Baby Ruby (Bess Wohl, 2022): 2/5
Noemie Merlant has entered the Motherverse.
Fun, narratively intricate, and satisfyingly entertaining mid-budget con movie that would’ve crushed in or around 2010.
The Son (Florian Zeller, 2022): 2.5/5
Aggressively just OK. (Disappointing, since THE FATHER was my second favorite film of 2021.) I so wanted more Anthony Hopkins screen time. I spent half of the film wanting Hopkins to show up and the other half hoping he’d show back up.
Wuthering Heights (William Wyler, 1939): 3/5
Perfectly satisfactory; doesn't commit any backbreaking offenses, except for possibly the underutilization of Laurence Olivier (yes, he's in the film quite a bit, and yes, most people will tell you how great he is in this, but when you stand back and observe his role, he's actually very tame considering his ceiling -- something I can only assume was a function of Wyler's attenuating direction: compare this to REBECCA and tell me there isn't something missing).
Funny Girl (William Wyler, 1968): 3.5/5
Damn charming even if it is about a woman with immense talent and drive being controlled by toxic masculinity.
rewatched
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988): 4/5
Roddy Piper's character is a real one. Discovers a secret ruling
class of aliens and he just instantly brings a shotgun into a bank and starts
killing them. I really think this is the best combination of social satire and
mainstream genre filmmaking, satisfying every possible need a sci
fi-horror-action audience could have while also being incredibly funny and
smart about capitalism's myths and its seductive power.
I spent way too much of the viewing trying to work out why they
were telling a drug story without any decent action before figuring out that
was the point - this is a cautionary tale - but the thing is that at this
duration the kind of epic feel the filmmakers were shooting for just didn't
carry the emotional resonance or character engagement necessary to make the
predictable plot land with anything resembling interest to me. (Doesn't help
that the lead actor didn't do much for me.) The cultural specificity is much
more intriguing, and some of the location/costume etc is beautiful, but in the
end story familiarity overpowered ethnographic intrigue.
Gershon and Tilly are fucking aces, I am shocked Gina Gershon is
not asked to play a butch lesbian more often. I love the weird sweaty
fumbliness Joey Pants brings to this thing. A lotta little moves here that they
replicated in The Matrix- incredible to know the Wachowskis have been right on
the mark since their first film.
M. Night Shyamalan pandering to the gays was not on my 2023
bingo card. Great acting from the little girl. But beyond some solid performances
and cinematography choices, and making us consider the unthinkable situation,
there is no deeper exploration of what’s happening, leading to an ultimately
underwhelming and unsatisfying ending. (So, basically an M. Night Shyamalan
film.)
Perhaps I'd get more charge out of it if Channing Tatum writhing
with his shirt off was my thing. His physicality as a dancer, incidentally, is
astounding, and in general the dancing scenes are interesting regardless of
one's sexuality as a portrait of publicly accepted safe wish-fulfillment.
I had fun with this—more than a three-hour epic of the 1700s would suggest, anyway—but I simply wasn’t swept away by its thematic headwind, instead consumed with a mostly superficial awe at its masterful, pictorial compositions. Assuredly, another viewing is necessary to be sure I haven’t overlooked another masterpiece.
Rain
Man (Barry Levinson, 1988): 3/5
A great Tom Cruise role - his embodiment of that young, hotshot
douchebag having his composure and sanity slowly chipped away is nearly
perfect. Dustin Hoffman is…fine, I guess, though his performance is undeniably
one-note (yes, yes, I know he's playing a character with a severely intricate
case of autism, but that doesn't necessarily make for a hard -- never mind
nuanced -- performance by acting standards).
Anna Kendrick chopping that wood log was the most eventful thing that happened. It has some good performances, but it's meatless, could have used more work on the script and some spice. Why this was under thriller, I'll never know.
Black
Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler, 2022): 2/5
Not for me. I understand this production was plagued with misfortune, so it's a hard one to rate. The opening funeral procession was very well done, all the way up to the Marvel Studios logo drop, which had weight. After that things started to fall apart for me quickly. Not to mention the ridiculously lengthy run time, good gravy.
Escape
from L.A. (John Carpenter, 1996): 1.5/5
Not much to say about this one; if you’re looking for sensible
plots or realistic action sequences, look elsewhere. From most scrutable
angles, Escape from LA is an awful film, but I’m not sure how much of it is
supposed to be self-parody.
I thought my internet was buffering twice because this movie is so slow.
If German shock cinema could be said to have a
rich tradition, then this -- with its grisly violence, monotonous ugliness,
sophomoric humor, sociopolitical preoccupations, and absurd non-sequitur --
fits into it snugly, for good or ill.
Lol there was a whole
scene of men pretending to be women pretending to be men. Classic.
This one reminds me a lot of Tokyo Story, a movie I admire immensely but can't quite bring myself to love: both are wise, moving, intelligent, beautifully acted, formally impeccable...and so relentlessly sedate that I inevitably find myself hoping for the introduction of some ridiculously contrived plot device that might shake their expertly drawn characters out of their stupor. Its three hours fairly zip by (especially considering how little is "happening" by Hollywood narrative standards) and there's much to treasure -- sharp performances (Issey Ogata manages to kick ass despite performing all of his scenes in English, a language he's clearly learned as an adult), telling compositions (Yang more than makes up for the keep-your-distance aesthetic with his masterful use of windows, repeatedly juxtaposing interior and exterior within a single shot), thematic richness (the multigenerational structure allowing Yang to examine the arc of a life from several different perspectives at once). If only it took a few more risks, burst out of its measured bubble once in a while, I might feel something stronger than placid admiration.
France
(Bruno Dumont, 2021): 2.5/5
Lea Seydoux here possessing a commandeering
on-screen presence and almost hypnotic magnetism not unlike a modern-day
Marlene Dietrich. She carries the film: Her bifurcated personality—the “her”
that everyone sees vs. the “real her,” when the cameras stop rolling and her
cronies aren’t around—dissolves into a muddled, incomprehensible mess with such
conviction and grace that my heart aches just thinking about what a performance
this strong could’ve done inside anything other than a rudimentary lampooning
of current events. All she wants is transparency, but her celebrity lifestyle
simply won’t allow it. Wish Dumont could’ve structured the narrative around her
psyche instead of doing the exact opposite. I don’t need yet another source telling
me how often and to what extent I’m being exploited. Let me experience the rot
from the inside out, please.
A compelling argument
for the restriction of personal freedom by the state.
I have a weak spot for neo-realist humanist films with a cold clinical grip
over their tone and material, also this was a beautiful film to look at, the
land of fire and ice is truly breathtaking.
A strange film insofar as its fragmented,
low-exposition opening feels like it's going to be quite ambiguous, but in the
end the only major ambiguity is how you feel about the protagonist's decisions.
That's not a complaint; it's rolled around in my mind more than any other film
as of late.
Petzold and Kieslowski team up for Before Sunset. It's an elusive film that leaves major parts of the character and plot shrouded in ambiguity. Engrossing and compelling up until the unsatisfying ending.
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