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I think it's time again to swap out my favorite four over on Letterboxd. This is what it's been for the last several months:
You can click that image to see what new four I've replaced them with.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
This is just going to be a spoiler-filled litany of things that disappoint and annoy me about Disclosure Day. Which is disappointing and annoying because I anticipated liking it a lot more. Emily Blunt and Josh O'Connor were great. No complaints about Eve Hewson. What movie isn't made better by adding Colin Firth or Colson Domingo? And while most of my complaints are with the script, I still have high regard for David Koepp. Just last year he gave us Presense and Black Bag, but if nothing else he wrote Jurassic Park. Anyway. Here we go.
• Why are these aliens so bad at driving? Are they where we got our own self-driving tech from? Because that would explain a lot.
• Is this just supposed to be a more artistically sound version of Independence Day?
• I know the animals are "actually" aliens, but that doesn't excuse how awful they look. They don't look like animals that are off because they're actually aliens. They look like animals that are off because they're cgi.
• Why did the aliens only pick two people? They don't seem to be doing anything to keep them alive and, what with the introduction of self-driving cars, they could be run over in an intersection at any moment.
• Why does she start speaking Russian? There seems to be no reason for it other than to let us know that Something's Different.
(Really, this script comes off like an early draft packed full of possible ideas rather than a final draft that is tight and coherent and knows what it's about. For instance....)
• Other than it's kinda cool to look at, what's the reason for building the childhood home?
• Other than the opportunity to get some god talk into the movie, what's the point of the nuns?
• Other than preventing the bad guys from winning early, why hadn't they already done their instabackgroundcheck on the girlfriend or their instazoomin on the other WARDEX runaways?
• The camera draws too much attention to itself. Spielberg's never been above cool swoops and stuff but they usually fit the story so well you might not notice on the first viewing. But this camera's making choices like a film students afraid they might not get another shot so let's throw it in.
• And much of the film feels in-computer although surely it's in-camera? Please tell me they didn't use cg origami cardinals. Please tell me they didn't use cg little girl legs. Please.
• And the flashback was filmed to look . . . like AI slop? Why?
• But speaking of, although the film makes a couple (lazy) nodding references to AI and deepfakery and such, this is 2026. We're supposed to believe the whole world's just accepting this drop? Because they're not going to.
• I don't believe it myself. Most of the old footage (especially the oldest) didn't look like old footage. It looked fake. Which it is. But even in the world of the movie, I can't believe it even though all the characters are telling me I must. I did try. I could not.
• And how about bringing back the hoary old cliche about everyone watching the local news in order to bring about a film's climax? This was old and dumb when Elf used it (I hope as a joke?) and even with the BBC picking it up, I don't buy people's a) credulty or b) just watching the story rather than immediately remixing it to their own gain. This is a '70s filmmaker's fantasy where he gets the floor and we all take it in, end of story.
• And about WWIII. It's never really explained what's going on or why people are so panicked (I do not believe Koepp or Spielberg or anyone else took the time to figure it out), other than North Korea is involved somehow. North Korea alone doth not a WWIII make.
Sigh.
I really wanted to like this movie.
I think I saw a bunch of references to Close Encounters which I've never watched because I feared having exactly this kind of experience. Maybe it's time to give it a shot. I can't be more disappointed and maybe it'll get the taste out of my mouth.
Oh. Most of the action was cool. And the body-swapping thing. That was pretty cool, too. Good job, team.
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| HOME Prime Video |
Although I know about the escape hatch, their nearest miss is still effective. And it's power on initial watch still holds pwoer over me, such that I forgot that my true weeping would have to wait for the final scene.
I really like Toy Story 4 but this is still the proper end of the series. This is where it should have ended.
(It is kinda wild that mildly homophoia-adjacent humor made it into this movie. Times change quicker than you think.)
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| HOME our dvd |
Is it great? Yes. But it's still superfluous.
But, in a way, seeing Woody graduate to his own version of adulthood is kinda beautiful.
But speaking of superfluous, having rewatched the movie I'm even less able to believe that Woody's reappearance in 5 will be justifiable.
Anyway, that's four Toy Storys in four days. What shall we do next?
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
We did it! 5 Toy Storys in 5 days!
Once again (ala 4), this movie was unnecessary, given the correct end of the series with 3, but (again ala 4) it was excellent and exceeded my expectations.
It gave us an opportunity to talk about friends and onlineness and devices and such with our 9yrold which was positive, and it created a useful distinction between games and play, which I imagine will also help parents trying to have conversations with their kids, as well.
