The Current Cinema 18.8

Shirkers

Any true film lover remembers their angst-ridden, teenage experimentation with making their own film. I almost want to forget my very black and white Cassavetes-like attempt with two friends that featured an unbroken 20 minute dialogue scene as they played pool and didn't sink a single ball. It had its charming moments, too. Sandi Tan's "Shirkers" is just as painfully awkward a documentation of this experimentation as any, but her story is tinged with the miraculous as well. She and her friends did make a film, then lost it due to mania, and then found it again, albeit in an altered format. Also titled "Shirkers", Tan builds her current documentary around this episode in her young life when she and her friends wrote, directed and financed a film that many regard as something that could have shifted Malaysian independent film for its freewheeling attitude and punk rock aesthetic. Tan uses excerpts from her 'lost' film to study the dynamics of her life (especially with older man and mentor Georges Cardona) and her relationship with film history. Part self essay and part investigative journalism, "Shirkers" is a completely enveloping experience. It's a shame we won't ever see her fully embodied film, but perhaps she's assembled the next greatest thing- something couched in-between reality and the rose-tainted memories of those involved like a faded fairy tale complete with cinematic heroes and villains.

Widows

"Widows" is a heist film whose gritty genre edges are complimented by strong characterizations that emphasize the poignancy of grief, gender, race and inhumanity often left wasted on the curb in other crime efforts. It does open and begin with a bang- fulfilling its meaty compromise of action- but the other two-thirds is a sharp and knotty thriller that weaves political corruption, hard nosed violence and the sheer determination of Viola Davis willing her cohorts (an excellent Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Erivo) to pull off the impossible. Directed by Steve McQueen, "Widows" is also visually intelligent, such as one shot that seems extraneous, but soon reveals itself to be an insidious visual commentary on the short distance between the 'haves' and the 'havenots'. Brimming with such visual flourishes, "Widows" sets itself apart from other moribund crime efforts because it seems to care about every aspect. With a script by GIllian Flynn to enhance McQueen's eye, it's a blistering and completely perfect example of genre wrinkled inside-out to reveal the beating heart that must exist to make the genre stakes so compelling.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

A film of "almost" for me. While Melissa McCarthy gives a tremendously understated performance as the down-on-her-luck author who resorts to pandering forged letters by renowned literary greats, "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" shuffles along so quietly that its impact feels muted. Based on a true story and filming in the dark corners of New York City dive bars and bug infested apartments, its milieu is potent, but its still just "almost" great.

Best Performances of 2018, so far

With only a couple months left in the movie-going season, some of the studio's biggest potential knockout performances are still en route. However, surveying the past 10 months of the year, here are a few performances that stand out for me (unranked):

Maura Tierney, in "Beautiful Boy"- Naturally, Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamat provide a good majority of the emotional fireworks in "Beautiful Boy", an adaptation of the best selling memoir about drug addiction that posits the two actors in various shades of meltdown and catharsis (and some very big Acting Moments). It's Maura Tierney's supporting background role as the stepmother to Chalamat's destructive young 'un that stuck with me long after seeing the film. In a role that could've been designed in formulaic overlays, Tierney inhabits her role with various degrees of invincibility, anger, understanding and nuance that, for me, pushed the film into bearable enjoyment outside of its dour subject matter and powerful method acting.

Jonah Hill, in "Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot" - Actor Hill is having quite the monumental year. Debuting as a director with his personal micro-indie "Mid90's" a few months back (which, if you haven't seen it, is very good and boasts an impressive editing style that rightly just received a Spirit Award nomination), Hill also gave one of the year's more memorable performances in Gus vanSant's "Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot". Though the film can and went with very little fanfare, it's worth seeking out because of Hill's gentle and almost spiritual role as the self help guru who tries to get the lives of his addict followers back on track. The way he dresses and moves, at first, seems like a put-on, but Hill slowly turns the character (based on real life) into someone achingly genuine.

Lady Gaga, in "A Star Is Born" - A natural performer, yes, but not all can easily make the transition to film. Lady Gaga did just that in Bradley Cooper's remake that charts the astronomical rise of a singer from hotel laundress to Grammy award winning singer. Displaying all the tenets of wide-eyed optimism folding into world-weary acknowledgement that she belonged at the top all along, Lady Gaga's debut role seems destined for Academy awareness and rightly so. While co-star Bradley Cooper has the more complicated role (i.e. depressive rock 'n'roll star), Lady Gaga holds the film together through sheer strength. Look no further than her song towards the end of the film that reveals the hardest thing in singing is not allowing your emotions to shipwreck the moment.

Ethan Hawke, in "First Reformed" - An incredibly rigorous examination of a priest losing himself, Paul Schrader's "First Reformed" features Hawke in a career best performance. Cracking at the seams slowly, Hawke's character is a smoldering cauldron of doubt, alcoholism and out-of-body experiences that places the film on a metaphysical level as it winds down. It's a film whose nature I admired more than fully liked, but Hawke's role is a revelation and Schrader- who's made a career of spiritual agony on film- certainly pulls no punches .

Support the Girls, ensemble cast - Regina Hall. Hayley Lu Richardson. Shayna MacHale. Andrew Bujalski’s Support the Girls presents a milieu rarely explored in modern comedies. It’s not that its characters — a group of service industry women who work at a Texas-based Hooters-esque sports bar — never get their due on film.

The Current Cinema 18.7

Suspiria

I loved everything about Luca Guadagnino's re-imagining of Argento's late 70's horror staple, from its sculptured excess to the ruminations about the past and how both worlds (human and sorceress) reconcile their grief and guilt. Hewing somewhat close to the margins of the original's narrative (this time its Dakota Johnson as the fresh faced American making waves in a haute dance company run by witches), this latest version careens all over the board however, meshing the life of an elderly psychotherapist (played in a dual role by Tilda Swinton) with the dance company as the grubby and violent exterior of late 70's Berlin towers in the background. How it all comes together is quite shocking, which is impressive since Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich supply the original film's big secret pretty early on, allowing for the specter of World War II, terrorism and a key plot twist to fill in the (sometimes shocking) bloody gaps. This is a film that will certainly divide audiences, complicating the desire for straight up horror fans with art-house sensibilities and creating something sinister and bold in the process.

A Star Is Born

Competently made by first time director Bradley Cooper, the real coup here is that Lady Gaga inhabits her role with sensitivity and grace. It's one of my favorite performances of the year. Even as the film builds to its obvious conclusion and Cooper does all he can to wring the tortured artist out of his crumbling character, its Lady Gaga who holds the most passion on-screen.

Reviews posted now at Dallas Film Now:

Burning-  Too diffuse to be called a thriller and too vacant of a character study to be compelling, it left me disappointed because Chang-Dong's previous films avoided those pratfalls so beautifully.

Wildlife- Another actor makes his directorial debut.

Trouble- If nothing else its good to see Anjelica Huston on screen again.

Shoctober Round #2

As Above, So Below

From the Dowdle brothers,  "As Above, So Below" is a pleasantly diverting piece of archeological horror whose impending atmosphere and attention to peripheral thrills far outweighs the nonsense of its average acting and bland found footage aesthetic. Films that deal with portals to hell either go too far or not enough (think "We Are the Flesh" for the former) and while this film does mingle slowly into some heavy aversions about a trip to that fiery furnace, it also pulls back when I thought it may go-for-broke. Still, this one far exceeded my expectations and deserves a look-see on Netflix.

Amsterdamned 

I have to give Dutch filmmaker Dick Maas credit for severing his genre films with some pretty left field choices. In "The Lift", his modus operandi is following the travails of a haunted elevator in a high rise building. In "Amsterdamned", his serial killer is a scuba diving madman who lurks slowly out of the water and around it, picking off his victims in savage fashion. The better of the two films is "Amsterdamned" for the way it plays with the police procedural film. Its lead detective (Huub Stapel) doesn't do much to catch the killer. Various false leads result in nicely staged car chases, but the case is cracked by someone ancillary to Det. Visser. And the death scenes feel more brutal than the overall tone of the film. Regardless of all this, "Amsterdamned" looks terrific in its Amsterdam 80's-ness and it fairs much better than a haunted elevator.

Night Warning 

The VHS-rip I watched William Asher's film on incongruously features the title "Night Warning",dropping the far superior one of "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker". That's not the only mistake of this film. Supremely boring and offensive for its vilification of homosexuals, the film features shock violence and Susan Tyrell as an overprotective/sexually repressed aunt who just can't deal with her adopted nephew fleeing the coop. If that sells it for you, this is for you. I could barely get through it. 

