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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I saw a movie yesterday called The Cremator, it's this Czech New Wave film by a dude called Juraj Herz. It's about this guy that works at a crematorium and has this ideology where he believes that the main goal of existence should be to relieve human suffering. It also takes place around the time that the Nazi's invaded Czechoslovakia, and the guy falls in with them which turns his good intentioned philosophy into his personal justification for the genocide, at least that's what I got from it. Obviously not a barrel of laughs, but super great, and extremely suspenseful. It's got great commentary, some killer transitions, overall just way ahead of it's time in the filmmaking and especially the editing.
World cinema is already my thing, but discovering a lot of Czech cinema has just been really awesome. Specifically Daisies, Morgiana, and now this (also watched Valeria and Her Week of Wonders, that one made me uncomfortable in all the wrong ways). It's all so ahead of it's time in the filmmaking. They've all got these interesting transitions, really expressive camerawork playing with lenses and freeflowing movement, reminds me a little of a few of Wong Kar Wai's movies. Oh, and the title sequences, don't get me started.
While I was watching the credits it kinda explained why this pretty small country has a really active and high-quality film scene. If you look at the most popular films from the movement, they all share like a ton of crew. Just for The Cremator I noticed the witer/director, editor, and production designer all had credits in two or three of the other essential films that everyone says you need to watch, like Morgiana. I think it's just a case of having a good, but incredibly small, set of really dedicated and talented people.
I got to see The Cremator, Daisies, and Valeria and Her Week of Wonders last year on a large screen in a group class as an introduction to Czech New Wave. That period of film is surprisingly vibrant and is unfortunately overshadowed by some more popular New Wave movements. This post made me realize I missed the class showing of Closely Watched Trains which I never caught up on, but is on Criterion Channel.
The Cremator is a film I found to be fairly disturbing. The titular character's fall into fascism, coupled with the deterioration of his relationships with his family, really struck an unsettling note as I watched. An unexpected and effective psychological horror. If you're interested, here's some resources shared in the class I took for it.
This weekend I've got tickets to see The Cassandra Cat on a local big screen!
The Killer.
I've been looking forward to this for a while, but I was sorely disappointed. I was not a fan of Mank and while I would say this is a step up, I wouldn't say it's as good as Fincher's pulpy work like Gone Girl and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I wouldn't even say it's on the level of more minor work from Fincher like The Game.
The stakes are really low here. I'm not sure if it's the source material that's to blame, but it's too dry, it's not pulpy enough for me. The only two scenes that really grabbed my attention was the brutal house fight scene and the Tilda Swinton scene.
I could potentially forgive all that if the film looked better. But it doesn't, which is kind of odd considering Fincher's work always has a beauty to it. Even Mank looked pretty good. But this just feels flat.
All in all, I did not expect to like Hunger Games more than this at the beginning of the year.
Because we're heading towards the end of the year I'm doing some rewatches of movies before I put them in my top 10, or rather rewatches of movies that have been in my top 10 but just to see if I should take them out, to try to avoid my mistakes from the past few years.
So I rewatched Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part 1 (which has retroactively been renamed to just Dead Reckoning). Here's my original opinion of the movie. So what made me feel a little weird towards the movie is that after I saw Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick, I immediately knew that I loved those movies and that they were in the top 5 for me in the year right away (and that's held up in rewatches). That was not the case with Dead Reckoning, and I think in these past few months while I've just been thinking about it, I was starting to feel like maybe I didn't actually like it that much after all.
Rewatching it confirmed it for me. The writing is really weak compared to a lot of the series. I didn't actually find a lot of the new introduced characters, I found myself skipping a lot of talking scenes. I didn't like the retcon of how the IMF works or how they recruit people. I discovered that the only scene I really liked was the Italy car chase scene, which I stand by my original opinion that it is some of the best action ever filmed. It is mind boggling how that is shot. And I wish there was more of that in the movie.
A big problem I had was with the look of the movie. It's a visual downgrade from not just Fallout but Rogue Nation. They switched cinematographers to someone with less credits, they switched from 35mm to Digital. And I think both of those changes led to a flatter looking image. It doesn't have that cinematic quality from the previous McQuarrie MI movies. If it looked like Rogue Nation I would probably still keep it in my top 10, but for now it's no longer on there. I also downgraded my score for it on letterboxd.
