By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week I dabbled in more movie series and long-form flicks. Hey, if I don’t have time to get to them now, then when?
329. Hill of Freedom
One of Hong Sang-soo’s shortest films still has all of his hallmarks- unrequited longing, soju-soaked conversations, and a time-jumbling narrative structure. It also happens to be just about wholly in English, as that’s the only language his lovelorn Japanese protagonist has in common with his Korean hosts and the ex-girlfriend he’s searching for. Maybe the ideal entry point for the uninitiated to Hong’s uniquely homogeneous arthouse oeuvre. Three Beers.
330. Happy End
Michael Haneke’s most recent film isn’t his most cohesive or ground-breaking, certainly, but this story of a rich and dissolute family navigating their own fuckups and foibles still has plenty of teeth, perhaps at their sharpest in the relationship between aging and suicide-obsessed patriarch and titan of industry played by Jean-Louis Trintignant and his 13 year-old relative (played captivatingly by the debuting Fantine Harduin) who alone he sees his own nigh-sociopathic yet decisive personality in. The 78-year-old Haneke still has a vicious masterpiece or two left in him- I can feel it. Three Beers.
331. Enter the Void
Gaspar Noe and Benoit Debie’s floating, dipping, diving, permeable camerawork is as truly unique and exhilarating as Paz de la Huerta’s pidgen Marilyn Monroe performance is exhausting in this, which helps explain the mixed reception cinema’s perpetual enfant terrible Noe got for it. In my book the ideas and style on display here far outweigh some of the more transparent provocations, as the story of a DJ/sometimes drug dealer in Tokyo comes to a violent end and we see his soul take a journey alongside those left in the wake of his death and through his memories and deepest traumas. Pure cinema. Three Beers.
332. Autumn Sonata
It’s hard to be too critical of any film that brings together legends the caliber of Ingmar Bergman, Liv Ullmann, and Ingrid Bergman, and there’s no doubt this tale of mother/daughter drama boasts the dramatic showcase scenes they deserve. It’s an altogether stagey, TV production-caliber presentation by Ingmar, though, perhaps because he wanted to get out of the way of his leading ladies, but it’s hard to wonder what the stylist he often was could have done to elevate the material. Three Beers.
333. Mary Magdalene
This long, Weinstein-fueled delayed film once upon a time was supposed to be a big Oscar play for Rooney Mara as the titular lead, Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, Chiwetel Ejiofor as Peter, and director Garth Davis (Lion). After watching, I’m not sure that would have ever been the case, but the direction and performances are all quite good, and Davis & co are able to thread the needle of feminist perspective and respect for what they’re actually adapting- the Bible… at least until the end. I appreciated the parallels between the honor killing type of patriarchy that still very much exists in too many places in the world and the Old Testament mindset of the world Jesus came into. However, the last bit about Mary being the only one to “get” Jesus’s teachings in opposition to the Apostles who, you know, wrote the Bible and started the first Christian churches very much alongside her is a bit tough to swallow. It doesn’t entirely ruin what comes before it, though. Three Beers.
334. Mary and Max
This is another Gauntlet film, my pick for Animation Week, and this Australian animated film based on the true story of a young Aussie girl who writes a man in New York who happens to have Asbergers at random and strikes up a years-long pen-pal relationship with him is a unique one. Adam Elliot devises a unique stop-motion style that emphasizes the grotesque to a “not for everyone” extent, but somehow accentuates the heart of the enterprise even more. Hearing Philip Seymour Hoffman’s voice again adds its own unexpected layer of poignancy. Three Beers.
335. Deerskin
That this thoroughly bizarre dark comedy about a recent divorcee who becomes obsessed with his new deerskin jacket is easily Quentin Dupieux’s most accessible film is one of its better jokes. Jean Dujardin is utterly deranged, soon hellbent on his jacket being the only jacket in the world, and Adele Haenel plays off of him perfectly as the ostensible voice of reason. When things inevitably make a turn for the macabre, with Dujardin wielding a fan blade to deadly effect, Dupieux really turns on the gore jets. Three Beers.
336. The Peanut Butter Solution
BabyRuth turned me onto another Amazon Prime-hosted oddity with this children’s film from 1985 about a boy who loses his hair and then ghosts tell him to put peanut butter and other things on his bald dome so he does and then his hair starts growing at an astonishing rate before he is forced into child slavery by his art teacher alongside a bunch of other children manufacturing paintbrushes from his magic locks and then a bunch of shit that makes even less sense happens plus evil twin, I think? This all makes the film sound kinda fun in that traumatizing 80s kids movie way, but nope, this move was straight up made by space aliens. It’s hard to describe the utterly foreign aura this thing projects- the just offness of literally every component of it. I needed a shower after watching. Six Pack.
337. Hamilton
So, this is what all the fuss is about. Yes, I got Disney + just to watch this, and no, I don’t regret it. The filming does little to nothing to elevate the musical besides bringing us closer to it, and that’s 100% the right choice. The incendiary performances, heart-pounding choruses and crescendos, and clever production design (and delightful King George) that made this a cultural phenomenon shine through beautifully. What a goddamn show. A Toast.
338. Babyteeth
Director Shannon Murphy and Screenwriter Rita Kalnejais deliver co-debuts for the ages in this sensitive, all too real-feeling, as hilarious as it is heart-rending dramedy about a prep school teen with cancer (Eliza Scanlen) who meets a decidedly wrong side of the tracks young man (Toby Wallace) and starts to fall for him to the horror of her parents (played masterfully by the legendary duo of Essie Davis and Ben Mendelsohn). An extremely unconventional relationship forms between the four of them, with Scanlen showing once again why she’s an absolute star on the rise after just about stealing Little Women from a who’s who of stunning young women as youngest sister Beth March. Two Beers.
339. The Deeper You Dig
I went into this indie horror written, directed, shot, scored, and starring The Adams Family, as in father John, mother Toby, and daughter Zelda, prepared to grade on a curve. I mean, it’s remarkable these folks were able to make a full horror feature for a several thousand dollars set in the Catskills on their own, right? Well, yes it is, but it turns out that what they made is a pretty fucking great horror film in its own right. Disturbing when not terrifying, artful, and engagingly acted, the few false steps made here barely even register as you teeter on the edge of your seat. Hey Blumhouse, give this family a cool couple million and see what gold they can spin from it, please. Two Beers.
340. 7500
Yes, this thriller set in an airplane cockpit in real time centers on a hijacking by terrorists of Middle Eastern descent. Yes, we all unfortunately still live in a world in which that’s a distinct possibility. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines as a co-pilot forced to deal with extraordinary circumstances on his own, and Omid Memar delivers a soulful, too-realistic performance as the youngest and most hesitant hijacker. Patrick Vollrath keeps the stakes high and the tension nigh-unbearable for the duration- an incredibly auspicious debut. Two Beers.
