Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Tangerine (2015) - 7/10 - It's Christmas Eve and Sin-Dee is fresh out of a short stay in jail. Her best friend informs her that her pimp boyfriend cheated on her while she was locked up so she goes on a mission to find the boyfriend that takes the two of them around various parts of LA. She also tracks down the girl that the boyfriend cheated on her with. The film looks low budget and has a pretty thin plot, but is also somewhat compelling.

Love is Colder Than Death (1969) - 3/10 - This one did very little for me.

Sapphire (1959) - 8/10 - Two children find the body of a young woman in a park. The woman had been stabbed to death somewhere else and then the body was dumped there. The police investigate and soon the film follows the various leads as they look into her life and possible suspects. It's a nice police procedural.

Peppermint Candy (1999) - 7.5/10 - Kim Yeong-ho shows up at the 20th reunion party to the surprise of his old friends. Something is clearly not right with him, though, and he looks like he might jump from a set of train tracks. The film then proceeds to go through 7 times in Yeong-ho's life in reverse chronological order. The film is pretty good and while it apparently ties in to certain periods/events in Korea's history, the film can certainly be enjoyed without that knowledge. I'm not well versed in that history and the film worked well enough for me.

Death Wish 3 (1985) - 3/10 - Vigilante Paul Kersey returns to NYC to visit a friend and finds that the friend's neighborhood is under siege from a vicious gang. He gets unofficial permission from the police to do his vigilante thing. The film is ridiculous on a number of levels from the cartoonish bad guys and police, exploding cars, and so on. I don't really get the economics of how the gang survives on such slim pickings and why so many of the residents seem to continue with their daily lives with all of this stuff continually happening. The film is kind of funny for a while, but eventually is just bad.

Watch Out for the Automobile (1966) - 8/10 - An insurance agent disgusted by the bribery and cheating that he sees takes it upon himself to steal cars from those he sees as corrupt and then sell the cars to aid those in need. There are a number of clever gags in the film and one long chase sequence that is pretty funny. The police inspector who is trying to track down the car thief befriends the thief since both are active in an amateur theater troupe. It slows down some toward the end, but is still pretty entertaining.

Assa (1987) - 8.5/10 - In 1980, a young underground musician befriends and falls for the young mistress of a much older mob boss who is under KGB surveillance. There are also occasional scenes which show the last day of Emperor Paul I, based on the book that the mob boss is reading. I thought those scenes were somewhat interesting, but didn't add that much to the overall film. The film itself is very good and has a nice soundtrack as well.

Gentlemen of Fortune (1971) - 6/10 - An archeologist discovers the golden helmet of Alexander the Great, but it is promptly stolen by a thief and his two dimwitted accomplices. They are caught and sentenced to prison, but the helmet is not recovered. A kindergarten teacher happens to be an almost perfect double for the boss of the gang and he is talked into going undercover to try and find the helmet's hiding place. This comedy has a few funny moments scattered throughout, but is mostly just dumb.

Operation 'Y' & Other Shurik's Adventures (1965) - 8/10 - This film is a collection of three 30 minute shorts featuring a college student named Shurik. The first episode takes place on a construction site and is like a live action cartoon much of the time. The second episode takes place at college while students are preparing for examinations. It's the most lighthearted of the three and my favorite. The third episode takes place at a warehouse that Shurik ends up guarding. It isn't as funny as the first two episodes, though there are still amusing things in it.

Kala Pani (1958) - 8/10 - A young man finds out that his father is not dead, but has been imprisoned for murder these past 15 years. He travels to the city where he is being held to see him and discovers that his father was actually innocent. He then tries to gather evidence to free the father, but runs afoul of those who falsely put him away. I enjoyed this one, including the various songs. The ending was a bit too quick and pat, but maybe they figured after 2.5 hours it was time to wrap it up.

Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964) - 8/10 - The film takes place at a Young Pioneers summer camp for kids. Kostja is a bit of a rule breaker and the head of the camp kicks him out and escorts him to the train station to head home for swimming in the wrong place. Kostja decides to stay, though, and sneaks back into the camp. The other kids help him stay hidden and avoid discovery while plenty of hijinx ensue. It's a pretty funny and entertaining film.

Bound (1996) - 6.5/10 - Two women come up with a plot to steal millions of dollars in mob money. I was pretty bored with the film during the first half, but it picked up after that and the second half was more entertaining.

Miami Blues (1990) - 7/10 - Alec Baldwin stars as a man just out of prison (that sounds so familiar) who travels to Miami to start over. He starts a crime spree that includes robbing other criminals, impersonating a police officer, and so on. He also hooks up with a young prostitute (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who has dreams of making a home with him. It's off beat and fairly entertaining.

Poetry (2010) - 9/10 - A 66 year old woman is diagnosed as being in the early stages of Alzheimer's. She lives with her teenage grandson, but he isn't very well behaved or appreciative. She also becomes interested in poetry and starts attending classes at the community center. She works hard at writing a poem, but it doesn't come easy to her. Yoon Jeong-hee was very good in this.

Decision to Leave (2022) - 6/10 - A man dies from a fall off of a mountain, but was it an accident, murder, or suicide? A detective looks into the case and starts to suspect the much younger wife of having committed murder. He also finds himself becoming enamored with her. I thought I was going to enjoy this film a lot more than I did. It looks nice, but the way the story was told didn't really work all that well for me.

Buffalo '66 (1998) - 7/10 - Vincent Gallo stars as Billy, a guy who is just out of jail. His first big challenge is finding a bathroom that he can use. He kidnaps a teenage girl named Layla (Christina Ricci) to take home to meet his parents, pretending that she is his wife. Billy is a bit socially awkward, the reasons for which are fairly clear after meeting his parents. Gallo and Ricci each did a nice job and I liked this more than I thought I would early in the film.

Ms .45 (1981) - 7.5/10 - A young mute woman is raped twice in one day. She obtains a gun and starts taking revenge on men who harass women, even going out looking for trouble at night. This is a well made revenge film. The idea is pretty simple, but Zoë Lund is good in the lead role.

Gaetmaeul / The Seaside Village (1965) - 7.5/10 - Hae-sun is a pretty young newlywed who lives in a seaside village. Her husband dies due to fierce storm during a fishing trip. Hae-sun joins the other widows in the village in their daily activities, but soon has to fend off the unwanted advances of her brother-in-law. This had pretty nice cinematography. The women in the film were more interesting characters than the men.

A Pistol for Ringo (1965) - 7.5/10 - Ringo is a young gunman who is locked up after killing four men in self defense. A gang of outlaws then rob the bank and terrorize the town before stopping at an estate and holding all of the people there prisoner, including the sheriff's fiancee. The sheriff recruits Ringo to help rescue the hostages. There was more humor than I had expected and it was a fun film to watch.

And God Said to Cain (1970) - 8/10 - Klaus Kinski stars as a soldier who was falsely imprisoned for 10 years. When he is pardoned, he sets out to get revenge on the man who framed him and those who work for the man. The film has a lot of atmosphere and there is some creativity in how the man goes about the wind-swept town to whittle down the men facing him.

Wolf Creek (2005) - 6.5/10 - A man and two women set out on a road trip through the Australian Outback. Their car breaks down at Wolf Creek National Park with nobody else around. A man in a truck shows up and offers to tow them to his place so that he can fix their car for them. This is the start of their nightmare. It isn't a bad film, though I think I would have liked it a lot more had it stuck to the road trip vibe of the first 10-15 minutes rather than becoming a horror film.

Django Kill... If You Live, Shoot! (1967)- 4/10 - A group of thieves steal a shipment of gold, but then one faction of the group turns on the other and kills them. However, one of the men who is thought to be dead actually survives and looks for revenge (and the gold) once he recovers. He catches up to them in a strange town at the edge of the desert. This was pretty bad.

If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death (1968) - 6/10 - A stagecoach is robbed and the strongbox full of gold is stolen. Somebody has hidden the gold away and several people strive to find it, including a few bad guys and one good guy named Sartana. There's a fair amount of backstabbing and misdirection.

Alvin Purple (1973) - 4/10 - Alvin has been irresistible to women since he was a teen. He also has a near insatiable appetite for sex. He eventually sees a psychiatrist for his condition and ends up as a sort of sex therapist. I didn't really find this sex comedy all that amusing much of the time.

Bad Boy Bubby (1993) - 4/10 - Bubby is a 30-something year old who has lived his whole life shut in a squalid home with his mother. She has told him that the air outside is poisonous and can't be survived without a gas mask. Then one day his father visits and it eventually leads him to go outside to explore. I hated the first half hour. It did get better after that, though I still didn't like it very much.

Beneath Clouds (2002) - 7.5/10 - A girl whose absent father is white and whose mother and stepfather are indigenous leaves home to go in search of her father. She is joined on the road by an indigenous boy who escaped from a low security prison facility so that he could visit his sick mother. The two are somewhat antagonistic toward each other at first, but slowly bond.

