* Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, 2023): 5/5

A couple is having a disagreement, and the husband ends up dead (relatable). The rest of the movie seems to be about whether the wife killed him or it was a suicide, but it’s actually about how mysterious and unknowable a relationship is, even to its participants—or even how very unknowable a person is. Triet manages a delicate equilibrium of ambiguity throughout, urging multiple interpretations, even with so much emotional weight in balance. So many great scenes, including the argument, the what-will-happen ending scene with the lawyer/past and potential lover, and the ending scene where the kid says he was “afraid of you coming home” and she agrees. These can mean so many things—and do! I liked the way there were all these symbolic impediments to understanding, including three different languages, the son’s “blindness,” and the fact that the suspect is a person who blends reality and fiction for a living. The movie starts and ends with the dog, and I think this means we understand our world about as well as a dog does. Insightful, true and always riveting.

 

Passages (Ira Sachs, 2023): 4/5

No particular method or agenda—beyond perhaps a bit of a character unraveling—but lots of pure emotion expressed by two great performances Franz Rogowski (a revelation, even after seeing Transit) & (Bright Star’s own) Ben Whishaw. Quite a leap forward visually and thematically from Love is Strange, which I remember as being pretty sit-commish (older gay people in Brooklyn in bunkbeds!), to something that feels like Olivier Assayas. Great last sequence. 

 

Godland (Hlynur Pálmason, 2023): 4/5

Novelistic, which here means that it moves from drama to drama over time, resetting the stakes and the relationships among the characters, including who is the protagonist. Jaw dropping Icelandic production values. People have cited Aguirre, but I was reminded of the (beloved, to me) The Immigrants/A New Land—a long and hallucinatory journey and a new fellowship in a remote location. Our original protagonist is a hopeless idiot, but the film finds new people of interest to center the film, over time. 

 

The Killer (David Fincher, 2023): 3.5/5

Familiar territory (see Point Blank, Le Samouraï) but well told. The first bit is very Palahniuk and fun but the revenge section becomes more tight lipped and, for long stretches, silent (always good). it is interesting that our killer is pretty incompetent and not strict about acting within his own supposed code. This makes the self-seriousness of the voice-over (and the idea that this movie is autobiographical) increasingly ironic. It’s also interesting that Amazon and WeWork have made his life (like ours) so frictionless, screaming, “There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.”

 

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/The Swan/The Rat Catcher/Poison (Wes Anderson. 2023): 3.5/5

Despite my well-documented adoration of Anderson, I was “disappointed” upon first viewing—overwhelmed by these films’ speed and intensity. Moving too swiftly through so many levels and interludes, all packed and potentially hilarious, plus many beautiful tools of set design and acting and animation, not to even mention people looking at the camera and saying “He said” all the time. A second viewing of each rendered them more coherent but still ecstatic and exhausting—and a gauntlet thrown at the feet of adaptation itself. So you think you want to see a recreation of the actual book? Here you go. Of course, many adaptations emphasize the original work’s emotions, but this one instead revels in the satisfying clockwork and ever-evolving drama in these complex stories. 

 

NYAD (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, 2023): 3.5/5

Benning’s performance is completely without vanity; I especially loved the parts when she is in the middle of her one of her swims and is disoriented, grunty, bloated and ugly. Foster is also surprisingly terrific. Script rings all the bells.  

 

Flora and Son (John Carney, 2023): 3/5

Not as good as my beloved Sing Street but not as bad as the condescending and narrowminded Begin Again (although it does take a snarky swipe at James Blake, of all people). All the musical parts here worked gangbusters for me sob sob sob. But a lot of the drama did not. Flora’s hollow-eyed, anti-social son just wanted to make sunny pop music with his mom?! 

 

Gran Turismo (Neill Blomkamp, 2023): 2.5/5

Cliched sports film but doesn’t spend unnecessary time on exposition. Racing scenes are effective, and Jack liked it a lot.

 

* Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi, 2023): 1.5/5

Cliched sports film but spends way too much time on broken White savior Fassbinder instead of on the colorful Samoan team and, you know, the sport. Jack did not like it a lot. Fassbinder is miscast and horribly awkward and robotic. Can he only play sociopaths?  

 

* PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (Cal Brunker, 2023): 2/5

A yardstick for mediocrity. Requested by Jack but subject to the inquiry “why am I the oldest kid in this theater?” 

