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A few reviews

mnkykungfu

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Boys State (2020)
Several of the kids comment on the strong Republican lean of the selected Texas kids but most of the real US electorate lean Democratic (since 2004), so the doc might have been even more instructive if they'd filmed in a state/program that was reflective of that national trend. I'm also curious to see how one of the companion "Girls State" programs would play out.
Texas does have a disproportionately powerful sway on US politics, and more importantly, US education (due to how the textbook industry works). Your Girls State idea would be an amazing watch! (I still haven't seen this because as something of a political junkie, I think I can already predict how everything would play out. I'm not up for the disappointment I would likely experience while watching.)
 

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Texas does have a disproportionately powerful sway on US politics

Very good point. So perhaps the choice of the Texas Boys State was the perfect microcosm.



Mogul Mowgli (2020)
A collaboration between Director Bassam Tariq and co-writer/producer/star Riz Ahmed (aka Riz MC). I don't think it's autobiographical but it blurs the line between Ahmed and 'Zed' the character he is playing, who is also a British-Pakistani politically minded rapper who performs Riz MC tracks. What are clearly real home movies of Ahmed as a kid are used to represent his character. Zed is already feeling alienated from constant touring, when he's simultaneously hit with a failed relationship, a life threatening illness, pressure from a competing younger rapper and he's wracked by questions about his religion, his dual cultural identity and a strained relationship with his father. Tariq frames him in claustrophobic 4:3 and uses overlapping dialogue, hallucinatory images and flashbacks to suggest cognitive overload. This is then punctuated by sequences of Ahmed expressing the character's thoughts in poetic rhymes. The central metaphor of the illness Zed is suffering from was very clever. I didn't know a scene about a father helping his son use the toilet while they shout "Toba Tek Singh" at each other could be one of the most uplifting and beautiful film moments all year.



The Invisible Man (2020)
There are two sides to this film. One is a really dumb b-movie sci-fi/horror where characters repeatedly do illogical things (just to make the plot work) and put themselves back in danger when they had escaped (twice) and other characters appear to have the psychic ability to appear wherever the script needs them. I can't stop myself from always thinking "how would I get out of this problem?", so I get frustrated when a character doesn't do the same when their life is supposed to be on the line. The other side of the movie, is an edge-of-the-seat, soul destroying, heart pounding, inventively directed thriller about an abusive and controlling relationship. Featuring one of the very best performances of the year from Elisabeth Moss, she makes it feel so raw and truthful to the experiences of abused women (without the sci-fi invisible-suit stuff of course). So your enjoyment might depend on how much attention you pay to the former, or the latter. Personally I thought the positives, far outweighed the negatives but god the film is visually dark and lacking in contrast, it's so hard to see at times (see screenshot below).


I don't understand why modern films have to look like this. Do they expect the viewers to watch through night-vision goggles?:

21019_15_large[1].jpg
 

mnkykungfu

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Friedkin Uncut (2018)

Rampage (1987
These were fascinating write-ups, and I love your line "There is a fine line between being ambiguous and being indecisive." I argue that all the time about auteur movies!
 

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Flushed Away (2006)
The one Aardman Animation film I'd never seen and their first attempt at a CG feature, rather than the usual clay-mation. Some of it does look very dated but because they choose to replicate the Aardman modelling style and characteristic movement of stop-motion, I mostly forgot about it. I'm not sure why they go with CG over stop-motion sometimes because it's typically $100 million more expensive, leaving much less room for box-office success. If this had been stop-motion it would have been a mega hit, instead it was a massive bomb that caused DreamWorks to severe their ties with the studio. The likes of Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet and Ian McKellen do wonderful work on the voices (particularly McKellen's campy villain) but the overall tone and pacing was a bit chaotic and overstuffed for it's own good. As usual the word puns and sight-gags are non-stop, I had to rewind and pause on a shelf full of DVDs with spoof titles. Possibly the least best Aardman film but still a solid adventure for all the family.




