baby fish up the Yangtze River. Everywhere he turns, he finds An Lu (Xin Zhilei), who appears in places along the river. What she is exactly isn't known or directed spoken - yet they have sex a few of the times when they meet, so it's obvious they have romantic connection. An Lu changes every time she reappears, becoming younger and in an almost Benjamin Button-like fashion. Much like Kinski in Herzog's movies, the crew abandons Gao Chun. Gao Chun is questioned about his abilities - Wu Sheng (Wu Lipeng) contends that he's not even a captain anyway, since his father gave him the boat. The journey was started due to a local Chinese legend about catching a black fish and putting it in a pot of water until the fish dies. The story goes that as the fish dies, a deceased father's spirit is released. The fish never dies even without being fed. All Gao Chun has is the boat and a book of poetry. Throughout the movie in stunning photography, poetry is shown on screen. At first, I thought the poems were written from people named. Instead, the poetry is after the name of the cities that are along Yangtze River. Where the poetry originates is almost unknown too - did Gao Chun's father write it, did Gao Chun write it, or did An Lu write it? During one meeting between Chun and Lu, he takes the book from her and starts ripping out pages, not wanting her to experience what he went through. So it's likely that Gao Chun wrote it somehow, during the journey or before. The boat goes to the Three Gorges and Gao Chun visits a town where the people were moved and a new city was built. With other Chinese filmmakers like Jia Zhangke, they focus on the political and governmental control over the group of people living there; people weren't given a choice to move. With this, Yang Chao has Qin Hao appearing almost Monica Vitti-like, a lonely figure against the empty spaces and the large structures. Crosscurrent is more in common with Antonioni at points versus other Chinese films. Eventually, Gao Chun is stabbed after directing someone to a pier. The fish that he was supposed to carry was released from one of his crew members that abandoned the boat; there were consequences after all. Even after for a 'risk premium' to take the fish up the river. Gao Chun somehow despite the wounds goes to the source of the Yangtze River, a dry barren place and finds a Buddhist monk. An Lu's name is on a headstone. Was she ever alive at all or did Gao Chun imagine it? Is this journey like the journey on the River Styx in Greek mythology? Perhaps so as Gao Chun sits and the movie ends showing footage of people along the river in 16mm. Crosscurrent as a movie isn't readily understood, even for me. It's possible that I'm completely wrong about what Yang Chao intended. But it's beautifully filmed and photographed. Sometimes that's enough. Not Fade Away (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Hide contents If Not Fade Away had been released in the time of its story's depiction using film stock and equipment of the era, it would have been part of "New Hollywood" / "American New Wave," albeit a lesser part of it. At times, the story just doesn't come together, but when it does, it works. Much like the garage band that Douglas Damiano (John Magaro) forms. Not Fade Away feels like a 'vanity project' for director David Chase, just like Much Ado About Nothing from Joss Whedon did in the same year. There's something possibly personal going on with Not Fade Away - Damiano and his band are Jersey kids getting hooked onto the blues through The Rolling Stones and wanting to make a serious go of doing a band. Doug frequently butts heads with his father Pat (James Gandolfini). At various times in the movie, they seem to want to get something going, but they reach a calamity that cannot be overcome. It mainly involves a power struggle in the back between Doug and Gene (Jack Huston) over singing duties and Doug's relationship with Grace (Bella Heathcote). The band gets an audition with Jerry Ragovoy (Brad Garrett), who asks for them to perform seven nights a week and learn 25 songs; the actual work for being a rock band seems to dissway. Wells (Will Brill) gets into a motorcycle accident. With the band on hold, Doug decides to go to film school in California with Grace in tow. Doug sees Charlie Watts at a party as Watts is leaving. The ending honestly wasn't very good - Doug walks around downtown LA, goes into the Cinerama, while Grace asks towards the camera "what is America's two biggest innovations: nuclear weapons or rock and roll?" She ends the movie dancing, both their fates unknown. Despite my lukewarm feeling about the story, the movie is lifted up through its black and white filming and its soundtrack. It had initially been in color and I think it wouldn't have been enjoyable for me in color; in black and white, it's very much evocative of the era, the long haired and shaggy characters looking like members of the Rolling Stones and Magaro having a resemblance to Bob Dylan. Not Fade Away is an above average, but it's not anything that revolutionary for 2010s cinema. The sister gives the monologue at the end of Not Fade Away, not Bella Heathcote's character. I haven't seen Not Fade Away since it first hit streaming, I'm going to check out the black and white version!
Andrew POE! Posted May 13 Posted May 13 1 hour ago, Mister TV said: The sister gives the monologue at the end of Not Fade Away, not Bella Heathcote's character. I haven't seen Not Fade Away since it first hit streaming, I'm going to check out the black and white version! Damnit! I couldn't tell the women apart in black and white!
Andrew POE! Posted May 14 Posted May 14 Movies today....had work stuff going on. Scott Walker: 30 Century Man (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Having been a rabid music collector and probably either having albums on CD or in MP3s, I had a familiarity with Scott Walker prior to this documentary. What struck me is how Walker in the interview for it and in his songs are two different people. As he puts it, everyone would go completely mad if the atmosphere for recordings and outside of recordings were the same. The documentary is very much a standard music documentary. People like Jarvis Cocker, Marc Almond, David Bowie who was an executive producer, Brian Eno, and label heads from 4AD are interviewed. In some cases, they listen to Walker's music and give their reactions to what they are hearing. The documentary (and Walker) regard his career as being from his first four numbered albums to then 1984's Climate of Hunter. His output in the 1970s was completely discarded and wasn't to be reissued. (Although I personally liked The Moviegoer and 'Til The Band Comes In, but what do I know). Scott Walker's recording output after 1984 was described as being part of the 'worst record deal I've ever seen' as one person puts it where Walker was to make 12 records. Given the length of time between records, it would take him until he was aged 200 to complete. (There's always AI, I'm sure that can be done now and no one would notice the difference). I found it fascinating that there was a music video for one of his songs from Climate of Hunter "Track 3," yet a better upload of the video is nowhere to be found on YouTube. The documentary spends most of its time with the modern/recent work from 1995's Tilt to 1999's Pola X soundtrack to 2006's The Drift. What's interesting with The Drift is how footage is captured of people punching meat or moving metal trash cans over a wooden box. Some of the editing for the scenes seem a bit cobbled together; it goes from interview footage to video footage in some cases to scenes showing songs being depicted. The documentary is cohesive and does try to be a bit different compared to most 'talking heads' documentaries. There probably won't be a singer quite like Scott Walker again. Kaili Blues (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler To talk about Kaili Blues is to talk about the extraordinary one-shot/one-take sequence that takes up over 40 minutes of the movie's runtime. Chen (Chen Yongzhong) goes from riding on a motorcycle to riding in the back of a truck to helping someone bullied by local gangs to riding on the back of a motorcycle until he arrives. The camera switches focus to Yangyang (Yue Guo) as she walks from her sewing job to a boat ride then she visits a hairdresser who washes and cuts Chen's hair and following the hairdresser to where Yangyang, Chen, the motorcyclist named Weiwei (Shixue Yu) and the hairdresser are gathered in the same frame as they watch a band perform. Chen sings a song called "Little Jasmine" for the hairdresser since she reminds him of his wife before he went to prison. The sequence ends as Chen is leaving and riding to a train station with scene cut as the next scene focuses on Chen's face. All of that in 40 minutes is truly remarkable. The thing is the rest of the movie happened. The story in the rest of the movie is Chen trying to deal with his half-brother Crazy Face (Lixun Xie) who Chen believes sold his son Weiwei (Feiyang Luo) for some unknown reason. A monk took Weiwei on a trip instead. The