Shoctober, Round #1

Ghostwatch

Reading about the history of the 1992 BBC mockumentary is almost as fun as watching the trailblazing film known as "Ghostwatch". Set up as a real life exploration of a haunted house, the film earned the trust of its audience as something very true by the involvement of BBC personalities. A bit dated in its terms nowadays, the film is still an effective and enjoyable watch as the cameras catch flickers of things in the corners and hiding behind curtains. Then there's this split-second door opening that made me rewind and slow for about 3 minutes until I could make out the mustached man hiding behind it. For all its loopy British charm, "Ghostwatch" is the perfect atmospheric little horror film to start off the month with.

Before I Wake

The modern master of PG-13 horror (see also "Ouija" for some generic but well timed scares), Mike Flanagan's "Before I Wake" has lingered on Netflix for some time now and its well worth the time. Not only does it feature a couple of marvelously rendered moments of terror, but it features a denouement that not only makes everything that's come before it utterly believable. but crystallizes what most child horror films fail to recognize.... which is that memory and innocent brain synapses often propagate the real nightmares in our world.


Zombi 3 

Lucio Fulci never met a  fog machine he didn't like. For "Zombi 3", it's in every scene and, really who cares. The idea here- about a biohazard experiment called Death One that is loosed from a research facility onto the population of a nearby town- is just as crazy as it sounds. Floating heads out of freezers. Zombie hands borne from the womb of a woman. Some zombies move slow while others move lightning quick and fight like ninjas. Consistency isn't the film's strong point. But what we do have is a gorefest that's wild, unbelievable and wholly entertaining in the way only Fulci could make.

The Current Cinema 18.6

The Nun


Part of what makes James Wan's "The Conjuring" universe so nerve-wrecking is the seemingly endless fray of demonic entities and supernatural beings that waft in and out of people's dreams (or altered realities) with such ferocious mystery, that we become terrified of the sheer depth of terror swirling at the fringes of our consciousness. What doesn't always work is the filmmaker's attempt to affix an explanation of said entity. Corin Hardy's "The Nun" takes on the challenge of explaining (and explaining more) the character that jangled people's senses in a previous film with disastrous results. If less is more, than "The Nun" fails simply because it turns an atmospheric presence into a straight-forward hell raiser with a hammer sensibility of terror and jump scares timed to such obvious precision that the life is sucked right out of the film from the very beginning because it so desperately wants the absolute 'most'. It's also such a dimly lit affair (from DP Maxime Alexandre) that its visual scheme adds nothing but confusion to a horror film poised to wallow in disappointing mediocrity.


White Boy Rick

Told with all the handheld grittiness filmmaker Yann Demange promoted in his good debut film "'71", his first American funded effort is just as equally trenchant but far less resonant. This time, the bombed out center of violence isn't the U.K. but downtown Detroit in the early 80's as teenager Rick (Richie Merritt) and his father Rick (Matthew McConaughey) find inventive ways to sustain a living. For the older Rick, it's arms dealing (albeit with a license) and for young Rick, it parlaying his father's fringe interests into a high flying career of drug dealing and double crossing when the FBI come knocking. This type of story has been told dozens of times before with the only difference being its main character is a teenager, and Demange and screenwriters try their best to infuse "White Boy Rick" with a streak of originality including hearing the voice of the real-life Rick at the end, but the whole effort becomes mired in a been-there-done-that syndrome in which it never fully recovers.


Assassination Nation

Like a lurid pop-dream, Sam Levinson's "Assassination Nation" is a visually bold and simmering assault on everything from gender equality to the sometimes toxic nature of social media. Appropriating ages old literature from the likes of Nathanial Hawthorne and our nation's own descent into supernatural madness with the Salem witch trials (a town which our new film aptly mimics), writer and director Levinson has crafted a jaw-dropping tale that takes place in the very current when four teenage girls (played to perfection by Odessa Turner, Suki Waterhouse, Hari Nef and Abra) become targets- and subsequently are forced to become justice swinging vigilantes- after a computer hacker exposes the town's deep, dark personal secrets. Aided by some of the year's finest cinematography courtesy of Hungarian Marcell Rev and a thumping score by Ian Hutlquist, "Assassination Nation" ascends to wondrous heights in commentary and visual pastiche, masterfully stealing the whimpers that similarly themed films like the egregious "Purge" series aspire towards. Hopefully, this film will catch onto some sort of zeitgeist on home video as it came and went in theaters faster than most. I loved every second of it.


Free Solo

A National Geographic Films production whose story overcomes the company's very obvious template of narrative. Full thoughts on Dallas Film Now

 

70's Bonanza: Ryan's Daughter

There's a harsh juxtaposition of technique towards the end of David Lean's maligned 200 minute 1970 drama "Ryan's Daughter" that, for me, aligned all my lingering thoughts of greatness into sharp contrast. After falling in love with a tortured soldier (Christopher Jones), young wife Rosy (Sarah Miles) runs out before daybreak to catch a fleeting embrace with him on the hill overlooking their house. The music swells to a lush ovation before cutting back to silence (suddenly) as older husband Charles (Robert Mitchum) watches them morosely from the window. Add to the fact that Lean (and screenwriter Robert Bolt) refuse to create violent physical tension between the two men that would usually provide the undertone for such a film dealing with turn of the century love triangles, and "Ryan's Daughter" is an immense achievement in understated filmmaking crossed with the overstated aesthetic of Lean's usual compositions. It may be sanctimonious to declare this film my very favorite of Lean's over the more prestigious "The Bridge on the River Kwai" or "Lawrence of Arabia", but there it is.

Released fairly late in Lean's career (in which its chilly critical reception would see the filmmaker not craft another film until 1984, effectively missing out on an entire decide of great revisionist 70's filmmaking), Ryan's Daughter" is about so much more than the damning relationship that flares up between the trio. As Rosy, Sarah Miles virtually throws herself at older schoolteacher Mitchum in the beginning of the film because she feels her youth will be wasted in her cloistered, hermetic coastal Irish village. When the handsome (and dare I say pre-goth) and injured soldier Major Doryan shows up to command the small military derricks on the outskirts of town, its almost as if fate is tempting Rosy and telling her she made the matrimonial leap just a bit early. Transcribe this narrative to the forlorn heartlands of Kansas or the snow swept plains of Montana in a Howard Hawks film, and "Ryan's Daughter" is essentially a universal paean to passionate choices and fluctuating feelings that have bridled humanity since the beginning of time.

But this is certainly not Montana or Kansas. "Ryan's Daughter" situates itself in 1916 smack in the breast of IRA territory, often scurrying into side-plots that will eventually draw Doryan into the fray and divide Rosy against the very loyal townsfolk. While some deride the film for its length- and mostly the asides for the Oscar winning performance of the town fool played by veteran actor John Mills who just happens to be in every important place at once throughout the film- plus the extra subtext with IRA conspirators, a brash town priest (Trevor Howard) and Rosy's own cowardly barkeep father (Leo McKern) who harbors his own impetuous and damning actions, all of this establishes an atmosphere and world that feels like its widening into something sinister. In fact, the IRA and "The Troubles" would blossom a few years later. Ireland's coast would change dramatically over the coming years. England's reach would continue to strangle the countryside. In that regard, "Ryan's Daughter" and its love triangle could be read as metaphorical innocence morphing into a turbulent rupture of family, home and state.

Or maybe I'm translating way too much into it. I fell in love with this film from the outset. Not only does it exude a master's touch- just watch the early scene where Rosy awaits Charles in his schoolhouse and the camera pans across walls and doors from her point of view as Charles enters the other room and his lumbering physique is heard coming closer, which feels like an imprinted visual touch adapted later by everyone from David Fincher to P.T. Anderson- but it's an old fashioned romance that rarely saw the light of day as the 70's rolled in. And that was the general complaint against Lean's film, that he was regurgitating previous themes and motifs from earlier efforts and that, at best, "Ryan's Daughter" was second-tier copy. My reply? If this is second tier, then I wish more filmmakers would attempt it.

The Current Cinema 18.5

The Little Stranger

A diffuse haunted house story, Lenny Abrahamson's "The Little Stranger" works because of the creaky, atmospheric world-building it establishes in the first half before turning towards supernatural eeriness in the second. It won't satisfy everyone, though. Very mannered and stiff-upper-lip-British to an extreme, the film is actually more of a psychological early twentieth century love story than a horror film. As the local doctor (Domhnall Gleeson) is a muted and internal figure slowly obsessed by a large manor he once visited as a child. His profession finally gives him the chance to explore the house properly when he's called upon to treat the afflicted ex-World War I son (Roderick Ayers) of the house years later and falls in love with his older sister (Ruth Wilson, poised to have a breakout fall season). Strange things have been going on in the house, such as bells that ring in every room for the maid service and a strikingly realized dog attack during a party. Abrahamson (based on a novel Sarah Waters) doesn't strain to terrify...... that comes later in the month with "The Nun". "The Little Stranger" instead chooses to portray generational haunting and old-house theatrics with a calm that sinks into one's bones like the constant damp that permeates the exterior of the expansive manor. See this one before its yanked unceremoniously from theaters.






