A few reviews

[TM2YC]

Roxanne (1987)
'Cyrano de Bergerac' is seamlessly translated into a charming 80s romcom by writer/star Steve Martin. It was a pleasure to revisit. He gives a genuinely touching and nuanced performance but Martin doesn't completely reign in his anarchic screen persona, so his version of Cyrano, "C.D. Bales" is a fast quipping town celebrity, with parkour skills, a head full of wise cracks, and likes to make up stories about being abducted by aliens who have come to Earth to have sex with old ladies... for the benefit of some excited old ladies. I got a 'Twin Peaks' vibe about the little town in the film (with a soupçon of 'It's a Wonderful Life'), it's bars, diners and eccentric people. Coincidentally the town in 'Roxanne' and the one in the later TV show were filmed just a couple hundred miles apart across the USA/Canada border. A fun fanedit of 'Roxanne' could be re-scored with Angelo Badalamenti music and re-framed around new arrivals Roxanne and Chris.

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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
You can't fault the beautiful detail of the animation and it's hugely entertaining in parts but my goodness does it go on. If you liked the first one, this is more of the same, much more, too much more. During the big chase through the "Spider-Society" world I remember thinking "Wow! This is one of the most astonishing and inventive things I've seen in a long time", then seemingly 10-minutes later also thinking "I hope this chase is going to end at some point in my lifetime?". It oddly had two speeds and modes, frenetically paced action with mildly annoying jabbering dialogue and creative camera work, or slow paced, well written, heartfelt dialogue scenes, with utterly bland, un-creative camera work. Daniel Kaluuya's Don Letts-style Punk Spider-Man was my favourite character. It remains to be seen if a future part-2 can make all this chaos worth it in the end, with a more focused wrap up.

 

[TM2YC]

Living (2022)
This did get nominated for a couple of Oscars and Baftas earlier this year but wowsers did this go under the radar in comparison to how astonishing it is on all artistic and technical levels. It would perhaps be too much of a bold statement to say this remake was better than the great Akira Kurosawa's original 'Ikiru' but it's certainly close enough that you have to ask that question. Oliver Hermanus' direction, use of light and composition within an appropriately 4:3 frame (for the period) is beautiful in every shot. The film has a quiet, unhurried, understated stylishness. A lot of the credit must go to Nobel winner Kazuo Ishiguro's script. As a Japan born Brit, he surely understood exactly how to translate this story from Japan to England, observing everything that is different between the two cultures and more importantly what is exactly the same. I'd not seen supporting actor Aimee Lou Wood in anything before. She is fantastic, totally holding her own in scenes where Bill Nighy is giving the performance of his career. Maybe in a year where the big awards went to (brilliant) films with hot dog fingers, or fingers being chopped off, 'Living' was too subtle to get noticed.

 

[TM2YC]

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
An expensive box-office bomb, that directly preceded the Coen Brother's prime period of creative and commercial success. As soon as this begins with the camera gliding over a vast scale model recreation of 1950s Manhattan, you can tell it's expensive and when the characters start speaking you can tell why it didn't make that money back. It's written and performed in an acutely exaggerated homage to period Hollywood movies and screwball comedies but without the genuine heart that makes those still work. Jennifer Jason Leigh puts on an accent that would be completely unbelievable and ridiculous if you didn't know that Katharine Hepburn really spoke like that. Tim Robbins' protagonist needed to be the kind of genuine character they'd have got Jimmy Stewart to play, a gentle small town guy, who takes on the big city crooks, instead he's this wacky goof ball, who the dialogue kinda mentions is inconsistently written. The only actor who isn't playing the zany comic relief is Paul Newman, he's a cynical money grabbing antagonist, so you actually feel something when he's on screen. I was not surprised to read that the finale fight scene was a re-shoot because when it starts you are thinking "what the hell is this doing here?!". However, if you look past it's flaws, there is a ton of visual style and imagination on display to savour, in a kind of misfiring poor-man's Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton type of way.

 

[Gaith]

^ I forget if you're a Patrick Willems fan?

 

[TM2YC]

^ I forget if you're a Patrick Willems fan?

Sometimes. Most of the time.

---

Shadows and Fog (1991)
While some episodic quirky scenes are good on their own, the overall film doesn't hang together. Even the overarching serial killer mystery is revealed too early and then sort of abandoned. Woody Allen plays himself like an over-the-top Woody Allen impersonator. Most of the huge all-star cast are wasted in "blink and you'll miss 'em" cameos but I think that was the point. John Cusack has a couple of great boozy monologues on life. The main reason to watch this one is for the black and white visuals and gloomy atmosphere. A gorgeous homage to the "shadows and fog" of the German Expressionist era, specifically Fritz Lang's 'M', with elements of Franz Kafka's 'The Trial'.

