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This is the month where, depending on which classes I'm teaching, the number of movies watched might explode. This is one of those years where explosion occurs. Fun times.
But I already wrote an interview to May because I was pissed off at Beau Travail. (This was written before the entire post thereon.) So let me just say that I love sharing great movies with students and tricking them into learning a new vocabulary and rhetoric, forever changing the way they experience film, mwuhahahahah, et cetera.
Onto that other introduction:
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I was thinking about Beau Travail later the night we watched it and I realized that the movie it reminds me most from the other movies of May is Anaconda (2025). Granted Claire Denis is more interested in vaguely homoerotic exercise routines than giant snakes but what she and her team share with the characters played by Jack Black and Paul Rudd is a belief in themes. But I think the Anaconda characters actually feel a responsibility to decide what those are. In my opinion, Beau Travail refuses to say. It'll give us images and words and silly coincidence, but they mean nothing. There's no reason why the woman selling the rug should be the woman who nurses Sentain. And the film has no idea why it made that so. It just assumed we'd notice and create meaning out of nothing. That pisses me off.
So yes, I'm saying the crappy movie made by the schmucks in Anaconda is at least a more honest film than Beau Travail. And I'd rather watch it than Beau Travail again.
That's my hottest take in a while but I stand by it.
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| ELSEWHERE link+ dvd |
This might be, to me, the single most important movie of my childhood. I saw it many, many times. Had it memorized. Generally called it my favorite movie, etc.
But I probably haven't seen it since the early Nineties. Certainly not since I became a parent. Not because I didn't want to. I was so excited to show it to my kids. But before I acted, my parents showed it to them first off our old VHS tape. It happened one, two, three times. And they liked it but they never felt a pressing need to watch it again. And if they did want to watch it again, they'd rather watch it with Gramma and Pappa because that's where they saw it the first time.
This was a real (if unintentional) robbery.
I'd gone through mourning, acceptance, but now another opportunity has arisen with our surprise #4. But I hadn't realized it until YouTube recommended some videos by a guy I'd never heard of before including a long one about the effects in Flight of the Navigator. I watched it and she joined me and I got my library to obtain a dvd from Fremont and now, here we are on Amtrak, and we've watched the movie.
First, I loved it. I was a little nervous it would have turned terribly in the last thirty-plus years, but no. It's fun. And the family stuff is emotionally beyond what I'm guessing I experienced as a kid. Or at least different. Because, you know, I'm the parent now.
But she liked it too. I had to laugh at a couple things so she could too, but we had fun. It could have become a family tradition.
But you never know just how these things will play out.
Addendum one: Disney's marketing department should be ashamed.
Addendum two: Is just me or does the lead look an awful lot like Mary Elizabeth Winstead? Is that why I lommed onto her instantly? she looked like an old friend?
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Second movie in a row that would have been so much bigger on a giant screen
We were just in Yosemite, but even when you're right next to it, the sheer size of El Capitan is hard to grasp. It's a rock. There's nothing to compare it to, to get a sense of perspective. It's impossibly enormous.
Anyway, the 9yrold left Yosemite wanting to watch Free Solo, a film child one was given on dvd in high school but which we've never watched.
He missed out. It's awesome.
Some people are just not like the rest of us. I'm glad they exist...but I'm also glad they're not me.
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| ELSEWHERE link+ dvd |
This is a hard movie to say much intelligible about after first watch. It's a number of stories running one after another, but the primary story is something very Poe: guilt leading to madness. But added to that are elements of proto-metal, The Last Unicorn, 2001, Star Wars–predicting droids, both classically utopian and classically dystopian Golden-Age-of-science-fiction tropes, Greenpeace, American consumerism, and more. It's chock-full.
And I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet.
But I betcha I'll have a strong opinion if you ask me three years from now.
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| HOME link+ dvd |
My buddy Myke wanted to see this for his birthday so his older cousin drove us to Lancaster to see it. I'm pretty sure we liked it, but she gave us a kindly lecture about some of the moral questions raised, which I remember better than the movie. (But I do remember a few parts from the movie and they're still good.)
It was fun to watch with Lady Steed. She felt like the parallels to Eternity were exact, almost too much so, but she liked it a lot (and she loved Eternity). It was fun to watch with her. We laughed a lot and her mind was bubbling with commentary which spilled out over the credits.
