Nightfall may suffer a little in its pacing from the way it’s told, through piecemeal flashbacks, but it’s an otherwise tidy little noir.
It says something that Phantasm III is at its best when it’s entirely incomprehensible. On those rarer occasions when you have some idea about what’s going on, it’s never to the movie’s benefit. The first Phantasm movie kind of works as a weird low-budget meditation on grief and nightmares, like some kind a surreal art piece. I think a problem with the sequels is they think the first movie works on any other level and try very badly to build from that.
I haven’t seen Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire in many years, but even in my memory of it, the remake, City of Angels, can’t help but suffer by comparison. There are some nice moments in this one, mostly thanks to supporting players like Dennis Franz and the lesser-used Andre Braugher, but I didn’t find these characters particularly compelling.
I guess the best you can say about Nothing Sacred is that it’s largely inoffensive—except in those moments when its very dated racial stereotypes make it briefly very offensive—but it’s also very scattershot in its laughs.
John Ford made the late-career Cheyenne Autumn in many ways as an apology for the depiction of Native Americans in his earlier Westerns. Which is an admirable goal, even if he casts few if any actual Native Americans, and the first half of the movie handles that respectably. It’s in the film’s middle layover in Dodge City, however, with Jimmy Stewart’s laconic Wyatt Earp, that Ford largely loses the thread, and the whole thing becomes a bit of an episodic mess. (What looks like some terrible third act rear projection doesn’t help matters either.)
Rockula isn’t so much a movie as an excuse for some goofy musical numbers and silliness all around. It hangs together, more or less, on its weird plot, but a lot will depend on how amiable you find it, or how catchy the tunes.
It’s been three weeks since I last posted a roundup of the movies I’ve seen, mostly because I’ve been traveling, but also because in that time I’ve only seen 6 movies:
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up the theme of human kindness from the first film, amplifying it by contrast against a more frightening, because human, villain, one offering cruelty masquerading as kindness. There are some frighteningly brutal moments, but also real, often surprisingly audacious, beauty, and another strong performance from Ralph Fiennes.
There’s a compelling story in The Monuments Men—or maybe, and this is the movie’s problem, there are a dozen different compelling stories in it, an entire war’s worth of disparate stories compressed into a single narrative that can’t really contain them all while still propelling the movie forward. It’s well acted and amiable—and you know, fuck Nazis—but it’s also a collection of scenes stitched together more than an exciting story.
Is This Thing On? is well made and well acted, and I liked it lot more than I expected to, but it never rises high enough above the cliches from which it’s built.
No Other Choice is—and I mean this in the best possible way—batshit insane, making weird but compelling choices at every turn.
There are a lot of very good performances in Stark Fear, and not just from star Beverly Garland and the other leads, but also from many of the non-professional locals the movie cast. It’s a pity they’re not given a particularly understandable story or script from which to work, making those performances feel less like part of a cohesive whole than a handful of interesting moments.
Was the world crying out for a mashup of Shaun of the Dead and High School Musical? Much less a Christmas-themed one? (Much less a Christmas-themed one I watched in April?) I don’t know, but Anna and the Apocalypse is mostly good fun. Catchy, if not at all memorable, songs and a lot of playful characters and camerawork. I didn’t necessarily love it, but I enjoyed my short time with it.
I also re-watched 3 movies:
Miller’s Crossing, which isn’t necessarily the Coen Brothers’ best collaboration, but there’s a lot to love about its style and humor.
The Graduate, which I was almost surprised to discover is still really good, despite being very much of its time, and despite every beat of it having entered into the public consciousness.
But sure, why not. Let’s try it again. As always, the rules are simple. Know any of the ten song lyrics below? Post the artist and song title in the comments.
“Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” by Beck
“Change your heart, it will astound you”
“No Surprises” by Radiohead
“A heart that’s full up like a landfill”
“Coming for You” by Amelia Curran
“I’m a wild abandoned ray of heat”
“Just Like Heaven” by the Cure
“Why won’t you ever know that I’m in love with you?”
“Tell me, are you locked in the punch?”
“Man on the Moon” by R.E.M., guessed by Glen
“The most tender place in my heart is for strangers”
“Hold On, Hold On” by Neko Case, guessed by Thudfactor
“Chicago” by Sufijan Stevens
“I made a lot of mistakes”
“Spicks and Specks” by Bee Gees
“Where is the sun that shone on my head?”
“She can ruin your faith with her casual lies”
“She’s Always a Woman” by Billy Joel, guessed by Simon
“My only comfort is the night gone black”
“Only Happy When it Rains” by Garbage, guessed by Glen
