Apollo 11

2019 documentary

Rating: 16/20

Plot: You probably know the plot of this one.

Though I prefer For All Mankind with its Brian Eno score, this is really good visual documentary storytelling. You don't need a narrator to describe the calm before the storm with the media, ground control, the camping onlookers, and the trio of astronauts before they get on that rocket although the Cronkite stuff is nice to hear. The immensity of this thing they're going to be propelled into space with (320 feet tall)) is shown with the lumbering movement of the apparatus on those giant tank treads. When that thing ignites? Man alive! That is quite the display of power!

A montage of still photographs before take-off is touching, and for some reason, watching those made me wonder if I should have liked First Man a little more. This is a nice companion piece to that, by the way. But those photographs really brought the humanity into this. It was like lives flashing before our eyes. Maybe that was a seed planted in my mind that made it feel like there were cracks in the astronauts' stoicism.

Like For All Mankind, this does show the astronauts as very human. They're not as obviously awed by the experiences here, maybe, but there's something about Buzz Aldrin telling ground control, "I promise to let you know if I stop breathing," that made these guys cooler in an authentic way rather than just being cool because they were the first guys to go to the fucking moon.

Like Amazing Grace, this is a great document that shows what mankind is capable of. And as somebody in this said, it's also a symbol of our insatiable curiosity. And as Kennedy says in the speech that concludes this, it's a symbol of our boldness.

Oh, there's a nice musical moment, too. On their way back from the moon, there's a scene where they play a cassette on a spinning cassette player. It's a song called "Mother Country" by John Stewart, apparently one-third of the Kingston Trio.

This concludes my movie-watching from 2019. Thank you for your attention.

The Pink Panther

1963 crime caper comedy

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A bumbling inspector tries to stop a notorious jewel thief from stealing the titular treasure. He's also trying to have sex with his wife.

I thought for sure I saw this as a kid, but I don't think my parents would have let me watch it when I remember seeing it. Maybe I just saw the opening credits with the animation.

This isn't consistently funny, but it definitely has its moments. Peter Sellers brings the slapstick, silly but funny in nearly every scene he's in. There are only so many times you can watch a guy run into or trip over things though. Claudia Cardinale is cute as a button, especially during a sequence where she's a little tipsy and making me very jealous of a tiger-skin rug on the floor. Robert Wagner, David Niven, and Capucine (an actress who apparently only needed one name) are also good. This is more of an ensemble cast than I would have thought. I imagine the Steve Martin reboot of this is mostly Steve Martin running into or tripping over things.

Highlights include a nutty car chase featuring four vehicles, two driven by men in gorilla suits, and a pair of police officers running around in a zebra costume; a very lengthy sequence with characters trying to escape a hotel room without being seen; and another scene that I can't remember.

I'm not familiar with the sequels to this, but I'll probably check them out. What else do I have to do with my life?

Oh, I should mention the Henry Mancini score. So there--I've mentioned it.

The Souvenir

2019 autobiographical drama

Rating: 12/20

Plot: An aspiring filmmaker gets a new boyfriend, but he's got some problems.

Were both of these characters supposed to be unlikable? It certainly seemed that way even though one of them is based on the writer/director as this is autobiographical.

Maybe this says more about me than it does Joanna Hogg or the characters or the movie, but I just couldn't connect to these characters or their story. It felt like the movie was making an effort to keep itself at a distance.

The guy had a nice suit and sock game. I'll give him that.

Raven's End

1963 drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A writer struggles with getting published while dealing with relationship issues and his parents.

This was one of Bergman's favorite movies.

Two quotes stood out to me:

1) "The brighter the light, the clearer you see the scum."
2) "The napkin is the only thing that separates man from the carnivorous animals."

I suspect there were some subtitle issues with the version of this that I watched, and I'd like to see it again.

A startling conclusion. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel. There was a crossroads moment that reminded me of a pair of crossroads moments in my own life, and I was conflicted.

I can't write anymore. I have a few more of these to get finished before 2019 is over.

Amazing Grace

2019 concert video

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Aretha Franklin sings some gospel songs at a church.

1) The introduction has Aretha's friend James Cleveland introducing her as a woman who could sing "3 Blind Mice" and make it good. By the end of this, I was really disappointed that I didn't get to hear her rendition of that one.

2) I have no real interest in Aretha Franklin, but I figured I'd watch this after seeing Obama's list of favorite movies of the year and realizing how much I missed having a real president. Watching Amazing Grace became an anti-Trump act, so I put it on and played it fucking loud! I kind of figured I might do some other things while it was on, but I was transfixed the second she opened her mouth and started making words happen.

3) And moved. It's too bad the titular gospel song appears at the end of the first of two nights because the movie peaked then and nothing on the second night matched it. Watching the response of the crowd, the choir behind her, and James Cleveland made me weep. But as Cleveland said, "If I seem a little misty, it's just cause I'm happy."

4) Mick Jagger seemed to dig it, too. At first, I was only joking to my family that I saw him in the congregation, but a later shot confirmed that it was actually him.

5) One of the choir dudes, a little bespectacled fellow who looks like he might be Indian, really stands out. The guy seemed like to love the camera, and by golly, the camera loved him as well.

6) This is one of two documentaries from this year (the other I'll write about in a few minutes) that showcases what human beings are capable of better than anything I've seen in a long time. Aretha Franklin could work magic with that voice.

Muriel, or The Time of Return

1963 drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: A woman, her step-son, her old lover, and his niece enjoy each other's company for a couple of weeks.

"It's hard to follow you."

That's a line of dialogue, but at first, I was pretty sure it described the movie as well. And this film, from Alain Resnais who directed two movies I have absolutely loved (Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year at Marienbad) did perplex me with its jumpiness and seeming lack of interest in its narrative. With 813 shots (and only one tracking shot), this has a rhythm that I don't believe I've seen in another movie. It's almost off putting initially, and I can imagine a lot of people giving up on this one early. I was always intrigued, however, and trusted Resnais. Eventually, I fell into that rhythm, and while some of the narrative pieces didn't quite make sense after this first viewing, I ended up understanding these characters on a deeper level than I normally do with a movie.

Those characters are trapped in this place that "feeds on memories," and like in those aforementioned Resnais masterworks, this explores the ideas of time and place and memory. It toys with the viewers' expectations and seemingly toys with the characters as well.

It's a real tightrope walk this one, a director having this idea to piece together a story like this with this maddening editing, dialogue leaking into subsequent scenes, and all these narrative gaps. It's hard for me to imagine what the vision of this movie would have looked like in Resnais's head, but you have to appreciate a director like this balancing high above the crowd without a net like this.

How about Hiroshima, Marienbad, and this as a 1-2-3 punch to start a film career? Man alive!

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion

1970 Italian crime drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A policeman commits a crime and tries to get away with it. Sort of.

1) The silent opening credits befuddled me, especially after I saw that Ennio Morricone did the music for this. Once that playful score hits, however, it makes the wait worth it. There's a repeated "boing" motif in the score that I thought was delightful.

2) More playfulness--the first line in this is "How are you going to kill me this time?" It really sets the mood for this one, a playful darkness.