Cabin Fever (2002)
As with some other Eli Roth films, this Horror-Comedy is derivative, frequently misjudged and a tonal mess but at 94-minutes it's got enough shenanigans and outlandish gore to keep one entertained. I could never quite decide if Roth's group of spring breakers were supposed to be so crass, awful and annoying that we're meant to root for their deaths, or if he actually thinks they are likeable protagonists. The frequent use of words like "ret*rd" and "gay" are so dated and the characters say "f*ck" so often it must be half the script. At one point I thought he might be doing a clever twist on the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' type setup, except the inbred red-necks are the reasonable people and the loutish city folks are the ones who need defeated... but no. The usual satisfying survival-Horror "make a plan, then execute the plan but plan goes wrong due to human nature" elements get a bit lost in the frenetic stupidity. I did enjoy the weird collection of comedy side characters though, especially the "party" obsessed Sheriff Deputy. It almost gives the film a 'Twin Peaks' feel.


 

mnkykungfu

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Clockers (1995)
'Clockers'
is one of most satisfying Spike Lee films I've watched so far.

Inside Man (2006)
Spike Lee's usual stylistic quirks and preoccupations are dropped, in favour of him expertly maximising the thrills of an intricately plotted, endlessly tense, action packed and brilliantly acted bank-heist movie.
I have issues with Lee's films, but I LOVE Inside Man, so I guess now I have to watch Clockers. lol
 

mnkykungfu

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The Decline of Western Civilization (1981)
The most interesting parts are the interviews with the passionate fans
Interesting to hear you say that. Perhaps as an American who grew up with cousins and townies that are exactly like this kind of disaffected, braindead youth, nothing they had to say was interesting to me at all. It was pure rebellion, but no eloquence really. The most interesting part was seeing a pre-Nirvana Pat Smear just as an interviewee, spouting total douchery!

You're right about this being early days in the US...it's a really interesting time for Black Flag especially, whose interviews for me were probably the high point of the film. They're American punk royalty, but this was a totally weird time for them, when Keith had already left the band, but Ron was filling in and Henry Rollins was just a fan in the crowd who knew all the songs. Interesting to see Chuck Dukowski waxing philosophical after I've heard Rollins talk so much about the impression he made (through Rollins' spoken word gigs.)

If this film interested you, I highly recommend the documentary American Hardcore, which I was fortunate enough to catch when it premiered at the Seoul International Film Festival. Has even better access than this, and is looking back with the benefit of hindsight, but no less passion.

The Decline of Western Civilization - Part II: The Metal Years (1988)
Lemmy
, Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne, who come across as delightful blokes in their own ways
They really did, right?! Especially Lemmy. Did not expect him to be so gentle and thoughtful.
 

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The Mauritanian (2021)
This looked good, but I was skeptical....seems like it's got to go on the watchlist now!

The Hunt for Red October (1990)
it's kinda distracting how much the young Baldwin looks like the Captain Black puppet from 'Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons' made flesh.
I have no idea what that is, but yeah, the resemblance is stunning! lol
The score by Basil Poledouris is wonderful, like a Soviet military parade.
Poledouris is god.
'The Hunt for Red October' features the Connery line everyone does when they wanna do a quick impression: "Now they will trrrremble again, at the shound of our shylensh".
Really, who does that?! lol My go-to is usually "So...we meet again, Trebek!"
 

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Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
If you've watched Martin Scorsese's documentary 'No Direction Home' you'll be familiar with the very specific Greenwich Village Folk music scene which the Coen brothers beautifully recreate here. It's a week in the troubled life of fictional folk singer Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac), just before Bob Dylan arrives on the scene (Davis is partly inspired by real life singer Dave Van Ronk). Llewyn is portrayed as a bitter, self-destructive, arrogant and short-sighted character but you learn why part way through the film (although I noticed it's given away in the trailer). It's a fine line between him behaving badly because everything is going wrong in his life, or everything going wrong because of his behaviour. It might also be a fine line between feeling sorry for him, or irritated by him but I was the former. The whole film has this desaturated blurry look which I didn't care for and found distracting at times, I think it's supposed to look wintery? I really enjoyed the 60s details and spending time with Llewyn's humorous collection of friends and seeing how they interact with him. 'Star Trek: Voyager's lovely Ethan Phillips (Neelix) needs to be in more films.