drama and the story for the movie is almost too obtuse; it's hard to get wrapped in the life of Chen as he runs an underground medical clinic where kids don't want their shots taken and he picks locks to find his nephew locked inside. The broader point is possibly about how life in rural China is difficult and for people like Chen who came out of prison, they have to earn their income however they can. The movie seems to be a weird mixture of Chinese realism, where it shows lives outside of the state controlled media of China, and fantasy, where an upside down train is projected in a room and the story aspects are dream-like; Weiwei goes from being a young kid to a teenager despite Chen not visibly aging. Bi Gan's film is more a product of its inspirations at times, but it can be a bit engrossing. The movie ends with Chen riding a train and falling asleep while on the train. If the movie were a short film of the 40 minute sequence, it would get five stars from me easily. As it is, it's an above average drama that's like Hou Hisao-hisen or Tsai Ming-liang in how the movie is depicted. Top Gun (saw in the theaters) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Oh my, Top Gun is gayer than all of John Waters' movies combined and The Birdcage. Do you like girls and want to see Kelly McGillis naked? Nope, not gonna happen in this movie. You'll get a young Tom Cruise as Pete Mitchell shirtless, in 'tighty whiteys,' and a volleyball scene that makes the guys in Beau Travail go 'holy shit.' (Although Rick Rossovich shirtless is better looking than Tom Cruise shirtless, just saying). Anyway. Top Gun as a movie has "Maverick" being a fucking idiot through 99% of the movie. He and his partner Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) encounter a "MIG-28" over the Indian Ocean and almost fuck things up and get killed trying to rescue "Cougar" (John Stockwell) from his fears of death. Their commanding officer CDR Tom "Stinger" Jardian (James Tolkan) rewards them for their stupidity with sending them to "Top Gun" in place of "Cougar." It's established that they're fuckups. So "Maverick" approaches Charlotte Blackwood (McGillis) who is just minding her own business and wants a cosmo and to be left alone with trying to woo her singing "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" out loud. Fellas - if you see a girl in the bar by herself and you do this shit, DON'T. Leave her alone. She's there for what she wants to do which isn't to talk to you. "Maverick" never learns and apparently Blackwood is an instructor in "Top Gun" and of course "Maverick" has to 'mansplain' how he and "Goose" encountered a MIG-28 flying at whatever the fuck speed and other nerd talk. "Maverick" thinks he looks cool because he smiles and puts on his sunglasses and...nope, he doesn't. He looks like a douchebag. "Maverick" butts heads with Lt. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer) and LTJG Ron "Slider" Kerner (Rossovich) with "Iceman" having a look on his face like he either wants to fuck "Maverick," punch him in the face, or both throughout the entire movie. Then all of a sudden and nearly unprompted about 45 minutes into the movie, Charlotte tells "Maverick" she's fallen for him. "Maverick" didn't do anything different or did any changes. It's just a plot convenient moment. How do we know she loves him? Because the movie plays "Take My Breath Away" at least 5 fucking times to denote her love for him. If they're not playing that, they're playing "Danger Zone." They have a love scene where they breath on each other. "Maverick" goes from volleyball where he smells like shit and drives his motorcycle to see Charlotte and hugs her. In real life, this would happen: Maverick: Sorry, I'm late. Charlotte: What the fuck is that smell? Did you take a shower? Maverick: Uhhh, no. I just finished playing volleyball with three shirtless men. Charlotte: ....the fuck? Maverick: .....I was cleaning my motorcycle before I got here. Yeah, that's it. Charlotte: JFC, don't be around me or touch me, get the fuck outta here, go take a fucking shower, you idiot. Maverick: Okay. "Maverick" does a flight with "Goose" where their plane stalls and the engines stop working. They eject and "Goose" is killed instantly. This is after "Goose" forces everyone in a restaurant hear him sing "Great Balls of Fire." (I'm surprised no one came up to "Goose" and said, "If you don't quit playing that fucking song, I'll give you a great ball of fire with my fist"). The lesson to be learned: Don't sing "Great Balls of Fire" then fly a F-14. You'll fucking die. Anyway, Maverick naturally blames himself for the death even after being cleared of fault. What does CDR Mike "Viper" Metcalf (Tom Skerritt) and LCDR Rick "Jester" Heatherly (Michael Ironside) do? They send him back up in the plane, even though....I don't know, he might need counseling. Maybe a desk job. Anything but to be in a F14. Maverick eventually overcomes it after talking with Charlotte and with Metcalf, who flew with Maverick's dad in Vietnam. Maverick doesn't win the top award in "Top Gun" (that goes to Gary and Ace, I mean "Iceman" and "Slider"), but he does finish the program. Now he, "Iceman," "Slider," and "Merlin" (Tim Robbins) have to do some mission to rescue some people or something. I don't know the details really aren't important. Action scenes happen that are genuinely thrilling to watch. "Maverick" saves the day and saves "Iceman" and "Slider" and hugs "Iceman." "Maverick" isn't a fuckup anymore (well, he is, he just got rewarded). Now he wants to be an instructor in "Top Gun." Oh shit, everyone is going to die now. Anyway, Top Gun is a movie theater experience; seeing it at home doesn't make sense. There were a lot of great "golden hour" cinematography shown - the shot of Cruise on a motorcycle as a fighter plane lands in a field against a sunset is an absolute painting to watch. Just ignore the fact that the Americans in this send men to fly fighter jets against a nameless 'enemy' that fly MIG-28s and at least three crews of the MIG-28s were killed. "Goose" got killed, but the movie isn't going to think about the men flying those jets getting killed. This isn't a movie to understand the geopolitical conflict of USA and USSR, it's a movie made for the "Baby Boomers" in the 1980s. Top Gun is "America fuck yeah" in cinema form. 1 1
caley Posted May 14 Posted May 14 Two bad creature features and one kinda awesome crime/noir pic Beast From Haunted Cave: This is one CHEAP movie. Seriously, seriously cheap. A group of crooks hire a guide to take them over a skihill who is unaware that he is part of their getaway, meanwhile they're all pursued by a...spider...kind of...thing... Seriously, the monster in this is so bad that you almost always see glimpses of it because it's just basically a mask and two sticks with webbing on them. Apparently this movie is so cheap that there's another film with most of the same actors seemingly playing the same-ish characters so that they could get two movies for the price of one. It's pretty bad but there is one saving grace: Frank Wolff as the head of the crooks. I'm not sure I've ever seen a character played so believable fed up with everything. I mean, I'm not sure if that's what they were going for, but he spends the majority of the film, scowling, looking annoyed, yelling at people. I'm not sure I've ever seen a character look so constantly annoyed, as if he wished the camera would just turn off. I enjoyed it greatly. The Flying Serpent: This one is rather nonsensical. An archaeologist finds Monte Zuma's treasure and a way to control Aztec bird god Quetzacoatl and uses it to kill anyone who might get in his way. His reasonably oblivious daughter and a mystery investigator attempt to get to the bottom of what's going on. The titular creature actually looks not that bad when it flies, but the attack scenes are laughably bad as it appears to be the same side as a poodle. This is pretty much garbage, really. And if you read up on it, apparently they just borrowed the plot from another movie. So as bad as it is, it's also a ripoff. Big House, U.S.A. : A sickly little boy gets lost in the wilderness while out at summer camp when a seeming-samaritan (Ralph Meeker) helps him, gets him to wait inside a ranger station while he hikes back down to find a phone. It's at this point that you find out he's actually holding him ransom from his rich father. Anyways, the kidnapping goes bad...real bad...and the Iceman, as the media dubs him, ends up in prison while the FBI continues to investigate the boy's whereabouts as well as the location of the ransom money. In prison, he gets mixed up with a gang of bad dudes lead by the always awesome Broderick Crawford and including a young (and ridiculously ripped!) Charles Bronson, who plan to use him to escape from jail. It's part crime flick, part jailhouse flick, and part wilderness adventure. It's pretty dark, the actors are all pretty awesome. I genuinely really enjoyed it even if the last segment gets a little laughable. Spoiler Seriously, how can that many police officers MISS Broderick Crawford?! He's not exactly a small target!
