Recently Watched Films 2019

[Dan Warburton]

Lodge Kerrigan, Keane, 2004

Until I get to see that Cavalier, Henrik, here's my vote for Film Of The Year (so far). While you wait to see Damian Lewis play Steve McQueen in the next Tarantino (I must say, the resemblance is quite striking), check out his performance here as a young New Yorker fighting serious battles with schizophrenia: it's extraordinary. Filmed almost entirely in close-up - Kerrigan's framing, lighting and movement is masterly, as is his use of sound throughout - Lewis can't afford to make a move wrong, and doesn't: every tiny facial gesture counts, and the tension generated is almost unbearable. We're with him every step of the way, share his pain and confusion, forced to question (as he does) the reality (or not) of his predicament. You might even find yourself talking to the screen (I did): "No, don't do that!" Here's a brief review from Bradshaw in The Guardian to whet your appetite https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/22/drama On the strength of the two Kerrigans I've seen so far - Clean Shaven to come shortly - this guy is definitely one of the finest directors I've come across in recent times. Recommended without the slightest reservation.

[henriq]

Lodge Kerrigan, Keane, 2004

Until I get to see that Cavalier, Henrik, here's my vote for Film Of The Year (so far). While you wait to see Damian Lewis play Steve McQueen in the next Tarantino (I must say, the resemblance is quite striking), check out his performance here as a young New Yorker fighting serious battles with schizophrenia: it's extraordinary. Filmed almost entirely in close-up - Kerrigan's framing, lighting and movement is masterly, as is his use of sound throughout - Lewis can't afford to make a move wrong, and doesn't: every tiny facial gesture counts, and the tension generated is almost unbearable. We're with him every step of the way, share his pain and confusion, forced to question (as he does) the reality (or not) of his predicament. You might even find yourself talking to the screen (I did): "No, don't do that!" Here's a brief review from Bradshaw in The Guardian to whet your appetite https://www.theguardian.com/film/2006/sep/22/drama On the strength of the two Kerrigans I've seen so far - Clean Shaven to come shortly - this guy is definitely one of the finest directors I've come across in recent times. Recommended without the slightest reservation.

Having a look right now with such a write-up. You hadn't seen Martin et Lea? I thought you knew all your Cavaliers. No slight, mind, just hope you like it, and you can see I was totally seduced.

[henriq]

Susanna Fogel - The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

OK, so we all need to decompress a bit at times. About as silly as contemporary Hollywood product gets - a buddy spy comedy with two girls caught up in espionage on the European continent. With mainstream stuff it's all in the professionalism, the industrial detailing and honing that goes on with writing, character, gags, chemistry, whatever. Often it ends up a bit cargo cult - you can always carry away something memorable and lush and worship-worthy from any movie, almost. Something messy and overblown like Fosse's Sweet Charity will still have the awesome Rich Man's Frug number, and John McMartin's glorious claustrophobia in the stalled elevator, for instance. So I approached this a bit the same way and was kind of blown away. And the reason is the glory that is Kate McKinnon. I will go ahead and proclaim her the funniest woman that ever lived - Exhibit A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfPdYYsEfAE - the way she fucks up character for everyone else around her, staying on point throughout, adlibbing her way through the skit and tearing everyone else to shreds. And not Jimmy Fallon cute either: comedy, timing, professionalism all the way. In the present movie she manages to lift everything around her - not that Mila Kunis needs it, she's quite fine - but it is a bit magical the way the comedy, crude as it is, is massaged and lifted to a shimmering height. I read a Swedish critic at the time of release who talked about almost an obsession with McKinnon, hunting down other bits and pieces of hers (Youtube ftw, go trawl!), unable to get her out of mind, and I can only agree. I dare and defy anyone not to fall in love with her. See, I watched it late last night and told myself not to write anything right away, so as not to gush. And here I am, the next day, gushing. Glorious, summing up.

[Dan Warburton]

Yeah, well you might want to wait a bit before you watch that Kerrigan I'd give this a miss though



Clarence Brown, A Free Soul, 1931

I suspect that, despite her good looks, Norma Shearer wouldn't have lasted long if she hadn't been Mrs Thalberg. She can stand hands on hips looking butch all right, but she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. All the more glaringly evident when she has to deliver a stupidly wordy script trying in vain to hold together a ridiculously implausible plot. No way any woman in her right mind could fall for Clark Gable (whose performances as villains are always better than his heroes) - but you wish he'd shot the perenially irritating Leslie Howard instead of the other way round. Oh sorry am I spoiling this for you? Well, if you're inclined to watch it after reading the above, your problem mate. Want a good Gable PreCode? Try Night Nurse

[Dan Warburton]

Bae Young-Kyun, Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East?, 1989

If you don't have time to listen to the several hundred hours' worth of online Alan Watts podcasts, here's your 2.5 hour Buddhist primer par excellence. Only slightly spoiled by rather intrusive synth soundtrack.