Lots of new reviews at Dallas Film Now including:

Support the Girls
We the Animals
Madeline's Madeline

The Female Gaze: Christian Petzold's "Pilotinnen" aka Drifters

Filmmaker Christian Petzold's cinema has always been a female-centric one. Portraying strong women in various modes of genre, his muse, actress Nina Hoss, has embodied women in various stages of distress with fierce resolution- revenge in "Something To Remind Me" or corporate 'chameleonism' in "Yella" or especially meal-ticket survival of the fittest-cum-emotional-smackdown in "Phoenix". Whatever the parameters, Petzold's films may not fit perfectly into the MeToo movement of total acceptance (precisely because, after all, he is still a male director parlaying these feminine narratives), but at least he tries to assuage something other than the usual point of view in a cinematic world where most male characters weigh heavily.

This predilection is obvious from the opening scene of his debut TV movie, "Pilotinnen", also known in English as "Drifters". Two sets of hands embrace each other in close-up against the wood-grain top of a restaurant table as voices (obviously lovers) make their plans to meet in a hotel in the very near future outside of Germany. Petzold then cuts to Karin (Eleonore Weisgerber) and then follows her outside, never even showing the male character whom she's established a rendezvous with. We soon learn, obliquely as Petzold loves to drip information about his characters slowly, that Karin is a traveling saleslady for a cosmetic company, virtually homeless except for the bonuses she earns on hotel rooms through her company's weekly overnight stays. She's not presented as a desperate person. On the contrary, Karin is drawn as a succinct and no-nonsense woman who understands the frivolity of her ways and has accepted things.

Her life isn't made any easier, however, when her boss (Udo Schenk) finds her sleeping in her car and decides to make her career difficult by assigning her a partner, who happens to be a much younger and attractive blonde (Nadeshda Brennicke). And she's having an affair with said boss. From there,"Drifters" establishes a very "Thelma and Louise" vibe as Karin and Sophie bond over their repressive state in both the corporate and emotional world, deciding to take matters into their own hands.

Being a TV movie, the sex and violence is especially pared down, but Petzold's flair for the subversive remains intact. Karin, endlessly smoking and prone to penetrating glances that would weaken the knees of both men and women, is the classic archetype for all of Petzold's later incarnations. She seems to be a woman who understands and knows what she wants, even if young and seemingly flighty Sophie gets the big, sweeping gesture of personal sacrifice that navigates the final act of "Drifters" into something surprising and fatalistic.

From this effort, Petzold was given the opportunity to make other TV movies- "The Sex Thief", "Cuba Libra" and the best being "Something To Remind Me". As a first feature, it's rough in certain parts and maintains the restrictive boxy format, but in ideas and larger themes taking shape in a rising auteur, it's a wonderful glimpse into the formative process of a burgeoning talent.

The Current Cinema 18.4

The King

Eugene Jarecki's "The King" is a progressive and invigorating rolling roadshow of the halls and faces of America. Oh, and its about Elvis, too. Driving his now infamous Rolls Royce car from his birth place in Mississippi to his final days in Las Vegas, Jarecki has much more on his mind than celebrity-icon-mythmaking-enshrinment, opening the film up to become a leftist meditation on the decline of America. Utilizing interviews from musicians, actors and normal everyday folk just striving to survive, "The King" mixes these verbal cues with found footage and movie clips of Elvis to fashion a perfect film for our truly screwed up times. Hearing Ethan Hawke tell stories about Colonel Tom Parker's iron-fisted control of Elvis or seeing John Hiatt become emotional in the backseat because he can feel how "trapped" Elvis was are powerful moments, but Jarecki makes sure to overshadow these louder tales by focusing on the anonymous and common faces of the people he picks up hitchhiking or who wonder aloud why our country has left them so far behind. It's an amazing feat. I'd venture to call Jarecki the closest thing we have to 'outlaw documentarians' like Travis Wilkerson, Adam Curtis and Bill Morrison.


Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far On Foot

Gus Van Sant's adaptation of John Callahan's memoir about his struggle with alcoholism and subsequent disability is just as morose as it sounds. Tough subject matter, of course, but it's also a film full of inspired performances, especially Joaquin Phoenix as Callahan and Jonah Hill as the AA mentor who helps lift the cartoonist from his self pity and depression. Also giving a stellar performance is Jack Black. Beginning as someone just as over-the-top and loud as Black's usual on-screen persona, the later meeting between him and Phoenix is an emotional stunner, emphasizing what's unsaid rather than said. Van Sant films the entire affair in a no frills fashion, understanding and accepting that the performances are what raise the film above standard Lifetime Channel mediocrity. If there's one fault, its that the female performance of Rooney Mara as Callahan's girlfriend feels clipped and undercooked, as if its a boys club matter and nothing else.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post

There are no grandstanding moments. There are very few revelatory plot twists. Even a suicide attempt is kept off-screen, choosing to show a blindingly pristine white bathroom sink and tile stained with pools of blood as the post-visual proof to an extreme act of apathy. All of this is why "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" is an important film and a staggering continuation for a filmmaker like Akhavan who chooses to reveal things via subtle moments and strong character development rather than loud, sweeping arches. Full review at Dallas Film Now


Mission Impossible: Fallout  

I'm surprised by everyone's coronation of Christopher McQuarrie staging some pretty phenomenal action set pieces. Has no one seen "The Way of the Gun" which is pretty much one of the best action films of the last 30 years? Anyway, this latest installment is pretty good, especially in Dolby IMAX.

The Current Cinema 18.3

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

The most disappointing aspect of Stefano Sollimo's sequel to Denis Villeneuve's critically acclaimed 2016 political thriller is its feeble attempt to carbon copy what made that film so great. The swagger.... the machismo... the actions of people drawing invisible lines of political aggression are all intact but what lacks in "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" is a firm center to hold onto. In the original, Emily Blunt's character served as a naive audience surrogate. Out of that naivety was borne a strong woman with an equally strong moral center, desperately trying to cement herself against the corroding fissures of nationalism that develop around her. It also helped that filmmaker Villeneuve painted a morose, inky masterpiece of half shadowy images and tightly framed bodies in perfect motion. In this latest version (also written by Taylor Sheridan), the emotional core is supposed to fall onto the surrogate father-daughter relationship that develops between kidnap victim Isabela Moner and assassin chess piece Benecio Del Toro. Barely flaked together and instead choosing to focus on the maneuvers of smooth talking soldier-types (Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Donovan again), "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" establishes little empathy for the two and swings for a populist ending that feels half baked and served up just to make the audience feel good after the previous two hours of lazy border phobia and calculated violence.



Leave No Trace 

Observational and just as transient as its title, Debra Granik's latest film succeeds in the quiet moments between rudderless PTSD veteran dad Ben Foster and newcomer Thomasin Mckenzie as his daughter living a bohemian/exterior lifestyle. Also largely moving is the parade of weathered, seemingly naturalistic faces that dot the rugged landscape as they travel from camping spot to the next, moving further and further away from the concrete pillars of civilization. If there's anything to fault "Leave No Trace", its the fairly routine narrative that winds its way into some expected beats. Still, a good portion of the film is acute at narrowing its focus on the father/daughter duo who give weighty performances.




Three Identical Strangers 

Relying on a fairly pedantic documentary style with straight ahead personal testimonies and lackluster visual recreations, Three Identical Strangers survives not on visual grandiosity but the inherently fascinating story at the center.  Full review at Dallas Film Now


Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda 

Like so many artists, we generally understand their art is often synonymous with life. In the case of Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, not only does the artist make it clear he’s still breathing because of his art, but he also wants to show us the possibilities art can reveal to the world. See this film. It’s a masterpiece. Full thoughts at Dallas Film Now

The Last Ten Films I've Seen, Summer Edition

1) Black Water (2018)- New Dolph Lundgren/Van Damme 'actioner' that opens in most places next week. Hugely entertaining. A film that not only embraces its yesteryear B-movie theatrics, but exploits them to great effect. Lundgren is so good here in his small role. Review at Dallas Film Now.

2) Sole Survivor (1983)- Remember that great, nasty post-nuke film "Night of the Comet"? This is from the same director the year before which got him that gig. Atmospheric at times and it creates some terrific tension from its urban sprawl. Hard to deny that films like "Final Destination" and "It Follows" blatantly ripped this one off.