¡Matalo! (1970) - 2/10 - That was a strange movie, and not in a good way.

Black Robe (1991) - 7.5/10 - A Jesuit priest in the 1630s travels with an Algonquin tribe in an effort to convert them to Catholicism. It was pretty scenic and a decent historical drama.

Dead Calm (1989) - 8/10 - Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman portray a married couple who lose their young child in an accident. They decide to take a trip on their yacht to get away from civilization and try to recover. They come across a disabled boat with a frantic man who rows aboard (Billy Zane). This is the start of their real troubles. I thought this was pretty good and Nicole Kidman in particular was very good in it.

Muriel's Wedding (1994) - 8/10 - Muriel is socially awkward and finds herself put down by her father and friends. She takes some money and uses it for a tropical vacation where she makes a friend and starts making some changes in her life. The film is offbeat, but generally fun. Toni Collette is good in the lead role.

Greg wrote
Sabin, if you have one, I would be very interested to read a rewatch/review of Braveheart from this year by you.

I might rewatch it. It’s been about ten years since my last viewing, which was probably my fourth overall. I’ve mentioned that Braveheart was my gateway into film but it started yielding diminishing returns almost immediately. When it arrived on video in 1997, I watched it and recall being instantly disappointed. Being a fourteen year old boy is really the sweet spot demo for that film.

Sabin, if you have one, I would be very interested to read a rewatch/review of Braveheart from this year by you.

Significant Other (Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, 2022) 7/10

Nature can be beautiful but also at times creepy, deceptive and dangerous. When you package it with a form-hopping alien it turns into a terror ride. A couple (Jake Lacy & Maika Monroe) goes backpacking in the woods in the Pacific Northwest. They are both in love with each other although there is an underlying tension between them. She appears stressed out and nervous as the hike begins. Soon they are pursued by something which landed courtesy of a meteor and has the ability to shift form. This old formula is regurgitated but has enough thrills - the screenplay even manages to involve a shark into the mix - to keep things moving at breakneck pace. The stunning Oregon location is a character by itself.

Marlowe (Neil Jordan, 2022) 4/10

Why are the mysteries that detective Phillip Marlowe tries to solve always so convoluted? This film is an adaptation of the 2014 novel "The Black-Eyed Blonde" by John Banville, and not by Raymond Chandler who originally created the character in his pulpy novels. Jordan creates the correct 1940s atmosphere via superb production design, costumes and cinematography. An heiress (Diane Kruger) hires Marlowe (Liam Neeson) to search for her missing lover who may or may not be the dead person who gets his skull crushed under a car. Also interested in locating him is her glamorous actress mother (Jessica Lange), and a mobster (Alan Cumming) from whom cocaine was stolen. There are assorted killings, and the two women snarl at everyone around them like perfect femme fatales. Too bad the plot is so confusing and dull.

Mister Tee wrote
Folks at AwardsWatch are always bitching about "genre bias" when horror or Marvel movies get passed over by critics, but I'd say se7en was an earlier, less defensible example of that. The movie is, of course, visually a masterwork, but it's also narratively fascinating, with a villain who's almost a distillation of the terrifying-to-this-day angry young man (his targets including such societal scapegoats as both the anorexic model and the overweight man), and a pursuer (Pitt) who fits the same profile and ends up destroying himself from the opposite direction. Even just from a plotting point of view, the script is remarkable. In 99% of such serial killer movies, the last reel consists of the detective finding himself the stalked, but turning the tables and bringing the killer to justice. In se7en, from the moment Spacey unexpectedly turns himself in, we have NO IDEA where the movie's going. The tension remains unbearable (I kept expecting Spacey to somehow break free of his cuffs riding in the car's back seat), but the final scene doesn't involve any kind of familiar struggle/shootout. The resolution is, rather, psychological horror: Freeman forced to witness his colleague's surrender to the dark side. It's an extraordinary piece of writing/filmmaking, somehow passed over by Oscar voters for charming lightweights like Il Postino and Babe.

Well, now I'm writing more...

Andrew Kevin Walker's script was the big element that leapt out to me on this viewing. Mike D'Angelo wrote about how the film deliberately downplays the gimmick, citing this example: when Brad Pitt is walking his first crime scene solo, he tells the people there to take a hike, walks around, takes in the scene, and only at the end of the scene does Fincher reveal the sin on the floor. How many other filmmakers would open with it? Fincher makes it feel like another distressing bummer in this horrific world. I hinted at this earlier but it's an interesting take on cynicism vs. idealism. The "detective's last case" trope was decades tired before this film came out but I'm struggling to think of one with this film's exact take on these two visions of the world. On paper, Brad Pitt is the idealist while Morgan Freeman is the cynic. But it's more interesting than that. Brad Pitt thinks the world is a good place with just a few bad people who need to be stopped. But he's also depicted as immature and impatient. He hates reading. He's prone to prejudice statements like calling Dante a "poetry-writing f****t" and easily dismisses their suspect as insane, "masturbating in his own feces." As the film goes on, his idealism seems closed-minded. Morgan Freeman on the other hand is the reasonable one. We expect to see a detective who is exhausted and gets rejuvenated by the younger cop, but Seven shows us the opposite. He tries to grant wisdom to the rookie. When we get to the film's midpoint (right before Spacey's arrival) they have a frank conversation in the bar where Freeman reveals the reason for his cynicism to be "not being able to live in a place that embraces and nurtures apathy as if it was a virtue" and admits to being in on it. He's saying that if that society is going correct itself, it requires everyone to become more active, caring, and understanding. Is he wrong? He's looking at the systemic. All Pitt wants to do is find the bad guys and arrest them. Spacey is a mix of the two. He sees systemic corruption but uses Pitt's tactics.

Astonishing that Seven only picked up one nomination (editing) but Batman Forever got three. A mark of shame that the MTV Movie Awards demonstrated better taste that year than the Academy.

Also saw Richard III. Quite good.

Sabin wrote: ↑Sat Apr 29, 2023 10:31 am I don’t think anyone remembers 1995 as one of the all-time great years for film but there was an embarrassment of riches to choose from.

I think 1995 had maybe the broadest panoply of good movies of any year in the last 40, but it was never seen as a great year because there was no consensus on what was absolute best of the crop. The year prior, critics agreed on Pulp Fiction (and audiences Forrest Gump); the year before that, Schindler's List was near-unanimous choice. In 1995, the NY/LA critics concurred on Leaving Las Vegas, but it felt like a selection both backed into. Had the multitude of prize groups we have today existed then, I can imagine best film prizes going to a dozen or more films.

And I don't think the passage of time has made that situation any clearer. My top 5 that year would have included Leaving Las Vegas, se7en, Nixon, Heat and To Die For. But if you told me yours were The Usual Suspects, 12 Monkeys, Sense and Sensibility, Dead Man Walking and Crumb, I couldn't say you were dead wrong. We're all going to have movies from that year that just don't work for us, but the sheer volume of titles I remember fondly -- even smaller items like Dolores Claiborne, Smoke, Richard III, The City of Lost Children, Clueless, Rob Roy -- mark it for me a year I'd take back in a millisecond.

Folks at AwardsWatch are always bitching about "genre bias" when horror or Marvel movies get passed over by critics, but I'd say se7en was an earlier, less defensible example of that. The movie is, of course, visually a masterwork, but it's also narratively fascinating, with a villain who's almost a distillation of the terrifying-to-this-day angry young man (his targets including such societal scapegoats as both the anorexic model and the overweight man), and a pursuer (Pitt) who fits the same profile and ends up destroying himself from the opposite direction. Even just from a plotting point of view, the script is remarkable. In 99% of such serial killer movies, the last reel consists of the detective finding himself the stalked, but turning the tables and bringing the killer to justice. In se7en, from the moment Spacey unexpectedly turns himself in, we have NO IDEA where the movie's going. The tension remains unbearable (I kept expecting Spacey to somehow break free of his cuffs riding in the car's back seat), but the final scene doesn't involve any kind of familiar struggle/shootout. The resolution is, rather, psychological horror: Freeman forced to witness his colleague's surrender to the dark side. It's an extraordinary piece of writing/filmmaking, somehow passed over by Oscar voters for charming lightweights like Il Postino and Babe.

Which did lead me to one conclusion about the Oscars: the more choices voters have, the more likely they are to disappoint you with the ones they select.

Last round of these.

The American President (Rob Reiner): third viewing? I still think it deserves credit for being a successful political romantic comedy, but a few bum notes stuck out: Rob Reiner's direction isn't as snappy as it should be, Annette Bening doesn't quite turn Sidney Allen Wade into a three-dimensional character, and it's almost too successful as a male fantasy. Michael Douglas is flawless. Still, I have warm feelings for this film. Why wasn't it a bigger hit back in 1995? I vaguely recall it, Father of the Bride: Part II, and Sabrina all under-performing around the same span of two months.

