American Factory (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, 2019): 4/5

Or: My Oppressive Economic System is Better Than Yours

Features a brilliant setup: China zombifying the corpse of American manufacturing in the aftermath of the recession. Its verité style and nearly unfettered access to a situation far more interesting than anyone could have ever expected allows it to be an incredibly human microcosm of the relationship between two superpowers.

Cultural and industrial clashes between these salt of the earth Ohioans from a bygone era and these ruthlessly efficient Chinese workers are tense, but moving at times.

The juxtaposition of American work ability/unionization and Chinese unwavering excellence signals one thing - we are fucked. The everyday rhetoric about bringing blue collar work back to America to achieve some kind of golden age era of middle class is such a joke. If there is a future in rust belt manufacturing this is it. And it’s disconcerting.

Knife + Heart (Yann Gonzalez, 2018): 3.5/5

Sleazy, sensual, and wonderfully macabre; Knife + Heart quite literally bears its name through exploring the darker realms of desire and sexual repression inside a murder mystery set amongst the late-70’s gay porn industry. Formally an almost entirely unreconstructed modern giallo, perfectly delivering every scuzzy beat and baffling narrative twist, but so suffused with lust and longing that it achieves this constant hypnodrone eroticism. Stay for the credits.

Let the Corpses Tan ( Helene Cattet, Bruno Forzani, 2018): 2/5

Wow looks very cool!!! too bad i didn't care about literally any of it. Yet another visually arresting, but utterly vacant and wearisome euro-horror genre pastiche. Extra half star for that nutty champagne lactation scene though, which is certainly a cinematic first.

rewatched Blow-Up (Antonioni, 1966): 2.5/5

Last seen circa 2006. Still not a fan of this particular brand of existentialist arthouse iconography. It somehow manages to be both manic and meandering at the same time and suffers terribly from an incomprehensible plot where slow-thriller dominos are set up only to be ignored with haphazard/discordant What's Real? message. But the film undeniably looks terrific and contains a couple of knockout scenes in the form of the one sequence that's actually exclusively devoted to the supposed plot (and lends the picture its name).

It: Chapter Two (Andy Muschietti, 2019): 1.5/5

Obtuse screenplay infested with uninspired decision-making that lacks tonal consistency, careful thought, and the ability to expand these characters beyond the one-note synopses of their childhood selves. Certain moments feel shockingly tone-deaf (why did they play 0.2 seconds of juice newton’s angel of the morning like that) while the majority radiates an irksome shortage of both subtlety and originality. You can feel the pages turning, and not in an engrossing way. And worse than being just a disagreeable experience, It Chapter Two is an endless bore with few thrills and very little charm.

The Aftermath (James Kent, 2019): 2/5

Nazis*: They're Just Like Us — erotica edition

*read: Germans who maybe weren't party members but were somehow able to keep their stunning house full of expensive paintings during and after Hitler's reign

Master of the House (Carl Th. Dreyer, 1925): 3/5

Both surprisingly feminist (for its time) and comedic (for the director). Featuring some bubbles that give an inkling of what Dreyer would create only 3 years later as one of the most perfect pieces of art in the 20th century.

Maria By Callas (Tom Volf, 2017): 3/5

The formal conceit — a Maria Callas biodoc constructed exclusively from her own words — is intriguing and executed well enough. However, this was long on adoration and short on insight.

Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010): 3/5

A dogged procedural told from the terrorist's point of view. It isn't really about much of anything, though, apart from perhaps the intricacies of political expediency as it relates to sponsorship and asylum.

Would You Rather (David Guy Levy, 2012): 2/5

Replace the music in the last 10 seconds of the film with the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme and we've got a great meme on our hands.

Madeline's Madeline (Josephine Decker, 2018): 1/5

I’m sorry I just don’t understand The Theatre™

Honestly, physical theater in general fills me with almost crippling levels of vicarious embarrassment so I ultimately blame myself for not respectfully bowing out of this cringe marathon at like minute 20. I'll be interested in seeing how Helena Howard does with a stronger script and a modicum of direction in the future but this movie just found new ways to gall me at every turn. Utilizing experimental film techniques just so the director can impress us with all the Cool Important Stuff she learned at Princeton (Aristotle! Steamboat Willie! Performance theory!) and distract us from the fact that the movie isn't really that original at all.