3) Adore (2013)- Should be waaaay more interesting than it is, especially because it deals with Naomi Watts and Robin Wright screwing each other's 18 year old sons.

4) Who Took Johnny (2014)- On Netflix. Pretty terrifying for the malicious, half-baked conspiracy theories it proposes. I spent about 4 hours after this film exploring the internet wormhole for some facts behind the events this film highlights.

5) Mortal Thoughts (1991)- Been on a bit of an Alan Rudolph kick lately. This one is pretty simplistic.... early 90's HBO style film noir with Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Glenn Headley doing their worst hawkish New York accents.

6) Vazante (2018)- If you like Bela Tarr or Cria Guervos films, this one's for you. Slow but ultimately very sad black and white film about life on a plantation in South America and the consequences of boredom and colonial rule.

7) Roads to the South (1978)- The last Joseph Losey film I'd never seen (which finally popped up on KG and CG, thank you!). Wish I could say it was worth the wait. It is a companion piece to "Mr. Klein" however, in that Yves Montand plays an exiled ex Communist brought back into the struggle after his wife dies in an accident. Flat at times, laborious at others, it does close a chapter in Losey's non American financed 70's period.

8) Hereditary (2018)- Effective horror film, but jeez people are doing cartwheels over this. I felt it a bit derivative. The best seance film? A nifty little George C. Scott number called "The Changeling". Or maybe Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Seance" which does just as much with light and shadow as "Hereditary".

9) Variety Lights (1950)- Fellini's debut film that encapsulates all the themes of his later work- a wandering sense of the journey being more important than the destination.... his fascination with creative/performance artists.... and a clinging love for the distraught and poor.

10) The Misandrists (2018)- Queer pioneer filmmaker Bruce Labruce's most mainstream work is still not for the faint of heart. It plays like a cross between a Rainer Werner Fassbinder film and a student porno. Enter at your own risk.  Full review at Dallas Film Now

On "Kate Plays Christine"

Robert Greene's "Kate Plays Christine" is a jangled web of theories and diversions that not only brilliantly upends the very definition of "documentary", but causes one to marvel at how the boundaries of the genre can be obliterated and re appropriated so easily. That the film also works into its mechanized study touches of tried and true onerism such as an actress burrowing into a role with little abandon for her well being and "Kate Plays Christine" very likely will melt your brain.

 
The actress in question, Kate Lyn Sheil (who I first noticed in a supporting role on Netflix's "House of Cards") plays herself accepting the role of portraying Christine Chubbuck, a now infamous 70's era Florida reporter who committed suicide on air, and then traveling to her hometown researching her life and mannerisms. Greene, ever present by Sheil's side (which is the first hint that maybe his intended idea was the intense preparation all along) observes the moral and professional hurdles Sheil comes in contact with as she gets to know Chubbuck through co-workers and friends. Watching Sheil struggle with crawling into the dark mind space of a woman who found both her life and professional ambitions as unworthy of anything more than eventual public shock appeal is tremendous. Even more cringe inducing is the footage of Greene filming the fictionalized moment when Sheil as Chubbuck commits suicide on air. Draw out over an agonizing 15 minutes as Sheil continually starts, stops, fidgets and internalizes the scene, it's one of the more harrowing and perfectly realized recreations of acting I've seen in quite some time. Robert DeNiro gaining forty pounds to play Jake LaMotta has nothing on Sheil here.

As I said at the beginning, what makes "Kate Plays Christine" so energizing is just where Greene's intentions lie. If the film was slyly conceived to be what it is, then he's a master provocateur of the hybrid documentary. If all of this was happenstance and the focus of the film slowly morphed out of Sheil's true struggle with capturing the inner demons of Chubbuck after realizing she was nothing more than an undiagnosed woman with manic depression, then that makes the final product all the more shattering. Either way, "Kate Plays Christine" stands as a probing and masterful exploration of the boundaries between real and fictionalized emotion.

An Appreciation: John Ford

Straight Shooting (1917) **½- Ford’s first still available film, most interesting for its milieu and yes, some shots of people in and out of doorways that would qualify as his visual motif for decades.


Bucking Broadway (1918) *** - Strong early effort that combines melodrama and romance as a cowboy (Harry Carey, who’d act in so many of Ford’s earliest silents) tries to marry the daughter of a landowner. Cutting back and forth between the frontier and urban landscapes, “Bucking Broadway” builds to a terrific conclusion.


By Indian Post (1919) ** - Short (only 13 minutes) trifle that plays with the prejudices of Native Americans to instigate a bumbling comedy that sees a cowboy run away with the daughter of a wealthy landowner. A if Ford didn’t get this out of his system with the previous film.

Just Pals (1920) **½ - Covers all the bases of extended melodrama, heartwarming friendships and dastardly collusion to make a hero out of the town bum and his equally downtrodden young friend.


The Iron Horse (1924) ***½ - Masterful telling of the building of the transcontinental railroad from the Great Plains to Northern California. What begins as an intimate examination between a dead father’s dream and his son’s legacy to endure that vision becomes a mosaic portrait of sweaty western living and frontier life, complete with shadowy landowners, upright workers and beautiful childhood sweethearts. It also features plenty of sweeping vistas (such as two people calmly standing amongst a throbbing horde of sheep and dour faces atop a slow moving train) and Ford’s first real handle on depth of field and panoramic landscapes that often dwarf the people in them.


Lightning’ (1925) ** - Still stuttering through amiable and ordinary narratives, “Lightnin” follows a drunkard who straightens up and flies right to help his family save a hotel built on the California/Nevada border. Yes, it’s about as hokey as it sounds, but Ford’s distrust of American elite and his overriding affection for the common man/do-gooder professional is slowly becoming a theme in these early films…. Themes that would transfer onto the American frontier in later films. Not on DVD.


The Shamrock Handicap (1926) ** - Inconsequential film except for its Irish-American milieu and personalities. Even that, though, pales when dealing with a horse jockey and his entrance into the world of American horse racing.


Three Bad Men (1926) *** - Expressionism has begun creeping into Ford’s visual style, none moreso engaging then the first appearance of the titular 3 bad men, shadowed against a cliff and overlooking the territory they aggressively hunt upon. Even better is the grand opening of the west sequence, complete with an Odessa-steps like abandoned baby in the midst of the charging horses. It’s a film that hits all the right notes of compassion, humor and thrilling action.


Riley the Cop (1928) ** - There's one shot of someone watching something else happen in a reflection that's tremendous. All else, pretty forgettable comedy.


Hangman’s House (1928) *** - The best aspects of  “Hangman’s House”- a film which involves an array of subplots including genteel love, awol Irish soldiers seeking revenge and the dastardly bad guy Ford loved to root against-  are the allusions to the IRA and its subtle, shadowy staging of men living by a strict code of conduct brought out later in “The Informer”.


Four Sons (1928) *** - A downer of a tale about the hardships and fatality of four brothers at the outbreak of World War I, but its not a cheap or exploitive melodrama. The way in which Ford overlays the ghostly images of a mother’s four boys- eating and having fun at a dinner table as she remembers the better days- reveals the growing confidence in Ford’s visual style.


Salute (1929) * - Completely devoid of any authentic feeling of ownership or specialty, I can only imagine Ford was so engulfed with the technicality of sound that he forgot everything else. The story- about two brothers competing against one another in an Army/Navy football game- features so many diversions and lifeless anecdotes that it can be forgotten in Ford’s oeuvre. Not on DVD.


The Black Watch (1929) **½ - Adventure yarn that sees British soldier Victor McLaglen go undercover and tangle with Myrna Loy in the Arabian desert. What’s most striking about “The Black Watch” is Ford’s dispassionate mise-en-scene of soldiers opening fire on a crowd of opponents or the attention to ritual as a group of men sing songs before going to war. It’s not one of Ford’s early best, but its competent.



Born Reckless (1930) ** - When one hears modern cinema making fun of the stilted, dated dialogue of the 20’s and 30’s, “Born Reckless” surely stands as the placard for that fun. Full of lines like “you couldn’t keep your nose clean” or “I tell ya they’ll never frame me behind bars”, it’s a film that shoehorns a lot of material into its slim 76 minute running time, mostly centering on the life of hoodlum Edmund Lowe and his aversion to “going straight”. I’m sure it meant serious business in its day, but its like watching a comedy now… and Ford and company still don’t seem to have a firm grasp on the technicalities of sound and movement, which is to be expected.

The Brat (1930) ** - A time capsule of 1920's America as any you'll ever see, complete with boisterous New Yawk dialect and a simple view of the gender wars. It does eature one nifty little tracking shot, though.