The Long Riders (1980)
Director Walter Hill's follow up to 'The Warriors' was 'The Long Riders', a Western about the James/Younger gang. He brings his visual flair and penchant for action and violence but the project was actually instigated, written, produced and starring James Keach and Stacy Keach (playing Jesse and Frank James respectively). In a unique move, they determined to cast real-life brothers as all the other gang members too. The Carradines play the three Youngers, the Quaids play the two Millers and the Guests brothers play the infamous Fords. David Carradine's portrayal of Cole Younger is the standout. He cuts such an effortlessly cool cowboy figure with his long hair, grey duster and battered hat. I reckon when he later played Bill for Tarantino, he was going for the same attitude. Hill shoots a lot of the exaggerated bullet hits in super slow-motion and includes many shots of the actors firing almost right at the camera, so you kinda want to duck. Some of the stunts are astonishing and you see it's sometimes the actual actors doing them. I doubt the unbelievable shot where they ride horses through a large glass window would be allowed today (with good reason) but it's something to see. I liked how that the credits go straight into Ry Cooder doing a version of traditional song 'The Ballad of Jesse James'.

 

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Creation Stories (2021)
This biopic of Creation Records co-founder Alan McGee successfully goes for an anarchic '24 Hour Party People'/'Trainspotting' style (the film is actually co-written by Irvine Welsh). Ewen Bremner manages to convincingly play McGee from a young man to mid-life and portrays him as an energetic, creative, chaotic Punk entrepreneur. It's an exciting story, watching him arguably shape the sound of the 90s by signing bands like Oasis, Teenage Fanclub, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine (but doesn't get round to him later launching the careers of bands like The Hives). I was less keen on the decision to partly have the story told through a sunny, glamorous Los Angeles interview with a vacuous millennial journalist who knows nothing about politics, history and art. I was never sure if it was a comment on modern, shallow, co-opted youth culture, compared to the genuinely rebellious, intelligent, anti-establishment Punk youths seen in the flashbacks, or if the character was there just so McGee could explain everything to her and the audience like we were idiots. The rest of the film is so exciting and fun that this flaw doesn't manage to drag the rest down. Jason Isaacs is hilarious as a drug-addled posh English madman that McGee hangs out with in LA (he's very Withnail).


Time to revisit some Creation Records classics! :cool:....











Yesterday (2019)
The idea for 'Yesterday' has so much potential, "musician wakes up and discovers he is the only one to remember The Beatles" but the uneven execution of this film and the schmaltzy Richard Curtis script don't do it justice. Star Himesh Patel is a wonderfully likeable presence and plays a very believable type of unsuccessful dreamer, which carries the movie through some rough patches on sheer good will. Ed Sheeran is mildly irritating, James Corden is mostly irritating and Kate McKinnon is spectacularly irritating! It's like she been cut in from a different S&L movie and been told "yeah, just do whatever the f*ck you want, it's only a silly comedy", or she was on a bet to see how badly she could act and still not get fired from the film. I also hated the amount of overdubs there are, anytime somebody lips aren't on screen, they seem to be ad libbing an "hilarious" line. Some scenes really work well, like the one showing 'Yesterday' being performed for the "first time" and thinking how would you react to somebody dropping undeniable genius on you like that, out of nowhere? The scene with John Lennon was genuinely beautiful. The wonky tone might be down to Richard Curtis reworking Jack Barth's original script which was a "meditation on professional disappointment" into an upbeat romantic-comedy. There has been some controversy as Curtis claimed he wrote the script from scratch but Barth has pointed out some lines and scenes (including the Lennon one) were in his version. Despite all the flaws, the fun of the concept and the endearing central character make it difficult to not enjoy. Oh and it goes without saying that if you don't know The Beatles' music the film will be meaningless (but that seems unlikely given their ubiquity).