3) Back to Morricone--I really want him to score my sex scenes if I'm ever in a situation where I will have sexual intercourse again.

4) There are a lot of visual references (and one reference in the dialogue) to the protagonist's socks being too short. I can identify!

5) So much of this leans on dramatic irony. It's a police procedural, in a way, but we know exactly who the criminal. References to a murderer who "wouldn't do that" or being "an idiot" work nearly every time because we watched the first 15 minutes of the movie. And the perfect irony near the end when a character says, "I confess to my innocence!" is just perfect. It's fresh on my mind, but it reminds me of the visual irony constructed at the end of The Executioner.

6) I made a note while watching this. "Montage of phone calls--man alive!" I have no idea what I'm referring to.

7) I tried my best to figure out how the theme of power works universally here. The main character is working to figure out if he's reached a point in his career where he can get away with this murder. I kept trying to connect that to the self, a person trying to excuse himself for his past metaphorical murders, but it didn't work. Besides, with the references to Stalin, Mussolini, Che Guevara, Trostsky, the "bureaucracy," and other political things, it seems this has more to do with politics than humanity in general. And maybe more to do with Italian politics than I would even have enough context to understand.

8) There are some jabs at America that I do understand, however. A few times, a character talks about crime or police investigations being "like in America" and there's an interrogation where a character is trying to do it more like they do it in America. There's also a machine/computer connected with America that makes it seem like Elio Petri is poking fun. Trump isn't going to care for that.

9) There are some cool visuals in this, mostly in the first third. One shot I liked had a picture on a wall in the background of some guys in turbans putting cats down a shirtless woman's pants. Somebody figure out what that is for me.

10) Man alive! I don't even say "Man alive!" ever. What the heck?

The Fanatic

2019 thriller

Rating: 4/20

Plot: A developmentally-challenged cinephile stalks an action star.

1) Redbox Entertainment--I should have known I was in trouble from the get-go.

2) "Moose is in the house!" Moose indeed is in the house, and John Travolta's lost his mind. He's got a haircut that is capable of doing all the acting for him, but he turns it to 11 anyway. "I can't talk long. I've gotta poo." That's one of his first lines, so the screenplay definitely isn't doing him favors here, but it was still his decision to be in this movie and play the titular fanatic like he plays him. I mean, I assume this was a lot of his creation. Fred Durst isn't going to tell John Travolta to stop doing a character a certain way, right?

3) That's right--Fred Durst directed this. As I said, I should have known I was in trouble before Travolta tells us he's got to poo.

4) Just think about how big of a gap there is between the opening shots in Travolta's break-out performance and the opening of this one when he says, "I can't talk long. I've gotta poo." He's cooler than cool, and you can tell by the way he walks his walk in the 70s. In 2019, he's gotta poo.

5) Whether you want to blame Durst or Travolta or the hellish combination of the two, it's hard not to see "Moose" as an offensive character. Travolta plays up the mannerisms for comic effect, a character obviously on the spectrum who I think we're supposed to laugh at more than sympathize with. His disability--whatever that might be--is the source of his conflict here. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll put this vaguely, but his disability is what leads to what you could describe as a downfall here, and it's almost cruel what Durst and Travolta are doing here.

6) More offensive is a scene where the action star (never caught his name, but he's played with a little bit of irony or satire by Devon Sawa) is in a car with his son and plays Limp Bizkit. "You like a little Bizkit?" I don't care how desperate I am as an actor or how much I need the work. I see that line in a script, and I'm walking.

7) There's Vis-a-Vis markers product placement in this as well.

8) Durst isn't seasoned enough as a filmmaker to realize that alluding to a lot of better movies is just going to make me realize how bad the movie I'm watching really is. The best reference--a "blink and you miss it" type of reference--is when Moose is looking at a Star Maps app on his phone and sees the address of Jack Torrance. For a brief moment, I thought that was clever, but then I remembered I was watching a movie from the guy in Limp Bizkit and realized that it was the opposite of clever. Other references: the "Stuck in the Middle" scene from Reservoir Dogs, a reference that almost seems blasphemous now that I think about it) and some ramblings about how Louise Fletcher isn't a good nurse. I'm embarrassed for those movies having to be in some IMDb trivia page for this movie.

9) Travolta does get a nice moment where he plays a piano and sings bits and pieces of "Great Balls of Fire." And by "nice moment," I mean that it's awful and embarrassing.

10) This has a few tense moments, but they're only tense because of what is happening. It seems like Durst and Travolta are doing everything they can to deflate them.

11) Ummm...the maid? What the hell? If you have seen this, maybe you can help me clear up something about the timeline of this narrative. Also, if you frequent Hollywood, maybe you can tell me if "Cereal Man" is real.

12) Best moment in the movie: John Travolta smelling his finger after touching his stalkee's ear.

13) Oh, sorry. He's not a stalker! He's not a stalker!

14) Durst tried to give this a neo-noir flavor by adding some narration. That's provided by Moose's friend. Unfortunately, the narrated lines she's given are maybe worse than the dialogue. "Moose didn't just cross the line. He fucking nuked it." That's the exact kind of line you'd expect from somebody who was in Limp Bizkit, I guess.

15) I hope Fred Durst doesn't read this and decide he wants to fight me. Or stand outside my door with a boombox and play Limp Bizkit.

16) Credit has to go to Travolta because I think he's doing his own moped stunts in this.

17) I can't type anymore. I gotta poo.

Long Day's Journey into Night

2019 Chinese movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: I don't have time for a plot synopsis!

1) The title screen appears 1 hour and 11 minutes into the film, right before this turns into the most magical thing I've seen in any film from this year.

2) And I thought the five-minute opening long take was impressive, the first of many shots in this that managed to trick me. Me! A guy who watches about a movie every single day! Me!

3) "The TV said dreams are lost memories," a character says at some point in this, and this final hour is a surreal journey, purely surreal since it's quite obviously a dream. It's a narrative juiced by dream logic, and it's an exhilarating trip through memories and hopes and dreams within dreams within dreams.

4) I gasped audibly, probably the best way to gasp, while watching the last hour of this movie. I can't remember gasping at camera movement like that since Soy Cuba. 

5) "Tricked how?" you might be asking. Well, am I seeing floor or am I seeing ceiling? Wait, these people are a reflection? I had no idea! Another reflection? Got me again, movie! That's got to be a reflection, right? What? Those are flesh 'n' blood people! Movie!

6) "It's living in the past that's scary, not mudslides."

7) That last shot, a symbol of transience, took my breath away. It's maybe the most gorgeous conclusion to a movie I've seen all year, and that's saying a lot because I'm a guy who watches about a movie a day on average. And if you remember #7 on this list while you're watching this movie for the first time, that might be a spoiler. Sorry about that.

8) Water, water, everywhere! Rain, a car wash, a pond, water dripping down walls. All that rain, all those neon lights. Why didn't I see this on the largest screen ever constructed?

9) A watch, claims a character in the middle of a dream narrative, is a symbol of eternity. And the watches and clocks in this movie are busted. So what's that tell you?

10) "Dipping water with the point of a knife,
Examining snow with a microscope,
Doing this over and over,
One still wants to ask:
Have you ever counted the stars in the sky?
They're like little birds
Ever parachuting through my chest."