The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood): if I’m ever asked “What is it a director does?” I might think of this movie. The answer is “Everything and nothing.” This film has some of the strongest directing of Eastwood’s career. There are scenes that are so perfect in this film, so confidently staged, shot, edited, and performed, that I cannot imagine it was a stressful set and yet put anyone else in charge and it would fall apart. The only way you can get coverage like the kind he gets between himself and Streep is confidence, instincts, and trust. On the other hand, this has some of the weakest directing of Eastwood’s career. There’s nothing objectively wrong with this framing device but what community theater did they get these actors? Nice instincts to cast unknowns but they should’ve stayed there. I’m trying to think of another director who would get scenes that are bad in exactly that way and I’m coming up short. With those actors, there needed to be an immediate overhaul of the script to make it work… but I guess tee up was at 3 that day. No matter, they’re easy enough to forget because so much of the rest of the film (as I get older) is just why I go to the movies in the first place. The most important thing you can offer a viewer is to experience the most important passage of a person’s life. No matter how bad this book might have been, it absolutely works on the big screen. When I think of who Meryl Streep is and what she does, increasingly I think of this performance. She’s great. But I think what Clint Eastwood does is incandescent. This part is almost unplayable and he’s just perfect in it.

I go back and forth between B+ and A- because what does work is so wonderful but what doesn’t is dreadful. Also, the film does drag a bit as it makes its way from its sublime midpoint to the climax in the truck which is all time great stuff. In hindsight, I’m not really sure why this film didn’t factor into the Oscar race more. Was it just released too early in the year (as Eastwood films were back then)? If so, why were four other Oscar films summer films. Was it too women-centered in appeal? Explain Sense and Sensibility. I don’t think anyone remembers 1995 as one of the all-time great years for film but there was an embarrassment of riches to choose from.


Carrington (Christopher Hampton): a good film that probably could’ve benefited from a stronger director’s eye. Michael Nyman’s score works overtime to create a mood but I always felt a slight remove from this curious couple as they hop into the future together, from partner to partner, intrigued but never quite engulfed. Dora Carrington’s evolution from virgin to poly is so matter-of-fact it’s almost admirable, but overall it just feels like a script that’s been filmed at a respectful, admiring distance. To Hampton’s credit, there’s plenty to admire.


Casino (Martin Scorsese): second viewing. Terrific procedural. Really, a doc cast with A-listers. I think Casino is a hinge between Goodfellas and The Irishman. There’s a dark futility to both Casino and The Irishman that these people think they’re going to run the show forever but it’s doomed because they’ve already lost power and they don’t know it. The Irishman just outright says they’re pathetic. Casino says they’re monsters but I don’t think it’s a strong portrait of monsters. Here’s my reasoning: the last hour (90 mins) has one dramatic driver: Sharon Stone wants her money and her divorce and De Niro won’t let her go. The film sort of implies that because De Niro refuses to admit he can’t win her love he destroys Las Vegas. In the last minutes, this is proven not to be true because the FBI discover Piscano’s records, so it undercuts this insane power struggle between these three figures. Which is fine. But the only interesting idea the film has in that period of time is a fascinating subversion of the De Niro archetype that it never commits to at all: that he is the biggest monster of all because of his pride. What did he think would happen? She fucking told him. Can't join the chorus of folks who view it as an escalation of everything that worked in Goodfellas. De Niro and Pesci always feel like filmed actors.


Mighty Aphrodite (Woody Allen): second viewing probably. It’s slight but fun. My biggest problem is that I don’t think it really has much to say. Also, Allen’s character doesn’t make a lot of sense. I never bought the cognitive dissonance of him trying to discover his adopted child’s true parentage and shape her as a way of avoiding the problems in his marriage. Points for a very creative way of hand-waiving it away with the Greek Chorus. This might seem like a little thing but the ending (the chance re-encounter between Allen and Sorvino and their children) sold it for me. The tradeoff with the gear of Woody Allen storytelling is clarity for tidiness. Also, Sorvino didn’t deserve to win over Allen or Winslet but she would’ve been my choice most years.


Safe (Todd Haynes): second viewing. Horrifying film. I think this is my favorite Todd Haynes film. Even the Haynes films that I love end up feeling a little thesis-y and lacking in dimension. Safe benefits from a narrow focus and a disease of the week rubric that doesn’t need… convincing melodrama, let’s say. From a top level, I just think it’s the best showcase for what Todd Haynes does but that doesn’t convey the sense of rediscovery I had watching it this time around. First of all, some personal life experiences made a big impact. Second, it’s fueled by so much anger and empathy about the world that we live in that I really got worked up watching it. The first hour of Safe is like an elegy for the effects of materialism on society as we’re asked to ponder what is making Carol sick. It’s a satire. Then when she goes to Wrenwood, we realize that the real tragedy of the film is to prevent someone from ending up in a place like this. Beyond anything else, that is the failure. Carol has all the privilege in the world and nobody cares enough to stop this from happening and her non-personality just becomes replaced by another one (Programming Made Simple: The Story of Humanity). There’s a remarkable moment I’ll never forget near the end. It’s when these people throw Carol a birthday party and it’s the first moment of real joy in the film and we’re asked to ponder “Well, this place sucks but maybe she’s found her people.” Carol gives a rambling speech full of crap like how we should be mindful of walking into buildings, and then for a brief moment she stops as if she is processing what has happened to her for the first time and we see her POV out at “her people.” And they look impossibly creepy. We shift back to her and she can’t finish the sentence. Maybe the thought is gone after a moment but she feels it and so do we. Fuck the Wrenwoods of the world. There’s never been more of them.

*First, my mother had a series of confusing, potentially non-existent illnesses during my childhood which nobody could diagnose that left her largely bedridden. It took my sister and I years to realize how weird that all was. Also, after living in Los Angeles now for fifteen years (!), I’ve had more than one friend get sucked into a cult scenario, offering variations on the psychological fascism similar to that of the Peter Friedman. I try to be an optimist but we live in a world where humans are tragically susceptible.


Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow): Bigelow bites off two films more than she can chew. The backdrop just overwhelms the hook. The idea of a black marketeer of video recorded memories that people plug into is such a strong idea (and Fiennes plays him so well) that I’m honestly not sure the hook-y location (Los Angeles at the end of Millennium) was even needed. The best scene is the first one of a snuff recording. Really, I could imagine an entire film around Nero trying to find the source of the snuff recordings and have been perfectly satisfied. The first act is at least 40 minutes of set-up. Credit Ralph Fiennes for turning Lenny Nero into making his squirrel-y huckster come across like a true believer (“The Santa Clause of the Subconscious”). It’s pretty close to being Southland Tales 2.0 except the hook and the backdrop are more palpable and less ironic, so it’s of interest as a curio and a vibe.

Also, I watched A Little Princess which is a very sweet, beautiful movie that I don't have much to say about. It's just a terrific family film that eschews kiddie elements.

Did a rewatch of Seven. Umpteenth viewing. Really regret not seeing this in theaters because it would've been a shattering experience. I still wrestle with the fact that it feels like it takes place in Gotham, like a comic book movie ahead of its time. But Andrew Kevin Walker's script grapples with idealism vs. pragmatism with more nuance than I originally thought. Also, Mike D'Angelo smartly points out that even though this film has a gimmick, it always downplays it and resists revealing it. Oh yeah, brilliant filmmaking as well. Most days I think it's my favorite David Fincher film.

Mister Tee wrote: ↑Fri Apr 28, 2023 9:33 pm

Reza wrote: ↑Fri Apr 28, 2023 3:13 pmThe Scottish Mescal received an Oscar nomination for his internally complex character.

Ahem...I know us white guys are all alike, but Ireland claims him pretty emphatically.

Oh yes ofcourse he is Irish.

Reza wrote: ↑Fri Apr 28, 2023 3:13 pmThe Scottish Mescal received an Oscar nomination for his internally complex character.

Ahem...I know us white guys are all alike, but Ireland claims him pretty emphatically.

65 (Scott Beck & Bryan Woods, 2023) 6/10

A critic correctly stated this film does not have the cheesy quotient of the Raquel Welch dinosaur epic nor the awe inspiring wonder of Spielberg's classic foray into that same territory. However, we do get to see Adam Driver in full-on action mode. An astronaut, on a two-year space mission to pay for the cure of his daughter's terminal disease, crash lands on an unchartered planet. It turns out to be earth 65 million years ago when it was populated by all types of dinosaurs. It becomes a battle of wits for him and the only other survivor - a young girl / substitute daughter - as they try to stay one step ahead of death while trying to make it to the escape pod just as the infamous giant asteroid that annhilated the dinosaurs decides to make contact with earth. Pulpy B-movie has enough thrills to carry it through to the end.

Scream VI (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, 2023) 6/10

It's more of the same, still has the thrill of watching people die in extremely gruesome fashion, and one waits patiently for the next installment. For the first time we get to see two masked killers attack in tandem with each other but two plucky sisters are hell bent on surving their attacks and preferably killing them off.

