Uncategorized

I watched 6 movies last week:

• The UFO Incident isn’t particularly convincing one way or another on the subject of alien abduction, or on Barney and Betty Hill’s real-life claims, and it’s definitely far too long. But at the same time, James Earl Jones and Estelle Parsons bring a real warmth and honesty to the married couple in this TV movie.
• I feel like if I had seen Adventures in Babysitting back in 1987, when I was ten years old, I might have absolutely loved the movie. Seeing it for the first time almost forty years later, however, the movie is just fine—not infrequently amusing, with a very charming breakout performance by Elisabeth Shue, but often pulling its punches, betraying a lack of ideas, and very dated in its handling of race.
• The Kill Room has its moments, but far too few of them. There are moments when the cast are very good, Samuel L. Jackson in particular, but then also moments when they’re very bad.

• I didn’t expect Bloodsport to be high art, but I did expect the fight scenes to be more impressive. There’s a lot of very good fight choreography and athleticism on display—particularly by Van Damme, who isn’t even that terrible an actor in the movie—but it’s amazing how little the blows actually seem to land. I wasn’t surprised that the movie around the fights was mostly boring, but I was surprised the fights kind of were too.
• Koyaanisqatsi, Roger Ebert wrote “has been hailed as a vast and sorrowful vision, but to what end?” There are some impressive images in the film, which I imagine would have felt even more impressive 42 years ago on a big screen, but the film is a little empty beyond that. As Ebert says, “There is no overt message except the obvious one…”
• Rebel Ridge feels like it’s going to be a slow burn, until the fires, sometimes quite literally, start raging. The movie isn’t fantastically tense, with some really well-matched performances.

I watched 7 movies last week:

• “Conversations about what ties the films [in Kinds of Kindness] together thematically,” writes Brian Tallerico “may end in frustration. Still, the one thing that undeniably unites them is Lanthimos’ mastery of tone, making another film that’s alternately hysterical and terrifying, even when it puts up walls against interpretation.” There’s a lot going on here, and it’s hard to argue that all of it is successful, but it’s oddly compelling.
• Oddity is very creepy and frightening, although decidedly less so once you understand what’s actually going on. The narrative becomes a little unfocused, even as plot reveals itself.
• There’s still a little of the Masterpiece Theatre television movie it was originally intended to be about it, but Mrs. Brown has two wonderful standout performances by Judi Dench and Billy Connolly.

• There’s a little of giallo to The Evil Eye, hence its reputation as the first giallo film, but it feels much more indebted to Hitchcock, right down to its alternate title, The Girl Who Knew Too Much. It’s a very stylish, sometimes very silly, Italian Hitchcock knockoff. And if it’s story doesn’t really hold up under a lot of scrutiny, it’s still a lot of fun.
• Paul Blart: Mall Cop isn’t entirely unsalvageable as idea; just because that idea is dumb and derivative doesn’t mean it couldn’t also be fun. But the movie isn’t any fun. It has barely one joke and it runs that into the ground. James is a likable enough sad sack, and the movie has some heart (or at least sentimentality), but what it doesn’t have very much of is laughs.
• Seize the Day is exceptionally bleak, but there are good performances in it, particularly an early dramatic role by Robin Williams.
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is an enjoyable enough sequel, and I’d genuinely like to see more films that pick up these strands in the new series.

I also re-watched a couple of movies:

• Do the Right Thing—which is no less electric now than it was thirty-five years ago, which makes its having been shut out of the Oscars in favor of Driving Miss Daisy all the more shocking
• To Catch a Killer—technically a miniseries, but short enough I think it qualifies. One of the things I like about it is that, while Dennehy’s performance is very compelling, it’s never about John Wayne Gacy, about who he was or what made him a killer, but about the pursuit to arrest him and finally get justice for his victims.

