By: Henry J. Fromage –
Light on the new releases, but kicked off a movie marathon based on our Southwest trip last week- pretty Vegas-focused to start.
209. The Thing About Pam
I hope Renee Zellweger has space on her mantle for an Emmy or more, as I don’t see how she loses for her portrayal of Pam Hupp, the Midwest-nice minivan housewife from hell whose best friend is purportedly killed by her husband- or at least that’s her side of the story of what happened that night. Things are played deliciously arch without striking too flippant a tone. Zellweger, though… jaw-dropping. Two Beers.
210. Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Daniels follow up their farty boner corpse movie Swiss Army Man with another exuberant, stylish, no holds barred (a Ratatouille parody entitled Racacoonie plays a significant part, for once) assault on the senses. Michelle Yeoh gets an awesome role as the most average version of herself in the multiverse, which means she is ideally suited to combat the existence-obliterating threat that may be closer to her than she thinks. This is the kind of movie that stretches the boundaries of the term “creative control”, and it’s glorious. Two Beers.
211. Return to Space
Don’t be thrown by the Elon Musk-promoting iconography of that Netflix promo image above, this documentary by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi isn’t all burnishing the man’s image. There is a lot of him in it, though, as it’s clear his desire to bring shuttle launches back to US soil twenty years post the Columbia disaster fueled the eventual success of SpaceX in doing just that (and encourage the billionaire space tourism trend). Chin & Vasarhelyi do an interesting job contrasting this new wave of engineering and problem-solving against the military and government-driven efforts prior to it. Three Beers.
212. National Parks
My wife and I assumed this was a series about the U.S. National Parks, but I suppose we have Ken Burns for that. Instead, Obama narrates a perfectly pleasant Planet Earth clone focused on animal shenanigans (and terrors- nature is a bitch and this series doesn’t elide over that) that is structured around national parks across the globe and the role they play in conservation. Three Beers.
213. Leaving Las Vegas
I remember this being a perfectly fine film that deserved its reputation as the film that got national treasure Nicolas Cage his Oscar, but upon my first rewatch in decades I started to wonder if it was actually an good, then conclude it wasn’t terribly. Full of melodrama, pitched to the rafters acting, horribly dated 90s style, and incomprehensible character motivations, it’s all faintly ridiculous. And I say that still quite liking Cage’s and Shue’s performances in the end- it’s the script and direction that let them down. Four Beers.
214. Armageddon
This also has a Vegas scene, although not as big as either of us remembered, and maybe a little bit of the recent Bruce Willis news played into this choice as well. Anyway, this is probably just as entertaining as it was back in ’98. Michael Bay has generally been good about using practical effects wherever possible, so the years have been kind to the action, and, well, the plot’s a Michael Bay plot alright. And that soundtrack- good or bad, I sure played it plenty on my Sony CD player, that’s for sure. Four Beers.
215. The Hangover
Another Las Vegas-set movie I haven’t seen in years, time has been relatively kind (the r-word gets plenty of action, tho) to this surprise smash-hit comedy (and it’s LA, which is pretty much the same as you’ll see today, but which pretty much nothing like Leaving Las Vegas‘ 1995 version. A ribald comedy classic that also gave us Ken Jeong, for mostly better than worse. Two Beers.
216. The Hangover Part II
For the sequel Todd Phillips & co took part in the proud tradition of making the same movie again, but in a different place, and it was fine, if not as original or full of surprises as the first despite it’s Thai setting. A meaner streak of comedy surges through this one, and Ken Jeong’s agent of chaos plays a bigger role. It also feels like the consequences have fled this film even more than the first- what kind of fiancée would still come running to her newly face-tattooed beau escorting her maimed brother on a crashed speedboat? Four Beers.
217. The Hangover Part III
The finale of the series is it’s cruelest yet, announcing itself via giraffe decapitation and pretty much spiraling from there. That’s not to say it’s not often quite funny anyway (Melissa McCarthy was a great addition), but Ken Jeong is pretty much the principal star and plot-driver here as the Wolf Pack returns to Las Vegas but forgoes the ‘unravel the mystery of the night before’ mechanics of the first two (which would have bee pretty difficult to pull off three times running). Four Beers.
218. Quickening
I caught up with one of last year’s festival flicks I’d taken down to watch when available at the Atlanta Film Festival (tis the season of domestic film festivals playing less well-known festival titles from primarily abroad). It’s about a Canadian dancer of Pakistani heritage who acutely feels the competing pulls of modern Western life and traditional familial expectations. Well-acted and shot, but slow nearly to a fault, it’s still worth a look. Three Beers.
219. Every Day in Kaimuki
This is another former festival pick playing Atlanta that’s a bit of a slow-burn drama, but a bit livelier one. A radio DJ in a mid-size Hawaiian town is preparing to move to New York with his artist girlfriend, but they find that they’re perhaps unready for this transition in various ways despite having often spoken of wanting to go somewhere bigger and far away. Naturalistic and feeling true to both the characters and place, it’s an auspicious debut for all involved. Three Beers.
220. Dead Man
We picked Jim Jarmusch’s black and white Western not because of all the Johnny Depp news recently, but rather its Sedona shooting location, which doesn’t honestly factor too heavily (Jarmusch shot all over to present a bit of a mythic yet ground-level Western landscape to match his mythic descent into Hades). Full of wry humor, a bit of ultraviolence I didn’t remember from my first viewing, scenery-chewing character actors, and a perfect soundtrack from Neil Young, it’s everything you’d hope for from a Jim Jarmusch Western. A Toast.
