Last (x) movies you saw (II)

Decided to opt out of election coverage in favor of hyperviolent action trash, so I watched Peter Berg's attempt at an Indonesian slaughterfest, MILE 22. Mark Wahlberg might be the most unlikable he's ever been, which is saying something. Iko Uwais is great, though. It has the flaws of every Peter Berg movie, of course: knuckle-walking politics (a Tr*mp bobblehead gets a close-up) and incoherent editing. The gunfights are better than the hand-to-hand fights, which subject Uwais to cartoonish wire-work and CGI-looking angles.

Out Yonder (Ince, 1919)
Hot Curves (Taurog, 1930)
The Midshipmaid (de Courville, 1932)
Something to Think About (de Mille, 1920)
Come On, Marines! (Hathaway, 1934)
*Foolish Wives (von Stroheim, 1922)
*Sherlock Holmes (Parker, 1922)
*The Patsy (Vidor, 1928)
*The Big Show (McGowan, 1923)
Derby Day (McGowan, 1923)
*Dogs of War! (McGowan, 1923)
Mary, Queen of Tots (McGowan, 1925)
Robin Hood (Swan, 1922)

Something Wild (8.0)
Simple Men (6.5)
Deceived (5.0)
Moonage Daydream (5.5)
Moneyball (7.0)
Citizen Ashe (7.0)
Atlanta (S4 – 7.0)
Up the Junction (7.0)
Get Out (7.0)
Up the Down Staircase (7.0)

Sentimental teacher rating for the last one (took me forever to get around to seeing it).

Confess, Fletch (2022) 2/5. I can't see why people thought this should have had more of a release. In fact, I could barely see anything with my tv on bright setting.
Trust (1990) 4/5. Realized I had not seen a Hal Hartley movie since at least the mid-2000s, now I want to watch/rewatch a bunch of them.
* Michael Clayton (2007) 4.5/5
The Souvenir Pt. II (2021) 4/5
* Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) 4/5
Crimes of the Future (2022) 3.5/5
Elephant (1989) 4.5/5. The original short film about The Troubles that was the template for the Gus Van Sant movie. Was gratifying to see once again that fucker did not have an original idea.
The Shape of Night (1964) 3/5. Crosses the line into gratuitously beating down its female protagonist, but holy God, this has some cinematography. Look it up to see what I mean. Definitely makes me wish I'd seen it in a decent format.

Please Baby Please (2022, Amanda Kramer) 6/10, I guess? It looks amazing, Andrea Riseborough is a lot of fun to watch, nice to see Dana Ashbrook pop up, but...it doesn't go anywhere and has nothing interesting to say once it lays out its themes.

Lake Mungo (2008, Joel Anderson) 8/10. Really sad.

Snuck in a couple more:

Stars at Noon (2022) 2/5. Margaret Qualley is just awful; the male lead was a bore.
* Orlando (1992) 4/5

A Holy Terror (Cummings, 1931)
The Fabelmans (Spielberg, 2022)
The Girl From Paradise (1934)
The Last Dogie (Watson, 1933)
X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Corman, 1963)
The Rampant Age (Rosen, 1930)
*The Cardboard Lover (Leonard, 1928)
*Show People (Vidor, 1928)
Horse Shy (Howe, 1928)
Sky High (Reynolds, 1922)
*Dog Shy (McCarey, 1926)
Paths to Paradise (Badger, 1925)
*The Serenade (Louis, 1916)
The Rent Collector (Taurog & Semon, 1921)
*When Knights Were Cold (Fouce, 1923)
*Detained (Rock & Pembroke, 1924)
Moonlight & Noses (Laurel & Jones, 1925)
Affairs of a Gentleman (Marin, 1934)

I Came By has things in common with Barbarian and Don't Breathe but goes in a different direction than either of those, and becomes a reasonably sharp analysis (from my outsider/DGAF perspective) of British racial and class hierarchies. On Netflix, worth checking out.