I decided to create lines from that mini-soliloquy to make it into a poem. It deserves to be a poem! This movie deserves to be a poem!

11) Fruit, a spinning house, the consumption of entire apples, those broken watches and clocks, karaoke, mudslides, movies.

12) And an agitated mule! The mule is a better actor than Brad Pitt, and it has a better chance of making any sense out of this review than you do. And I'm sorry about that. 

This Sporting Life

1963 drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A miner impresses enough to land on a rugby team, but he is unable to impress the widow he's shacking up with.

1) Richard Harris has an intensity that reminds me of Brando, a man who seems like he's larger because there's something inside of him that is bursting to get out.

2) My favorite moment with this character is when he slow rolls with quad kings, a stylish move if you ask me. That might be everything you need to know about the character.

3) I searched for a list of books the protagonist reads, but I couldn't find anything. I thought there might have been some significance with the titles. The only one I caught was Cry Tough!

4) "You're a man! You're a bleedin' man!" cries Rachel Roberts' character, a widow with a cute nose. The poor guy--because as much as a bastard as he is, it's hard not to be sympathetic--just doesn't know how to be a bleedin' man. He doesn't really understand what a man is supposed to want. He doesn't know how to show feelings appropriately. He only knows how to lumber around with burly shoulders and scowl, how to crack jokes at the expense of others, and how to boil. He's a man searching for validation, and the tragedy is that he doesn't find it.

5) Man, Richard Harris can sure chomp on gum.

6) My favorite moment with this character was an awkward date that reminded me a little of Travis Bickle's in Taxi Driver except he doesn't take his date to a pornographic movie. This really does remind me of a 1970's movie that came out in 1963.

7) Apparently, I have two favorite moments with this character.

8) "Umpah whoa yeah yeah." There was that song, and a few other songs at parties or in bars. The score is from Roberto Gerhard. It's atonal, adds to the building tension in scenes, and is generally really interesting. I guess a lot of the score was cut by Lindsay Anderson, and Gerhard stopped doing music for movies.

9) There's a scene with a spider near the end that apparently critics thought was a little "on the nose," but I thought it had a wonderful ambiguity to it.

10) Richard Harris's character's main competition is a dead man's pair of boots. My favorite moments with this character are any scene when he stares at those boots.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

2019 sequel to a sequel to a sequel to an original series that has a prequel

Rating: 13/20 (Dylan: 10/20)

Plot: I'd really rather not talk about this one.

Before I get to a numbered list, I have a few things to say.

First, it's hard to believe that this movie exists. I remember meeting Darth Vader and a Jawa outside the Great Scot grocery store in Terre Haute, Indiana as a kid sometime around the time before Episode V came out, and somebody (maybe Darth Vader himself) said that the plans were to have a series of nine movies. Then for the longest time, it seemed like that would never happen. And now it's happened, and it was hard to believe even though it was on a giant screen right in front of me.

Second, it's an emotional experience for me watching this with my adult son. The music hits me, and then there are words scrolling on the screen, and I get emotional. I watched the prequels with the kid when he was just a little fellow, and we've watched every movie in the theater together since The Phantom Menace. He's a man now, and I'm an old man, and even if we don't love Star Wars the same way we did when we were younger, it's still something that I can't think about without thinking of him.

Anyway, here's a numbered list because that's how I want to write movie "reviews" now.

Oh, and don't read anymore if you haven't seen the movie but want to. This will have spoilers throughout.

1) This doesn't stick the landing, and it's irritating what it does to The Last Jedi, a movie that I really grew to appreciate. That one, though it has a sloppy narrative, remains cohesive because it is so focused on a central theme. It also took some risks, attempted to expand the universe, and toyed with our expectations. This one also has a sloppy narrative--a whole lot happens here--but compared to Rian Johnson's episode, it's much safer, gives people what Mickey Mouse thinks they want, and falls back on the same basic themes of the first films. It's Star Wars for dumber folk, and "Completely Good" vs. "Completely Evil" just feels a little tired. Hell, the bad guy even says "I am all the Sith" and is answered with "I am all the Jedi" at one point, like two kids dividing up action figures in the early-80s to play a little Star Wars in their bedroom. I'm pretty sure the Jedi aren't supposed to deal in absolutes, yet that's exactly what J. J. Abrams does here, watering down something that could have been so rich and so complex and so much fun to think about.

2) Let's get to the bad guy. It's Emperor Palpatine, back and better than ever except for some missing digits. I'm not sure we needed him, but at least we get to see Ian McDiarmid back in action. And we are forced (no pun intended) to think about Palpatine having sex, so that's cool. Well, unless there's some sort of midichlorian rape thing going on. That's not nearly as sexy though.

3) If you really think about it, this entire saga becomes more about Palpatine than any other character. The Skywalker siblings are only babies in a very small part of the prequels. Darth Vader's only there in spirit for this sequel trilogy. Sure, Palps (that's what his buddies call him) is only in 1/3 of Episodes IV-IX, but he's an integral part of everything that happens in any of these movies.

4) Finn has something to tell us, but J. J. Abrams isn't really interested in letting us know what that is. I was hoping that it was that he and Poe were involved in a hot romantic relationship, but apparently that's not the case.

5) Richard E. Grant seems to be doing a Werner Herzog thing here. I kind of dug it.

6) Like in The Force Awakens, C3PO actually gets the funniest line. It's about his "one of his oldest friends" and actually made me laugh out loud for real.

7) That "oldest friend" is the new character in this that is my favorite. He's even got a cool name--Babu Frik. I knew I needed more Babu Frik in my life after his scenes seemed to be finished, and then when I unexpectedly got some more Babu Frik (impractically), I nearly leaped out of my seat and fist-pumped.

8) Speaking of fish pumps, I'm pretty sure C3PO gave a fist-pump at one point in this movie, and if that's true, it's about the silliest thing that's happened in a Star Wars movie. It's definitely the silliest thing since the prequels.

9) Chewbacca finally gets a medal in a scene that made me smile, but it was at the very end of the movie. If the plan was to finally get Chewy his metal, you'd think that they'd give it to him much earlier since it seems unlikely that he'll survive the experience of this movie. Chewbacca also has fat legs in this movie. I think he's been doing squats.

10) This has some horrifying elements. Palps is hanging out (literally) in a setting that is probably the creepiest of any of these Star Wars movies, and the sound design and visuals really make it horrifying. From the opening scroll, I knew exactly who we'd meet there and wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I loved the way that place looked.

11) I hate everything that has to do with that stupid dagger in this movie. That didn't make any sense at all. The dagger having those words inscribed on it didn't make any sense. The dagger being a kind of map didn't make any sense.

12) Everything involving Carrie Fisher in this movie was really goofy. She didn't look like she was actually there in some scenes, and a lot of the dialogue the character has feels shoehorned in. That's understandable since it likely was. There's the key Leia moment at what you might call the climax of the movie that doesn't make a lot of sense because she wasn't around to film stuff that would help that make sense.

13) They do give Leia an appropriate send-off, however. R2D2 standing by her deathbed was such a nice touch. A less-callused version of myself might have lost it at that point.

