Moviegoing in the Time of Covid

"Going to see movies in theaters is Dead." -- October 8, 2020 (the day REGAL Cinemas will re-close all US/UK theaters due to the ongoing pandemic).

It has been awhile, Forignfilmguyfans! That imaginary quote reminds me of two OTHER prognostications that have proved demonstrably FALSE:

"Irony Is Dead" -- September 12, 2001

"New York City is Dead" -- March 12, 2020

Unlike those two, I am a bit more worried about the latest dire warning, given my two moviegoing experiences post-lockdown (both at a Regal Cinema). I was first in line when theaters reopened in Houston, my hometown, on Friday, August 28th (because I was the ONLY one in line!) The 1 o'clock showing was cancelled due to technical difficulties (no surprise, they've been shutdown for months), so I returned on Saturday to see STAR WARS V: The Empire Strikes Back ... with four other dudes. Don't get me wrong: I love sitting alone and far away from other humans, but multiplexes do not make money off ME, they need to fill the seats.

My second visit was Tuesday, October 6th, to see the much-anticipated (and ONLY) blockbuster released so far: Christopher Nolan's "TENET" ... this time with six people (not all dudes). I will give you a review in my next post, but a couple of observations first:

1) Of course no one is going back into theaters now: there is nothing to SEE! The longest-running new release out now is "Unhinged" with Russell Crowe -- and it's NOT a documentary! The other 8 theaters are filled with retreads and indie features that wouldn't have lasted a week in normal times. Hollywood has not backed-up the theater chains: every announcement of a premiere pushed back to 2021 is another nail in their coffins.

2) People have gotten used to the alternative: COVID19 has turned us all into couch potatoes. Even me, who always avoided watching movies on the 'small screen' (as long as I could help it; NETFLIX ruined that for me forever with their Oscar-nominated ROMA and The IRISHMAN). Now, with so much new to watch at home, why would you risk going out? 

Life WILL get back to normal, eventually, but I expect the only theaters to return to business will be the the dine-in luxury-seat options. I'm not opposed to paying $28.00 for a reclining seat at iPic (as long as the blanket is disinfected).

TOP TEN MOVIES for 2019 - Coronavirus edition!

March 24, 2020--

Here in Houston, we are about to enter a two-week 'stay-at-home' edict from Harris County.
What better time to look back at 2019 -- simpler times, when Tom Hanks' only worry was whether he was going to be in the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor category for playing Mr. Rogers.

Ahh, 2019 .... the year I delayed posting my TOP TEN LIST, because I was waiting to see that elusive 10th movie to complete my list. But I never saw it! It is still out there, but will I ever see it?? Theaters are closed, and I have an aversion to watching movies on TV...

But the show must go on, even in these difficult times, so here is my TOP NINE MOVIE LIST!!

1. ONCE UPON A TIME . . . In Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino at his best!)
2. PARASITE (So. Korea)  A worthy Oscar winner
3. PAIN & GLORY (Spain)-Almodovar'sAmarcord.
4. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (France) -- beautiful French film
5. LITTLE WOMEN--- Greta strikes again!
6 JOKER
7. 1917
8. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
9. A Hidden Life (Terence Malick)

SAW & ENJOYED:
Downton Abbey
Ford v. Ferrari
Jojo Rabbit
Marriage Story
Wild Rose

Ehhhh .... (movies I was disappointed in).
Bombshell
The Dead Don't Die
Yesterday

Pre-OSCAR Forecast

February 8th at 3:04PM:

Tradition is tradition. Although the annual Awards parade has become numbingly predictable, I will soldier on with my picks for the 2020 ACADEMY AWARDS:

Best Picture (*surprise*):   PARASITE
Best Director:  Sam Mendes, 1917
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, "Joker"
Best Actress: Renee Zellweger, "Judy"
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, "Once Upon a Time ..."
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, "Marriage Story"

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, "Once Upon a Time ..."
Best Adapted Screenplay: Greta Gerwig, "Little Women" *mild upset
Best Foreign Film: Parasite
Best Film Editing: Parasite
Best Cinematography/Production Design/Sound Editing/Sound Mixing: 1917
Best Costume Design: "Little Women"
Best Hair & Make-up: "Bombshell"
Best Visual Effects: "Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker"
Animated Film: Toy Story 4
Best Original SCORE*: Hildur Gudnadottir, "Joker"
 *the surprise in this category is that I would not mind if Thomas Newman won for his excellent work in "1917" 
Best Original Song: "Stand Up," Harriet

OSCARS 2020 : the (subdued) Outrage!

January 17, 2020

Five days after the announcement of OSCAR nominees, I am just now posting my annual Outrage! post, and I must admit, my heart is not in it this year.