Wild Wild Country (Chapman and Maclain Way, 2018): 3/5

Crazy red-dressed hippies vs angry shotgun-waving bigots. Grab some popcorn.

The Week Of (Robert Smigel, 2018): 2.5/5

Robert Smigel and Adam Sandler remake Rachel Getting Married and add Steve Buscemi eating a humongous Toblerone bar.

Behind the Curve (Daniel J. Clark, 2018): 2.5/5

Hilarious and horrifying in equal measure.

What Keeps You Alive (Colin Minihan, 2018): 2/5

i am disappointed to discover that even lesbians, the smartest of human beings, can make ridiculously stupid decisions.

The Man with Two Brains (Carl Reiner, 1983): 2.5/5

Deeply silly. The leads are so committed, Martin in full zany mode, Turner just ruthless, and the gags are fast and frequent and most of them are even good.

The Clovehitch Killer (Duncan Skiles, 2018): 3/5

What if your dad was the BTK killer? A real gem of a thriller - tense, effective and thoroughly enjoyable with a strong performance from Dylan McDermott.

Cypher (Vincenzo Natali, 2002): 2/5

Maddeningly dated attempts at modernity from the guy who made Cube (1997). I don't know if I can handle any more films predicated on the idea of double and triple agents who are so deep undercover that even they don't know they're double and triple agents. The constant reversals don't shock anymore, they just exasperate. And another thing: if everyone's a spy then no one's a spy. It's just another Thursday at the office.

rewatched Chronicle of Anna Magdelena Bach (Huillet and Straub, 1968): 3.5/5

Can't imagine what one would think of this if one didn't like Bach.

Grand Hotel (Edmund Goulding, 1932): 3/5

Grimmer than I'd expected, especially given how bubbly it plays at the outset—projecting Garbo's strand of the narrative forward is no fun at all, and even ostensibly happy endings like Crawford's are tinged with compromise and seem vaguely sordid. I admire it more on paper than in execution, though—the source material is a bit too literary to mesh well with early-sound clunkiness, and performances are a decidedly mixed bag, with Garbo, Beery and L. Barrymore all laying it on a tad thick for my taste.

Her Smell (Alexander Ross Perry, 2018): 3.5/5

First of ARP's films I've liked. Relentless and ugly until it collapses into one of the most moving scenes of the year. Elisabeth Moss’ performance is indeed a masterclass in both excess and nuance; a non-stop firecracker that dually horrifies and endears continuously throughout the picture’s runtime.Very much my cup of booze.

Strait-Jacket (William Castle, 1964): 3/5

Or: Psycho Too

"Mommie Dearest" catches her husband, "The Six Million Dollar Man," diddling a barfly, loses it and hack them both to death in front of her daughter. Mommie goes to an asylum but is released twenty years later but is she really rehabilitated? It also features a young Diane Baker, who you will recognize as Senator Ruth Martin from "Silence of the Lambs."

Evolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015): 3.5/5

Poetic floating imagery of a Malick film applied to the gonadal horrors of Cronenberg, in the middle of a plot that adopts the scatted but discernible logic of a child's nightmare. You could surely read Freud or gender studies into this, and I somewhat think that the movie wants you to, but I was content to spend the 82 minutes (give or take a final shot that strikes me as too neat and tidy) floating in the movie's wandering slow rhythms, structuring the movie with the natural cadences of the tidal pools that dominate its imagery. Beguiling. 

I Married A Witch (Rene Clair, 1942): 2.5/5

A movie about a man desperately trying *not* to fall in love with Veronica Lake. Unsurprisingly, it's very short.