14) The scene that got me was Harrison Ford's brief appearance. That "I know" was such a perfect line. That whole sequence is the kind of thing that should have pissed me off, but it didn't.

15) In general, I wasn't nearly as pissed off by this movie as I thought I was going to be. I had what I thought my review was going to be written in my head prior to going in. It was going to be something like "This movie broke my heart" and then a frowning emoticon. There are things that pissed me off, for sure, but as a whole, I wasn't all that annoyed.

16) But wow, this thing sure has a frenetic pace. It jerks you around like those Avengers movies. There's an early scene where the Millennium Falcon is lightspeed jumping (I can't remember what Poe actually called it, but it was something like that), and that almost works as a metaphor for the whole movie. Let's go over here now! Now let's go over here! Let's blow something up! Let's do some lightsaber stuff! Let's shoot some things! Kaboom! Zoom zip, time for a reflective moment. Zip zoom, time for another explosion! It's all fun, but it's a whole lot, especially for an old guy like me.

17) The older I get, the less I'm willing to fall for John Williams' scores. But the child in me will always love what he does in these Star Wars movies, and the child in me loved every note in this. The child in me is much easier to please than the adult costume I'm watching.

18) Let's talk about Kylo Ren's posse, the Knights of Ren! Actually, never mind. There's nothing to talk about!

19) Was it good to see Billy Dee Williams? Absolutely. Was it a little odd that he popped in out of nowhere twice? Absolutely. What a cool cat that guy is, however, although his dialogue with a new female character at the very end befuddled me. Maybe it's just because he's Lando, but it seemed like he was flirting with somebody 1/3 his age who may or may not be his daughter. I had no idea what was being suggested there. Maybe that's what Finn wanted to tell people?

20) The lightsaber action (and a lot of the spaceship action) was frankly a little boring in this. There's a ton of action, but it all kind of blends together after a while. Very little stands out although I liked the final lightsaber stuff at the end when Kylo and Rey are in two different spots in Palp's horrifying abode. It wasn't quite Snoke's Red Room fun, but it was nifty.

21) I want an entire spin-off series about failed Snoke clones running around and having misadventures.

22) That Rose character sure was Jar-Jar-Binksed out of this thing, wasn't she? She had a line here and there, but it was clear Abrams wanted nothing to do with this character because he was trying to appeal to the moron majority, and the moron majority did not approve of that character.

23) Oscar Isaac sure has charm to spare, doesn't he? If a character has to have a spin-off from this trilogy, I suppose he'd be the one I'd be most interested in.

24) Wedge Antilles! My son and I didn't know who he was until we looked it up early. My God, they managed to find a way to put Wedge Antilles in this movie. Abrams has no shame!

25) My favorite line: "They're just people." That was one of the lone things that helped connect this with its predecessor.

26) I thought I was done, but my son just informed me that Admiral Ackbar's son was in this movie. Oh, boy.

The Organizer

1963 drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Overworked factory workers struggle to get rights until the titular organizer stumbles into town to give them some direction.

1) This would make a good, though lengthy, double feature with Matewan since they both deal with workers' rights.

2) I was won over immediately because of the opening credits, stills of the working class and a score that had fart noises.

3) Personalities for the central characters in this are created so effortlessly. They're nearly caricatures, but in a good way if that makes sense. Even before Marcello Mastroianni shows up to be a recognizable face for me, I had already fallen for a lot of these characters. They're shown in a way that forces the viewer to empathize. Even the characters defined by their flaws manage to be likable.

4) One heartbreaking moment--the revelation a horde of characters have when they visit one of their coworkers. A door is busted through, and you wonder how a family could live like this movie has this family living while knowing that it's probably sadly accurate.

5) My favorite character was a mustachioed outsider who just stood around silently with his hands in his pockets most of the time. He has one moment in a hospital that reminded me of Chaplin or Keaton.

6) This really captures the monotony of the workplace. There's a rhythm to the factory, but it's like a drumbeat resounding in this personal hell these characters are forced to exist in for 14 hours a day. It's a depressing place, even the dusty lunch that is miserable except for a lighter moment when a person belches or when there's a glimpse of knickers.

7) I'm not totally sure this balances tragedy and humor very well, but the movie's tone is engaging. It's an easier watch than Matewan, but that might have more to do with a bias I have against West Virginians than anything else. This movie's smooth though, and it flies by despite the lengthy running time.

8) Marcello Mastroianni is just as good as you'd expect him to be. The character's got some contradictions and he leaves a lot of questions unanswered about his past and future. A lot of the performance is carried by a pair of spectacles.

9) Teachers will appreciate the emphasis on the importance of education in this movie. It's not just a random mention or two either; it's a recurring idea. Adults need to learn to read in order to vote. One of the young worker's brother is chastised when he doesn't study very hard because a good education is a way out of the life the characters are trapped in. There are lots of references to characters not being able to write.

10) One of the best bits has to do with that inability to write. The factory workers are drawing names out of a hat, and a whole bunch of them have just written an X for their signature.

The Sword in the Stone

1963 cartoon

Rating: 14/20 (Abbey: 12/20)

Plot: King Arthur, before he was King Arthur, makes a wizard friend and later pulls the titular sword from the titular stone which makes him king.

Here's a question--why's Merlin need to stand on a stool to sing his silly songs and perform magic? I mean, he's the guy who said, "Don't take gravity too lightly or it can catch up with you." It seems like standing on a stool like that is only asking for trouble.

Though I really like how the characters look and move in this, it seems like Disney went really cheap with the backgrounds. It also seems like Disney recycled itself in a scene where Arthur (Wart) is being chased by skinny Gaston, the latter who stumbles and falls on his face. The first time, it's in a forest, and the character trips over a log. The second time is in the town right near the end of the movie. It's the same angles and everything, and I think they just reused the characters over a different background.

But I do like how the characters move. Merlin's beard is almost a character on its own, and you just have to love how Merlin and the witch lady march to their wizards duel. That duel itself is a highlight, showing off the creativity of these Disney storyboarders, the kind of creativity that can overcome financial restraints. Most of the movie has Merlin changing Wart and him into various animals, and though I appreciated the whimsy in those scenes, I wish the legends added up to a little more. There's really no arc to this character. He turns into various animals and then stumbles into this situation where he yanks the sword from the rock. The end.

The Red Squirrel

1993 love story

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A suicidal rocker befriends (or kidnaps, depending on how you look at it) an amnesiac woman.

Despite the appearance of defecate from the titular mammal (that's probably a spoiler!), the ending of this wasn't very satisfying.

With squirrel perspective shots, a really strange dream sequence, a cheek-cutting sequence, various surrealistic interludes, questionable character quirks, and a character with Jedi reflexes, this is one of the stranger cinematic love stories I've seen in a while.

Stanley Kubrick was apparently a big fan of this one.

The Executioner

1963 Spanish black comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A mortician falls in love with the daughter of an executioner and reluctantly takes her dad's place when he retires.