Curt McGirt Posted May 14 Posted May 14 (edited) 10 hours ago, caley said: The Flying Serpent You should probably watch Larry Cohen's Q: The Winged Serpent to take the bad taste out of your mouth. Edited May 14 by Curt McGirt 3
elizium Posted May 14 Posted May 14 (edited) People should just watch more Larry Cohen movies in general The aforementioned Q is great because Michael Moriarty showed up to set and was like "this is my movie, no one else is getting this movie but me" and puts in an all timer of a performance I am especially partial to Special Effects, The Stuff, and God Told Me To Edited May 14 by elizium 3
Curt McGirt Posted May 14 Posted May 14 Bone is a real sleeper IIRC. Black Caesar was a big surprise too, a very thoughtful and serious version of the blaxsploitation picture. God though, I need to watch The Stuff again. What a movie. 1
J.H. Posted May 14 Posted May 14 (edited) Fame - What to say about this movie... it doesn't suck, far from it. It's just got a huge cast that keeping each player straight can be confusing. The only actor i recognize is Irene Cara and that is due to her time on The Electric Company and her music career. Of course as a kid who grew up in New York nothing pisses me off more than when thosw fuckin kids at School For The Arts randomly break out into spontaneous dance and hold up traffic! The story that I was really interested in Ralph's because it is basically every major comic of the seventies. It just happens too fast for Ralph to adjust and even moreso the audience watching the movie. In the end Fame is not a bad movie, just some characters need fleshing out to really help their stories along. (And if you don't get the urge to dance when "Fame" plays, you are dead to me!) James Edited May 18 by J.H. 2
Andrew POE! Posted May 15 Posted May 15 I really need to watch Fame and Flashdance at some point. Hell, Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo.
Andrew POE! Posted May 15 Posted May 15 (edited) Movies today.... All I Can Say (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler This format of using Shannon Hoon's recorded video footage as the basis of the documentary is actually really interesting. In another time or if he were born a decade later, I think Hoon would have decided to go to film school or been a social media personality as he got tired of making music. As it is, the choices made for what was recorded and presented is the work of the editors and the other directors involved with this. While watching this, it's hard not to picture yourself where you were when the events depicted happened. When Blind Melon were on SNL, playing at Woodstock, when Kurt Cobain died, when Jerry Garcia died, his hanging out with Slash and Axl Rose, and other events. Shannon Hoon's recording goes from the start of his early days and deciding to leave Indiana for Los Angeles. There's something magical about those early days and his recording the other members of Blind Melon in a swimming pool. The documentary tells its story in ellipsis with events transpiring outside of the recorded footage. As Hoon and the band get a contract with Capitol Records and stand on the roof of it to sign, things began to change. They go on tour. They get the cover of Rolling Stone (with relatives singing Dr. Hook/Shel Silverstein's song to boot). They tour with the band The Rolling Stones. They shoot a music video for "No Rain." But Hoon begins to have an encroaching darkness that he seemingly cannot get out of; he's sent to rehab. The scene where his girlfriend Lisa is taking to someone about dying plants and Hoon getting a voicemail from Mike McCready has a symbolic nature to it. You begin to see the stress of it getting to Hoon during Woodstock '94 performance. The band records in New Orleans, like Daniel Lanois did. Their second album seemingly falters. "All these reporters here and no one wants to interview Blind Melon," one of the band members says. Hoon at this point is a different person than the person shown earlier in the documentary; Hoon talks a mile a minute and is under drug/alcohol dependency. He mentions seeing "that one person you really should say no to" when footage in a city likely Amsterdam is shown. The ending footage is a bit sad as it shows Hoon alone in a hotel room on the day of his death, talking on the phone, drinking alcohol. Hours later, he's found dead on the tour bus. All I Can Say as a documentary is one of the better documentaries; the subject tells its story with occasional 'talking to the camera'/audience as an acknowledgement that Hoon is documenting his own history. The simple act of watching and observing is as important as recording. The Million Dollar Hotel (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler The Million Dollar Hotel seems to exemplify the late 1990s excess that was permeating movies and arthouse cinema. Wim Wenders directs a movie that loves the smell of its own farts if you will and with a story from U2's Bono, its pretentiousness is magnified ten fold. The story really is simplistic; it has echoes of Jean Luc Godard's Detective (which I will re-watch and re-assess at some point). Tom Tom (Jeremy Davies) is a mentally impaired man who rides a skateboard around the sidewalks outside the Million Dollar Hotel and is attracted to Eloise (Milla Jovovich), a shoeless woman living at the hotel that reads books. Eloise upon first frame is carrying a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude. (As a sidenote, it's amazing how Jovovich went from being in these artistic movies to doing Resident Evil movies and perfectly fine with lesser movies now). A murder takes place of Izzy Goldkiss (Tim Roth) and his father Stanley (Harris Yulin) hires a detective with a neck impairment named Skinner (Mel Gibson). Gibson's Skinner is evocative of his time in the Lethal Weapon movies, but played up less for laughs. Skinner talks to the residents and tries to find out who murdered Izzy; the residents include Geronimo (Jimmy Smits), John Lennon aping Dixie (Peter Stormare) and Vivien (Amanda Plummer), who claims to be Stanley's daughter later. The movie seems to be making light of mental illness in some respects or possibly is saying that the broader madness of the world is smaller in comparison to the oddball behavior of its characters. The movie at times is nearly rudderless and directionless; the moments that work involve the soundtrack, like Bono crooning "Satellite of Love" when Eloise and Tom have a moment together. The gravest sin that can be said of The Million Dollar Hotel is it's spectacularly average even with the acting and directing pedigree involved. There's nothing really that memorable from the movie. The 'reveal' as to Izzy's fate isn't really a reveal; it was known that he jumped as Tom remembered it. The movie circles back to the introductory scenes where Tom has committed suicide and talks about how "the world has magic and surprises." The Million Dollar Hotel is worth a little bit less to watch. Piaffe (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Piaffe has some David Lynch's Eraserhead with Sidney Lumet's Equus imagery going on; the colors in this would rival what Almodovar does along with the queer filmmaking of Fassbinder/Almodovar. As a movie, Piaffe almost makes it to be a near-classic. The story for it involves a woman named Eve (Simone Bucio) who is made to work as a foley artist for a drug commercial involving horses. The director finds her first draft to be terrible and threatens to fire her if she doesn't 'go into nature' to find 'life.' Eve walks around Berlin and finds herself slowly growing a horsetail in a surrealistic fashion. What seems to be prevalent throughout the movie is the sense that things are denied to Eve that she wanted otherwise - she wants to see Zara (Simone Jaikiriuma Paetau) who is in a hospital. She meets Novak (Sebastian Rudolph) who has a BDSM like relationship with her where he ties her arms up and strokes her tail. Eventually, Eve is able to create the sounds for the commercial that are to the director's liking. Towards the end, Eve has a possible sexual encounter with Novak until she runs away and goes into a club with Zara. Zara and she dance; the next morning, Zara shaves the horsetail, which has begun to move. Piaffe as a movie is beautifully filmed in Super 16 with a lot of color in every shot. The story aspects are a bit indecipherable at times. Located Obsession (1943) on Plex, but it had really bad subtitles and my Italian is kinda bad. Obsession (2025) (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars Spoiler I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Obsession. The premise is something I can understand completely - in high school and college years, I was a shy mostly loner type that would pine after women and then act surprised when the women in question really didn't reciprocate my feelings. So the opening scenes with Baron "Bear" Bailey (Michael Johnston) talking to a girl across from him about his feelings felt like something lived in. It turns that this isn't the case as his friend Ian (Cooper Tomlinson) interrupts and the girl in question isn't even there. Baron is trying to woo Nikki (Inde Navarrette), who is a bit 'arms length' with