Consumption: 2023

Godzilla menaces a small boat in "Godzilla Minus 1" (2023)

I maintain this list every year, for fun and for reference. I don’t do a numbered ranking, but my #1-most-fun-I-had-at-the-movies award goes to GODZILLA MINUS ONE.

For films watched on video, standouts included the hallucinatory Korean film CURE and Lena Dunham’s delightful CATHERINE CALLED BIRDY. For more film favorites consult my top-5 list on Yelling About Movies—an ongoing YouTube series featuring me and 5 friends. The title of the show says it all.

On the TV series front, favorites at our house included Bad Sisters, The Bear, and, surprisingly enough, Derek, a decade-old sitcom starring Ricky Gervais that is set at a nursing home. Who would have thought?

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022, James Cameron)
Ant-man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023, Peyton Reid)
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3 (2023, James Gunn)
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023, James Mangold)
Princess Mononoke (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
Barbie (2023, Greta Gerwig)
Oppenheimer (2023, Christopher Nolan)
Haunted Mansion (2023, Justin Simien)
The Holdovers (2023, Alexander Payne)
Godzilla Minus One (2023, Takashi Yamazaki)
Maestro (2023, Bradley Cooper)

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Love and Monsters (2022, Michael Matthews)
Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019, Alexandre O. Philippe)
I Love My Dad (2022, James Morosini)
Italianamerican (1974, Martin Scorsese)
By Design: The Joe Caroff Story (2022, Mark Cerulli)
The Automat (2021, Lisa Hurwitz)
Ronin (1998, John Frankenheimer)
Apocalypto (2006, Mel Gibson)
The Green Fog (2017, Guy Maddin & Evan & Galen Johnson)
Get Duked (2019, Ninian Doff)
Undergods (2020, Chino Moya)
Dogtooth (2009, Yorgos Lanthimos)
La Moustache (2005, Emmanuel Carrère)
Something in the Dirt (2022, Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead)
Elevator to the Gallows (1958, Louis Malle)
Top Gun (1986, Tony Scott)
The Fabelmans (2022, Steven Spielberg)
Aftersun (2022, Charlotte Wells)
The Forgotten Battle (2020, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.)
Fury (2014, David Ayer)
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2023, Joel Crawford)
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008, Darren Lynn Bousman)
Keane (2005, Lodge Kerrigan)
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2021, Jane Schoenbrun)
La Cérémonie (1995, Claude Chabrol)
The Piano Teacher (2001, Michael Haneke)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, Rupert Wyatt)
Eyes Without a Face (1960, Georges Franju)
Frank (2014, Lenny Abrahamson)
The Salton Sea (2002, D. J. Caruso)
One, Two, Three (1960, Billy Wilder)
Dive (2022, Lucía Puenzo)
World on a Wire (1973, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014, Matt Reeves)
Sisu (2023, Jalmari Helander)
Being Mary Tyler Moore (2023, James Adolphus)
Call Me Kate (2022, Lorna Tucker)
Where’s Poppa? (1970, Carl Reiner)
White Heat (1949, Raoul Walsh)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985, George Miller & George Ogilvy)
How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022, Daniel Goldhaber)
Week-end (1967, Jean-Luc Godard)
Teorema (1968, Pier Peter Pasolini)
Next Door (Naboer) (2005, Pål Sletaune, Tony Spataro)
Proof (1991, Jocelyn Moorhouse)
Naked (1993, Mike Leigh)
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017, Matt Reeves)
Used Cars (1980, Robert Zemeckis)
Beowulf (2007, Robert Zemeckis)
Le Cercle Rouge (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Cure (1997, Kyoshi Kurosawa)
La Piscine (The Swimming Pool) (1969, Jacques Deray)
L’inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake) (2013, Alain Guiraudie)
Young Adam (2003, David Mackenzie)
Studio 54 (2018, Matt Tyrnauer)
Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujirō Ozu)
Skinamarink (2022, Kyle Edward Ball)
Iris (2014, Albert Maysles)
Goodnight Oppy (2022, Ryan White)
Killer Joe (2011, William Friedkin)
Bone Tomahawk (2015, S. Craig Zahler)
M (1931 Fritz Lang)
Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)
The Clone Returns Home (2008, Kanji Nakajima)
Bright Future (2002, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013, Daniel Patrick Carbone)
Army of Shadows (1969, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Tori and Lokita (2022, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, Monte Hellman)
One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1971, Agnes Varda)
El Conde (2023, Pablo Larrain)
Return to Oz (1986, Walter Murch)
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969, Sidney Pollack)
Close (2022, Lukas Dhont)
Barbarian (2022, Zach Cregger)
Der Hauptmann (The Captain) (2018, Robert Schwenke)
1944 (2015,  Elmo Nüganen)
Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007, Sidney Lumet)
12 Angry Men (1957, Sidney  Lumet)
Eight Men Out (1988, John Sayles)
Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis (2022, Anton Corbijn)
The Hired Hand (1971, Peter Fonda)
Catherine Called Birdy (2022, Lena Dunham)
The Terror Within (1989, Thierry Notz)
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010, Jalmari Helander)
Don’t Bother to Knock (1952, Roy Ward Baker)
Blonde (2022, Andrew Dominik)
Teknolust (2002, Lynne Hershman-Leeson)
In the Mouth of Madness (1994, John Carpenter)
May December (2023, Todd Haynes)
Asteroid City (2023, Wes Anderson)