This might appeal only to those who have a special kind of sense of humor. I caught traces of Tati or Buster Keaton, Roy Andersson, and Czech movies from the same decade in this dark comedy from Luis Garcia Berlanga, a guy who's skilled at  slamming together tones that should not work together but somehow do here. I suppose there are a lot of people who would watch this and miss nearly every clever visual gag, maybe until the end when the movie's ironic punchline makes it kind of hard to miss.

The Big City (Mahanagar)

1963 Ray movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: An extended family is tested when a wife gets a job as a door-to-door salesperson and starts wearing lipstick.

One of my biggest--if not THE biggest--film-watching embarrassments is not seeing enough movies by Satyajit Ray, probably a combination of not knowing how to say his first name and not being able to spell his first name without looking it up several times. I loved The Music Room, and I liked the lone film I've seen from the Apu trilogy (I know, I know), so it doesn't even make sense that I've not seen anything else. That should be the #1 thing I focus on fixing about my life in 2020. I mean, almost everything else is perfect about me and the world around me, so I might as well focus on this.

I think I'm going to just make numbered lists instead of reviews in 2020. I'll experiment with it here. Let me know if you love it or only like it.

1) The titular "big city" has no scale at all until one of the final shots. A pair of characters are standing in what I'd call an alley. They're having a conversation about this and that, and the camera pulls back eventually to reveal just how expansive the city is around this family. It engulfs them! The only other real glimpses of the city that we get are the view from the window of the wife's boss. Those shots make it look like a big city, too.

2) That's right before a brilliant final shot with a pair of light bulbs, one that Ray says didn't have any intended symbolism but is great because it's so open to interpretation anyway.

3) It took me too long to figure out that the wife's work friend--an Anglo-Indian lady--was an outsider, a target of racism. I loved the rhythm of her curses. "Why shouldn't we get 10% too, damn it," the "damn it" without emphasis and just kind of falling off the end of the sentence.

4) The wife's mole deserves a spot in this list! I have a mole myself, you know, only it's not very attractive, seemingly only there so that various people can say, "Wow, you really need to get that thing checked out."

5) My favorite shot is this crawling close-up of the wife's father-in-law when he learns that the wife has gotten this job. The score is creeping, and it just zooms to this old fart's face, so defeated. That scene ends with another great shot of a glass of milk. Or at least it's something milky.

6) The father-in-law was a teacher, and there are some scenes with him going to former students and asking for favors--free glasses, etc. As a teacher myself, I couldn't help appreciate the idea that students owe a debt to their teachers. I can't think of any reason why I should find out where my former students work and go ask for free stuff or heavy discounts.

7) The significance of lipstick! Cause the lips, they are a-changin'.

8) "If you were a little bit less attractive, I'd want you to get a job." Sure, the husband's a dick in the early scenes--kind of a dick in a sneaky way, but you really feel for him at the end. He's so silent in the second half of the movie, wandering through scenes like he's a ghost.

9) Another great shot has the husband eavesdropping in a restaurant. He's in the background--silent, a ghost--and another couple is in the foreground. There's one slow camera pan that is just remarkable.

10) More advertisements need to refer to people as "nitwits," I think.

11) There's one moment after a character makes a major decision when Ray--for the only time in the movie, I believe--switches to a handheld camera. That was startling and very effective.

12) Ray wrote the music for this, and it's mostly really great. I could have sworn I heard Yoko Ono creeping in at one point, but I guess that wouldn't have made any sense.

13) I like how one important plot point involves a character wanting to win a crossword puzzle competition so that he can see a bridge that was constructed by monkeys.

Santa's Christmas Circus

1966 Christmas travesty

Rating: 2/20

Plot: A clown named Whizzo ruins Christmas.

Yes, I watched a RiffTrax version of this.

Somebody wanted to watch a Christmas movie and then refused to pay any attention to the comedic stylings of Kansas City television legend Frank Wiziarde as Whizzo the Clown. The only writing credit for this is Byers Jordan who is credited with the "idea," and it's no surprise this didn't really have a script. It's just Wiziarde freestyling, talking a mile a minute and seemingly unable to focus long enough to complete a sentence at times. The takes are long, making this experience even more bizarrely excruciating. It's like the director (umm, Frank Wiziarde) wanted us to feel stuck with this insane clown, trapped in these moments that seemed unlikely to end. I was uncomfortable several times, and I can't imagine how the children who had to be there felt.

Movie magic that seems more dated than the movie magic Melies filmed 70 years earlier, shots of animatronics in storefronts, a magic carpet powered by crepe paper, some racist wind-up toys. And lots and lots of Whizzo, more Whizzo than I assume most people would be able to handle.

Even better than whatever the hell Whizzo is doing is this little girl who couldn't stop coughing. I assume she died of tuberculosis within a week of the filming, but at least her life ended on a high note.

What the hell is wrong with Whizzo's feet, by the way?

The RiffTrax guys also shared a short film about Christmas trees with human faces. It was disturbing.

It should be noted that I was giggling uncontrollably throughout this.

From Russia with Love

1963 Bond movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: James Bond tries to get his hands on a decoding device while Spectre tries their best to kill him.

It starts with chess and bellydancing and still somehow isn't my favorite James Bond movie? That doesn't seem possible. This spy adventure takes 007 to Turkey and eventually aboard the Orient Express. There are a few too many times when James Bond probably should have died in this one for my liking, but there's a really fun shoot-out, some fisticuffs in a confined train car, and a gnarly boat chase. Bond girl Daniela Bianchi is really cute, too.

I don't think it's as good as Connery's best Bond films, but it's still upper-echelon Bond.

Charade

1963 comedy-thriller

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: refused to rate)

Plot: Some sketchy dudes are looking for some money that they believe Audrey Hepburn has. Meanwhile, she tries to figure out the identity of her new guy friend who also seems to be after the money.

This coasts on charm, a comedy-thriller that is about as breezy as a movie can be. It feels like a combination of screwball romantic comedies and Hitchcock. The leads do exactly what you'd expect them to do. Audrey Hepburn's a waif with this intoxicating mix of naivete, street smarts, and flirtiness. She knows how to work Cary Grant anyway who, even though I'm not sure he's doing even an ounce of acting, is the perfect guy to deliver these lines, mostly ones that show off his character's dry wit. It's all very charming.

James Coburn, George Kennedy, and Ned Glass are also really good as a trio of thugs searching for that money, and Walter Matthau is also in this thing.

The Raven

1963 horror comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: It's exactly like Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven," except for the wizard battles.

After a psychedelic opener with these swirls of color and a raven silhouette, we meet our protagonist, a man who has lost his Lenore just like in the Poe poem. A voice-over reads about 40% of that poem. That man is the great Vincent Price, but he's not exactly doing any great acting here as a wizard who is making a cartoonish raven pattern in the air next to his big telescope by moving his eyebrows and hands around just like you'd expect a wizard in 1963 to do. Price's outfit is super goofy, and his acting is really pretty terrible. I probably should have known that this was a comedy sooner than I was able to figure that out, probably around the third time Price walked into that aforementioned giant telescope. But after seeing a handful of the other Corman Poe adaptations, none which you'd call comedies, I suppose I can be forgiven for not figuring that out.