him. During a phone call before they meet up with the fourth friend Sarah (Megan Lawless), Nikki apparently lost a crystal (oh great, one of those...) and Baron goes into a gift shop/crystal store and finds an item called One Wish Willow, that grants the user one wish. They meet up for trivia and then leave with Nikki riding back with Baron. Baron drops Nikki off and wishes for Nikki to fall in love with him and....then it goes a bit sideways. It turns out the wish worked and Nikki has fallen for Baron, although he wonders if it's a game or a trick Nikki is playing. The movie leaves open the possibility that it is, with Nikki telling Baron that she's upset about her dad dying in the hospital, when Ian tells Baron on the phone that her father is fine and the hospital has no record. So where did Nikki get that from? The movie never explains truly Nikki's behavior. Nikki's behavior seems to be a product of a spectre inhabiting her as was shown during a nightmarish phone call with the company that makes One Wish Willow. So is this a demon or a possessive spirit that acts like Nikki, much like a succubus? The movie doesn't go that far either. What it does lead to is Nikki exhibiting truly strange behavior, like watching Baron while he sleeps, pissing on a rug, and reading a strange bit of 'fiction' at a party and then telling everyone they will die. The Nikki that's shown to Baron seems to be indulging in a completely horrific side to her, much like something from Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead. What I found myself at a certain point with the movie is the fact that I really didn't feel any connections with the characters beyond the premise. Nikki's personality is essentially "she does MDMA, she's skinny and pretty, and she's kinda sick of the attention." In another movie, she would be the 'manic pixie dream girl' for Baron and it would lead to the two staying together (in one montage sequence, it does resemble a lot of romantic comedies with such characters). Baron is a complete doormat of a personality and I wouldn't date him either if I were a girl. Ian is a Temu version of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's characters and Baron would have been well within his rights not to talk to him again (especially after Sarah tells him that Ian and Nikki have casual sex with each other). Sarah is practically a blank slate, other than she works for her dad (Andy Richter) and she's trying to get into art school (well, at least until she gets killed in a bloody fashion). The movie has characters that I didn't feel change from the start to the end and there wasn't a journey for the characters; it's just more of a ride, like how Osgood Perkins does his horror movies. And if they work in a music shop, why were none of the characters High Fidelity-like music fans? Why didn't Baron have a garage band that he did with some other friends including Ian? That would have lead to Nikki to being a fan at the gig yelling to Baron "I love you!" to frighten everyone else. Instead, the movie has the characters working in the same place for practically plot convenient reasons. Seriously, they wouldn't hang out with each other outside of work, this is 2026 now. Despite that, Curry Barker borrows from Roman Polanski, Brian De Palma, Michael Mann, and William Friedkin liberally. There's a few split diopter shots in the movie (like in the kitchen scene when the camera changes focus to something on a counter). The soundtrack from Rock Burwell is practically Tangerine Dream-esque and made me want to dig out my copy of Thief and watch it again. Barker took Polanski's "main character thinks they are going crazy," De Palma's style and nightmarish female character, Mann's atmosphere (and great night time cinematography) and Friedkin's tension and insanity into one movie. It can be considered a great first feature effort and hopefully Barker will build on this for his next one (The Frighteners-like Anybody But Ghosts). I just wish the characters and script were better. I tried to watch Funny Girl in the movie theater at 8:30 pm but I kept dozing off so it didn't count. I'm 0-2 on starting stuff lol. Edited May 15 by Andrew POE! 1
J.H. Posted May 15 Posted May 15 (edited) Breakin' is fun Breakin 2 main contribution to cinema is its title. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't realize Lucinda Dickey was the phone installer/aerobics instructor/Ninja in Ninja III: The Domination til I was in my 30s! Ah Canon Films! James Edited May 16 by J.H. 1 1
Andrew POE! Posted May 16 Posted May 16 Movies today.... Hummingbirds (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler I like the idea of Hummingbirds more than I liked the execution of it. Don't get me wrong - I like a movie like this that shows people just living their lives and being almost nearly narrative-less. The broader scope of the movie isn't in what is shown, but is in what is not shown. The two women involved Estefania Contreras and Silvia del Carmen Castanos are products of people living in the US that know of no other life than being in the United States. They protest and act as activists for female body autonomy, queer expression, and immigration reform. But they also are young women that are graduating from college and spending one last summer together. This includes wearing silly sunglasses for bingo nights, singing Fun. while waiting at Whattaburger, and sneaking into buildings. It's a bit like El Norte but for the social media generation; the life that would be outside the US that they would know is harder and more grueling than they can imagine. I found myself drifting in and out of attention with this movie; I would admittedly say I didn't give the movie my full attention despite liking it. A lot of the movie has the camera set up further back for midrange shots as the two walk through Laredo at night and see the closed businesses and a movie theater with chain length fences over them. It's somewhat sad that even in a place like Laredo, everything business wise dries up. Got to love the American economy Donald Trump created and Joe Biden had to figure out how to fix in four years (but can't). I too have to call out the popular review for this movie saying that this is "ego-centered, self-righteous… Sundance porn." Maybe don't go see a movie if you know you won't like it? Just a thought. The movie ends with the two having haircuts and eating flavored ice bought from a vehicle. Life in America. A Prince (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler There is a story with A Prince although it's told through its narration. At times, it reminds me of David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future (1970), but a bit more directly linked between the story, the actions on screen, and the narration. The movie is a bit of an Alain Guiraudie-like rural queer love story centering on Pierre Joseph (Antoine Pirotte) as he goes from a botany student to an adult gardener (Pierre Creton) with narration from Gregory Gadebois. Another character Francoise Brown (Manon Schaap) talks of adopting Pierre Joseph and a boy named Kutta (Chiman Dangi) while opening a school in the area. The centerpoint of the story is how time escapes people. A frequent image is of a person lying down on the ground. The narration explains that a person has died, as though the camera just caught them 'in the act' of dying. Pierre-Joseph meets with Adrien (Pierre Barray) and Alberto (Vincent Barre) through the school. Alberto is a filmmaker who went to the Himalayas to film flowers for a film called "Memory of a Garden" while Adrien works with Pierre-Joseph to care for gardens and for a nursery. The men are drawn into a romantic relationship with each other; the camera catches them kissing a few times. As Pierre-Joseph becomes older, those men naturally die or less involved with him. Pierre-Joseph works on an estate of Catherine Dubreuil (Evelyne Didi) and drawn into a relationship with another man on an estate seized from the Russian mob. He and the other man have sex with the other man being....able to do multiple things with his groin. (Whether this is a byproduct of LSD usage since a narrative section mentioned one of the characters having access to LSD isn't really known but it can be presumed). What carries the movie is the beautiful imagery of the French region. The visuals tell a story parallel to the narration with people working a nursery, digging up plants, lecturing on a plant project, or about to board a train. In some ways, this is a good counterpoint to Hummingbirds, although the two are not the same type of movie. It does meld documentary and fiction with footage that seems more of a documentary than a narrative fiction even with the narration. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (Mubi, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki feels like a 'missing link' between Breathless and Rocky that I never knew existed. Olli Maki (Jarkko Lahti) is to fight in a featherweight championship match against Davey Moore (John Bosco Jr). There's something comedic about Maki, almost similar to what The Plot Against Harry had with its main character. The main drive of the story is about the pressures other people put on someone to succeed, when that's not really what they are after. Maki's coach Elis Ask (Eero Mionoff) expects him to train the way he wants and to not be distracted with his relationship with Raija Janka (Oona Airola). Raija is pressured to leave and Maki spends most of the movie looking for her, longing for her. He goes back home and finds her to spend time with her. The black and white 16mm photography makes their relationship absolutely sweet as they ride around on a bicycle in the countryside. The fight comes and...Maki loses to Moore. Maki is interviewed and expected to attend a dinner, but leaves with Raija. Besides if the only person in your corner is the one you love, who else would you leave with? For the most part, the movie as a boxing movie is less of The Set Up and more of a Rohmer relationship drama. Olli and Raija know they love each other; I loved the scene where Olli watches the video footage shown at a party and sees Raija making faces for the camera. In The Grey (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Quite honestly, Guy Ritchie can literally spend his entire career making the same movie and that would be okay with me. In The Grey doesn’t do anything different than his greatest hits - Snatch, The Man From UNCLE, Wrath of Man, The Gentlemen - but it doesn’t need to. Jake Gyllenhaal and Henry Cavil play two hired muscle named Bronco and Sid (the most generic 1980s action movie names ever) working for Rachel Wild (Eiza Gonzalez), an attorney trying to pressure the holdings of Salazar (Carlos Bardem). What Salazar does isn’t really established, but who cares? He’s rich and he might be selling drugs and arms. He has enough money for a private island, paid off police, and hired goons. The scenes with Gonzalez and Rosamune Pike as Bobby Sheen (the most Guy Ritchie-est name ever in a Guy Ritchie movie) evoke the dynamics of The Gentlemen easily with apparent sexual tension between the two. Bronco and Sid also have sexual tension, but it’s difficult to tell if it’s part of their cover story (it’s difficult not to chuckle at Gyllenhaal saying “I love you” as Bronco and not think about Brokeback Mountain). What I love is how the movie lays out the escape routes and plans on the island and actually have them play a part in the finale as Bronco and Sid and crew escape with Rachel off the island. The drawback is the movie seems Saudi Arabia funded (which given where the Western world is today on film production isn’t surprising). In The Grey is a no frills, all fun action flick. Like Crime 101, it is one of the best action movies released so far this year. Is God Is (saw in the theaters) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler If you're going to watch one black cinema Kill Bill inspired revenge flick, make it Is God Is. (One Spoon of Chocolate is amateurish trash). The dynamics of Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) are evocative of the British drama The Silent Twins, also about a pair of twins with near telepathic abilities. Instead of creating art that no one understands, this set of twins is given a mission to Kill Bill, I mean their dad (Sterling K. Brown) from their mother Ruby (Vivica A. Fox). A lot of the story elements would be familiar to anyone who watched Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2 (or The Whole Bloody Affair that was in theaters). Stylistically, it had elements of Tarantino's grindhouse cinema (whether we like it or not, Tarantino has made it easier for directors to use 1970s exploitation cinema in their work). As well as a lot of the cinematography was reminding me of the little seen Queen & Slim as the two characters journey through the South to find the trail of their father. The church they stop at to see Divine (Erika Alexander) was reminding me a bit of the church in Spike Lee's Red Hot Summer. Although the conclusion of those scenes were a bit funnier with Racine stealing Divine's address book. After meeting with their dad's lawyer Chuck Hall (Mykelti Williamson), they were able to locate the new wife (Janelle Monae). It was implied during the new wife's introductions that she too suffered from abuse like Ruby did; except, she was going to leave him, Waiting To Exhale style (she didn't set his stuff on fire though). The twins killed the new wife then the male twins (with one of the male twin brothers being implied as being gay). The final showdown between the twins and their father is a lot more satisfying than was in One Spoon of Chocolate. They do the exact same thing that was done to their mother and set him on fire with alcohol. Unfortunately, Racine doesn't survive with the ending shot of the movie showing Anaia holding her baby. I liked a lot of the stylistic choices that director Aleshea Harris used in the movie with quick cuts when the twins are in front of a car and the flashback sequences in black and white. A lot of the dialogue and the acting is more from a theater background in comparison to what would be expected; the conversational dialogue has callbacks within the movie to earlier scenes. Kara Young was especially great as she could veer her character from being psychotic to nearly apologetic; Johnson in the scenes toward the end with Brown did great work as her character almost considers ending their revenge. Although I got tired of the overuse of "twin" in about every other line of dialogue (I get it, that's a black American slang nowadays). Is God Is was what it was. Confessions of a Nazi Spy (HBO Max, leaving on 5/24) - 3/5 stars Spoiler If Kash Patel and the current administration were in charge of the FBI in this movie, we'd be speaking German now. Confessions of a Nazi Spy is very much propaganda, but that's okay in this case. It's anti-Nazi propaganda. The FBI with Edward Renard (Edward G. Robinson) is certainly smarter than the current FBI director who definitely did not party with the US Hockey team and definitely was not so hung over that the SWAT team tactics had to be used to reach him. Oh no, nope, Kash Patel definitely is not an alcoholic. No way. Anyway, the movie depicts a complex spy network involving undercover Nazi agents including Kurt Schneider (Francis Lederer), who is unemployed, and Dr. Kassel (Paul Lukas), who delivers Nazi speeches at meetings while going to Germany aboard a ship. (And cheats on his wife too with a younger woman). It's telling that the Nazis use people of low intelligence and low economic status in the United States to recruit into their spy network. The thought would be to counter this would, I don't know, give people better jobs and better education so that they don't become Nazis. In this case, well, the FBI will use heavy handed tactics and Renard is able to reverse psychology his way into a confession from Schneider. That confession starts the ball rolling. As the movie progresses, the spy network is blown wide open with those involved are sent to a trial and convicted. Meanwhile, Germany goes across Europe and captures countries as part of its regime. You think the United States would invade and rescue those countries and kill the fifth columnists? Nah, don't be silly. FDR would have the US do nothing until Pearl Harbor happened. It's the American way after all to let other countries suffer then swoop in and act like the US did something. The final scenes has US Attorney Kellogg (Henry O'Neill) tell Renard that "when our basic liberties are threatened, we wake up." When the truth is....the United States doesn't. Look at what's happening today. The United States is asleep at the wheel. Sure, let's have Southern States gerrymander districts to squeeze out Democrat opposition from even being able to be elected to Congress. Let's have five counties in Georgia change the way they vote while the rest of the state is unaffected. Let's have the will of the people in Virginia tossed out because the state Supreme Court doesn't think 'they followed the laws' to fight back. Yeah, the United States is 'awake' alright. If this movie were to happen today, the spy network would continue unabated due to the attorneys for them convincing judges to allow it for 'free speech' and because Donald Trump would let it. 2
Tabe Posted May 16 Posted May 16 Saw Michael tonight. Yes, it is hagiography. Yes, Janet's name is not even mentioned. Yes, they skip over "We Are the World". Yes, they ignore any tension between Michael and his brothers. Doesn't matter. This is a really, really well-done movie. They do a great job of charting Michael's rise, give a look at Joe's abuse, his quirks, and his vitiligo. And Jafar Jackson is incredible in this movie. He looks the part and his dancing is on-point. He moves extremely well. Look, Michael is problematic and divisive. But if you remember his megastardom from 82-88 and his music still makes you tap your foot, go see this movie. 8/10. 3
