2026 Movie Discussion Thread

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Florence Foster Jenkins (Hulu/Paramount+, leaving on 5/31) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Florence Foster Jenkins couldn't be confused for Foxcatcher, another movie about a clueless rich person trying to go into a field that person is woefully unaware they lack a proficiency in doing. Difference being that the namesake character played by Meryl Streep couldn't be said to be malicious or kill anyone around her, she just kills their ears with her singing.

Meryl Streep as an actor has a really great singing voice, based on her performances in both Mamma Mia movies. With this, it takes a special talent to play someone that is singing badly (and to do so on purpose). A lot of the story for this is St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) trying to placate Jenkins with having her take singing lessons and hires Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg) as an accompanist.

The basic story beats seem to be Bayfield is purposely in denial about Jenkins' singing abilities. They do a recording that apparently people want, but not for the reasons they think. A concert at Carnegie Hall is booked and Jenkins performs, but faces the realization that she is being laughed at. The final scenes has her collapsing upon reading a truthful review of her performance and eventually dying.

Rebecca Ferguson as Kathleen Weatherley is ill-used in the movie and she literally disappears in a cab for the rest of the movie; the movie tries to build an idea of a romance between Bayfield and Weatherley that never is completed. Bayfield and Jenkins have a platonic relationship where Bayfield is 'married' to Jenkins, yet cannot consummate. Jenkins has syphilis, which likely caught up to her more than the bad review did.

Like most other period pieces Stephen Frears has done such as Mrs. Henderson Presents, the details are painstakingly done although it feels a bit 'empty' in comparison. New York City streets in the 1940s are shown for the sake of it, with a lot of the scenes being in contained rooms.

Florence Foster Jenkins sings its tune not particularly well but not bad either.

Galaxy Quest (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Quite honestly, at the time this came out, I would get this confused with Star Trek: Voyager (that show's premise is almost the same thing as this). Galaxy Quest is pretty much a Star Trek homage through and through (that is until The Orville came out).

You can literally see what characters are being copied/inserted into the movie - Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) is William Shatner who really believes his own hype and thinks he's Captain Kirk. Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) is like Mr. Spock and Captain Picard rolled into one (Patrick Stewart gave Picard the Shakespearean actor training approach in every episode of TNG). Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) is like Gates McFadden/Marina Sirtis combined (even down to the 'sexy' outfit but with a real life love interest towards Nesmith - gross). Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) is like Geordi LaForge/Montgomery Scott combined except a bit out there. Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell) acts like he came out of Zoolander and seems completely unprepared for any of this. Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell) is very much Wesley from Star Trek TNG except...well, he grew up.

In a lot of ways, this movie is also a bit like how Tropic Thunder was later where the characters are inserted into a real life danger while still thinking they are on a TV show. They begin to realize the constraints of what the ship is and who the enemy is - Roth'h'ar Sarris (Robin Sachs). The 'reveal' to Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) that those that were on Galaxy Quest were really actors is a bit of a sad moment.

But, like all Star Trek movie adaptations, they get out of the trap, crash land back on Earth and go on another adventure - a new series but with new characters/actors - Jane Doe/Laliari (Missi Pyle).

Galaxy Quest to be boldly go where no sci-fi parody has gone before while never giving up and never surrendering too.

Backrooms (2026) (saw in the theater) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

What do you get when you combine Safe and Cabin in the Woods? You get Backrooms.

In all likelihood, the director Kane Parsons and writer Will Soodik may not be as well versed in film and the inspirations are only incidental. Most of it is within the 'found footage' style that Blair Witch Project and numerous other "mockumentaries" that sprang out of it. The aspects that reminded me of Safe were in the 1990s style of clothing, the shots of suburban California, and the general uneasiness the movie dwells in.

Clark (Chiwtel Ejiofor) is a divorced husband that owns a furniture store, somewhere in Santa Clara. His life is at an impasse - where we meet him at the start is at a therapy session with Dr. Mary Kline (practically Julianne Moore-like Renate Reinsve). "Your life is in fixed paths, .... so you'll always end up alone." Dr. Kline advertises a book on 1990s informercials called The Opened Window - describing a breakthrough to be equivalent to 'climbing out of a window.'

Clark stumbles into a 'door' that takes him through an Aperture Science-like maze of rooms that aren't complete. He soon enlists his employees/couple Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett) to help him explore this area of the basement and what might be there. (Side note: This is the second movie where an under-30 director presumes people that work together want to hang out, or in this case date, outside of work. The people you work with aren't your friends!!!)

Kat and Bobby get 'captured' as Clark seemingly falls down too. He leaves a message on Dr. Kline's answering machine, saying he 'climbed through an opened window, he's free.' That prompts Dr. Kline to be concerned and to search for Clark. She goes into the furniture store and into the 'door,' which looks different than what Clark has seen.

Which seems to play into a theme of the movie - the rooms exemplify the psychological trauma of the people entering it. For Clark, it's the pain of his divorce and the realization that he will be alone (although he notes it isn't loneliness). Clark is frustrated in his career path as he owns a furniture store instead of as an architect - with architectural drawings on his way. For Dr. Kline, she experiences a psychological trauma too through her dreams as she imagines her mother (Krista Kosonen) telling her not to go near windows and a work crew demolishing her old house.

The climax has Clark seemingly 'reconciling' with the creatures in the backrooms - from what Clark describes of them and of the place, could be like today's AI. "The rooms remember," he says. "This man somewhere is a person in a plaid shirt." The creatures are poor copies, with multiple eyes and incomplete body parts. Clark doesn't introduce the woman behind him, because she resembles his wife. In fact, she cuts the hair off of it and puts it on Dr. Kline's hair.

After doing a role playing session where Clark clearly has lost his mind and attempts to feed Dr. Kline with Soylent Green-like components from the man in the shirt, a towering version of Clark appears in the room (with the camera elevated to demonstrated the creature). The creature could be the id version of Clark, to keep with the psychological terms. The creature chases after Dr. Kline.

Dr. Kline attempts to escape and it turns out the doors she thought would open have a barrier up. Gas is released as Dr. Kline crawls away to an opening and hits the creature with a mold of her mother's hand. Men in suits grab her and Dr. Kline wakes up in a room. Phil (Mark Duplass) explains to Dr. Kline that he can't say where they are (a la Cabin in the Woods), but yet no one from his organization built the backrooms; he goes exploring in it.

The ending for the movie left more questions than answers. Dr. Kline's house is shown and the 'rooms' have copied it crudely. The house where the couple that work for Clark stayed at is copied crudely, with carts stuck into the ground. The furniture store has Clark's BMW going into the ground as well. Dr. Kline is shown, not quite resembling a human being.

What then is Kane Parsons trying to say about what we saw? That the people involved weren't quite humans? They aren't real? None of this is real? Is it like something out of Cabin in the Woods where it's a controlled state from a shadowy organization? Who knows.

Kane Parsons as a film-maker has a lot of work to do. To be honest, a great amount of time in the movie was spent with Clark walking through the 'rooms' and it was nearly sleep inducing. The characters in this are a bit surface level and seem to be almost 'first drafts' at actual people in a fictional narrative. The credit then has to be given to Reinsve and Ejiofor to derive more emotion out of their one-note characters could have.