Other than the comedic stylings of a goofily-dressed Vincent Price and all that wizard stuff, this really does seem to follow the famous narrative poem. Price laments the loss of his love Lenore who'll return nevermore (though he keeps her in a casket on the premises), he hears a knock, he finds nothing there, he hears another knock, and he enjoys the company of a talking raven. You'd think that the titular bird's arrival would make this more like the poem; however, that's not the case as this bird starts talking in a silly voice that I could almost recognize, saying a whole lot more than "Nevermore." In fact, he starts blabbering about a rival wizard, and he talks Price into going to his dead father's laboratory (or whatever a wizard laboratory is called) to whip up a potion, one that includes "the entrails of a troubled horse," to turn the guy back into a man. He manages to turn him into a man with bird arms. Or wings, I guess. And you know who that man is? It's freakin' Peter Lorre! And Peter Lorre is really not very good in this at all.

So you've got Vincent Price and Peter Lorre. Who else is in this movie? Well, you've got Boris Karloff as that rival wizard. And then there's Jack Nicholson playing Peter Lorre's son. It's all a very complicated story that I wouldn't want to spoil, but suffice it to say, it drifts so far from Poe's narrative that I completely forgot it was supposed to be an adaptation of it.

By the time you get to the giant wizard battle at the end, this thing's gone completely off the rails. Add in that constant music, and it's all pretty insane. Is it funny? No, not really. Most of the jokes don't work at all although the performers are giving it their all. Does the narrative work? Well, that's probably a negative. Still, it's fun to watch these great actors goof around, and the added knowledge that this claims to be an adaptation of a poem about a lamenting guy being taunted by a raven, a story that doesn't contain a single fucking wizard, makes it even better.

Johnny Belinda

1948 melodrama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A doctor has a hunch that a deaf and dumb girl is smarter than everybody thinks and starts teaching her to communicate. Scandal gets in the way, however.

This one's notable for being one of the first Hollywood movies to be released after they started easing up on restrictions. and I've read that it was fairly controversial at the time. A rape sequence, though terrifying and very bleak, is tame by today's standards, of course. The violence doesn't seem shocking even for the time. Johnny Belinda--not my favorite title, by the way--does approach scandal in a small community head-on, something that gives it a little edge. The most shocking thing about the whole movie is probably how mean Agnes Moorehead's character can get.

I liked the look of the movie. There are lots of shots from low angles, and the farm's always got these barren trees and gnarled fence posts in the background. The lighting is also good. I'm not sure it's all natural, but scenes inside a house sure seem that way, and during that aforementioned rape sequence, there's a menacing shadow on the barn wall that was just haunting. Never, I suppose the lesson might be, trust a man who enters a barn with a violin in hand.

That violin pops back in, by the way--at least audibly--in a very surprising way later on.

The cast was fine, Jane Wyman anchoring the whole thing without being able to say a word. She does a whole lot with her eyes, the rest with subtle movements or facial expressions. It's a really good performance. Our first exposure to that character is just about perfect, a close-up of her face. Dad tells the doctor (and us) all about her while at the same time, we get a chance to make up our own minds. The script doesn't give the character a lot of depth, but Wyman's performance does make it easy for you to empathize with the character.

An early scene where the doctor is teaching Belinda sign language made me chuckle. He's making signs for roosters and hens and trees, the latter which might have appeared scandalous if somebody was watching the two from afar, and without any kind of Helen Keller-esque moment of realization on Belinda's part, it's hard to believe she knew he was trying to teach her something instead of thinking the guy was a complete lunatic.

I was distracted by thoughts of how she was going to explain in sign language what happened to her in that barn. The sign language would have been a little too racy for 1948, even post-restrictions.

An inappropriate laugh--a really fake-looking dummy used in one scene.

But I enjoyed this film despite the boring geography lesson that begins the whole thing and a few instances of narrative convenience.

I don't know why I typed "chuckle" up there. I don't chuckle.

The Whip and the Body

1963 horror movie

Rating: 10/20

Plot: I'd rather not.

Hopes were high with this since the other two Mario Bava movies from 1963 are fantastic. Both Black Sabbath and The Girl Who Knew Too Much are classics, but maybe it's just asking too much of a director to have three great movies in a single year. Also, there's the tantalizing title. Now, it's entirely possible that some really terrible dubbing sank this one, but I'm fairly positive it wouldn't have been good without that problem. Maybe the problem isn't even the dubbing. Maybe it's how many times the characters say the name "Kurt" in this movie.

Christopher Lee is in this. He plays "Kurt," but he wasn't able to lend his own voice to this one.

There are a handful of atmospheric moments and a few shots that were at least capable of reminding me that I was watching a Mario Bava movie, but this is unfortunately really flat. And cheap. And it's not nearly as scandalous as the title might make it seem. Yes, there's a whip, a body, and even a whipped body, but it's hardly the sort of thing anybody would find sexy unless said person has a back and/or shoulder fetish.

This almost seems like a parody of a ghost story instead of an actual ghost story. There are more moments capable of causing eye rolls or chuckles than there are ones that you'd call horrifying. And once a deceased character starts walking around and leaving really thick muddy tracks, it really gets ludicrous. It's all really silly and dull simultaneously, not a combination you'd expect from Bava.

I Lost My Body

2019 animated French movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: A disembodied hand tries to return to its owner.

The feature-length debut of Jeremy Clapin, this French cartoon is really inventive and continuously surprising. It intersects the story of an orphan who falls in love with a voice and this disembodied hand on a dangerous adventure to try to find the arm it was once attached to. The stories intersect almost exactly how you figure they will. In fact, they intersect in a way that I really hoped they wouldn't. But it's still satisfying because Clapin knows exactly how to bring these images together visually to give them a poignancy.

Clapin really takes advantage of the capabilities animation gives him. There are lots of really beautiful moments here, and the parts seen from the perspective of the hand are always fun. So much of the poignancy of the story depends on the little details, and Clapin knows how to have you focus on and appreciate those details without making it feel like he's forcing something on you.

This smart animated feature gives you time to reflect and has a handful of thrilling action sequences. Recommended if you like French cartoons!

Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire

1987 musical

Rating: 14/20

Plot: An up-and-coming snooker player challenges the champ, the titular sorta-vampire, to a match where the loser has to retire from the sport forever.

This was recommended by my friend Eric who insisted I watch it before finalizing my list of favorite movies from 1987. It's got a little Rocky Horror and a little Tommy, neither which are movies I like all that much. It's also got a lot of snooker. Snooker isn't used as a spiritual metaphor or anything like pinball is in Tommy. Instead, it just happens to be the game the real-life characters who this is loosely (I assume) based on play. That makes the whole thing feel a little empty or devoid of meaning. It probably doesn't help that I don't know anything about the rules of snooker although I did really enjoy watching the titular pair playing with their balls.

Having said that, there were a whole lot of extended sequences of these two playing with their balls.

What I did really love about this was the camera work. The camera moves in inventive ways and the shots always make this look way more expensive than I believe it was. Alan Clarke takes some chances with this movie, and that's something you just have to appreciate.

I didn't mind the music, I suppose, especially for this being a music that comes from the 80s. Then again, I don't really remember any of the songs either, and I just saw this a day ago.