Loved the angry rockin' version of 'Help!':

 
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mnkykungfu

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48 Hrs. (1982)
'48 Hrs.'
is the prototype 80s R-Rated buddy cop action-movie, which everyone imitated but the original is still the best.
I mean, I haven't re-watched this in many moons, but I'm gonna say Lethal Weapon is the best? No? (It certainly feels less locked in its time...)
 

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^ I haven't re-watched LW in a long time but it most come very close at least.



Patriot Games (1992)
This 2nd Jack Ryan Thriller was prime VHS-rental fodder in the 90s but it's not held up as well as it's predecessor 'The Hunt for Red October'. James Earl Jones reprises his role as this franchises 'M' but apart from that everything else is changed, the Director, the writer, the composer, the Cinematographer, Ryan's wife and of course Alec Baldwin was replaced by Harrison Ford. The first film's director John McTiernan said "there was a great deal of scheming that went on to push Alec out of that part". Baldwin had a distinctive youthful, nerdy energy that gave his character some compelling definition but Ford is just doing the same interchangeable "reluctant action-hero" thing he does in 'The Fugitive' and 'Air Force One'. The pacing is off, it opens dramatically with Ryan rescuing members of the British Royal family from IRA terrorists and ends with action but in the middle it goes round in circles for 90-minutes. The bad guys are placed in one desert location and Ryan sits in a CIA building going through files about them, the cat and the mouse are on opposite sides of the planet and not on each others heels. The obfuscation of who the double-agent was well played, I was guessing 'til the end. I didn't realise that Sean Bean's scar above his left eye was caused by Ford accidentally hitting him for real. I noticed James Horner re-used a bit of his score from 1988's 'Red Heat' but mostly because I know it from already being re-used in 1989's 'The Killer'.


I'm pretty sure the bit of music shared by at least 'Red Heat', 'The Killer' and 'Patriot Games' is the middle of this track, 'Russian Streets':




Clear and Present Danger (1994)
I thought this was much better and more consistent than 'Patriot Games'. Harrison Ford is playing more of the endearing nerdy CIA analyst version of Jack Ryan (like in 'The Hunt for Red October'), digging through secret files, using his brains and visibly flinching from bullets and violence. The action-man aspect we saw in the last film is dialled way back but he still has the guts to put himself in danger when the truth is on the line. The espionage thriller plot is convoluted and engrossing, portraying what happens when the saintly "boy scout" Ryan is temporarily promoted (due to his boss undergoing cancer treatment) into the upper echelons of Washington, seemingly populated mostly by smug, lying, cynics and drug cartel informants. It gets really interesting about 45-minutes in when you realise that Willem Dafoe and his black-ops CIA death-squad are the only people who Ryan finds have any honour, or principles. James Horner's score is strong, there is a scene intercutting Ryan reading files on a PC, with another guy hurriedly deleting them, which he turns into edge-of-your seat action. James Earl Jones doesn't have many scenes but he plays them beautifully.

 

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Cabin Fever (2002)
^One of the Top 5 Worst Films I've Ever Seen, no exaggeration. This thing was a godawful mess that wasn't even fun to laugh at.

I could never quite decide if Roth's group of spring breakers were supposed to be so crass, awful and annoying that we're meant to root for their deaths, or if he actually thinks they are likeable protagonists.
^THIS. I mean, I was the perfect young, horny age to go see this with friends in the theater, just lusting after the gorgeous actresses and gratuitous nudity hinted at in the trailer. But even that couldn't win me over. And I was really rooting for Boy Meets World to get laid, but even he becomes dislikable halfway through. It's just a chore to watch these "people".

The frequent use of words like "ret*rd" and "gay" are so dated and the characters say "f*ck" so often it must be half the script.
^Pretty sure that's just how Eli Roth talks.

