I watched First Man on HBO last night. I loved it!
I was a little guarded going in as I’d heard some negative reviews and I was buying into them for a little while; it’s a very slow moving, artistically shot, well performed movie that takes a bit of effort to get into. As a character piece I thought it was outstanding and Gosling does a fantastic job as the stoic, cool as a cucumber, egg-headed, sympathetic hero Armstrong. What I liked most about the film is how rickety and dangerous they made space travel seem. No other movie about space travel has given me such a sense of the claustrophobia they had to deal with. The problem-solving on the fly in the middle of seat-of-your pants action came off as so real, rather than the, “I’ve solved the problem!” Dudley-Do-Right reaction you’d get from a lesser movie.
I do wonder why they turned Buzz Aldrin into such a dick, though.
I was disappointed in First Man, as I’ve posted before. Too often it felt like a better title would’ve been Neil Armstrong’s Emotionally-Barren Marriage. But the portrayal of Aldrin wasn’t too far off the mark, from all I’ve read.
My latest five:
Buckaroo Banzai
Rewatched this favorite of mine, a hip, very funny Eighties sf spoof with oddball characters (John Lithgow really should’ve gotten an Oscar for his scenery-chewing as Dr. Emilio Lizardo), an exuberantly silly plot and lots of throwaway gags.
Yesterday
A young British street musician has a bike accident and wakes up to find that he’s the only man in the world who remembers the Beatles. Some nice moments, but not nearly as good as it could have been.
True Lies
Another favorite, with superspy Ahnuld taking on terrorists with nukes at the same time as he tries to save his marriage. A near-perfect blend of action, comedy and romance.
For All Mankind
Oscar-nominated documentary about the Apollo Program. Beautiful space imagery and narration by many of the NASA astronauts.
Hannibal
Grisly, chilling, pretty good but not perfect sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, with Special Agent Starling’s FBI career in the dumps and Dr. Lecter hiding out in Florence, Italy. Julianne Moore does well in the Starling role, replacing Jody Foster, and Gary Oldman is unrecognizable but spooky as the Lecter-mutilated billionaire who *really *wants to catch him.
The Souvenir. Honor Swinton Byrne is a young woman with issues. She’s flopping around in film school and she starts seeing a man. And the man is a really poor choice for a companion. (“Lover”/etc. doesn’t really fit this guy.)
Base on the writer/director’s real life experience as a film school student, etc. in early 80s London. Weirdly retro.
Note the middle name of the actress. Daughter of Tilda. Who plays the mother in the film. (And Tilda’s two dogs appear in the film as well.) Martin Scorsese is somehow attached to it.
Seems like it has possibilities. But, no. It just plods along. The actors speak too slowly. Things drag on. The poor woman just semi-fails at everything. Very depressing. In short: Some people make bad choices that have crappy results. Nothing new to see here, move along.
Like other films we’ve watched recently, it does have a nice, eclectic soundtrack however. But the clips from the better songs are surprisingly short.
Echo in the Canyon. A documentary on the mid-60s Los Angeles music scene, when the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Mamas and the Papas and the Beach Boys were all next-door neighbors in LA’s Laurel Canyon. It mixes vintage film performances with current interviews of many of the principals (plus Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty) plus performance of the music by Jakob Dylan, Regina Spektor, Beck, and more.
This is the music of my youth so I loved that…but also the interviews were fascinating and the modern performances excellent. Plus: it’s short, < 90 minutes. I can’t remember the last time a movie ended and I was caught by surprise. “That’s it? It’s over already??”
A pair of childhood friends who lost contact with each other meet again. Movie ensues. Supposedly a romcom.
The good news. Mostly a great cast. The leads Ali Wong and Randall Park are top notch. James Saito as Park’s dad and Michelle Buteau as Wong’s assistant/pal are notable.
The bad news. With one exception, the storyline is just generic. (Almost) nothing surprising happens. Boring.
The exception: Keanu But even then while it’s not predictable, it doesn’t really work, story-wise.