Sure, the #1 Outrage! is the exclusion of Greta Gerwig as Best Director for the wondrous "Little Women" -- surely one of the Top Five Movies of the Year. It was a Snub to be sure, but not a Surprise. The previous (lesser) award nominations ALL snubbed her in favor of an all-male group -- with the notable exception of the Critic's Choice Awards, which effortlessly has offered a solution to all the Academy's bad press over the years by having SEVEN nominees in a category (!).

But when there are only five slots, who gets bumped in favor of Greta? I can't speak to the merit of Sam Mendes (whose "1917" I have yet to see), but the other four nominees are certainly deserving. (You can't bump Marty Scorsese, even though he sold out to Netflix).

The lack of ethnic diversity in the acting categories likewise doesn't get me worked up: 1) what's new?; 2) I do not see any major snubs here (no doubt influenced by me not seeing "The Farewell" and by my personal dislike of J-Lo and Eddie Murphy).

But tradition being tradition, I must work-up my Outrage! for (yet again) the category of BEST ORIGINAL SCORE ! WTF?

I'm not even outraged anymore by those two hardy perennials RANDY NEWMAN and JOHN (f*ing) WILLIAMS: I get it, they write the same music they've been writing for, what, 44 years? (Star Wars, 1976) , and a nomination is guaranteed.

Again, I cannot comment on Thomas Newman's score for "1917." But the *new* Academy darling in this category is Alexandre Desplat, and his score for the aforementioned "Little Women" is the one glaring flaw in an otherwise great film. YES! It is cloying, insistent and overbearing -- and oftentimes drowns out the real emotion of a scene. Over-scored films often try to hide weaknesses in the script. But in Little Women, there ARE NO WEAKNESSES! Just shut-up and let the scene play out!

IMHO, there is a clear winner in this category : the lovely 37-year old Icelandic composer Hildur Guðnadóttir (pictured below). Her Score for "Joker" was bracing, original, and enhanced the tone of the film. If Hildur doesn't win her first Oscar, I WILL be truly Outraged!

HILDUR

A HIDDEN LIFE

A Hidden Life

Director: Terence Malick

Run time: 2 hours, 54 minutes

I list the film's running time first, because in a Terence Malick movie, such information is vital ! (Even so, I had to take a bathroom break two hours in). This true story of an Austrian farmer's refusal to pledge allegiance to Adolf Hitler and fight in his war is a meditative look at one man's personal conviction and the consequences it has for everyone around him. 

This film is Malick at his best, an unfortunately, at his most self-indulgent. The first 40 minutes is a masterful re-creation of the details of rural life in 1940s Austria. I haven't seen such an authentic depiction of the hard work of running a farm since 2017's Les guardiennes ("The Guardians") from France. His family life and relationship with his wife are likewise genuine, lyrical and beautifully-shot. (The soundtrack adds depth to the beautiful images, too).

Scenes of Franz (August Diehl) discussing his moral convictions with various members of his family, the clergy, and the community play more like extended monologues -- a familiar characteristic of Malick's method. What is uncharacteristic is his penchant to allow these supporting players to shout, repeat themselves and generally overact. One sees scant evidence of Franz as an active participant in these discussions. Of course, his moral stance is an implicit challenge to their own convictions, hence the extreme resistance he engenders. But still … less can be more.

The scenes between Franz his wife Fani (the excellent Valerie Pachner) reveal an intense and abiding devotion. His mother gets too much screen time for the little she has to contribute, as do Franz's fellow inmates, not to mention the many beatings and humiliations he suffers in a Berlin prison. With the conclusion inevitable, the focus on the minutiae of his sham trial seems pointless, despite giving us the pleasure of seeing the late great Swiss actor Bruno Ganz one last time. 

Malick's themes touch on another meditative (and long) movie about keeping one's faith in the face of intense torment: Martin Scorsese's "Silence"-- a superior movie, IMHO.

Rest assured, Malick's latest is grounded in reality more than his recent work ("To the Wonder" was the last one I sat through...and regretted). Literally grounded: There is a lot of digging, plowing, and clawing at the dirt here). There is much to admire in the filmmaking. It is a surprise that such a lush production has received zero accolades at the end of the year.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (France)

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (original title)

(France 2019)

It is refreshing to see a movie about women told from a woman's point of by … BY A WOMAN Director! ("Little Women" is next on my to-see list, Greta!). 

I saw this French film in November 2019 but at the time I didn't give it as much credit as it deserves.  The director (Céline Sciamma) guides the movie at her own pace, and trusts her actors with close-ups that reveal much more about their feelings than mere dialogue can (a lesson lost on most American movie directors).