I Am Mother (Grant Sputore, 2019): 2.5/5

So in the future humanoid robots become helicopter parents who "aren't angry, just DISAPPOINTED"

The Wife (Bjorne Runge, 2017): 1.5/5

Men really are useless but what’s new

rewatched Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead (Stephen Herek, 1991): 2.5/5

A 90s relic. It's kid-power crap, but here they smoke weed, drink beer, swear, and lie on resumes to become high-powered fashion designers. Plus, a 1991 David Duchovny as he plays the stereotypical 80s sleaze, still two years away from Fox Mulder. My favorite part was when the babysitter's car got stolen by drag queens. Extra half star for the nostalgia.

Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015): 2/5

As cool and globe-trotting as Miami Vice, but not as beautiful and even more boring and incoherent, if possible. Made $19.7M on a $70M budget. Is that it for Mann?

Four Weddings and a Funeral, rw (Michael Newell, 1994): 4/5

Expert entertainment. Hugh Grant’s stumbly, blinky schtik has, in the intervening 25 years, transformed (for me) from annoying to sort-of charming, possibly because it’s now so obvious how young he is here. Andie MacDowell is pretty.

Avengers: Endgame (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2019): 3/5

Most of the talking is good, and most of the fighting is terrible. Possibly I’m not in the movie’s demographic.

Serenity (Steven Knight, 2019): 1.5/5

Before the twist is revealed: who cares? After the twist is revealed: Snort. Who cares? Diane Lane is pretty.

Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot, 2019): 3.5/5

Would be Spike Lee’s second or third best movie, probably, although possibly it’s not strident enough to merit the comparison. Interesting investigation of who owns something.

Euphoria, Season One (Sam Levinson, 2019): 3.5/5

Not really boundary pushing—there were pearl-clutching (although probably producer-generated) complaints about the drug use but the main character soon goes 12-step. How bourgeois! So just a soap opera, but well shot and acted.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, rw (Sergio Leone, 1966): 3.5/5

Hadn’t watched it in a decade or more, and I was surprised how little I thought of it. Three characters with changing relationships/loyalties, etc., done better in Le Deuxième Souffle, Army of Shadows, and Le Cercle Rouge.

Souvenir (Joanna Hogg, 2019): 3/5

Tom Burke is terrific, but Honor Swinton Byrne barely holds the screen (possibly purposefully, but it’s still to the film’s detriment.) Man, are we following the wrong character, here.

Silent Light, rw (Carlos Reygadas, 2019): 5/5

Each scene has a shocking sensuousness. Still feels unlike any other movie I’ve seen.

The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch, 2019): 3/5

Not much there there, but I was amused, especially in the first half.

20th Century Women, rw (Mike Mills, 2016):4/5

Superb ensemble acting from Gerwig and Crudup—and a career high for Bening. I related.

Diamonds of the Night (Jan Nemec, 1964): 5/5

One of the greatest opening shots in film, and I loved the ambiguous and dreamy mix of present, past, future and fantasy. 67 perfect minutes.

Un Chant d’Amour (Jean Genet, 1950): 4/5

Sexy. So the confinement within societal and sexual norms is the source of both violence and desire?

Les Visiteurs du Soir (Marcel Carné, 1942): 2/5

Stately and inert, but at least now I know where David Lynch got the eerie idea that the devil can be in two places at once. Between 1938 and 1945 Carné makes Port of Shadows, Hotel du Nord, Le Jour Se Leve, Les Visiteurs du Soir, and Children of Paradise. This is my least favorite.

Castle in the Sky, rw (Hayao Miyazaki, 1986): 3.5/5

Straightforward and super-imaginative adventure movie with a couple of killer sequences.

I Know Where I’m Going (Powell and Pressburger, 1945):2.5/5

Not much rom and not much com, and it leans heavily on the “Wee bairn! The pipers on the heath, laddie! She was a bit pit oot!” stuff. Between 1943 and 1948, P&P make The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Volunteer (which seems to be 45 bald minutes of war propaganda), A Canterbury Tale, I Know Where I’m Going, A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes. This is my least favorite.

x

Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971): 1/5

Oh, it ends with the film burning, eh? How artistic and meaningful!!!!!