I hope he, like Curry Barker, builds on his first feature to do great for his next movie. It's somewhat a depressing state of cinema that any significantly new movie comes from people who made YouTube videos. The lesson then I guess is forget film school and just make YouTube shorts. You might make a feature after that.

 

[Technico Support]

14 hours ago, J.H. said:

Let me post this and we can end all this John Shaft talk. Possibly, the best dialogue in the history of cinema...

James

 

“What’s with all this black shit, Shaft?  (Holds up a black pen) You ain’t so black.”

(Shaft holds up a white coffee mug) “And you ain’t so white, baby! HAHAHAHA!”

——

“Got me feeling like a machine, and that’s no way for a man to feel.”

——

“Picked my man up and threw him right out the GOT DAMN WINDOW.”

 

Havent seen Shaft in probably 30 years and still remember this shit.  I’d quote the lines Rob Zombie samples in Electric Head, but that’s cheating.  

[J.T.]

13 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

Movies today....

Florence Foster Jenkins (Hulu/Paramount+, leaving on 5/31) - 2.5/5 stars

  Reveal hidden contents

Florence Foster Jenkins couldn't be confused for Foxcatcher, another movie about a clueless rich person trying to go into a field that person is woefully unaware they lack a proficiency in doing. Difference being that the namesake character played by Meryl Streep couldn't be said to be malicious or kill anyone around her, she just kills their ears with her singing.

Meryl Streep as an actor has a really great singing voice, based on her performances in both Mamma Mia movies. With this, it takes a special talent to play someone that is singing badly (and to do so on purpose). A lot of the story for this is St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) trying to placate Jenkins with having her take singing lessons and hires Cosme McMoon (Simon Helberg) as an accompanist.

The basic story beats seem to be Bayfield is purposely in denial about Jenkins' singing abilities. They do a recording that apparently people want, but not for the reasons they think. A concert at Carnegie Hall is booked and Jenkins performs, but faces the realization that she is being laughed at. The final scenes has her collapsing upon reading a truthful review of her performance and eventually dying.

Rebecca Ferguson as Kathleen Weatherley is ill-used in the movie and she literally disappears in a cab for the rest of the movie; the movie tries to build an idea of a romance between Bayfield and Weatherley that never is completed. Bayfield and Jenkins have a platonic relationship where Bayfield is 'married' to Jenkins, yet cannot consummate. Jenkins has syphilis, which likely caught up to her more than the bad review did.

Like most other period pieces Stephen Frears has done such as Mrs. Henderson Presents, the details are painstakingly done although it feels a bit 'empty' in comparison. New York City streets in the 1940s are shown for the sake of it, with a lot of the scenes being in contained rooms.

Florence Foster Jenkins sings its tune not particularly well but not bad either.

Galaxy Quest (Peacock, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

  Reveal hidden contents

Quite honestly, at the time this came out, I would get this confused with Star Trek: Voyager (that show's premise is almost the same thing as this). Galaxy Quest is pretty much a Star Trek homage through and through (that is until The Orville came out).

You can literally see what characters are being copied/inserted into the movie - Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) is William Shatner who really believes his own hype and thinks he's Captain Kirk. Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman) is like Mr. Spock and Captain Picard rolled into one (Patrick Stewart gave Picard the Shakespearean actor training approach in every episode of TNG). Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver) is like Gates McFadden/Marina Sirtis combined (even down to the 'sexy' outfit but with a real life love interest towards Nesmith - gross). Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub) is like Geordi LaForge/Montgomery Scott combined except a bit out there. Guy Fleegman (Sam Rockwell) acts like he came out of Zoolander and seems completely unprepared for any of this. Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell) is very much Wesley from Star Trek TNG except...well, he grew up.

In a lot of ways, this movie is also a bit like how Tropic Thunder was later where the characters are inserted into a real life danger while still thinking they are on a TV show. They begin to realize the constraints of what the ship is and who the enemy is - Roth'h'ar Sarris (Robin Sachs). The 'reveal' to Mathesar (Enrico Colantoni) that those that were on Galaxy Quest were really actors is a bit of a sad moment.

But, like all Star Trek movie adaptations, they get out of the trap, crash land back on Earth and go on another adventure - a new series but with new characters/actors - Jane Doe/Laliari (Missi Pyle).

Galaxy Quest to be boldly go where no sci-fi parody has gone before while never giving up and never surrendering too.

Backrooms (2026) (saw in the theater) - 3.5/5 stars

  Reveal hidden contents

What do you get when you combine Safe and Cabin in the Woods? You get Backrooms.

In all likelihood, the director Kane Parsons and writer Will Soodik may not be as well versed in film and the inspirations are only incidental. Most of it is within the 'found footage' style that Blair Witch Project and numerous other "mockumentaries" that sprang out of it. The aspects that reminded me of Safe were in the 1990s style of clothing, the shots of suburban California, and the general uneasiness the movie dwells in.

Clark (Chiwtel Ejiofor) is a divorced husband that owns a furniture store, somewhere in Santa Clara. His life is at an impasse - where we meet him at the start is at a therapy session with Dr. Mary Kline (practically Julianne Moore-like Renate Reinsve). "Your life is in fixed paths, .... so you'll always end up alone." Dr. Kline advertises a book on 1990s informercials called The Opened Window - describing a breakthrough to be equivalent to 'climbing out of a window.'

Clark stumbles into a 'door' that takes him through an Aperture Science-like maze of rooms that aren't complete. He soon enlists his employees/couple Kat (Lukita Maxwell) and Bobby (Finn Bennett) to help him explore this area of the basement and what might be there. (Side note: This is the second movie where an under-30 director presumes people that work together want to hang out, or in this case date, outside of work. The people you work with aren't your friends!!!)

Kat and Bobby get 'captured' as Clark seemingly falls down too. He leaves a message on Dr. Kline's answering machine, saying he 'climbed through an opened window, he's free.' That prompts Dr. Kline to be concerned and to search for Clark. She goes into the furniture store and into the 'door,' which looks different than what Clark has seen.

Which seems to play into a theme of the movie - the rooms exemplify the psychological trauma of the people entering it. For Clark, it's the pain of his divorce and the realization that he will be alone (although he notes it isn't loneliness). Clark is frustrated in his career path as he owns a furniture store instead of as an architect - with architectural drawings on his way. For Dr. Kline, she experiences a psychological trauma too through her dreams as she imagines her mother (Krista Kosonen) telling her not to go near windows and a work crew demolishing her old house.

The climax has Clark seemingly 'reconciling' with the creatures in the backrooms - from what Clark describes of them and of the place, could be like today's AI. "The rooms remember," he says. "This man somewhere is a person in a plaid shirt." The creatures are poor copies, with multiple eyes and incomplete body parts. Clark doesn't introduce the woman behind him, because she resembles his wife. In fact, she cuts the hair off of it and puts it on Dr. Kline's hair.

After doing a role playing session where Clark clearly has lost his mind and attempts to feed Dr. Kline with Soylent Green-like components from the man in the shirt, a towering version of Clark appears in the room (with the camera elevated to demonstrated the creature). The creature could be the id version of Clark, to keep with the psychological terms. The creature chases after Dr. Kline.

