what was the last movie you watched?

[Capt. Factorial]

I got an alert that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is going off Netflix at the end of the year- I had no idea what it was about or who was in it but turned it on for the heck of it. Good flick - not what I expected at all. I really liked Carey and Winslet in these roles. Everyone did well, but especially those two.

That's a great, great film. Love it. I'm typically not a big fan of Carrey but he was basically perfect for that role.

For me Eternal Sunshine is kind of the pinnacle of the Charlie Kaufman screenplay arc. He seems to always come back to stubborn persistence in the face of defeat in a lot of his work, but I don't think he ever did it better than that final beach scene where the last bits of Clementine are slipping away from Joel.

 

[Warhawk]

Caught Land of Bad on Netflix over the past couple days while I was in between stuff for work or around the house. Actually, it's not a bad flick. Somewhat predictable in spots (relative newbie drone pilot sent in with veteran special forces into a hostile area, etc.), but it is well acted and despite a few plot holes here and there I really enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Sluggah]

Caught Land of Bad on Netflix over the past couple days while I was in between stuff for work or around the house. Actually, it's not a bad flick. Somewhat predictable in spots (relative newbie drone pilot sent in with veteran special forces into a hostile area, etc.), but it is well acted and despite a few plot holes here and there I really enjoyed it for what it was.

Caught this on a plane a month ago; hadn’t even heard of it. Surprised the hell outa me how much I enjoyed it.

 

[Warhawk]

My wife and I watched Back in Action last night on Netflix - one of those funny action flicks that doesn't take itself too seriously. Some funny stuff in there about being GenX - type parents of a couple of kids. Lots of shooting that shouldn't miss but does, if you get my drift. Some shades of True Lies (or similar) but not nearly as good. Go into it with the right mindset and it's decent for entertainment.

 

[Löwenherz]

Strap in everyone. I saw some movies and I have thoughts. Spoiler tags for length, not to avoid revealing plot points.

Binge session of female-led, female-centric, or matriarchy-themed films, which wasn’t at all the plan, but just kinda worked out that way, and is a nice reverse-chaser to the incoming testosterone-infusion of Super Bowl weekend.

And pleasantly, these all ranked somewhere between good to the fabled transcendent. Also all 5 were written by the director, which often works to certify the fidelity of the vision.

Aftersun was on Netflix, but the rest were all on Kanopy - I might need to start getting royalties from that service.

Aftersun (2022)

Spoiler

Went in rather blind, but buckled in for some artistic flair and zealous cinematography tipped off by the A24 branding at the top.

And I certainly got that with color-splashed and invitingly tranquil settings laced-with this vaguely menacing aura of grime haunting the margins similar to The Florida Project (another member of team A24), and a story centered on a woman trying to connect with and understand her lost father through hazy memories and home videos of a vacation she took with him 20 years earlier.

There is a Roma vibe seemingly employing the camera as a “ghost moving backward through time” (to quote Cuaron) frequently showing entire scenes in the reflection of TV screens, mirrors, pool water or sometimes focusing on negative space while action occurs at the edge or even entirely out of view.

A little gimmicky, but when coupled with the sparse and naturalistically awkward dialogue between divorced father and pre-teen daughter desperately wanting to bond without entirely knowing how, it all works to effectively infuse the narrative with a delightfully sweetsour melancholy of a longing to revisit and repair the past.

And you feel that melancholy right down to your bones, in the dream-like quality of the plotting and editing almost creating a non-sequitor sequencing of events, in the inter-splicing of scenes with the video tape the daughter is pouring over in the nearly wordless cuts to the future, in the pitch perfect soundtrack of licensed music curated to add subtle context to the unspoken angst filling that negative space.

Honestly, this movie really sneaks up on you. Immediately after it finished I thought writer / director Charlotte Wells (in her first feature length film!) had crafted an interesting and mostly effective semi-autobiographical exploration of absence within at least a similar realm as Lost in Translation.

After dwelling on it a little further a day later, I wanted to hug my own daughter tight and tell her I love her, and promise to fight for her always and forever no matter what demons I must conquer to do so

… while sobbing.

Subtly powerful this one.

Chalk up another win to the A24 cult. At this point, they’ve got more fanatical followers than Cthulhu.

Sex and Lucia (2001)

Spoiler

I wanted to like this just a bit more than I did.

Early on was picking up exciting late 90s / early 00s kinetic-editing akin to Run Lola Run along with Y Tu Mama Tambien vibes setting the stage for our titular Lucia to heal a heartbreak with a hard R romp around a sun-soaked island paradise.

But the pace slows down, the zentastic island adventure becomes little more than a framing device, and the narrative dwells heavily on the backstory establishing the intersecting telenovela-style relationships of the primary and secondary characters, which you legitimately could need a face map with conspiracy theory red strings to keep track of all the connections.

