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I think my favorite new thing this month was a barely-long-enough-to-qualify-for-this-list animated French film in which a girl attempts to return a book to a librarian. It's so quiet, guys. And so beautiful.
And movies that looked cool were just okay (looking at you, Longlegs) and incredibly dumb films that also looked bad could still be fun (Argylle) or not (Madame Web). Also watched a couple performance films, which was a nice change of pace, but unlikely to become a habit.
I'm not sure why. But none of that feels at all August.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
I am so disappointed.
Spoilers ahead.
I was excited for this movie. Great trailer, what a writeup on The Atlantic, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes (and still Fresh), a hugely buzzed-about Nic Cage performance. . . .
Seemed like a must-see movie.
And there's plenty of good and interesting stuff. The filming is attractive. The camera is threatening. Maika Monroe leads like a champ. The compositions, the sets, the mise en scene, the lighting—all great.
And then they reveal it's, wait for it, Satan. Yup. It's Satan.
I don't know why, but I find devil movies utterly boring and dumb and pointless. So while I think it's fun how this movie is in serious conversation with Silence of the Lambs (imagine if Clarice's childhood experience with the lambs was connected to Buffalo Bill), once the devil's here I just do not care. It throws me out of the effect the movie'd been building and I'm done.
I just rewatched the trailer and it does nothing for me now. I'm so annoyed. I could've gone to see the new Quiet Place or Shyamalan movie instead.
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| HOME Apple+ |
Loved it. Loved the music cues. Loved the video-game graphics. Loved the thrilled shaping. Loved the actors. The whole thing works. No, it doesn't rise to the level of alltime classic, but it's a perfect piece of entertainment and a good example of how streaming has robbed theaters of lifeblood.
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| HOME Apple+ |
This movie was just as dumb and absurd as I expected. Actually, even more so. The only things I've seen that comes close come out of Hong Kong. I'm not sure anything in this movie was real. Was there a real cat on set at any time? Was any liquid over eight ounces ever seen outside a computer? How many of those extras were real? It was like watching Tintin at times. In fact, as the movie began, I thought I was going to say it should've been more like Tintin, but I was not saying that at all once the end arrived. The movie never saw a twist it wouldn't take. The sound design was often shabby but never as cheap as many of the visuals.
By no means was this movie good. Oh, but I enjoyed it. It's just a big dumb mess filled with stars and absolutely delightful—because it's not pretending to be smarter than its audience. It knows how dumb it is and it revels in it.
Also, I love that Bryce Dallas Howard is still allowed to be a beautiful woman now that she's not as thin as she was in her twenties. Well done, Hollywood.
But I have to ask, does this movie have the highest individual bodycount (that is, excepting things like bombings and exploding planets) of any PG-13 movie ever? Because it was bananas.
Honestly. Pretty morally bankrupt film, now that I think of it. But, you know, fun.
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| HOME our bluray |
World of Tomorrow (2015 – 2020)
Although these are packaged as if the first three episodes have become one film in the way three shorts became It's Such a Beautiful Day. Although the bluray lets you play them as one, there are end credits after each section. And rightly so. Although they are connected, they are not the same. The are separate films doing different things.
I liked them but not as much as my favorite Hertzfeldt's. The even less plotty "On Memory" on the bluray was my favorite of all the stuff on the disk.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
I still have high regards for #1 but we never did manage to see #2. Thankfull, it's hardly necessary for a prequel.
Like #1, there are questions that could be asked (did all the dogs die while she was knocked out? kids too? why can the creatures not hear a heartbeat from centimeters away?) but the movie is such an excellent place to be trapped that they don't really matter. The experiences unfolding before us are what matter. And so that's what we're thinking about.
(Although don't you think Djimon Hounsou must've had a bigger role originally? Maybe it got edited out. Maybe it'll become DAY ONE: PART TWO or something. Speaking of....)
No one's done this yet, but I think the Quiet Place movies are the perfect opportunity to spead sequels across the world. Hire excellent teams in other countries to make A Quiet Day: Korea, A Quiet Day: Bombay, A Quiet Day: Edinburgh, A Quiet Day: The Nile, etc. Let'm rip.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
First of all, why did no one tell me HAYLEY MILLS IS IN THIS THING??? I mean, apparently she's very busy, but I haven't seen her in anything new in yeeeaars.
Anyway, mild spoilers from here on out.
Trap's a perfectly enjoyable thriller. Exciting but never that scary. A fun, safe romp. Not Shyamalan's best work but good stuff. Scott Mendelson says that an original thriller starring Josh Hartnett "opening with $15.6 million in 2024 would be a relative triumph for almost any filmmaker other than Shyamalan" but of course M. Night is the man who brought us actual masterpieces like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable so we're always going to be disappointed. Scott also said that the studio blew it by not letting critics see it: "Critics and professional journalists were not going to spoil the film’s second and third acts for sport." I suppose that's true. (And here's where the minor spoilers come in.) You can break this movie into three acts based on who is the protagonist and only the first act did I know about coming into the movie. I thought the whole thing would take place within those confines, but not so. It gets better. And while there are no jawdropping twists or anything, the turns the film took were, as I said, thrilling.