Dr. Kline attempts to escape and it turns out the doors she thought would open have a barrier up. Gas is released as Dr. Kline crawls away to an opening and hits the creature with a mold of her mother's hand. Men in suits grab her and Dr. Kline wakes up in a room. Phil (Mark Duplass) explains to Dr. Kline that he can't say where they are (a la Cabin in the Woods), but yet no one from his organization built the backrooms; he goes exploring in it.

The ending for the movie left more questions than answers. Dr. Kline's house is shown and the 'rooms' have copied it crudely. The house where the couple that work for Clark stayed at is copied crudely, with carts stuck into the ground. The furniture store has Clark's BMW going into the ground as well. Dr. Kline is shown, not quite resembling a human being.

What then is Kane Parsons trying to say about what we saw? That the people involved weren't quite humans? They aren't real? None of this is real? Is it like something out of Cabin in the Woods where it's a controlled state from a shadowy organization? Who knows.

Kane Parsons as a film-maker has a lot of work to do. To be honest, a great amount of time in the movie was spent with Clark walking through the 'rooms' and it was nearly sleep inducing. The characters in this are a bit surface level and seem to be almost 'first drafts' at actual people in a fictional narrative. The credit then has to be given to Reinsve and Ejiofor to derive more emotion out of their one-note characters could have.

I hope he, like Curry Barker, builds on his first feature to do great for his next movie. It's somewhat a depressing state of cinema that any significantly new movie comes from people who made YouTube videos. The lesson then I guess is forget film school and just make YouTube shorts. You might make a feature after that.

 

Excellent review of Backrooms, Andrew!

And yeah, the movie did seem to diverge a lot from the hard sci-horror worldbuilding of Kane's YouTube series and transform into a character study. Not that I minded but I am sure it was pretty disjointing for fans of the series to be immersed in a such a personal tale where the Backrooms are a set piece, rather than the focal point of the narrative.

More accurately, the Backrooms region is full character in the YouTube series, really.

If you've ever checked out Kane's other work, you might be disappointed to find that it is almost identical to Backrooms in tone and obviously inspired by other things.

Spoiler

He definitely has a preference for using otherworlds and liminal spaces as a foundation. The Backrooms, The Oldest View and People Still Live Here all have the common thread of someone stumbling into someplace that was never meant to be discovered and then bad shit happens. 

The resonance generator that creates the portal to the Backrooms dimension screams From Beyond by HP Lovecraft / the Half Life video game series / Stephen King's The Mist and The Jaunt and the secret codes and cryptic messages embedded in some Backrooms segments is obviously a sign that at some point in his online viewing, Kane watched more than his share of analog horror content like Marble Hornets, Genesis Home Entertainment, and Local 58.

And you can't have a sci-horror story without a government conspiracy or evil corporation. ASynch's batshit insane master plan ranks up there with the machinations of other fictional companies of ill intent like Weyland-Yutani, Umbrella, Tessier-Ashpool, and the rest of the pantheon.

Backrooms is almost a pastiche monument to the time when analog horror was the big thing on YouTube, as well as a nod to the creepypasta generation that came up with the Backrooms in the first place.

Kane's only other significant work is related to the anime series, Attack on Titan, and a short film based on the video game, Portal 2. His reliance on other people's material and reused ideas definitely shows, but he's still a kid. He has time to mature and evolve.

The YouTube projects he's worked on since Backrooms, while similar in concept, definitely show signs of professional growth but they still rely on themes and concepts he's recycled since Backrooms. My hope is that now that Kane has gotten Backrooms to a wider audience, he can really explore other ideas and expand creatively.

I think it is important to note that not only did Kane direct his YouTube series, he also composed the music. He really is a talented young man and I hope for nothing but good things for him in the future.

Edited May 29 by J.T.

[Technico Support]

We wanted to see Backrooms, but wait until next weekend because we have plans this weekend.  Somehow, it’s only at one theater next weekend, with one showtime.  I’m hoping it’s just a matter of the theater waiting to figure out the schedule until after this weekend, and not a matter of the screen to streaming cycle getting crazy accelerated.

Edited May 29 by Technico Support

[J.T.]

31 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

We wanted to see Backrooms, but wait until next weekend because we have plans this weekend.  Somehow, it’s only at one theater next weekend, with one showtime.  I’m hoping it’s just a matter of the theater waiting to figure out the schedule until after this weekend, and not a matter of the screen to streaming cycle getting crazy accelerated.

I went to an early evening showing last night after rage quitting Helldivers 2 due to dumb players calling Gatling Sentries in the LZ. Sentries prox fire and have no IFF so if not placed away from the squad, they have the potential to kill everyone in the vicinity. In this case, the Sentry did indeed wipe the entire team resulting in mission failure.

My Block List grew by one more moron.

It's just as well because I am working mids for two weeks starting this Saturday afternoon. If I hadn't gone to the movies between last night and today, I probably would've sat on my ass and waited until Backrooms came on digital.

Edited May 29 by J.T.

[J.H.]

5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

“What’s with all this black shit, Shaft?  (Holds up a black pen) You ain’t so black.”

(Shaft holds up a white coffee mug) “And you ain’t so white, baby! HAHAHAHA!”

——

“Got me feeling like a machine, and that’s no way for a man to feel.”

——

“Picked my man up and threw him right out the GOT DAMN WINDOW.”

 

Havent seen Shaft in probably 30 years and still remember this shit.  I’d quote the lines Rob Zombie samples in Electric Head, but that’s cheating.  

Can we please talk about how awesome Richard Roundtree is?

His laugh in the "and you ain't so white" exchange is so awesome!

Goddam I love Shaft!

James

Edited May 29 by J.H.

[Curt McGirt]

Apparently Kane has enough saved lore for Backrooms to fill a dozen sequels, so expect this to sprawl. 

[HarryArchieGus]

Saw Princess Mononuke at a local cinema yesterday. I've shamefully owned the DVD for about a decade without ever having watched it. As expected the animation was pretty great. Also as expected a kinda by the numbers hero's quest plot. I didn't find it particularly engaging. Still, I liked it, but recognized it's 'not for me'. Curious where you all think this rates with the other Ghibli films? Also, are there any Ghibli films that don't follow a hero's quest plot? 

[Andrew POE!]

5 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

Saw Princess Mononuke at a local cinema yesterday. I've shamefully owned the DVD for about a decade without ever having watched it. As expected the animation was pretty great. Also as expected a kinda by the numbers hero's quest plot. I didn't find it particularly engaging. Still, I liked it, but recognized it's 'not for me'. Curious where you all think this rates with the other Ghibli films? Also, are there any Ghibli films that don't follow a hero's quest plot? 

I'll let you know once I get through all the Studio Ghibli movies on HBO Max or I have on Blu Ray lol. 

It's frequently rated neck and neck with Spirited Away, but I try to ignore the ratings "professional film critics" give it if I can help it. 

Edited May 30 by Andrew POE!

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...

Marie Antoinette (2006) (HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Marie Antoinette is very much an 'entry point' film to historical costume dramas. There's Visconti's The Leopard, L'Innocente, and Ludwig in there, but there's also Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock too. Watching the whole of it, having a coronation scene set to The Cure's "Plainsong" makes perfect sense. Selecting shoes to wear and pastries to eat while Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy" blasts through it also makes perfect sense too. The Strokes' "Something Happened" during a party makes perfect sense as well. 

Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is part of the aristocratic structure of France, but honestly doesn't get it either. When she meets people at the start of the movie, she hugs them. She's upset that her pug is taken from her, but told she'll have many French dogs to choose from. Marie Antoinette is to be married to the Dauphin (Jason Schwartzmann), but the Dauphin clearly isn't interested in her. Their cycle of life is repetitious: they go to be married, they rarely spend time together, they go to bed, she wakes up alone in the morning to see many attendants dress her, they eat together, and he leaves to go on hunts. The movie never broaches upon it, but what exactly is the Dauphin doing on these hunts anyway?

What further complicates matters is the Dauphin to crowned king and becomes King Louis XVI due to the death of Louis XV (Rip Torn). Madame du Barry (Asia Argento) has a bit of a minor role as Marie Antoinette isn't fond of her at all; it's interesting how the later movie Jeanne du Barry from Maiwenn presents a different view of the relationship between Louis XV and du Barry. With this, du Barry and Louis XV are more of Louis XV trying to reclaim his lost youth. In Maiwenn's hands, Louis XV and du Barry have an unspoken friendship that makes angry his immediate familiy and he slowly grows comfortable with her outside of the view of the attendants.

Eventually, Louis XVI and Antoinette produce children - the scenes with Marie Antoinette and her eldest daughter evoke Picnic at Hanging Rock quite a bit as does a later picnic scene. There's something freeing and innocent about Antoinette in this state versus the rigidity and formality that she exists in throughout the movie. Her romance with Raumont (Tom Hardy) is more passionate and intense compared to producing children with the king. We never see Marie Antoinette and the king together, just a quick cut to the next morning and then to her giving birth.

This isn't to say that Marie Antoinette isn't without difficulty for its main character. The French Revolution is only heard, either in writings or relayed messages. Her portrait displays various messages decrying her in quick succession. The people part of the revolution are heard outside the palace until towards the end. Marie Antoinette appears before them on a balcony and bows towards them; that momentarily quells them. The palace is overrun at the end of the movie, the final shot showing the destruction of her bedroom.

With this movie, Sofia Coppola did a movie that's extremely accessible to watch, yet feels distinctive enough. Marie Antoinette as a character in this is like 'the mean girls" in the erstwhile Mean Girls; she and her friends are part of a high school cliche, except they are running a country. Coppola as a director always has women at the focus, but also destruction and upheaval around the corner for them.

Taking Woodstock (HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Taking Woodstock makes sense as part of a 'trilogy' with Brokeback Mountain. I haven't seen Lust, Caution (yet), but the themes from Brokeback Mountain with this seem to intermingle. The main character for this Elliot Teichberg (Demetri Martin) is finding himself pulled between his real inner life and his public persona. The greatest hardship for him is his parents Sonia (Imelda Staunton) and Jake (Henry Goodman) and their failing hotel in upstate New York. A newspaper clip about the organizers of Woodstock not being able to stage their concert leads to Elliot allowing Michael Lang (Jonathan Groff), a childhood friend and organizer, to use the hotel for the staging ground of the concert.

A lot of the movie is about the minutiae of the concert and what Elliot encounters. Ang Lee has those scenes almost documentary-style with multiple split screens showing different actions occurring at once. Elliot slowly experiences changes as more people show up; he finds his inner life has him attracted to Paul (Darren Pettie), where they kiss at a party. Unlike Brokeback Mountain, Elliot's parents don't really care and Elliot isn't ostracized for his feelings towards Paul. They just don't play a larger part in Elliot's story.

As the concert happens, Elliot finally goes to it and rides through the crowds of people on a police motorcycle. What changes Elliot's direction is a drug trip with a couple (Paul Dano, Kelli Garner). Love's "The Red Telephone" perfectly exemplifies what Elliot is experiencing as everything around him grows much brighter. Elliot comes out of it a changed man: he walks home, has breakfast with his parents, as his mother complains about what is happening, and Elliot says he doesn't think Janis Joplin would be eating breakfast with her parents. After that, Elliot resolves to go to California. The movie ends upon the cleanup after the concert.

Taking Woodstock probably isn't one of Ang Lee's best; Demetri Martin as an actor is a bit bland, even with the changes the character he plays goes through. Parts of it would be similar to other 'coming of age' movies depicting the time period like Almost Famous; Martin doesn't display a wide eyed enthusiasm. Instead, Elliot Teichberg seems like he just woke up from a year long nap. A lot of the more interesting characters, like Betty von Vilma (Liev Schreiber) seem only tertiary with the main struggle over staging the concert very much resolved before the movie ends.

Taking Woodstock isn't a bad movie, but just could have been a bit better.

Repo! The Genetic Opera (saw in the theaters) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

I get it. Making movies is hard to do.

I wouldn't want to begrudge Repo! The Genetic Opera for not trying. After an enthusiastic intro from its director Darren Lynn Bousman about how "the people allowed a movie like this to survive," the movie starts and....this is the most PS3/Xbox 360 cutscene ass movie I've ever seen. I kept waiting for "Press X to Continue" or "Press A to Continue" to appear on screen.

The story for this honestly is all first act. There's moments where it feels like it comes together - like during "Chase The Morning," when Shilo (Alexa Vega), Nathan / Repo Man (Anthony Stewart Head), and Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman) are all singing at each other about their relationships. Or during "Zydrate Anatomy" where Graverobber (Terrance Zdurich) is trying to lure Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton) with some painkiller called Zydrate found from dead bodies (?). But the rest of the time just doesn't work at all. The lighting is bad. The scenes go on too long. The movie feels like a chore to watch.

The movie visually is like someone took Paul W.S. Anderson's CGI infused movies, Saw movies, and My Chemical Romance's "Helena" and smashed it all together. The songs mostly are terrible. The story is terrible. The ending leads to a sequel that will (hopefully) never come.

But I have to applaud those creating this for doing something different, even in 2008. Most movies from LionsGate just settle into a formula way of doing things. This is like, "yeah, we spent $8.5 million for this just to get Paris Hilton and to do the CGI and editing at a guy's house on a bunch of high end computers, so what?" Darren Lynn Bousman probably can't direct to save his life. At least he's not Uwe Boll. Bousman seems like a nice enough guy in comparison.

So yeah, see it in theaters or in the format preferably for the late 2000s, on a PSP UMD (if one exists for this).

Baltimore/Rose's War (Hulu, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

Baltimore (aka Rose's War) is very much a warning about leftist causes. The causes are nice to believe in - I certainly have been known to advocate for them. But like is said in the movie, what happens when words don't work and actions are required? Then, it turns into a revolution and a handful of people against the state always loses. They certainly lose in this.

Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots) makes the movie feel a bit like Paul Schroder's Patty Hearst, except Rose wasn't kidnapped. It starts when she was denied into the Oxford Union and stages a protest in slow motion shots, disguised as a man. It shifts into her involvement with the Irish Republican Army through anti-imperialism movements. She and three other men - Dominic (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor), Eddie (Jack Meade), and Martin (Lewis Brophy) go to the Russborough House and steal 19 paintings. In a flashback earlier in the movie, Rose recounts how one of the paintings moves her.