Andrew POE! Posted May 17 Posted May 17 Movies today.... Beijing Watermelon (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler With Beijing Watermelon, a lot of American filmmaking flows through it. The story is relatable and evocative of Frank Capra's You Can't Take It With You or even some of John Ford's work like The Quiet Man. Shunzo Horikoshi (Bengal) has the stubbornness of John Wayne with some of the 'everyman'ness of James Stewart as well as a few of Ozu's male leads. The movie isn't really like an Ozu movie (I haven't seen enough of Ozu's work, but I can tell that Ozu's camera handles scenes differently). Nobuhiko Obayashi's camera handles things differently - chaos in the frame is a common occurrence as people walk into the shot to talk or buy things or a parade passes through or one of Shunzo's employees is driving through with a truck. Conversations interlap in Japanese and in Chinese; the pure chaotic energy of the scenes are infectious. Obayashi's camera also does a lot of tight closeups throughout the movie - the emotion is shown in the face, which isn't common in Japanese cinema. The Japanese culture is tight lipped and closed off a bit - which Shunzo exemplifies. What's interesting is how the movie starts. The day to day life of Shunzo is shown as he gets up early in the morning, takes his truck to buy produce, his wife Michi (Masako Motai) gets up too to open the store, and Shunzo comes back with the product to sell. The days proceeding it have a similar pattern, but we don't see what lead to the store opening that day, just he in the store. With meeting a Chinese student who is wanting to buy vegetables but doesn't have enough money to do so, a game of janken changes everything for him. Shunzo slowly little by little open up to the students. He begins to care more for them than he does his family. Slowly, things start to crumble in his life. He has to sell a truck. His wife has to go to the market. He gives his wife's necklace to one of the student's wives. One of his employees leave to work at a supermarket. The tax office comes by to seize items due to back taxes. Shunzo attacks a display at a bank. The scene that culminates all of this is at a beach in Chiba. Michi is sitting, obviously upset with the upheaval this has caused. The Chinese students are singing, playing, and hitting a watermelon blind folded. The thought would be that, "these students don't really care about Shunzo and Michi and are just using them." It's easy to watch the movie with the lens of wanting Shunzo to stop on this path because the path he's going down hurts him. That isn't the case - Shunzo finds himself in the hospital. The Chinese students come together to help Shunzo and his family keep the store. It's like something from a Frank Capra movie as the love of a community or the love of a person evokes a wider, greater emotion; it's hard not to watch those scenes and think about a sense of family connection. Shunzo recovers, the store ends up in a newspaper, and Shunzo and Michi are invited to go to Beijing. We see them flying on an airplane, presumably to Beijing but this isn't the case. Shunzo addresses the camera, breaking the fourth wall. The movie has become something entirely; reality is indeed sometimes more powerful than the movies as the actor says. The desire to be in Beijing and to film in Beijing isn't possible; the students cannot be seen due to an event that is never mentioned, but is known. Shunzo and Michi are received at a dinner, filmed in Tokyo but meant to represent Beijing. Obayashi has the movie resemble a bit of a Kaufman-esque melding between the film world and the real world; we see the actors playing Shunzo and Michi walking into a cabin to film their scene as the crew prepares the shot and the scene. Shunzo is given an envelope with 80,000 yen; payment for the generosity shown to the Chinese students. The hope is that it becomes a fountain, the letter says. Shunzo is to be the 'dad' for the other Chinese students that come to Japan, that are looking for a home, a community. They go back home as his former employee and his wife manage the store, then it does a quick cut to Shunzo and Michi sitting closer to the camera. Much like Frank Capra's movies, the good wins out in the end. As someone who watches a lot of movies, a movie like this is universal, even with a language barrier. Obayashi is trying to show something within the Japanese culture that is lost, even though the Japanese and the Chinese view each other as enemies for centuries. Hostilities during WWII would be fresh on their minds as would the economic shifts that occurred between both countries. China in 1989 kill their own citizens, while Japan is seen as the more dominant country. Today, that's different. China is viewed as a 'superpower.' It's likely Americans (and other countries) will need to learn Mandarin in order to compete and to gain employment and advantages in the future, which may be sooner than later. King Kong (1933) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4.5/5 stars Spoiler It honestly wouldn't be fair to judge King Kong (1933) with the standards of today. The characters involved aren't really people - misogyny and classism run rampant throughout the movie. The white men in this - John Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) and Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) - are the 'heroes' to save Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from "Kong," a creature that exists in an 'uncivilized' part of the world and on an island cut off from the rest of the world. The same sort of logic looks down upon white women and black men dating - "Kong" is analogous for the racists to black men and black bodies. There's also racist tropes - one of the crew members is named "Charlie" (Victor Wong) and that may or may not be his real name (he's also Asian and that feeds into the racist term used decades later in Vietnam to describe a group of people). The 'natives' are various unnamed and unknown black and brown actors, with one being prominent as the Witch Doctor (Steve Clemente). Their talent isn't known, they are just presented as 'uncivilized' people keeping "Kong" behind a gate and preparing a ritual of a sacrifice to "Kong." But within the context of 1933, King Kong is much different. There wasn't really a movie quite like it; it can be considered one of the first examples of the American "blockbuster" movie. The national identity and culture wrapped around and behind the spectacle and glamour of Hollywood. It's said that Godzilla was the country of Japan's response to post-WWII and post-atomic bomb; the bomb destroyed Nagasaki and Hiroshima with Godzilla emerging from the water. In a way, King Kong is the American response to the Great Depression. Something as a catalytic as an economic struggle that left people without work, without hope, and without food. So the response? Make the movie about hope, about a chance to catch a break, about a director telling a woman that he has her in mind for his next picture. The movie is about Hollywood and the hope that fame and fortune is just one person away. So the movie is essentially a journey to the island and what Carl Denham hopes to find there. To be honest, the build up to the island and to finding "Kong" isn't really that good; dialogue is sorta bad and cheesy with gems like "I thought you didn't like women" when John Driscoll tells Ann Darrow he loves her. (I'm surprised that John Driscoll didn't get asked if he grew strawberries, but that may be a reference that would go over most people's heads). Once Denham and crew with Ann Darrow meets the 'natives,' the movie begins to spring into something else, Darrow being regarded as the 'sacrifice' to give to "Kong." The natives board the boat and kidnap Darrow to tie her up with the idea that "Kong" would be quelled according to their traditions. The difference this time is that Darrow is kept alive and taken away. It would be interesting if there were a 'prequel' made that showed the 'first sacrifice' to "Kong" and the meaning behind it. The gate that's closed is meant to keep "Kong" in and keep the various dinosaurs in too; in a lot of ways, it's pre-Attack on Titan. "Charlie" finds out that Darrow is missing (with his "crazy black man been here") and Denham and the others mount a rescue. King Kong as a movie is surprisingly violent and visceral during the rescue; it's equivalent to a horror movie. Bodies are thrown and tossed, people bitten in half, limbs torn off. The rescue is probably the best filmmaking aspects overall; the way shots are set up has the actors in the foreground with the larger perspective shown of "Kong" standing or one of the dinosaurs fighting "Kong" or standing. Driscoll eventually rescues Darrow even though "Kong" is fighting off the creatures native to the island to protect Darrow. The creature that "Kong" was before Darrow's arrival has changed; the movie never says what happened to the other "sacrifices" made. It's very likely either "Kong" killed them or the creatures native to the island did. "Kong" and the dinosaurs coexisted for who knows how many years. Once Driscoll and Darrow reach back to the gate, "Kong" follows; Denham and his crew and the "uncivilized" people have a common enemy now. "Kong" is subdued and somehow taken back to New York City. (The movie never shows it, until Peter Jackson's King Kong is released). What to do with something like "Kong"? Should he be taken to a museum or an university to be studied, examined, or understood? Nah, it's the Great Depression and this is Hollywood. Carl Denham will make money