tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86668792024-03-13T22:28:23.949-07:00Signal BleedMovies, TV, comic booksJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.comBlogger1328125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-70516355766127853962023-06-25T14:50:00.002-07:002023-06-25T14:50:32.549-07:00My top 10 non-2022 movies of 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulI6iDjAvE9ebds_532H1JObbBWfeTa6WeWSBaEQw2Tg_sdVVlvN9mUJqXYXlfSHChFLowlwfAMbrNP90zezdXBmw29h-R7zkwGk5CUYZetyVZ7AbCR90Eyf9ByR3bon02xKnPtJUpeVNsJlP61Wcw_lu02YdZI71wEwT9tRLdm9jqQbNSbJ1/s1920/moonstruck.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1920" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgulI6iDjAvE9ebds_532H1JObbBWfeTa6WeWSBaEQw2Tg_sdVVlvN9mUJqXYXlfSHChFLowlwfAMbrNP90zezdXBmw29h-R7zkwGk5CUYZetyVZ7AbCR90Eyf9ByR3bon02xKnPtJUpeVNsJlP61Wcw_lu02YdZI71wEwT9tRLdm9jqQbNSbJ1/s320/moonstruck.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>So, uh, this one kind of got away from me. I usually do these lists around the end of the year, and it's one of my favorite traditions, rounding up the best movies I saw for the first time in a particular year that were initially released in previous years. This has become a popular online activity in the years since I started doing it in 2008, and I've also started appearing on the Piecing It Together podcast to talk about my picks, as I did <a href="https://www.piecingpod.com/home/top-10-first-time-watches-of-2022-special-episode">for 2022</a>. I got so behind on writing them up that I considered skipping it entirely, but instead I put together some shorter remarks so I could finish up the list and present my picks. I'll try to do better in 2023.<p></p><p><b>1. <i>Moonstruck</i> (Norman Jewison, 1987)</b> This absurd romance probably shouldn't work, but Nicolas Cage and Cher make for an unlikely perfect couple, and John Patrick Shanley's screenplay captures the warmth and passion of the Brooklyn Italian-American community. It's a funny, feel-good love story about how falling in love can be an exasperating, traumatic experience.</p><p><b>2. <i>The Color of Money</i> (Martin Scorsese, 1986)</b> This still has a reputation as a lesser Scorsese movie, since it's a work-for-hire sequel to <i>The Hustler</i>, but Scorsese brings all his filmmaking skill to an underdog sports drama that subverts the genre's cliches, with great performances from Tom Cruise as the arrogant young billiards hotshot and Paul Newman as the bitter veteran.</p><p><b>3. <i>Design for Living</i> (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)</b> Anyone who isn't aware of how daring pre-Code movies could be should watch this sparkling Lubitsch comedy that is essentially about a threeway relationship, which is equal parts witty and horny. Miriam Hopkins, Fredric March and Gary Cooper are perfect as the three gorgeous, glamorous artistic types flouting societal convention in favor of personal happiness.</p><p><b>4. <i>Between the Lines</i> (Joan Micklin Silver, 1977)</b> Although it was more than two decades later when I started my stint working at an alt-weekly, there was a lot about my experience reflected in this appealingly ragged, episodic dramedy about the quirky employees of a Boston alternative paper adjusting to changing times and new corporate ownership.</p><p><b>5. <i>Lenny</i> (Bob Fosse, 1974)</b> My Awesome Movie Year co-host Jason Harris insisted I watch this after hearing my lukewarm reaction to Fosse's <i><a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/captivate-podcast/all-that-jazz-1980-cannes-palme-dor-winner/">All That Jazz</a></i>, and I think it's definitely a stronger movie, benefiting from Fosse's distance from the material. Fosse and star Dustin Hoffman convey Lenny Bruce's genius and self-destructiveness, with faux-interview segments that emphasize the collateral damage to the people in his life.