So whenever I see something worth blogging about- a great old movie I've seen, a newer movie that doesn't make me roll my eyes, one of the silver screen greats passing away, a notable anniversary, or anytime something pops into my black and white mind- you can read about it here.
To get things started, how's about my thoughts on some movies I saw in 2015?
I'd heard my gay mates and reviewers everywhere talk about how great this movie was. But because I have an aversion to movies where pretty people get to live fantastic gay lives that just make me envious, I sort of avoided it. I shouldn't have. There's nothing to envy in this dark romance. Weekend is equal parts hopeful love story and tragic, fatalistic love story. Not since Midnight Cowboy (1969) have I gotten a boner and cried all in the same movie.
Note- Do not watch this film with a man you've just fallen in love with who lives in another country, so you can't really be together. Trust me.
I love female gothic films. I've written papers on them. Female gothic films are to me what pizza is to fat kids. So I had to see this movie. Like a more spectral version of Rebecca (1940), Deborah Kerr is a governess who heads to a lonely manse in the countryside of England to take care of two creepy kids who seem like pint-sized adults. Things soon start going bump in the night and Deborah gets to walk through dark halls with candles questioning her own sanity. The look and sound of the film are terrifying and Deborah Kerr is always worth the price of admission.
I don't normally do kids movies, but the aforementioned foreign man who has become my boyfriend loves them. So I went, and like just about everyone else in the world, was charmed by this imaginative depiction of how our inner lives grow from childhood. What makes the concept of the different "emotional voices" work spectacularly is the voice casting. Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling are all the embodiment of their various animated emotions. And Richard Kind as the manifestation of our unleashed childhood imagination was so spot-on that I could swear I heard Bing-Bong in my own head after I left the movie. This one will take the Best Animated Feature Oscar at this year's awards easily (Sorry, Minions). It might even nab a Best Picture nom. Not bad for a kiddie movie.
I'm intrigued by Hollywood films about race and one groundbreaking film I'd always heard about was Pinky. Based on the novel by Cid Ricketts Sumner (who names their kid Ricketts?), the film stars Jeanne Crain as a light-skinned black woman who returns to her hometown to see her mother (Ethel Waters) who is devastated to find out that her daughter has been "passing" as white. But the racist, old bat neighbor nee plantation owner (played deliciously by Ethel Barrymore- two Ethels in one movie!) needs a nurse- so this is a chance for Jeanne to figure out whether she is black or white. Along with films like Imitation of Life (1934), Hollywood seemed unable to really address the race issue without easing into it with plotlines involving people who were black- but not black. While it might seem dated and colorblind to the real issues, it is interesting to watch America's struggle with race relations play out on the big screen.
Modern horror movies usually leave me pretty cold. They seem obsessed with gore and violation of women, and quite frankly, I get enough of that watching the Republican debates. But It Follows is different. This movie takes the familiar horror trope of punishing teens who have premarital sex to a whole new level. Poor Jay (Maika Monroe) is hot and bored, so of course she winds-up having sex with the boy she has a thing for. The problem is she awakens to find herself being chased by a naked spirit that only she can see. How can she get rid of it? She has to have sex with someone else which will pass the relentless, clothing-averse spook onto them. The moral question is scrumptious and the Kubrickian camerawork and John Carpenter homage score make this film legitimately scary.
Like modern horror, modern comedies often leave me scratching my head saying, "What was so funny?" I'm more of a Preston Sturges than a Seth Macfarlane. But this movie about two horribly damaged adult siblings was funny... and sad. It's also sad. Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader are so wonderfully connected and yet disconnected as the titular twins. Hader plays Milo without all the effete giggling of his famous Stefan character and Wiig has grown into an actress with chops bigger than her SNL: Weekend Update beginning. The emotional tie between these two feels real- and while something feeling "real" on-screen is not a pre-requisite for cinematic success- in a story that hinges on the relationship between two such oddball characters, it does elevate the film above simple comedy.
Matt Damon plays Ripley from the Alien movies only without any alien. This film is the thinking man's space thriller with the focus being on problem-solving rather than explosions. If it weren't for Damon's charming screen persona, this movie would have held all the interest of a NASA training film about the benefits of duct tape. Ridley Scott makes everything look properly cinematic and with all the popular support, expect this film to land a Best Picture and Best Director nom at this year's Academy Awards. But seriously, after seeing what Cuaron did with Gravity (2013), I expected something more... and if Matt Damon was stranded alone on another planet, wouldn't he wear pants less often?
This would have to be my pick for my favorite movie I saw last year. One of my old Hollywood mentors, Steve Vaught- Hollywood Historian sent me home from Palm Springs with the Criterion DVD of Brute Force, and I am so happy I shoved it into my carry-on. Jules Dassin directs this gritty look at the male prison system without all the camp one-liners and Edward G. Robinson tough guys that usually populate earlier prison films. Burt Lancaster (He's in prison... of course I'm watching) keeps trying to break out, but power-hungry prison captain Munsey (a truly evil performance from Hume Cronyn) always gets his man. But can anyone ever stop Burt Lancaster from getting what he wants? Dassin helped institutionalize cinema verite qualities in noir and this film is a high-point for his career. These men are complicated. The prison system is complicated. This movie is not. It works simply to convey the complexity of its topic. With great work from an ensemble cast full of "isn't he's?", I was riveted... and not just because Burt takes his shirt off.
You know that movie that everyone was crowing about because it was shot entirely on an iPhone? This is that movie. I'll be honest. I'm not impressed by the idea that something was shot on a phone. Movies should look like movies, not like a click-bait Youtube channel. But just as movie pioneers lugged giant, boxy film cameras up mountains and through deserts to create movies, director Sean Baker has upped his cellplan and turned out a compelling piece of modern verite. Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) has just been released from jail and is shocked to hear from her best friend Alexandra (Maya Taylor) that her pimp boyfriend has been cheating on her. What follows is a modern-day trans odyssey for truth, love, and a Los Angeles donut shop. As Baker's phone runs all over L.A. in the pursuit of these harried people, we get the sense that the veil between make-believe Hollywood and real life has been pierced- if only for one Christmas Eve. Caitlyn Jenner is campaigning heavily for the movie and its leads- but you shouldn't expect too much Oscar love for this little gem.
Well, that was some of what I saw in 2015.
What do you think?
I really enjoyed "The Martian" too - I went to see at a majestic old cinema in Wellington, NZ, when I was visiting in September 2015.
ReplyDeleteI need to check out "The Innocents", "It Follows" and "Brute Force" - thanks for the recommendations.