A note on the over used “wacky” character. Yeah, it has one of those. There’s wacky and then there’s “wacky”. In this case it means someone who is just weird for weirdness sake. Suppose to be comic relief. But no actual humor is introduced. Okay, so they say dumb things. But dumb does not always mean funny.
Contrast with the character Allison on Grace and Frankie. It’s not just that she says odd things out of left field, it’s the absurdity of those things. Stuff that just makes you go “Wow!”. Often quite original.
Give it 2 Gooby/GUBI chairs. Whatever those are. Just for the main cast.
Glory
Saw the 30th anniversary theatrical re-release of this great Civil War film, my favorite of them all. A terrific cast (Denzel Washington got an Oscar playing a rebellious escaped-slave-turned-soldier), exciting battle scenes and a deeply moving story.
Crisis
A Robert Drew-directed 1963 documentary about JFK’s confrontation with Gov. George Wallace over the integration of the University of Alabama. A remarkable you-are-there look at a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
A fun 1950s Disney quasi-steampunk film adaptation of the Jules Verne novel. James Mason is great as Capt. Nemo, but Kirk Douglas steals every scene as a rowdy sailor.
Super Troopers
Raunchy, raucous, very funny comedy about prankster Vermont cops who from time to time actually do their jobs.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s latest, about an aging TV actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) coming to realize he’s past his prime, and his tough stuntman pal (Brad Pitt), getting caught up on the fringes of Charles Manson’s cult in 1969 Tinsel Town. The ending is a bit over the top, but I really enjoyed it.
MotW: Plus One (2019). Two friends agree to be each other’s date for a lot of weddings.
(We’re going to a wedding real soon, so this was “research”. Hope the speeches there are a lot better than most of the ones shown in the movie.)
The guy is Jack Quaid. Son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan. Don’t know him. Does an okay job. His character has Daddy and commitment issues. Pretty much a loser. (So it’s When Harry Met Sally/A lot more than Four Weddings and no Funeral or some such?)
The gal is Maya Erskine. Daughter of jazz drummer Peter Erskine. Does a fairly good job. Her character is a crazy, alcoholic type. The kind even a loser would know to stay away from. So their relationship is problematic.
The guy’s dad is Ed Begley, Jr. Son of …, well duh. I guess you had to be the child of a performer to star in this. Fun fact: only one of these parents has won an Oscar. Guess which one?
There there is an immense cast due to the necessity of having little to no intersection between weddings. Amazing they could pull this off.
Anyway. Sort of well acted and all that. Funny at times. Borderline psychotic at others. Don’t see the love that gives it a 89% RT score.
Give it 3 dying flowers. (And that’s a bit generous.)
The Big Hack, on Netflix. A sobering look at Cambridge Analytica’s criminal shenanigans, the willingness of politicians to be complicit in it, and at just how vulnerable we all are to data theft.
Jackie Brown
Quentin Tarantino’s only book adaptation, about an aging stewardess trying to outmaneuver a ruthless gun-runner with the help of a bail bondsman who’s got a thing for her. Great cast, great script, lots of twists and turns, funny and violent.
Super Troopers 2
Semi-competent, prankster Vermont state troopers have to win over the locals after a boundary adjustment brings a Canadian town into the state. Not as funny as the first movie, but it has its moments.
The Terminal
Pretty good Tom Hanks tragicomedy about a foreigner stranded for months in an NYC airport after a revolution in his home country leaves him stateless.
Mad Max
The original, which I hadn’t seen since college - painfully low-budget and almost quaint. Not really worth seeing again.
Manhunter
One of the first serial killer/profiler films, with a stylish, very Miami Vice vibe. The film marks the screen debut of Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played well by Brian Cox, but quite a bit differently from Anthony Hopkins’s iconic performance).
Was travelling last weekend. On the plane we watched two films.
Going: Young Frankenstein. Still just absolutely great after all these years. Except for that scene with the Boyle and Kahn. I don’t care if it’s 1974 or 1794, that’s not something to joke about.
Given how much older Cloris Leachman looks than the other cast members, you’d figure she’d be long dead. But she wasn’t even 50 yet.