</p><p><b>6. <i>Niagara</i> (Henry Hathaway, 1953)</b> Marilyn Monroe gives one of her best performances in this vibrantly colorful noir, playing an unstable woman who attempts to kill her husband while on a trip to Niagara Falls. The lush Technicolor gives the movie the feel of a lurid nightmare, as an upstanding honeymooning couple are drawn in to the deceit and betrayal going on in the hotel room next door.</p><p><b>7. <i>Burden of Dreams</i> (Les Blank, 1982)</b> Much of the myth of Werner Herzog can be traced back to this documentary about the seemingly cursed production of his film <i>Fitzcarraldo</i>. Blank captures Herzog's unique philosophical perspective as well as the inherent chaos of his artistic vision.</p><p><b>8. <i>Killer's Kiss</i> (Stanley Kubrick, 1955)</b> This early Kubrick movie doesn't get much attention, but it's an impressive, efficient thriller about a boxer who has an existential crisis (and puts himself in physical danger) when he falls for the alluring, troubled girlfriend of a volatile gangster.</p><p><b>9. <i>Feast of the Seven Fishes</i> (Robert Tinnell, 2019)</b> This sweet 1980s-set family dramedy is like a Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel song come to life, with a working-class Italian-American townie (Skyler Gisondo) romancing an upper-middle-class college student (Madison Iseman) over Christmas in a Pennsylvania rust belt town.</p><p><b>10. <i>A Kiss Before Dying</i> (Gerd Oswald, 1956)</b> Robert Wagner makes for a perfect smarmy sociopath in this noirish melodrama about a social climber who romances and then murders (or attempts to murder) two daughters of a wealthy industrialist.</p><p><b>Honorable mentions:</b> <i>Cruising</i> (William Friedkin, 1980); <i>A Few Good Men</i> (Rob Reiner, 1992); <i>The Outlaw Josey Wales</i> (Clint Eastwood, 1976); <i>Sorcerer</i> (William Friedkin, 1977); <i>The Wages of Fear</i> (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)</p><b>Previous lists:</b><br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2022/01/my-top-10-non-2021-movies-of-2021.html">2021</a></li><li><a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2020/03/my-top-10-non-2020-movies-of-2020.html">2020</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-top-10-non-2019-movies-of-2019.html">2019</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-top-10-non-2018-movies-of-2018.html">2018</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/01/my-top-10-non-2017-movies-of-2017.html">2017</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-top-10-non-2016-movies-of-2016.html">2016</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-10-non-2015-movies-of-2015.html">2015</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-top-10-non-2014-movies-of-2014.html">2014</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-10-non-2013-films-of-2013.html">2013</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-top-non-2012-movies-of-2012.html">2012</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-top-10-non-2011-movies-of-2011.html">2011</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-top-10-non-2010-movies-of-2010.html">2010</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2009/12/alternate-top-10.html">2009</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternate-top-10.html">2008</a></li></ul><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"></a>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-60502576325854354412022-01-07T03:55:00.004-08:002022-01-07T03:55:42.181-08:00The best TV series of 2021<p>Although I still review TV shows pretty steadily, it's been a while since I put together a full yearly top 10 list, in part because I tend to get behind on keeping up with shows I'm not writing about. But even though I missed many of 2021's most acclaimed shows (<i>Succession</i>, <i>The White Lotus</i>, <i>Squid Game</i>), and fell behind on some others that I previously enjoyed (<i>Insecure</i>, <i>Star Trek: Discovery</i>), I saw plenty of great TV series this year, more than enough to write up this (belated) list of shows worth watching.