[Dan Warburton]

Ryszard Bugajski, Przesłuchanie ("Interrogation"), 1982

Excellent. A disturbing tale of a cabaret singer plied with drink and taken away for interrogation in early 50s Stalinist Poland. Needless to say it escaped destruction by the skin of its teeth when martial law was declared in that country just as it came out - circulated on VHS it quickly gained cult status and well deserved, too. The (free of course) KG torrent also includes a good bonus interview with the director. Stellar performance from Krystyna Janda. Check out.

[Dan Warburton]

Nick Millard, Howard Hughes The Man and the Madness, 1999

Rather run-of-the-mill biodocumentary about a most-definitely-not-run-of-the-mill character. Shame we couldn't get to see his fingernails. Or get any real interviews with the inner circle of (extremely well-paid) "carers" who basically let the silly old bugger die slowly. Might make you want to rewatch Hell's Angels or Scarface again (the original, dummies, not the Oliver Stone shitpile with Pacino), but apart from that I can't see much use for it, myself

[Dan Warburton]

Bruce McDonald, Pontypool, 2008

Not the boring little town in the armpit of Wales, but a town 50 km north-east of Toronto. Not that you actually see the place in this film, most of which takes place inside a local radio station where DJ Grant Mazzy (played very well by Steven McHattie, who I also enjoyed in Watchmen) has the unenviable task of reporting on what seems to be a language-born virus that transforms the locals into zombies. Hum. Yes, as WSB opined, language is a virus from outer space. Seems though it's only English that drives the locals to charge into plate glass windows and bleed profusely. Strange tale, but it must be the only zombie movie that quotes Roland Barthes. Yes, it's that weird. Some folks over at IMDb seem to love it, but I found it rather boring and confusing. McHattie's got a great voice, though, fwiw

[henriq]

Bruce McDonald, Pontypool, 2008

Not the boring little town in the armpit of Wales, but a town 50 km north-east of Toronto. Not that you actually see the place in this film, most of which takes place inside a local radio station where DJ Grant Mazzy (played very well by Steven McHattie, who I also enjoyed in Watchmen) has the unenviable task of reporting on what seems to be a language-born virus that transforms the locals into zombies. Hum. Yes, as WSB opined, language is a virus from outer space. Seems though it's only English that drives the locals to charge into plate glass windows and bleed profusely. Strange tale, but it must be the only zombie movie that quotes Roland Barthes. Yes, it's that weird. Some folks over at IMDb seem to love it, but I found it rather boring and confusing. McHattie's got a great voice, though, fwiw

Yes, and is the one point connecting Seinfeld to David Cronenberg. No points for guessing the connection...

[Piano Mouth]

Roma



Not sure why it's called Roma, must've missed something. Really cool long panning shots of sidewalk scenery, set in 1970/71 in Mexico, it follows an upper middle class family and their two maids Cleo and the other maid. It focuses on Cleo and her one night stand with Fermin which leads to something, can ya guess what, and it's a straight up story and can be emotional to watch at times. Gorgeous lens work, without being too accurate or focused.

Shoplifters



This was better than I thought it would be. Koreeda helms another gem, with skill. This one cuts deeper and digs further in emotions than his other films. Very serious and fucked up family situations unravel and secrets are exposed in the last thirty minutes of the film. It's hard to tell if these characters are good or bad, and I found it hard to decide whether to like them or not. Maybe I liked some of them, some of the time. For a more comedic Koreeda experience, one should check out After Life. It's a fake documentary about people who get to choose a video segment of their life to see when they die. There are interviews and funny stories about past experiences and memories, and is all around quite a chuckle!

happy watching 2019

-maRK

[walto]

Yeah, well you might want to wait a bit before you watch that Kerrigan I'd give this a miss though



Clarence Brown, A Free Soul, 1931

I suspect that, despite her good looks, Norma Shearer wouldn't have lasted long if she hadn't been Mrs Thalberg. She can stand hands on hips looking butch all right, but she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. All the more glaringly evident when she has to deliver a stupidly wordy script trying in vain to hold together a ridiculously implausible plot. No way any woman in her right mind could fall for Clark Gable (whose performances as villains are always better than his heroes) - but you wish he'd shot the perenially irritating Leslie Howard instead of the other way round. Oh sorry am I spoiling this for you? Well, if you're inclined to watch it after reading the above, your problem mate. Want a good Gable PreCode? Try Night Nurse

I agree that she's probably the weakest cast member in "The Women" (a movie I love).

[Antoine]

Jodorowsky's Dune (Frank Pavich, 2013)
A documentary about a film never made: Jodorowsky adapting Dune. Extreme ambition, failure and surviving influence.