And what faces she has to work with! As Marianne (the painter), Noemie Merlant is mesmerizing throughout. Her subject, played by Adele Haenel, is equally enthralling. The result is all the more remarkable because Sciamma makes no attempt to soften or glamourize the leads with lighting or make-up. 

The nighttime scene in front of the bonfire that comes in the middle of the film reveals the film's message: the bond shared among women is deep, mysterious and timeless.

TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2018 (remember 2018?)

I know it has been way too long since I posted, but here is my delayed list of the TOP TEN MOVIES of 2018:

1. THE FAVOURITE
2. COLD WAR (Poland)
3. If Beale Street Could Talk
4. The Rider
5. A Star Is Born
6. Roma (Mexico)
7. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
8. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
9. Leave No Trace
10. Eighth Grade

Honorable mention:
Black Panther
The Guardians (France)
At Eternity's Gate
Isle of Dogs

Saw & enjoyed:
Mary Poppins Returns
Becoming Astrid (Sweden)
1945 (Hungary)
Beast (UK)
Green Book

Saw & didn't enjoy!
BlackKklansman
First Reformed
Mary, Queen of Scots
The Seagull
Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado

OSCAR noms 2019: the (delayed) Outrage!

I know it has been over a week since the academy released its nominations, but since I hadn't seen many of the movies under consideration, I had a delayed reaction. But never fear, I am OUTRAGED!

1. Bradley Cooper got 'Afflecked.'
Remember 2012, when the movie of the year was ARGO, yet its director, Ben Affleck, got snubbed as Best Director? History repeats this year, as Cooper's A STAR IS BORN received 8 nominations, yet NOT one for Best Director. That snub virtually assures that STAR will not win Best Picture (unless it gets 'ARGO-ed', which won Best Picture despite the Director snub).

2. A First: Outrage in the BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT category!
Our friends in Great Britain are rightfully outraged that someone made a film about the notorious murder of a 2-year-old boy by two 10-year-old boys back in 1993. "Detainment" tells the story by using police interrogation transcripts of the two offenders.  That such a dubious film would be nominated for an Oscar is an affront to everyone involved in this tragedy, no matter how many years have passed.

3. Individual SNUBS
Deserving Actors overlooked: Ethan Hawke (FIRST REFORMED) and Emily Blunt (MARY POPPINS RETURNS) were robbed!

Deserving Songs overlooked:  IMHO, this category should only consist of songs from A STAR IS BORN and MARY POPPINS RETURNS (the songs were that good!)

Deserving DOCS overlooked:
How could the nominators NOT recognise the two most-talked about Docs this year:
WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (about Mr. Rogers) and
THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS ??

4. I have renamed this spot The Honorary John Williams "Best Original Score' Outrage. Mr. Williams did not receive a nomination this year, but even if he had, I would reserve my outrage for what is the most-overrated film composer in the most over-praised movie this year: Terence Blanchard for BlackKKlansman.  For a movie that repeatedly hits you over the head with its message, the soundtrack likewise incessantly drums into you how you are supposed to feel at every moment. That is what a good screenplay is supposed to do, but if you don't trust the dialogue or your own audience, drown both of them out with your self-important music! Check this space for a separate review of Spike Lee's latest joint.

OSCAR Want-Think List to follow soon!

"Lord, What a Mess!"

FIRST REFORMED

Dir: Paul Schrader

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried

"Lord, What a Mess" was never uttered by Ethan Hawke's conflicted pastor as he grapples with his relationship with God when confronted by a future consumed by the irreversible effects of climate change in "First Reformed." But that is what he is thinking throughout this film -- and that is certainly what  I was thinking as I sat through writer-director Paul Schrader's ponderous attempt to call attention to the 21st Century climate crisis.

I sought out this film because of repeated comparisons to Ingmar Bergman's classic "Winter Light" (1963), where a Lutheran pastor questions the existence of God in the face of a suicidal parishioner's (Max Von Sydow) fears of a nuclear holocaust. Aside from the first scene inside a white-washed church, complete with a plain, bespeckled female parishioner (channeling the incomparable Ingrid Thulin) who has a 'thing' for the man of God, that comparison is jettisoned for more of a pale homage to Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" (the pastor does indeed keep a diary and is afflicted with a debilitating illness), before it veers inexplicably off course into "Taxi Driver" territory. (!)

Schrader, you may recall, penned that classic film of alienation in the Seventies, so it may be no surprise that he relies on images from his greatest triumph when the story goes off the rails. Here, he attempts to re-imagine Travis Bickel as an alienated Eco-Warrior. As well-intentioned that idea may be, it doesn't make for a believable narrative. And Schrader is no Scorsese.