REWATCHES
Heaven Can Wait (1978, Buck Henry & Warren Beatty)
Deathtrap (1982, Sidney Lumet)
Cha Cha Real Smooth (2022, Cooper Raiff)
The Endless (2018, Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson)
Cape Fear (1991, Martin Scorsese)
Attack the Block (2011, Joe Cornish)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958, Gene Fowler, Jr.)
Teenagers from Outer Space (1959, Tom Graeff)
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011, Joe Johnston)
The Rocketeer (1991, Joe Johnston)
Dark City (1998, Alex Proyas)
Shakespeare in Love (1998, John Madden)
Meshes of the Afternoon (1941, Maya Deren)
The Fall (2008, Tarsem Singh)
Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966, Gordon Flemyng)
Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow)
His Girl Friday (1940, Howard Hawks)
The Worst Person in the World (2021, Joachim Trier)
Phase IV (1974, Saul Bass)
Persona (1966, Ingmar Bergman)
The French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
The Poseidon Adventure (1971, Ronald Neame)
Hauser’s Memory (1970, Boris Sagal)
Splice (2009, Vincenzo Natali)
Upgrade (2018, Leigh Whannell)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, Woody Allen)
Home For The Holidays (1995, Jodie Foster)
The Cooler (2003, Wayne Kramer)
Terror From the Year 5000 (1958, Robert Gurney Jr.)
Dredd (2020, Pete Travis)

TELEVISION
Bad Sisters
The Last of Us
Poker Face
Ted Lasso
Derek
Mrs. Davis
The Bear
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Welcome to Wrexham
Rampatrouille Orion (Space Patrol Orion)
Julia

BOOKS
White Noise (Don DeLillo)

CONCERTS
Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew (12/30, Warfield Theater, San Francisco)

*a footnote!

Summer is gone

I’m kind of obsessed with this Ride song at the moment. Maybe I’m reading into it, but for me this song captures a particular west coast feeling. Of both euphoria, and euphoria recalled. It’s present and past, now and then, having and longing. Pretty good for a bunch of Brits.

(Email subscribers, please visit the blog post to hear the song)

Thoughts on Yasujirō Ozu’s TOKYO STORY

When discussing Ozu, film critics invariably focus on two things: the formal composition of his images, and the slow pace. For that reason I’d never felt compelled to check out the work myself. Sitting down to TOKYO STORY (1953), I was expecting something arty and rarefied—a homework movie that would probably test my patience. What I got instead was a family drama, packed with emotion.

It’s a simple enough story: Shūkichi and Tomi are a retired couple who travel by train to Tokyo to visit their adult children. But the children are busy with their work and their own lives, and the presence of their parents is a disruption. No one puts much effort into accommodating them, in fact, they shuttle the parents off to a spa for a few days “to rest.” And so, the visit goes badly—though this is barely acknowledged by anyone.


This is how Ozu shoots interiors: camera low, to capture people kneeling or sitting on the floor. (There is exactly one moving camera shot in TOKYO STORY, a slow dolly at around the one hour mark.) With sightlines nearly always running parallel and perpendicular to the walls, the resulting compositions are a map of rectangles and 90-degree angles. In these spaces, emotions are also flattened and constrained. Diagonals are rarely seen and usually occur outdoors, in placid transitional shots interleaved throughout the film: a train chugging along a track, or white laundry fluttering on a clothesline.

There are two notable exceptions where the geometry of the characters’ lives is ruptured by strong emotion. The first is a barroom scene, where the elderly Shūkichi gets drunk and rowdy with a couple of old friends and complains about his no-good kids.

The second time comes late in the film, when all those offspring gather for a funeral. For shortly after the elderly couple return home from their trip to Tokyo, the mother Tomi falls ill and dies. Here, Ozu breaks out the diagonals: to capture the entire grieving family in a single shot, or to focus on the son who is overwhelmed and flees the ceremony.

Here too is where the weight of this story, which up to now may have felt slight, suddenly accrues into something deeply moving.