Boston Strangler (Matt Ruskin, 2023) 4/10

Straightforward but rather dull rendering of the notorious strangler who killed 13 women in Boston during the 1960s. Filmed before with Tony Curtis as the strangler and Henry Fonda as the cop in pursuit. This version concentrates on the two female journalists - rookie Loretta McLaughlin (Kiera Knightley) and methodical Jean Cole (Carrie Coon) - who first broke the news after connecting the series of murders. Ruskin creates superb atmosphere - shot mostly in colour palettes of green and brown - taking in the sexist attitudes prevalent during the 1960s which the two female journalists have to sift through to get their views across. However, the screenplay lacks tension and suspense and the investigation becomes simply a series of knocking on doors, interviewing possible leads, and shuffling papers. The two actresses are very good though with Knightley ably disguising her Brit accent.

Causeway (Lila Neugebauer, 2022) 8/10

Jennifer Lawrence returns to her Indie roots where she first made a raw but stunning appearance in Winter's Bone in 2010. Then life quickly changed for her. An Oscar and a high profile career of hits with a succession of Oscar nominations and a lead role in a huge boxoffice franchise capped what turned out to be a rocky road leading towards a collapse. This quiet little film is clearly an antidote to her quick fame which all but fizzled for her - including high profile relationships that crashed along with exposure of highly personal photographs in the media that got leaked. A U.S. soldier (Jennifer Lawrence), recovering from a brain injury during a shootout in Afghanistan, returns to her hometown in New Orleans to be with her wayward mother. The screenplay is a series of low key vignettes played out with characters around her - a caregiver/nurse, her doctor, her mother with whom she has a tense relationship, her hearing impaired drug addict brother in prison and her friendship with an auto mechanic (Brian Tyree Henry) who appears to be nursing even more deep rooted wounds than her. Gentle subdued film deals with trauma, recovery and forgiveness. Lawrence and especially Tyree Henry (he received an Oscar nomination) are phenomenal with their quietly anguished but understated performances helped no doubt by director Neugebauer who reigns in both actors to act with their eyes and faces instead of flailing their bodies to go the obvious dramatic route. Quietly mesmerizing film is well worth checking out.

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells, 2022) 7/10

Bittersweet memory piece. A divorced dad (Paul Mescal) is on a cheap turkish vacation with his 11-year old daughter (Frankie Corio). They bond together. Nothing dramatic happens. In fact the film is a series of vignettes as they swim, talk, take photographs of each other, the child mixes with kids her own age at the resort. However, something is amiss as he is hiding something which troubles him - financial difficulties, depression - which she senses but he does not reveal. Coming of age drama has at its center the remarkable chemistry between the two actors and the telling fact that memories can be deceptive and one often misjudges people when recalling events and people from the past. The screenplay has the adult daughter thinking about that brief vacation and time spent with her dad who remains evasive - he disappeared from her life never to be seen again which a deceptively harrowing scene in the film foretells. The Scottish Mescal received an Oscar nomination for his internally complex character.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001) 9/10

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Peter Jackson, 2002) 7/10

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003) 6/10

Murder Mystery 2 (Jeremy Garelick, 2023) 6/10

Take a whole chunk of Nick & Nora Charles, add a spoonful of Hercule Poirot along with just a dash of Miss Marple, crank up the silliness quotient and you have this sequel to the equally cheesy original. Amateur New York detective couple (Adam Sandler & Jennifer Aniston) find themselves in the thick of a murder-mystery plot when their billionaire Indian friend (Adeel Akhtar) gets kidnapped during his exotic destination wedding. A huge ransom is demanded as a guest load of suspects try to look innocent - the groom's bride (Mèlanie Laurent), her jealous best friend and the groom's former lover (Jodie Turner-Smith), the one-armed bodyguard (John Kani), the groom's sympathetic sister (Kuhoo Verma), and an ex-MI6 agent (Mark Strong). The madcap screenplay concocts a potpourri of suspense, laughs, assorted murders and deaths (courtesy of a knife and many bullets), a Bollywood song and dance routine where Aniston gets to wear a faux Manish Malhotra outfit, and assorted romantic locations which include the Arc de Triomphe and the Jules Verne restaurant on the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower where the truckload of suspects all conveniently converge for the inevitable denouement. Silly nonsense has at its center the delightful chemistry of its two leads who take this action-adventure and probably ensure there will be yet another episode about their madcap lives as bumbling detectives.

Salome (William Dieterle, 1953) 5/10

Salome here is no longer the teenager of Bilblical lore but a beautiful mature woman in the guise of Rita Hayworth at her loveliest during that decade. Unfortunately she plays the part in a grand manner as if she is doing Shakespeare on stage and comes off as an awful bore. Luckily she is surrounded by two grand hams - the great Judith Anderson as her sinful mother Herodias who is now married to her ex-husband's half brother which was apparently a sin in God's eyes; and a bored looking Charles Laughton as Herod Antipas who acts like a wilful but scared child thinking John the Baptist (Alan Badel) is the prophesied Messiah and wants to avoid his rantings while his wife wants him dead for calling her out as a harlot and an adultress. Badel plays the Baptist like one of our "spouting at the mouth" Islamic mullahs looking down at everyone, pontificating about God's wrath but secretly wanting to indulge in every sin he wafts about. Salome also finds romance with a Roman soldier (Stewart Granger at his most wooden) as she begins to drift towards Christianity - didn't they all. Her main claim to fame in history was her dance of the seven veils which she does in front of her lecherous step-father (the afore mentioned Laughton who actually licks his salivating lips) but without revealing herself totally by dropping that crucial seventh veil. Through the dance she hopes to get the Baptist's freedom which is a departure from history. Instead his head is brought on a platter much to the glee of the queen. Hayworth, one of Hollywood's famous dancers, gets to perform the climactic dance which is a series of slinky moves across the floor, and down steps, while she keeps dropping layers of colorful chiffon draped across her sensual body by costume designer Jean Louis. Like most of this popular genre the film relies on spectacle and the beautiful faces of the stars who paraded on screen as Emperors, Prophets, Romans and exotic women dressed to their teeth in jewels and slinky costumes.

A Dandy in Aspic (Anthony Mann, 1968) 3/10

Stylish film is excruciatingly slow. A British spy (Laurence Harvey) is sent by his superiors to Berlin to ferret out and kill a KGB agent who has been murdering British agents. The only problem is that he himself is the double agent and he is accompanied by a ruthless, cynical, and sociopathic British agent (Tom Courtenay) who hates him. Shot on location mostly in West Berlin the static screenplay limps along with an extremely dour-looking Harvey trying to stay one step ahead of the Russians and his own colleagues. Mia Farrow pops up as a London flower child photographer who provides the love interest. A thriller sadly devoid of suspense. Mann died during the shoot and Harvey took over the direction.

The Running Man (Carol Reed, 1963) 5/10

Tedious neo noir drama - man (Laurence Harvey) fakes his death on an insurance scam and goes on the run with his wife (Lee Remick) but is pursued by an insurance agent (Alan Bates) who seems more interested in seducing the wife - is overshadowed by the film's glorious location in the Spanish province of Cádiz shot in dazzling style by Robert Krasker who had brilliantly worked with director Reed previously on Odd Man Out (1947) and The Third Man (1949) for which he had won an Oscar. John Mortimer adapts the novel but fails to create any suspense despite the twisty ironic end. Harvey, as the desperate ne’er-do-well, stands out more for his platinum blonde hairdo than for his stiff performance.

The Gentle Gunman (Basil Dearden, 1952) 7/10

The Irish "troubles" presented as a film noir via superb cinematography, gritty locations and a superb cast playing troubled intense characters. Two brothers, members of the IRA, suddenly find themselves with opposing views about killing innocent victims in their cause for a free Ireland. The elder (John Mills) is branded a traitor while his lover (Elizabeth Sellars) switches her allegiance to the younger brother (Dirk Bogarde) who, under the leadership of a terrorist (Roberty Beatty), is gung ho in causing mayhem to support the cause. The screenplay is overly simplistic and neither Mills nor Bogarde even attempt an Irish accent, yet this stark film vividly stands out and is yet another of Dearden's hard-hitting social dramas which he made throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Standing out in small roles are Sellars, with her flashing eyes, as a stunning femme fatale - an actress who had the makings of a huge star but sadly never made it to the big league. And Barbara Mullen as a woman who saw her husband dying for the "cause" and who now faces a similar predicament with her son.

Carry on Sergeant (Gerald Thomas, 1958) 6/10

First in the long running series of "Carry On" films is about young recruits joining the National Service and predictably proving to be complete nincompoops. Although "young" is a misnomer as the recuits were played by actors on the far side of that age by what would become regular actors in the series - Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Terry Scott, and Hattie Jacques playing the first of many very imposing and hilarious medical professionals. They are all led by a dead-serious William Hartnell in the title role. Breezy romp is a conventional British Army farce but without the sexual innuendos the series later became famous for. Nostalgic film manages to bring on a smile or two.