I will spare you a story synopsis, other than to say First Reformed is the name of the oddly non-denominational church in upstate New York that Hawke's character finds himself presiding over (how he got this gig is never explained). Suffice to say that, as great as Schrader is at story and dialogue, he cannot direct. (Or perhaps Cedric 'the Entertainer' just can't act).  I suppose some scenes are meant to be comic, but I was more inclined to laugh out loud at the preposterous scenes that were intended to be serious.  Don't think by dropping in a few references to Thomas Merton you can convince us you are saying something 'profound.' Give us more credit than that!

THE RIDER

The Rider (2017)

Dir: Chloe Zhao

There is a long tradition in film of employing non-professional actors for leading roles -- in foreign film, that is. Indeed, it is one of the hallmarks of Italian Neorealism: Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D., The Bandits of Orgosolo (to name but a few), are all enriched by the performances of 'real people' (not actors) in the lead roles. It usually backfires when a non-pro is cast against an actor with the star power of, say, Ingrid Bergman (think of the poor fisherman who played her husband in Stromboli.)
But the Italian directors to this day can pull it off: one recent example: the Taviani brothers filmed their adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in a maximum-security prison, and cast the inmates in all the roles! Caesar Must Die (2012). Brilliant!

This practice hasn't caught-on in the U.S., aside from the occasional child actor. One notable exception that brought an unmatched authenticity to the story is the casting of Dwight Henry and Quvenzhane Wallis in Benh Zeitlin's Beasts of the Southern Wild (also from 2012). All of this serves as a long-winded intro into the latest, and most-daring example from indie director Chloe Zhao: The Rider. It tells the barely-fictionalized story of rodeo rider Brady Blackburn, returning home to a South Dakota reservation after sustaining a skull-fracturing fall, a head full of staples holding him together. There, he reunites his father and developmentally-challenged sister: all three leads are played by their real-life counterparts Brady, Tim & Lilly Jandreau. The rest of the movie is spent showing Brady coming to terms with never being able to ride competitively again, which defines him and his rodeo cowboy friends on the reservation (also played by non-pros).

I have seen the movie described as 'docu-fiction'--the easy route would have been to film a straight documentary about these riders on the unglamourous regional circuit who ride because it is in their blood, yet face life-altering injuries pursuing their sport. Instead, Zhao went for something bigger, and it pays off in a big way. She is able to depict the everyday struggles,  determination, and character of these reticent, plain-spoken people that a voice-over, talking-head doc could never reveal.

Two recurrent interactions the self-possessed Brady has during the course of this reflective film are at the heart of this movie: one takes place in a hospital, where he visits a fellow rodeo cowboy whose injuries left him unable to speak or walk. The second shows him pursuing his passion in a slightly less dangerous way: taming wild horses. Kudos to Zhao for letting Brady (who is in every scene) command the movie without any actorly affectation. These near-wordless scenes cannot be scripted: they are as real as the people who inhabit this superb film.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS

As always, I start with CATEGORY; then Who I WANT to win; then Who I THINK will win.

(That's where we got the name "Want/Think List.")

BEST PICTURE           DUNKIRK                                               THREE BILLBOARDS ...

BEST ACTOR              Timothee Chalamet, Call Me ...               Gary Oldman, Darket Hour

BEST ACTRESS          Sally Hawkins, Shape of Water               Frances McDormand, 3 Billboards

Best Supp. Actor           Wm. Dafoe/Richard Jenkins                     Sam Rockwell, 3 Billboards

Best Supp. Actress        Allison Janney, I Tonya                           (same)

Best Director                 Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk                    Guillermo del Toro, Shape of Water

Best Original Screenplay       Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird                Martin McDonough. 3 Billboards

Best Adapted Screenplay James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name   (same)

Best Foreign-Lanuage Film -no pick-                                            A Fantastic Woman

Best Animated Film        LOVING VINCENT                              COCO

Best Editing                    Dunkirk                                                  Baby Driver

Best Cinematography     Blade Runner/Dunkirk                         The Shape of Water

Best Production Design  Blade Runner/Shape of Water             The Shape of Water 

Best Original Score         Phantom Thread                                  The Shape of Water

Best Original Song         "Stand Up for Something" Marshall     "Remember Me" Coco

Best Costume Design    Phantom Thread                                   The Shape of Water

Best Make-Up & Hair    -no pick-                                               Darkest Hour

Best Sound Mixing        Dunkirk                                                 Dunkirk

Best Sound Editing        Dunkirk                                                 Dunkirk 

Best Visual Effects         Blade Runner 2049                               Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Documentary Feature  Faces Places                                    Last Men in Aleppo

Best Documentary Short     -no pick-                                         Traffic Stop 

Best Animated Short      -no pick-                                               Dear Basketball

Best Live Action Short     The Silent Child                                 DeKalb Elementary

MY TOP TWELVE MOVIES OF 2017!