If I ever see Roth on the street, I'm going to ask for my money back for seeing this film. Pretty sure it was in the dollar theater too, but it's the principle.
 

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Spoilers ...

Palm Springs (2020)
'Groundhog Day'
is a perfect time-loop movie, so if you set out to do the same but different it's inevitably going to lead to imperfection. 'Palm Springs' does a number of things differently; the guy is already deep into and resigned to the loop when the story begins; the girl he falls for gets stuck in the loop too (plus one other person); the narrative is partly non-linear; the place they're stuck in is not a cosy small town but an awful wedding weekend; the people at the event are all self-obsessed, lying pr*cks (including the protagonists), instead of the effusive townspeople of Punxsutawney, who Phil only finds irritating because he is a bitter person; and finally, it's mentioned in a throw-away joke that the loopers are capable of travelling thousands of miles away from the location they claim to be stuck in. The last one is a cavernous plot-hole that speaks to the comparative sloppiness of the writing. If you can travel within half the USA, a practically limitless range of never repeating experiences await the looper and millions of people to hang out with along the way, with the added benefit of your actions being consequence free, with money effectively no object. The only constraint is that you wake up in the same place every day but that's how life works anyway most of the time? In 'Groundhog Day', the miserable Phil's experience teaches him to cherish other people and see the joy in making others happy. In 'Palm Springs', two separately selfish people come to realise that it's more fun to be selfish together. The last scene is them chillin' in the pool of a property they broke into, as the owners arrive home because "f*ck other people" is the underlying message they want to leave you with. The surrounding cast of annoying characters often shout, screech and hurl swear words at each. However, despite all these problems, I can't deny that it's very funny, very entertaining, is crammed with activity and time-travel based brain candy and hurtles along for 90-minutes.




Sound of Metal (2020)
I've read people remarking that 'Sound of Metal' is Riz Ahmed's second 2020 movie (alongside 'Mogul Mowgli') where he plays a stressed musician who has to cancel his tour due to a sudden life-changing medical condition which forces him to reevaluate everything. So it's difficult not to compare the two, even though they are stylistically very different beasts but I much preferred 'Mogul Mowgli'. In 'Sound of Metal' Ahmed plays Ruben, a drummer who loses almost all of his hearing. Initially he panics and wants whatever operation can make his hearing come back but a spell at a deaf drug-treatment shelter/school shows him other paths are available. A lot of the film and it's soundmix seemed to be concerned with actually demonstrating to the viewer that deafness is not being able to hear sounds, showing that sign-language is a thing and that hearing aids can be difficult to use in noisy environments. These are all things I grasped intellectually long ago, without actually having to sit through minutes of silence, scenes with no subtitles, white noise and compressed audio like we were back in the dial-up-internet days. For this Brit, the whole story felt backwards because the UK plot would be "man loses hearing... man gets treatment on the NHS and sign-language classes free at the point of need... man decides which is best for him". Instead of him going through this massive extra trauma because he can't afford health care, not making that the focus of the film was like "burying the lead" for me. The cast is terrific (when is Ahmed not brilliant?), it looks gorgeous and the ending is beautiful (even if it was a tad predictable).

 

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The Social Dilemma (2020)
Like some other documentaries about the problems with social media, data farming, algorithms etc, 'The Social Dilemma' just describes the situation we are in, so is only going to be eye opening, if your eyes were firmly closed. It lines up a fairly impressive array of interviewees from the top tech firms but they only get around to talking about solutions once the end credits are rolling and even then it's pretty basic stuff. Director Jeff Orlowski opts to intercut the interviews with dramatic reconstructions which sometimes worked but mostly came across as silly and melodramatic.


Calm with Horses (2020)
'Calm with Horses'
has a bit of the gangster-Noir and the Western genres about it but the rural-Ireland setting feels very different from the streets of LA, or the plains of Texas. "Arm" is the ex-boxer enforcer for the local crime family, he looks like a big brute and deals in violence but has a childlike mind and sadness about him. You know it's probably not going to end well, like with many Noir protagonists but Cosmo Jarvis' understated, yet powerful performance really makes you hope he'll find redemption.

