By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week was another one for horror stories both imagined and real, from many different angles and approaches.
694. It Was Just an Accident
Jafar Panahi’s Palme D’or winner seemingly courts violence more than he perhaps ever has. There’s a rage coursing through this film, one inspired not just by his comparatively brief imprisonment, but the experiences of the people he met there- regular Iranians with the temerity to stand up to the powers that be, however insignificantly. It doesn’t go exactly where you’d expect a film that begins with a kidnapping and attempted live burial would, because Panahi’s humanistic impulses and wry sense of humor cannot be subsumed, however bad the circumstances. But this is an angry, and hopefully galvanizing film all the same. Two Beers.
695. A House of Dynamite
I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the structure of this film, but I think they really boil down to not likely how perversely unfulfilling the denouement of it is. I think that’s very much the point- Katherine Bigelow has always been more about the procedure of things- the journey- than the ultimate destination, and here she’s highlighting how disturbingly close to catastrophe we remain in a world with nuclear weapons in the hands of so many. We may have grown more comfortable with the state of the state, but that doesn’t make it one iota less dangerous than it ever was. A gripping, propulsive, sobering reminder. Two Beers.
696. The Mastermind
Kelly Reichardt is also a proceduralist, although at many, many times less the speed than Bigelow usually operates at. Here she follows Josh O’Connor, playing a bit of a fuckup family man and Art major who thinks he’s planned the perfect art heist in a sleepy Massachusetts university town in the 1970s. This is the portrait of a probably born, definitely by now made loser, however, and we watch his world crumble around him due to the decisions and at first seemingly small decisions he makes. Best laid plans, and all.. Two Beers.
697. The Black Phone 2
There’s no denying that Scott Derrickson is a formidable stylist, and after getting to shoot a gritty 70s-style slasher meets Stranger Things paranormal horror with its predecessor, he ages up his cast four years later into a more teenaged-focused, dreamworld-laden 80s-style horror that plays like an homage to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, especially the best of the bunch- Dream Warriors. Too bad the homage is (a very stylish) surface-deep, with impressive levels of ballsily child-endangering gore not making up for an extremely slack story that doesn’t feel like it has any reason to exist beyond being a vehicle for the filmmaking. Four Beers.
698. The Jewel Thief
This fascinating documentary on Hulu profiles lifelong, ever-escalating Canadian thief Gerald Blanchard. One one hand, it’s clear he’s a self-aggrandizer who loves the spotlight, plus someone who gives off ‘not quite right’, possibly ‘on the spectrum’ vibes. However, this man literally did heist the crown jewels of Empress Sisi from Austria, plus did bank jobs so clever sometimes money was never missed (the trick? Plant exploitable vulnerabilities while the bank was being built). He’s such an intriguingly hard to reconcile individual, made even more so by the aura of myth that follows him everywhere, self-created and otherwise. Two Beers.
699. Sunday Best
This Netflix documentary examines the outsized influence the Ed Sullivan Show had on entertainment and US race relations history. Before Sullivan, you’d never see a Black act on primetime television, despite the huge popularity that Rock and Soul acts had among people of all backgrounds in the United States at the time. Sullivan recognized the camaraderie of Show Business, though, and gave the nation their first looks at some of the biggest legends of music history, full stop. Two Beers.
700. Join or Die
Another Netflix doc, this one makes the case that clubs and community engagement are essential to the proper functioning of Democracy and society at large. Social Scientist Robert Putnam’s seminal book on the matter, Bowling Alone, examined how the decline in simple organizations like bowling clubs in America has had reverberating political consequences up to the national level, and now in the age of the internet and “social” networks, polarization and alienation are accelerating at a breakneck pace. Three Beers.