But this isn't just an educational experience. Neither is it mere fan service. We barely see Bo (after falling in lover with her in 4), I'm not sure Ducky and Bunny even spoke, Buttercup was essentially MIA, etc etc. While there are callbacks and such, this movie is satisfied being its own thing. Which is something funny and moving as a Toy Story should be.
Two spoilery final comments:
1) the Buzzes should each have assigned themselves to lonely kids
2) Lady Steed thought Emily's daughter was dead; I think she buried that stuff herself; I've won her over to my way of thinking, but where do you stand?
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
I'm surprised at the lackluster reviews this film is getting. I'd agree the edit could be tighter and that a couple themes are pushed a bit too hard, leading them near justsoing and moralizing, but overall, it's a success.
I don't know enough about this era to know how factual it is (Christopher Gist actually died of smallpox far from the Ohio, for instance, and the Frisks maybe didn't exist? I'll tell you what, though, that little pow-wow at the end had damn well better have happened or my opinion of this movie will drop severely when I discover the film was all a mere lie done in service of our civic religion), but Washington's failures and resilience are well captures. And it shows how someone eager to be accepted as British and demonstrate his loyalty could also be becoming a man who would lead the rebellions decades later.
For a small (mid?) budget film, this looks great. Some of the sets are digital mattes, but they work. My wife suspects they only had two horses, which made sense when she said it, but I didn't think it mid-film.
The Englishman playing Washington does well and is apparently really tall. Some Jacob Elordi vibes, he's got going on.
The film makes some effort to at least acknowledge certain ambiguities in the tale (by which I largely mean slavery and indigenous claims ) but Washington still comes off better in those regards than he probably deserves.
Anyway, imperfect, but it's in theaters for the Fourth and honestly you haven't got a better option if you want to watch something vaguely patriotic.
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| THEATER FatCats Saratoga Springs |
So cool to see this on the big screen. We went with our son who went as Bill last Halloween and our daughter (of whom the boys have been saying it's time to show her Bill & Ted) and her same-age cousin who also had never seen it.
We all loved it.
Is it a dumb movie? Sure. But it's honest and filled with conviction. And it embodies a kind of teenage logic (compressed timeframe with faith that everything will work out) that is just as worthy of narrative art as anything else.
Anyway, we had a great time.
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| ELSEWHERE Prime Video |
So much more interesting than I had anticipated, with multiple timelines coming together and moral development where the answer to every question had been one of moral disappointment. Lots to keep track of, but the edit keeps thing clear. Solid, intelligent filmmaking, with movie stars nailing being movie stars.
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| HOME our dvd |
Some thoughts.
• Although this movie really wants to make station happen, it doesn't. However, I can say as a kid from 1991, that you could tell who had just come back from the theater because what the movie did make happen was non-non-non-heinous (and others, but especially that one; I haven't heard it's like until this summer when I've heard 13yrold girls en masse saying nononononodontDOthat!. (Of course, they haven't seen the movie—just the memes.)
• The effects have aged but they are still awesome. But the sets are great—that pink Caligari set will never age.
• The sound design is most excellent.
• The final act isn't as bad as I've sometimes said, but it does need a much, much tighter edit. That's what keeps it from being perfect.
• Death is one of the great creations of film.
• But the princesses are nothing. This is probably the biggest failing of this film. Were they better developed, I have to believe that would have led to other solutions.
• The KISS-performed anthem at the end is indeed the best song in either movie.
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| HOME Link+ dvd |
Having learned that Miramax cut out 18 minutes of this which has only been restored for Americans last year, made me hesitant to watch this, but it's film group tonight and there was no time to get the new version, so here we go.
We first/last saw this circa 2001, the same time we last/first saw Strictly Ballroom, and I had added some elements together and divided—maybe not by two, but still.
Anyway, I really hope the missing eighteen minutes give the wife some more time (and maybe explain this mysterious father character?), but even missing that time (and apprently being less Japanese for it), the movie is funny and charming and pleasant. It's remarkable to me it's become such a classic, but I certainly did have a good time and sorta kinda wanted to take dance lessons afterwards (but I know better); I can see it being a comfortwatch, but I'm not sure I'll visit it again myself. Certainly not until I get my hands on those additional eighteen minutes!
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| HOME library dvd |
Second watch this year. Completely agree with myself: it's wonderful.
The style is old. Lots of medium length oners with great bloking and lots of characters. Some scenes seem lifted directly from the stageplay but the movie as a whole it nearly impossible to imagine on stage. Judy Holliday is terrific.
Watch it next July if you missed it this July. Trust me.
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| HOME our dvd |
The Wizard of Oz came on tv every years growing up, so it's one of those movies that, for me, is a core childhood experience. But the last time I watched it was c. 2005 when my c. 3yrold freaked out over the Tin Man. We did not finish the movie and we have not watched it since. Our youngest is now nine and she'd been wanting to see it and we'd been wanting to show her and she liked it (she thinks be may want to be Dorothy of Halloween now, rather than Sally).