I'm not sure I would insist that anybody watch this before making a list of favorite movies from 1987, but I'm not disappointed that I watched it. If you like these sorts of alternative musicals or snooker, you're likely to enjoy this.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

1987 comedy

Rating: 11/20

Plot: A selfish man tries to get home for Thanksgiving while an annoying but likable man tries to help him.

I don't believe I had seen this movie before though every bit of it seemed familiar. Everything, including all the 80's yuckiness, is exactly what you'd expect here.

Steve Martin is the exact sort of straight everyman you'd expect him to be, and he has the exact story arc you'd anticipate him having.

John Candy is the exact sort of buffoon you'd expect him to be. I spent the entire movie wondering if he could have pulled off Ignatius J. Reilly in an adaptation of A Confederacy of Dunces or if he just didn't have the range.

The humor is exactly what you'd expect. I feel like I was raised on this kind of humor and managed to somehow escape with more sophisticated tastes. And yes, I realize that makes me sound like I'm full of myself, but I don't care. Nobody is reading this anyway. There's even the kind of slightly homophobic humor you'd expect ("Those aren't pillows! Ahhhhhhh!") in a movie from this terribly embarrassing decade.

A lot of 80's yuckiness is in the movie's score. It's gross. So is a series of flashbacks near the end when Steve Martin's character goes through nearly the entire movie in his head while changing his facial expression slightly.

It's amazing that the producers decided to include a scene where Steve Martin delivers a monologue filled with "fucking" thises and "fucking" thats, the only thing, I believe, that would have kept this from being rated PG and having a chance at a wider audience.

Maybe the Roy Orbison (I think?) velvet painting would have been enough to get it an R-rating though.

It was shocking to me to see the Chicago skyline from 32 years ago because it looks completely different.

Oh, something from the 80s that I do love--women's hair styles. Laila Robins has cute hair.

Larry Hankin is in this movie, briefly.

Alright, I feel like I covered everything I needed to cover here.

Pelle the Conqueror

1987 immigration movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A man and his son immigrate to Denmark, and despite the father's old age and the son's very young age, they're able to find work on a farm owned by a lecherous man. Pelle, the son, dreams of America, and the dad gets really horny.

Dreaming of napkin rings with their names on them. That's what it's all about for this pair of protagonists, though only one is a titular protagonist. I suppose everybody dreams in different shapes and sizes. It doesn't really matter as this movie makes it clear that we all lose our feathers until we're just plucked chickens in the dung.

This is the second time I've spent hours watching Max von Sydow emigrate. Or maybe I'm watching him immigrate. Like alligators and crocodiles, immigration and emigration have similar scales. He's quietly great in this movie, so much with body language and movements. And those eyes! Part of what von Sydow is doing that makes this great is that he allows the flies in scenes with him to be equally important.

This movie is probably better than the rating I gave it. I'm not in a great mood though.

Broadcast News

1987 news movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A trio of news people fight for each other's affections.

The problem with a lot of these 80's movies is that they remind me of the 1980s. I probably wrote that about at least one other movie in the last couple of months.

Holly Hunter is doing her Holly Hunter thing, William Hurt showcases the depth and range of a piece of cardboard, and Albert Brooks steals the movie. It's a little difficult at times to figure out what the hell Holly Hunter's character wants in this movie. Her character isn't well written at all. Either that or William Hurt is a lot better looking than he seems to be.

This movie's got a rhythm that I like, especially when the characters are trying to get their jobs done. I didn't think much of the humor was funny though Albert Brooks was a joy to watch in nearly every scene he was in.

House of Games

1987 con artist movie

Rating: 15/20

Plot: There's an attempted con, another con, then another con, and a few more cons. Everybody was con-fu fighting!

"Everybody was con-fu fighting" should win me a Pulitzer, shouldn't it?

This is entertaining and pulpy stuff from Mamet though it stretches the limits of plausibility a few times. Maybe more than a few times.

The best bit in this movie is a scene involving a water gun after a little poker action. That's probably a spoiler, so you should ignore it.

I have to end this review because I need to pat myself on the back a little more for that "con-fu fighting" line.

Innerspace

1987 sci-fi comedy

Rating: 10/20

Plot: I don't want to talk about the plot. Suffice to say that "I'll be a son of a bitch. I'm in a strange man" is not a reference to what you think it is.

The posters for this movie are insanely bad. Seriously, do yourself a favor and Google Image posters for this movie.

"Oh, great. I'm inside a guy who likes game shows." If I had a nickel. . .

Ok, I think I've spent enough time with this movie.

Marriage Story

2019 divorce story

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Marriage story? More like divorce story.

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver both feel like they're really living in these roles. We meet them in medias res, a pair of montages accompanying the reading of lists of what each spouse likes about his or her partner. It's both mundane and powerful, more striking with the juxtaposition of a very cold shot of the couple in the movie's present in a counselor's office. I really enjoyed both performances because they feel very honest, and the characters' likability makes this whole thing all the more heartbreaking. In a way, you wish the screenplay would have picked a side, chosen a villain other than the lawyers who muddle everything up. You wish the villain--more than likely Driver since it's usually men who are ill-equipped for this whole relationship thing--would get the ending he or she deserves so that the other can enjoy a happy ending. Instead, this shows the flaws and faults of both of these human beings, and as a viewer, it's impossible not to understand both sides in this conflict. Both Driver and Johansson get their moments to really shine here, the former adding to a filmography that continues to show a surprising versatility and the latter busting out of this action heroine rut she seems to be in the last few years.

The supporting cast is good, too. Alan Alda and Laura Dern are great as attorneys though the screenplay definitely paints one of them as more of a villain. Ray Liotta's in there, too, and even Wallace Shawn makes an appearance and has a few funny bits.

Oh, I want to pause here to let you know that this movie, despite subject matter that is depressing on the surface, isn't all doom and gloom. There's a lot of humor in this one. Most of the best bits of comedy involve Julie Hagerty's character as the mother of Scar-Jo's character. She's just wonderful here. My favorite humorous scene is a lengthy one where Driver's character arrives at his mother-in-law's house and another character has to serve him divorce papers. It's sitcom stuff, but it's quality sitcom stuff.

Most of the greatness is from the little moments, some of them touching, some of them heartbreaking. Slumped shoulders at a hearing, a second trick-or-treating adventure, troubles with a car seat, a punched wall. Both characters get songs, Driver's a strong contender for musical moment of the year. The movie's longish, but you do really feel these characters, empathize with their struggles, and hope for their futures.

Oh, the kid (Azhy Robertson) was pretty good, too!

I'm still trying to make up my mind about Randy Newman's score. I think it was really good though!

The Duke of Burgundy

2014 British drama

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Lesbians experience troubles in their sadomasochistic relationship.

Only slightly sexy (if at all) but deliciously stylish, The  Duke of Burgundy and its characters were never anything I got tired of looking at though there might not have been enough drama in this pair's relationship to justify the movie's length. Honestly, it was the frequent shots of butterflies--both living and dead--that kept me invested rather than the sadomasochistic shenanigans of the couple. One dream sequence is startlingly great, spliced-together and rapidly-changing butterfly bits filling the screen that reminded me of a Svankmajer short. All in all, it's a frequently lovely but maybe not all that engrossing love story, but I prefer Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, probably because I'm attracted to Toby Jones.