Foyle's War (Jeremy Silberston & David Thacker, 2002) 8/10 - Season 1

Leisurely paced police procedural follows a quiet widower, but methodical Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) as he solves murders in Hastings, a large seaside town on the south coast of England. The unusual aspect of the series is that it is set during WWII when England was under continuous air attack by Germany. Helping him on his daily beat are his driver (Honeysuckle Weeks) and a Detective Sergeant (Anthony Howell). Prominent guest stars during the first season: Edward Fox, Robert Hardy, Rosamund Pike, James McAvoy, Charles Dance, Patrick Godfrey, Tobias Menzies, Cheryl Campbell, David Tennant, Roger Allam.

Follow the Boys (A. Edward Sutherland & John Rawlins, 1944) 6/10

Universal Studios' WWII effort showing their stars entertaining troops around the world. The screenplay is centered around a showbiz couple - a stage star (Vera Zorina) and her song-and-dance husband (George Raft) who organizes famous stars to perform overseas for the troops. The plot is an excuse to watch major stars perform skits, songs and dances. Orson Welles saws Marlene Dietrich in half as part of a magic act. Sophie Tucker sings "The Bigger the Army and the Navy’ & ‘Some of These Days". Dinah Shore sings "Mad About Him Sad Without Him How Can I Be Glad Without Him Blues’ & the hit ‘I’ll Walk Alone’ which was nominated for an Oscar. W.C. Fields performs a skit at the pool table and the Andrews Sisters trill ‘Shoo-Shoo Baby’ and a medley of their hits. Jeanette MacDonald sings the 1930 classic ‘Beyond the Blue Horizon’ and the 1924 ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’. Raft and Zorina do various tap dancing numbers as do Donald O’Connor and Peggy Ryan. Routine screenplay is nevertheless full of energy thanks to the performers.

Julie (Andrew L. Stone, 1956) 4/10

We all thought Karen Black was the only stewardess who landed a plane in distress in the campy disaster flick Airport '75. However, in this completely over-the-top melodrama Doris Day does that too. The screenplay (inexplicably nominated for an Oscar) begins in an overwrought manner with Day all hot and bothered complaining to a friend (Barry Sullivan) about the insane jealousy of her classic pianist husband (Louis Jourdan). He not only steps on the gas pedal of the car she is driving almost causing them to crash but is also suspected of killing her first husband. Nothing in this film moves slowly. Every moment involves hysteria at fever pitch topped by the insane man pursuing his stewardess wife on a commercial airliner where in a cockpit encounter the pilots are shot leaving Day to land the plane on her own. Its all too absurd to even be funny. The film's second Oscar nomination was for the title song Day sings over the opening credits. She did not want to make the film as it reminded her of her previous two jealous husbands and was forced to do it by her third husband who was the film's producer. Even he ended up in a jealous rage over her close friendship with co-star Louis Jourdan.

The Return of October (Joseph H. Lewis, 1948) 6/10

Silly whimsy has young girl (Terry Moore) believing a race horse has the spirit of her late Uncle (James Gleason) which causes an uproar in her small town when she inherits a large sum from an old aunt (Dame May Whitty). Her other relatives try to declare her insane while a psychology professor (Glenn Ford) plans to write a paper about the obsession of the heiress causing further complications. Colorful production and a good cast keeps things moving.

What's Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur, 2023) 8/10

The film, written by Jemima Khan, clearly is an ode to her recollection of Pakistani married life from the time of her own former union to cricketer Imran Khan. The central theme of the film is about the concept of an "arranged" marriage - now, in the modern era, evolved to being an "assisted" marriage - compared to choosing a partner for love. Why do we, like in Bollywood films, get to view a Pakistani marriage centered around the old city of Lahore? It's like Bollywood's view of looking at Pakistanis as if they were all born and bred in Lucknow along with all the paraphernalia and mannerisms that come with people of that city. Here we get the old city as an exotic location because Jemima Khan lived that during her own marriage. While ensconsed in her husband's house far from the old city she got to spend a lot of time in his close pal Yusaf Salli's "haveli" in the old city of Lahore next to the historic 17th century Mughal era Badshahi Mosque. Hence the location set during the scenes of the Pakistani wedding in grand rooms with cracked leaking ceilings and colourful stained glass windows and a famous rooftop restaurant overlooking the imposing mosque. We also get to hear sufi music courtesy of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, nephew of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who was a favourite of Jemima's former husband Imran Khan. A lot of touches in the film reflect the screenwriter's memory of her own time spent in Pakistan as part of a joint family. I've gone too far into the plot without setting up the actual story which is about two childhood friends - a young British-Pakistani doctor (Shazad Latif) and his neighbour, a British documentary film maker (Lily James). He comes from a semi-conservative Muslim family with loving parents (Jeff Mirza & Shabana Azmi) who have set up an arranged marriage for their son in Pakistan - the couple meet each other on Face Time. She has a gregarious, often over-the-top mum (Emma Thompson basically playing her own loud self), and has planned to film the upcoming "arranged" marriage of her buddy. The marriage scenes - the mehndi - are colorfully shot with songs and dances allowing Emma Thompson to join in and do her loud shtick. However, something seems amiss as the Pakistani bride turns out to have a more "modern" sensibility than the British-born groom - she *gasp* drinks, takes drugs and dances with wild abandon, and has maybe even had sex - which puts a pause in the scenario when the groom's friend questions him about the hypocricy of evading "issues" and living a life of pretense. Like all good rom-coms this one navigates through the desperate trials of love while wringing oodles of tears with desi-style reconciliations and eventually the proper pairing of lovers.

Mother (2009) - 7.5/10 - Do-Joon is an adult with an intellectual disability. He lives with his mother and hangs out with a friend that she doesn't like. When Do-Joon is arrested in connection to the death of a teenage girl, his mother sets out to prove his innocence. This is pretty well acted and I enjoyed it, though it didn't quite rise to the level that I was hoping.

The Woman Who Ran (2020) - 6/10 - A woman visits old friends with lots of sitting around having conversations. I thought it was somewhat interesting at first, but soon got bored with the film. I still liked it more than the other three Sang-soo films that I've seen. Maybe it just needed more robber cats.

Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) - 6.5/10 - Haewon is depressed that her mother is emigrating to Canada. She meets up with her secret lover, a film director, plus a number of friends. She also has a few dreams mixed into the story. I liked this a bit more than The Woman Who Ran.

A Man Called Otto (2022) - 8/10 - Tom Hanks stars in this remake about a grumpy old man who is very set in his ways and thinks most people are idiots. Mariana Treviño is very good as Marisol and Hanks also does a nice job. I thought it was very well done and is perhaps the equal of the original, or at least close.

Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) - 5/10 - A director is in town for a lecture. He hits on a young woman who paints. He drinks too much and meets her friends. Then the day repeats with a few variations. The story isn't very interesting.

Backroads (1977) - 5.5/10 - Two strangers team up to steal a car and then go on a road trip along the back roads of Australia. Along the way, they pick up three other passengers. The story is kind of rambling and only mildly interesting on occasion.

Get Carter (1971) - 7/10 - Jack Carter (Michael Caine) is a criminal who works for a London organization. He returns to his hometown after his brother dies in a supposed drunk driving accident. Jack doesn't believethe cause of death so he does his own investigation to find the real cause and to take revenge on those responsible. Caine is pretty good in the lead, but the story is kind of dull through much of it, though it does pick up quite a bit during the last half hour.

Adam's Apples (2005) - 7.5/10 - A neo-Nazi just out of prison is sent to stay at a church where an odd priest (Mads Mikkelsen) works with people sentenced to community service. The two clash quite a bit, though the priest is very good at turning the other cheek. There is quite a bit of humor here, though it gets a bit more serious on occasion. I enjoyed it.

Salige er de som tørster (1997) - 5.5/10 - A female detective tries to solve cases involving a rapist and a serial killer. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly well acted.

Marshland (2014) - 8/10 - In 1980, a pair of detectives are sent to a rural town in Spain to investigate the disappearance of two teenage girls. The film does a good job of setting the mood and it's a pretty solid film.

Clean, Shaven (1993) - 4/10 - A schizophrenic who recently was released from an asylum tries to track down his young daughter. Meanwhile, he gets caught up as a suspect in the murder of another child. The film tries to get you to experience the world like the schizophrenic does and the result is off-putting. I couldn't really get into the film, though I can see why some might like it.

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) - 4/10 - This film definitely has a place in the history of film. I just wish that I had liked it more. The acting was pretty bad.

Quick-draw Okatsu (1969) - 7/10 - Okatsu is the adopted daughter of a master swordsman. She is also a master of the sword, unlike her brother. When crooked officials and their lackeys harm her family, Okatsu sets out on the path of revenge. The film gets more interesting once that path of revenge finally gets going, though the set up takes a while. I liked the supporting character of Rui, another swordswoman, though she only popped up from time to time to save the day.