After the funeral, the family gathers in Shūkichi’s home for a meal. Ozu returns to his squared-off compositions as the chit-chat meanders from the logistics of taking the train home to what should be done with mother’s clothes. Soon enough, most of the kids are on their way, ready to resume lives fundamentally unchanged by the experience.

The exceptions are the youngest daughter, Kyoko, a schoolteacher who still lives with her father, and Noriko, the daughter-in-law (who’s consistently shown more concern for Shūkichi’s well-being than his own flesh-and-blood offspring). After they’ve left, Kyoko complains bitterly about her siblings, condemning them as selfish. Noriko, however, is pragmatic and realistic. She defends them, saying they have their own concerns, and acknowledges the selfishness she perceives in herself as well.

In a following scene, even the father admits guilt over his own denial and deferment of emotion. Staring down a lonely future, he muses on his relationship with his late wife: “I’d have been nicer to her if I’d known it would come to this.” Barring a divorce, a marriage can only end in a finite number of ways, yet Shūkichi seems to treat death as a surprise.

“Isn’t life disappointing?” Kyoko says.

“Yes, it is,” Noriko replies.

This was the moment in the film that was most arresting for me. Films—especially American films—are so often about massaging you into feeling good about yourself, about justifying your life and choices, and providing a narrative that promises to make sense out of chaos. TOKYO STORY isn’t that. It isn’t a balm. It isn’t constructed to make you feel good. And yet it does, but on a deeper level: one based on recognition, and maybe commiseration, and certainly on the bracing, freeing sensation of being told the truth.

Consumption: 2022

kung fu

Just another hellish moment from HOUSE (HAUSU)

Here it is again: everything I watched in a year, and my totally correct opinions on same!

Of the 2022 releases I saw, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE was memorable for managing to be both heartwarming and anarchically weird. Surprised and happy to see all the Oscar nom love for it. Todd Field’s TÁR is the one I’m still thinking about, months later. Need to rewatch soon.

Most of the features I watched were older, picks for my film review group “Yelling About Movies.” Every week, one of us chooses two features. Sunday night, we all meet on Zoom. It gets recorded. My buddy Skot edits. Over the course of a year, hours and hours of six slightly(?)-inebriated guys jawing about films gets uploaded on YouTube and that’s the link right there, if for some reason that sounds appealing to you.

Of the films I screened on video, there were many I enjoyed, but these were real standouts:

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS—A classic, and deservedly so.

SPRING BREAKERS—A trip into another dimension called Florida.

L’AVVENTURA—Antonioni’s masterpiece, booed at Cannes in 1960 and still challenging. Gorgeous ennui.

THE CONVERSATION—Perfect fucking movie.

SIGNS OF LIFE (LEBENSZEICHEN)—Werner Herzog’s first feature. A delicate poem of a film, absurd, austere, and beautiful.

MY WINNIPEG—To me, a filmmaker, this was an important & needed reminder of how free and fun the craft can be.

IDA—A beautiful, understated story about excavating the past. Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography.

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT—The best Iranian vampire Western ever made.

On the series television front, favorites at our house included Severance, Fleishman is in Trouble, and of course, the amazing Andor. I did not know a Star Wars show was allowed to be this good. Will the Star Trek franchise ever rouse itself from it torpor and give us something this smart?

Linked titles take you to the Yelling About Movies discussion, or more info on the film.

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN
West Side Story • 2021, Steven Spielberg
The Batman • 2022, Matt Reeves
Everything Everywhere All At Once • 2022, Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Dear Zoe • 2022, Gren Wells
Thor: Love and Thunder • 2022, Taika Waititi
3000 Years of Longing • 2022, George Miller
The Banshees of Inisheren • 2022, Martin McDonagh
Tár • 2022, Todd Fields