 
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David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)
This Netflix documentary "witness statement", as David Attenborough describes it, isn't his usual BBC nature film (although it does draw from his BBC filmography). Instead he spends the first half talking about how he's seen the natural world change across his 94-years, for the worse. Even if he hadn't addressed climate change and the extinction of species, it's still shocking to see how much nature worldwide, in percentage terms, has already been destroyed, chopped down, fished, forced out, poisoned and built over in the century he's seen. Then when you're properly depressed, he spends the 2nd half talking about a positive holistic vision of how it can be fixed. He makes it sound so achievable and within our reach if we simply try.




My Octopus Teacher (2020)
At first I was thinking "So, this is a film about a rich man who can afford to take a break from his job to swim in paradise every day and hangout with an octopus. What do you want the rest of us plebs to do with that?" ;). However, the concept of spending an entire feature-length Netflix nature documentary on the life of one octopus in particular, across 12-months feels refreshingly different, enlightening and rewarding. There is too much focus on Craig Foster and his feelings for the octopus, rather than simply the octopus and the stuff about the relationship with his son seemed like a half-baked metaphor. Seeing the variety of tricks and techniques the octopus employs to hide, to hunt for food and to outwit the creatures hunting her is incredibly impressive, even though Foster often goes overboard in his adoration, saying things like "She basically has to do Geometry" which is total bullsh*t. At no point does the octopus break out a set-square and compass. There is also a dishonesty to the presentation, stating that he's "swimming alone" with just a snorkel to be more "in touch with nature" but there must have been a film crew with breathing apparatus in order to capture this kind of glossy 4K footage over extended periods. Then you've got to question how much of the footage is what he's describing it is on the voice-over and not disparate footage they've edited together to manufacture a narrative. Plus they get so close to the creatures that it's questionable if what they are filming is in any way normal behaviour. Whatever flaws 'My Octopus Teacher' has, the footage you'll see will blow your mind, so I do recommend it.

 

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Streets of Fire (1984)
I'm not sure who started the whole "the 50s were cool in the 80s" thing but I suppose 'Streets of Fire' has a claim (a year before 'Back to the Future'). I was expecting to love 'Streets of Fire' because I love 1978's 'The Warriors', which was also co-written and directed by Walter Hill. They're both set in an altered fantasy version of our reality where flamboyant gangs rule over a city, with characters on a quest patterned on Greek Myth ('Anabasis' for 'The Warriors' and 'Orpheus and Eurydice'/'The Iliad' for 'Streets of Fire'). It's a world so much like his earlier film, that I wish it had actually been set in the same shared "walterverse". Unfortunately the characters are underwritten, the editing is overworked, the pacing and storytelling are off (the heroine we are supposed to care about is absent for most of the film) and star Michael Paré is a little bland as loner Tom Cody. He looks the part, sexy and cool but the spark he needed to be that 'Han Solo' type of reluctant hero isn't there. Paré looks a lot like James Remar (one of Hill's usual "stock company") so I kept imagining how much more exciting and dangerous the character would have felt if he had been played by Remar. Again, Diane Lane looks the part of Rock goddess Ellen Aim, she's stunning but the character has little depth. Willem Dafoe's antagonist is also paper thin but because he's played by an actor as electric as Dafoe he becomes interesting. Rick Moranis plays against type as a tough-guy and is surprisingly great at it. Amy Madigan's acerbic soldier McCoy is the only really successful character and that's mainly down to Madigan's suggestion to recast what could be a stereotypically tough male character, as female. The two Jim Steinman (RIP Jim) Rock songs are terrific and I never realised that the pop radio staple 'I Can Dream About You' was from this movie.


