Talk to Me

2022 ‧ Horror ‧ 95m

It is probably a tale as old as time: teenagers doing stupid stuff. Always a good premise for a horror film. A relatable element in the otherwise unreal situation. Danny and Michael Phillipou’s debut plays with this trope to modest success.

The teens’ aforementioned “stupid stuff” here involves holding an embalmed hand and saying the titular phrase. The holder then sees a deceased person only they can see. The next step is to say “I let you in” and the deceased possesses the holder until the bond with the hand is broken. Don’t go more than 90 seconds, bad things happen if you do that. Naturally, teens film themselves doing this at parties and of course someone breaks the 90 second rule. The concept has a creepypasta/”Bloody Mary” vibe that serves the story well. Talk to Me has a bit more depth than the average internet post.

Sophie Wilde plays Mia, who lost her mother to suicide 2 years prior. She has made a second family with Jade and her brother Riley. They go to a party one night and Mia has a round with the hand, but she stays with it a little longer than 90 seconds. She soon finds herself seeing things and compelled to do the ritual again. This feels reminiscent of Flatliners, but it works for this story as well. During another party with the hand one of her friends has a pretty traumatic experience and then the horror starts in earnest.

The filmmakers seem to be exploring how one copes with grief. There are several references to Mia’s past drug use, and her denying that she is currently using. It might not be the most subtle connection, but the Phillipou’s do a fair job of not making it heavy-handed. Grief has been something horror films have been tackling a lot in the last decade. Talk to Me is not quite up to The Babadook or Ari Aster’s films, but it is on par with perhaps We Are Still Here. It does offer a pretty fascinating form of existential dread, there is a quick vision of the ethereal plane that rivals Event Horizon’s, but it might be more philosophical than overt. More likely to give you chills thinking about the implications later than while watching. This speaks to the film’s staying power.

It is always nice to see R-rated, non-franchise horror. Not that this couldn’t be the beginning of a franchise, but there isn’t much else to really explore after this outing that would not quickly become trite. Heaven help us if some exec wants to explore the origin of the embalmed hand.

 It doesn’t break new ground really, but that doesn’t mean Talk to Me isn’t effective. It is a good, somewhat scary, time at the movies.

Grade: C+/B-

~Andrew

Lynch/Oz

2022 ‧ Documentary ‧ 108m

Alexandre O. Philippe has made a name for himself in film documentaries. 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene, about the famous scene in Psycho, is probably his most well known. His work isn’t just about film itself, but also its cultural and personal impact. Lynch/Oz examines the influence of Victor Fleming’s 1939 masterwork The Wizard of Oz on the films of cult director David Lynch, and to us all.

The documentary is presented in six sections, each narrated by people in the film industry. Film critic Amy Nicholson opens the discussion, and directors take up the other five sections. Nicholson puts forth that there are two archetypal American films that have the most profound influence: The Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life. Two films with similar story beats that flopped initially, but found new life on television. Oz, according to Nicholson, might be America’s quintessential fairy tale and an illuminating conduit into understanding the work of David Lynch. There are a lot of red shoes and curtains in his films after all.

The additional segments dive deeper and deeper into this idea. Room 237 director Rodney Ascher speaks of the Kansas dynamic in Lynch’s Lumberton. John Waters speaks at length of his kinship with the director as a fellow cult movie weirdo, but also about how Oz is so inspiring. Karyn Kusama, director of cult favorite Jennifer’s Body, offers a deep analysis of Oz and Mulholland Dr. Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, known as Moorhead and Benson (Spring, The Endless), bring up how the Campbell myth in Oz might be the most influential use of said myth as well delving into concept of “Judy” in Twin Peaks. The film ends rather interestingly with David Lowery talking about children growing up into adults and how we understand the world. Lowery and Lynch have a Disney connection that colors his segment.

The fact that Janus films distributed this all but confirms Phillipe’s doc is destined to be a special feature on future 4K release from the Criterion Collection. Lynch/Oz is less a typical documentary and more a collection of visual essays. This is probably the film’s biggest flaw. We never see the contributors, we just hear their voices over various film clips. Though expertly done, it at times feels like one is watching a series of Youtube videos. One could watch each section separately, but to Phillippe’s credit they do seem to build upon one another or at least create a thematic throughline. Redundancy is avoided. The filmmakers resist the temptation to speak at length of all the Oz references in Wild at Heart, but somehow no one mentions that the band who scored Dune is named Toto.

Yes, Lynch/Oz is very much a movie for film nerds to really nerd out on. Some will find that boring or insufferable, and that is understandable. However, Phillipee brings to the discussion an interesting look at how art works and how it influences not just one person but also how it gets into cultural zeitgeist. It is unlikely someone without much interest in film studies would want to give Lynch/Oz a watch, but even those with a passing interest will find something in Phillipee’s documentary. It posits questions and answers, but still leaves that lovely romantic and dark mystery of Lynch’s work. Although Oz might offer a way to understand Lynch’s work, it does not explain it.

Lynch/Oz is a fascinating look at how a seminal work can affect not just one filmmaker but all of us. It is hard to recommend to the uninitiated, one will want a good understanding of Lynch’s work to fully appreciate the film.

Grade: B-

~Andrew

You Hurt My Feelings

2023 ‧ Comedy/Drama ‧ 93m

The Sundance comedy-drama You Hurt My Feelings opens wide as the summer blockbuster season descends upon us. Written and directed by Nicole Holofcener, the film offers an antidote to the bombast and grandiosity. Not that those are bad traits, but sometimes a quiet indie film is needed to start off the sunny season.

Beth, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is a writer trying to publish a new book. Her first novel after making a name for herself with a memoir. She is married to currently “off-his-game” therapist Don, played by Tobias Menzies. They are they perfect couple. They share their food and even ice cream cones, much to the chagrin of their grown son Elliott, played by Owen Teague. They are so perfect, at one point Elliott tells them he feels like a third wheel as their son. The film may spend more time than it needs establishing the status quo with these characters before the conflict arises. While on an outing with her sister Sarah, played by Michaela Watkins, they find their husbands talking while shopping for socks. Don is lamenting to his brother-in-law Mark, Arian Moayed, that he does not like Beth’s novel and is tired of reading the various drafts. Beth overhears this, and thus the titular feelings are hurt. Beth feels betrayed, and it affects their relationship. Holofcener here very much succeeds in having a low-stakes issue, become a high-stakes problem.

The performances feel authentic, not just because the actors know what they are doing, but also Holofcener’s script. Though Beth and Don are the main focus, her sister Sarah and her husband Mark offer a different predicament. Mark is a struggling actor, and Sarah is a frustrated interior designer. All the couples are dealing with the ennui and malaise that comes with getting older. Holofcener often juxtaposes the characters with Don’s therapy clients. We are treated to several couples’ therapy scenes with Carolyn and Jonathan, played by real life marred couple Amber Tamblyn and David Cross. These interactions add a foil to our main characters, showing a wider spectrum of marital issues. The film might not have the biggest sense of conflict, but that is not the point of this story. Most marriages are not filled with big dramatic fights, but usually small sad tiffs and arguments. Which can lead to bigger issues, and Holofcener shows that with Don’s clients.

One will likely think of Holofcener’s other films, particularly Friends with Money. Her films often deal with the beautifully mundane day-to-days of marriage and family. Michaela Watkins, who is great as Sarah, does seem to be in a Katherine Keener role in the director’s other movies. Somewhat muddled at first, the film seems to finally gel toward the final act. In hindsight that makes a lot of sense with what the characters are going through but can be frustrating in the moment. In that sense, it grows on the viewer, giving them something to process. Minor nitpick, which may turn off some viewers from watching, the title is not great. It fits the film and the themes, but it comes up somewhat incongruous for a film about adults and adult problems. Though perhaps there might be a comment on how supposedly adult behavior always has a root in small things.