I entered with great expectations and found myself unable to grasp anything significant in the film's narrative, finding much of what is depicted on screen to be hollow, essentially senseless, donning a quiet and contemplative spirit that provides nothing for audiences to chew on. Deeply unsatisfying.

Thieves' Highway (Jules Dassin, 1949): 2.5/5
Or: THE APPLES OF WRATH

Given how much of this film is focused upon fruit (Golden Delicious apples), them driving, and then bargaining over a price for the fruit, I can't say this is my favorite Dassin film.

Gabriel Over the White House (Gregory La Cava, 1933): 2/5

This is one of the WEIRDEST movies I've ever seen. Its politics are a little... confused. To say the least. It's decidedly leftist in parts but also seems to endorse fascism at the hands of an FDR-like president who is inspired by a religious vision to enact a series of sweeping social reforms akin to The New Deal programs but much larger and far-reaching in scale.

The U.S. Library of Congress' comment: "The good news: he reduces unemployment, lifts the country out of the Depression, battles gangsters and Congress, and brings about world peace. The bad news: he's Mussolini."

rewatched The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970): 2.5/5

Yeah yeah it's really beautiful, but I still don't like it. It appears that I am not a Conformist.

Dogfight (Nancy Savoca, 1991): 3/5

"I'm going to have the fucking poached salmon, with the son-of-a-bitching rice, and a dirty bastard salad with a shitload of Roquefort dressing. Thank you."

River Phoenix was the most handsome boy that ever lived, i don’t make the rules

Transit (Christian Petzold, 2018): 2/5

Another one I'll be revisiting (99.99% probability), hoping to get it this time. I found it to be largely banal apart from the film's conceit (a fascist takeover of France by an invading German army that continually plays like a period piece even though it's pointedly not); a conventional period version might well have put me to sleep. But I'll try again before the year is out.

Out of Sight (Steven Soderbergh, 1998): 3/5

Consistently above average and fun, though patently not one of the best films of its decade, as it's regularly described.

The Scarlet Empress (Josef von Sternberg, 1934): 3/5

There is no better case that God hates us than Sam Jaffe's face in this film (below). It is the over-the-top, unbearable embodiment of all that is wicked and evil in humankind and, though it's never not humorous, it's also never not totally sinister and unsettling and just as gothic and wretched as Sternberg's warped fairytale Russia.

Mogambo (John Ford, 1953): 2.5/5

MGM's 1953 remake of their 1932 effort Red Dust, also starring Gable. Both stories involve an exotic location where the resident white power figure (Gable) mistreats the affections of a woman of the world who then becomes stranded on his doorstep just as he starts up an affair with one of his employees virtuous wives. Victor Fleming is replaced by John Ford. Jean Harlow by Ava Gardner. Mary Astor is Grace Kelly. A French Indochina rubber plantation is now an African safari. I had to rewind this like 10 times because I swear Ava Gardner says, "A month ago i was buying a bra at Macy's and now I'm studying gorilla shit."Red Dust did an amazing job of creating a vivid world on MGM's studio 6, this does far less while shooting on location.

rewatched 8 1/2 (Federico Fellini, 1963): 2/5

Still something of a trial for me, especially the first hour with its parade of collaborators and sycophants and oh god then there's the clown musicians at the end. Also does very little for me as a portrait of creative paralysis. STANDARD DISCLAIMER FOR ITALIAN FILMS FROM THIS PERIOD: The post-synced dialogue drove me up the wall (I hadn't realized that Fellini actually sometimes had the actors speak random words, planning to invent lines for them later; that explains a lot), and may have hindered my appreciation more than is warranted.

The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine, 2019): 1.5/5

Korine’s sense of humor still hasn’t evolved past that of a third-grade boy who recently stumbled upon a porno magazine in his dad’s dresser drawer last week and won’t shut the fuck up about it. The only saving grace is morbid curiosity of which recognizable celebrity will show up next, then cringing at how utterly ridiculously their role is (winner: Christian-rock Zac Efron with George Foreman-grill sideburns and JNCO jeans).

rewatched Punch-Drunk Love (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2002): 5/5

I hate Adam Sandler for being so good in this but not making more movies like this. My favorite PTA film.