I watched 5 movies last week:

• It’s not hard to see the promise in Stereo, especially when you’ve already seen that promise realized in later Cronenberg movies. But taken on its own terms, as a feature, as a narrative, it’s exceedingly dull and disappointing—full of intriguing images and compositions, but none that are put to any real use, with its slow stretches of silence broken up only by underbaked ideas expressed in often near-incomprehensible voiceover.
• Despite its overly generic, and not terribly descriptive, title, Kansas City Confidential is a fun, occasionally inventive, certainly surprisingly twisty little noir.
• The Haunted Strangler is helped enormously by Boris Karloff’s…well, let’s be charitable and call this a performance, although it’s far from his best work and—minor spoiler warning, only if you fail to see the movie poster—mostly just involves him contorting his face. A “ludicrously improbable plot,” in the words of the Monthly Film Bulletin, “which peters out into a series of tediously repetitive chases…”

• Monolith doesn’t resolve in a completely satisfying way, but that seems at least partly by design. What the movie is, is terrifically creepy, very effective given its small budget, limited space, and single on-screen actor.
• The Watchers isn’t what I would call an especially well directed movie, but it’s more than competent. It’s in the writing, however, where Ishana Shyamalan’s weaknesses as a filmmaker really emerge. Because the script is simply terrible. By turns both a rush and a slog, both under- and over-explained, it’s a deeply unscary, uninteresting, and unsatisfying mess.

I also enjoyed re-watching Five Easy Pieces.

• Two-Lane Blacktop, wrote Roger Ebert, “is intended, I suppose, to be a metaphor. But unless I missed the point, it doesn’t have much of anything new to tell us.” It’s hard to disagree with that.
• A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia doesn’t even attempt to recreate the grandeur and spectacle of its predecessor. It’s very much a quiet 1992 British television movie. Yet it’s incredibly compelling, thanks to some genuinely terrific performances, particularly from the two leads, Ralph Fiennes and Alexander Siddig.
• It shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, but Death Bed: The Bed That Eats is not a very good movie. It’s bad in some very strange ways, definitely, but none that are particularly interesting or worth revisiting.
• It’s the two leads, particularly a terrific Cailee Spaeny, that really makes Priscilla work. Though the film’s willingness to actually interrogate the creepy power dynamic between Elvis and his bride is another mark in its favor.

• Hobson’s Choice is smart and funny, with lovely performances throughout.
• Something Big is amiable enough, and there are some amusing moments scattered throughout, but more than anything else it’s kind of boring.
• Where the Devil Roams is a lot heavier on vibes than narrative than some of the Adams family’s previous movies—but oh man, what vibes! The movie is a lot to take in, and it makes some very deliberate choices I’m not entirely convinced work, but it is never short of fascinating.

I also really enjoyed re-watched David Cronenberg’s The Fly.

• The Fall Guy is a fun, laid-back, largely forgettable love letter to practical stunt work.
• Walker is confused as satire, and the deliberate anachronisms, which ramp up to a feverish pitch as the movie progresses, aren’t especially effective at conveying anything. And yet there’s something in the unhinged intensity of Ed Harris’ performance that holds the interest.
• Janet Planet is maybe too slow and quiet for its own good, and arguably nothing much happens in it—and, when it does, that leaves more questions than it answers and somewhat breaks the film’s realism. But still, the mother-daughter dynamic between Julianne Nicholson and newcomer Zoe Ziegler has plenty of charm.

• I can only imagine how shattering and raw Cassavetes’ New Life runs out of momentum and ideas at the end, but it’s a surprisingly effective little thriller, considering it’s obvious shoestring budget. A simple, scary premise and good performances go a long way.
• The Boy and the Heron was a lot stranger than I expected, and while it’s rightly been seen as the culmination of Miyazaki’s career (if not his swan song), I’m not sure I enjoyed it quite as much as some of those earlier films. It was maybe just too big and personal for me to really get a handle on it, or to keep up with the many odd turns the film took. At the same time, though, it’s gorgeous and captivating, and there are some truly spectacular moments of animation in it.

I also thoroughly enjoyed a rewatch of The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.