There are too few films about adults in this day and age, and You Hurt My Feelings a welcome entry.

Grade: B

Enys Men

2022 ‧ Experimental/Folk Horror ‧ 91m

Mark Jenkin, an independent filmmaker from Cornwall, opened Enys Men at Cannes last year with a US release last month. The film is now available on demand.

Set in 1973, a volunteer, played by Mary Woodvine, stays on a remote Cornish island. Everyday she does a series of tasks, noting temperature, and changes of plant life. She drops a rock into a shaft by a ruined lighthouse, listening to it fall. We see this routine play out a number of times, one can’t help but think of Sisyphus with her daily rock drop. She becomes obsessed with some flowers growing on the cliffside, and the lichen growing near. It isn’t a film with a lot of action, but it has a mood and an atmosphere that is effective and dread inducing. The viewer may be left with questions about ghosts, memories, and doppelgangers.

Shot on 16mm, Jenkin nails the early 70s aesthetic and feel. One could almost believe it’s a recently discovered “lost” film from that era. Like we are watching something meant to be forgotten. This adds to the tension and surreality. The color palette, with Woodvine’s reoccurring red jacket, is rich and saturated. Heightening the otherworldliness of the island. At 91 minutes, the film has just enough time to get under your skin without overstaying its welcome.

The film has some subtle and superficial influences. Bergman’s Persona comes to mind, as well as The Shining and Don’t Look Now. At risk of a mild spoiler, it would be interesting to see the Creepshow segment "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" as “a short before the feature” with Enys Men.

The mood and atmosphere will be hypnotic to some, while others may find it tiresome. Though there is something to appreciate in what Jenkins is trying out, some audiences will likely get frustrated. Another experimental horror film from this year, Skinamarink¸ similarly tried audiences’ patience. If you got something out of that film, you are more than likely to get something out of Enys Men. As a narrative, it might feel lacking. As an experiment in subdued folk horror, it works.

Grade: C+/B-

Classic Review: The Last of Sheila

1973 ‧ Mystery ‧ 120m

Cinephiles are always on the hunt for a “hidden gem.” A little known or discussed film that strikes a chord with the viewer. For whatever reason, The Last of Sheila isn’t talked about much. What dug it out of the content abyss was Rian Johnson’s one-two punches of Glass Onion and Poker Face. Johnson mentioned it as a film that influenced his murder mystery projects. That was enough for me to check it out, but during the opening credits “Written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins” came up and I thought: “Mr. Broadway AND Norman Bates wrote this?” I was immediately game for whatever Last of Sheila was going to throw me.

The film opens outside a party where gossip columnist Shelia, Yvonne Romain, is having an argument with Clinton Greene, played by James Coburn. Shelia storms off and is promptly hit by a car in a hit-and-run accident. Cut to a year later and Greene, a film producer, is assembling a reunion of people who were at the party where Shelia died. Everyone is connected with the business in some way. Raquel Walsh plays actress Alice Wood, whose career seems to be slumping at the moment. Her husband/manager Anthony Wood, played by young Ian McShane. Dyan Cannon is Christine, a talent agent. Richard Bejamin, noted 70s "that guy," plays screenwriter Tom Parkman. Joan Hackett plays his wife, Lee, and James Mason is film director Phillip Dexter. They are all invited onto Greene’s yacht, aptly named Sheila, for a vacation and a intricate multi-day parlor game of sorts. A classic mystery premise where surely nothing will go wrong.

Without going too heavy into the details, Greene lets on that he knows who killed Sheila and has devised a way to get the truth out. Utilizing Sheila’s gossip knowledge, he gives each guest a “secret” on a card that they are supposed to keep from the others. Each night they will go to a location and solve a small game to reveal someone’s secret. The first night goes off well, the second night not so much. As expected of whodunits infighting and suspicions arise, but in subversive and fresh ways. To get into specifics would probably hurt the viewing. The film was made and takes place in the early 1970s, but the way Sondheim and Perkins craft the mystery and storytelling one could easily have it take place today and not need to change much. Director Herbert Ross knows exactly how much information to give the audience and that is a crucial ingredient to Last of Sheila’s mystery.

The performances are key here. James Coburn is fabulously sleezy as Greene, but who really shine are Mason and Benjamin. The two take on the “detective” role for the guests and for the audience. I couldn’t help but feel that they were Sondheim and Perkins stand-ins. Raquel Walsh seems perhaps underused, but when reconsidering a 1973 context, it is probably a choice the filmmakers deliberately made. It’s easy to see how Dyan Cannon’s performance would be an influence on Kate Hudson’s in Glass Onion.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of The Last of Sheila, check your area revival cinemas to see if it will be playing.

Grade: B+

~Andrew

Cocaine Bear

2023 ‧ Comedy/Action/Adventure/Horror/WTF ‧ 95m

The third film by Elizabeth Banks offers the audience exactly what the title claims, a Cocaine Bear.

A horror-tinged adventure film with a high concept inspired by the death of Andrew C. Thornton in 1985. Thornton was found with 35 kilos of cocaine on his person having died after jumping out of an airplane. Investigators determined that numerous bags of cocaine were thrown out and accidently strewn about the Georgia wilderness, as part of an elaborate distribution plan. This was confirmed a couple months later when a dead black bear with several grams of the narcotic in its system was found. You can see this bear, stuffed and nicknamed Pablo Escobear, in Lexington, KY.

This article may already be taking things too seriously. Andrew Thornton and the bear are the only true elements of the film’s story. Banks and writer Jimmy Warden give us a few parallel storylines around the idea of a coked-out bear wreaking havoc. Two drug dealers, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich, head into the woods in search of the product on orders from their boss, played by the late Ray Liotta. Isiah Whitlock Jr plays a detective pursuing Liotta, who determines that he must be involved with Thornton. Keri Russell plays a mother searching for her daughter with her daughter’s friend. There are other characters who mostly serve the slasher-esque role of being bear bait.

A gory film about a bear attacking and killing people in the woods sounds like a horror story, and one could pretend the bear is replacing Jason in a Friday the 13th entry, but it’s a comedy. A bonkers black comedy, no less. Not exactly In Bruges type humor, but something akin to Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Jackson and Ehrenreich have good buddy chemistry, as does Russell and Christian Convery. Liotta gives off a comic intensity that is already missed.

Cocaine Bear is the kind of movie that knows what it is and generally succeeds in what it wants to do. It may have one plotline too many, which drags the last act a little, but it is funny and features some solid horror/action sequences. Is it a “good” movie? That depends on what you look for in a movie. For the most part it achieves its goals, which is saying something. It is entertaining and fun with a crowd. Hard to say if it could become a “cult classic,” but it would play well at midnight. Fans of Lake Placid and Piranha will find a lot to like here. It’s the kind of flick you are either going to be into the concept or not. I was.

Grade: C+/B-

~Andrew

Sundance Review: Cat Person

Drama/Black Comedy ‧ 120m

Susanna Fogel adapts Kristen Roupenian’s Cat Person, starring Emilia Jones and Nicholas Braun. The viral New Yorker story struck a chord with many readers back in 2017, calling it a great representation of modern dating. The fact that it took 6 years to get adapted is somewhat surprising. Director Fogel, co-writer of Booksmart, adds a lighter tone to the story to moderate success.

