By: Henry J. Fromage –
Week two of my 2020 Film Festival sees me more or less catching up with every release on the year that’s crossed my very broad radar.
148. Extraction
This isn’t going to win any screenwriting awards, which is ironic considering the recognizable name here is Joe Russo of the Russo Brothers fame, but his go- to Marvel stunt coordinator, Sam Hargrove, goes absolutely bonkers with the action choreography in his directorial debut. Clearly indebted to The Raid films and the John Wick franchise, if you’re a fan of those you’re going to find plenty to love here. Chris Hemsworth’s muscular performance is just icing on the cake. Two Beers.
149. Selah and the Spades
Selah is a prep school senior and head of one of the five factions ruling the vices of the school. Her Spades control the “party favors”- the alcohol and drugs no preppie party can do without. What she’s really worried about is her legacy, however, and as she takes the younger Paloma under her wing, she sees someone very much like her, perhaps too much so. While this high school drama perhaps puts too many cards on Selah’s journey (for my money, she’s the clear villain of the piece and Paloma is the protagonist), it’s a striking filmmaking debut for Tayarisha Poe no matter how you cut it. Three Beers.
150. Why Don’t You Just Die!
This Russian genre flick starts with a young man and a hammer he intends to use knocking on the door of a corrupt police officer. Shit just gets way more belligerent from there, as the two, and three more characters caught up in the twisted web of greed and lies that is eventually uncovered, just go at each other. A dark comedy of the positively darkest caliber. Two Beers.
151. It Must Be Heaven
The only way I could find to watch this was with French subtitles (my high school French holds up better than I ever imagined), which feels very of a part with Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman’s droll but pointed comedy. Here he leaves his homeland to work in both Paris and New York, delivering absurd social commentary every where he goes in a silent, observational style that many would compare to Jacques Tati. He very much has his own aims and perspective, though, and the result is soft and deceptively sharp comedy I feel everyone would get both at least a laugh and a thought out of. A Toast.
152. Martin Eden
This Italian adaptation of the 1909 Jack London novel immediately plays tricks on your cinephile brain. Intercutting footage that for all the world looks contemporaneous to the novel while adapting the 70mm film stock and many stylistic touches of the 70s European emigrant/immigrant social dramas exploring the same time period, the film is still unquestionably a 21st century arthouse epic with its disinterest in propriety and frequent hand-held aesthetic. What emerges is a political drama that speaks to the common struggles of all our times, one that wears its heart proudly on its sleeves. Despite some longeurs as Martin begins to pay a price for his long-struggled-for success, the film is overall singular and spectacular. Two Beers.
153. VFW
Joe Begos is almost too committed to his 70s grindhouse/80s direct to video slasher cheapo aesthetic, but nobody can deny he knows how to smash some papier mache heads real good. The practical effects are as gory as any you’ve seen recently, and conceit of a bunch of genre film ringers including Stephen Lang, William Sadler (Die Hard 2), Martin Kove (both original Karate Kids), David Patrick Kelly (The Warriors), George Wendt (Norm from Cheers), and Fred Fuckin’ Williamson taking on an almost zombielike horde of dystopian punk drug addicts works just fine as an excuse to employ them. Right up some very specific but well-trod cinematic alleys. Three Beers.
154. Gretel and Hansel
I quite liked Oz Perkins’ debut The Blackcoat’s Daughter and did not care as much for his rather stilted follow-up I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House, but he takes a stylistic swerve towards something a little more A24. Frankly, it’s a surprise this got a major release- it’s all atmosphere, art direction, and shot composition, with a heavy dose of occult imagery that feels like something out of an Ari Aster joint. The voiceover and on the nose feminist monologues do ding things a little bit, but not enough to make it anything but a sure thing for one of the most interesting horror films of the year. Two Beers.