 

Reality (Tina Satter, 2023): 2/5

The real hook is the use of actual FBI transcripts for the script, and it is interesting to see how everything truly went down. Although of course, face gestures and body movements (not explicit in the transcript) are crucial to how the words are received. I believe that the movie thinks it’s about how the FBI too-zealously persecuted this woman for her mishandling of classified documents—and indeed the film is largely devoted to emphasizing their micro-aggressions (although generally I found them pretty respectful and kind). But I wonder how the super-lib (I’m assuming) filmmakers and intended audience changed their minds when this same sin of mishandling top secret docs was weaponized against Trumph. 

 

Welcome to Hell (Toy Machine, 1996): 4/5

A skateboarding video that serves as a profound document on the subject of flow state as well as on urban architecture. Feel free to turn off the sound and provide your preferred soundtrack. 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tx2Q9pNxPc

 

Howard’s End (James Ivory, 1992): 3/5

I just read this novel, and it’s a weird book/story. There are two half-romances but it’s not really about love like A Room with a View is—although Ivory piles on the beauty as if it is. Instead, its interest is in class, depicting a wealthy family that accidentally (and to some extent blithely) ruins a lower-class man’s life while trying to help him. Whoops! Oh well!

 

Manhatta, 10 mins (Paul Strand, Charles Sheeler, 1921): 3/5

10 minutes of Manhattan in 1921. Who doesn’t want to see that?

 

Sonny and Jed (Sergio Corbucci, 1972): 3/5

A Spaghetti Western with amazing zooms in and out all over the place—heightening intensity and emotion. Corbucci is unrepentant about putting a chaotic, repugnant rapist in the usual protagonist role and making us deal with it. Between Mandingo, Dirty Larry and Crazy Mary, and this one in the last couple of months, I have come to really like Susan George: a nice naturalism and A+ teeth. 

 

Gone in 60 Seconds (H.B. Halicki, 1974): 3.5/5

Has a surprising verisimilitude around the subject matter of car thievery—as well as when heavy pieces of metal start flying around the screen. Great to see some real fucking physics on screen. Our protagonist is an asshole, but he’s also professional, competent and principled (he won’t sell heroin). The camera ogles the beautiful luxury and sport cars, polished to a sexy sheen. The last 45 minutes are a shaggy chase scene from Long Beach across the bridges to Pedro and up the “Harbor” freeway (do we still call it that?) and around Carson. Amazing and pleasurable time travel, then-vs-now footage of fields and open skies where there are now billboards, blimps and buildings. 

 

Buffalo 66, rw (Vincent Gallo, 1998): 5/5

Je suis San Fernando Valley 67. I recognize so many of these behaviors and tantrums in my own worst behaviors. I am this weak, abrupt, angry, childish, demanding, frustrated and little. And it is reassuring that a make-upped angel like Melissa (here played by Christina Ricci) loves me anyway and actually wants to help me. As for Ricci’s character, I think she is just taking a ride and tripping out on the experience. In a similar way, I have recently discovered the joys of simply agreeing, in conversation with difficult people. 

 

Whiplash, rw (Damien Chazelle, 2014): 5/5

Serious daddy issue movie for me (in a good way; it’s why I forgive the teacher his trespasses).  Plus, yeah I kind of would like this guy to bully my bandmates into practicing a bit more and keeping time better. Miles Teller is terrific here and has yet to fulfill the promise of this film. 

 

Howl’s Moving Castle, rw (Hayao Miyazaki, 2004): 5/5

Perhaps his most mysterious work (and that’s saying something). The viewer is so often in the middle of some experience that we don’t know the rules for—and we just have to go with it. Watched with Jack and later he said it was his new favorite movie (after Deadpool, a film that completely fascinates him, especially as I would not let him see it for years). 

 

Design for Living, rw (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933): 4/5

The three-way love affair here would still be taboo 90 years later. Playwright Frederic March (so great in The Best Years of Our Lives 13 years later) is aces, but the MVP is painter Gary Cooper—gangly beauty, with huge hands (!!) and excellent timing. Miriam Hopkins’ character is way ahead of her time, hustling to help make the men she loves a success while also charting her own idiosyncratic fate. 

