I saw 7 movies last week. There was something of a theme until the very end:
- Upon seeing Angel’s Egg, Hayao Miyazaki reportedly said it was “not something others would understand.” I’m not sure understanding is what the movie wants or expects, but he wasn’t wrong. It’s intriguing, often stunningly animated, but I could not for the life of me tell you what it’s supposed to be about.
- After the Rehearsal feels like a meditation on sadness and the end of a life—I know, a shock for Bergman!—with bare staging and three compelling performances.
- What makes It Was Just an Accident remarkable is not just its harrowing depiction of the cycle of violence, or what it says against the Iranian regime, or how it was filmed in secret, but its humor and humanity in addition to all of that.
- The costumes and special effects in Planeta bur never rise above classic Doctor Who level, and its grasp on planetary science is questionable at best, but it’s an intriguing glimpse into Soviet-era science fiction filmmaking.
- As with his appearances in other films, Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot character in Mon Oncle usually elicits more bemused smiles from me than full-on laughter, and yet there is a lovely and meticulous craft to Tati’s films, as well as a knowing lampooning of the characters and the society they have built around them.
- There’s a loveliness and real sense of longing in Babette’s Feast.
- Some impressive late-game costume and makeup work notwithstanding, The Boneyard is largely terrible, dull and confused for most of its runtime and a mishmash of tones that are ridiculous when they should be scary, creepy when they should be funny. There’s half a half-baked idea in the mess—and it could have been much worse, given what was obviously a very low budget—but I very much did not enjoy this.