 

[TM2YC]

Magic Mike (2012)
A reasonably entertaining film, with some endearing characters and likeable performances. Not Steven Soderbergh's greatest achievement as Director/Cinematographer/Editor but it passes 110-minutes very well. Channing Tatum and Cody Horn have winning chemistry, so much so that Matthew McConaughey isn't able to upstage them.

 

[mnkykungfu]

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
when the characters start speaking you can tell why it didn't make that money back. It's written and performed in an acutely exaggerated homage to period Hollywood movies and screwball comedies but without the genuine heart that makes those still work.

Good call. I can count on one hand the number of movies I've started watching of my own volition but then turned off with no intention of finishing. This is one of them.

 

[TM2YC]

Magic Mike XXL (2015)
Although this sequel was directed by Gregory Jacobs, Steven Soderbergh still acted as Cinematographer and Editor. So if Soderbergh filmed the footage and then edited the footage, was this just a way to get around the claim to have "retired" from the Director's chair, which I think he was still hanging on to in 2015. The "road movie" and "getting the band back together" cliches vaguely fill up 90-minutes, so we can get to the big dance contest ending. What this lacks in a well honed script, it more than makes up for with the likeable ensemble cast, who are given more screen time to show their more sensitive sides. It looks a bit distracting that Amber Heard appears to be cosplaying as her then husband Johnny Depp.

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Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)
Steven Soderbergh seems to like to try his talented hands at as many different forms of film as possible, so he probably shouldn't be allowed to make sequels to his own movies. He's explored whatever unique thing he wanted to see in the first movie and so changes so many aspects of the premise to keep himself interested in this 2nd sequel, that it's barely recognisable as the same thing. Channing Tatum still plays a stripper called Mike but that's about it and he's even crowded out by all the new characters. Salma Hayek (who Tatum has zero chemistry with) and her daughter are irritating characters but the butler was quite funny. The endearing supporting characters from the first two movies only feature in an embarrassing minimal-effort Zoom call "scene", probably not rising above the artistic or technical level of the real Zoom call that arranged their appearance fees. A finale that is setup like it's going to be a clever post-modern, feminist, deconstruction of a staid "drawing room play" is just a series of random strip routines. Tatum's dance in the showers of water was pretty spectacular though.

 

[TM2YC]

Dust in the Wind (1986)
This was my first time watching a film by acclaimed Taiwanese Director Hou Hsiao-hsien. I really hope I like his others more than this because to quote an old man from 'Father Ted', "Frankly... it bored the arse off me". I got stuck in that death spiral where because you are bored by what you're watching, you stop fully paying attention, so you get more bored, so you pay even less attention. Which was bad because this has very little exposition and dialogue is sparse. The scene where the main character has been drafted into the army and there is one lengthy shot of his commander doing the roll call, the whole roll call, was the low point for me. I couldn't tell what the characters were for, what they felt, or why they did anything. At least 'Dust in the Wind' looks very nice and the soundtrack is lovely.

 

[TM2YC]

Gemini Man (2019)
With this bombing at the box office and receiving poor reviews, my expectations were low going in, so I was pleasantly surprised. It's got it's issues, like it's focused so much on exploiting the disturbing dramatic and emotional consequences of cloning without consent, that it forgets to have more fun with the idea that that premise presents. I'm not saying it needed to be as wacky as John Woo's 1997 film 'Face/Off' but that film knew how to have fun with an idea like this. There are a couple of moments that got it right, where old Will Smith, uses his age and experience to out think younger, fitter, faster Will Smith. I'd forgotten that this was shot in 3D and at a "high frame rate" (which I thought was an idea that had mostly died a death 5-minutes into everyone seeing the first Hobbit movie), so I was watching the action scenes and thinking why does this look and feel weird, without being able to put my finger on why (until I read up on the film later). I'd heard a lot of criticism about the de-aging but I was mostly impressed by it. There are scenes where it's 100% 20-year old Smith giving a full teary eyed performance to camera but there are also moments where it looks plain janky. However, since a main theme of the story is how unnatural this all is, a little uncanny valley from time to time just added to that.