I have now decided that I Came By, Barbarian and the remake/reboot of Candyman function as an unofficial trilogy about gentrification, marginalization, and predation. I encourage some booker somewhere to program all three together and bum everybody out.

I can't see why people thought this should have had more of a release. In fact, I could barely see anything with my tv on bright setting.

Was perfectly visible in the cinema!

Young Blood (Rosen, 1932)
Lightning Strikes Twice (Holmes, 1934)
This Reckless Age (Tuttle, 1932)
Saturday's Millions (Sedgwick, 1933)
The Michigan Kid (Willat, 1928)
And the Ship Sails On (Fellini, 1983)
How to Make Movies (Chaplin, 1918)
*Character Studies (Arbuckle?, 1925)
Joyland (Lane, 1929)

Hooptober leftovers:
Mothra vs. Godzilla (Honda, 1964) 6/10
Phase IV (SAUL BASS, 1974) 8/10 also the alternate ending on youtube, well worth watching
Taste of Fear (Hammer studios, 1961) 8/10

Phantom Menace Episode 1 (Lucas, 1999) 2/10 #fatgungan
The Judge (David Dobkin, 2014) 3/10
The Silver Chalice (set designer Rolfe Gerard, 1954) 4/10
Alien from LA (Pyun, 1988) 4/10 MST3K version
Cyborg (Pyun, 1989) 5/10
around 30 minutes of The Sword and the Sorcerer (Pyun, 1982) which features Link's full-health sword and not much else of note
Enola Holmes (Netflix, 2020) 3/10
The Bob's Burgers Movie (Bouchard, Derriman, 2022) 7/10

phantom menace was the only re-watch.

Well, Ilxor, the last movie I saw was Chungking Express, which was on at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square this Sunday. I've always wanted to see it on a big screen and finally I had my chance. It sold out! But I bought my ticket in advance. When I see a film in London I willingly pay extra for the privilege of walking out of the cinema at the end of the film, because for a split-second the people passing-by are watching a cineaste stepping from a magical world into the real world, not just a normal man walking through a door. For a split-second a cloud of awe surrounds me.

I pay for that split-second. The split-second during which pedestrians see me walk out of the cinema. "Who is that man?", they must think to themselves, "that man who has more taste than me, who regularly partakes in culture. Who is he?", and then I am part of the crowd again. Then I am no longer special. Until the next time. People pay a fortune for a momentary thrill, and going to the cinema in London is no different. Entire societies have been built around the possibility that one day a man might be complemented by the man behind the bar, or by his tailor, or by the people who work behind the counter at the record store. The adulation of passers-by. To be a somebody. But it has to be the right film. It has to be the right film. Chungking Express is perfect because it's famous enough that even non-cineastes are vaguely familiar with it, and it's almost universally beloved because it's so likeable. It's so colourful. Film-makers like it because of the "let's put on a show" quality to its production.

There were trailers for She Said, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and I'm sure there was a third film, but I can't remember what it was. There was an advert for Asda with Will Ferrell as an elf. Did they digitally de-age him, or is he just naturally youthful-looking? When did Elf become a Christmas classic? There were also lots of adverts for money-management apps, which may or may not say something about the flavour of the times. Reading the news today I was sad to learn that the computer guy from Die Hard has died. He was smart. He worked in a university. He was some kind of professor. He saw the end. He saw the end.

This being Ilxor I'm sure you're already familiar with Chungking Express. You probably had to write an essay about it when you were at university. In fact you probably like to pooh-pooh it, because that happens with old classic films. It's one of those Criteron Collection-type films that doesn't have any African-American people in it, like Two or Three Things I Know About Her or Med Hondo's Sarraounia, both of which you are also familiar with. And yet I just couldn't sustain any kind of dislike for Chungking Express. It made me want to visit Hong Kong circa 1994, and then I felt sad because 1994 was a long time ago. So very long ago.

I see you, unclosed italic tag. I see you! I have your measure.