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN
The Swimmer • 1968, Frank Perry
Underwater • 2020, William Eubank
The Long Goodbye • 1973, Robert Altman
Days of Heaven • 1978, Terrence Malick
The Best Years of Our Lives • 1946, William Wyler
Swimming With Men • 2018, Oliver Parker
The Power of the Dog • 2021, Jane Campion
The Tragedy of Macbeth • 2021, Ethan Coen
The Last Duel • 2021, Ridley Scott
Spartan • 2004, David Mamet
Heist • 2001, David Mamet
The Age of Adaline • 2015, Lee Toland Krieger
L’Avventura • 1960, Michelangelo Antonioni
tick, tick…BOOM! • 2021, Lin-Manuel Miranda
Belfast • 2021, Kenneth Branagh
Spencer • 2021, Pablo Larraín
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski • 2018, Ireneusz Dobrowolski
My Man Godfrey • 1936, Greory La Cava
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Les Parapluies de Cherbourg) • 1964, Jacques Demy
Conspiracy • 2001, Frank Pierson
Anthropoid • 2016, Sean Ellis
Drive My Car • 2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi
House of Gucci • 2021, Ridley Scott
Waves • 2019, Trey Edward Shults
Pusher • 1996, Nicholas Winding Refn
Hangmen Also Die! • 1943, Fritz Lang
Betty Blue • 1986, Jean-Jacques Bieneix
Scarecrow • 1973, Jerry Schatzberg
We Need To Talk About Kevin • 2011, Lynn Ramsay
Titan A.E. • 2000, Don Bluth & Gary Goldman
Any Given Sunday • 1999, Oliver Stone
Auto Focus • 2002, Paul Schrader
House • 1977, Nobuhiku Obayashi
Closely Watched Trains (Ostre sledované vlaky) • 1966, Jiri Menzel
The Cremator (Spalovac mrtvol) • 1969, Juraj Herz
Benedetta • 2021, Paul Verhoeven
Wild Tales (Relatos salvajes) • 2014, Damián Szifron
Killing Them Softly • 2012, Andrew Dominik
Get Carter • 1971, Mike Hodges
Into the Night • 1985, John Landis
O Lucky Man! • 1973, Lindsay Anderson
Spring Breakers • 2012, Harmony Korine
My Winnipeg • 2007, Guy Maddin
Sputnik • 2020, Egor Abramenko
Assassination Nation • 2018, Sam Levinson
Thoroughbreds • 2017, Cory Finley
Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness • 2022, Sam Raimi
The Last Detail • 1973, Hal Ashby
Night Moves • 1975, Arthur Penn
Europa (aka Zentropa) • 1991, Lars von Trier
The Worst Person in the World • 2021, Joachim Trier
Tender Mercies • 1983, Bruce Beresford
Europa, Europa • 1990, Agnieska Holland
Lightyear • 2022, Angus MacLane
Le Samourai • 1967, Jean-Pierre Melville
Tusk • 2014, Kevin Smith
Chungking Express • 1994, Wong Kar-wai
Strangers on a Train • 1951, Alfred Hitchcock
Fallen Angels • 1995, Wong Kar-wai
Cold in July • 2014, Jim Mickle
Thief • 1981, Michael Mann
The Talented Mr. Ripley • 1999, Anthony Minghella
Put Blood in the Music • 1989, Charles Atlas
Train to Busan • 2016, Sang-ho Yeon
Saint Maud • 2019, Rose Glass
Ikarie XB 1 • 1963, Jindřich Polák
Seven Beauties • 1975, Lina Wertmüller
Signs of Life • 1968, Werner Herzog
The Stepfather • 1987, Joseph Ruben
Near Dark • 1987, Kathryn Bigelow
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night • 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly • 2007, Julien Schnabel
Ida • 2013, Pawel Pawlikowski
Resolution • 2012, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Richard III • 1995, Richard Loncraine
Z • 1969, D. Costa-Gavras
The Battle of Algiers • 1966, D. Gillo Pontecorvo
Shirkers • 2018, Sandi Tan
High and Low • 1958, Akira Kurosawa
Cha Cha Real Smooth • 2022, Cooper Raiff
The Awful Truth  • 1937, Leo McCarey
The Boy Downstairs • 2017, Sophie Brooks
Twentieth Century • 1934, Howard Hawks
Glass Onion •  2022, Rian Johnson
Strange World • 2022, Don Hall
SR. • 2022, Chris Smith

REWATCHES
Dirty Dancing • 1987, Emile Ardolino
Moulin Rouge! • 2001, Baz Lurhmann
Picnic at Hanging Rock • 1975, Peter Weir
That’s Life! • 1986, Blake Edwards
Network • 1978, Sidney Lumet
Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski • 2018, Ireneusz Dobrowolski
Seconds • 1966, John Frankenheimer
Cop Land • 1997, James Mangold
Where the Wild Things Are • 2009, Spike Jonze
A.I. Artificial Intelligence • 2001, Steven Spielberg
After Hours • 1981, Martin Scorsese
Apollo 11 • 2019, Todd Douglas Miller
First Man • 2018, Damien Chazelle
The Conversation • 1974, Francis Ford Coppola
Arachnophobia • 1990, Frank Marshall
Repo Man • 1984, Alex Cox
Day For Night • 1963, Francois Truffaut
All of Me • 1984, Carl Reiner
The Emperor’s New Groove • 2000, Mark Dindal

TELEVISION
The Great
And Just Like That…
Wolf Like Me
Severance
Better Things
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
The Bear
Raised By Wolves
Irma Vep
She-Hulk
Andor (yay!)
Fleishman Is in Trouble
The Crown
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The White Lotus
The Last Movie Stars

BOOKS
Victory Point – Owen Pomery (graphic novel)
A Fire Story – Brian Fies (graphic novel)
The Pritcher Mass – Gordon R. Dickson

*a footnote!