Two things any recent followers of this page should know about me: I am always LAST with my Top Ten Movie List, and ... I'm always a little different. This year, for example, I expanded the list to 12 (mainly because I could re-arrange the last six on the list and not be upset). Also, I managed to miss 3 importnat movies: Get Out; The Florida Project; and The Last Jedi (unforgiveable!). For a self-described foreignfilmguy, having only one movie in a foreign language on my list is likewise unforgiveable!
TOP 12 MOVIES
1) DUNKIRK
2) Lady Bird
3) Frantz (FRANCE)
4) Call Me By Your Name
5) All the Money in the World
6) The Shape of Water
7) Wind River
8) The Beguiled
9) Lady Macbeth (UK)
10) Loving Vincent – animated
11) I, Tonya
12) Phantom Thread

Honorable mention:
3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, MO
The Disaster Artist
A Ghost Story
Molly’s Game*
T2: Trainspotting
Wonder Woman

Saw & enjoyed:
Atomic Blonde
Blade Runner 2049
Hostiles
The Little Hours
The Lost City of Z
My Cousin Rachel
Their Finest (UK)
The Zookeeper’s Wife*
An Inconvenient Sequel (doc.)
Kedi (the Turkish cat doc.)

Finally, take a moment to reflect on THE 3 WORST MOVIES I sat through in 2017:
1. Novitiate
2. Kong: Skull Island
3. mother!

OSCAR NOMINATIONS RANT -- 2018 edition

It has become an annual tradition on the third (or fourth) Tuesday in January: the Academy releases its nominations at 5:37 am Pacific Time, and I release my outrage that evening! Only this year, I'm Naming Names!

Here now are four undeserving nominees, and the deserving people from whom they unfairly stole the spotlight:

1. MERYL STREEP -- it is no surprise that Meryl received her 200th nomination for playing Washington Post publisher Katherine 'Kay' Graham in Steven Spielberg's "The Post." It was a good performance...nothing as bad as her ill-conceived turns in "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Doubt" (Lord have mercy). But to deny a spot to either one of these two exceptional actresses is nothing short of unpatriotic (and probably treasonous): MICHELLE WILLIAMS in "All the Money in the World" and the lovely JESSICA CHASTAIN as Molly Bloom in the under-rated "Molly's Game." To add insult to injury, these two fine films received ONE nomination each compared to "The Post's" TWO!

2. DENZEL WASHINGTON -- a Best Actor nomination for a movie no one saw. Just last year, he was nominated for "Fences." It was a craven move by the Academy, to avoid any possible #MeToo unpleasantness by nominating JAMES FRANCO for his exceptional work in "The Disaster Artist." Craven, aka chicken-sh*t.

3. BEST VISUAL EFFECTS -- I saw three movies this year that were so bad I had to resurrect my occasional "Worst Movies" list.  One of those movies was KONG: SKULL ISLAND. For it to receive even one nomination, when all it deserves is eternal scorn, is another outrage. For its schlocky, Grade-B movie visuals to receive recognition instead of the jaw-dropping work in DUNKIRK is laughable.

4. And finally (you knew it was coming) ... JOHN WILLIAMS! Even I cannot be too upset with Mr. Williams receiving his 201st nomination for BEST SCORE for his work on "Star Wars: The Last Jedi." That franchise is his bread-and-butter, after all (unlike the more typical hack-work he mailed-in to "The Post.")  It would not be beneath the Oscars to nominate him twice, but what they SHOULD HAVE done was nominate twice the man who produced the two best film scores of the year: HANS ZIMMER, who provided the scores to both DUNKIRK (nominated) and BLADE RUNNER: 2049 (not nominated).

I will still be watching The Oscars, Sunday, March 4th on ABC!

Mademoiselle (1966)

Director: Tony Richardson

Starring: Jeanne Moreau

After the recent passing of the great French actress Jeanne Moreau, I was keen to watch one of her old movies, and TCM delivered, once again. "Mademoiselle", from 1966, is an obscure British-French co-production, in English no less. I could not find a review of it anywhere, which is surprising, since it was directed by Tony Richardson, three years after winning an Oscar for "Tom Jones."

It is an undiscovered gem of a film, quite of its time. The theme is sexual repression, and when the hunky Italian immigrant logger asks the repressed French schoolteacher (Ms. Moreau) to touch his pet snake, you know this is a Sixties art film! The movie is cleverly constructed: it begins in the middle of the story, where the first few scenes lets the audience in on the schoolteacher's random acts of cruelty, towards nature and the small French village she inhabits. The clueless villagers never figure out what we know from the beginning (the culprit for the acts of sabotage), and instead choose a convenient scapegoat: the itinerant foreigners who work in the forest. It doesn't help that the Italian with the snake is also carrying-on with many of the womenfolk in the village.