Do I want to know what a "human toilet" is, or is something I'm better off not knowing?

Au Revoir les Enfants

1987 enfants movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: In German-occupied France, boys at a boarding school deal with new arrivals who may or may not have a secret they're hiding.

"Goodbye, children" is the translation in case you're not as fluent in Spanish as I am.

Swimming to Cambodia

1987 spoken word thing

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Spalding Gray talks about a bunch of shit for about an hour and a half.

Spalding Gray sure could tell a story. Combine that with the kinds of tricks Jonathan Demme played when shooting people like the Talking Heads and Robyn Hitchcock on stage, and you've got something that I think I could have watched for five hours. Gray would have run out of water though, so that wouldn't have worked.

This is like a one-man My Dinner with Andre without a dinner. Or an Andre. Well, there's kind of an Andre.

I thought I had seen this in high school, but I'm not sure now.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

2019 drama

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A guy tries to reclaim a childhood home in a city that is losing everything that makes it what it is.

The reason I connected with this one so much, I believe, is that I think I love all of the influences of first-time director Joe Talbot, who wrote this movie with star Jimmie Falls. San Francisco is a dream here, the most whimsical parts exposed and the most beautiful light I've seen on my television in a very long time always finding a way to say, "Hey, look at me! I'm light!"

There's a scene very early--one before the house at the center of this plot is even shown--where the two characters are sharing a skateboard because the bus hadn't come. Pedestrians are frozen while they watch them skate past, and I'm not sure what kind of spell I was put under at that point, but I fell in love with those characters instantly. And my love for the pair never waned. Jimmie Falls, a rookie actor, gets a little mopey by the end, but you're always in his corner, even when he's gardening at a middle-aged couple's house without an invitation. Or maybe because of that. And Jonathan Majors played the best friend character so well, well enough that I wanted to jump into my television so that I could be friends with him, too. Majors plays it subdued for most of the film, but when he gets a chance to do something a little bit different, it never feels unnatural for the character. It's just great character building from these two, and I just loved them.

I don't always love the dialogue, and I'm not sure I even loved where the narrative ended up, but the ride along the way, a dreamy and meandering one with all these little haiku-esque snapshots, was such an easy ride to take. Figures on the fringes of this story always kept things lively. My favorite exchange was probably this one:

"I said sixteen. How am I going to eat sixty Twix?"
"I don't know your life."

I laughed a few times, and I teared up a few times along the way as well.

That house was gorgeous, a lovely Victorian that you can't really imagine a drug addict ever living in. Maybe I'm being unfair to drug addicts though. A central theme of this has to do with architecture and place and the connections they have to the soul, and this particular house was like a Holy Grail, a dreamy utopia, a slice of heaven, and three stories of nostalgia. Or four. I don't even know if I figured out how many floors that house had.

I want to mention to score because it might be my favorite of the year. It's from Emile Mosseri, an eclectic mix of instrumentals and popular songs performed by street performers. The tunes perfectly complement the dream that is this movie and the adventure of our hero, a black man living in something that resembles San Francisco.

Matewan

1987 coal miner movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Coal miners considering unionizing upset the owners who send thugs, an act that threatens to start a small war in the titular town.

Either way you go, it seems that you're rooting for Trump supporters. And that's not a good situation for a viewer to be placed in.

Every year, it seems I stumble upon a movie with Will Oldham This is a very young Will Oldham, and that particular voice he has matches his character, a kid with aspirations to be a preacher, well. The cast is good all around though the villains almost seem like they come out of a comic book. My favorite characters are these guys who just emerge from the West Virginian forest whenever they're needed, hopefully not when they're in the middle of making somebody squeal like a pig.

This is shot well, like a Western from the 50's. At times, it looks like it could be a documentary thought these are clearly characters and actors and actresses are clearly playing them. I would have liked to see a little more coal mine action.

What it does best is build the tension well. I don't have much interest in real-life story's of battles between labor unions and rich guys, but this was constructed like a Shakespearean tragedy. You know where it's headed, so you're not surprised when it gets there. Mini-climaxes keep you going along the way.

One movie away from completing a rare "union movie" trifecta. Stay tuned.

The Irishman

2019 superhero movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: The life and career of some tough guy who worked closely with Jimmy Hoffa.

I feel as if I was tricked because going in, I thought this was Martin Scorsese's superhero movie, the origin story of some comic character I've never heard of called The Irishman. All I got from this is a story about some guy who eats tons of ice cream, a story that somehow works Don Rickles in.

"You don't know how fast time goes by until you get there." That line hit me. That line made a movie that I wasn't sure was any good at all for the first hour of it's three-and-a-half-hour running time into something great.

I'm not sure how anybody can watch this and not like it. Scorsese's a master, of course, and it's great seeing this cast do their thing at least one more time. De Niro brings this quiet force into his role as the titular character, and Pacino is doing his Pacino thing a bit--which, don't get me wrong, I love--but is also playing a real character with real emotions. And he eats a ton of ice cream. And Joe Pesci. Man, that guy is so good here.

It's been an eclectic decade for Scorsese. I mean, this movie is nothing at all like the meditative Silence, though they're both deliberately paced. And Silence is almost like an antithesis to its predecessor, The Wolf of Wall Street. Before that was a freakin' kids movie! And before that was the spooky surrealism of Shutter Island. Those are five completely different movies. This might be my third or fourth favorite of those actually. I guess I'd have to think about that more.

I hit the pause button while watching this and gave myself an intermission so that I could use the restroom, get a drink, and find my cat. And maybe get some ice cream.

The Belly of an Architect

1987 Greenaway movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: An American architect putting together some sort of exhibition for an Italian architect deals with stomach issues and a possible nervous breakdown whilst in Rome. Or some other city in Italy. Don't quote me on the Rome thing.

I believe I read this was an attempt by Peter Greenaway to make something a little more mainstream, but the random appearance of a character who goes around chiseling the noses off a statue makes that seem unlikely. This has your typical Greenaway aesthetics--great cinematography (Sacha Vierny), careful symmetry, lots of references or imagery having to do with the human body, a score that sounds like it was composed by Michael Nyman, in this case not a score by Michael Nyman. Brian Dennehy gets a chance to both shine and show off the titular belly as the lead, likely chosen because he's the American actor who came to mind first in a stream-of-conscious word-association game when Peter Greenaway said "rotunda" to his casting director. Dennehy's always great, and he's great here in a role that puts him in nearly every scene.

As always, Greenaway proves he's a whole lot smarter than me and that I shouldn't be allowed to watch his movies anyway. Sorry, films. Greenaway would probably call them films, maybe with a capital F. They're Films. Allusions to Sir Isaac Newton and WWII history may have gone a little over my head though I was clever enough to realize that the final shot makes a connection to one of those. Of course, somebody who has trouble understanding The Goofy Movie might have been able to make that connection.

My wife isn't home right now, and I miss her and am not in the best of moods. Forgive me for this poor writing.

This is also a clever ploy to get anybody Googling "Peter Greenaway" and "The Goofy Movie" to my blog. You probably saw right through that one though.