 

 

The Thrilling Conclusion of This 1001 Greatest Films Project

After some investigation several years ago, I settled on this list and finally—to my great satisfaction—I have watched every film on it. As you may have read, many of them were really good and some of them I didn’t like at all. From now on, if someone suggests an older movie I haven’t seen, I’m just going to make a disgusted face and tell them that it’s not even one of the best 1001 movies, so fucking forget it!! (No, actually of course I already have a new list of the 153 movies that made four or more lists in the most recent Sight and Sound poll that I haven’t yet seen.)

The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995): 4.5/5

Absolutely expert middlebrow. Streep in her imperial phase, casually incorporating accent and unique facial expressions for the character. Eastwood is also great, doing almost nothing and relying solely on great sense of ease, relaxation and presence. The last half hour is a cascading succession of emotional moments and yes sob sob sob. 

 

The Best of Youth, 6h6m (Marco Tullio Giordana, 2003): 3.5/5

Follows four siblings and their friends from late adolescence through when they are grandparents, with all the love affairs, parent deaths, and other perfectly ordinary dramas of a lived life—such an obvious idea for a film and one wonders why it is not done more often. It’s pleasant to watch these beautiful people trip, Gump-style, through post-war Italian history (this is when we reformed mental health treatments, this is when we fought the mafia in Sicily). And in the final hour, remembering back through their lives: sob sob sob. 

 

Wolfwalkers (Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, 2020): 3/5

Tremendously lovely hand drawn animation and production design. Routine story, more or less like Disney’s Pocahontas, Pixar’s Brave or DreamWorks’ How to Train Your Dragon. (Outsider group not trusted until our protagonist joins them, then shows everyone how great they are). 

 

Whirlpool (Otto Preminger, 1950): 3/5

What year in America history is it when a movie is, without irony, built around the power of psychiatry and hypnotism over female “you must believe me” hysteria? Gene Tierney outacts Richard Conte and Jose Ferrer and makes it look easy.  

 

A Silent Voice (Naoko Yamada, 2016): 3/5

Extremely sensitive, let’s say emo, teen drama expressed with the utmost seriousness and sincerity. It makes me happy to know that there are so many Japanese youths feeling everything so deeply and trying to be good people. Female director!

 

An Affair to Remember (Leo McCarey, 1957): 3/5

Filled with all kinds of completely normal moments between strangers—then lovers—that throb with feeling. Cary Grant is deeply relaxed (and deeply tanned) and brings a reality to the whole affair. The last half hour devolves into a musical as McCarey kills time the best he can before finally gets to reunite his lovers. McCarey’s third-to-last film, of 95.

 

Son of the White Mare (Marcell Jankovics, 1981): 2.5/5

Packed with ecstatic and intense psychedelic images, but it never really transcends that in terms of narrative or character. I think some people (wrongly) want Yellow Submarine to be more like this. 

 

The Tiger of Eschnapur (Fritz Lang, 1959): 2/5

A German-language evocation of India, with romance and intrigue. What could go wrong?? Combines some beautiful travelogue footage, with studio-bound scenes of the worst theatrical nature, plus racism. Brown face everywhere, but the love interest is a blue-eyed Eurasian. Worst of all, it’s ugly—green, red and purple lighting abounds. For a flavor of the “authenticity” and exoticism here, here’s what the protagonist stumbles up in a secret temple. Sheesh!

 

 

The Ladykillers (Alexander Mackendrick, 1959): 3/5

In the dumb criminal genre also populated by Big Deal on Madonna Street, Ruthless People and Snatch—all movies I find tiresome. Lots of fake teeth and actorly business. Shockingly it’s the old woman’s intelligence, poise, grace and good humor that persists in the mind. Also shockingly, the Coens found no way to improve on this material.  

 

The Red Light Bandit (Rogério Sganzerla, 1968): 2.5/5

Follows the exploits of a thief, rapist and murderer. Or as the movie puts it “A Brazilian in the last phase of capitalism.” Nihilistic, and largely declarative rather than dramatic. Over and over we get descriptions of this monster we are watching, obviously contradictory, about his philosophy, his passions, his methods—over rapid-fire Godardian pop visuals. Our bandit is later contrasted with a Trumpian populist politician, pals with Nazi Martin Bormann himself. "Within the garbage can, one must be radical." — Rogério Sganzerla