Only when  the schoolteacher is offered said snake (well-into the movie), do we get to see what motivates her in her quest for destruction, via a 20-minute flashback of events leading up to when the movie begins. At this point, the movie drags toward its inevitable conclusion, when the pace should accelerate (we know what's going to happen, so get on with it already!) Perhaps that is also a hallmark of Sixties art films: enamored with mood at the expense of plot. Nevertheless, the story delves into thorny issues of xenophobia, psychological fixation (Mademoiselle has a clear case of Munchausen-by-proxy), and hypocrisy. And the Black and White cinematography is exquisite.

**Undiscovered gem!**

"mother!" is no "Mama"

mother!

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem

I compare these two similarly-titled films: mother! (2017) and Mama (2013, starring Jessica Chastain), ONLY because you will find both listed in the 'horror' genre. (These two directors must have Mommy issues). As it happens, they are nothing alike, because mother! is not a horror movie at all -- it is something else altogether, something that should strike even greater fear in discerning moviegoers -- AN ALLEGORY!

And what a tiresome allegory it is! Aronofsky hits you over the head repeatedly with the blunt object of his rather obvious moral *see below for spoiler moral* much like he forces a very pregnant Jennifer Lawrence to endure being pushed, threatened and beaten throughout the endless last hour of the film. J-Law is a much better actress than this material warrants, plus she is miscast as the docile young wife who lets strangers walk all over her. Not our Katniss!

The cast credits at the end will explain much of what he is trying to get at (names are not used in the film) ... if you can make it that far.  The end credits are the best part of the movie, which is never a good sign.

Many will try to champion the film as Serious! Ambitious! and It Will Make You Think! A good test of whether you are up for the challenge is your reaction to Terence Malick's "Tree of Life." I was on the fence, but Tree's ambitions were thought-out and well-executed, if not always successful. mother! is a mess.

If you want to see a 2017 movie that tackles life-death-and-the-beyond issues on a human scale, with all the subtlety and grace that mother! lacks, see the underrated "A Ghost Story" by Texas director David Lowery (starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara). That movie will stay with you (for good reasons!)

*SPOILER CRITICISM!*

The moral I take from this two-hour, $40-million student-film experiment is (simply) that humanity ruins everything -- and true believers are the worst of humanity. 

I find this both simplistic and offensive: 1) Monty Python made the same point in a 15-minute segment of "Life of Brian"-- and did it with humor! 2) Why does every extra in the film (representing said humanity) have to be such a rude and/or violent 'dick'? Because you believe in something, that gives you the right to treat other people like shit? 3) The ending should be sickening to all Christians (esp. Catholics), if you haven't already realized that Aronofsky is willing to go all the way with his misbegotten 'allegory.'

I'm purposely ignoring the environmental message that we are destroying the planet, too, but please, go see "An Inconvenient Sequel" for that message.

DUNKIRK

This is not a review of the new Christopher Nolan-helmed blockbuster "Dunkirk" (you will have to wait for that), but rather a review of the various options one has for WATCHING the movie "Dunkirk." I spent much of the weekend researching this, BEFORE deciding when and where to see this epic war movie. At no other time in film history do I remember so many different formats for viewing one film.

This post was spurred by a conversation I had in San Francisco with a fellow film geek/nerd (self-described!) about the forced conversion in recent years of all U.S. movie theaters to digital projectors (fueled by Hollywood's bottom line, naturally). Film die-hards have not gone quietly, however, and more and more directors are utilizing 35mm, 70mm, and IMAX to enrich the look of their films.

With Christopher Nolan, he took it to a new level. I count six different ways to view DUNKIRK.
Here they are, from best to worst:

1. 70mm IMAX: This is the gold standard. Nolan filmed 80% of the movie with IMAX equipment, to capture the sheer vastness of the contemporaneous land, sea and air stories. The 70mm film adds to the richness of the images. Unfortunately for me, the only theaters in Texas showing the film in this format are 240 miles away (in Dallas and Fort Worth).

2. Laser-projected IMAX: You still get to see the film the way the director intended; the laser projection adds clarity and depth. (I would only have to drive 160 miles to Austin to see it in this format).

3. "True" IMAX (1.43:1 aspect ratio, using a 15/70 projector): fortunately, Houston has one of these screens showing "Dunkirk" (the Regal Marq-E). This was te format I chose to see it.

4. 70mm -- only in select theaters with 70mm projectors; this comes with all the depth and scope of, say, "Lawrence of Arabia", but they have to shrink the larger IMAX frame to fit on a smaller screen (70mm was last used by Quentin Tarantino in 2015 for "The Hateful Eight")/

5. "False" IMAX (or "LieMAX"): digitally-projected, with a 1.9:1 aspect ratio (but charging the same ridiculous price as "True IMAX" --- RIP OFF!)