The tragedy at the center of the film that unravels all these people's lives is nothing short of horrendous, and I’m not sure I was exactly down for it immediately following Aftersun. Also, beware: this one is rather sexually explicit as the title would suggest … but at least it’s in an artistic way, you can say with confidence when a family member inevitably walks in mid-Sex and Lucia.

The Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Spoiler

Opens with a celebrity actor’s assistant juggling phone calls from lawyers, publicists, and journalists while trying to maintain balance on a rattling train, and even through that jarringly chaotic introduction, I still found it necessary to say aloud “Wow, she’s really wooden.”

Looked up the actor only to cringe with an audible groan discovering it was Kristen Stewart less than 2 years removed from the Twilight saga.

But you know what, she more than holds her own and becomes the beating heart of the story playing opposite basically a living legend in Juliette Binochet of Three Colors: Blue and The English Patient for whom this role was literally written.

And the relationship between the two women is the central theme and driving force of the entire film. Quite actually, the narrative drags and feels diminished whenever the two aren’t sharing the screen. The entire first act only has Stewart fluttering around in the periphery, instead taking precious time developing a conflict between Binochet’s character and a chauvinistic pompous male actor who completely disappears from the film before the titular Sils Maria even makes an appearance.

The third main is Chloe Grace Moretz as the modern starlet with enormous talent, but a bad attitude and apparent PR problem. That is until you realize she is simply a master manipulator and her bad behavior is actually strategy to maintain attention in the always on media age. She’s more of an idea than an actual presence in the film despite my hope she would become a more fleshed out complex character than simply a standard cardboard cutout foil.

Some wasted opportunities and not as tightly crafted as I would have expected, but Binochet and Stewert earn the price of admission (which for me, was free) as the two debate the art of acting, femininity, power dynamics, ageism, self-marketing and branding in the Internet age, even the value of super hero movies.

If the film was trimmed to just these two running lines and debating art in the house, discussing philosophy during mountain hikes, and critiquing movies while playfully fiddling with their oversized 3D glasses, I think that would be enough. Otherwise, gets a bit dragged down by the bloat.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Spoiler

This film is plainly magnificent.

18th century female artist is commissioned to paint in secret the portrait of a bride-to-be who refuses to sit for sessions in protest of her arranged marriage. So the artist poses as a walking companion, and attempts to memorize her subject during their seaside walks.

That’s it. That’s the entire initiating event and I cannot shower this with enough accolades.
Rather than simply dump a checklist of glowing praise cliches and calling it a transcendent masterpiece, I want to explore a specific element; something essential, but elusive:

Mise-en-scéne

Because this movie is an absolute masterclass for it. Writer/director Céline Sciamma mise-en’d the **** out of every one of these scènes.

Sounds exotic, but just means the arrangement of everything in the frame AND the general vibe that communicates to the audience. It’s this second part that’s key, because how exactly do you really lock down a “vibe” for the audience?

Sciamma does it with exquisite natural lighting, meticulous blocking, unparalleled foley work, and silence.

Yes, silence.

She allows the audience to dwell in the quiet and absorb the atmosphere of each moment in a way I begged Days of Heaven to do.

Night interiors set to candlelight evoke a Caravaggio painting. Strictly diegetic sounds enrich scenes with the subtle intimacy of crackles from a hearth or simmering bubble of a cooking cauldron. Juxtaposition to the feral violence of crashing waves and whipping winds of the ethereal coastal landscapes. Interspersed hushed scratches of Marianne’s sketching and soft swish of her brush on canvas.

It embraces a similar “every frame a painting” cinematographic philosophy as Barry Lyndon, but far less overt and ostentatious. More subdued, subtle, naturalistic, raw; Not a single golden hour shot to be found. Simply a precise use of color and positioning to maximize the visual impact. And it is all in service of accentuating the intimacy and passion at the heart of the narrative.

And that’s only a single element of dozens from this movie that still have me buzzing:

- Héloïse’s introduction is practically mystical, thrilling, and a perfect payoff to every enigmatic narrative breadcrumb to that point.

- Héloïse’s namesake is a 12th century philosopher whose work is the foundation of courtly love and the Bildungsroman literary genre.

- In an era of average shot length being less than 3 seconds, Sciamma allows shots to hold for minutes at a time. The final shot of the film is more than 2 minutes and it is glorious.

- The complete lack of a soundtrack is bold, and effectively elevates the only two times music is used: A melodic chanting of women at the midway point that becomes shockingly mesmerizing and Vivaldi’s Summer that is pivotal for the end sequence.

- The women’s discussion and dissection of the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice and not only how its infused and explored within the narrative, but it’s a meta commentary on the importance of discussion and dissection in the experience of art.

It’s this last point that inspired me to get back on the wagon of writing film critiques in this space. Passively watching films as entertainment is all good and fine, but I’ve always found this particularly enriching. And my enthusiasm for this movie has super motivated me to spread the joy.