The 9 Billion Names of Dog

Screen Shot 2022-08-18 at 10.15.24 PM

Louis (with a silent “s” à la the French kings. This is his actual name)
King Louis
Louis Reginald Harden
Louis L’Amour
Louie Kablooie
Louis (pronounce the “s”) Kabluis
Lou-Lou
Lou-Bug
Lou-Bug Melman
Lou-Dog
Lou-doggie-dog
Lou Doggie Phillips
Doggy-wog
The Wog
Booger Boy
Mr. Boy
Wee Pup
Puppy-Boy
Puppy Baloney
Puppy Almighty
Puppy-Wup
Wuppie-Pup
The Wupster
The Pup, The Wup, The King of the Blues
Small Dog

Consumption: 2021

I wonder if her seat belt is fastened

In 2021, Year Two of the pandemic, I saw three movies in the theater. Pretty pathetic for someone who used to average one a week. But three movies is still three more than I managed to attend the year before. Not coincidentally, 2021 was also Year Two of Yelling About Movies, a.k.a. my social life on Zoom.

I never recommend anyone watch this film discussion podcast thing my friends and I do. Nevertheless, some of the titles below are linked to our Yelling About Movies discussion. You can’t say I didn’t warn you. A few titles, when clicked, instead take you to more info on the film: an iMDB page or whatnot. And then lots of them don’t do anything because I got lazy. But, linked or not, most of these titles are Yelling About Movies picks and if it is, a discussion can be found on YouTube. If you’re curious, here are all the videos.

In our year-end-wrapup show, each of us picked the best things we’d seen last year. You’ll see my favorites highlighted in the list below by an asterisk.

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN (3)
Dune (2021)
The Velvet Underground
The Matrix Resurrections

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN (76)
Antarctica
Insomnia (1997)
The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden
A Prophet*
Thirst
Another Round (Druk)*
WR: Mysteries Of The Organism
The Little Things
Come and See
Sound Of Metal
Hero (2002)
Targets
The Last Picture Show
Compliance
Burning
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Buck
A Woman In Berlin
Hannah Arendt
Synchronic
One From The Heart
The Petite Charm Of The Bourgeoisie
Mikey And Nicky
Alphaville
Begotten
The Skin I Live In
Inherent Vice
Four Against The Bank
Stander
Asperger’s Are Us
The Big Sleep
A Ghost Story*
Oxygene
Blowout
The Bad and the Beautiful
All About Eve*
The Terminal Man
Alfie
The Mole Agent
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Warlock
Grizzly 2: Revenge
Pumpkin
Irma Vep
The Flat
Der Lachende Mann (The Laughing Man)
The Baader-Meinhof Complex
Derek Delgaudio’s In and Of Itself*
The Sleepless
Barry Lyndon
Rebellion in Patagonia (La Patagonia Rebelde)
Odd Man Out
Blue Collar
Crawl
Before Sunset
Point Blank (1967)
The Yellow Sea
Coup de Grâce (1976)
Zardoz
The Brotherhood of the Wolf
The Haunting (1963)
Margaret (Extended Cut)
Introducing, Selma Blair
Morning Glory
Before Midnight
Thelma
Real Life
Beasts of No Nation
The Rules of the Game
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Enter the Dragon
Into The Inferno
Salesman
Encanto
Beast (2017)

REWATCHES (30)
The H-Man
Force Majeure
Miami Blues
Bohemian Rhapsody
Elle
Battleship Potemkin
Happy Go Lucky
Timecrimes
I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore
J.T.
Fish Tank
Henry Fool
Mulholland Drive
The Mother and the Whore
World of Tomorrow
In The Bedroom
The Wild Bunch
Sing Street
Narc
Before Sunrise
Paris, Texas
The Hidden
Sorry To Bother You
Kentucky Fried Movie
Uncut Gems
The Hurt Locker
Total Recall (1990)

TELEVISION
The Crown
Mom
Star Trek: Lower Decks
How To With John Wilson
Avenue 5
Resident Alien
Wandavision
Expecting Amy
Ghosts (UK version)
Debris
Ted Lasso
Bo Burnham: Inside
The Great

BOOKS (1)
Cessation by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas

* Highly recommended!

Six guys on a Zoom call, yelling about movies

Consumption: 2020

Six guys on a Zoom call, yelling about movies

Zooma Zooma! The Yelling About Movies crew. That’s me in the lower left. Looks like I’m trying to make a point, if everyone would SHUT UP for a second

Although it’s been said, many times, many ways, I’ll say it again: 2020 sucked. Oh, here’s another way to say it: I only saw five movies in the theater this year, and one of them was CATS.