(the elf advert is clips from original elf spliced into new asda footage. they've done it before with Casablanca and stuff)

Escape! (Dean, 1930)
City Limits (Nigh, 1934)
Flirting With Danger (Moore, 1934)
Let's Fall in Love (Burton, 1933)
Chills and Fever (Heath, 1930)
Loose Relations (Edwards, 1933)
White Gold (Howard, 1927)
The Raven (Landers, 1935)
TÁR (Fields, 2022)

Neil Young: Harvest Time (2022) 4/5
* Simple Men (1992) 4/5
The Tales of Hoffman (1951) 4/5
Petite Maman (2021) 4/5. Celine Sciamma follow-up to POALOF. I feel like the plot of this movie is being treated as a spoiler when it's a way more compelling reason to watch than the bland description the studio offers. A little girl finds a path near her late grandmother's house that leads her to meet her mother (played by the girl's twin) as a child, as well as her grandmother. Handled very deftly.
Mister Lonely (2007) 4.5/5. Under-appreciated Harmony Korine joint. His movies are already the art that some critics seek to contextualize Jackass, On Cinema, Tim & Eric as.
Moonage Daydream - 3.5/5 (2022) Big "approved by the estate" vibes.

Going to see the Neil Young this afternoon.

The Handmaid’s Tale (S5 – 6.5)
Ice-Breaker: The '72 Summit Series (8.0)
Stevie Nicks: Through the Looking Glass (6.0)
Women Talking (6.0)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: Fifty by Four (6.5)
She Said (7.0)
The Fablemans (6.0)
Bullitt (6.0)
Dirty Harry (6.5)
Deliverance (6.5)

I'm reading the Tarantino book--sometimes insightful, often crudely and poorly written--and trying to see the films that get their own chapter beforehand if I haven't seen it in ages. Dirty Harry (and Eastwood in particular) was better than I remembered, Bullitt a lot slower. (Tarantino mostly writes about McQueen's performance, which is really unusual.) Agree with him about Deliverance: good up to the point where they start planning their alibi, then it loses its way. I did really like the shot at the end that pointed the way to way to at least three horror films I can think of, including most obviously Carrie. Didn't remember that at all.

Bullitt benefits a lot from a big screen, where it feels like a totally different film. I liked Tarantino's aside in the book about how no one can ever recall what the plot is in Bullitt.

Will keep that in mind. Seems like something I'll probably never get a chance to see in a theatre again (don't recall a rep screening in Toronto for decades)...I want to see Madigan again too. Tarantino seems to dismiss it in the Bullitt chapter, then praise it in the Dirty Harry chapter (or vice versa).

Convicted (Cabanne, 1931)
La estación de gasolina (1930 )
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Coogler, 2022)
The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (Gosho, 1931)
The Sky Pilot (Vidor, 1921)
The Yellow Dog Catcher (Blystone, 1919)
*Dogs of War! (McGowan, 1923)

Lucky Boy (Wilson & Taurog, 1929)
What Do Men Want? (Weber, 1921)
Le Noël de la Princesse (1911)
Take a Chance (Brice & Schwab, 1933)
Half-Baked Relations (Lamont, 1934)
For the Love of Fanny (Vernon, 1931)
Three's a Crowd (Langdon, 1927)
Invisible Agent (Marin, 1942)
Le Pupille (Rohrwacher, 2022)
The Green Perfume (Pariser, 2022)

The Fabelmans 9/10
Amsterdam ??(couldn’t finish this disaster)
Emily 5/10
Extreme Prejudice 6/10
Petite Maman 7/10
The Flavor Of Green Tea Over Rice * (9/10)

the main entertainment value of Amsterdam is seeing how demented it gets at the climax

(but I do not recommend persevering)

What I watched of it was like third rate Zulawski trying to do a Wes Anderson. Man oh man…