I am curious if this and Smile 2 were written in response to the huge concert films of late. Seems impossible the turnaround could be that quick but it seems like good timeing. Except for that $15.6 million I suppose proving me wrong.
Anyway, even though I love or at least appreciate most of M Night's work (I didn't like The Happening but, to be fair, I only saw the last half), I'm startled to realize what big gaps I have in his filmography:
I keep trying to get into theaters, buddy! It's hard!
Anyway, thanks for casting Hailey Mills. It was delightful to see her.
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| HOME Hoopla |
I really want to like this movie. And I guess I do, but I don't really buy it, you know? All I really remember from reading it as a kid is that certain characters were scary and the ending is magical but not quite sensical. I guess I still agree with me.
I thought it might be different this time, having read Randy Astle's essay and Don Bluth's autobiography, but even with a new theoretical framework, it just doesn't quite click.
Complaints aside, I do like the art and the acting. The characters are good. Visually, the film is excellent throughout. I can see why Speilberg snapped him up to make An Americal Tail and The Land Before Time before the decade was out. Me, I just don't buy the magic stuff, I guess.
One thing I find strange:
One of the reasons Bluth and other Disney animators left Disney is because they thought the Disney movies of the era were awful. But Robin Hood is the one that finally outraged them enough to beat it. What with those anthropomorphic animals and everything. But this movie's animals are . . . pretty anthropomorphic, even if they do live in a human world. And Mrs. Brisby's kids are verrrry much like Mother Rabit in Robin Hood. Not sure what to make of that.
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| HOME Hulu |
Ah ha! The times have changed again. Although the humor and warning of this movie are still intact for the new batch of teens, their main takeaway is "it's gross." I think largely because of the f slur. Which apparently is so verboten now they would prefer it not even show up in a film like Idiocracy in which it is clearly not a word the film proposes we should adopt into our own daily vocabularies.
This is an interesting fact about Gen Z. Although I think on average they are less startled or offended by the bad language of the deitific (does not compute as offensive at all), scatalogical, or sexual (not sure they truly realize that's the real meaning) variety, slurs shock them more than perhaps any other generation and they have a greater allergy to them than any generation I've ever shared Earth with. Doesn't matter if they are about sex, sexuality, race, ethnicity, race, or what, it's a strong no.
I'm curious how they'll remember it.
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| ELSEWHERE Hulu |
I watched this over a couple bagel lunches. I had no idea Joel McHale did standup thought I suppose it makes sense given what I do know of his career. It also goes to show why his embodied his character so well on Community: dick is his vibe.
Most of the special is him ragging on places he's done shows. This show happened in San Jose so he starts with some pretty safe jokes about the Bay Area. But then he gets harsh, particularly about the South, and I was wondering how those jokes would play if I were Southern. Then he went to Utah. And although I think the Mormon stuff was lighter than the Southern stuff, it was fine. Somehow he is mean without being meanspirited, if that makes sense. He just owns his awfulness.
I wonder if he's one of those comics who just loves to bomb.
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| HOME library dvd |
So, yeah, this is a pretty bad movie. And considering the resources at hand, it deserves all the oprobium. That said, I thought it would be worse.
But let's start by listing some of the bad things, mm? First of all, it has some of the most embarrassing exposition conversations I've ever listened to. And the film insists on underlining what's happening just in case it's too smart for us. (It's not.)
The most obvious problem is Tahar Rahim. Apparently he's been great and maybe he's better in French but he's so, so bad in this movie. And pretty much any time anyone else has to act with him, they're terrible as well.
But I suspect we may be able to blame this on the director. Because it seems pretty clear that Dakota Johnson was given direction that resulted in ludicrously bad stuff, including facial expressions, gestures, and line delivery. It's crazy how she'll be good and then she'll do something that belongs in a 1920 parody of an 1880 parody of an 1860 melodrama. It's whiplashy.
But a lot of the writing is bad. Her friend the EMT has apparently never been present at the birth of a baby before. And the cinematography and editing are bad. The movie can't decide what slow-motion means and every once in a while it remembers it wants to do quick cuts and wild camera movement but it would be generous to call any of those moments barely motivated.
But there was maybe ten or fifteen percent of the movie that I thought was pretty fun. So good job, everybody.
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| HOME Vimeo |
First, Charlie Belin has a beautiful hand. Her light touch with the art is gorgeous yet deceptively simple. And she can show anything from any angle, the camera rotating and the characters moving. The whole world is there. But our eyes only see what they see. Which is also somehow truer.
Although I watched it in English, the voice work and sound mix is incredible, and it feels and naturalistic as in the only other of her film's I've watched which basically just recorded the sounds in a cafe. The English dub is an incredible achievement.
This is also one of the most beautiful, subtle, pure middle-school quest stories I've ever seen. It checks all the boxes of a hero's journey but it's so quiet you might not realize that's what's happening until it's all over.
What an achievement.
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| HOME YouTube |
Yes, he is amazing, but he doesn't even need to be good. I'm so deep into listening I wouldn't see where the balls end up even if he's tossing them directly into the audience.
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