Men Without Women (1930) *½ - If this film had just been about the heroics onboard the submarine in the second half, then we might have a terrific short film. Otherwise, the first half with the sailors on leave (and a film that alternates between silent and sound film) feels overtly pointless. Not on DVD.


Up the River (1930) **½ - Perhaps best regarded as the most innocent prison picture one could imagine, “Up the River” is pretty entertaining as complete fantasy comedy in the way hard nosed prisoners commingle both with each other AND the warden’s ten year old daughter, Plus, they all love baseball! Never mind the fact that Spencer Tracy escapes every prison they seem to incarcerate him in, then welcome him back with smiles and cajoles each time he’s caught. It’s best to shut off the mind and take this film as some alternate reality 1930’s comedy and just go with it.


Pilgrimage (1930) *** - Growing in emotional complexity and scope, “Pilgrimage” is a solid (almost impressionistic) tale of an elderly woman (Henrieta Crosman) traveling to France to visit the grave of her dead son during World War I. It often slides into easy sentimentality, but its soft images and mother-son dynamic that would become a staple of Ford’s cinema for years to come are intact.


The Seas Beneath (1931) ** - A submarine film that rarely goes beneath the surface, choosing instead to stay focused on the personal subterfuge that occurs on land after a group of American naval men encounter their German foes in a port town. An awkward flirtation between American George O’Brian and the sister of a German U-boat captain (Marion Lessing) only complicates things. The shots of a fixed camera on the deck of a submarine actually rising and falling beneath the water is pretty cool, though. Everything else, not so much.


Arrowsmith (1931) ** - There’s not much distinctive about this medical drama starring Ronald Colman as the titular doctor giving his life to medical research. Filmed in bland medium shot, the most exciting thing in it is the Fritz Lang-esque medical corporate office that looks like a leftover set from “Metropolis”.



Air Mail (1932) *½  - Set largely in and around a mountainous air mail plane station, Ford’s spirited view isn’t microscopic enough to allow any one character to stand out (even though there’s the usual romancing and divergent personalities) or dynamic enough to care about the final dashing plane rescue. All around a bust. Not on DVD.


Doctor Bull (1933) **½- The first of two films starring Will Rogers as an important social figure within a lazy suburban town (followed by “Judge Priest”), the folksy attitude of the entire film is whimsical but far from anything outstanding in his career.


Judge Priest (1934) *** - Better than “Doctor Bull”, despite some atrocious racism and yet another appearance by Stepin Fetchit, Will Rogers this time portrays the town judge, trying to survive personal attacks from political rivals while maintaining honesty on the bench. The final trial- lackluster in its realism of course- is out shadowed by the film’s more pointed memoir style of its writer Irvin S. Cobb and quite an odd reverie for Civil war veterans.


The Lost Patrol (1934) *** - Nifty, claustrophobic little effort that, ironically, takes place in the desert as a troop of British soldiers are cornered by a sharpshooting Arab tribe. Though it does drag in a few spots, its very fun to see Bela Lugosi in a non-horror film role and Ford manages to wring every drip of sweat and dust out of the scenario.


The World Moves On (1934) ***½ - Spanning a century in the life of one family business and their counterparts on 4 continents, Ford makes this seemingly sprawling narrative seem quite intimate in the way he focuses on the relationship between Franchet Tone and Madeleine Carroll as romantically entangled souls. Eventually broken apart by World War I (including some devastatingly staged battle scenes that amplify war is nothing but explosions and dirt), “The World Moves On” is an apt title for a film that opens and closes on a wooden crucifix.


The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) **½ - If nothing else than for its visual trickery, “The Whole Town’s Talking” stands alone in the early Ford canon. Edward Robinson plays a dual role- one as a mild mannered businessman and the other as an escaped mobster- and the ramifications their appearance has on the entire city. Mildly amusing at times but dreadfully dull at others, it’s a mixed bag.


The Informer (1935) **** - Ford’s first real masterpiece, it’s a powerhouse of borrowed German expressionism combined with the deep moral complexity that didn’t quite exist in films just yet. The heights Victor McLaglan reaches in desperation, exasperation and misguided ambition as he stumbles towards a confession falling out of him is exceptional.


Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) *** - Breezy comedy that pretty much ignores the common sense rules of how the real world actually works after such a deadly serious film like “The Informer”, this marked the final collaboration between Ford and actor Will Rogers. Sure, let’s delay a hanging to watch the boat race. Of course we can hitch an anchor to a fellow ship and they never notice until the morning. If this weren’t delineated as a parody of river life existence from the very beginning, I’d call foul.

The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936) ***½ - Beginning on a figure that Ford would revisit later in his career (Abraham Lincoln), the film only uses his assassination as a springboard for an action adventure prison-break film that’s constantly surprising and entertaining.


Mary of Scotland (1936) *** - Far from a stiff, Masterpiece Theater style of drama, Ford’s telling of the infamous Mary Queen of Scotland tale feels modernized with 30’s melodrama, mostly because of Katherine Hepburn’s leading role as the mischievous, irreverent lady… full of acidic jabs and a natural independence from the male flotsam. Entertaining and swift moving.


The Plough and the Stars (1936) ** - Very short (just over an hour) film about the separation of man (Preston Foster) and woman (Barbara Stanwyck)through the call of duty for the Irish Army. Seeing it on a very rough print with fading audio probably didn’t do the film any justice, but it’s a relatively flat and lifeless affair.


Wee Willie Winkie  (1937) *½ - Shirley Temple has two levels of cuteness. Precocious cute and pouty cute. I can’t stand either one of them, therefore, Ford’s partnership with her as a little girl spending her days in the confines of a British military base in India (and based on a Rudyard Kipling novel) grated on me from the very beginning.


The Hurricane (1937)  *** - Partnered with the previous year’s “Wee Willie Winkie”, “The Hurricane” is Ford’s foreign adventure duo, this time charting the doomed relationships between South Pacific island natives and the British government when one of their own (John Hall) gets imprisoned for hitting a white man. Human feeling gets (literally) washed away in the second half when Ford flashes his filmmaking brawn and the titular natural disaster takes over. Impressive in theatrics, less so in its human interaction.



Four Men and a Prayer (1937) *** - The Hardy Boys-meets-Clue as four brothers try and solve the mystery of their father’s death right after being dismissed unfairly from the military. Things pick up dramatically in the second half as adventure and Third World realpolitik combine to create an action-filled whodunit. Also, Ford is yet to meet a firing squad inadvertently opening up on a crowd he doesn’t like.


Submarine Patrol (1938) *** - If one gets past the quite annoying main character (played by Richard Greene) as rich playboy turned semen just for the fun of it, then “Submarine patrol” is a solid actioner. As close to a World War II movie Ford ever made (alongside “They Were Expendable”), perhaps because he saw the brutality and savagery of it up close and personal through his own service, “Submarine Patrol” features some startling seafaring action and a cast of motley crew members that makes the whole thing quite entertaining.

Stagecoach (1939) ***½ - Much as its lauded as a masterpiece, watching it in succession with Ford’s other films, “Stagecoach” does feel like a huge leap forward in his career. Sure, the technology is better, but it’s a film whose fluid, expressive camerawork says just as much as the acting or narrative. The way in which Ford glides behind a table of people, segregated by class…. Or the jarring quick zoom onto John Wayne’s first appearance…. Or especially the Apache attack that feels weightless and implanted right in the action…. All of this exemplifies Ford leaving the shadows and adventure stories of the 30’s behind and focusing on something grander.


Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) **½ - Portrait of an iconic American figure through the generous fragments of his early life, dominated by a pro-bono case for a poor family whose two boys are accused of murder. As Abe Lincoln, Henry Fonda teams with Ford for the first time and his “gee whiz” homeliness is on full display, which negates a bit of the film’s heartiness and replaces it with undue folksiness.


Drums Along the Mohawk (1939) *** - Notable for being Ford’s first color picture, “Drums Along the Mohawk” is a sturdy but somewhat formulaic tale of Revolutionary American life with Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert as the virginal couple trying to adjust to frontier life, full of Indian attacks and colorful personalities. Mostly forgettable with the exception of some tremendous sound design that features the booming echoes of guns being fired among some tall trees.


The Grapes of Wrath (1940) ***½ - Cultural and social commentary aside, “The Grapes of Wrath” is a film teeming with heart, sweat and layman’s pride. Not since “The Informer” has Ford felt so attuned with the atmosphere of the times.


The Long Voyage Home (1940) ** - Based on Eugene O’Neill stories, Ford fuses them together as the crew on board a ship during World War II transport dynamite back to England. It actually sounds more exciting than it really is. Getting bogged down in consummate drinking…. Or the wish to drink…. Or the fighting between men as they drink…. Its pretty depressing human nature.