Margot (Jones) is a college sophomore who works at an art house cinema. She meets Robert (Braun), commenting on his purchase of Red Vines. He is noticeably older than her and after a couple of exchanges, he asks for her number. Surprising herself, she gives it to him. Typically this would be a meet-cute, but not in this film. Margot finds herself both attracted to him, but also hesitant. Things do not go particularly well for them, to put it simply. Though there are moments that toe the line of horror, this film never quite goes that direction. Instead it embraces the awkward and embrassasing aspects of dating and social expectations.

The film is quite faithful to Roupenian’s story, but there are a few additions. Michelle Ashford adapted the script and adds a good amount of humor, nuance, and a variety of tone. Margot’s fellow students are more fleshed out and Geraldine Viswanathan gives a great performance as Margot’s supportive but tough roommate. Most of the changes make sense for a film, though Ashford might have made Robert dorkier to a fault. In the New Yorker piece Robert takes Margot to a holocaust film, but in the film he takes her to The Empire Strikes Back. That’s a pretty big difference in characterization and hurts some of the subtlety. Additionally, the film continues well after Roupenian’s ending. Which adds a little more nuance perhaps, but might lessen the impact.

Fogel’s Cat Person is about miscommunication as well as the unfair expectations and dangers women experience, but also tries to be empathetic. The film has a blend of tones that might not balance out for some viewers. It comes off a little messy, but an on purpose kind of messy. The film is by no means light, but one wonders if it would be stronger were it darker. Fogel’s film is funny, albeit awkward, but still has the bite that Roupenian’s story had. Fans of the story will probably find a lot to like in this adaptation, but many will say the added ending misses the point of the original text. Fogel and Ashford get the point, they just want to say a little more.

Grade: B-

2022 in Review

Most folks write up their year end reviews focusing on just films released that year, but I think it’s important to also highlight films that are a little older that I finally got around to watching. There are so many movies that it’s a shame to only focus on the new. Here are some films I watched this year that left an impression. I’m putting them into 3 categories: 2022 releases, New Discoveries, and Skeletons. Skeletons being movies I’m a little embarrassed about having not seen already.

2022 Releases

I wrote up reviews on Nope and Everything Everywhere All at Once so I won’t go deep into them here (click the titles for the reviews). Those have certainly made my top films of the year, but here are a few more:

Barbarian

 I’m always going to try and support R rated non-franchise horror, but this one really knocked it out of the park for me. The story of some Air BnBers discovering something “extra” about their rental is quite the thrill ride. Made by an internet comedian, I have to admit, this film really knows how to work with tension and release.

Decision to Leave

A Korean crime romance from the director of Oldboy. A detective investigates a man’s death and develops quite the crush on his widow. She gets cleared and they part ways, but they meet again down the line. And another death happens. Intriguing and quite unique, I kept “premaking” it in my mind as a 40s film noir.

Turning Red

I was a little concerned it would be Pixar’s Teen Wolf. I mean, there is some similarities there but there’s a little bit of Ginger Snaps and a pinch of kaiju too. Mei Mei discovers she has fallen to a familial curse of turning into a red panda whenever she feels emotional. There are themes of adolescence, friendship, and mother/daughter dynamics. Generational trauma too. I don’t have a lot of nostalgia for 2002, when the film takes place, but it replicated that time super well.

X & Pearl

This was a great year for horror and Ti West’s one-two punch of X and Pearl are probably the best of the year. Both films feature the murderous Pearl, played by Mia Goth in both films though she’s under a lot of makeup in X. That film is a Texas Chainsaw type slasher, while Pearl is a character study of the titular character’s descent into madness. I enjoyed X when it came out, but Pearl is so good it makes X better. It might be the only prequel to pull that off.

New Discoveries

Cop Land

James Mangold borrows some guys from Martin Scorsese, throws Stallone in for good measure, and makes an urban western neo noir of corrupt cops in their bedroom community. It took me way too long to watch this. The above image is not the best representation of the film, but the funniest.

Saving Face

A story about a mother and a daughter dealing with cultural expectations. The daughter is a lesbian and the mother is in a secret relationship herself. It’s funnier than that sounds. Very 2000s indie. I enjoyed this a lot.

The Silent Partner

I talked about this last month on my alternate Christmas movies list. A heist film with Christopher Plummer as a bank robbing Santa. Wish I’d watched this sooner.

Skeletons

Grey Gardens

I made so many references to this without properly seeing it that I feel a little guilty. This documentary is about Jackie Kennedy’s relatives that live in a crumbling manor. At times funny, sad at others, but always interesting. It reminded me of Tod Browning’s Freaks in that it is somehow exploitative AND empathetic at the same time.

Marathon Man

I’ve seen the “is it safe” scene so many times that I felt I had seen this already. A fascinating crime film about a grad student who gets caught up with Nazis in hiding. Might be good exposure therapy for folx afraid of the dentist.

Once Upon a Time in the Old West

I had seen the Dollars trilogy and enjoyed that, but this was a great sort of amalgam of Leone’s western output. If you only watch one spaghetti western, this gives you a solid primer for the genre. And seeing Henry Fonda be evil is a bit of a treat.

Final thoughts:

I haven’t seen everything of course, and I am still catching up some. But I can say this, of the “better” films I’ve seen so far, I don’t think anything has beaten Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Not sure if it will be Best Picture this year, but I suspect it will go far this awards season.

See y’all next year.

~Andrew

Alternate Holiday Films

Christmas movies are not my bag. I have my reasons. That said I do have an appreciation for movies that sort of subvert the saccharine cheeriness. If you are into said cheeriness, I don’t blame you. If you are like me and perhaps want something that could be construed as “festive,” I have a few here for you. Tim and I touched on this when we talked about Batman Returns this summer. My focus here are movies where the stories are enhanced by the Christmastime setting. No offense Die Hard fans, but that could have easily been any day of the year. Same with my actual favorite “Christmas” movie Edward Scissorhands.

Unlike my Halloween picks, these won’t play well at your holiday party.

Eyes Wide Shut

Kubrick’s last film, is surprisingly more “Hollywood” than expected. Yes, it still has that Kubrick misanthropy, but the film stars then husband and wife Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Director Sidney Pollock has a prominent role as well. Cruise plays a man who is finds out that his wife has very human desires and he spends the film dealing with that in not the most healthy way. There is much talk about a party he attends, but there might be too much focus on that. A lot of Big Stan’s flicks examine toxic masculinity, and this one is no exception. Of my selections, this could not take place at Christmastime and still work, but I think that setting adds a certain moroseness that really impacts the drama. I admit this one might be a little heady for your holiday.

The Silent Partner

I just watched this for the first time this year, and it might be my favorite of the bunch. A rare Christmas neo noir starring Elliot Gould as a bank teller who discovers that a mall Santa, Christopher Plummer, is planning on robing his bank. Instead of telling the cops, he pockets a large sum of money himself and it gets assumed that what Gould stole was part of Plummer’s haul. When the media reports how much was stolen, Plummer does some math and he starts coming after Elliott Gould. Seeing a mall Santa rob a bank is quite the image. Based on a novel and adapted by Curtis Hanson, who would make go on to direct L.A. Confidential, which could also be viewed as an alternate holiday flick.

Carol

Therese meets Carol at the department store she works at and they get swept up in a romance. It’s the 1950s however and that sort of romance isn’t exactly accepted. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara give really fantastic performances. It feels like a companion piece to director Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven. One could make the case that this didn’t need to take place at Christmas, but the 1950s holiday décor along with Edward Lachman’s superb cinematography give this a nostalgic feel not unlike Bob Clark’s A Christmas Story, but with a more grown-up hue. Also this has the most festive sounding title to boot.