Sheila and I miss going to the movies, or as she puts it, “the show.” (That’s what her mother called it, and her mother’s father owned the Arcadian Theater in Belfast, so the terminology is not up for debate.) Whatever you call it, I hope when the pandemic is over, there will still be someplace left to do it.

consumptionoveryearsLeigh Whannell’s THE INVISIBLE MAN was the last gasp of theatrical for us (and gasp I did, during that restaurant scene). That was way back in early March. But here’s the thing: all told, I saw more feature films this year, by far, than in any previous year since I began making this annual list in 2014. Seventy-five movies viewed: a new record. Lock-down and social distancing eliminated all competition for our time, and the TV was right there. Then, the Zoom meetings began.

“What have you seen?” was always the conversation starter, back when getting together in person with my cinephilic friends was an option. We called it “yelling about movies.” So why not do it on Zoom? Someone suggested Sunday afternoons at 4. Someone suggested implementing a rotation: each week, one of us picked a movie or two, book-club style. Then, we started recording the conversations and putting them on YouTube.* Capitalization was implemented, and Yelling About Movies, hashtag #YabtM, was born. This is my social life now. Honestly, it’s been terrific fun, and I’ve seen lot of movies, many of which I never would have never picked if left to my own devices.

First some highlights, followed by the complete list. Linked titles usually take you to the Yelling About Movies YouTube, or if not, some more info on the film.

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
From 2005, Tommy Lee Jones directs and stars in this modern western set in a Texas border town. Starts off as bleak realism, but gets progressively weirder and funnier.

Hamilton
Yes, HAMILTON is a movie. It’s 2 hrs 40 minutes long, and pre-COVID, Disney was planning a theatrical release, dammit. Don’t poo-poo if you haven’t seen it. There’s often a good reason when something becomes a cultural phenomenon.

Coherence
A real micro-budget indie from 2014. The director took a bunch of actors, one house, some felt pens and some glow sticks, and came up with this sci-fi mind-bender.

Force Majeure
Also from 2014. I loved this Swedish film about a married couple jolted by their close encounter with an avalanche. Comedy dry as Alpine powder.

Short Term 12
From 2013, this well-made indie drama set at a facility for at-risk teens is full of strong performances from soon-to-be familiar talents like Brie Larson, Rami Malek, Lakeith Stanfield, and Kaitlyn Deaver.

Soul
Upper-tier Pixar. Beautiful to look at and, if a little over-stuffed, still full of affecting moments.

MOVIES SEEN ON THE BIG SCREEN 2020
Ford v. Ferrari
Uncut Gems
Cats
Little Women (2019)
The Invisible Man (2020)

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN 2020
Fast Color
High School Musical 2 (We have Disney+ now. Things happen.)
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (see above)
The Irishman
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Hustlers
My Favorite Wife (1940)
Force Majeure
Shampoo
Scream
The Princess And The Frog
The Rescue List
My Brilliant Career
Gaga: Five Foot Two
Love In The Afternoon
Hidden Fortress
Onward
Don’t Look Now
Into The Okovango
Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary
Withnail & I
Black Narcissus
Mildred Pierce
Oblivion
Kramer Vs. Kramer
Paths Of Glory
Grumpy Old Men
The Great Gabbo
A Hard Day’s Night
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada
Rio Bravo
Caché
Coherence
The Trip To Spain
The Passenger (Professione: reporter) (1975)
I Think We’re Alone Now (2010)
Happy Together
Short Term 12
Bacarau
The T.A.M.I. Show
The Old Guard
Avengers: Age Of Ultron
Ashes and Diamonds
Baraka
Force Of Evil
The Way Of The Gun
Wisconsin Death Trip
Cast A Deadly Spell
She Dies Tomorrow
The Nightingale
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer
Hamilton
Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)
The American Friend (Der Amerikanische Freund)
Absolute Beginners
The 9th Configuration
Unforgiven (2013)
Split Second (1992)
Tim’s Vermeer
Possessor
Kajillionaire
Sorcerer
Prospect
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Citizen P
In The Good Old Summertime
The Muppets Christmas Carol
Black Christmas
Tenet

REWATCHES
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956)
The Parallax View
The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai
24-Hour Party People
Hell Or High Water
Carnival Of Souls (1962)
Holiday (1938)
Knightriders

TELEVISION – EPISODIC
The Crown
Rick and Morty
The Good Place
Better Things
Mom
The Orville
Killing Eve
Bless This Mess
The Kominsky Method
Spin and Marty
Tiger King
Tales From The Loop
Upload
Somebody Feed Phil
Mrs. Fletcher
Watchmen
I May Destroy You
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The Mandalorian