I'm not exactly sure what "not pulpy enough for me" means, but I found The Killer very interesting and quite good. I've had it for less than a day and already watched it twice.
At the moment, thinking about it right now trying to come up with what to say, I'd call it something sort of like "a thinking man's dramatic action thriller." Because it's not one of those "bro" action movies like Extraction or the others, where the only real card they have to play (other than that they hired an action star to fill the lead role) is whatever their stunt coordinator can come up with for the cinematographer to lens.
The Killer is methodical and deliberate, and pretty much straightforward in how it tells its story. And in what story it wants to tell. Namely, a professional assassin dealing with the retributive blowback of a job gone bad. Rather than the typical take of such a "job gone bad", where you'd have the lead being chased balls-to-the-wall as upset whoevers try to kill him so the only real thread is action-action-more-action, he's hunting down the people connected to the attempt to clean him and his up after that failure. Again, methodically. Deliberately. With purpose.
The whole project hinges off Fassbender and his ability to enthrall. His Movie Star quality. A lot of action stars go for over the top, because they can't act. One of the subtle reasons I feel Jason Statham has a headlining career (and why a ton of wanna-be action headliners don't) is he's good at being interesting without frothing at the mouth or otherwise "going big" in how he portrays his roles. Fassbender does the same thing here. He harnesses his Movie Star charm to draw you into this tale of a near perfect assassin who has, quite amusingly, fucked up.
Which is the best part of how the whole opening sequence plays out. After about ten-ish minutes, I'd decided (and started to even hope some) the whole movie could just be Fassbender narrating his character, without any other dialog; paired with Fincher's visual direction. I was on board for that. Because it was so interesting as he laid out the particulars of his job. Not "the job" he was currently on, but how his overall occupation works.
Not "I can hit the eye of a needle at a mile with a blowdart" or "send six SpecOps Bros at me and you better have six body bags ready because I'm just that l33t" or other action bro bullshit. The Killer is just calmly talking about patience, and paying attention to little details, and taking the time to build up a plan with care and forethought. About how important it is to stick with all that, and not go off script.
And then he misses the shot. Which is both funny, and shocking, and absolutely sets up the rest of the movie. Where he proceeds to look into what happens after that (they try to take out his lover, presumably looking for him, or at least as a way to punish him for failure). Followed by him just as methodically tracking down everyone involved in that whole string of reaction to his failure. The agent (the lawyer) who arranged it. The subcontractors brought in to go after him and his girl. All the way back to the client.
And along the way, we get to enjoy a lot of tradecraft. How do you sneak into a building? Through the front door of course. How do you travel the world? The same way everyone else who isn't a government SpecOps team does of course; on an airplane by passing through customs.
It's just this marvelous mix of character study, tradecraft, and calm purpose. Fassbender makes the whole thing work, much more than Fincher. As director, Fincher is a key component of course, and did a great job; but the draw for me was Fassbender carrying the thing on his back the entire time.
Most any actor you might think of to put into this role would probably have fucked it up. They'd want to inject personality into it. Go for comedy, or go for Big Drama, or something. Fassbender just plays the whole thing straight. Calm. Deliberate. He doesn't blink. I was actually shocked that Swanson's character got a (very slight) chuckle out of him as she tells her story joke when he confronts her.
The Killer is just a refreshing take on a concept that is normally handled in a completely over-the-top manner. I like John Wick, but it's all about the stunt coordinator getting to fill his show reel with "look what I did." And that's fine ... for John Wick. They did a great job there, and hired the right actor to inhabit the role, and it works.
But most films who try to do the assassin concept basically do the John Wick thing. A lot of these efforts are lower budget, often lower skill even if they might have the budget, and it just comes across as ... weak. Boring. They try to substitute spectacle for story. The Killer has story in spades, as long as you're willing to let Fassbender take you into the world of his character. Into his character's head.
So I like it, a lot. One of the better films I've seen in the past couple of years.
Have you seen Le Samouraï and The Day of the Jackal? There are others, but these two looked to have a big impact on the film.
I watched Superterranean on prime the other night and and was rather impressed with it.
It was made almost entierly by one guy with his camera, up a mountain in Scotland. He wrote, directed, acted and filmed nearly everything except for a couple of shots his brother helped out with.
The film is about an injured hiker who wakes up in a mountain bothy with amnesia, a pretty serious injury and none of his belongings. After freaking out a bit as he can't call for help, a strange man shows up who claims to have rescued the hiker.