Christmas Evil

As a horror fan, I felt I needed to give you one yuletide terror. Gremlins is cool and all, and Bob Clark’s Black Christmas might be the best holiday horror film, but Christmas Evil offers a fascinating character study. This isn’t a Silent Night, Deadly Night kind of evil Santa. Honestly, I think John Waters puts it best:

I think that’s better than the trailer.

Hope these add a little extra flavor for your holidays.

~Andrew

Background Movies For Your Halloween Party

As we get closer to the end of the month, many of us will be hosting a Halloween party for the first time in quite a while. Picking out the music you want is hard enough, but maybe you want something to set up a visual ambiance. Here are some movies you can have on in the background of your spooky shindig. Flicks that are heavy on the vibes and visuals and it isn’t the end of the world if you aren’t paying too close attention. The hardcore cinephile in me acknowledges this is a little unethical in an artistic sort of way, but there is something to be said about a movie helping establish a mood.

Black Sunday

I recently watched this for the first time. Mario Bava directs this gothic story about a witch returned from the grave and her vampires. It doesn’t exactly make a whole lot of sense, but it’s got this mood that really hits. Distributed by American International Pictures in the states, it feels kind of like one of their Poe pictures but in black and white. Streamable on Kanopy, Shudder, and AMC+. There are public domain versions on Archive and Youtube as well.

Creepshow

You should watch this with the sound on, but this collaboration between George A. Romero and Stephen King has a lot to offer visually. Emulating an EC Comics style, there’s zombies, monsters, creepy bugs, and Stephen King himself. The frame narrative for this anthology is set in October, so bonus points there. Streamable on AMC+, rentable on Prime.

Demons (Demoni)

Another movie, like Black Sunday, that doesn’t exactly make sense but it offers a lot visually. A group of people go to a showing of a horror film, and zombies break lose. That’s the bulk of the plot and all you really need to understand. There’s are lot of stuff you would never expect, such as a helicopter that falls into the cinema. Streamable on Hoopla, Shudder, and Mubi.

Spookies

This is probably the only film on the list that is improved by watching with the sound off. Technically it’s two movies that were edited together, and yes you can tell. A bunch of people go to a haunted house in the middle of nowhere, and bad stuff happens. One by one these people fight and mostly succumb to the various evils the house has to offer. Evil statutes, muck monsters, goblin things, a spider woman, it’s what a Spirit Halloween movie should have been. The effects are quite good, if a little cheesy. Streamable on AMC+ and Shudder.

Trick ‘r Treat

A Halloween set anthology, wherein the stories are all inter-connected, Trick ‘r Treat is a great film to have on for the folx who need to chill a little during the evening. It’s fairly easy to follow with or without subtitles on, and the visuals are always interesting. It has a Halloween vibe that few films can replicate. I’ve used this at a couple of Halloween parties and it never failed. Streamable on AMC+ and Kanopy.

Whatever you end up watching, I hope you have the right amount of spooky for your season.

~Andrew

Blonde, and an Appreciation for an Infamous Rating

2022 ‧ Drama ‧ 166m

Andrew Dominick’s Blonde is now out in select cinemas and on Netflix. The film has already generated some buzz, but the film’s MPA rating has stolen much of the attention. The film was given an NC-17. More about that particular rating later, but first a review.

Starring Ana de Armas, Blonde is not a traditional biopic but more a meditation on the myth of Marilyn Monroe. This is in keeping with the Joyce Carol Oates novel it is based on. Both in theme and structure, Blonde shares some cinematic DNA with Todd Hayne’s Bob Dylan “biopic” I’m Not There and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Instead of focusing on facts and history, it focuses on the deeper emotions and trauma Norma Jeane Mortenson had to go through to be Marilyn Monroe. The relationship with her mother is a constant through line, as is her absent father. Much of the film focuses on her relationships with men and how she tries to fill the void her parents gave her. We see her marriages to Joe DiMaggio (Bobby Cannavale) and Arthur Miller (Adrien Brody), as well as a scene with President Kennedy (Caspar Phillipson). As one may expect the rating, the film does have a fair amount of nudity though it is not explicit. Dominick uses it to show how destructive the male gaze can be on a woman. The film examines and ruminates on what it must feel like to be exploited by men, Hollywood, and the world. That is perhaps best distilled about half-way through the film when Marilyn, says “I’m not a star. I'm just some blonde.”

Told in lyrical sequences, like a Hollywood daydream, Dominick succeeds in having the viewer empathize with Marilyn/Norma Jeane. This is all enhanced by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’s excellent score and Dominick’s frenetic uses of color, black & white, and aspect ratios. Ana de Armas gives the best performance of her career and probably one of the year’s best as well. The film probably does not need to be as long as it is and there are some perplexing filmmaking choices, but it is worth watching at least for de Armas’s performance if nothing else. It is a rare Hollywood art film. It isn’t an easy watch, but most NC-17 films aren’t.

Grade B

When I first learned that Blonde had been rated NC-17 and Netflix was not going to fight it, I decided to do a deep dive into the MPAs most restrictive rating. Typically seen as a harbinger of box-office doom, it is seen as a rarity. Many films actually receive it every year, but it is rare for the film to keep the rating. Studios and directors will usually edit a film down to an R. In some cases, the rating gets appealed to an R without any changes or the rating is surrendered and the film is released unrated. Sex, nudity, and aberrant behavior containing the two are the more infamous reasons a film gets an NC-17. Though it seems a number of violent horror films get the rating and then edit down every year. There’s a lot about this process that in many ways seems to favor large studio films over independent ones. Personally, I think the way the MPA goes about ratings is not ideal, but that’s not what I want to focus on. Kirby Dick’s This Film is Not Yet Rated goes into all that in depth and highlights the hypocrisy quite well.

The stigma around the rating isn’t entirely the MPA’s fault. Much of it is held over from the X rating. Originally an X meant that the film featured adult context that may be too mature for younger audiences. When the rating symbol was created in the late 1960s the MPA didn’t trademark it. Due to that lack of trademark, the fledgling pornographic film industry the early 70s would often self-rate their films with an X. It became a marketable letter for a certain kind of film and thus became synonymous with that.

So, the X rating was stigmatized, and studios wanted a different rating, so in 1990 NC-17 was introduced to fix that issue. It failed. Again, not entirely because of the MPA. Most newspapers and television stations would not run ads for such films and most multiplex cinemas would not show them. Blockbuster video and other rental chains would not carry copies when they arrived on home video. Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant was edited down to an R for those rental chains. Ironically, about a decade later, these chains would however carry “Unrated” cuts of films that were edited down for the cinemas. It was like the rating itself, less the content, was the issue.

With Blonde it is easy to wonder if this decision by Netflix to keep the rating may actually be a bit of a marketing ploy. The streamer is both a film and television studio, so it could have easily released Blonde as a television film with a TV-MA rating. The fact that a more-or-less equivalent television rating is less stigmatized than a film rating could have its own article. Perhaps for Netflix a near 3-hour arty pseudo-biopic is hard to market. Keeping the rating adds to the buzz.