The thing with the movie is the fact that Rose doesn't fully commit to the idea of destruction, although the cause requires her to say that is a goal. If reparations aren't paid to Ireland over Northern Ireland, the paintings will be destroyed. This doesn't happen - the men and Rose separate themselves with Rose calling one of the men Eddie from a shop. Rose finds herself pregnant with Eddie's baby, but doesn't tell him.

Rose finds herself drawn to the painting Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid. She tells of her interpretation of the painting with a hostage boy named Patrick (Flynn Gray). The woman in the painting looking outside is daydreaming, thinking of a better life for herself. Rose sees herself in that painting. Towards the end, when she's captured, she imagines herself taking the painting and piloting a boat onto the lake.

It's difficult to say who caused the 'beginning of the end' for Rose. It may have been the local man Donal (Dermot Crowley) who informed the police. It may have been the fisherman that Rose approaches about using the boat on the lake. It may have even been one of the men in the heist, concerned with his own skin albeit anonymously. The movie never answers that question, but would it had made a difference? Rose drives the car to the lake with the paintings inside and is about to leave with one of the painting until the armed police arrive. The heist is over and the paintings are recovered.

Baltimore/Rose's War isn't necessarily an easy movie to watch; the frequent jumps between past and present can be a bit jolting to watch. It will denote earlier times as Rose remembers her life leading up to the heist. But during and after the heist, it gets tricky. The directors Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor honestly are talented pair. The cinematography is truly excellent as the shots capture the actors' emotions in scenes and also the really great lighting indoors and great wide angle shots outdoors.

 

[odessasteps]

I really liked it at the time, when 8 think it first came here in 99. That version also had the hook of being adapted by Gaiman and with an all star voice cast, including Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton and Claire Danes. 
 

I think it’s prob still my favorite of the “modern era” Ghobli films. I will prob always have Cagliostro as my favorite over all, since I saw it as a teen and it’s Lupin. 

Edited May 30 by odessasteps

[odessasteps]

Hard for me to separate the Marie Antoinette movie from the soundtrack. Sometimes, I love it when pictures do that gimmick and sometimes 8 don’t. I guess it likely helps that I love New Wave music. 

 

[J.H.]

I spent two years doing stage tech work for a shadowcast for Repo! 

While I made friends that I treasure, I hate that movie so much. The only Repo Man that matters has Emilio Estevez.

James

 

Edited May 30 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

2 minutes ago, J.H. said:

I spent two years doing stage tech work for a shadowcast for Repo! 

While I made friends that I treasure, I hate that movie so much. The only Repo Man that matters has Emilio Estevez.

James

 

And Harry Dean Stanton.

"I don't want no commies in my car. No Christians either."

[J.T.]

16 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I really liked it at the time, when 8 think it first came here in 99. That version also had the hook of being adapted by Gaiman and with an all star voice cast, including Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton and Claire Danes. 

I think it’s prob still my favorite of the “modern era” Ghobli films. I will prob always have Cagliostro as my favorite over all, since I saw it as a teen and it’s Lupin. 

I prefer Howl's Moving Castle to Mononoke Hime. The Boy & the Heron is also really good.

23 hours ago, HarryArchieGus said:

 Also, are there any Ghibli films that don't follow a hero's quest plot? 

Well, if you want to test the functionality of your tear ducts and find out whether or not you have a soul, you can watch Grave of the Fireflies and try not weep uncontrollably.

Edited May 30 by J.T.

[J.H.]

My Neighbor Totoro is not only not a hero's journey, it lacks a villain. It is a movie devoid of of actual conflict. It is a credit to Miyazaki  as a storyteller that he tells such a rich story despite there being no conflict to play off of.

James

Edited May 30 by J.H.

[odessasteps]

It’s been so long since I’ve seen most of the classic films (Totoro, Kiki, Pocco, etc).

[elizium]

20 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I really liked it at the time, when 8 think it first came here in 99. That version also had the hook of being adapted by Gaiman and with an all star voice cast, including Gillian Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton and Claire Danes. 
 

I think it’s prob still my favorite of the “modern era” Ghobli films. I will prob always have Cagliostro as my favorite over all, since I saw it as a teen and it’s Lupin. 

I love Billy Bob Thornton, but that was a horrendous miscast. Literally changes the very nature of the character

[odessasteps]

Oh agreed. I just trying to remember the name talent and he’s easy to remember.

[J.H.]

Erin Brokovich - Here's the thing about Julia Roberts, she is an actress who does rom-coms that are... questionable. But when she gets a role she can sink her teeth into, you forget the rom-coms and you realize that she really can act. She makes you believe.

Erin Brokovich is that role. I don't think Roberts has pushed herself as an actress much since. Christ, she is so good in this that you forget the crap she did before this or after. She is a force of nature in this. Every scene, every word spoken and every little movement comes across with purpose and intent. She commands the screen in this. I mean the rest of the cast is great, especially Albert Finney but this is the Julia Roberts show and owns the screen. She won the Oscar for thid and dammit she damn well earned it!

James

 

Edited May 31 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

I remember seeing Erin Brokovich in theaters while in high school and really hating it. Nowadays, I probably would like it, since I tend to rate everything from Steven Soderbergh highly.

Anyway, selected movies today....

Mommie Dearest (Hulu/Paramount+, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

It's quite easy to be mad at Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) in this. Joan felt the urge that a lot of women are made to feel through this patriarchal society - they must have children to feel validated in their existence. "Bend the laws," she says to her beau attorney Greg Savitt (Steve Forest) on a beach. She goes to adopt and apparently everything that happened to her is held against her - her divorces, her miscarriages, her personal upheaval.

Through Greg's efforts, she is able to adopt and welcome Christina (Mara Hobel). Christina is given everything, an extravagant birthday party on the grounds with a merry-go-round and presents. But she's also given Joan Crawford's inability to manage herself, which resembles abuse. The abuse isn't physical at first - it's Joan talking to her in an authoritative way, it's having to go to dinner with a plate of raw/rare steak then having that plate at breakfast.

Over time, it becomes abusive. Joan Crawford wins an Oscar for Mildred Pierce and not soon after that, she hits Christina with wire hangers because of a notion about the hangers. The wire hangers in her mind makes her look 'cheap.' She admonishes Christina about the $300 dress she bought her. She attacks Christina when a reporter comes by and Christina has been pulled from a school - Christina says it's a lie that she was expelled. Joan has to be pulled off of Christina.

The story for Mommie Dearest is Joan Crawford's even though it's from Christina's point of view. Christina is taken from every school - it's telling that the transition from her childhood to young adulthood is at the word "I understand." There is not anything to understand about what motivates Christina or Joan. Christina (Diana Scarwid) looks for acceptance from her mother and receives a fractured acceptance. She becomes an actor because that's the only life she knows.

Eventually, there is an understanding between Christina and Joan. Joan loves her daughter and did anything to help Christina keep her job on a soap opera - including standing in for her and playing her character, who is decades older than the 28 year old character Christina is playing. It's somewhat like what Amy Sedaris would do on Strangers With Candy and it's more comical than anything else. But with Joan Crawford, she understood what it meant for Christina to stay employed and working. People like Louis B. Mayer (Howard da Silva) decided for Joan Crawford that she couldn't act for his studio anymore and not on her terms.