 

[TM2YC]

The Limey (1999)
Another entry in one of my favourite sub-genres, which one might call the "Irrational Unstoppable Vengeance Quest", it's 'Point Blank', it's 'John Wick', it's 'Taken', it's 'Get Carter', it's 'Dead Man's Shoes'. 60s star Terence Stamp plays the titular ageing East-End London gangster who arrives in Los Angeles and immediately starts dealing out violence to the local criminal underworld, who he believes to be responsible for his estranged daughter's recent death. I really laughed out loud when after Stamp is given a vicious beat-down by some grinning thugs and thrown out into the street, with a lethal warning to not come back, he just immediately stands back up and silently walks back in after them. The characters are rooted in the 60s era, referencing the space race, free love, the music and there is a running joke about Americans being baffled by Stamp's Cockney rhyming-slang. The cast beyond Stamp, are also fellow counter-culture acting icons like Peter Fonda from 'Easy Rider', Warhol "Superstar" Joe Dallesandro and Barry Newman from 'Vanishing Point'. Steven Soderbergh cleverly repurposes footage from Ken Loach's 1967 film 'Poor Cow' as flashbacks for Stamp's life as a young man. The final revelation is very clever, giving us a new understanding of the characters without it needing to be explained in words for us. One of Soderbergh's very best.

 

[TM2YC]

Insomnia (2002)
Christopher Nolan's only film as a jobbing director is a captivating 'The Silence of the Lambs'-style thriller, by way of Alfred Hitchcock. Thankfully the 20-years since I first watched this meant I'd forgotten much of the mystery plot. The perpetual-daylight setting delivers a nice visual twist on what might otherwise be the standard nightime Noir detective story and the murky morality of our Sherlock-level anti-hero detective is fascinating. We're asked if we'd rather see him solve a murder, or to get away with one, either way it's gripping stuff. I could've done with more of Hilary Swank's idealistic young detective but maybe that would've taken this too close to Clarice Starling and I'd hardly have wanted less screentime for Al Pacino, who is in nearly every scene. I think Nolan might've captured Capino's last really great lead performance here. 'Insomnia' came out the same year as 'One Hour Photo', both films showing that "90s king of family entertainment" Robin Williams, could send shivers up your spine when he wanted to. I was frequently distracted from the paranoid atmosphere by wondering why in a town with no night time, has nobody purchased blackout blinds?

 

[addiesin]

Renfield
Watched with the wife. We laughed a lot more than I expected to, though I do wish the tone was full on Looney Toons the whole time.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Watched with the wife. We laughed a lot more than I expected to, though I do wish the tone was full on Looney Toons the whole time.

Wait a second...

 

[mnkykungfu]

Insomnia (2002)
Christopher Nolan's only film as a jobbing director is a captivating 'The Silence of the Lambs'-style thriller, by way of Alfred Hitchcock. Thankfully the 20-years since I first watched this meant I'd forgotten much of the mystery plot. The perpetual-daylight setting delivers a nice visual twist on what might otherwise be the standard nightime Noir detective story and the murky morality of our Sherlock-level anti-hero detective is fascinating. We're asked if we'd rather see him solve a murder, or to get away with one, either way it's gripping stuff. I could've done with more of Hilary Swank's idealistic young detective but maybe that would've taken this too close to Clarice Starling and I'd hardly have wanted less screentime for Al Pacino, who is in nearly every scene. I think Nolan might've captured Capino's last really great lead performance here. 'Insomnia' came out the same year as 'One Hour Photo', both films showing that "90s king of family entertainment" Robin Williams, could send shivers up your spine when he wanted to. I was frequently distracted from the paranoid atmosphere by wondering why in a town with no night time, has nobody purchased blackout blinds?

Interesting, I'll have to give this a rewatch. Until the ending of Interstellar, this remained the only Nolan film I've actively disliked. I've seen some Scandinavian films since then and they're not generally my speed, but I do wonder if I'd react to this one differently 20 years later...

 

[TM2YC]

Interesting, I'll have to give this a rewatch. Until the ending of Interstellar, this remained the only Nolan film I've actively disliked. I've seen some Scandinavian films since then and they're not generally my speed, but I do wonder if I'd react to this one differently 20 years later...

It is arguably Nolan's weakest but still a quality film compared to other director's efforts.

 

[futon88]

The Limey (1999)
Another entry in one of my favourite sub-genres, which one might call the "Irrational Unstoppable Vengeance Quest", it's 'Point Blank', it's 'John Wick', it's 'Taken', it's 'Get Carter', it's 'Dead Man's Shoes'. 60s star Terence Stamp plays the titular ageing East-End London gangster who arrives in Los Angeles and immediately starts dealing out violence to the local criminal underworld, who he believes to be responsible for his estranged daughter's recent death. I really laughed out loud when after Stamp is given a vicious beat-down by some grinning thugs and thrown out into the street, with a lethal warning to not come back, he just immediately stands back up and silently walks back in after them. The characters are rooted in the 60s era, referencing the space race, free love, the music and there is a running joke about Americans being baffled by Stamp's Cockney rhyming-slang. The cast beyond Stamp, are also fellow counter-culture acting icons like Peter Fonda from 'Easy Rider', Warhol "Superstar" Joe Dallesandro and Barry Newman from 'Vanishing Point'. Steven Soderbergh cleverly repurposes footage from Ken Loach's 1967 film 'Poor Cow' as flashbacks for Stamp's life as a young man. The final revelation is very clever, giving us a new understanding of the characters without it needing to be explained in words for us. One of Soderbergh's very best.