Rumble on the Lot: Walter Hill's 'Streets of Fire' Revisited (2013)
This feature-length making-of documentary sadly doesn't have many of the cast and crew of 1984's 'Streets of Fire' to talk to but those who were generous enough to give their time (including Director Walter Hill and main star Michael Paré) speak with such honesty, humour and enthusiasm for the project that it makes up for a lot. I think I enjoyed hearing about their efforts to make the film, more than I enjoyed the actual film itself. Despite it bombing in most places, Paré mentions how popular 'Streets of Fire' is in Japan, something he puts down his character being like a Samurai/Ronin. It's something I hadn't noticed watching the film but I can totally see that on reflection.

 

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The Greatest Showman (2017)
'The Greatest Showman'
was notable for being widely panned by the critics but loved by audiences on word-of-mouth (making about $300m profit). It was such a big hit in the UK that they brought it back to cinemas for a second run. I think the fans and critics were both right, it's a bit rubbish but kinda wonderful at the same time. It possibly depends on if you are in the upbeat mood to revel in it's hurricane-strength positivity, or in the dour mood to dwell on all the flaws. The terrible looking CGI in the trailer put me off and it is bad, making strange choices like using a CG horse, instead of you know, a horse but there isn't that much of it. Zac Efron is a flatline. The plotting is clunky and sloppy, going for feelings, rather than logic. However, the catchy pop songs, the well choreographed dancing and the colourful visuals are delightful. Hugh Jackman is as irresistibly likeable as always. The editing is also very good, cutting sharply in time with the beat of the music, further accentuating the expert rhythm of the dancing and camera movements. It's not a masterpiece but 'The Greatest Showman' sure put a smile on my face.


A couple of the terrific songs:





Unhinged (2020)
One of the few films that actually got widely released in cinemas last year. Russell Crowe plays a rage fuelled maniac who relentlessly persecutes a young mother and her son when she blares her car horn at him, then refuses to give the sincere apology he thinks he deserves. Crowe is perfect casting since it feels like his life up to this film has been one big method-acting exercise for playing somebody with anger issues. His terrifying performance elevates the b-movie script but Director Derrick Borte's decision to always push the violence a little further than you are expecting also gives it real menace and nastiness, plus he knows how to do a visceral car chase. The convoluted and contrived reasons for the chase being sustained just about hold together from moment to moment. The protagonist being setup as highly disorganised papers over a lot of the "why doesn't she just do this?" type questions. 'Unhinged' delivers a tense 93-minute hell ride, nothing more but I was okay with that. Although there is a possible subtext of the film being a revenge fantasy on people who use phones while driving, or generally don't pay attention to the road (a lady doing her mascara on the freeway meets a particularly violent end).


I weirdly kept associating this...

Unhinged-review[1].jpg


...with this...

0[1].jpg
 
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TM2YC

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The White Tiger (2021)
Netflix's 'The White Tiger' feels very much like the Indian answer to 'Parasite'. It's also about the poor infiltrating the home of a rich family under false pretences and a reciprocal relationship of exploitation. The darkly comic tone is there too. That's where the similarities end, it's a very different story and the satire is specifically about the class system in India, not that of South Korea. Adarsh Gourav (who is new to me) brilliantly plays the poor, mistreated Balram (and narrates the story in flashback) who tries to better himself by serving a wealthy and corrupt family. Like in 'Parasite', both servant and master aren't without flaws, or virtues. If you're expecting the kind of uplifting vision of aspirational modern India seen in Dev Patel movies like 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'Lion' and 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' then you might be a bit surprised about how nasty and violent 'The White Tiger' gets as it descends into madness. Part of the plot seems to have been inspired by a hit-and-run case involving millionaire Bollywood actor Salman Khan and his servant Ashok (the name Ashok is used in the film).