It is somewhat surprising that with the rise of streaming there was not an effort to rebrand the rating. Showgirls, an infamous NC-17 bomb, had a whole new life once it hit home video. Audiences may not be willing to buy the ticket in a public space, but they are often willing to watch in a private space. Which is exactly what streamers have to offer. It could also bring in a demographic that is actually quite large: adults wanting to watch adult oriented films. Not necessarily explicit sex and violence, but films that cater to adult themes. No offense to the teenage audience, but not everything has to be for them. Perhaps adults would get more interested in cinema again. It would open up an avenue that streamers have avoided. They could get more creative and feature more original films without the concern of the MPA. John Waters in This Filthy World challenges indie filmmakers to try and find a way to get an NC-17 without any sex or violence. Imagine the water-cooler factor of that. Free idea: a horror film called Sunday Scaries about the very adult problem of working in late-stage capitalism. No sex, drugs, or violence. Just dread and anxiety for 90 minutes.

With Blonde easily streaming at home, now is a great time to explore the “genre” of NC-17 films. Bad Lieutenant is quite good. Showgirls is essential, being the only wide-released NC-17 film, but its cult following is not due to quality. For a campy NC-17 experience, I would instead go with John Waters’ A Dirty Shame. Not his best, but at least it is funny on purpose. Many of the 1990s titles are, as expected, of their time. Another essential title, Henry & June, the first to get the rating, has a stuffiness that can also be found in Wide Sargasso Sea and Bent. Blonde has a different kind of stuffiness, more of an arthouse variety. Man Bites Dog has less of that, and is quite disturbing. David Cronenberg’s Crash might be even more disturbing with is auto, as in car, eroticism. It makes sense in the film. Say what you will about Canada’s Great Dave. His images might be gratuitous at times, but sex always moves the plot forward in his films and Crash is a great example.

The 21st century would give us Blue is the Warmest Color and The Dreamers. The former is one of the better NC-17 films, but the behind-the-scenes context taints its legacy. In a rare move, the Cannes committee that year award the Palme d’Or to the director and the two leads. The two leads deserve it more. Bertolucci’s The Dreamers has a similar stuffiness as Last Tango in Paris, but is kind of a film lover’s movie. Blonde shares that film lover’s sentiment too. Steve McQueen’s Shame, is a fascinating look at addiction that might pair well with Dominick’s Monroe meditation. Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution and Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education are probably the best films to receive the rating. Both are excellent dramas worth your time. Lee’s film is the highest-grossing NC-17 film. Time will see how Blonde will settle among these titles. I am unsure if it really goes into NC-17 territory, there are teen sex comedies that got away with more, but Blonde does share a kind of intensity that Bad Lieutenant, Crash, and Man Bites Dog have. It is not as explicit as those films, but it gets under your skin just as deep. Perhaps the rating has more baggage than it deserves. I can say that every film I’ve seen with an NC-17, is far from ordinary.

~Andrew

BFI: Best of the "Best Of's"

 Every 10 years the British Film Institute’s magazine, Sight & Sound, polls critics and filmmakers to create a list of the best films of all time. The poll has been going since 1952, and it considered by many to be most respected of the plethora of “best” lists. Voters are asked to compile their selections of ten films and the magazine ranks the list by mentions. The top film is the one mentioned on the most lists. 100 films make the cut, and the top ten is obviously the most anticipated and discussed. Part of the reason why this list is so respected is because of the focus on craft and influence. This does tend to have the list skew a little more arthouse than multiplex, for better or for worse. The ballots have gone out now and the results are expected in November.

In 2012, there was some discourse made about Citizen Kane being unseated from the number one position by Vertigo. Kane had topped the list since 1962. Film scholarship has shifted a lot in the last decade so there are dozens of articles discussing how the list will change this year. There’s talk of 2001: A Space Odyssey potentially unseating both Kane and Vertigo, which could happen. I think there is a good chance that Mulholland Drive may make the top ten. There’s even talk of Parasite getting close to the top. I am unsure it will make it that far up, but I am sure it will be the youngest film on the greater list. I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes the top ten in 2032 though.

If I were given a ballot, here’s how I would vote. As much as I love Kane and Vertigo, I decided to not include films that made it to the 2012 top ten. By doing that, I only lament that this list lacks Murnau’s Sunrise.

All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979)

Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)

Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989)

Laura (Preminger, 1944)

Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)

Persona (Bergman, 1966)

Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)

Singin’ in the Rain (Donen & Kelly, 1952)

Talk to Her (Almodovar, 2002)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Zemeckis, 1988)

Though if you ask me next week, I will say something different.

~Andrew

UPDATE: Andrew recorded a quick bonus episode about the 2022 list. Click HERE to listen.

Nope

2022 ‧ Sci-fi/Horror ‧ 131m

The third film from Jordan Peele, Nope, is a worthy summer blockbuster.

Haywood’s Hollywood Horses, a ranch that wrangles horses for movies, is on hard times after the death of Otis Haywood Sr. Siblings Emerald (Keke Palmer) and Otis Jr (Daniel Kaluuya) are trying to get out of the debt their father put them in, but opportunities fall through. Their neighbor, Jupe (Steven Yeun), a former child actor who owns a western themed tourist trap has been buying horses from the Haywood’s for his business. One day OJ sees a flying saucer and Em decides they should try to record it and cash in. Angel (Brandon Perea), a Fry’s Electronics tech, comes along for the ride after setting up their cameras and seeing a suspicious cloud in the playback. Whatever is behind that cloud does not seem to be coming in peace and Jupe has a plan of his own.

There are some great scares for the audience. The film opens with a gruesome scene that may seem perplexing at first but sets up the tone well. There’s a memorable mass abduction, though that may not exactly be the right word. Most of the scares are in the daylight, but there is an extended night sequence that is quite bloody. How Us made “I Got 5 On It” sinister, Peele gives Corey Hart’s “Sunglasses at Night” a similar treatment to great effect. The climax is nail-biting. At risk of a small spoil, you might wish to skip to the next paragraph, it’s hard to determine if it would pair better with Close Encounters or Tremors. Nope may not be an alien terror but it is a monster movie. A monster movie with themes that may take some time to digest.

How we interact with media is a large theme, but also how we interact with animals. Certainly, there is also commentary on how we monetize those interactions. The film opens with a verse from the Bible, Nahum 3:6, that should not be forgotten when the climax unfolds. Peele does a superb job of presenting these ideas without spoon-feeding the audience. You’ll have a lot to chew on as you leave the theater.

The film has a significant amount of dread, and we sit in it for quite some time. That said, it might be a stronger film it if were edited down to 2 hours or even 100 minutes. Not much of that impactful dread would be lost with such a runtime. It probably won’t spark a phenomenon like Get Out, but it might be a better film than Us, which was still very good. Peele goes 3 for 3 here, if you ask me.

I can only imagine how many reviews of this are going to be titled, “Say Yes to ‘Nope.’” I’m saying that for sure.

Grade B+

~Andrew

June 1982

This summer, Tim and I are diving deep into Summer 1982 because that season had a ridiculous amount of hits. It isn’t difficult to find articles about how important that year was to Blockbusters. Poltergeist, ET, Wrath of Khan, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, to name the big moneymakers came out, and flops that became classics like Blade Runner, The Thing, and Tron were released as well. Of those movies listed, five of those were released in the same month. If you went to a large enough multiplex on Saturday June 26, 1982 you would have to decide between Poltergeist, ET, Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, and The Thing. Being more of a horror guy, I’m either seeing Poltergeist or the Thing, but that is still not an easy decision. The average person is probably seeing ET, and I don’t blame them. The idea of picking any movie at a cinema and it be a classic is hard to fathom, even if people wouldn’t know it at the time. Let’s take a moment to reflect on how important June 1982 was to genre film.

