By: Henry J. Fromage –
This could well be my most random selection of movies yet in a week- including some real butt-numbing epic runtimes.
305. The Merciless
While I’m partial to the gangster films coming out of China these days, there’s no denying that Korea has ruled crime flick roost for at least the last decade, and this 2017 film shows why- while the plot is honestly kind of dumb, it’s at least original in its double-crossing undercover cop and gangster plot in the way you genuinely understand why the cop would break bad. It’s also just spectacularly shot and choreographed. Why do these terrible Luc Besson disciples even now get Hollywood flicks to direct, while there’s such a stunning array of talent in Asia? Three Beers.
306. Intolerance
D.W. Griffith’s maybe/probably not mea culpa for the abject racism of Birth of a Nation is unfortunately no less a foundationally influential epic. The way he cross-cuts four stories of intolerance across history was unprecedented, and the sheer scale of his production remains mind-blowing today when you consider the effort that must have gone into building Babylonian parapets to spec (wide enough for two chariots to pass by each other). Back in these days, the special effect was the simple size of the set you dared to build, and even a century later it’s clearly a feat. The stories themselves haven’t aged as well, and the inclusion of Christ’s crucifixion with three other original stories smacks of pretension, especially when it gets by far the least screentime. Three Beers.
307. Hard to Be a God
The second massive epic of my day, this was legendary (if not so much in this country) Russian director Aleksei German’s final film, an opus of blood and shit and mud and piss based on a sci-fi story by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, the writers behind Andrei Tarkovky’s classic Stalker. This film is set on another planet whose civilization is hundreds of years behind ours, stuck in a permanent Dark Ages due to their violent suppression of their own Renaissance movement. A group of 30 scientists travel from Earth to integrate with their society and try to help them progress, but even with their superior knowledge, they find it hard to produce much development at all. A violent, profane vision of humanity shot in uncompromising black and white frames that evoke the Bruegels and Bosch, it’s a brutal watch, but undeniably some kind of masterpiece. Three Beers.
308. Mr. Pig
This was a surprisingly low-profile film considering it stars Danny Glover as a farmer who goes down to Mexico to sell his prize hog Howie, and Maya Rudolph as his worried daughter who follows after him. What starts as a fairly light-hearted man and his hog roadtrip becomes something much more serious, but Glover owns the screen in his inimitable style no matter what. Three Beers.
309. Prospect
Truly inventive sci-fi is hard to find these days, but Chris Caldwell & Zeek Earl establish themselves as names to watch in their debut, taking some old Western tropes and infusing them with new life by placing them in a wholly invented alien setting that they layer with so much well-considered, lived-in detail. Newcomer Sophie Thatcher more than holds her own across from Jay Duplass and Pedro Pascal, and the story is engaging, but the real draw here is the world-building, which proves these two should be on every studio’s shortlist of genre filmmakers to give a big break to. Two Beers.
310. Detour
This Korean comedy is about three old college friends in their mid-30s with very mid-30s problems going to a funeral on the beautiful Jeju Island (Korea’s Okinawa or Hawaii). Lady problems are paramount for two of the three, which unfortunately means some retrograde motivations even if the comedy is largely driven by their embarrassment and the constant insults they hurl at each other. And the translator sure had fun varying those insults- classics like “dick butt” are interspersed with genius like “fucking potato ass”. That lad or lady deserves their own honorary Oscar. Three Beers.
311. Terrified
This Argentine horror film has no qualms about putting its monsters front and center with its marketing, which has the unfortunate side effect of making it look cheaper than it is. In reality, Demian Rugna crafts a terrifically creepy film that hits all the right horror beats due to ace sound design, tight scare timing through editing, and creature effects that he shows just exactly enough of. The sum total is a short, nasty, and yep, pretty terrifying horror. Two Beers.
312. Zombie for Sale
For all you Train to Busan fans, yes, this is another Korean zombie film, but one that plays at an entirely goofier register (even humorously referencing its forebear). Instead, this skews far closer to the comedy half of the horror/comedy mashup genre, poking fun at zombie conventions and small-town and misogynistic stereotypes in equal measure. It may underscore its zaniness a bit too obviously at times, but there’s so much genuine inventiveness and just plain fun to be had here to let it bother you too much. Three Beers.
313. Family Romance, LLC
Werner Herzog’s latest is a bit on the slight side in his oeuvre, not quite getting to the philosophical depths his premise promises. Based on the Japanese “family for hire” business that has provoked some really interesting thinkpieces and even a Conan segment, and actually starring Yuichi Ishii, the former actor and entrepreneur widely credited with inventing the industry, there really should be more here than the somewhat removed blend of documentary and fiction that we get. If you know nothing about the phenomenon, though, you’ll likely get more out of it, and I’m not going to tell you even minor Herzog isn’t well worth your time. Three Beers.
314. Spelling The Dream
This Netflix documentary may feel at first like it’s treading the same ground as the excellent Spellbound, but it definitely has an angle- the South Asian domination of the spelling bee circuit in the last three decades, and the effect it’s had on the Indian American community. Many prominent Indian Americans share their feelings on the “Indian Superbowl” while we follow a new generation of spellers prepare for the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee, perhaps the greatest slate yet. Two Beers.
315. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
An aged but still sharp as a tack Joan Didion holds court in this dreamy, often elegiacal documentary about her life and writing career. Longtime family friend Griffin Dunne brings a personal perspective in his filmmaking that perhaps helps her open up even more, and her response to the question “what was it like to go into a room and see a child high on acid?” about one of her most famous early essays is bluntly, hilariously practical- “It was gold.” That world-and tragedy-weary, ironic, and yet somehow poetic viewpoint is Didion in a nutshell. Two Beers.
316. De Palma
None-too-shabby filmmakers themselves Jake Paltrow & Noah Baumbach profile Brian De Palma in the simplest but most effective way possible- they sit him in a chair and let him talk about each and every one of his films, in chronological order, supplementing the discussion with clips of them and nothing else. And it’s fascinating. I don’t know how you’ll come away from this not convinced you need to watch every single one, even his high-profile failures. I know I need me a De Palma marathon in my life before too long. Two Beers.