Hostiles (Scott Cooper, 2017): 3/5

Timothée Chalamet fuckin showed up outta nowhere in this but then I realize the movie's from 2017 - the Year of Chalamet.

rewatched Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984): 3/5

Strictly speaking- beyond a mess. But its unique brand of punk drollery still gets me, and many of its ideas, like the generic labels, seem way ahead of their time.

rewatched Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982): 4/5

Wow, Man The Despoiler shows up way earlier than I'd remembered—only 18 minutes in. I'd thought the nature-to-civilization ratio was more or less 1:1. Honestly, though, I can't say I much care what environmental/ecological/Hopi-ass thesis this film is trying to push, as the footage is so mesmerizing that it renders ideology irrelevant. Not everything compels though—some of the early nature footage just looks like typical establishing shots for an outdoor adventure, and I'm not convinced there's any purpose to repeated portraits in which the subjects stare impassively at the camera for an uncomfortably long time. Overall, though, it's a singular experience, and a welcome reminder of how enormous our tiny home in the universe can seem.

Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke, 2018): 3.5/5

"I thought you would be waiting for me."

"Am I that important?"

"If not you, then what is?"

Rural Chinese wait for the economic miracle to reach them. A miracle which must feel a lot like seeing a UFO race by high overhead in the night sky, impressive, glowing in the distance, but impossible to catch a ride on. An epic film that shows the journey of two people that are connected on a deep level but struggle to make things work throughout their life.

rewatched Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995): 4.5/5

This is Todd Haynes' second best film about a woman named Carol.

The Purge (James DeManaco, 2013): 1/5

"That was a cool opening. The rest of the movie should be good then, right?"

WRONG. SO WRONG.

THE MOVIE SUCKED.

A curious concept with poor execution that uses world-building merely as window dressing for a dime-a-dozen home invasion thriller.

rewatched Detour (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1945): 5/5

Deliciously nasty, style on a shoestring. Two idiots just smart enough to be a danger to each other. Distilled rotgut.

After (Jenny Gage, 2019): 1/5

I watched this on purpose bc i wanted a big laugh, but I have never felt less joy in my life than I did while watching this.

An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (Jim Kosking, 2018): 1/5

I should start a list of films titled "Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should."

The bastard child of Lanthimos and Alan Resnick, only dogshit. Underground comedy trends from eight years ago dragged from their graves without the heart, delivered by bored tv comedy stars from five years ago, with a terrible and derivative synthwave score since the synthwave score revival started.

Prophecy (John Frankenheimer, 1979): 1/5

Frankenheimer seemed an odd fit for a trashy creature feature which formed part of the late 1970's post-Jaws nature amok cycle of films. Here they throw in a giant, mutant, melting bear, a chainsaw vs axe fight, racoon-mayhem, deformed animals, problematic Native American mythology, a flying dog, a fish eating a duck, an exploding sleeping bag. Surprisingly boring.

Escape Room (Adam Robitel, 2019): 1.5/5

"Hey, is that a clue?" -Everyone.

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino, 2019): 3.5/5

For a film with a murderous cult looming in the corners, this is surprisingly Tarantino's most pleasant film. It's a love letter to film, to studios, to critics, but perhaps most importantly to America. Tarantino gave us something our collective soul has always wanted, for Sharon Tate to not have been murdered. Not only does he give us that, he gives us her living happily ever after. I think the choice to limit Sharon's character to physical grace and joy, with simple but sweet dialogue was a beautiful touch. Not forcing her to be the fulcrum of what inevitably is her story. Many will probably be disappointed by the lack of momentum, tension, narrative complexity, or sharp structure and pacing, but for me the performances are fantastic across the board, the production design is immersive, and we see get to see Tarantino operating in a relatively new mode. I see why many would walk away disappointed, but even though it's far from my favorite film of his, I was still captivated from start to finish.