Tobacco Road (1941) *** - Quite the odd beast from Ford. Based on a play (re-written by Ford compatriot Nunally Johnson) about an impoverished family in Georgia, “Tobacco Road” plays like a farce “The Grapes of Wrath”. Hysterical acting and dubious narrative shifts eventually won me over, though, and I went with the film’s pretty crazy tone.


How Green Was My Valley (1941) ***½ - It’s hard not to initially see “How Green Was My Valley” and recognize it as a clichéd piece of family drama spanning the short lifetime of a coal mining Welsh family… then realize this is the template for such moving family dramas to come. Handled with genuine empathy and a strong sense of setting and place, it’s a film that earns its gut-punch ending of finality and lost innocence.

They Were Expendable (1945) *** - Made immediately after his return from service in World War II, “They Were Expendable” follows an array of Navy men on torpedo boats and their continual displacement as the war rages closer to them. Hewing much closer to examining the personalities and irreparable damage done to the human body during war than outright action (which there’s very little), it’s a film that’s probably more anti-war than anything else. Nicely fatalistic is the doomed romance between John Wayne and Donna Reed. In earlier Ford films, this might have had an happy ending. Not so much here.


My Darling Clementine (1946) *** - Classy telling of Wyatt Earp’s assimilation and partnership with the abrasive Doc Holliday in the crime-laden town of Tombstone. I know this is probably sacrilege, but Kevein Costner’s expansive “Wyatt Earp” remains my favorite variation on this story. Watching Henry Fonda lean back in his wooden rocking chair and twiddle his feet against the post beam is an iconic moment though.

The Fugitive (1947) *** - Bearing a striking resemblance to Shusaku Endo's novel "Silence", Ford's rendering of a Catholic priest (Henry Fonda) forced into hiding when the Mexican army wants to wipe out Catholicism in their country is heartfelt and full of striking imagery. I think the most purely visceral shot of Ford's career may be this film's final shot, which description can't do it justice.

Fort Apache (1948) **** - Besides being a visceral western, “Fort Apache” is one of Ford’s most dense efforts, tackling both the shifting façade of the west and the inefficiency of man’s dominant presence in said landscape. The dominance is embodied in Henry Fonda’s curt, by-the-book colonel who takes over Fort Apache and not only alienates young love between his daughter (Shirley Temple) and her suitor, but everyone else en masse. His deliberate adherence to old-school methods of fighting a band of Apache Indians also ends up with disastrous results. Expertly framed and paced, “Fort Apache”- like his later masterpieces “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” and “The Searchers”- dares to question the mythology of the west and the place of man within it.


3 Godfathers (1948) **½ - Good natured western, but it seemingly wears its religious allegory out pretty quickly. The sudden pivot from a straight up bad-guys-chasing-good-guys-western to paradoxical life altering discovery  is jarring for 1948. Ford overdoes it a bit in the finale however.


She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) ** - Perhaps this is a victim of my own lofty expectations after all these years, but its amazing how much this film doesn’t do. As a companion study to “Fort Apache” and one leader’s surreptitious finale (one in death the other in retirement) , the film registers well. As an involving narrative (or development of deeper themes) I pretty much missed the point. Lots of posturing within Ford’s Monument Valley setting but little in the way of emotional or character investment. I didn’t care one flip about any of it… or anyone.

When Willie Comes Marching Home (1950) **½  - Slight comedy about a man whose posted to war duty in his own hometown. Themes of emasculation hiding behind broad comedy feel a bit out of place after Ford’s more trenchant, respectable works on World War II.

Wagon Master (1950) *** - I kind of wish Ben Johnson would’ve been the man for Ford that John Wayne became. Alas, revisionist history, but he still steals the movie as one of three cowboys helping a Mormon group of settlers traverse dangerous Indian country.


Rio Grande (1950) ** ½ - Taking place in the same universe of “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon”- insomuch as Victor McLaglen again embodies his role of Quincannon- “Rio Grande” suffers mostly from the derivative devices of other Ford films. Monument Valley….  U.S. cavalry solders and their squirmish with local Indians…. John Wayne posturing….. It all looks good but feels like the continuation of something else.


The Quiet Man (1952) ***½ - Perhaps it’s the Olive Films blu-ray transfer, but this film had me gasping about 5 times within the first ten minutes on its glorious beauty. The entrance of Maureen O’Hara, spying the lanky John Wayne in the distance and then slowly shuffling out of the frame, feels like a beautiful way to transcribe the immediate love/hate between the two. Outside of their tumultuous relationship (hindered mostly by O Hara’s brother played by Victor McLaglen), Ford gives preeminence to the swooning, brazen and ebullient personalities of village settled Ireland without a hint of cynicism.


What Price Glory (1952) ** - Odd combination of war movie and screwball comedy with James Cagney and Dan Dailey as two soldiers who really don’t get along, often coming to blows while their men watch on.


The Sun Shines Bright (1953) *½ - A continuation of “Judge Priest” stories with Charles Winninger in place of Will Rogers, and this one is just plain bad. It’s first half- full of awful racial stereotypes and good ‘ol boy reverie between Civil War soldiers does nothing to endear the viewer. The second half fares a little better, if only because the mood lightens a bit.


Mogambo (1953) ***½ - Outside of it adventure story background (including a safari game master and his exotic African backdrop) in which Ford feels at home with a certain type of western expansionistic atmosphere, “Mogambo” doesn’t really need that crutch as its central concept of two women (the beautiful Grace Kelly and Ava Gardner) vying for Clark Gable would have been marvelous enough on its own. Oh, to be Clark Gable.


The Long Gray Line (1955) - **** - Ford revisits one shot over and over throughout his epic portrayal of an Irish immigrant (Tyrone Power) who finds his home for fifty years as a father-figure to cadets at West Point in the early twentieth century- the shot being a dusk embattled street with people either coming or going, and someone watching intently from the porch of a house. It’s a central idea in a very powerful, sensitive film about the process of time, the futility of war and the uniquely moving surrogate family that forms due to the simple presence of a gentle figure in a landscape. Plus the relationship between Power and wife Maureen O’Hara is pure greatness. Her death gently composed in the frame of (yes, you guessed it) a doorway.





Mister Roberts (1955) **½ - Really more of a seafaring comedy as good natured Henry Fonda does moral and verbal battle with hardnosed captain James Cagney at the helm of a cargo ship, “Mister Roberts” features very little of Ford’s trademark. Perhaps because Mervy LeRoy ultimately finished the picture, the whole thing feels a bit stretched out and episodic. A young Jack Lemmon doing his thing way before old Jack Lemmon is interesting though.

The Searchers (1956) **** - Ford’s pretty much agreed upon masterpiece, it’s one of the rare films whose reputation doesn’t do it justice. I saw it for the first time when I was 14, pouring through those Sight and Sound Ten Best films of all time lists and its ingrained itself into my memory ever since. Brutal, complex and riveting.

The Wings of Eagles (1957) **½ - I suppose the first half of dick-swinging and machismo sets up the second half for John Wayne (portraying real life Navy man and screenwriter Spig Wead) to reconcile this lifestyle and settle into a contemplative state of old age. Regardless, that first half almost ruins the (much stronger) emotional catharsis. Maureen O’Hara is also wasted. I almost would’ve loved to see a film just about their tumultuous relationship, but alas, this is swinging for the fences to idolize an old friend of Ford.


The Rising of the Moon (1957)  ** - Triplet of stories that are far more engaging thanks to the Irish scenery than any real characters or storyline.


Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958) **½ - What a day for Chief Inspector Gideon (Jack Hawkins) of Scotland Yard, who has to deal with crooked cops, murder and a payroll robbery all in one day. Handled deftly (if not fairly pedantic) by Ford, the film is worth watching only for his handling of the stiff, tight-lipped manner in which most British film of the 50’s and 60’s were shrouded in.


The Last Hurrah (1958) ** - Watching Spencer Tracey move methodically around the set is always a joy to behold, his frame hunched and his eyes in somber thought. He does a lot of that as a righteous politician trying to hold off the new breed of media savvy candidates running against him. Outside of his performance, “The Last Hurrah” is an especially dry and stoic affair, though.


The Horse Soldiers (1959)  *** - A return to the western after a few years of embroiling himself in personal stories of gallant men, “The Horse Soldiers” works best when examining the push-pull relationship between warrior-like Wayne and the strong headed doctor played by William Holden. Their personal conflict- as it often does in most of Ford’s westerns- provides more conflict than the seemingly suicidal Confederate ranks that continually throw themselves at the horse soldiers. Solid stuff.