It's amazing to me both how well it holds up and how aged it is. For instance, the effects are still very cool. It's astonishing how perfectly they move from sepia-tinted film to in-camera sepia on color film. Even looking for it, I couldn't distinguish the change. Most of the songs are absolute bangers—really, all of them, excepting some of their introductions. But the timing is so different from a modern movie. Not that that's a crime, but showing it to kids is great because a) it's so accessibled and b) that makes is a good introduction to how older films behave.
Dorothy's trio of companions are terrific. I felt, watching it this time, that the Scarecrow and the Tin Man must have had silent-movie comedy experience. They both have terrific physical chops and the Tin Man emotes like the Little Tramp. Let's go to IMBd and find out!
(pause for research)
Scarecrow: exactly one silent credit a decade before the rest of his career. But he did have experience in vaudeville
Tin Man: no silent experience but, again: vaudeville
Lion: Like the other two, his career began right after the silent era—but! vaudeville
I couldn't decide if Judy Garland was the right age. A lot of the early dialogue makes her sound subten. But even when her business makes her seem young, her singing voice bears little resemblance to a child. She wasn't 17 when they made it, but....
Well, who am I to argue with history. And I agree with history—she's great. Maybe I just would have tweaked some of the Kansas dialogue. (I also would have tweaked the heavyhanded all-a-dream stuff to, but ah well.)
One thing that startled me was that there are more references to this movie in "Death to the Tin Man," a favorite of mine that I have probably shown to over a thousand high-school students. When Paul goes powermad, his speech is hearkening back to the Lion imagining himself king of the forest.
#itsalltotosfault
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
The climax of this film is the election between Cleveland and Harrison (the first one) in which the Electoral College robs the popular vote. This scene has always stuck with me. This deeply undemocratic flaw in our democracy was unveiled and I never forgot it, even after I forgot everything else about the movie. I had no idea what movie it even was—or that we owned the dvd thanks to some friends leaving town and giving us theirs. I had no idea that The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band was this movie that has haunted me my entire American life. Not until I watched this video earlier this year.
The 9yrold and I watched it on the train and we had to pause a couple times to explain political parties and such details (she needs some civics education!), but boy oh boy was there lots more going through my mind! For instance, this manifestdestiny songanddance about the Dakotas—what happened to the Indians? From that video I linked to, you'll see that the real family weren't wealthy but lived in a crappy sod house through Dakota winters. That was on my mind as they were packing up to leave. And of course all the political hatred manifest feels a little too 2026. This isn't a great movie but neither is it something that can be shrugged off as a thing in the past.
Some other things haven't aged great. The forced lapsitting at the end. The camera's unflinching interest in what's going on under women's skirts. Boys with terrible blond haircuts (see also: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Apple Dumpling Gang). I didn't really like the songs, to be honest. I'm not surprised I forgot the rest of the movie. (Even Leslie Ann Warren who offers a much more innocent [but equally potent] sexiness that we all remember from Clue, as I was young. So young.) But that deep dissapointment in the one-person–one-vote bedrock of democratic ideals remains with me today.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Incredible debut. Most of the way through I was wondering if Nolan wrote his favorite movie time-scrambled or if he found this in the edit. By the end I knew it was certainlty planned (though perhaps not to the detail?). Most of the way through I was seeing this as a rough draft for his more formally inventive follow-up, Memento, but by the end I realized it was very much its own thing with a distinct reason for being scrambled as it was.
And, here's the thing, it's really good. Whoever at the San Francisco Examiner wrote "Nolan is a talent who bears watching" [citation: back of dvd case] was dead-on. He certainly has been.
I've now seen all his features save Odyssey and Tenet. Looking forward to completing the set.
Have the four lead actors become part of Nolan's regular company? Well, the protagonist (who sounds a bit like Alan Rickman) and the woman have had a few bit roles between them. The other male lead (who looks kinda like Ben Affleck and sounds kinda like Corey Elwes) has never made another single movie. Not before not after not ever. The fourth lead (based on the credits, I think reflecting the fact that he had any lines is probably (?) the best known of the four and has had some slightly more substantial but still slight roles in later Nolan films.
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| THEATER AMC Bay Street |
First, let's get this out of the way: I loved it. Found it absolutely incredible. Probably Nolan's best movie. With a quick moment of thought, I guess this is how I would now rank them (noting that I left off Tenet because I haven't seen it and Insomnia because I have no memory of it other than it's in Alaska, right?):
The Odyssey
Dunkirk
The Dark Knight
Oppenheimer
Batman Begins
Intersellar
Following
Memento
The Prestige
Inception
The Dark Knight Rises
Anyway, I know some people are still scoffing at Matt Damon as Odysseus, but...how? He was excellent. And some people have spent twenty years scoffing at Anne Hathaway but it's time for those people to just shut out. Tom Holland was fine. Come on. And John Leguizamo was incredible.