I loved the “Abbie Normal” bit so much that I had named my phone years ago this since it was assembled from various parts.
Coming back: Big. Yeah, this is still good, too. In particular, I had forgotten what a great job Elizabeth Perkins. At times harsh, serious, soft, funny, etc.
So Josh’s friend leaves him that first night at the flophouse at night in a terrible neighborhood and somehow gets home safely? Without any parental concern? How?
Watched “Rumble” a couple of days ago. A really good documentary about the history of Native Americans in the music industry. “Rumble”, of course, refers to the ground-breaking song by Shawnee musician Link Wray. Today, it doesn’t sound all that unusual, but back then nobody had even heard of a power chord. The film covers artists from the early part of the 20th century through recent times. Groups like Redbone, artists like Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, drummer Robby Robertson, Randy Castillo, etc. See the trailer here.
The Mule - Clint Eastwood plays a horrible husband/father/grandfather who stumbles his way into money by running drugs for a Mexican cartel. Bradley Cooper pays the fed trying track the shipments and nail the cartel, playing unwitting cat and mouse with his prey Eastwood. Along the way they both learn an important lesson about connecting with one’s family. And Clint Eastwood has two three-ways with four different gorgeous women.
Here’s the thing, the majority of the movie is just “look how cool it is to run drugs for a cartel when you’re an old fart like Clint Eastwood,” at least until all the shit hits all the fans, with the “connecting with one’s family bit” just sort of shoe-horned in in a few spots.
I’ll probably watch it again, but it’s no great shakes.
The Other Side of Hope - 8/10 - Very good, touching movie. I wish it would have went on a little longer, because it was good, but also for resolve.
Lights in the Dusk - 6.5/10 - Kaurismaki usually has a positive to all the conflict, so this was quite a departure, and hence, probably my least favorite drama out of the 15 I’ve seen of his.
Le Havre - 7.5/10 - I wish there was more connecting, between Marcel/wife, and Marcel/Idrissa, but I loved the inner warmth, and the warmth to those around them, even if it wasn’t “professional” (I hate that word so much - which is usually a euphemism and an excuse to be “do-nothing” type of person)
Man Without A Past - 7.5/10
Drifting Clouds - 7.5/10
As usual, I’ve watched a ton of movies lately, but I can only remember a couple of them. I recently clipped my YouTubeTV (streaming, basically a straight up replacement for a cable package) so now my daily streaming service is PlutoTV (free on Roku/PS4/otheres), and I have Netflix, Hulu and I’m the middle of a month free of Amazon Prime.
With that, the movies I can recall watching in the last week are:
** Stir Crazy**, with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, a really weird movie, rated R that feels like a TV sitcom somehow. “That’s right, that’s right … we bad …” I love it.
And yesterday, for some reason I had an urge to watch Star Trek: First Contact. I was never that big of a STNG fan, but I’d seen this one years before and I remembered enjoying it, so I fired it up. I enjoyed it again. I like seeing the origin stories of the warp drive and contact with the Vulcans. Fun movie with requisite amount of pathos to keep you biting your fingernails.
Oh yeah, I just remembered, I watched Dumb and Dumber (at least most of it) last night as well. I was futzing around online and I wanted to just have something on that I’d seen before and since I was on a 90’s kick, I plucked this one. Holy shit, that’s funny goddamned movie.
Last night watched Woodstock or Bust. Big mistake. Even 5 minutes in I was thinking this wasn’t going to go well. I had to search around for reviews and found some that were generally quite good even if they seemed to have small reservations. No, this is a crappy movie.
Two idiot teens ( who have time-traveled from 2019 to 1969 ;)) go on a road trip from Portland to Woodstock. “Events” ensue.
Terrible script, terrible direction, terrible acting (mostly). Just the fact that these teens act and talk just like today’s teens is a big issue. No one did any research for the script or their roles??? Girls in 1969 Portland did not talk that way. The script and acting would be out of place for 2009 Portland. Egad.