Promising Young Woman (2020)
Although it lays some of it's message on too thick out of the gate, I was really liking 'Promising Young Woman' to begin with. However it goes exponentially off the rails and is just plain silly by the time it gets to the needlessly over-contrived and illogical end. The middle of the movie has one really big problem in that you are either going to be fooled by what a certain subplot is doing and so have your time and emotions wasted and frustrated by the big revelation, or be like me, where you anticipated the twist from the second the subplot was introduced and therefore spent the middle part not engaging with it on any emotional level and so also having your time wasted. Carey Mulligan is so powerful in the lead role, a lot of the dark humour really works, some of the scenes are electric and I loved all the 'The Night of the Hunter' references. I think it was identifying Mulligan's character with that of Lillian Gish's protector. First time Director Emerald Fennell has a great visual style. Alfred Molina has a short but impactful cameo which proves what a stellar actor he is. The two guys at the end were either a fiendish bit of Paul Verhoeven-style anti-casting, feeling dropped straight in from an awful 90s frat-boy comedy, or they were just genuinely bad actors. It's difficult to tell, like it is with Verhoeven sometimes but if everything in the film is deliberate, then it's genius. I feel there were some small similarities in tone and content between 'Promising Young Woman' and a smaller, darker 2016 film directed by Alice Lowe called 'Prevenge'. I'd recommend checking that out too.


 

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We watched A Promising Young Woman last night too. I actually looked it up on my phone in the middle of the movie to see if it was a Diablo Cody script. I’ve had trouble deciding what I thought about it since it is so all over the place. Obviously Mulligan elevates it, but I wonder if it would be effective at all in lesser hands. It’s ultimately a dark comedy (I think) way more than a revenge thriller. So the elements that seemed over the top could be excused on that basis. I think it’s worth a watch and I think it is VERY timely. But I don’t think it’s as good as a lot of the hype I’ve heard.
 

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^ After hearing some interviews with the writer/director, I think it's deliberately playing up to the cliches of early 2000s romcoms (and the 90s frat boy comedies I mentioned) and other genres. Plus casting actors you'd expect to see in those sorts of films. Maybe it's one of those movies that requires a 2nd viewing.




The Sum of All Fears (2002)
The first of the aborted full reboots of the Jack Ryan franchise, with Ben Affleck now in the lead role. It was made at an unusual point in history, having finished shooting 3-months before the September 11th attacks, then the studio were left with a film about a devastating terrorist attack on the US, costing thousands of lives, featuring images of bloodied victims running around in clouds of ash and dust. It was released 6-months later but it's unclear if it was delayed, or if anything was recut to make it more/less like 911. Affleck is a bit dull as Ryan but he does keep to the analyst role, not the more action oriented Harrison Ford version. Liev Schreiber's covert CIA operative does most of the dirty work. Morgan Freeman is a worthy replacement for James Earl Jones, he has a different name but Freeman is basically the exact same character. The plot has some pacing problems. The big attack happens halfway through putting the US and Russia on the very brink of nuclear war but by then Ryan (and us the audience) already knows who really set off the bomb and who is good and who is bad, so various reasons have to engineered for Ryan not to be able to tell anybody for a whole hour. He can't find somebody, he finds them but then they die, people hang up the phone on him, his ID card doesn't work etc. Plus the shear scale of the carnage means the cheery picnic in the park ending feels misjudged. With all that said, 'The Sum of All Fears' is a decent espionage action-thriller.




Modern Times: The Way of All Flesh (1997)
Adam Curtis
tells the astonishing story that began in 1951 when a sample of cells was taken from Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman in Baltimore who was dying from aggressive cancer. Before then, making human cells grow outside of the body was very difficult but the cells of Lacks were discovered to grow at an incredible rate. Her cells were named HeLa cells and became widely used for medical research to this day. Except it was discovered decades later that HeLa cells were contaminating and obliterating other laboratory cell lines in a "survival of the fittest", so that years of research were wasted. This aspect follows the "unintended consequences" theme that Curtis often explores. It's ironic that HeLa cells kick-started the first major wave of cancer research, then were also responsible for ending it. Race in America, Cold-War tensions and the Presidency of Richard Nixon are wrapped up in the documentary.

 
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