off of "Kong." The process of "Kong" being captured and exhibited (with tickets going for $20) is a metaphor for how Hollywood treats its stars. Play the part, be locked up and chained to the performance, the sole purpose is entertainment. Denham sees dollar signs - he'll make $10,000 that night with more shows after that. Yet, "Kong" escapes not due to the presence of Darrow and Driscoll, but the flashing cameras. The shot that starts his escape has flashing cameras on screen, cut quickly between the cameras. "Kong" breaks out of his constraints and looks for Darrow as Darrow and Driscoll go into a room. The scenes with that show chaos, a car crashes into a building, Kong scales up a building and tosses a woman to her death. Darrow and Driscoll hide in a room with "Kong" finding Darrow and pulling her out. The special effects and camerawork during the scene is a great bit of filmmaking. To be honest, the 'solution' to get "Kong" is a bit of terrible dialogue ("we have to shoot Kong down with airplanes!" "Good idea!"). In some respects, King Kong has more in common with the later 1950s American scifi movies where the dialogue and characterization weren't exactly important. But what a sight to see "Kong" scale up the Empire State Building with Darrow. I loved the camerawork during those scenes as the camera pans towards "Kong" then pans up, to simulate an airplane climbing upwards. After awhile, the airplanes get to "Kong" and the creature is noticeable bleeding. The creature falls, hitting his head against the building, and then being found on the ground. The line at the end is probably one of the best and most iconic - "It was beauty that killed the beast." Even then, King Kong is where a lot of modern Hollywood started. Later, directors like Steven Spielberg did Jaws and there were numerous remakes of this movie. King Kong as a concept is still showing in movies today (with the latest being Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire). High Noon (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 5/5 stars Spoiler Quite honestly, this movie is American. This movie shows what happens to Americans that are ruled by complacency, fear, and comfort. As is said later in the movie, "deep down they just don't care." What makes High Noon work so well is the fact that every indicator to the main character Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) tells him that he should leave and avoid a showdown with Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald). (What does anyone have against Frank Miller here? Yeah, he should retire and The Dark Knight Rises III sucks, but he's a comic legend....oh wait, wrong Frank Miller. Easy mistake there). Everyone that Kane approaches about being deputized tells him no. He goes to a bar, no one in the bar wants to risk their neck. He goes to a church, the same story. Even his wife Amy Fowler Kane (Grace Kelly) doesn't think that Kane should pursue it. Will and Amy get married at the start of the movie and are riding out of town until something gnaws at Kane about staying. The idea that Miller's arrival will mean that he will be hunted for the rest of his life. What's interesting is the town is easy to blame others besides Miller. "The politicians up north" are blamed for pardoning Miller even though Miller was convicted of murder and was sentenced to hang. What's interesting is the movie completely tosses out rehabilitation for Miller; much is talked about him until he appears toward the end of the movie. Let's talk about that scene where Miller appears - the scene is such an example of tension being built through quick cuts. The cuts between the saloon, the inn, the church, Amy, Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), Deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), Martin Howe (Lon Chaney Jr), the clock as it hits noon. The train engine and the steam rising act as a 'release valve.' Compared to other Westerns, the role of women is vastly different. Helen and Amy talk with there been distinct differences between the two; Helen had loved Will Kane once but left him. Likely due to a possible relationship with Frank Miller. Amy yet marries Will Kane and tells Helen she doesn't like guns, due to seeing her brother and father killed with guns. What's interesting is how Amy's religion is different than the religion practiced in the local church. The Quakers practice in silent expression of belief, which makes a lot of the scenes with Kelly as Amy showing this. So more than likely, whatever Amy will do will be done silently. After running through every attempt at assistance, Will Kane decides to face Miller head on. He's written a final letter on the event of his death. What's interesting is Amy hearing the gun shot runs off the train and looks for Will, presuming that he's dead. She goes into the marshal's office and the camera is focused on the gun hanging up on the belt as Amy looks outside. The last five minutes is practically a clinic in drawing out tension and using the camera to focus on what the characters see. Miller's men (including Lee Van Cleef) have obscured vantage point to Kane. Kane does as well. They throw lanterns into a barn and set fire to them. Kane sneaks out with the horses, Miller's men unable to get a clear shot. Eventually, Amy Kane evens things up and kills one of Miller's men. Miller knew what direction it came from and went towards the marshal's office to capture Amy. The conclusion of the shootout has Amy Kane clawing at Miller's eyes and Will Kane shooting Frank Miller dead. Will and Amy gather themselves up and....now the town shows up. Will Kane tosses his badge on the dirt. "The tin star wasn't worth it" after all. The two finally leave, Frank Miller finally killed, no more writing The Dark Knight Rises IV for him. (Well, he couldn't write it anyway). High Noon as a movie is a great Western and a great American movie for a lot of reasons. Later Westerns, from Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, goes to more of an extreme to depict a 'post-Western' world where the savagery of the Old West gives way to modernism. 1
odessasteps Posted May 17 Posted May 17 The best thing about High Noon is how much John wayne disliked it. 1
Andrew POE! Posted May 18 Posted May 18 (edited) Movies today.... The Tempest (2010) (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars Spoiler Once you get past the laughably bad Twilight series CGI, The Tempest isn't a bad adaptation of the play. Compared to other adaptations I've seen - Paul Mazursky's version tries to modernize it, Derek Jarman's version was experimental to the point that the story was difficult to follow - this is actually more 'straightforward' adaptation. Still, the movie is completely unhinged to watch. Seeing Ben Whishaw nearly nude or nude as Ariel chasing Djimon Hounsou as Caliban, Alfred Molina as Stephano, and Russell Brand as Trinculo is a crazy bit of 2010s filmmaking. Russell Brand isn't a good actor, but even he can't screw up Shakespeare; his turn reminded me a bit of Bill Murray in 2000's Hamlet. The story for the movie has characters divided up into group - Alonso (David Strathairn) along with Gonzalo (Tom Conti), Antonio (Chris Cooper)< and Sebastian (Alan Cumming) are trying to find their way after a shipwreck. Miranda (Felicity Jones) meets and falls in love with Ferdinand (Reeve Carney) while Prospera (Helen Mirren) still harbors anger for being called a sorceress. The center piece of the movie is Mirren as Prospera. Having the main character be female gives the story a different dimension; it feeds into the superstitions of women as witches and wielding magic. Prospera communicates with Ariel to wreck havoc for Alonso and Antonio. Yet, in the end, she sees the humanity in Alonso and the union between her daughter and his son as a path forward. One scene I really liked as an example of the CGI working was when Prospera begins to cast a spell and sees doves flying and numerical figures; she stops herself before going much further. What's really impressive is the costuming for the actors. Hounsou's makeup worth is utterly exquisite and seems like something from a Guillermo del Toro movie. Hounsou is another highlight in the movie as he is in turn comedic and ferocious through his reading of the character. For the most part, The Tempest (2010) is not one of the best adaptations, but it's not bad either. Fear And Desire (my 600th movie so far this year, Kino Lorber Blu Ray) - 1.5/5 stars Spoiler Even if you remove Stanley Kubrick's name and his body of work after this, Fear and Desire is a terrible movie. There are moments where it almost works - the scenes where the soldiers rush the cabin and the various closeups on hands, food, and bowls. How the camera focuses in closeups on Virginia Leith's face; this resembles some of Italian Neorealism that Kubrick probably has seen. The scene where Pvt. Sidney (Paul Mazursky) goes crazy and references The Tempest about the magician and a fish. That whole sequence as Leith is tied to a tree, her eventual escape, and Sidney trying to talk to her is honestly the best part of the whole movie. The camera focuses on Sidney's face and on the girl's face is very much evocative of Kubrick's