In the end, after Joan Crawford dies, the last word wasn't the most important thing after all. The movie never answers why Joan disinherited Christina and Christopher (Xander Berkeley). The reasons that apparently the children were supposed to know weren't clear to them either. But it goes back to what Joan Crawford was told earlier - she's too vain for children.

Mommie Dearest as a movie appears a bit older than it being filmed in the 1980s. In some ways, it almost seems like a TV movie with how it is filmed - the small number of sets and locations and the melodramatic acting. Faye Dunaway is the standout as Joan Crawford and Diana Scarwid actually did great as well - I really loved the scenes where Christina is accepting an award on Joan Crawford's behalf. The emotions between both characters are palpable as tears are streaming down Joan's face while watching Christina on television.

It perhaps may have been unfair to have given the movie a "Razzie" nomination and having it 'win' Worst Picture. The movie isn't terrible at all. It's a pulp-y, tabloid-y, melodramatic car crash of a movie. You can't help but to have your eyes fixed on it as Joan Crawford winds herself up about everything. There's no 'off switch' for Joan, even amidst the positives in her life.

She has two children when she was told she couldn't.

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

Spoiler

Tuner as a movie is a bit of a throwback to the 1970s/1980s style of cinema. Niki White (Leo Woodall) is very much like other protagonists of that era; there's elements of James Caan's character in Thief and also Harry Caul in The Conversation. He's also like Ryan Gosling's character in Drive and Ansel Elgort's character in Baby Driver. There’s also elements of Whiplash and Good Will Hunting (especially the latter with the romantic relationship). Niki's special set of skills are unique and are the result of a condition he cannot help - Niki has sensitive hearing that leads to his being employed as a piano tuner.

Much like the protagonist in Thief, Niki White ends up as a safecracker, with Daniel Roher's camera focusing on the minutiae of the safe. Niki learns it from having to help his boss (and surrogate dad) Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman) open a safe in his bedroom to retrieve his hearing aids through watching YouTube videos. Niki's skill as a piano tuner is very much his doing all the work or most of the work while Harry sleeps and maybe can barely hear it. The nickname of Harry is "Tunafish," which is a reference to the joke of "You can tune a piano, but can you tune a fish?" One of the conversations early on is about how Harry can't eat tunafish any longer due to mercury and his difficulty in identifying the other reasons; he visits a studio for a session with Herbie Hancock and tells one of the technicians to ask Herbie about tuna fish.

Harry Horowitz is like a character 'out of time' - it's remarked a few times that "this isn't the 1950s" as Harry nudges Niki "to carry her books home" of Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a piano student and composer in music school while Niki comes to tune the piano. Niki and Ruthie's relationship seems to be like most modern relationships today - the emotions aren't expressed as much of a shrug. To be honest, it could be argued that Niki and Ruthie really don't have a relationship throughout the movie, but one does develop slowly.

During one piano tuning job, Niki meets Uri (Lior Raz) and his crew, who are much like Leo from Thief. Uri's first meeting is Uri trying to convince Niki that 'he's making assumptions' about what it is they are doing and 'they aren't criminals - we're security.' Uri is trying to move things out of a safe into another one. "Why weren't you given the combination?" Niki (and the audience) wonders. Nevertheless, Niki cracks the safe and is given cash for his job. Soon after that, Niki begins to do jobs for Uri's crew in addition to the piano tuning work while Harry is in the hospital.

It seems that Niki's line of work has paid off. During a sequence set to "It's Almost Like Being In Love," Niki is able to tune pianos, crack safes, buy Harry's van, pay off Harry's medical debt, and romance Ruthie. There's something almost living vicariously through him about that. The song makes sense in those moments as the camerawork and the editing fit the rhythm of the song.

What's interesting is the fact that Uri (and Niki) too are almost doing a "Robin Hood"-esque 'stealing from the rich to give to the poor' approach. Uri points out that the people with the safes don't notice anything missing and blame it on the housekeeper and fires her. It's somehow 'justified' what is done. The thing is the movie has it come back to bite Niki (and Uri) twice. The first time is with the South Korean uncle that has a notebook with a crypto key that he makes Niki swallow (yet Niki is able to remember it). Niki is made to do another job to retrieve the laptop during Ruthie's recital.

The second time is with Marius Maissner (Jean Reno), who is the composer that Ruthie is trying to work with. One of the robberies that Niki does with Uri's crew is a watch that given to him from his grandparents after surviving the Holocaust. Ruthie is unknowingly wearing the watch and Niki, after helping Uri's crew, makes it at the end of the recital and says he can retrieve the other way. To be honest, it's a little bit too convenient for me that Marius Maissner just happened to be one of the homes robbed and just happened to be the composer that Ruthie is wanting to have her professional career aligned to.

Things would catch up with Niki, but I always wonder if it would go the way it did in Thief or in The Conversation; Niki would run afoul of Uri because there's always a 'bigger fish' (to use the fish analogy the movie uses) that swallows who the main character thinks is the 'big fish.' Maybe Uri has a boss over him with the security company that sets it up and double crosses Uri with Niki barely escaping. It somewhat doesn't make sense that Uri would blast out Niki's hearing with an air horn, cut off part of his ear, then give him the watch anyway.

The ending has Niki returning the watch, seeing Ruthie for one last time, and playing virtuoso piano (much like how Harry talked about before his death in the hospital) before the movie ends. "The E key is off," Niki says.

Tuner for the most part is a tremendous movie that a decade or so ago would have found it's way to the theaters. Now, it's barely found while The Breadwinner is being shown everywhere. The market for intelligent, urban dramas apparently is dried up, relegated to streaming or quietly put into theaters.

Amistad (Hulu/Paramount+, leaving on 5/31) - 3.5/5 stars

Spoiler

A lot has been said about Amistad engaging in "white savior" storyline - and it's mostly true. Having Matthew McConaughey as Roger Sherman Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins as John Quincy Adams in the courtroom scenes does lend itself to being that. Where the movie is at its best is when it's from the point of view of Sengbe Pieh / Joseph Cinque (Djimon Hounsou).

The story of Amistad are of a group of people taken from their culture and forced to engage with the United States culture. Pieh, upon first frame, is trying to free himself and others to have a revolt onboard La Amistad; those that navigate the ship lead them to believe they are being taken home. Instead, they are being taken to Cuba and then to America. Upon their arrival, the movie becomes a legal drama with Pieh and other men considered 'property' of Spain and to be sent to Cuba instead of their homes in Africa.

The fact is the movie reflects the culture at the time - the United States regarded people taken in the slave trade to be 'property.' Baldwin and abolitionists like Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) and Lewis Tappan (Stellan Skarsgard) are having to 'prove' that people stolen from another country deserve freedom is seen more as an unwinnable fight than anything. President Martin van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne) interferes to put a judge that's sympathetic to his causes (where have we heard this before...) named Judge Coglin (Jeremy Northam). Yet, despite that, Coglin rules in favor of freedom in raucous scene.