6. In your regular multiplex, on a normal-sized screen, digitally projected -- you might as well wait for the ON DEMAND version!

Bottom line: you have got to see Dunkirk on a WIDE SCREEN.  The one thing I will say about the movie itself: the director of "Inception" and "Interstellar" still loves to play with time! In this case, it works brilliantly!

The 40 Best 'Arthouse' Films of All Time

UK's The Guardian made an initial stab at this near-impossible task back in 2010 (full list is here), but as in all work done by consensus, it had serious omissions and head-scratching inclusions. For example, I do not consider any of these picks true 'arthouse' fare: Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Graduate, There Will Be Blood (excellent movies though they are). Of all the Ingmar Bergman classics to chose from, they pick "Fanny & Alexander"? The arbitrary 'one director-one film' rule is pointless. And why did they limit themselves to a mere 25?

I have set-out to correct these errors as only I can: through one man's opinion! Thus, my list leans heavy on foreign-language films (I have six in English and five silents), and they are admittedly Euro-centric.  I have excluded all comedies (too subjective), documentaries (even though I have seen some classics in art-houses), and animation (not my thing). Sadly, I can only agree with two of the list's post-1986 films ("Breaking the Waves" and "Mulholland Drive") but they just missed my (equally arbitray) cut.

In deference to The Guardian, I have kept the 15 titles I have no argument with (see *). Rather than declare one winner, however (the Brits selected Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) -- no argument there), my list is Chronological. This is not a list of the greatest films of all time (or even the greatest directors: I had to leave off Hitchcock, Coppola & Scorsese!). Think of this list as essential art-house viewing.

1. NOSFERATU (Murnau, 1922)
2. BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Eisenstein, 1925)*
3. METROPOLIS (Lang, 1927)
4. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (Dreyer, 1928)*
5. Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel, 1929)
6. L'Atalante (Vigo, 1934)*
7. The Rules of the Game (Renoir, 1939)*
8. Bicycle Thieves (de Sica, 1948)
9. Rashomon (Kurosawa, 1950)
10. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)*
11. La Strada (Fellini, 1954)
12. The Seven Samurai (Kurosawa, 1954)
13. Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)*
14. The Seventh Seal (Bergman, 1957)
15. The 400 Blows (Truffaut, 1959)
16. Hiroshima, Mon Amour (Resnais, 1959)
17. Breathless (Godard, 1960)
18. L'Avventura (Antonioni, 1960)
19. La Dolce Vita (Fellini, 1960)*
20. The Virgin Spring (Bergman, 1960)
21. The Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais, 1961)
22. Contempt (Godard, 1963)
23. The Leopard (Visconti, 1963)
24. 8-1/2 (Fellini, 1963)
25. Band a part (Godard, 1964)
26. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (Pasolini, 1964)*
27. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky, 1966)*
28. Persona (Bergman, 1966)
29. Belle du Jour (Bunuel, 1967)
30. The Conformist (Bertolucci, 1970)*
31. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)*
32. Death In Venice (Visconti, 1971)*
33. Aguirre, The Wrath of God (Herzog, 1972)*
34. Spirit of the Beehive (Erice, 1973)*
35. The Passenger (Antonioni, 1975)
36. Days of Heaven (Malick, 1978)*
37. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Fassbinder, 1980)
38. Night of the Shooting Stars (Tavianis, 1982)
39. Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
40. The Sacrifice (Tarkovsky, 1986) -- true confession: this is the sole entry on my list that I haven't actually seen, but this was Tarkovsky's elegy. I reluctantly left-off his other two masterpieces, Stalker and Solaris, I must include this one!!


Put a gun to my head, and I would rank these as my TOP TEN:
1. Andrei Rublev
2. La Strada
3. The Seventh Seal
4. The Conformist
5. L'Avventura
6. Metropolis
7. 8-1/2
8. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
9. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
10. Blue Velvet

The Edinburgh Lads are Back!

T2: Trainspotting

Directed by Danny Boyle

The lads are back and causing trouble again, in this delightful, rueful, and ultimately satisfying return to the lives of these four Scottish miscreants 20 years later. (Am I that old?).

The Nineties don't seem that long ago, yet much has changed since 1996 when the original foursome first exploded into our consciousness, courtesy of author Irvine Welsh and wunderkind director Danny Boyle. Edinburgh is demolishing its old apartment blocks and reviving depressed neighborhoods with EU grants (a key plot point, as it turns out). Even the lovely Scottish lasses greeting Renton at the airport on his return to Scotland are from Slovenia.