Sergeant Rutledge (1960) **½ - The only reason to see this film is for Woody Strode as the pillar of a man accused of murdering a Caucasian woman. Told in hamfisted flashback as the trial plays out in military court, like most Hollywod films of this time period, its ludicrous enactment of a courtroom and perfectly scripted interruptions of “I object” or long pauses feels disingenuous.


Two Rode Together (1961) ***½ - As the titular men who ride together, James Stewart and Richard Widmark make for a compelling duo as they seek out kidnapped children from a band of Indians. Unlike “The Searchers” and that film’s seething resentment of identity and the passage of time, “Two Rode Together” is terrific because it begins in once place, meanders a bit and fleshes out its characters (and their love lives) in another, before returning to its central idea of what exactly is a “savage”. It’s a very good late Ford film that probably doesn’t get the credit it duly deserves.


The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) **** - There aren’t enough platitudes to extend to my very favorite of Ford’s films….. An incisive and smart demystification of storytelling, attitudes and the very foundation of Ford’s many westerns.


How The West Was Won (1962)  ***½ - Though Ford only directed portions of this alongside Henry Hathaway and George Marshall, it’s a terrifically expansive view of America shifting its priorities and ideals westward. It actually strikes quite brilliantly at the heart of themes Ford had been gestating for years and its ironic that he directed the “Civil War” portion while Hathaway and Marshall chiseled away at the more laconic and humane elements of the story.


Donovan’s Reef (1963) *** - A bit of comic relief from Ford as a New York socialite travels to a sunny island and falls in (regrettable) love with journeyman John Wayne. There are some allusions towards the discrimination of “native people”, but overall it’s a fairly forgettable exercise.


Cheyenne Autumn (1966) **½ - Ford’s last western deals with Wayne’s calvary unit making their way through stronghold Confederate country to reach a Louisiana port and sail home. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but even that revisionist magnifying glass yields little grandiosity in the film. It does its job and that’s that.


7 Women (1967) *** - As his final fictional effort, Ford lines up a dandy. Subverting his lifelong obsession with the masculine mythmaking of the West, “7 Women” focuses on, well, females as they struggle to survive an Asian invasion of a missionary. Each woman is given strong personality and the film, while not exactly illuminating as a beacon for feminine equality, gets points for never widdling down its violence or aggression towards its female protagonists.

Chesty: A Tribute to a Legend (1976) ** - I’m not sur e how much of this Ford really “directed” besides placing a stationary camera on John Wayne talking mixed in with some fictional re-creations of military training, all in the name of supreme respect for Lewis “Chesty” Puller. Ad Ford’s final film, it has to be seen, there’s just not much there.





Unable to view: Upstream, North of Hudson Bay

The Current Cinema 18.2

Chappaquidick

As soon as Jason Clarke (as Ted Kennedy) mutters "I'm never going to be president" in the backseat of a car immediately after fleeing a crime scene, fears of overblown grandiosity creep into John Curran's "Chappaquidick". Thankfully, it mostly steers clear of any remaining obvious moments, settling into a drama that dares to taint the Kennedy legacy just a bit through the portrait of Ted Kennedy as someone not quite worthy of the monarchistic lineage of his saintly brothers and punitive father (Bruce Dern). The other surprise here is Ed Helms as Kennedy's best friend and trusted advisor Joe Gargan, a figure that seems to have lost the most in the scandal. I'd love to see more of him in able dramas.


Tons of new stuff at Dallas Film Now.com


Gemini- One of the year's best films.  Full review here

The Death of Stalin    Review here

 Krystal- Quite annoying for how it's precocious lead wins a beautiful woman.   Review here 

 Where Is Kyra?- As the film winds down, we know things won’t end well for Kyra and her boyfriend (Kiefer Sutherland), who reluctantly becomes involved with her affairs as well. The tone has been established from the outset. There are no big breaks for people like this. Only bad luck and obstinate bureaucracies. Full thoughts here

A Home Away From Home: John Duigan's "Flirting"

I never attended a boarding school. I never possessed the philosophical angst of young Danny (Noah Taylor). And I certainly never had a girlfriend like Thandie Newton fall for my non philosophical and angst-ridden self. Yet, having admitted all that, John Duigan's "Flirting" still manages to inhabit a space of young adulthood that feels both exaggerated and intimate.... truthful and fitfully novel.... and, above all, aligned with the pitfalls and soaring emotions of a beautifully rendered coming-of-age tale whose moments both big and small feel like a universal framework for us all.

Pairing with young Noah Taylor a few years earlier with "The Year My Voice Broke" (1987), writer and director John Duigan presents their relationship as a sort of American Truffuat/Leaud. In "Flirting", Taylor plays the same character of Danny Embling, a moody and uninterested intellectual at a British boarding school, several years removed from his prepubescent sexual reckoning in that earlier film. Choosing to steer (mostly) clear of the jockish antics of his rugby playing peers, Danny instead buries his nose in a book. The only respite from the boys' daily helpings of testosterone-schoolmate-punishings and fart jokes lies in the queasy relationship of the girls who go to school across the way. Bunched together at chaperoned dances or sporting events, it's one of these anxious social outings that Danny is first noticed by newcomer Thandiwe (Thandie Newton). Their relationship grows slowly, flirting between the ears as opposites of their school's respective debate teams and then eventually as they constantly break the rules and sneak across the small body of water to steal time with each other.

Like most high school coming-of-age films, there are various fumblings, falling-outs and childish gossip that threaten to ruin their romance. An innocent letter sent from Thandiwe to Danny finds the wrong hands at one point, causing ridicule for Danny. The ever-watchful eye of school superiors makes it increasingly difficult for the pair to find time together. And, in a rare feat from a film written by a male, the prerogative gaze slowly shifts onto the women over the boys, creating indelible and curious portraits of young women grappling with many of the same insecurities and fallible thoughts as the young men. Supporting performances by a young Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts provide just as much intelligence about the sensitive upheavals caused by puberty, never forgetting the fragile existence of either chromosome within the battle of the sexes.

Director Duigan would go onto a strong career of minor gems ("Lawn Dogs" with Sam Rockwell anyone?), but "Flirting" remains his masterpiece. It's a film that-besides launching a number of terrific talents- has the courage and sincerity to tackle such a common subject with varying degrees of complexity. I can't say I've ever drowned myself in the works of Kafka quite like Danny Embling, but I have experienced the acute pangs of a star-crossed relationship, living through letters and second guessing every emotion and decision about said person. All that's left now is for Duigan to continue the lives of Thandiwe and Danny after all these years.

The Current Cinema 18.1

Red Sparrow


Francis Lawrence's "Red Sparrow" is just the type of spy film we deserve right now. Visually beguiling and arid in its emotions, the film takes no prisoners in the way it frankly dissects the viciousness of empty political vessels using mind and body to wage a cold war. Jennifer Lawrence- using her stardom to spin a female character both sexy and dangerous- is the draw here, but "Red Sparrow" largely succeeds because of its reluctance to play anything safe.... which was evident in the many guffaws and gasps experienced during my mature aged audience expecting a "Hunger Games"- esque escape. After the third of fourth brutal torture scene, all hope was zapped from the theater. I loved it even more, then.


 Game Night


Better-than-average, smartly constructed comedy (thankfully relatively low on the raunch factor), with an engaging cast (especially Rachel McAdams) "Game Night" is also the coming out party for Jessie Plemmons. As soon as an actor like Plemmons gets tapped to play a quirky, unhinged character like the one here, you know he's arrived. Highly self-aware but imbued with an overarching honesty despite its wink-wink humor, "Game Night" excels at most everything it attempts.


Thoroughbreds 

Praise must be given for the first two-thirds of Cory Finley's directorial debut "Thoroughbreds" as it maintains a level of formal brilliance and thematic speculation that sincerely keeps the viewer off balance. We watch as two high school friends reconnect after years of unfriendliness- perfectly played by Olivia Cook and Ana Taylor Joy- and hatch a plot that's as nihilistic and psychotic as the feelings pulsing beneath their glassy eyes. When those plot mechanisms kick in, the film loses a bit of its momentum, but "Thoroughbreds" is still a bold and unnerving exploration of the emptiness once exaggerated in so many Bret Easton Ellis novels of the 80's. 