I love how midway through there's a full length trailer for Peter Fonda's character, using clips from the same movie. The audacity of it...but it works.

 

[TM2YC]

Inception (2010)
This has lost some of the exciting "shock of the new" in 13-years because everybody has since copied Hans Zimmer's "bwaaah!" score and the physics-bending use of FX. Leonardo DiCaprio is fantastic here, initially projecting this air of cool, calm confidence, that increasingly turns towards agitated fear. The stars must of somehow all aligned on this one with the box-office, $830 million is a lot of mainstream dough for a film this conceptually odd, a feat that Christopher Nolan didn't manage to repeat 10-years after with 'Tenet'. Nolan makes us call into question the very mechanics of film-making and the Bond-style thriller genre. Cutting in and out of scenes early/late, the use of non-linear flashbacks/flashforwards and sudden unmotivated chases by faceless goon squads are pointed out as indicators that we are in a dream (or just watching a film). Cobb's totem isn't just his in universe reassurance that he's not in a dream, it's Nolan's way to demonstrate to us the viewer that we are back in reality and he's not playing a trick on us. If that is so, then what are we to make of the bathroom scene 44-minutes in when Cobb fumbles his totem and he never properly checks if we and him are still in the dream?

 

[TM2YC]

UHF (1989)
I know of "Weird Al" Yankovic from occasionally seeing him on MTV back in the day and I get what "UHF" and "public-access" channels were from 'Wayne's World' but neither was really a thing in the UK. Never the less, I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy, on the recommendation of Red Letter Media. A simple crowd pleasing David-vs-Goliath plot and endearing, nice, misfit characters, carrying you through what could've been 97-minutes of throwing anarchic gags and random pop-culture parodies at the wall to see what sticks. It's the kind of humour I love, a 50-50 mix of intelligent comedic ideas and immature stupidity. The table saw accident and the "You got change Mister?" jokes really made me laugh out loud.

 

[TM2YC]

Following (1998)
It's interesting that this first"no budget" effort from Christopher Nolan has a ticking-clock style score (by David Julyan) reminiscent of the one by Hans Zimmer for 'Dunkirk' 20-years later, suggesting that Nolan knew exactly what he wanted even then. Nolan directs, produces, writes, edits and acts as cinematographer on a budget of just $6K, with his mum making the sandwiches. The occasionally rough sound and black & white 16mm format betray it's tiny budget but it's otherwise an assured debut, with Nolan's daring playing with non-linear editing already there. This isn't like Stanley Kubrick's little seen first low-budget film, which is a faintly embarrassing amateur production, only for Kubrick completists, 'Following' is a proper movie. I don't know what significance there is in the antagonist being called "Cobb", the same as in 'Inception'? It's surprising that Alex Haw, the guy who plays Cobb with such seductive charm, hasn't done anything else. He's somehow able to explain breaking into people's houses and then cruelling f**king with their lives in a way that sounds perfectly reasonable. There is a definite Hitchcock 'Strangers on a Train'/'Rope' vibe to it all. Like with 'Memento', there is a linear version you can watch too, maybe next time.

With that, I've now watched, re-watched and reviewed all of Nolan's films and am now ready for 'Oppenheimer'!

 

[mnkykungfu]

UHF (1989)
I know of "Weird Al" Yankovic from occasionally seeing him on MTV back in the day and I get what "UHF" and "public-access" channels were from 'Wayne's World' but neither was really a thing in the UK. Never the less, I thoroughly enjoyed this comedy, on the recommendation of Red Letter Media. A simple crowd pleasing David-vs-Goliath plot and endearing, nice, misfit characters, carrying you through what could've been 97-minutes of throwing anarchic gags and random pop-culture parodies at the wall to see what sticks. It's the kind of humour I love, a 50-50 mix of intelligent comedic ideas and immature stupidity. The table saw accident and the "You got change Mister?" jokes really made me laugh out loud.

I remember as an American when this came out that the big hubub was simply how much of a chameleon Weird Al was. We kind of take it for granted now, and also makeup and body-changing suits have come so far with The Nutty Professor and the like. But at the time, people were obsessed with him being Gandhi, Rambo, etc. The more absurdist, more genius humor pieces like "Wheel...of...Fish!" were only appreciated by the true geeks and Weirdos.