By: Henry J. Fromage –
The onslaught of Oscar hopefuls is starting to crest both in theaters and in streaming. Just wait for December.
1015. The Alpinist
There’s been a pretty healthy amount of climbing and mountaineering documentaries as of late, but you know you’ve landed on something series when Alex Honnold himself declares the subject the most extreme climber he’s ever met. That subject is Marc-André Leclerc, a young Canadian who is driven to do things that even the hardiest, most death-defying climbers consider too crazy to attempt. Whether or not is captured on camera or even seen by another soul doesn’t seem to matter nearly as much, though, much to the chagrin of the directors here, but it’s hard not to admire the purity of the pursuit, even when 99.9% of us will never understand this kind of mind. A Toast.
1016. My Name
This Netflix-hosted Korean TV show is a classic revenge tale with not a little The Departed mixed in, as Han So-hee plays an orphaned daughter of a criminal who is raised by his organization and embedded in the local police force. There are plenty of twists and turns from there, most of them of a nature that is not terribly hard to guess, but the series doesn’t dally and stages some spectacular action that makes it well worth the time investment. Three Beers.
1017. tick, tick…BOOM
Lin Manuel-Miranda, despite being a/the creative linchpin in something like 6 films in the last two years, just now has gotten around to his feature film directorial debut here in this story of playwright Jonathan Larson. Technically an adaptation of one of Larson’s own productions, it cleverly tells his story, which tragically ended before his greatest success- a little something called Rent. Andrew Garfield is simply magnetic as Larson, and while I feel there could have been some nipping and tucking here and there, and it really only has one truly stand-out number by my estimation, it never loses interest. Three Beers.
1018. King Richard
Will Smith goes back to the type of role that seemed to earn him an Oscar nom every other year or so, playing Richard Williams, the father of Venus & Serena. He created a 78-page plan before they were even born detailing how he would turn them into two of the best tennis players that ever lived (if not the best). It’s easy to doubt the raconteur he plays here even knowing what would come to be, as many do over the course of the film, but damn if he didn’t turn his dreams into reality. Aunjanue Ellis is also great as the wife and mother who is bought into the plan but equally responsible for their success, bringing things Richard could not to the equation, and Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton impress as Venus and Serena respectively. Two Beers.
1019. David Lynch’s Dune
My wife took an especial interest in the world of Dune after catching Denis Villeneuve’s first part of the saga, and as a happy coincidence Bill A and Oberst were doing a watch party we could join to catch David Lynch’s singularly strange version. She liked that even better, and it’s hard to deny that the both intentional and unintentional entertainment quotient is quite high here. It’s interesting to see that roughly 92 of this film’s 137 minutes are spent on the same material Villeneuve covered in his Part One- which is also about the time Lynch seems to lose the reins of the film and we bumrush through what clearly should have been about an equal amount of time to finish the story. Four Beers.
1020. Found
This extremely affecting Netflix documentary follows three adopted Chinese-American high school girls in three different parts of the country who learn that they are cousins through 23andMe, then catch on with a highly motivated Chinese researcher who seeks to help them reconnect with their birth families. While there have been several documentaries explaining the many horrors of China’s so-called One-Child Policy, none explain the personal cost nearly as eloquently as a teen and a middle-aged man both with tears welling in their eyes after learning they are not in fact related. Crushing. A Toast.
1021. Bergman Island
Mia Hansen-Love’s latest is apparently slightly autobiographical in that it features a literal couple of directors (she was an item with Olivier Assayas for years) who travel to Faro Island- the home, writing, and filming location of preference for Ingmar Bergman for the last several decades of his life. Hansen-Love does an interesting job of intercutting this story with the story in the script her stand-in (played by Vicky Krieps, with Tim Roth playing the Assayas proxy) is writing in the bucolic quiet of the island, whose details intermix with her experiences there. It’s a subtle yet fascinating approach that continues her career-long unbroken win streak. Two Beers.
1022. A Cop Movie
Netflix also hosts this Mexican documentary that starts out as a fly on the wall portrayal of a couple of Mexico City police officers in a relationship. It’s clear director Antonio Ruizpalacios has something else up his sleeve as it quickly becomes obvious that his beautifully cinematic shooting style is too good to be true. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the conceptual twist at play here, but I won’t spoil it for you, and I suspect many of you will disagree with me. In either case, it’s a fascinating approach. Three Beers.
1023. Margaret
Most of what was leaving Criterion this month I had either seen or isn’t terribly hard to get ahold of even with it leaving the service, but Kenneth Lonergan’s definitive version of his once held to be a flop yet now has been recognized as the masterpiece it is I couldn’t miss. The extra 36 minutes (making a whopping 186) drive home the point he was really trying to- that real-life tragedies are not like the movies. Life still goes on even when the trauma of an event courses beneath the surface- and how it may surface may surprise even those it occurs to. Anna Paquin is tremendous, and the supporting cast only feels deeper now as the years go by (check out that Gerri/Roman Succession connection, for one). Two Beers.
1024. The Clock
I also couldn’t find anywhere else that hosts this 1945 Judy Garland vehicle directed by her future husband, Vincente Minnelli. It’s a slight but extremely endearing tale of a soldier on leave (a winning Robert Walker) who meets a young lady by chance (an always alluring Garland, of course), then by plans that don’t at all go to plan (ending up in them jointly taking over an overnight milk route, for one), then by pure serendipity (or just congruent thinking). You’ll be won over, assuredly. Three Beers.
1025. House of Gucci
Ridley Scott’s gone and delivered another two-film year, and while this is lesser, they’re both winners in my book. Adam Driver plays an entirely different kind of character in the bashful Gucci heir who falls in love with a more bourgeois woman played by curiously-accented, never less than magnetic Lady Gaga who turns to have more than enough ambition for the two of them. Perhaps better titled The Fall of the House of Gucci, Scott lets a cast including those two and Al Pacino and Jared Leto playing a father and son chasing each other to the very top of the rafters go all out, and it’s a glorious (and surprisingly educational) sight to behold. Two Beers.