These movies really play up the magic and spectacle of cinema. Generally, I have not been the biggest proponent of “special effects” movies. This probably has more to do with me having grown up in the 1990s, when many effects leaden films were lacking in story. These five films for the most part have a strong story whose effects enhance it, instead of merely showcasing. The Thing in particular is still considered by many to be the apex of practical effects, but I think its staying power is because of how well those effects go with story. Same with Poltergeist.

I don’t know if there has ever been so many sci-fi films on the marquee at one time, or genre films in general. On top of that, they are profoundly influential films. Each of these would go on to inspire many filmmakers. Blade Runner‘s overall bleak techno-grim style would influence dozens of dystopia films. To put it somewhat crassly: June 1982 might be the most important month in the history of Nerd. I don’t think Stranger Things, and all of its geeky wonders, would exist were it not for that one month 40 years ago.

I am not exactly nostalgic for this time. I wasn’t there, for one thing, but I do lament that we will probably never have a month like this again for quite some time. I suppose one can never tell, I doubt movie-goers knew in 1982, especially since The Thing and Blade Runner were received so poorly back then. Some of this is how we watch movies now. Home video was booming then, so movies could have another life, and thus more revenue, after they left theaters. So perhaps studios would be more likely to take chances. This is how The Thing and Tron became cult classics, and to a different extent Blade Runner.

Lately, it seems that only “sure-fire” ideas make it to the cinemas, especially because physical media is less and less popular. Everything else goes to streaming, and that doesn’t pay like the box office. I’m not the first to bring that up. I think it is a huge step forward that streaming allows so many different kinds of films to find an audience, but it also changed what goes to the literal big screen. I think gone are the days where a film like Little Miss Sunshine can win over cinema-goers. I’m not saying this is the end of cinema here, there’s still great stuff coming out each week, but I will say I envy those who walked up to the box office in late June 1982 and had their pick of winners.

~Andrew

Summer Films Beyond the Usual

With Memorial Day being the unofficial start of summer, I thought it might be fun to make a viewing list for the season. It’s fairly easy to find a listicle about classic summer movies, but I thought it would be more interesting to go with something other than the typical mainstays. I like The Sandlot as much as anyone, but sometimes you want to try something different. Not saying this is a definitive or essential list, just a different list. A Deadletter list. So let’s walk around my imaginary video store and check out some summer flicks. I’m actively choosing films that take place in the season, not just have that summer feel. I’ll admit, this isn’t the most family friendly list.

Comedy

Dazed and Confused is a great film to START your summer, as it is a “one-crazy-night” film about the last day of school in a Texas town in 1976. If you’d seen that enough times, check out Adventureland. Anyone who had what they thought was going to be a “fun” summer job, only to be disappointed would likely relate, but you’ll probably laugh more at Linklater’s classic. I’m pretty fond of Summer School with Mark Harmon as well.

Drama

When I think of hot days, the film that immediately comes to mind is Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. A film that has not lost its relevance, I am sad to say. Taking place on the hottest day of the year in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of New York, Mookie delivers pizza while tensions are building about his employer, Sal. Though required viewing in my opinion, if this is a little heavy for your summer, I get it. Check out Miss Juneteenth. A story about a single mother trying to help her daughter win the titular title in her small Texas town. The mother, played by Nicole Beharie, is trying to recapture some glory from when she won back in the day, her daughter isn’t so into it. It’s a good film about their relationship with no shortage of summery imagery.

But if you want a more shall we say adult experience, go with Y Tu Mama Tambien.

Mystery/Suspense

If you really want to go off the beaten path, check out Stranger by the Lake. Two men strike up a casual friendship at a cruising spot by a lake in France. Soon several men in the area are being murdered. I’ll leave it at that. Fair warning: this is much more NC-17 than Y Tu Mama, and that is saying something.

Music

I know a lot of people love Mamma Mia! I am not one of those people, but there is a surprising lack of summery musicals. You could watch In the Heights, but I’m going to go with Summer of Soul. Questlove’s documentary about the Harlem Culture Festival of 1969. It recently won best documentary, and got a little overshadowed by a certain altercation. It’s a very fascinating film, with great performances by Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, and several others.

Science Fiction

This might be a cheat, as I am not 100% sure it takes place in the summer, but Safety Not Guaranteed certainly has very nice Pacific Northwest weather if it isn’t in the summer. Aubrey Plaza plays a recent college grad who answers a want ad asking for a someone who wants to travel back in time. It is a pretty unique experience and worth your time. This flick got director Colin Trevorrow a couple of Jurassic Park sequels if that tells you anything.

Horror

Okay the classic answer here is Jaws, but check out Summer of ’84. A “kids-on-bikes” flick about said kids investigating one of their neighbors, whom they suspect is a serial killer. A part of me thinks this is a satire on the 80s nostalgia genre of the last decade. The ending really sticks with you. You could watch Midsommar as well, and there is a world of slashers to choose from. Though the Friday the 13th and I Know What You Did Last Summer film series are the obvious choice, go with The Burning instead. Not as archetypal, but neat in its own way.

Action/Adventure

While not explicitly summer, it sure looks hot throughout Wild at Heart. The only film that is both 100% a David Lynch film and 100% a Nic Cage movie. Sailor and Lula are star crossed lovers just trying to love each other while Sailor breaks parole. It isn’t action in the most classic sense, but there’s a fair amount of fighting, fast driving, and foiled crimes to scratch your action itches. I feel like True Romance borrowed a lot from Wild at Heart. Speaking of Tarantino, Reservoir Dogs is a good option as well.

For the fun of it, here’s couple of summer “coming of age” double features to consider.

Stand by Me with Now and Then

Call Me By Your Name with Luca

Tim and I are planning on recording podcasts comparing big summer movies from 4 different decades this summer, so be on the lookout for those soon.

~Andrew

Everything Everywhere All at Once

2022 ‧ Sci-fi/Adventure/Black Comedy/WTF ‧ 139m

Before we get into it, a quick disclaimer. I went into this pretty blind. I only knew that Michelle Yeoh was in it and it had something to do with parallel universes. That might be the best way to go into this film. I have my nits to pick with it of course, but ultimately I am glad I live in the universe where this film exists. I recommend you buy the ticket and take the ride.

Stop here if you don’t want too much more. Otherwise, I’m going to dig in.

The latest film from Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) is about Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yoeh), a woman with a tax problem. She runs a laundromat with her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). They are immigrants with a grown American born daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Evelyn’s father (James Hong) is visiting and they have planned a party after their meeting with an IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis). While in the elevator on the way to the appointment, Evelyn’s husband suddenly changes personality and informs Evelyn that there are parallel universes. These universes are the ones where different choices were made, thus altering her life. She’s a singer in one, an actress in another, for example. We eventually learn that Waymond is part of a team of people fighting Jobu Tupaki, who wants to destroy the multiverse. Evelyn may be the only hope to save it.

Yes, this does sound familiar. At this time, I  have not seen Spider-man: No Way Home, Wanda Vision, or for that matter more than one episode of Ricky and Morty. Even though I haven’t seen those, I already felt that the multiverse idea was played out. The “chosen one” even more so. This would hurt the film more if the directors did not embrace the absurdity of the concept and thus creating a new and atypical experience. Though usually imaginative, entertaining, and funny- there are some directorial decisions about the universes that come off like something a 12 year old boy on a playground would come up with: hotdog fingers, a black hole everything bagel, and a version of Ratatouille with a racoon instead of a rat. I have not seen Daniels’ Swiss Army Man, a cult hit on its own, but having read the synopsis I can confidently say Everything Everywhere All at Once is a more mature film. As juvenile as it is at times.