</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4dS_XfavL7Koj3Fht74jdcU8JUPGAE0rxVHlsOsx8aTnEUDsbz7R7cfaLaAZLXiRwreu9oNRbefciWilbkQ0N7Y_WF701mDsqs07l7y3eLDufvqtIpoArSzmailGZS1plPTBDs95xB40iBNVLSpdl2MGgljnMWsz74oV050l1sLhxH6l2YA=s740" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="492" data-original-width="740" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4dS_XfavL7Koj3Fht74jdcU8JUPGAE0rxVHlsOsx8aTnEUDsbz7R7cfaLaAZLXiRwreu9oNRbefciWilbkQ0N7Y_WF701mDsqs07l7y3eLDufvqtIpoArSzmailGZS1plPTBDs95xB40iBNVLSpdl2MGgljnMWsz74oV050l1sLhxH6l2YA=w200-h133" width="200" /></a></b></div><b>1. <i>Yellowjackets</i> (Showtime)</b> I haven't felt this level of week-to-week excitement for a show in quite some time, perhaps since the heyday of series like <i>Lost</i> and <i>Battlestar Galactica</i>. There is a lot of <i>Lost</i> in creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson's vision for this series, which flashes back and forth between characters stranded in the wilderness and their lives back home. But what's so brilliant about <i>Yellowjackets</i> is how it finds new ways to mix and match various elements of its influences, from <i>Lost</i> to <i>Lord of the Flies</i> to Stephen King's <i>It</i>. The acting from both the teenage stars and the more famous adult stars is fantastic, and the storytelling is riveting and unpredictable. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/showtime-yellowjackets-tv-review/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsiSQpyK8hYSjBl-5jJu4N__tm4W6I2WOOyJfXiY5r_L_7XUVfkjpOyhJD6wk8ehVx7P4VdY5fIb-TEirEuYJnWqoSDHdhYB9Scw3nPgwZ_8c0vPqw0Ha5P21mADpvuNIm1AgISF2T-wTqbHwNgwG4z_NFRJOjAbwwFhVlvsJKfM6zkblCJA=s960" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="960" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsiSQpyK8hYSjBl-5jJu4N__tm4W6I2WOOyJfXiY5r_L_7XUVfkjpOyhJD6wk8ehVx7P4VdY5fIb-TEirEuYJnWqoSDHdhYB9Scw3nPgwZ_8c0vPqw0Ha5P21mADpvuNIm1AgISF2T-wTqbHwNgwG4z_NFRJOjAbwwFhVlvsJKfM6zkblCJA=w200-h104" width="200" /></a></b></div><b>2. <i>Landscapers</i> (HBO/HBO Max)</b> I'm surprised that this show hasn't gotten more critical attention at the end of the year, and that it wasn't even all that extensively reviewed when it first premiered. Given the proliferation of mediocre-to-poor true crime series (both narrative and documentary), <i>Landscapers</i> is a welcome deconstruction of the genre, with great performances from Olivia Colman and David Thewlis as a codependent married couple who were convicted of murdering the wife's parents. The show uses surreal, dreamlike techniques to depict the fragile mental state of the main characters, along with frequent fourth-wall-breaking to call attention to the entire concept of true crime storytelling. It's both thoughtful and heartbreaking. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/hbos-landscapers-offers-a-stylized-distinctive-take-on-true-crime/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIVpBEqbNoJPOFBA1a2SKXds5RYVJ7ad2g2m2aeGXUkMWkeiexVzYn2ooApdmhuvAeOL9sStwlVKlawrv4PwMgS3o4d5TzO3lI_j8O2f5AENMSqcNIZzBfnWNezLAu3t15oe7YH5il1FJzEwXl9wedtH_KL7J2zOMsvKGO3NVR0N4yAJ0uJw=s1400" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1400" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIVpBEqbNoJPOFBA1a2SKXds5RYVJ7ad2g2m2aeGXUkMWkeiexVzYn2ooApdmhuvAeOL9sStwlVKlawrv4PwMgS3o4d5TzO3lI_j8O2f5AENMSqcNIZzBfnWNezLAu3t15oe7YH5il1FJzEwXl9wedtH_KL7J2zOMsvKGO3NVR0N4yAJ0uJw=w200-h113" width="200" /></a></b></div><b>3. <i>Midnight Mass</i> (Netflix)</b> I've mostly enjoyed Mike Flanagan's feature films, but I've