Wildly, I've only seen two of Albert Brooks's features (the other) and I remain convinced he's someone whose work I'll love. Currently, this is my favorite. But I suspect there's something even better in his backlist.
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| ELSEWHERE Delta Studio |
Funny. Jumpy. Friend-filled.
Exactly what was promised.
And it set up the small amount of fanservice so even those of us who've never seen an Anaconda ovie can be happy when it happens.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
First, I loved it. It's so much more layered and intelligent than it had to be; perhaps that's how it aquired this cast.
I just looked up the director and he has a deep, deep animation background which must be part of why the cg sheep work so well. I think the only real animal in the entire movie was the chicken—which was smart. That way we weren't being thrown in and out of the movie as the leads became different things.
(Two puppeteers were credited; not sure what they did.)
But, again, this is a smart movie. And not just in the Detective Story sort of way. It's a fine mystery but the real power of the film is in its emotional intelligence. A wide variety of emtions appear from a wide variety of locations intertwining in complex and true ways. Bravo.
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| HOME link+ dvd |
Imagine that the apes at the beginning of 2001 occasionally get to vacation in Twin Peaks' Red Room. Only boring.
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| ELSEWHERE Kanopy |
This is my third watch and I may be experiencing diminishing returns. I still think it's a beautifully constructed film and a thrill to watch but I'm not as shaken by it's ideas. It feels a bit more style than substance on this watch.
That said, this is the first time I've shared it with students and it worked well on them, though they all took issue with the New York Times saying it's the best picture of the century so far. They found that nonsensical, like it though they did.
I'm impressed by how ready kids are to talk about movies as movies these days. They're more educated. I suspect it's because of all the children of Every Frame a Painting giving them the eye and the vocabulary?
This is what we read in class: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our bluray |
Grand Budapest is growing in my estimation. Quite possibly simply because I've seen it more times. There's surely correlation between height on this list and how many times I've seen it.
Anyway, first time watching this one with students. I included only non-Rushmore options this time (for reasons)and one class is watching this and one class will watch Fantastic Mr. Fox next month.
Anyway, I'm delighted to announce the class loved it. They admired the aethetics and thought it was funny. If you can do both, you're well on your way to being a Wes fan. Fun stuff.
This is what we read in class: 1 and 2, 3.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
I love how I had all three of my first experiences this time. Time one, scary jumpy movie. Time two, moving meditation on marriage. Time three, portrait of a parent/child relationship. Now, having seen it...six times? I can revisit all three of those experiences in a single viewing. I was weeping in the back of the room as Cole and is mother talked in the car.
Speaking of meaningless coincidences, the two women connected by this film made two of my favorite comedies—one the year before and one the year after.
This is what we read in class: 1, 2 and 3.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
This movie suffered by being preceded by a trailer for the rerelease of Ocean's Eleven, the coolest heist movie of all time. This movie is a cool heist-adjacent movie but . . . not as cool as Ocean's Eleven.
But the character work isn't quite as good either. Jake Gyllenhall and Henry Cavill do a descent George Clooney and Brad Pitt, but the rest of the crew are just big muscles with beards (or not) and accents of some sort. They don't have backstories other than an implication that Mom had earned their loyalty somehow. This is only implied because we know she got them out of prison Jake and Henry out of prison once and . . . that's their entire backstory, too.
Also, spoiler alert (this sounds like the set up of the movie but its depth is the spoiler), I'd like to cheer on bad guys who ruin bigger badguys. But even trillionaires ruling the world remain abstract in this movie while our protags killing dozens of guys for money is very much on the screen.
So it was cool and I enjoyed the film but it fell short of its goals.
(Incidentally, I just checked and somehow the only Guy Ritchie movie I've seen before is Snatch? That's wild.)
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
I love this movie so much. A bonafide masterpiece. I'm a little surprised it hasn't cracked Sight and Sound yet. Maybe in 2032.
Anyway, someone said to me yesterday, I'm unsure why, that I just love scenes where people on transportation stare out windows. but maybe it's true. the train scene in Spirited Away is one of my favorite scenes of all time. And Bill on the bus, looking out the window as it rains, is probably my favorite sequence in this movie.
So yeah: guilty as charged.
What we read in class: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE Kanopy |
The thing that surprises me on this revisit is how it's both more conventional than I remembered (there are storylike elements! that score!) and even weirder.