[Antoine]

Free Solo (Jimmy Chin & Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, 2018)
This doc follows Alex Honnold in his quest to climb El Capitan, a 3000ft wall in Yosemite Park, without safety gear or ropes.
As a mountain fan and as I have vertigo, I was quite curious about this film, which managed to make me very uncomfortable (sweatened hands and all), which is kind of stupid as I'm sitting in a couch watching a movie. I already had the same experience with Zemekis' "The Walk", though Free Solo is a bit better.
In the end, more a rollercoaster experience than a cinema experience. Still, cinema aside, the performance and the level of difficulty are impressive.

[Antoine]

Not sure why it's called Roma

According to imdb:
"The title refers to the Colonia Roma, a neighborhood in Mexico City. In the 1970s depicted in the film, the area was a polarized mixture of rich and poor classes. Today, it is known for being a hipster district."

[henriq]

Jon Jost - The Bed You Sleep In (1993)

A beautiful film. Consisting both of a carefully elaborated frame and the emotionally devastating narrative it contains, the form of the film mellifluous. Let’s start with the frame, the lacunae that carries and subtends the narrative. An audiovisual thinking informed as much by Ozu (lots of pillow shot punctuations), Straub/Huillet, structuralist stuff like James Benning (think the symmetry of El Valley Centro) late Godard (both in the sensuous materialism of the imagery and the videographic trickery that Jost sometimes employs). And then the narrative. Tom Blair as the sawmill owner struggling to keep both business and community afloat in the currents of both globalisation and gradual deforestation and depletion – hit with an accusation of incest from his daughter that ultimately tears him and everything around him to shreds. Unlike Thomas Vinterberg’s great Jagten, somewhat similarly themed, the accusation isn’t qualified one way or the other, but no less real for everyone involved. Tom Blair is great, but the prize in this film goes to playwright Ellen McLaughlin in the role of Jean, the wife of the accused. She is devastating, as is the place she finds herself in: caught in an absolute love for both husband and her adopted daughter, there isn’t a side to pick, yet she can’t not believe either of them. Tom Blair’s fervent denial is as real to her as the accusations are, as indeed they are to the daughter. Truth or delusion? We are not told, as it lies completely outside the remit of the film. If you haven’t seen it or don’t remember the details I won’t spoil it completely, save to say that it is unspeakably sad. Around this framework Jost essays a thinking around precarity, labor, community and globalisation. And of the darkness and violence lurking within families: the accusations levelled against Blair’s Ray are, as pointed out, never resolved, and a brilliant scene in the film foreshadows this theme: a friend of McLaughlin’s Jean confides about her recently unemployed husband, and the despondency and violence that ensues and mires him and the family around him. Wonderful how sensuous lyricism to the one side chimes with the brutality and harshness of the subject matter: Jost is a master.

[Dan Warburton]

Georges Lautner, L'oeil du monocle, 1962

Totally daft - you can see where later silly French spy films like OSS117 came from - but just the ticket after the first four seasons of Breaking Bad

[Dan Warburton]

Thomas McGuane, 92° In The Shade, 1975

It's a bit ragged and sprawling - put that down, perhaps, to inviting the author of the novel to direct without any prior experience - and a better quality print wouldn't go amiss either, but any film featuring Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Peter Fonda, Margot Kidder, Joe Spinell and Burgess Meredith is definitely worth a look.

[Dan Warburton]

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Boycott, 1985

Shame the only available copy I can find over at KG is so awful, because this is terrific: a bona fide political spy thriller complete with bloody shootouts, exciting car chases and some prison interior shots as good as anything that ever came out of Hollywood. Well worth suffering a grainy image and often incomplete hardsubs, imo.

[Dan Warburton]

Hirokazu Koreeda, Shoplifters, 2018

A worthy winner of the Palme d'Or last year, indeed. Beautifully done at every level, the way the story unfolds gradually and somewhat elliptically, the minimal dialogue delivered with precision and elegance by an excellent cast, subtle (for once) use of music, and an eye for detail - both cinematic and societal - worthy of Ozu. First Koreeda I've seen - thanks to my son for hipping me to this one, and to Mark for writing it up earlier - and certainly not the last.

[Dan Warburton]

Christopher Miles, The Maids, 1975

Ah, happy times, when money was made available to a decent director and a great cast to take a piece of genuinely avant garde theatre and make a feature-length film of it (you can check out Billy Friedkin's take on Pinter's The Birthday Party too.. it's a shame they never got to do Godot.. or maybe it isn't, on second thoughts). Here a stellar trio of superb actresses - Glenda Jackson, Susannah York and Vivien Merchant - attack Jean Genet's 1947 sadomaso psychodrama with scenery-chewing relish, with Douglas Slocombe behind the camera. Apart from some exterior shots in Paris (the flat is supposed to be on Place Vendôme, which is funny as the building it's in is in fact the headquarters of JP Morgan these days.. don't think anyone has ever lived there) it's a tense, interior huis clos. Very fine.