All overwrought and cheaply done. Since it’s a low budget period road trip film you know the rule: No shots of major highways like interstates. So lots of travel on remote two lane roads. Avoiding I-80N (as it was known then) while traveling across a good chunk of Oregon to get to New York in a hurry is the smart thing to do! Plus a lot of up-angle shots of people so that the modern stuff around won’t be seen.
The whole 1969 and Woodstock thing was irrelevant to the movie. They could have set the whole thing in the present day and saved trouble. The Viet Nam references included were childishly written so dropping them would be a plus.
There was one small bright spot. Teddy Van Ee who plays a teen that joins them for some of the latter part of the film. He clearly knows how to act and to play a character. (Or is that more than one character?)
And just for him and the Oregon scenery, I’ll give it one toe.
A week ago we watched When Harry Met Sally for the first time in a while. Now this is a classic movie. It was a smart choice picking a lot of classic tunes for the soundtrack. That helps make it immortal.
Tigers Are Not Afraid (95% RT)
A 12 year old girl goes on a quest through a dystopian landscape in the slums of Mexico City. One of the year’s best. It’s a mix of the magical and horrific (but warning: it’s subtitled). I think if you are a fan of Pan’s Labyrinth, you’ll be a fan of this film, but yes-
Small children are murdered just as in Del Toro’s film. This is on my highly recommended list.
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (92% RT)
I went into this documentary only knowing a little bit about this man. The film reveals a truly protean, driven talent who was unable to overcome the demons that drove him to drugs and domestic abuse. The documentary’s details of his foundational contributions to what jazz, funk, and hip-hop are today are truly astounding. The self destructive thread that weaves through his story is not papered over. A fascinating look at an important artist.
Official Secrets (No RT Rating)
A well acted whistleblower drama. Keira Knightley gives a particularly good performance as the young woman who, as the film states, places protecting her country above protecting the government. I saw it on the Westside, so it wasn’t surprising that there was loud applause as the credits rolled. Trigger warning:
For conservatives: Facts have a liberal bias, and as far as I can tell from some Wikipedia research, this film is completely factual, including the depiction of a frantic dash to save her husband from sudden deportation shortly after she is arrested
Give Me Liberty (91% RT)
A little film with a big heart. A young man copes with his extended family as he tries to work his job transporting disabled folks to various appointments and events. In the end, it becomes a specific tale illuminating the human experience that crosses all cultures, ethnicities, and races. Another one that makes my highly recommended list, but not likely to be around long in the theaters and then only in the art houses.
Before You Know It (83% RT)
A nice little picture set in the artsy New York setting, but really well acted and with a central relationship between two sisters really well drawn. It’s not a surprising film and if you don’t like the indie genre of New Yorkers living New York lives, this one won’t be something you will enjoy. Is it worth seeing? The performances, particularly the two sisters, tips it into the worth watching column.
First Contact is actually my favorite ST movie. I’d give it a slight edge over Wrath of Khan, which is my personal runner-up.
My favorite moment in Dumb and Dumber - a very funny movie indeed - is when they’re trying to drink from squeeze bottles in the diner, with the streams of ketchup and mustard going up in mid-air, to deal with the hot peppers they’ve just eaten. The first time I saw that I thought I just might wet my pants, I was laughing so hard.
My latest five:
Batman
The 1989 Michael Keaton version, which I saw with the soaring Danny Elfman orchestral score performed live. Haven’t seen it in years but it holds up pretty well, other than some iffy sfx.
The Road Warrior
Mel Gibson’s second outing as Mad Max, with the worn-down Australian ex-cop trying to help an embattled desert colony. Hokey but with great action sequences.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Gibson’s third and final time in the role, taking on Tina Turner’s scheming queen of Bartertown. Definitely sillier than the others and with something of a third-act letdown, but still worth a look.
Paris is Burning
Interesting 1990 documentary on the NYC drag/vogue/ballroom subculture of the late Eighties, overshadowed by AIDS and homophobia but still defiant and feisty.
Red Dragon
Scary, well-crafted prequel to Silence of the Lambs, including a prologue showing how Dr. Hannibal Lecter got caught by the FBI. Much better, I’d say, than the earlier adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel, Manhunter.