The main three actors, Yoeh, Quan, and Hsu, are probably the best ingredients of this film. They play various versions of their characters so effectively and seamlessly it’s a marvel they pull it off. Michelle Yoeh should be remembered come awards season. Curtis and Hong are great additions, enjoying the absurdity and giving just the right amount of seriousness. Somehow this beats Hong’s other notably bonkers film Big Trouble in Little China in craziness. The film’s editing and direction sets a manic, if attention deficit, pace. There are all sorts of things for film buffs to love, from Matrix and Marvel-esque fight sequences to a universe seemingly directed by Wong Kar-wai. At times it might be a little too much, but it really fits what Evelyn is going through. It is possible that the Daniels are making a comment on the expectations placed upon women in society, but I am not sure it gets quite to a real statement.

Without getting too revealing, the heart of the film is about the relationship between Evelyn and Joy. Something perhaps unfair that I brought to Everything Everywhere All at Once was recent viewings of two other films about mothers and daughters: Turning Red and Grey Gardens. These are very different mother/daughter relationships, but it still colored my viewing of Joy and Evelyn’s. We always bring the other films we’ve seen to the next film, no matter how hard we try to be objective. I found Daniels’ film to be missing something, this could have easily been a father/son relationship instead. Still a parental relationship, yes, but still very different. I suppose this is written by two sons, after all. Though, were this a father/son film, it would probably be a lower/mid-tier Nic Cage movie. These criticisms aside, there are so very few films like this that it is worth checking out. I can’t decide if I would pair this with Hausu, Head, or Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Everything Everywhere All at Once takes two tired concepts, multiverses and chosen ones, and makes something inventive with its imaginative absurdity and truly next-level performances. It is not the most mature film you will see this year, but you will be hard pressed to experience something as unique.

Grade: B+

~Andrew

SORTING THROUGH THE BEST PICTURES: 2010s REVISTED

A few years ago, I watched all the Best Picture winners and sorted them in various categories: the Essential, the Great, the Good, and the “Really? This was ‘the Best?’” The 2010s had not quite ended yet, so I gave my best estimation. With this year’s Oscars in the rearview, I realized it has been a couple years since the 2010s ended and it might be a good time to revisit that decade.

You can read the original post here: click me!

The turn of the decade has added some… let’s call it hindsight maybe. The test of time has yielded some different results.

Really? This was ‘the Best?’”

The flicks in this category are generally not so great, or won out over much more deserving films.

The Artist

It’s a niffy little throwback film that has its charms, but the magic has worn off. The Oscars are often “of the moment.” Like a sudden touchdown by the underdog team in the last seconds of a game. The Artist had its moment. I think The Descendants was the best of that year’s batch. Grade: B-

Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

I stick by what I said originally: "A great film for literature and theater majors to be ultimately disappointed in.” Time has only illuminated how shallow the story is, despite the technical depth. I will say this was the best directed film that year, but I think The Grand Budapest Hotel was the best picture of 2014. Grade: B

Green Book

I was pulling for BlacKkKlansman or Roma, but somehow this won.  Apparently, the Academy has a thing for examining racism through driving. Can’t help but be reminded of Do the Right Thing and Driving Miss Daisy in 1989. Grade: C+

The Good

These aren’t what I’d call “bad” films, but they just aren’t as “great” as they should be to be considered the “best.”

The King’s Speech

I defend this film over The Social Network still. I know a lot of people disagree with that, and I respect that, but I will die on that hill. Now that we are more than a decade past, I think Black Swan might have been the best of the nominees that year. Grade: B+

Argo

Oddly this became one of the more forgotten winners since it won. It isn’t bad, but now it kind of feels more like a flick you’d watch with your dad on a Sunday afternoon than a Best Picture winner. 2012 was an unusual year. I probably would have voted for Beasts of the Southern Wild. I’ve rewatched that film many times. Grade: B

The Great

These are films that are truly worth your time, but maybe it isn’t the end of the world if you haven’t seen them.

12 Years a Slave

I haven’t seen this since it came out and it still gets to me when I think about it. I’m unsure if it has held up in this era of where so many films focus on trauma. Grade B+

Spotlight

I wanted to avoid copying and pasting, but previous me got it right the first time: “This account of the investigation of pedophilia in the Catholic church charmed me the moment I started it. Great performances from all around and tight direction. I did however feel there was a lack of tension at times, you kept waiting for some huge opposition to happened and it doesn’t really. Still, a great film.” Grade: B+

The Shape of Water

Fish man jokes aside, this is a great monster movie. This is what happens when you don’t let Guillermo Del Toro remake Creature from the Black Lagoon, and I’m kind of glad Universal didn’t let him. Yes, it’s a premise that is hard to get passed for some, but once you do it really is something special. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri was a close second that year, though. Grade: A-

The Essential

A film that has made a place in cinema history.

Moonlight

The unfortunate thing about Moonlight could also be the reason why it is essential: it actually winning after La La Land was announced the winner in a kerfuffle for the ages. It’s unfortunate because I find this to be one of the more messy, complicated, and human films to win. Is it poverty porn? A little bit, yeah. But it is still a beautiful piece of art about learning and coming to terms about one’s self. Grade: A

Parasite

A family of con artists pull off a heist of sorts over a rich family, but then it kind of becomes a horror film. What’s not to love? Essential for being the first non-English winner, it is also essential for just being a near perfect film. So good it works in both color and black and white. Grade: A+

Movies vs. Film

We are knee deep in awards season, so many cinema fans have been catching up on the various nominees. Every year there is a backlash about how the nominees are rarely popular titles. Academy elitism is often to blame, and I’m not going to disagree there. In the cinephile spectrum, I’ll admit I do skew more towards the arthouse than the blockbuster, but I understand the argument. If there are ten nominees for Best Picture, maybe one is a popular film. I speculate that many times those who nominate and vote will place titles into this unnecessary binary of a “movie” vs. a “film.” These terms ought to be synonymous, and I think for many they are, but there does seem to be a distinction.

Some years ago, I checked out the Film Snob's Dictionary, and I remember it giving some cheeky definitions on the difference between the two terms. “If Tom Hanks is in it, it’s a movie. If Tom Waits is in it, it’s a film.” I feel like that discounts a film like Philadelphia (with Hanks), as well as a movie like Mystery Men (with Waits), but I see the point and I’ve been guilty of this myself. When I talked about the Conjuring movies on our podcast, my guests and I even made the same kind of observation. “A flick like the Exorcist is a film, the Conjuring is a movie.” The former is trying to elevate something while the latter is a popcorn flick. An artistic merit sort of argument. Art over entertainment. Many will acknowledge that overlap exists, but I don’t think it’s acknowledged enough. With the right eye though, I think it isn’t difficult to find the craft in just about any film.

Last year, I did a compare and contrast of the two versions of Rocky IV. Despite the first film in the series winning Best Picture (perhaps somewhat controversially), few would be making the argument about the artistic merits of the fourth entry. It’s cold war patriotism verges on nationalism, about a third of it is montage, and for some reason there is a robot. Stallone rightfully deleted the robot in his new cut at least. The runtimes are very similar and there is minimal change to the story and structure. Mostly Stallone replaces shots with different takes.

Watching the two cuts together, one learns something about the process of editing. Why select this take now? Why move this scene slightly forward? Etc. I had been comparing alternate cuts of various titles for years, but I probably learned more about the editing process from one of the worst Rocky movies than I did from the cuts of Amadeus or Blade Runner. It made me appreciate the art of it, especially in the montage sequences. It was easy to see the “film” in the “movie.”