later work and a signature shot of his. But holy shit this movie is a catastrophe. The lighting for scenes really work against it - especially towards the end. The scenes where Lt. Corby (Kenneth Harp) and Pvt. Fletcher (Steve Coit) attack a house and kill the General (also Harp) are so dimly lit that it's impossible to make out bodies or faces in the scenes. Everything has a 'student film' feel to it, which is likely what happened as money was scarce and Kubrick thought he had something. The voiceovers near the start sound more comedic than anything serious as apparently the characters were voicing their thoughts while looking for a river. The worst part is Harp. Lt. Colby sounds like he is selling detergent on the radio or about to welcome us to the Kraft Television Theater. His characterization for The General sounds like a combination of Mitch McConnell and Ian McDiarmid as Senator Palpatine. There's a reason why Harp wasn't known for other movies after this. Stanley Kubrick tried to destroy this movie and for good reason. Workingman's Death (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars Spoiler Workingman's Death is almost like a Werner Herzog documentary, but minus Herzog's narration or any form of narration. Those presented tell their stories. In Ukraine, it seems mining is a job that workers doing it have to do because there is nothing else that they can do. The government won't give them wages or ways to earn a better living. They work in practically claustrophobic conditions as they mine for coal. The focus of the past to work for the 'greater Soviet society' is gone; they are working to survive. The three women at the end point out the issue - you can go to college and get a degree, but no one is hiring for a decent waged job. So they have to mine coal. The ending of the segment shows two couples being married against the background of Lenin and Alexei Stakhanov. The section in Indonesia in the sulfur mines show a rather chauvinistic view of the workers. One man working bragged about being able to fight off six other men while drunk with a tattoo on his chest. He bragged about kissing a French girl with a little bit of English. The workers in Indonesia seem to be able to carry above their own body weight without it seriously affecting them. It should be noted that the job seems to be for the young rather than the old. Those older than probably 20s and 30s aren't there. Nigeria section about men subduing animals and cutting open live goats and cows with machetes is probably the roughest section of a movie I've ever seen. There is no sleeping drug indued on the animals; the animals are killed almost without mercy. Yet those doing claim support from God and that God has granted them favor as a slaughterhouse. The men seem to be in a state of madness almost at home with Herzog's documentaries. The section in Pakistan has wielders taking a ship apart piece by piece. With the workers here, there's no quarreling or braggadocios behavior. Just diligence and patience over the work performed. What's taken apart is taken to a junkyard. Religious devotion is tied to the work done - the final shot of the section has a wielder praying towards Mecca onto top of the abandoned ship. The final section in China seems to be showing a 'future' - the workers involved are highly educated and knowledgeable and seem to recognize their place and purpose within Chinese society. One of the workers at the smelting plant points out how China has moved from a planned economy to a market economy, which requires changes in their workers. Changes that he won't be apart of due to his generation retiring. By calling it 'future,' the director seems to be pointing out how China will take over the antiquated ways of working whether those in other fields realize it or not. Contrast with the epilogue, which shows a plant in Germany being turned into a leisure park. What was once where the German economy thrived is part of consumerism for junior high and high school students. Workingman's Death as a documentary is an extraordinary piece of work to watch, although parts of it are hard to stomach (especially the section in Nigeria). 52 Pick-Up (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 2.5/5 stars Spoiler 52 Pick-Up is emblematic of the 1980s and just has a sleaziness that covers everything. Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) cheats on his wife with Cynthia Frazier (Kelly Preston) and goes to visit her at her apartment when three guys are there in masks and have videotapes of him and Cini together. Harry hides the fact of his affair from his wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) for most of the movie, until he reveals it at dinner. Then surprisingly, Barbara helps him get back at the men doing the blackmail on Harry. That's the kind of sleaziness this movie is. We learn who is behind the blackmail before Harry does - it's an adult theater owner Alan Raimy (John Glover), an adult models photography/strip club Leo Franks (Robert Trebor), and a guy they know from their adult/sex parties Bobby Shy (Clarence Williams III). Like most of other Elmore Leonard characters, the men involved with the blackmail aren't exactly the most polished or even the best at what they do. Harry gives them an envelope at a Dodgers game so they up the stakes a bit. They kidnap Cini after a party one night and shows Harry a video of her being killed. What I found somewhat interesting is how those involved in the blackmail/kidnapping plot act like they don't recognize Harry outside of where they kidnapped him and force him to watch the video. I don't know if that was on purpose or they deciding not to let on that they knew Harry. In the movie, there's a ton of nudity. Preston shows up naked, Vanity appears naked as a friend of Cini, and there's a lot of porn stars/adult film stars everywhere in the movie (at the clubs and at the parties). 52 Pick-Up doesn't really come together that well - Harry and Barbara working together result in Barbara being kidnapped too. Bobby kills Leo and tries to kill Alan, but he gets killed before he had a chance to shoot him. The conclusion of the movie has Harry wiring his Jaguar to explode when Alan gets inside the vehicle, which is a bit incredulous. For the most part with 52 Pick-Up, it's not a 'deep thinking' thriller. It's very much in line with the other Cannon movies of the time where a lot of it is played fast and loose with how it's done. With John Frankenheimer's work in this, it's a bit like a B-movie equivalent of William Friedkin's style of movie. There were quite a few scenes with great usage of split diopter (especially in the scene where Alan, Leo, and Bobby are talking). The Way He Looks (Mubi, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars Spoiler Bit of a standard queer coming of age love story, but set in Brazil. The actor playing Leonardo named Ghilherme Lobo was tremendous in conveying a blind character sensitively; Leo may be blind, but he's not without complexity or emotions. Everything changes for Leo when a new boy named Gabriel (Fabio Audi) joins the class.... What's interesting is how a lot of the drama is between Leonardo and his friend Giovana (Tess Amorim) over slights both characters are feeling. Leonardo feels slighted because Giovana won't talk to him. Giovana is slighted because Leonardo won't talk to her. The party is where a lot of the conflict is centered - Giovana pulls Leonardo out of there because a class mate was going to make Leonardo kiss a dog. (Pet peeve of mine: If you're going to play David Bowie's "Modern Love" in your movie, have characters running down the sidewalk. It's the official unofficial "character has an uncontrollable urge to run on a public sidewalk" song). Leonardo coming to gripes with his sexual orientation happens a bit slowly over the course of the movie. His identity at first stems from a desire for freedom, with his telling his parents that he wants to participate in the exchange program. The story thread for that was resolved a bit too well with his father saying he would talk to Leonardo's mother. Then, Leonardo imagines Gabriel and Katrina (Isabela Guacsco) kissing in a pool during a dream; Leonardo hears the conversation at a camp and freaks out a bit (great acting in the scene as Lobo reacts completely in the face to hearing the conversation). Leonardo and Gabriel kiss at a party then stand in a shower together; Gabriel begins to realize that he has feelings for Leonardo. The ending has the two realizing together who they love - Leonardo and Gabriel finally kiss in Leonardo's bedroom (I was half way expecting Leonardo's mother to walk in to ask Leonardo something) then hold hands leaving school. For the most part, The Way He Looks will not reinvent the wheel with coming of age stories, but is beautifully shot and filmed. I loved the usage of split diopter shots and out of focus shots in the movie; the pool scene at the camp is a great example of this as Leonardo joins Gabriel and Katrina in the pool. Edited May 18 by Andrew POE!
odessasteps Posted May 18 Posted May 18 Better to just watch Forbidden Planet than this version of the Tempest. 1
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now