Autumn 2022

Seraphita's Diary (Frederick Wiseman, 1982)
Blue Collar (Paul Schrader, 1978)
Objectified (Gary Hustwit, 2009)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
Twelve O'Clock High (Henry King, 1949)
Other, Like Me (Marcus Werner Hed, Dan Fox, 2020)
Kovasikajuttu (Jukka Kärkkäinen, Jani-Petteri Passi, 2012)
David Lynch: The Art Life (Rick Barnes, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, Jon Nguyen, 2016)
Tokasikajuttu (Jukka Kärkkäinen, Jani-Petteri Passi, 2017)
The Night Strangler (Dan Curtis, 1973)
*The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
Aspen (Frederick Wiseman, 1991)
Azor (Andreas Fontana, 2021)
Herostratus (Don Levy, 1967)
The Woman In The Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)
The Pink Jungle (Delbert Mann, 1968)
Thunderbolt (Gordon Chan, 1995)
Electra Glide In Blue (James William Guercio, 1973)
Pharos of Chaos (Manfred Blank, Wolf-Eckart Bühler, 1983)
Public Housing (Frederick Wiseman, 1997)

Final shots of Azor among the most unsettling I saw this year - I would have put it on my best of 2021 list had I actually saw it in 2021. Electra Glide In Blue feels like it's constantly hectoring film critics to call it a "unheralded 70s anti-hero masterpiece," most of which is unwarranted. Pharos of Chaos (a.k.a. hanging out with a latter days Sterling Hayden as he fills up his beat-up river barge with reveries) unexpectedly emotional. Finally saw Vertigo. Shrug.

Azor is a brilliant movie, the scene where he is with the priest who is referring to the fascist crackdown as a phase of purification or something like that - just drips with pure evil - well it gave me the chilblains!

Azor is a brilliant movie, the scene where he is with the priest who is referring to the fascist crackdown as a phase of purification or something like that - just drips with pure evil - well it gave me the chilblains!

good grief yes!

Banshee of Inesherin
blooming dark innit.

Making my way through the Bill Weber canon:

The Boat (Keaton/Cline, 1921)
Cops (Keaton/Cline, 1922)
Love me Tonight (Mamoulian, 1932)
Black Girl (Sembene, 1966)
Letter from an Unknown Woman (Ophuls, 1948)
Bugs Bunny (Long-Haired Hare and Rabbit of Seville, Jones, 1949/50)
Rose Hobart (Cornell,1936)
In the Street (Agee, Levitt, 1948)

Only took a break to watch:

Possession (Zulawski, 1981)

Vicious Lips 6/10
Bullitt 6/10
RRR 9/10
Everything Everywhere all at once 9/10
Avatar 2 6/10
Spirited 5/10
Something from Tiffany's 4/10

Merry 10mas

I tried Everything Everywhere All At Once last week but was falling asleep throughout it. Had done the same to Guillermo del Toro's Pinnochio the night before for a great chunk.
So may have to rewatch both before long.

Caught most of Django the Tarantino one on tv too. Pretty bloody.

I watched EEAAO with my mom over two days and she fell asleep both times. I was riveted.

Let's Go Native (McCarey, 1930)
Sweethearts on Parade (Neilan, 1930)
*Hogfather (Jean, 2006)
The Wheel of Life (Schertzinger, 1929)
Wild Beauty (MacRae, 1927)
The Green Goddess (Olcott, 1923)
The Menu (Mylod, 2022)
*The Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1934)
Glass Onion (Johnson, 2022)

Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) 3/5. Kind of a novel Bresson (he tries his hand at romance here, sorta), but also one of his least compelling.
* The Dead (1987) 5/5
White Christmas (1954) n/a - didn't finish
Glass Onion 4/5
The Squeeze (1977) gritty, Get Carter-like flick directed by Michael Apted, with Stacy Keach trying on an ill-fitting British accent
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) 4/5
* Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) 3.5/5 the production design will never get old, but I still think trying to fit in everything from the novel was a mistake
The Far Country (1954) 3.5/5

Short:
Le Pupille (2022) 4/5

Other:
The Kingdom: Exodus (2022) 3.5/5 - Lars Von Trier in extremely self-referential "ain't I a stinker" mode, with the added knowledge that he is pretty clearly at or near the end of the road. Better than series 2.