Nolan is scrambling timelines as he is wont to do, but it feels so natural and sensible and correct that its not drawing any attention to itself.
The sound mix still doesn't always remember to prioritize dialogue but it matters less here than in say, Oppenheimer, and it's less frequently a problem to boot.
The story grapples honestly with ancient religion in a way I can only compare to The Northman, which I respect, and the fact that people want to fight against this movie because it promotes xenia says a lot more about them than about the movie or Nolan or today or the ancients.
I'm not really speaking coherently, but I'm glad we went to see it rather than waiting for weeks to get a decent ticket at the Metreon. It was my first time in the Dolby Cinema theater at AMC Bay Street and I thought it was an excellent theater. That we managed to see it for less than we should have because AMC's black tickets didn't function is the good version of using a special ticket at AMC. (The other version is it doesn't work and you give up and pay full price. I think exactly once I've brought a gift ticket and had it work properly.)
This is myth as myth for us. A very rare thing indeed.
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| HOME our dvd |
Son #2 wants to work his way through Wes Anderson's oeuvre. It's been slow-going but tonight we hit film #2, one of my favorites. (Lady Steed declared afterwards that it's her least favorite. Well. Opposites attract, I suppose.)
This is probably the least "realistic" of Anderson's films, but it's also beautiful for just some of those reasons. Something that kind of hits both those elements is how Margaret Yang, for all we can tell, flew in on a model plane and then flew out on a model plane.
Something I cannot understand is how it is not generally recognized that Wes Anderson and Taika Waititi and the Hesses are all in the same school of comedy. How is this not obvious to everyone? (I feel a need to say this because never before had I noticed how similar, in details, this movie, specifically, is to Napoleon Dynamite.) (ps: did you see my recent essay on nd?) (Unrelated, but I also noticed for the first time that Max's extention at both schools in 23.)
Anyway, the film brings me joy and makes me cry and is wonderful to look at. What more can you ask for from a film?
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| HOME Peacock |
This is my first time watching one of Miranda July's (only three???) features, although I've shown "Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?" to hundreds (possibly a thousand) students. So I'm overdue!
Anyway, I loved it. It was weird, sure, but it was always human. Or, more accurately, Evan Rachel Wood (doing an excellent Crispin Glover) and Gina Rodriguez are both fully human (if coming at it from opposite sides) while Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger stand as useful contrast.
But what I love (and, indeed, expected to love) about Kajillionaire is the strange lens on life July gives us. It feels visiting Wonderland without leaving L.A. And that's exactly what I wanted.
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| HOME our dvd |
I asked Lady Steed what she thought of it halfway through the credits and she said she was satisifed because it was "all the things it was advertized to be." It was that. And a perfect sort of thing to get its lead an Oscar.
But there's an irony here. The lesson the ballet director keeps trying to give Natalie Portman's character all the way through the film is that she needs to let go of being perfect, that she needs to allow chaos into her performance. She cannot actually achieve perfection without letting go.
But if you were to ask the platonic screenwriter to write something about art and madness, the first thing he would ask is if he can include death. You of course will say yes. Then he'll give you The Black Swan. Because this film is exactly what you would expect the platonic screenwriter to give you when you ask for art and madness, death allowed. Even with a handful of jumpscares, did this film offer any actual surprises? I think not.
So yeah, it was good, perfect even—but that's all it is.
(Obviously, I still need to see The Red Shoes, but, to date, the best ballet movie I have seen, still, even having seen The Black Swan, is The Company.
two postscripts: 1) neither the body horror nor the sex was as egregious as expected 2) one advantage to a film like this is unless you really screw it up the music will be awesome
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| HOME Kanopy |
Kajillionaire was better, more assured (and only her The Future left to go!), but this is a strong debut. It combines kids and sex in uncomfortable ways (not sure you'd get even this level of funding today) but July's funky aesthetic works from go. It feels very one-year-after-Napoleon-Dynamite-at-Sundance with a Rubin and Ed soundscape.
In short, this is a movie about lonely people. And a pretty good one. But not one I think I'll revisit.
Special shoutouts to John Hawkes who's been in tons of stuff including several I've seen but has now become someone I'll be watching for and Carlie Westerman who apparently retired from acting when she was like fifteen. You go, girl.
.jpg "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/First_Steps_%28Millet%29.jpg")