70's Bonanza: Operation Ogre

In the latter half of the twentieth century, cinema's attraction to the heroic romanticism and ultimate fatalism of the Wild West outlaw shifted onto the righteous terrorist. Just as committed to their brand of outlaw justice as Billy the Kid, the terrorist also served as the perfect (for better or worse) embodiment of the every-man's indignant right to fight "the man". So, it's no surprise that far left-wing filmmakers like Gillo Pontecorvo (who ascended to international acclaim after his 1966 film "The Battle of Algiers") would make such a film like "Operation Ogre" in which the sole burden of empathy and attention is given to a set of terrorists who meticulously planned and attacked Spanish Prime Minister Luis Blanco in 1973. In fact, their bomb was so potent that it sent the Prime Minister's car up in the air far enough to land on a building the next street over. The fact that "Operation Ogre" isn't just a radicalized political statement or transparent attempt to memorialize such men and women is a feat Pontecorvo pulls off brilliantly. In fact, I'd dare call "Operation Ogre" his best film, even better than "The Battle of Algiers" or the cultish "Burn!" starring Marlon Brando. More of a procedural thriller with some stunning shifts of time than anything else, its such a sad fact this film is rarely available on any home video format.

Starring the always fascinating Gian Marie Volonte as the leader of the Basque revolutionary group who travel to Madrid to assassinate Blanco, the name of the film is derived from the military operation assigned the mission. Of course, nothing goes as planned. Just when the group thinks they have their plan figured out, Blanco is promoted to Prime Minister, which not only alters his daily schedule but includes an influx of new bodyguards. Patiently following Volonte and his group as they audible their own plans, the film soon settles on their doom's-day-ticking-clock attempts to bury a bomb beneath one of the PM's main routes to and from church everyday.

Outside of their tense main mission, Pontecorvo throws in a couple of emotional curveballs, such as the relationship between of one of the terrorists and his wife, including one jarring narrative slip that jumps ahead in time to reveal the diminishing rewards of their violent actions and its repercussions on those who surround them. If nothing else, Pontecorvo routinely understands that the revolutionary life isn't without its mortal sacrifices.

Based on a novel by Julien Aguirre and released just 6 years after the assassination, "Operation Ogre" would be the last feature film directed by Pontecorvo before consuming himself in documentary work. It's a fitting piece. For someone who began his career championing the suspect rule of governments and the violent insurrection possible by its citizens, "Operation Ogre" reveals that his passion for violent change was unwavering.

The Last Few Films I've Seen, early 2018 edition

1. Princess Cyd (2017)- Had I made time for this in '17, it most certainly would have placed pretty high on my 'best of the year' list. Gentle, knowing and heartfelt tale that slinks along with intelligence in dealing with the fumbling emotions of a 16 year old girl (Jessie Pinnick, wonderful) spending a few weeks in Chicago with her aunt (Rebecca Spence). There's no huge moments, just perfectly realized characters finding their way through this certain time together. And the speech given by Spence to Cyd in the kitchen after a party feels ten times more real and moving than the speech given by Michael Stuhlbarg in "Call Me By Your Name"..... which earned him an Oscar nomination by the way.


2. Flower (2018)- can't say much. review upcoming at Dallas Film Now. Zoey Deutch is the real shit, though.


3. The Devil, Probably (1977)- Robert Bresson's second to last film, highly regarded by most and still so hard to see today. Dry is an understatement. Watching this group of social and environmentally active group of teens sleep with each other, fall in and out of love, question God, then ultimately question themselves is not without its blessings.... it just also feels very self-serving. I love the way Bresson remains entrenched on watching hands, bodies and objects more than the faces of his characters, though. I also see where Bertrand Bonello probably drew his inspirations for last year's "Nocturama".


4. Brawl In Cell Block 99 (2017). What I said about "Princess Cyd" applies here as well. I can't even recall this thing playing in Dallas last year. Maybe a midnight Alamo Drafthouse event? Regardless, it's a relentlessly hardcore exploration of the decisions made when pinned between a rock and a hard place. Vince Vaughn is amazing as the ex-boxer pinched for dealing drugs, then forced to sink lower and lower into the pits of confinement hell when given an ultimatum. It all becomes quite exploitative, but in the best way.


5. Mustang Island (2017)- One of the films I missed at last year's Dallas International Film Festival, which it went onto win the Texas Jury Prize from. Head scratching mistake if you ask me. Filmed in that deadpan, black and white early Jarmusch way, even its aesthetic screams precocious. It's story? Not much better. Macon Blair drags two buddies on a stalker-esque quest to find his recent ex-girlfriend at her beach home on the Texas coast. Of course, life lessons and new loves are earned. Everything in this effort has been done better and more sincerely.


6. Gideon of Scotland Yard (1958)- What a day for Chief Inspector Gideon (Jack Hawkins) of Scotland Yard, who has to deal with crooked cops, murder and a payroll robbery all in one day. Handled deftly (if not fairly pedantic) by Ford, the film is worth watching only for his handling of the stiff, tight-lipped manner in which most British film of the 50’s and 60’s were shrouded in.


7. Gator (1976)-  Burt Reynolds directed southern-action flick about an ex convict named, yes, Gator (Reynolds) enlisted by the feds to infiltrate and bring down old buddy Jerry Reed. The seven year old in me would have loved the opening 20 minutes of speed boat chases along the Louisiana bayou.


8. The Whispering Star (2014)- Either one likes Sion Sono's films or not. "Tokyo Tribe" anyone? The man is a true punk rocker in a long line of cinematic Japansese saboteurs. "The Whispering Star" is yet another deviation in his work. Quite slow, reflective and featuring one sequence of breathtaking visual acuity, the film tracks a robot delivering mail packages to people around various solar systems are her brief interactions with them. Though the worlds she ultimately lands on look like post apocalyptic wastelands of Earth (for good reason since Sono filmed in areas around the Fukushima power plant meltdown), the small beauty lies in their interactions that range from obscure to heartbreaking.


9. The 1517 To Paris (2018)- Very confused by this. I've liked Eastwood's efforts less and less since his masterpiece "Mystic River", and this one features the real life men who stopped a terrorist attack onboard a French train a few years back. The problem is, none of these guys can act and Eastwood chooses to begin with their friendship in grade school, which comes off just as tone-deaf and hackneyed as one would imagine. It doesn't get any better as it goes along, either.


10. Norwegian Wood (2009)- Based on acclaimed author Marukami's novel of the same name, Tran Ahn Hung brings the story of young star-crossed lovers to light with ethereal beauty and texture. Friends since childhood, the always splendid Rinko Kinkuchi and Kenichi Matsuyama react to the suicide of their best friend in different ways... ways that pull and push them together for years afterward. This is a film that reminded me of the early films of Julio Medem in the way life is messy and rude and beautiful each time we meet someone new. Not to mention, this features one FANTASTIC score by Jonny Greenwwod. Yes, even better than most of his P.T. Anderson films.

Cinema Obscura: Costa Gavras' "Shock Troops"

One of my favorite films of all time is Jean Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows" (1969). A masterpiece of murky atmosphere grown even murkier by the way a hushed betrayal shatters the once-trusting bond between comrades and lovers, it's a film that distills all the madness, loyalty and violence of the French Resistance into a seamless potboiler thriller.

If that film is the austere entry in the genre of Resistance films, than Costa-Gavras' "Shock Troops" (produced just two years prior to Melville's film) is the 1980's Cannon Films meathead production of the same events. That backhanded praise aside, "Shock Troops" is no less an important statement about the travails of France during World War II than Melville's more prestigious effort. It just goes about things in a much broader (and more violent) way like an aggressive cousin to Melville's masterpiece.

Instead of focusing on the underground (yet highly visible) people of the urban French Resistance, "Shock Troops" follows the band of the Maquis, which were the groups of armed French Resistance fighters who gave German troops the most trouble during their occupation of France. Residing in the mountainous terrain around the state and moving in swiftly, killing hordes of soldiers, bombing railroad lines and government offices, the Maquis would then retreat to their hillsides safe zones which the German military controlled little insight or strategy around. It worked for awhile. One of these swift actions opens "Shock Troops" wherein the group (including Jean Paul Briarly, Charles Vanal and Bruno Cremer) stage a brash infiltration of a prison and free the group of French men inside. One of the men, played by Michel Piccoli, comes under scrutiny by the group as to whether he's a double agent or not. Not only does his presence complicate the trust and civility of the Maquis, but it clouds their judgement as German troops slowly begin to encircle their encampment in the hillsides.

Marked by several strong episodes of violence- including the finale as the group does battle with a Panzer tank that methodically zeroes in on their coordinates- "Shock Troops" is much more yell than whisper, which ultimately sets it apart from Melville's more interior rationalization of the French Resitance's ultimate 'fait de acompli'.

However, its also a film that gives amazing honor to the story of French Resistance through its unabashed glee in gunfire and explosions. Not all of the Resistance were satisfied in subtle cloak and dagger. They were armed, impatient and just as ready to crush their occupiers as their occupiers were zealous to crush them. As Costa Gavras' action-infused early film shows, there's certainly room for both comments on this time in history on the spectrum.