To be honest, in most other movies, that would have been the end. But the movie continues in almost an extended 'epilogue' that has Quincy Adams arguing before the Supreme Court and using what Pieh used the night before in his argument. "He hopes to appeal to his ancestors to protect him." Quincy Adams notes the names of the founders of America and previous Presidents, including his own father. The Supreme Court, after hearing the argument, rules in favor of freedom.

Amistad as a movie is a bit dry. Steven Spielberg's filmmaking in this seems more in line with Schindler's List as well as a bit of his earlier The Color Purple due to the causes presented and magnified in the movie. Compared to some of his other movies, the violence in Amistad is a lot more visceral and, as Pieh recounts his story, it's more comfortable with nudity everywhere. Amistad is not an easy movie to watch, but it's a necessary movie.

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

Spoiler

Pressure as a WWII movie is more of a 'workplace drama' compared to most. Much of the titular 'pressure' described is with the personalities in the room and how those characters respond to a deadline for making a decision. It also describes the weather that the characters have to contend with. The main focus of the movie is on James Stagg (Andrew Scott), a Scottish meteorologist that Winston Churchill recommends to General Dwight D. Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser). What's established fairly quickly is that the margin of error for the operations isn't very big; the opening scene has Eisenhower overlooking the aftermath of Exercise Tiger, which resulted in deaths for the troops involved.

Stagg is called into an estate that has been setup as the main headquarters for the D-Day operations. Much like other workplace dramas, the way of doing things prior to his arrival seem to be relaxed, ignoring the gravity of the operation. The staff is dancing to "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" on the piano and Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who is established as a frequent opponent of Stagg, brags about how he correctly predicted the weather for David O. Selznick to film Gone With the Wind. As is revealed, the weather in northern Europe is a different story.

Stagg asks for changes immediately with the slam of the piano lid and hanging up one of his staff on phone. He wants what conditions are now, not what conditions were twenty years ago. With someone like Eisenhower breathing down his neck, the accuracy becomes crucial. Fraser, in those scenes, with the non-verbals and with verbals, express Eisenhower's demand for a definitive answer. Stagg tells him that the weather will be terrible for an invasion on June 5. Krick maintains that it will be perfect weather, based on his studying the data from decades ago.

Stagg excludes Krick from the first meeting where the available data for current conditions leads him to say that the weather will be terrible. Eisenhower wants Krick included anyway. With the second meeting and the countdown growing tighter, Stagg stands by his estimate regarding bad weather. Krick does as well - Stagg points out that Krick is 'cherry picking' his data and is just saying what the men in the room want to hear anyway. Eisenhower decides to postpone the invasion based on Stagg's recommendation.

As it turns out, Stagg was proven right. The Sunday of it, a rainstorm occurs whilst everyone is at church. I loved the shot of Stagg and Eisenhower seeing each other during the downpour, a silent acknowledgement of respect from Eisenhower to Stagg. Krick, finding himself wrong, finally cooperats with Stagg when Stagg presents him with something he's seeing from a weather station.

There's a small 'gap' in the weather to stage the invasion. The 'gap' is to take place on Tuesday June 6. Stagg and Krick present this to Eisenhower and that finally is the signal to go. The invasion occurs, with everyone gathered in a bunker and Stagg/Krick joining despite not having slept the night. The invasion happens and there isn't a radioed response as they hit Utah Beach. Finally, the responses come in, much like a torrential downpour in quick cuts. The camera goes from operator to operator on the phones, soldier to soldier on the beach. The Allies finally established a beach head to have the soldiers commence D-Day.

Stagg is finally able to go to St Marys Hospital after he wasn't sure if his wife is still alive during a bombing of the hospital. The closing scene has him seeing her and his newborn son for the first time.

Pressure as a movie is carried through how director Anthony Maras focuses his camera on what aspects. Maras also edited the movie, where scenes that depict the pace of information gathering is done quickly. The movie has roots in its stage play origins, with playwright David Haig having written the screenplay with Maras.

The performances for the movie are admirable to watch, with the standout to me being Kerry Condon as Kay Summersby. Kay has a dogged respect of Eisenhower - "going from ambulance driver to secretary to Eisenhower, as she notes - and seems to know how to handle Eisenhower at his worst. Many have said (including Summersby herself) that there were a romantic relationship between the two, but the movie never talks about that. If anything, Eisenhower and Summersby's relationship is more of a "workplace spouses" than anything romantic. Scott has Stagg as a quick and underplayed character, but during the final meeting, he brings out his temper and emotions over Krick's selective data.

For the most part, Pressure is a standout for 2026, a serious adult drama that manages to do something different enough with the litany of WWII dramas that are out there.

Watched Maurice's Bar on Mubi. 

[zendragon]

Just got back from Pressure while I enjoyed it between seeing a movie about the weather forecast for D-Day and a movie about a WWI singing group last year (The Choral) I can't help but wonder if we are running out of topics to make movies about regarding the great wars of the previous century 

[J.H.]

Jesus Christ the cast of Excalibur is just a giant wad of Irish and English actors in it. I was sitting there watching if for like the 30th time since I was 10 and it dawned me Uther was Gabriel Byrne. Add that to Patick Stewart, Liam Neeson,Nigel Terry, Helen Mirren, Ciaran Hinds and Nicolas Clay.

Dear lord this movie might be Boorman's best in my opinion. Yeah, It is like 20 different Arthur legends in one but 9 year old me doesn't care. It was one of the first R movies I saw and it left its mark. No Arthuriam lore movie comes close. Dear lord its beautiful!

James

Edited May 31 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

Selected movies today...

The Cold Blue (HBO Max, leaving on 6/2) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Not the best documentary about WWII, but it does attempt to connect the men that served in voiceover with the footage shown of their younger days.

The footage in air is absolutely stunning to watch as the planes fly overhead for a bombing run.

The documentary does have those interviewed talk about their response to the Germans; it should be a wake-up call to those trying to revive Nazism in America that Germans lost 300,000 civilians and 3 million homes unsuitable due to their government's actions.

What should also serve as a wake-up call for them is what the guy at the end says - 28,000 men lost their lives so they could be free. Many people of his children's generation and further (grandchildren/great-grandchildren) voted for Trump and those under him look to bring back Nazism to America.

The Breadwinner (2026) (saw in the theaters) - 1/2 star

Spoiler

If you're going to watch a movie called The Breadwinner, you make it this one. (https://boxd.it/9elXA3) 

Painfully unfunny. Nate Bargatze isn't funny. He cannot act. When your entire movie hinges upon his bland youth pastor personality, it fails. The entire time I thought, "How did Mandy Moore's character find this loser attractive"? "How did he get a job selling Toyotas?" "Why would anyone buy a car from him?"

Every person shown resulted in a "fuck these people" reaction from me. The men on Shark Tank (including that idiot Canadian Trump supporter Kevin O'Leary) had me give a "Fuck these people" for wondering why they should give money to Katie Wilcox (Moore) to finance her startup. The car dealership essentially fires Nate for not showing up to work because he's having to take care of his kids while his wife is out of the country (which lead me to think "Fuck Toyota, they can keep their cars"). I used to own a Toyota myself and the dealership were the worst people I've ever had to do business with.