They settle in at the bothy for the night and the stranger tells the hiker stories in the candle light. Unsettling inconsistencies, interesting parallels, and local history and folklore intertwine and the stranger has a beautfiul voice for story telling.
It's a surprisingly captivating and oddly calming piece of cinema. Recommended!
So I saw Napoleon. I was looking forward to it as I am a fan of Ridley Scott, specifically modern day Scott since who isn't a fan of prime Scott. I was a big fan of The Last Duel and House of Gucci.
I loved the first maybe half of this movie. It has the scale of The Last Duel but with the campiness and the humor of House of Gucci. It has this tone and sense of humor that is reminiscent of The Favourite. A lot of modern day language is used for punchlines. It then slows down and starts taking itself seriously. During that first hour it was almost one of my favorites of the year but then it lost me.
It is a lot weirder than I thought it was going to be. Vanessa Kirby is great. Joaquin Phoenix, I would say, gives an interesting performance. There were reports that he was struggling with this early on and didn't exactly know how to tackle the problem. I think it's quite noticeable that he wasn't exactly comfortable playing this character. But I think for the tone and the style of the movie that this is, his performance works. It's a weird performance for a weird movie.
I'm gonna have to re-watch it again and see if I like it more the second time around.
I know I'm late to the party, but I finally watched Barbie this weekend with my wife. She saw it in theatres a few months ago and we finally had time to sit down and watch it together.
It was good! There were some seriously funny points and it had an overall very easy to digest theme about feminism in contemporary western society. Would I say it was a revolutionary film? No. Would I recommend people to watch it? Yeah, definitely. It was a romp and had some awesome film-making.
I do worry though, with Mattel's willingness to make subversive live action films of their other properties, we are going to get real sick and tired of these style of films in the future - if they even get to make them.
I went I see Napoleon yesterday. The theatre subjected us to over 12 minutes of commercials before the previews started.
The guys next to me started making “pffft.. jeezus!” noises around the 5 minute mark. Which was actually kind of funny and almost canceled out my own growing annoyance.
I don’t remember seeing more than a few minutes of ads before a movie, I don’t know if this was a special one time test thing or if it’s the new normal?
Depends on the theater but that’s been normal for… a really really long time.
A cinemark near me takes about 20 minutes to show all the trailers. A regal near me doesn’t even start the trailers until 10 minutes after the showtime.
How was your impression of Napoleon?
If anyone wants to watch a really good bit of new scifi, Landscape With Invisible Hand on Prime is well worth a look.
The writing, production values, and acting is all very well done. The whole film is just so bleak and yet darkly funny and fucked up, it's a very human depiction of how humans behave.
The art and it's use for the story is really nicely done and tied together too, and I'm going to he thinking about some of those paintings for a while. The stranger in the night painting and the mural in particular, others too but the names are kinda spoilers.
Also there are interesting aliens that have a language and writing system and physiology that is not human! I freaking love stuff with good aliens in it.
I watched Gaspard Noé's Climax this weekend. Really hard to describe but it is something like a psychological horror arthouse dance movie. Impressive long takes, funky camerawork, scenes that you can't stand to watch but also can't stop watching. Apparently most of it is made through improvisation over the course of 15 days. Real dancers played all the parts instead of actors and the blend of music, dancing and LSD hallucinations makes for a mesmerizing experience. Though I am sure many people will see this as nonsensical arthouse crap and it is hard to disagree really, but still I was fascinated by how a horror movie can also be made. Horror is not usually a genre I watch much, except when it is more an exploration of psycholigical terror like this one. Fans of Suspiria might get something out of it.
At least watch the intro dance
I watched this a couple of months ago on Blu-ray and I still think about it almost daily. I never knew people could actually move like that. I was completely mesmerized and didn’t even pause it once which rarely ever happens.
The color palette and setting is basically Argento’s “Suspiria”. Glad you saw that, too. The soundtrack is superb if you’re into it. Acting…not really. But you don’t watch it for the acting.
In the dark with it turned up and on an edible was a great experience.
Yeah some of the dancers move their hands in an almost inhuman like manner. I thought they did okay even though they weren't actors. Felt very authentic.
Suspirira is one of the VHS boxes next to tv showing the audition tapes among with several other movies. I guess there are more references to be found there.