I am not the first person to say all this and I am sure the binary will still persist, but ultimately there really isn’t a difference. One person’s film is another’s movie. I think Quentin Tarantino has been making a career of blurring that line for decades. Steven Spielberg makes films for movie heads, Wes Anderson makes movies for film buffs. There are not one but TWO Michael Bay titles in the Criterion Collection. There is an art to the popcorn flick, too. Movies, films, flicks, whatever, it’s all cinema.

~Andrew

Sundance Review: Watcher

V/H/S/94 segment contributor Chloe Okuno comes to Sundance with her feature debut, Watcher. A young couple move to Bucharest when the husband gets a new job. The wife Julia, played by genre stalwart Maika Monroe, spends much of her time exploring the city. At night she notices a man watching her from across the street. Later while in a cinema, she suspects she is being watched. She leaves only to be followed to the grocery store. Could this be the titular Watcher from across the street? To add even more to the anxiety of the situation, there is a serial killer known as “The Spider” at large.

Perhaps more thriller than horror, though I am never sure where to draw that line, Okuno does a great job of getting the audience into Julia’s emotional and psychological state. This really ranks up the tension and dread as the film progresses. There are of course those Gaslight hallmarks, like when her husband tells her there could be rational explanations for her fears. The man lives in the same neighborhood, makes sense that he would shop in the same store, he explains. There is a confrontation with the Watcher, played by Burn Gorman, wherein he brings the police to her apartment complaining of harassment. Okuno succeeds in showing just how unsafe the world can be for any woman anywhere, which just makes the film more terrifying.

As the film heads toward its resolution it maintains the tension and dread. The ending works and lands okay. I don’t dislike it, but I feel that it somewhat wobbles. It smartly uses elements within its confines in a satisfying way, but I wish it were more unexpected. At the same time, I wouldn’t exactly call the ending predictable. A part of me wonders if the film could move a little faster as well, but I suspect a lot of that well created tension would be sacrificed. Okuno directs well and Watcher is well shot, but Monroe is the strongest ingredient here.  

I am tempted to cheekily refer to this as Roman Polanski’s Lost in Translation as told by Nick Roeg, but that is a little misleading. There are certainly Repulsion and Don’t Look Now vibes happening, but I think Okuno has more empathy for her protagonist.

Grade: B-

City of Dreams: 20 Years of Mulholland Drive

Some teenage boys have pictures of attractive women on the back of their closet doors, I had a full-page newspaper ad for Mulholland Drive.

In many ways, it was my Driver’s Ed teacher’s fault. During a driving practical, he and I started talking movies and we got around to my love of cult films. He asked me if I had ever seen David Lynch’s Eraserhead. I had not and he ended up loaning me his copy. Which was a bootleg VHS off of a Japanese laserdisc. I know this because it had Japanese subtitles and halfway through it, the screen randomly flashed “SIDE 2.” The quality was fuzzy, but I was into it. I decided to check out Lynch’s other work. I had some previous knowledge of Lynch it turned out. I had seen his Dune on television, and caught the “Owls are not what they seem” scene from Twin Peaks on Bravo. My next step ended up being Blue Velvet, and from there I was hooked. I've podcasted some about this before. This was all around mid-2000 to early 2001. Early IMDB showed me that Lynch had a new project coming out soon, a reworked pilot for a TV series. His “film version” of the Twin Peaks pilot was a particular favorite of mine, so I knew Lynch was going to make something remarkable.

When Mulholland Drive came out, I had to wait until video. My small town did not have a movie theater at the time, and my parents weren’t going to let me drive into the big city to see a movie by myself. I lived in walking distance to a video store, where I got Blue Velvet, so it would happen in time. It ended up that the first time I saw Mulholland Drive was on VHS with the words “PROPERTY OF UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. UNAUTHORIZED DUPLICATION PROHIBITED” scrolling across the bottom every fifteen minutes or so. I had friends who worked at that video store and they loaned me the screener VHS, something that technically wasn’t supposed to happen. Only the owner or manager was supposed to watch the screeners. This meant I saw it a number of weeks before it officially hit video shelves. That might beat the Japanese laserdisc bootleg experience.

I had to chase this film and I had finally caught it. This is something that I both miss and am quite glad I don’t have to do anymore. Before the internet and peer-to-peer sharing, if something was a little off the beaten path, one would have to hope a video rental place, often NOT a Blockbuster, would carry it. Or you’d look in the tv listings and hope to catch it. It was a stupid time. However, I do think it may have made some movies better. You finally got to see something you’d spent months turning over various rocks to find, and that would add something. Not quite hype, but maybe it enhanced the positives. This could lead to disappointment too, of course, but that rarely happened in my experience. Mulholland Drive may have had something extra added, but it still exceeded my expectations.

A woman gets into a car accident on the titular road, loses her memory, and wanders into an apartment, where she meets a young Hollywood hopeful. Together they try to solve the mystery of who she really is. That is until they open a blue box with a blue key after going to the Club Silencio. Also a film director is trying to make a movie, but these mobster types are telling him who to cast, his wife is having an affair with Billy Ray Cyrus, and some cryptic cowboy is giving him instructions. Then there is something going on behind Winkies. The film had so much. It was weird, hard to figure out, but it made me feel things most films could not. Pixar can get you in the feels, a real good horror movie can get you filled with dread. But David Lynch can make you see something beautiful, terrifying, mysterious, and wonderous all at the same time.

Needless to say in 2002 and 2003 Mulholland Drive became the THIS MOVIE IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ME film that many teenage film buffs have. I imagine my friends kind of hated it. I would attempt to explain the film when folks said, “that movie doesn’t make sense,” but I never really conveyed it well. I probably spent 10 years trying to discern the enigma. In the DVD insert, David Lynch gave 10 “clues for unlocking this thriller.” I spent many of my subsequent viewings trying to answer those questions. I was quite excited whenever I figured out one of them. “That explains EVERYTHING!” I would (incorrectly) say to myself, and try to use this new knowledge to help others “understand” the film better. I was young and dumb.

Over the years I would rewatch it periodically, and each time I had a different appreciation. Thanks to the internet, I have been able to see the pilot version, in slightly better bootleg quality. It too is pretty good, but 2000 era television was never gonna go for it. Ten years after I saw it for the first time, I would get to see the film in the cinema, as a Midnight Movie. I was living in Colorado at the time and drove myself to one of the arthouses in Denver. It wasn’t a large crowd. The film has a fierce following, but Rocky Horror it is not. Seeing the Club Silencio scene was something else in the cinema, as opposed to my home. With about 30 minutes left in the film, some guy yelled something profane and stormed out of the theater. The Aurora shootings had happened a week before, not too far from this screening, so suddenly there was this tension added to an already tense film. I let myself just experience the film that time, and that was one of the best cinema experiences of my life, angry guy notwithstanding.

I don’t think making sense of it all is the right thing to do with this film. I will say that I think most of the film is a dream, but “figuring that out” isn’t the point. Lynch himself often states he is more interested in whatever the viewer gets out of his films than “explaining” them. I don’t blame teenage me for trying though.

Mulholland Drive often makes the top 3, if not the number 1 spot of many Best of the 21st Century lists. I’m hard pressed to think of something better. Sight & Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time list from 2012, a list re-evaluated every ten years, it ranks at number 28. It is the youngest film on that list. I wouldn’t be surprised if it moved up the ranks next year. Somehow, something that started as a TV pilot, became one of the greatest films of all time.  For this cinema lover, it was seminal to how I understood and analyzed film as both art and entertainment.

~Andrew