By: Henry J. Fromage –
Week 2 of the year is unsurprisingly focused on several of last year’s significant releases, plus a few well-deserved rewatches.
8. Society of the Snow
Master of disaster J.A. Bayona turns his talents towards a story first told in Alive, about a Uruguayan rugby team and their relatives who crash during what should have been a relatively short flight over the Andes. Soon given up on by helpless search parties with a snowball’s chance in hell in locating a white fuselage among the wintry mountainscapes (especially since none of the 30-odd crashes in the Andes before had ever been found), the 27 survivors must make some awful choices to survive, particularly as the days turn to weeks. A truly harrowing and unbelievable tale of survival and brotherhood, told adeptly and unflinchingly. Two Beers.
9. Raiders of the Lost Ark
I probably haven’t watched this in a decade (before Crystal Skull?), but it should be no surprise that it’s just as much of a non-stop thrill ride as the first time I saw it at 6 or 7 years old (cowering behind the couch when they opened the ark). Of course, these days I notice that’s a very young Alfred Molina in the beginning(!) and raise an eyebrow a tad at Indy’s dalliances with a teenager. But as pure blockbuster fun, there’s few that have done it better. A Toast.
10. Dream Scenario
Yes, this doesn’t end as strongly as it bizarrely, deliciously begins, but I’m happy to report I enjoyed Nic Cage’s deeply strange normcore performance every bit as much as the first time I saw it, and gained a greater appreciation for director Kristoffer Borgli’s control of plot and tone alongside his very dark sense of humor. No wonder Ari Aster put his name as producer on this. A Toast.
11. The Equalizer 3
I’m not about to tell you that these are good movies, but as ‘Older Dramatic Actor Kicks a Bunch of Ass Thanks to the Magic of Editing’-type films go, Denzel’s franchise is only getting better where so many others have faltered soon after if not right at their first attempt (or vacillated wildly like Liam Neeson’s efforts). Anyway, this one sees him in Italy protecting an adorable town from the Mafia, somehow even more terrifying in his coldly efficient violence nearing 70 than when he began the series. Three Beers.
12. I Am Sun Mu
This enlightening documentary is about artist and North Korean defector, who created propaganda for the Kim regime until he escaped to South Korea and started building a new life as a political artist taking that same style and subverting it to impressive ends. He declines to show his face in this documentary, and finds a big show in China going off the rails almost immediately, both speaking to the real danger he and his family still in the country face as his art and his message gain traction and attract attention. Three Beers.
13. She Came to Me
Director Rebecca Miller wears her heart on her sleeve in her films, which doesn’t always connect with all critics, but it’s often over-the-top enough to work. This late 90s-feeling drama about unhappy white people is certainly that, as Peter Dinklage stars as an opera composer with a wife who finds herself drawn towards a nun’s lifestyle (Anne Hathaway) who cheats on her with a tugboat captain with a love addiction (Marisa Tomei), plus his stepson is sleeping with their cleaning lady’s daughter which her Civil War reenactor stenographer father is very mad about, threating to press charges. But damn if all doesn’t come together in the end, kind of. Three Beers.
14. Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind
This short documentary made up entirely of primary footage of Jerry Lee Lewis interviews and performances has an interesting pedigree, being Ethan Coen’s first film made without his brother Joel (and in a very different register than Joel’s The Tragedy of MacBeth). It lets Lewis and his contemporaries tell his highs (helping launch Rock ‘n Roll into the stratosphere) and lows (like the career-derailing decision to marry his 12 year old cousin) in their own words, and while it goes fast, it’s quite a tale. Three Beers.