Much remains the same, however:
     Simon "Sick Boy" (the great Jonny Lee Miller from TV's "Elementary") is still a con man.
     Begbie (Robert Carlyle) is still a psychopath - a much older, heftier psychopath.
     "Spud" (Ewen Bremner) seems to have changed the least and matured the most: he's trying to kick the habit once and for all. And he has a son!
      And then there is Renton (Ewan McGregor) -- the smug, cocky protagonist of the story who everyone gravitates towards, but who cannot seem to get his act together.

The movie works as both a nostalgia trip (like the original, it is both outrageous and hilarious, even though much of the humor centers around heroin addicts!) and a reflective look back on missed opportunities and wasted lives. There is even a cameo by an unspeakably dirty commode (toilet) -- one of several winks to the earlier film.  Boyle brings the same dynamic energy to the sequel (sonically and visually) as he did to the original: he smartly weaves-in scenes from the first film (and even re-creates scenes with four young actors who look remarkably like the younger foursome), to both compare and contrast with the characters' present day selves.

The updated "Choose Life" rant Renton delivers halfway through the movie seems forced -- although I plead guilty to several of the modern, social media-obsessed critiques. It is too bad Kelly MacDonald's Diane was given only a token (and unnecessary) scene: it woud have been a nice counterpoint to have gotten a glimpse of her maturation process (she's a lawyer now).

But the point of the movie is that the four lads haven't truly grown-up -- they are older, somewhat wiser, but are still striving for the 'high' to prove they are alive. If you never saw or didn't love the original, much of the sequel will be lost on you, especially the invigorating closing scene, a rocking affirmation that 1) you can't escape your past, and 2) why would you want to if it was so much fun?

Remember these kids? They are all grown-up now!

My much-delayed Top Ten Movie List

Apologies all around for not posting this sooner (at least before the Academy Awards, as is my usual goal). While other critics have been saying there were more than ten good movie in 2016, I struggled to fill-out my list! All of the buzzed-about Best Picture nominees (that I saw) had one flaw or another that left me ambivalent.

I believe it is my shortest Best Movie list EVER. But more importantly, this is the first year in the last five that a Jessica Chastain movie does not appear anywhere on this list (the streak is over). I have high hopes for 2017.

TOP NINE MOVIES OF 2016
1. LION
2. MOONLIGHT
3. ARRIVAL
4. SILENCE
5. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
6. HELL OR HIGH WATER
7. TONI ERDMANN (Germany)
8. JACKIE
9. LA LA LAND

Honorable mention:
Love & Friendship (UK)
Neruda

Saw & Enjoyed:
The Birth of a Nation
Cafe Society
Midnight Special
Suffragette (UK)
Sunset Song (UK)

AND TWO DISHONORABLE MENTIONS:
The Lobster & Nocturnal Animals (gag and gag!)

That's all, folks!

TONI ERDMANN

Toni Erdmann

Germany 2016

Director Marin Ade

It is rare for me to see an Oscar-nominated foreign film BEFORE the Awards are given out, but I had the pleasure of watching the German entry "Toni Erdmann" with my brother at the legendary Film Forum in Greenwich Village last week. I cannot think of a better venue or companion to see this extremely odd but never dull "German comedy" -- if you thought that was an oxymoron, this film proves that it is not!

To be honest, it is a 'squirmy comedy' (to quote A.O. Scott, New York Times) that leaves you sad and reflective.  But hey, I didn't go into this expecting an Adam Sandler-Will Ferrell vehicle  (those movies leave me sad, too ... for the state of comedy in America!)

"Toni Erdmann" has a pace and mood that belies the comedy label: it is as much about changing family dynamics, workplace gender prejudices and the down side of globalization as it is about making an audience  laugh.  In fact, I found myself laughing at certain episodes only hours after seeing the movie (at the time I was too much in shock to laugh). This movie will stay with you.

Father Winfried and his grown daughter Ines lead very different lives, but are cut from the same cloth. [Toni Erdmann, by the way, is the fictional guise Winfried dons to insinuate himself in the professional and personal life of his daughter, who is a consultant for a German conglomerate working in Romania.]  Her interactions with co-workers provides a biting satire of the minefield of office politics a professional woman has to navigate even today. But it is the unconventional father-daughter relationship that dominates the film, and is exquisitely rendered by the two leads: their love-hate, push-pull stubbornness towards each other convinces you they are indeed related. They keep upping the ante on each other, and you never know how each will react. That leaves the audience off balance throughout.

Both lead actors are brilliant, but Sandra Huller as Ines delivers as fearless a performance as you will see this year. Her sly, deadpan comic timing is impeccable. Plus, you will never hear a more emotional performance of a Whitney Houston song in any movie EVER! (including and especially "The Bodyguard"!!)

I recommend this movie to adventurous filmgoers only.