Branded to Kill (1967) - 6/10 - The third ranked hit man in Japan becomes the target of the top ranked assassin after a failed job where a bystander is killed. I can see why this film has a following, but I didn't really enjoy it all that much. There were bits and pieces that were kind of fun, but they didn't mesh together for me as a whole.

Cruel Gun Story (1964) - 8/10 - A gang leader arranges for a man to be let of prison early so that he can pull off an armored car heist worth a huge amount of money. A detailed plan is set in place and things go well at first, but eventually a few hiccups happen along with double crosses. This is a nice noirish crime film.

A Colt Is My Passport (1967) - 8/10 - A hit man successfully executes a job, but he and his partner have to evade retribution while trying to get out of the country. The film has a nice score along with a nice performance from Jo Shishido. It feels like a western in a number of respects.

Rusty Knife (1958) - 7.5/10 - Three ex-cons are trying to get on with their lives and go straight. However, when one of them needs money, he tries to extort money from the people they witnessed staging a murder five years earlier. This drags Tachibana, another one of the witnesses, into the story. He served prison time for killing the man who raped his fiancée. This was pretty good, though not quite as good as the previous two films I watched.

The Longest Nite (1998) - 6.5/10 - Two rival gangs are on the verge of joining forces when word gets out that a hit has been called on one of the leaders. A corrupt cop who works for one of the gangs tries to keep the peace, but realizes that he is being set up. There were a number of nice scenes, but the overall story is a bit of a mess.

Expect the Unexpected (1998) - 6.5/10 - The film starts out pretty well with a botched robbery of a jewelry store by a group of inept thieves. The police search leads to the involvement of a much more hardened group of criminals who were staying in the same area. The film alternates between comedic moments, attempts at romance, and violent shootouts. It was okay, but not really that great.

Mad Detective (2007) - 8/10 - A young police detective seeks the aid of a brilliant former detective who has the ability to see people's inner selves and also sees an imaginary version of his ex-wife. The case that they are trying to solve involves a police officer who disappeared 18 months earlier, but whose gun has been used in recent crimes. The main suspect has multiple inner selves that accompany him everywhere. They did a nice job editing and it's a nice film with good acting performances.

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) - 10/10 - Still my favorite Studio Ghibli Film. Excellent.

25th Hour (2002) - 8.5/10 - Edward Norton stars as a drug dealer who has one last day before having to report to prison to serve a 7 year sentence. He spends the day with friends and reminisces on what led him to this moment. Norton gives a very nice performance and the supporting cast is also pretty good, including Rosario Dawson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, etc.

Crimson Gold (2003) - 8/10 - The film starts with a failed jewelry store robbery and then flashes back and fills in the previous two days in the life of Hussein, a pizza delivery driver. We get to see the divide between the wealthy and the lower class. It's a pretty good film.

Too Fat Too Furious / Vet Hard (2005) - 6/10 - Bennie is an overweight and slightly inept criminal who gets sent away to prison for a number of years. When he gets out, he finds that his old snack bar has been turned into a quiche bakery and his adoptive father needs an expensive transplant. He also finds that he has a homicidal brother that he knew nothing about. The comedy is often pretty dumb or in poor taste (or both), though there are some nice bits here and there and the film is generally not boring. The jailbreak and airport scenes in particular are mostly fun.

Tiger on the Beat (1988) - 7.5/10 - This buddy cop action comedy stars Chow Yun-fat and Conan Lee. There are plenty of stunts, fights, and chases. We even get fights with chainsaws and with bayonets. It's pretty entertaining.

Crime Story (1993) - 7.5/10 - Jackie Chan stars as a police special agent in a serious role without the usual comedy that many of his films have. A wealthy businessman is kidnapped and held for ransom. Chan teams up with a detective to try and find the man and capture the kidnappers. There is still plenty of action here, even without the usual types of humor.

Iron Monkey (1993) - 7.5/10 - The Iron Monkey is a Robin Hood type figure who steals from the governor and gives to refugees and the poor. By day, he is a local doctor with an assistant named Orchid who is also adept at martial arts. The governor sets a visiting herbalist to capture the Iron Monkey, keeping the man's son as hostage. There are plenty of entertaining fight scenes, though my favorites were the ones involving the son of the herbalist (actually played by a teenage girl). The story itself isn't necessarily anything special, but it was still fun.

Do Ankhen Barah Haath (1957) - 7.5/10 - An idealistic warden gets permission to run an experimental farm using six convicted murderers. They will have no shackles and they will be free to roam the farm, relying on trust to work and not run off. It's perhaps a bit simplistic and exaggerated at times, but is still a decent and entertaining film.

Boiling Point (1990) - 6.5/10 - Masaki plays baseball on a somewhat hapless team and also works as a gas station attendant. He is pretty unfocused and spaces out frequently. This gets him into trouble with one of the local gangs and he eventually travels with a friend to obtain guns. The movie seemed to have a lack of energy for periods of time which would then be interrupted by violence.

Uncut Gems (2019) - 6.5/10 - Adam Sandler plays an unpleasant New York City jeweler named Howard who smuggles a valuable rock with uncut gems in it from Africa. Kevin Garnett immediately talks him into letting Kevin borrow the rock for luck, offering his NBA Championship Ring as collateral. Howard has a number of debts and people after him for the money they are owed. Howard also likes to gamble. I didn't really enjoy the film all that much, though I can see why others might rate it higher.

Miss Bala (2011) - 7.5/10 - Laura Guerrero is a young woman who plans to enter a beauty pageant along with a close friend. Before the event, they visit a nightclub which is subsequently attacked by a drug gang. Laura gets caught up with the gang and is forced to do their bidding. I liked the performance of Stephanie Sigman as Laura. The story itself was decent, though we seem to be more of a spectator for events without getting much in the way of inside information.

Intimidation (1960) - 8/10 - Takita is an assistant bank manager who is getting a promotion to a Tokyo branch. He has the connections and has moved steadily up the ladder. His school friend Nakaike is a mild mannered clerk at the same bank and his career seems to be at a dead end. Takita is blackmailed over financial misdeeds and has to find a way to come up with the money. This is a taut film at just over an hour and is very well done.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - 7.5/10 - Su-mi is a teenage girl who returns home after a stay at a mental institution. She has a close relationship with her younger sister Su-yeon and a strained relationship with her stepmother. Her father remains somewhat distant. The battle between the girls and their stepmother goes on while some spooky things occur. This is a nice horror film, though I thought it was a bit too long with the first half being stronger than the second half.

Doing something of a 1995 watch-rewatch.

The Crossing Guard (Sean Penn): first viewing. The word “overwrought” seems made for this film. I don’t think the fact that this film is macho bullshit is the problem. It’s just that Jack Nicholson is really poorly cast for this kind of macho bullshit. I’m not sure why he got more dialed into Sean Penn’s groove for an even more internalized protagonist in The Pledge but I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that his character has more of a through line in The Pledge. The Crossing Guard’s central premise of a man locating his daughter’s killer and giving him three days before he comes back and kills him is just Drama Class bullshit — or Paul Schrader cosplay. David Morse is fantastic. He picked up a nomination for Best Supporting Actor from Film Independent but I think he’s a lead. I suspect Anjelica Huston missed out on a nomination because her big scene (and it’s a good one) is near the end of the film. I would say that Sean Penn had noble intentions on this one but honestly, I’m not sure. But whatever it took to get him to Into the Wild is fine by me.

Dead Man Walking (Tim Robbins): second viewing. I’m a bit lower on this one this time I’m a bit at loggerheads with what it’s doing. What keeps it from being a screed is that Sister Helen Prejean’s narrative isn’t really about the death penalty. It’s just to get through this situation, care for this man, and hope to walk him through redemption. The conversations about the death penalty happen around her and I think that’s smart. The fact that Matthew Poncelet is truly a piece of shit is a strong choice that I doubt would happen today. We don’t live in a world that wants to acknowledge that bad people are still human beings. Mister Tee described this as a film of negative virtues. That’s the one that I would say gives it the most utility. I hate Matthew Poncelet and I cried at least twice for him. What bothers me about the film is the number of didactic moments in the film, especially Poncelet literally speaking the film’s theme in his final moments. But what Dead Man Walking is saying in this film is troublesome: it suggests that were it not for the death penalty, Matthew Poncelet probably wouldn’t admit to wrongdoing and ask for forgiveness. That’s certainly not a full endorsement of the practice but it strikes me as at least half of one and I’m struggling with what to do with that. There’s a catharsis in this film and I don’t know if that’s a good thing. Beyond that: Sarandon is excellent; this might be Sean Penn’s best work; I almost want to rewatch this film to see exactly how Roger Deakins manages to shoot through a prison mesh so many times and keep it cinematic.

Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin): first viewing. This one is interesting. I could write a laundry list of reasons why it doesn’t totally work, chief among them that it’s more of an origin story than anything else. This film invites comparison to Chinatown at every turn but Easy isn’t that driven by anything that happens, including the death of a lover. It’s the story of a person who learns that he’s a detective, and everything else is sort of swirling around him. Then Don Cheadle shows up as Mouse and the film gets a new energy it’s been lacking. He’s fantastic and certainly deserved a nomination. Overall, I enjoyed it as a (gorgeously shot) vision of post-war racism in Los Angeles. I wonder if everyone involved might have been better served to do a story where Easy is already a detective but I’m glad we have this one.

Georgia (Ulu Grosbard): first viewing all the way through. A little bit of an endurance test for me although I applaud it in theory. Its depiction of these two sisters and its refusal to judge Sadie as untalented until we understand all we need to know by the end is commendable. It ultimately doesn't matter if Sadie is a "raw talent" or not. What matters is this is all she's going to do with it. I applaud it, it's honest, but it exhausted me.

Get Shorty (Barry Sonnenfeld): second viewing. File this one under the “1995 Stuff” drawer, benefiting immeasurably from audiences clamoring for a new Travolta film and for John Travolta to do exactly this. Now that we’ve seen Elmore Leonard done right with Jackie Brown and especially Out of Sight this one starts to dissipate long before it's over and I think I know why. Barry Sonnenfeld keeps it all on the surface. John Travolta, Rene Russo, and Gene Hackman just coast on movie star charm. They never dial into any character's desperation or transformation. We never see Chili Palmer get entranced by Hollywood. He just starts acting like it’s happened. You can feel what’s missing whenever Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, or especially Denis Farina are on-screen. Between this film and Out of Sight, Denis Farina really might have been our greatest performer of Elmore Leonard characters. Anyway, it’s fun and occasionally very funny. If there is one nomination it really did miss out on it was John Lurie’s score for Comedy or Musical.

Leaving Las Vegas (Mike Figgis): wrote about this elsewhere. Hooker with a Heart of Gold cliche is unavoidable, as well as others. What I find beguiling about the film is the feel of Las Vegas in every corner of the film as well as how tentatively Cage and Shue move towards a relationship. Their “lock-in” is halfway through the damn film! I get lost in it every time I see it.

Heat (Michael Mann): probably just a second viewing for me. It’s a movie that’s easy to get obsessed with. Mike D’Angelo put it well by saying it plays like a first season of a terrific cop show boiled down to a three-hour movie (it started as an un-produced pilot), which backs up something I’ve been thinking for some time: more shows should be movies. I think the reason why Heat just rules is that it always feels like it doesn’t have time for the story that it’s telling, which it turns out is the perfect amount of story for Michael Mann’s mythologizing gaze. It’s a film that’s always hinting at a grander scale. Ask me in another viewing if I think it’s a great American film. Right now, I still just think it’s sweet. Also: staggering that it got zero nominations, especially for Sound. It’s more understandable that this three-hour film missed out on an editing nomination but the way the final shootout shifts POV between DeNiro and Pacino is incredible.

Sense and Sensibility (Ang Lee): probably third viewing. REWRITING MY POST BASED ON TRYING TO UNDERSTAND MY DIMINISHING ENTHUSIASM FOR IT: I think Jane Austen movies can have a winking quality to them because it's very easy for her characters to feel out of time. I like how Ang Lee suppresses that quality into an unescapable melancholy as the Dashwood sisters are dragged from one false hope (in male form) to another. Even though the plotting is a bit eh (Roger Ebert is right re: the male suitors being called away three arbitrarily times) most of the film's emotional heft came from the sympathy I felt for these women forced to be passively plotted along. It's an interesting idea for which Lee is a good match. But while I like the film, there's something unsatisfying about it and I think I know what it is. Emma Thompson really is too old for this part. I never really feel like I'm watching sisters who are in this situation together. Aside from Emma Thompson's crying (very moving), the music does all the heavy lifting at the end to tell me how to feel. Should I watch Persuasion instead?

To Die For (Gus Van Sant): first viewing all the way through. Seen it in bits and pieces on IFC, and of course when it was remade into I, Tonya. Very well-directed and written (man, it zips along). I want to draw attention to one element of Gus Van Sant’s direction. How many times have we seen the “actors playing interview subjects” thing? Whenever Ileana Douglas is on-screen, I really do feel like I’m watching Matt Dillon’s character’s sister. That’s a credit to Douglas and Van Sant’s staging (the ever-so-slightly roaming camera). Nicole Kidman is so terrific I wish the film found a way to give us a little more of a window into her decision-making (that’s why she didn’t get a nomination). There’s a pretty terrific joke in the film’s first act that the reason she’s so doggedly pursuing this career is, well, she already gave a blow job for it on her honeymoon. Can’t turn back now. As soon as Phoenix, Affleck, and Folland show up, it’s clear why Gus Van Sant took the project and it gets a whole new vulnerable energy. I don’t know if it ever quite balances the two tones (arch and ache) but I didn’t care. Another quite good 1995 film.

Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam): probably third viewing. This might be my favorite of these films if only because it’s such a heavy brick of sci-fi dystopia to drop into audience’s laps back in 1995. The fact that it was a hit and they screamed for more is wild. Now that sadly we’re probably at the end of Bruce Willis’ filmography I submit his teary reaction to a 20th-century movie in the backseat to Madeline Stowe (whatever happened to her) as his career-best moment. He is/was able to use his everyman qualities for pathos and weirdness that set him apart from the 80’s/90’s action stars. He really does an excellent job of anchoring this film; cast anyone else and I bet Terry Gilliam’s weirdness would have dwarfed the human element which Willis delivers. As for the film, it’s chockablock with great moves, chief among them the fact that we never see the time-travel. It just disorientingly… happens, which is probably how we would experience such a thing first or secondhand. It’s all quite good until the ending which might be the best piece of filmmaking of Terry Gilliam’s career with its unremitting sadness and mind-melting time loop implications. It was too much for me in 1995. I had nightmares for days. Still troubles me today.

The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer): third or fourth viewing. I noticed something on this viewing. The break into the second act is literally Chazz Palmentari informing Kevin Spacey that he’s smarter than him and he won’t be able to fool him. And then the entire rest of the film is Spacey rising to that challenge. That moment in a film (the break into the second act) is usually the moment that defines the movie we are about to see. Subconsciously, I think that’s why the film works as effectively as it does. It’s just baked into the right moment. Anyway, I’ve never quite been able to embrace or dismiss this film outright because it always feels to me like two great scenes in search of a better movie (the lineup, the ending). I always lose track of what I’m supposed to care about during the film. Spacey wants to tell Palmentari about the caper while Palmentari wants to get the truth out about Gabriel Byrne. And I just never… keep up with it. The importance of these “Usual Suspects” banded never lands for me: what jobs they’re doing and why. Honestly, I wonder if Singer is to blame for that. He’s always been a slick filmmaker. The tagline of Get Shorty is “Attitude is everything” and that might apply well to this one. The reason why I remain in the middle of it is that I can’t deny that it’s a fresh approach to the low-life criminals on a heist sub-genre. It should be enjoyed on those terms. It’s fun.

Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942) 10/10

E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982) 6/10

The Soong Sisters (Mabel Cheung, 1997) 6/10

Sanitized historical film covering sprawling Chinese history takes on a feminist stance in this story about the three United States-educated (Wesleyan College, Georgia) daughters of a very successful businessman - the Soong Sisters. The eldest (Michelle Yeoh) marries an important Chinese banker and politician who was highly influential in determining the economic policies of the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government of the Republic of China in the 1930s and 1940s. The middle sister (Maggie Cheung) defies her father and marries his close friend, Sun Yat-sen, who served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and the first leader of the Nationalist Party of China, and popularly known as the "Father of the Nation" in the Republic of China, and the "Forerunner of the Revolution" in the People's Republic of China. When he dies he is succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek, the military, and
revolutionary leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China. The youngest sister (Vivian Wu) marries him. The internal bickering amongst the sisters forms the often soap opera plot which is at the center of the extraordinary series of historical events their lives took them through. The film ends with Communist leader Mao Zedong announcing the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The film's feminist stance completely ignores the three Soong brothers who played an equally important part in the country's history while censorship in China forced the director to downplay a lot of the bloodshed. Sumptuously produced film plods as it has far too much history to cover in such short a time. While the three stars are very appealing one wonders how this story would have been cast if Hollywood got a hold of it way back in the 1940s - as the three Chinese sisters maybe Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck?

Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) 10/10

"Last Night I dreamt I went to Manderley again….’’. The famous opening words of the novel and film – a tender gothic romance and a haunting ghost story - which transports the viewer back into time as the narrator conjures up the image of a stately mansion called ‘Manderley’’ on the Cornish coast. The narrator of the story is a young woman (Joan Fontaine), a paid companion to an American matron (a hilariously vulgar Florence Bates), whose first name is never mentioned. The story unfolds through her eyes as she describes her sudden meeting and marriage with Max De Winter (Laurence Olivier), owner of a great ancestral home, and a man haunted by something in his past. As his second wife she reluctantly settles into a life totally alien to her as she has to handle the day-to-day affairs of the house with its many servants of whom the most formidable is Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson), the personal maid of the deceased first mistress of the house. She also meets her in-laws (Nigel Bruce & Gladys Cooper) and Rebecca's over-familiar cousin (George Sanders). As she begins to settle down and win over her gruff husband a sinking feeling continues to nag at her. Gradually the shocking mystery of the past is revealed which involves Rebecca - the enigmatic, sophisticated and very beautiful first wife who had died under mysterious circumstances. Hitchcock’s first film in Hollywood and produced by David O’Selznick whose last film – Gone With the Wind – had been a huge success winning many Academy awards including Best Picture. Hitchcock carefully creates his trademark suspense by intentionally keeping the main character in the dark (he told Fontaine that everyone on set hated her including Olivier who had wanted Vivien Leigh to play the part) and since the audience is watching the plot unfold through her eyes the suspense is maintained till the end when all is revealed. The film’s success hinges on the performance of Joan Fontaine – until then an actress who had appeared in only minor films - who rises to the demands of a very difficult role. She perfectly captures the pathetic and shy quality of the character one who gradually begins to come out of her shell. She is extraordinary and matches the performances of her two distinguished co-stars, the simmering and aloof Laurence Olivier and the quietly menacing evil of Judith Anderson. George Barnes' brooding Oscar winning cinematography superbly creates the tense atmosphere which is sustained right to the end while the hauntingly romantic score by Franz Waxman is also memorable. The film won the Oscar for Best Picture while Olivier, Fontaine and Anderson were all nominated for their superb performances.

Drishyam 2 (Abhishek Pathak, 2022) 6/10

A direct sequel to the 2015 crime film which was about the accidental killing of a teenager - the son of the Inspector General of Goa Police (Tabu) - who had taken nude photos of a fellow student and was blackmailing her mother for sex. When the daughter attempts to break his phone she hits him in the head and he dies. Both mother and daughter bury the body in the garden which is later reburied in a different location by the girl's father (Ajay Devgn). The sequel begins seven years later as a witness to the burial comes forward, the dead boy's mother returns seeking vengeance and answers to the mysterious disappearance of the dead body and tries to get help from the new Inspector (Akshaye Khanna). Gripping film has the guilty family staying one step ahead of the cops while managing to spring a couple of shocks and surprises into the case. The film is a pas de deux between the prey (Devgn) and the predator (Tabu) with both actors circling each other in their quest to win. Often suspenseful film is slightly marred by some of the supporting cast members who either overact or underplay along with a plot that has a few too many pot holes.

Born in Flames (1983) - 7/10 - This low budget film features a couple of feminist groups in New York City in a near future society. Two pirate radio stations are in action, women ride in groups on bicycles through the city to protect other women from assault, and there is plenty of political action. More drastic measures are put in play when a major political activist is killed while in police custody. I thought the film was pretty interesting.

Kaddu Beykat (1976) - 7/10 - This film takes place in the director's village in Senegal and depicts the daily life of the villagers there and it also serves as a discussion with some of the problems facing them. Drought has been a problem for several years and the harvests are not providing what they once did. One villager is hoping to get married soon, but doesn't have the money needed for the bride price. He travels to the city (Dakar) to find work, but finds people there who are willing to exploit those who want to work.

Malcolm (1986) - 7.5/10 - Malcolm is a high functioning autistic man who is a mechanical genius loses his job working for a tram company. He takes on a boarder to help make ends meet and the boarder turns out to be a criminal who was recently released from jail. Malcolm uses his inventive genius to help pull off a number of robberies. This was a fun comedy with some quirky inventions to help liven things up.

The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) - 6/10 - An escaped serial killer attacks people at a home where a group of high school girls have gathered for a sleepover. The killer uses a cordless power drill and seemed pretty odd. There is a lot of gratuitous nudity and there are also tons of jump scares. It's not the best slasher film, but was watchable and had some humor, intended or not.

Landscape in the Mist (1988) - 8/10 - Voula is a young girl who goes to the Athens train station with her little brother every day with the idea of boarding the express train to Germany to search for their father. The two kids live with their mother and have never known their father, but she has told them that he is in Germany. They finally take the plunge and start out on their journey, but there are many roadblocks along the way, including not having tickets for the train. I liked this one a lot.

Love Streams (1984) - 8/10 - John Cassavetes stars (and directs) as a Robert, a writer who drinks too much and always is seeking out the company of a number of women. One of his ex-wives shows up one day and drops off the 8 year old son he's never spent time with and he agrees to have him spend the night. He promptly takes the kid to Vegas and essentially abandons him in the hotel room. Robert's sister, Sarah (Gena Rowlands), has mental issues and is going through a divorce as a result. She ends up staying with her brother after the divorce. The film has its ups and downs and there is plenty of humor amidst the pain each is suffering. I enjoyed the film, but I'm sure it isn't for everyone.

Accattone (1961) - 6/10 - Accattone is a lazy pimp who runs into a problem when his prostitute is sent to jail. Since he is apparently allergic to work, he recruits a young woman and has her try selling herself on the streets. I didn't really connect with this one. It seems to be fairly well made, but neither the characters nor the story interested me much.

Charulata (1964) - 8/10 - Charu is an intelligent, but lonely housewife in the 1870s. Her husband spends all of his time with his newspaper and Charu doesn't have much to do with the servants running things in the household. Her quality of life improves with the arrival of her husband's cousin, an intellectual like herself. It's a nice film.

The Mother and the Whore (1973) - 5.5/10 - Perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for this one, but the endless talking usually wasn't all that interesting, especially with a leading character that I didn't care for very much. The really long run time didn't help either.

The Phantom of Liberty (1974) - 8/10 - In Luis Buñuel's penultimate film, we are treated to a series of surrealist sketches that are at times loosely connected. Some of them are funnier than others, but overall it is a pretty entertaining film.

Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) - 6.5/10 - The film started out very well with Julie reading on a park bench and then seeing Céline go by dropping items along the way. The chase scene was fun. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of the film for me along with a few other scenes (such as the library) early in the film. It eventually became much less interesting and I didn't really care about the mystery in the mansion at all.

Le Belle Noiseuse (1991) - 7/10 - A young artist takes his girlfriend to visit a well known, but older artist who hasn't painted for some time. The artist is convince to try and finish a long abandoned piece that could be his masterwork using the girlfriend (Emmanuelle Béart) as the model. There are a number of long shots with the artist sketching or painting and that gets a bit old. The film is also nearly 4 hours in length which is a deterrent. I still found it somewhat interesting, though.

The Long Day Closes (1992) - 7.5/10 - A British schoolboy in the 1950s spends a lot of time at the local cinema. He is bullied at school and has no real friends. It evokes the era pretty well. The soundtrack is very nice. I think that I might grow to like this more if I rewatch it again someday.

Guernsey (2005) - 4.5/10 - This was a pretty dull movie. There were lots of scenes with little to no dialogue or action. There also wasn't much of a discernible plot.

Only Clouds Move the Stars (1998) - 8/10 - A young girl has to cope with losing her little brother to cancer and having her mother sink into depression and essentially abandon the family. An energetic boy that she meets helps bring her out of her gloom, at least for a while.

News from Home (1977) - 7/10 - I thought this was pretty boring at first, but started to get into it more as it went along and was enjoying it by the end. My first visit to New York City wasn't long after this film came out. My family visited the city for the Major League Baseball All Star Game during the summer of 1977 so seeing all of the footage of the city from that time period was cool. I even started getting into the letters from her mother, wondering when she would get her next $20 in the mail.

Gimme Shelter (1970) - 8/10 - This documentary about the free concert that The Rolling Stones put on in San Francisco on December 6, 1969 is pretty interesting. The concert footage is pretty cool and we get some video from the Madison Square Garden concert, too. The behind the scenes footage is maybe even more interesting. I saw The Rolling Stones in concert in the mid-2000s and they put on a good show. Fortunately nobody died at that one.

Every Man for Himself (1980) - 5/10 - An odd film about the sexual lives and interests of several people. It wasn't very good.

Colossal Youth (2006) - 5/10 - After his home is destroyed, a man wanders around the city and talks to various people. It seemed pretty lifeless and wasn't my thing.

WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971) - 3/10 - Part documentary, part fiction, very strange.

Love Me Tonight (1932) - 7.5/10 - I'm not generally much of a Maurice Chevalier fan, but I did enjoy this one where he stars as a tailor who pretends to be a Baron in order to collect a debt from a poor aristocrat. Meanwhile, a princess (Jeanette MacDonald) falls in love with him. The songs were good and there was a fair amount of humor during the film.