BOOKS
Six Months, Three Days, Five Others – short stories by Charlie Jane Anders
Spill Zone: The Broken Vow – graphic novel by Scott Westerfeld
Sunrise 312 – novel by Scott Christopherson

PODCASTS
You Must Remember This – Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman**

*By all means check out the linked videos if you like. But be warned: spoilers and expletives fly. Alcohol consumption trigger warning. Also lots of yelling.
**A deep dive into the life and career of Polly Platt, who collaborated with directors ranging from Peter Bogdanovich (her first husband) to Cameron Crowe. Fascinating stuff for cinema dorks.

titlestrip

Nine Tweets About LITTLE WOMEN

beach

1. Greta Gerwig made a perfect thing. If I had actually written that “best-of 2019” list, right now I’d be flinging it dramatically into the flames.

2. LOVED the time-shifting storyline. Culminating with cross-cutting to the publisher during the happy ending which was *chef’s kiss* Also: the cinematography. I wanted to eat the beach scene with a spoon.

3. Seriously I’d be very happy to see it win Best Picture (it won’t) and Best Adapted Screenplay (it’d better).*

4. I think one reason I loved LITTLE WOMEN so much is that it is probably the only Best Pic nominee (of those I’ve seen) that is aspirational. Given the preoccupations of the other nominees, and our current real-world hellscape, it feels like a balm.

5. No one’s in danger of getting shot. No one wallows in dysfunction. The stakes are fulfillment/self-actualization vs. conforming and settling.

6. It’s full of kindnesses. Neighbors look out for each other. The lonely are befriended. Wrongs are forgiven. Kind gestures are reciprocated.

7. Even the ‘antagonist’ characters are just people with different opinions who are doing their best. And after blundering around and making mistakes, most of the characters end up where they ought to be.

8. I like movies that explore the stakes of the everyday. People trying to figure out how to live. (It’s why I’m so often on here evangelizing about HOLIDAY, one of my favorite films) And dammit, I like happy endings. So? Also I’m a big sissy and think everybody should be nice.

9. On that note, see also: A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD. (Nice to see so much of Chris Cooper lately.)

*Nope. Taika got it for JOJO RABBIT. Which I haven’t seen. Not in protest, you understand. But since I didn’t see it, I won’t render an opinion here about how Greta obviously got robbed.

I’m @giantspecks on Twitter. Occasionally Yelling About Movies #YabtM with my friends. Come say hi. Or yell back!

Perfectly Good

In the bag was the dress she’d bought for every bad reason. $90 poorer and she found herself getting angry, hating the colorful dress that didn’t fit right and hating herself for buying it. As she crossed the 5th St. bridge she fought an irrational urge to throw the bag into the river. Nice work, to go out by herself on a sunny morning and end up like this less than an hour later, brimming with self-reproach and wanting to scream. Not that she would. At the halfway point on the bridge she stopped, not knowing if she was turning around to go return the damned dress and what a scene that would be, crazy lady who changed her mind, 10 minutes ago she said “I love it…” or if she was really going to drop the bag into the water. A stupid gesture, and frugality wouldn’t let her make it. No, instead she’d waste the money and this perfectly good terrible stupid fucking dress too by shoving it in the closet forever and feeling a dim stab of regret each time she came across it until years from now when she donated it, or until she died.

And with that thought, a picture flashed through her mind of the shopping bag sitting here on the sidewalk next to the railing, and it’s her, her that’s gone. Because, swear to God, it would be easier for her to jump in the river than to throw away this perfectly good $90 dress.

She stared into the eddying water, leaning hard on the railing: thick steel, no chance it would give way. She willed herself to slow her breathing, already knowing she wouldn’t jump. Suicide was something to daydream about, like a hammock on a Mexican beach.

In her imagination she A/B tested taking the dress home vs. taking it back to the shop. She was currently midpoint on the span, at the top of the gently humpbacked road. The shop and her apartment were equidistant, though of course walking back to the shop would lengthen her overall trip. But she had nowhere to be, and could always use the exercise. And she’d feel worse arriving home with the dress as compared to the awkward interaction at the shop required in order to get a refund. She made her decision and started back, feeling good about her choice. She was doing the right thing, the harder thing. Maybe this tiny act would be the first of many, of a series of better choices that would mend her broken heart. She imagined a life where waking up in the morning wasn’t a disappointment. Other people seemed to be enjoying their lives, at least part of the time: maybe she could be like that too. As she dreamed of a more fulfilling life, the task of returning the dress became lighter, not a mortifying thing to be endured but a slightly absurd interaction; she imagined how she’d lighten things up with some wry, self-deprecating humor, and make the clerk laugh. She could do that.

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I mostly write screenplays, and very seldom prose. Recently this little vignette squirted out of my pen during a 10-minute timed writing exercise. I tinkered some before hitting “publish” but it’s basically improv.