Sorry, The Squeeze gets 3.5.

Last (x) Christmas movies you saw:

Le Pupille (Rohrwacher, 2022) 7/10
The Holiday Sitter (Liebert, 2022) 4/10

Neil Young: Harvest Time (7.5)
The Getaway (Peckinpah - 6.0)
The Outfit (7.0)
Rolling Thunder (7.0)
Sisters (De Palma - 6.0)
Madigan (6.5)
White Christmas (6.5)
Paradise Alley (4.0)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (4.0)
Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes (7.0)

Tried to watch “Paradise Alley” the other night as well and made it up to the arm wrestling. Stallone’s always gonna be an acquired taste for me. Same for Rian Johnson’s idea of what’s funny. “Glass Onion“ was irritating.
The fact it gets rated over a Bresson upthread is like some Sign Of The Apocalypse. Janelle Monae is excellent, though.

I’ve seen almost all the other Bresson features plus read Notes on the Cinematographer and I would place them all above Glass Onion, does the restore order to the universe?

Down with the King has some nice elements (Gibbs is fun if a little one note, the scenery is pretty, there's a solid story in there somewhere) but a bit too aimless to really recommend

Broker is decidedly minor Kore-eda, which means it's better than most but is a bit too noticeably "his sort of film". Song Kang-Ho is great.

xpost Yes, for now!

I plan on streaming Four Nights of a Dreamer in the next day or two but it does seem like it's basically his least-regarded of the entire run from A Man Escaped on.

Fire of Love had amazing footage but nothing holding it up beyond some vague visual Wes Anderson style. Miranda July's voice should be outlawed.

I finally got around to seeing the OTHER highly touted, visually innovative fantasy featuring the intergenerational conflict in an asian-(north)american family and i have to say that Turning Red was much more enjoyable than Everything Everywhere.

The Barbershop (2002) was our Christmas movie this year. Hilarious and charming of course.

His Woman (Sloman, 1931)
Men Are Such Fools (Nigh, 1932)
The Penal Code (Melford, 1932)
The Cheerful Fraud (Seiter, 1926)
*All Night Long (Edwards, 1924)
Shanghaied Lovers (Del Ruth, 1924)
The Way to Love (Taurog, 1933)

I plan on streaming Four Nights of a Dreamer in the next day or two but it does seem like it's basically his least-regarded of the entire run from A Man Escaped on.

― عباس کیارستمی (Eric H.), Wednesday, December 28, 2022 10:31 AM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bresson and comedy is an uncommon connection (Affairs Publiques (1934) is good though derivative of Tati and Vigo). I left the theater asking myself "Is 'wanker' a sexual orientation?"

Gonna try to get back into watching movies again this year.

The African Desperate was worth the watch as a microbudget Art School Confidential... NOW! through the eyes of a contemporary fine arts gallerist but I'd temper expectations to "first film" and "proof of concept" if you wanna give it a go.

A whole bunch of stuff popped up on HBO Max last night. I watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which I had heard was kinda good even though it was a failed attempt to big-screen reboot a TV series nobody gave a shit about anymore by the time it came out. And it was kinda good. Henry Cavill's essential dickishness was well used, Armie Hammer was a solid glowering antagonist and the fact that he's even bigger than Cavill (which I didn't realize) was important. Alicia Vikander was a placeholder, but when is she not? There were some good chase scenes and a few decent jokes. All in all, I don't regret watching it but the final scene, which promises/begs the studio for a sequel, feels lame as hell in retrospect.

The Cathedral (D'Ambrose, 2022) 7/10
Armageddon Time (Gray, 2022) 8/10
After Yang (Kogonada, 2022) 6/10
Glass Onion (Johnson, 2022) 6/10
The Eternal Daughter (Hogg, 2022) 8/10
Saint Omer (Diop, 2022) 9/10
The Whale (Aronofsky, 2022) 2/10
White Noise (Baumbach, 2022) 4/10
* The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles, 1942) 9/10