My new definition of surrealism is "a sequence of dirty jokes."
Incidentally, this year's students weren't as outraged as last year's.
What we read in class: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
This might be the first time kids have voted in Dumbo, not sure. Definitely need to find new readings.
A lot of the artistic choices will be perfected in Disney's next movie (Bambi), but as a whole this is a charming and beautiful movie. Dali (writer of L'age d'or) said Disney was the greatest surrealist and you can see that here.
The ethnic stuff doesn't play like it did in 1941 but sometimes I don't even know how it plays. I think you'd get 75 different opinions from 100 different people. Some of it (setting up the tents) is beautiful, and some of it (the conductor) feels like it shouldn't be offensive but is, and some of it (the crows) feels like it should be offensive but isn't quite. Or maybe I'm getting those backwards. Anyway.
What we read: 1, 2.
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
I liked the movie enough I wasn't worried about watching it again with her 9yrold (she really wanted to go back and take a friend), but I liked it so much more than I expected this second time.
The mystery isn't such an amazing mechanism that I wished to watch it unspool again (ala a Knives Out Movie), which wasgood because it didn't hold that much interest in the second viewing. But once the plot is rolling and the emphasis returns to the characters, the movie is brilliant. The emotional depths impress me. And some things I wouldn't let a lesser movie get away with, such as the, mm, two religious scenes, are executed well here—perfectly in the second incidence. It's really an impressive piece of work.
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| HOME Peacock |
Asteroid City (2023)
My wife asked if there was something we should be watching on Peacock. I'd kinda forgotten we had Peacock. Then she went to bed. But it recommended Asteroid City to me and I hit play. I watched it in pieces over the next three or four days, sometimes joined by others. (It's kind of the perfect film to watch this way both because it's broken into bitesize pieces and because it's as comfortable as beloved music.)
Anyway, I love this movie. I don't claim to understand it, but since the (a) main character doesn't understand it either, I don't see why that should get in my way. Many are the beautiful and wonderful and true things in this world that I do not understand. Let this movie be one.
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| HOME our dvd |
If it were coming out in six months I might have a few notes but as an established classic? No notes.
Interesting to me that the most emotionally resonant parts this watch were between grandfather and grandson. I was in eager anticipation the entire film for the payoff that is that final line.
I'm overdue to reread the book....
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| ELSEWHERE Pluto TV |
Pluto kept skipping the scene where the Orphanage takes the kid away which lessened the impact of the reunion. So we found it on YouTube later to watch that scene. The YouTube version had much better image but the music for the scene was so, so wrong.
Anyway, The Kid's great, but in my opinion it's lesser Chaplin. I like City Lights and Modern Times much better.
What we read: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
I never fail to be amazed by Bambi. It's brilliant. And I'm still noticing new details. The girl who chooses Thumper? She's eating blossoms when she sees him. Soulmates!
And I don't know that there has been a greater apocalypse set to film than the fire as seen from the island. Awesome in the worst way possible.
We read these: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
I mean:
The Marx Brothers are funny.
(In book news, I finally just purchased Harpo Speaks and picked up The Groucho Letters for free.)
The bad news is it's senior ditch day. Having only two people each for The Kid and Bambi was a bummer but even though my single student this class liked it, watching Duck Soup alone with your teacher is definitially tragic.
The readings: 1, 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
It might be a flawless movie. Talking it over with students I realize that every bit that might seem off or hokey to one person could well be someone else's favorite part. Because every piece of the movie works. Even if it doesn't hit you exactly right this time.
The credits are short but just long enough to hide the tears from my face. Maybe I shouldn't do that. But I was such a wreck, you don't have to be an emotional genius to notice I had been crying. Maybe high-school seniors are just too polite to point it out.
We read 1 and 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
Another perfect film. The class voted overwhelmingly to watch the dub which marks a serious cultural shift over the last, say, seven years.
My big thought was that our daughter's just the right age to see this now (Chihiro reminded me a lot of, the way her body moves); Miyazaki said he made it for 10yrold girls (see reading 1) and she just about it. I'm taking the dvd home tonight. Expect it to be on one of these lists again some time this summer.
We read 1 and 2.