Consumption: 2019

Screen Shot 2020-01-04 at 3.25.10 PM

I make this list every year, for fun and as a reference. It only reflects things seen for the first time; “POLTERGEIST was on again” doesn’t make the list. There are plenty of 2019 releases I haven’t gotten to yet. Of the films I did see, here are some noteables:

THE LIGHTHOUSE brought the crazy. Dafoe, Pattinson and director David Eggers deliver absolutely everything one could ask for in a two-guys-go-nuts-in-a-lighthouse movie. Shot on vintage cameras in black-and-white in 1.55 AR Claustro-vision.

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD was my favorite Tarantino in a long time. 2018’s THE FAVOURITE was another, uh… favorite. Ditto for THE FAREWELL. Awkwafina, so good. Lulu Wang, so good. Most of PARASITE is watching grifters build a Jenga tower of lies and wondering when and how it’s gonna fall, and that = a good time at the movies! Meanwhile, THE RISE OF SKYWALKER was an imperfect end to an imperfect saga. I cried anyway.

What’s on TV? Well, I finally saw KLUTE. TCM, thank you. Jane Fonda, holy shit. They don’t make movies like this anymore; do they? Watching films from the 70s you realize how sanitized and smug most mainstream movies are now. We’re backsliding.

Also caught FIRST REFORMED on video. Paul Schrader’s still got the goods, and brings ’em. AT ETERNITY’S GATE features Willem Dafoe again, this time as Van Gogh. Heartbreaking and beautiful. In its own way, so was RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET… and it feels like this one kinda got overlooked. It’s endlessly clever, has great visuals, and an emotionally affecting core all about friendships and how they can change.

Marvel recently announced they will do a superhero movie centered on a gay character. But, they already have CAPTAIN MARVEL! I mean, come on…

If you like docs, TICKLED dives into the weird world of “competitive endurance tickling.” You’ll want to shower after. Also finally caught up with Berlinger and Sinofsky‘s 1992 doc BROTHER’S KEEPER – riveting. Highly recommended.

On the series side of things, I liked HBO’s “Dead to Me.” Great performances, and the first episode delivered not one but two A+ OMG moments. Held up throughout the season, too. Season 3 of “The Crown” introduced an entirely new cast without a hiccup. If I ever write anything as perfect and delightful as the last two scenes of episode 5 (“Coup”) I can hang up my mouse and die happy.

Adult Swim’s “Primal” was an amazing, totally dialogue-free animated series about a caveman and his dinosaur. The season (series?) finale may be the goriest thing I’ve ever seen on TV. “Undone” (Amazon) was another fine adult animated show. Come for the mind-bending premise and trippy visuals, stay for the writing and performances.

MOVIES ON THE BIG SCREEN
Mary Poppins Returns
Welcome to Marwen
The Favourite
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Vice
The Kid Who Would Be King – Every boy in this movie has chapped lips. England’s cold.
Ralph Breaks The Internet
Apollo 11
High Life – Infuriating “art movie.” Somebody explain to me why this wasn’t terrible.
Pill Head
Avengers: Endgame
Booksmart
Toy Story 4
Yesterday
Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
The Farewell
Ad Astra
The Lighthouse
Parasite
Terminator: Dark Fate
Knives Out – My mom would have loved this movie. I loved it too.
Frozen 2
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

MOVIES ON THE SMALL SCREEN
Mary Poppins
Obvious Child
Avengers: Infinity War
First Reformed
Ant-Man and The Wasp
Eighth Grade
The First Monday In May
At Eternity’s Gate
Vox Lux
The Peanuts Movie
Blackboard Jungle
Victoria & Abdul
Lean On Pete
Where The Boys Are (1960)
Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Mary Queen of Scots (2018)
Swim Team
The Invitation (2015)
Clouds Of Sils Marias
Miracle Mile
Spiderman: Homecoming
The General (1926)
Brother’s Keeper (1992)
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Wendy And Lucy
Late Night – Needed a rewrite
Captain Marvel
Klute
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Thunder Road
I Lost My Body
Marriage Story – Alan Alda, MVP
Rocketman – Bohemian Rhapsody ain’t brilliant, but still better than this mopey pity party
Tickled
Empire of Dreams

TELEVISION
Supergirl
Mom
The Orville
Russian Doll
Better Things
What We Do In The Shadows
Archer: 1999
Game of Thrones
Shrill
Dead To Me
Barry
The Great British Baking Show
The Good Place
Fleabag
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Undone
Bless This Mess
The Crown
Catastrophe
A Year In Space
Mike Birbiglia: The New One – Delivered to me my single biggest belly laugh of 2019
Rick and Morty
Encore
The Mandalorian

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