The movie just has stupid things happen. An errant ball kick leads to a destroyed roof because the roofer is an idiot (which just shows up unannounced). One of the kids is worried about losing her friends because of a spelling bee (who the fuck writes this?). The oldest kid is going to attract creepy men, not a loser boy she knows at school. The youngest (with a genuine Brooklyn accent - listen to how she pronounces "horse") has a personal space issue that's not funny. Colin Jost and Kumail Nanjiani try because they are actually funny people and they can't even get a decent scene with Nate Bargartze.

Nate Bargartze should go back to being drunk and making R-rated jokes, this isn't cutting it. That's a no for me dog.

The thing is this movie is the kind of dystopian nightmare that those running this country want. They want movies like this to be released. Putting it in Tennessee where they voted in a redistricting that completely eliminates any Democrat opposition makes sense. I bet over half the characters in this voted for Trump. Nate Bargartze voted for Trump too. He claims he didn't, but if you're a comedian saying 'you're apolitical,' you're being political. You're not pushing back on the insanity of the times and not saying "Hey, I think putting people in an ICE detention center where the food has worms is wrong." Nate Bargartze is tap dancing for the fascists with his mid jokes and his mid humor and his mid greying hair.

Take a nap. That's a better use of time than this.

Billy Elliot (HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Billy Elliot is about acceptance. It's about not changing who you are to make other people comfortable. It's about finding what's true in your heart and sticking with it. The dance you do in life is the one of your own.

The main character (Jamie Bell) starts the movie listening to T. Rex's album Electric Warrior and jumping around to "Cosmic Dancer." "I danced when I was twelve" as we see Billy completely lost in the moment and in the dance in slow motion shots. He's made to go to boxing, with the idea that this is supposed to 'toughen up.' Billy isn't a natural at boxing, but is intrigued with the dance class next to the ring, piano playing, and Sandra Wilkinson (Julie Walters) instructing the students and puffing on a cigarette. Billy decides to jump into the class after his boxing coach wants him to hit the punching bag.

BIlly found what makes him free. As he tells the committee for Royal Ballet School, "I feel like I'm flying when I dance." Getting the techniques down is the most important thing to him...he even steals a library book about ballet dance instructions. Everything he wants to learn in dance he learns on his own. Sandra sees the talent in him and pushes him as equally hard as the boxing instructor did. Billy is able to maintain a perfect arch to his foot in a position. It's entirely innate how much Billy understands ballet. The only other person in Billy's family that would remotely understand is his grandmother (Jean Heywood).

Even though, Billy Elliot could be classified as a musical, it almost calls back to the British New Wave/"Kitchen Sink Dramas" of the working class. Billy's father Jackie (Gary Lewis) and brother Tony (Jamie Draven) sees no value in Billy learning to dance. In fact, Billy feels like he has to keep it a secret; he lays on top of his ballet shoes after getting them when his father walks in.

What Jackie is about is the mine strikes in the UK at the time of Thatcher. Tony is about running from the police during the protests. The movie expertly uses needledrops in the movie - "London Calling" is a perfect selection as Tony runs from riot police through houses and through alleys until linens catches him.

What seems to be prevalent in Billy Elliot is not being a "pouf" or a homosexual. Yet, the only person to understand what Billy is doing is Michael (Stuart Wells), and Michael's gay. Michael wears his mother's dresses while his parents are out of the house and kisses Billy on the cheek. When Billy leaves to go to London, Billy kisses him on the cheek as well. Just because Billy does ballet doesn't make him 'gay.' A pursuit in creative arts isn't indicative of a person's sexuality at all - in fact, the movie tackles this and tackles the stigma. Eventually, as more people in Everington find out about Billy having an audition with the Royal Ballet, the more proud they are of him. It's like the famous photo of Adrian Street standing with his coal miner father. Billy Elliot is from the working class, the miners, the grit, the toughness. This is just a different kind of toughness.

As the movie progresses, Billy is more outwardly expressive as a dancer. I loved the scene where he and Sandra are dancing to a routine that Billy will use for his audition. Billy also does a dance to The Jam's "A Town Called Malice" out of anger and frustration. His finally showing his father how he dances served a dual purpose - it finally lets Billy express himself openly and it finally lets Jackie see Billy happy, yet scared.

What spoke to me a lot were the scenes where Jackie was deciding to pawn his wife's jewelry so that Billy could be able to attend the audition. Initially, Sandra was going to go, but Jackie went. He had to see for himself what his son would be making a career in his life of doing. Going with Billy was to give his 'stamp of approval' for his son to find his own way. A way that didn't involve the mines and the shortened lifespan.

What's interesting is after the audition Billy punches a student because Billy thought he failed. The only time that his boxing training would have worked was then. When Billy gets the letter, no one in the family opens it. As I was watching it, I was prepared for it to be a disappointment. The letter looks so thin. But no, Billy is accepted. Billy has tears in his eyes as his life is now on his terms.

The epilogue and the ending has Billy dancing to Swan Lake and leaping in the air. Jackie and Tony are there. Michael is there with his partner.

Billy Elliot is a timeless expression of the power of creative arts and of trueness in a person's life.

The Corn Is Green (HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

The Corn Is Green, but it's also pretty f*ckin' boring.

I don't have anything really distinctive to say about this movie. Bette Davis as Lily Cristobel Moffat sounds like Helena Bonham Carter. John Dall as Morgan Evans pre-dates Good Will Hunting; it's funny to watch this movie after Billy Elliot and Evans and Elliot have the same character arc, but I found myself not caring that Evans wanted to go to Oxford.

The movie has a strange 'artificial' look to it where they are supposed to be in Wales, yet it looks like a soundstage.

Also, Bessie (Joan Lorring) has a baby I think, but it was towards the end of the movie. I don't remember, I fell asleep part of the time.

Paycheck (Hulu/Paramount+, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

Paycheck isn't going to be the best John Woo movie, but it is one of his lesser "Hollywood" movies he's done. Compared to Face/Off, it's not as out and out crazy. It's strangely more like a companion piece (somehow) to Mission: Impossible II for what type of movie John Woo is doing.

A lot of the story for Paycheck is very much like what is found in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. The multiple assassins trying to kill Michael Jennings (Bill Affleck) with Shorty (Paul Giamatti) seems like something out of North By Northwest. But the movie does dial up the action once Jennings meets his wife Rachel Porter (Uma Thurman). There's a body double of Rachel named Maya (Ivana Millcevic) a la Vertigo (too bad more wasn't done with that). The BMW motorcycle/car chase are a really great set of scenes. The finale with the lab explosion and James Rethrick (Aaron Eckhart) getting killed has so many moving pieces and is just incredible to watch.

What's a bit of a drawback is the movie isn't the best action flick, but it's really great for what it does. Too bad John Woo didn't do any more American movies until Silent Night.

Watched You Hide Me on MUBI, a documentary short made in 1970 about the director Nii Kwate Owoo visiting a British Museum and filming African art, but blasting the British Empire in voiceover. 

[J.H.]

Bill Affleck?

I know you mean Ben Affleck but a part of me imagines a third Affleck brother doing B-Z level films. Y'know, a Joe Estevez equivalent in the Affleck clan.

James

Edited June 1 by J.H.