Only time I’ve ever teared up by being shown a page number.

As an aside, what a year 2019 turned out to be for film. Given all the fawning I’ve just done, confidently declaring this already among my favorite movies of all time, I still think Parasite deserves the best picture.

But whereas at the time I thought Parasite won that title in a runaway, now it’s excruciatingly close.

Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Spoiler

Writer/director Ruben Ostland must absolutely hate Below Deck.

Or love it.

Could go either way really. Regardless he certainly has an intimate knowledge of the Bravo reality show because the middle act of this reads as an episode of Below Deck twisted to unleash the wrath of the sea god’s great vengeance and furious anger upon the obscenely rude and wealthy.

And I admit, during the torrid raunch of sick and disgust set to a soundtrack of death metal, I laughed. Laughed hard actually. Not just a chuckle, but a full on belly laugh. Yet even in saying that, I couldn’t honestly answer if that came from the schadenfreude of seeing the wretched rich get their comeuppance, or admiring the pure audacity of Ostland using low brow gross out frat bro humor as a tool in his presumably serious critique of capitalism.

Yes, this is a set of 3 absurdist eat the rich revenge fantasies tied together with only the thinnest of narrative threads.

Act 1: Male model Carl and his model-influencer girlfriend Yaya have a heated argument for the length of a night about the unfair gendered societal expectations of paying the bill on a dinner date long enough for you to start asking “wait, wasn’t there supposed to be a boat in this?”

Act 2: Below Deck section in which crew caters to every ridiculous whim of the rich, even when demanding the crew and kitchen staff waste an hour to “swim freely in the ocean” compromises the quality and safety of their meal leading to an epidemic of “sea sickness” all while the Marxist captain played by Woody Harrelson in what amounts to an extended cameo drunkenly spouts communist propaganda from the PA and you start asking “wait, wasn’t Carl and Yaya’s transactional relationship supposed to be a focal point of this?”

Act 3: Select passengers and crew wind up ship wrecked on an island in a Lord of the Flies parody in which the boat’s toilet cleaner becomes chief of a matriarchal society because she’s the only one on an island of industrialists, investors, and influencers who can catch fish and make a fire and you start asking “wait, is Carl really going to abandon Yaya to become a himbo for fish?”

Overall, it’s a fun romp, cathartic, and cleverly- crafted if not terribly insightful; the cast puts in entertaining performances for what largely amount to cardboard cutout caricatures;
and it’s entirely too long for the sophomoric point it’s trying to make which is “People are all just human, and their perceived societal importance and value is fluid given circumstances.”

And to illustrate people are human, here’s a diarrhea-flooded luxury yacht with a billionaire rolling around in her own sick.

***must acknowledge the shocking passing of Charlbi Dean Kriek who played Yaya. She showed real star potential and we are all worse off for her loss.

 

[Löwenherz]

Added another classic to my watched list, following up on a @Capt. Factorial recommendation from years ago.

Limelight (1952)

This is how dedicated I was to finally make good on a promise to the Cap to see this movie. Although this is filmed in English, the Kanopy version I watched was dubbed into German, and I couldn’t figure out how to switch it. So I watched an English film, dubbed into German, with English subtitles.

Obviously, dampens my ability to evaluate the performances. But I got the gist. And all the songs were in English.

The story is eerily semi-autobiographical as Charlie Chaplin plays a famous comedian past his prime and derided by the public as old fashioned and out-of-touch. Unlike Chaplin (but reportedly inline with his father) the comedian turns to alcohol. While on a bender, he stops the suicide of a struggling young ballerina, and becomes something of a mentor to her.

The film is touching, sentimental, nostalgic, tragic but overall, to put simply, kind, especially against the backdrop of real world censorship and repudiation of Chaplin for McCarthy Era accusations of being a communist. Chaplin’s character has a very earnest and selfless drive to see his protege succeed and thrive. Imagine A Star is Born with an ending that I wouldn’t be surprised to learn inspired Aronofsky’s The Wrestler / Black Swan.

Unfortunately the film didn’t fully land with me. Perhaps it was the German dubbing, but I found the ballerina to be overly theatrical and “hysterical” to the point of being annoying, and her devotion to Chaplin borders on uncomfortably obsessive. Meanwhile Chaplin’s character is supposed to be outdated, and there are a few flashbacks to his old-fashioned vaudevillian performances that simply don’t land with the audience anymore. But when he gets his groove back and plays a three act set that brings the house down for one last swan song performance … I can’t really tell a difference of what’s changed or why the audience suddenly loves him again.

Regardless, Chaplin toward the end of his career may not have been able to make an especially impactful film like City Lights, Modern Times, or The Great Dictator, but he certainly could make a sweet and interestingly melancholy one.

Shame blind hatred and political agendas got in the way of something so kind.