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| ELSEWHERE our dvd |
It's such a different experience for me to watch movies this time of year. Watching three movies a day (or, more accurately most of the time, three halves of movies one day followed the second halves of those same movies) leads to noticing similarities and questions that otherwise would be invisible. So many connections between O Brother and Its a Wonderful Life, for instance, surely more similarities in props and framing than between O Brother and Sullivan's.
And then I forget and I get to rediscover them again in the future.
Watching (and rewatching) movies is fun!
The readings were two excerpts from here.
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| HOME Kanopy |
Hard to believe this movie got made. It can't have been cheap but I don't know how they expected it to make money. It has a level of (violent) sex and violence that would be difficult to pull in big money regardless of how perfectly it turned out.
And it did turn out pretty well. It's packed full with beautiful shots and fascinating scenes. Some great lines (are they from the Ballard novel?) like:
"I'm an orthodontist, not a homosexual."
"Like all poor people, she's obsessed with money."
"You're forgetting one thing. This is my party. You are my guests. I shall decide if someone is to be lobotomized."
(There are more.)
The lowest part of the movie is the final moment when the radio tells us what it was all supposed to mean (as if the movie had been too subtle) and some absurd cg bubbles that, you better believe it, pop.
I did like the remade 70s music (expecially that second version of ABBA's "SOS").
Anyway, it's the story of a highrise; the rich live at the top, the poor at the bottom. Society crumbles. The film (which is not subtle) gives you some hints where things are going before they go there when our main character goes to a top-floor party and everyone's dressed like aristocrats two weeks before Bastille Day and they mock Tom Hiddleston's very nice (contemporary) suit like mean girls in the cafeteria.
It's all downhill from there.
I honestly don't know after one viewing if the thing holds together or not. Certainly this review does not. But it's intriguing and I do want to know what else the director and writer have done. I see I've seen one of his (Free Fire) and one of hers (also Free Fire).
Free Fire came out a year later. It was less ambitious and more successful. If there's a lesson there, I don't like it.
(ps: unusually large number of cool posters for this one)
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| THEATER Century Cinemark Hilltop 16 |
Okay. I have a LOT I want to say. And I'm just going to spew it in no particular order. Beware spoilers.
First, Inde Navarrette is now a star. I'll have to learn how to say her name. She looks like what you'd need to cross with Anya Taylor-Joy to get Jenna Ortega. Also, she needs an Oscar nomination for this role. Let's all remember that through the rest of the year. In one scene she does something to her face that makes her look like a cross between Mia Goth in Pearl and Donny Wahlberg in Sixth Sense and it is terrifying. She does things with her face and body that make you blink in astonishment—or would, if you could look away.
And props to young Curry Barker who is clearly very, very good at this. He makes some "wrong" choices in this film and they all work. Making actors go longer with an expression or an action than they should. Holding longer. That final act of almost-violence in the movie? I knew it was a possibility. Then I decided he wasn't going for it. Then he started to go for it, but obviously he wouldn't. But then...obviously he was going for it. And then he didn't. I haven't been this yanked around since toys I loved were about to get incinerated back in 2010.
The sound is great. Solid music choices. Great use of volume, both high and low and sudden contrasts. The mourning dove cue was perfect. We're trained to recognize a key sound when it occurs offscreen and we don't need to by told what happened or why or what's next.
The film's a little like Get Out with the sins of The Stepford Wives brought back into primary focus. It's found a new and fun way to play with a monkey's paw. It turns a solid side joke into solid commentary on the banality of evil. It's hella fun to watch but leaves you with lots to be sad about afterward. The lighting: incredible. It 100% proves my thesis that horror and comedy are the same game. The writing is sharp, both the dialogue and Nikki's novel. And it's just the right length. Lady Steed said if it had lasted five more minutes she would've had to walk out. (She dug it but it was a lot gorier than she'd been prepared for. Whatever she heard on NPR that made her suggest the movie did not mention its blood.)
Incidentally, I wasn't interested in this movie when it opened. I hadn't seen a trailer. The poster seemed pretty pedestrial. But people kept talking about it online. My students apropos of nothing were asking me if I'd seen it because they wanted to talk about it. And tonight, the theater? Full and engaged.
This thing'll have legs. Go see it on a big screen with big sound. You got time. Time's all you got.
(ps: the final words in the credits inform us that this film is not to be used to train a.i. first, i'm here for that. put it on all of 'em from here on out. second, what if this movie is an a.i. metaphor? what if that?)