been less enthusiastic about his longform series. I gave up on <i>The Haunting of Hill House</i> before finishing it, and never watched <i>The Haunting of Bly Manor</i>, so I was skeptical of this latest horror miniseries. <i>Midnight Mass</i> is a bit ponderous and long-winded, but it's also beautiful and bleak, full of genuine horror as well as genuine wonder. Hamish Linklater and Samantha Sloyan are both terrifying as two different kinds of villains, and Zach Gilford and Kate Siegel make the upstanding protagonists into fascinating, multilayered characters. There are a lot of lengthy, heavy monologues, but the actors make them work, and Flanagan balance the intense scares with meditations on mortality. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/mike-flanagan-midnight-mass-tv-review/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH85r5uGx_k4I86bkf82qLr1UFWPu40DO-AoqALt2FneMbheMH7OEzPfBG3Vc0yN1DEbRMzjNqIuzeVL7pijPAs1k4vS_du4vldTK3ZmzeetGCBRXu-eg07DW5ZsHWQJJ90IECnr1Yn8CbhaXGQDAZbcFTBqxdFQ0mQRrZR1_XkwK_hRwGMg=s740" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="462" data-original-width="740" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjH85r5uGx_k4I86bkf82qLr1UFWPu40DO-AoqALt2FneMbheMH7OEzPfBG3Vc0yN1DEbRMzjNqIuzeVL7pijPAs1k4vS_du4vldTK3ZmzeetGCBRXu-eg07DW5ZsHWQJJ90IECnr1Yn8CbhaXGQDAZbcFTBqxdFQ0mQRrZR1_XkwK_hRwGMg=w200-h125" width="200" /></a></b></div><b>4. <i>Girls5eva</i> (Peacock)</b> Tina Fey's own new show of 2021, NBC's <i>Mr. Mayor</i>, is a middling, mildly amusing effort, but this show from her longtime collaborator Meredith Scardino (with Fey as executive producer) comes closer to capturing the spirit of <i>30 Rock</i> and <i>Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt</i>. It's similarly densely packed with jokes, many of them with references to '90s and '00s pop culture, the era when the eponymous girl group was a brief success. Stars Sara Bareilles, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps and Paula Pell have great chemistry as the former pop stars attempting to navigate a reunion in their 40s, and the catchy music is a perfect recreation of a particular time and place, while also packing in just as many jokes as the dialogue. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/girls5eva-clever-music-parody-from-tina-fey/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzPAZSbhamJHmMl6XMY01Y613vBSpiJRmY5_ygc2-AyuZPyrPxlE3TwZDAjx_rS0nHJhFbXRymFOkq-wXD5z4mqnEbCzdHO2l3zOXIhoMCluhEbFiEAJUi55Cq_9O0ipiZUt0hlQjNukvH1hKLyjPFDrxiNMq2cBxIFF4uSEcvHQTsLsUWEw=s960" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="960" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzPAZSbhamJHmMl6XMY01Y613vBSpiJRmY5_ygc2-AyuZPyrPxlE3TwZDAjx_rS0nHJhFbXRymFOkq-wXD5z4mqnEbCzdHO2l3zOXIhoMCluhEbFiEAJUi55Cq_9O0ipiZUt0hlQjNukvH1hKLyjPFDrxiNMq2cBxIFF4uSEcvHQTsLsUWEw=w200-h104" width="200" /></a></b></div><b>5. <i>Schmigadoon!</i> (Apple TV+)</b> If nothing else, I have to appreciate that a streaming behemoth produced a star-studded six-episode homage to a genre (the classic Hollywood musical) that hasn't been popular in decades. This is a loving tribute to and parody of old-fashioned musicals, and it's also a fabulous musical on its own. Cecily Strong proves that she could carry a Broadway show, alongside actual Broadway stars like Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming. It's also director Barry Sonnenfeld's best work in years, the perfect fit for his blend of whimsy and snark. Everything in this magical, musical town is lovingly recreated, and spending time there is a delight. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/schmigadoon-tv-review/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b>6. <i>Only Murders in the Building</i> (Hulu)</b> Of course Steve Martin and Martin Short are a lovely comedic team (and I have fairly low patience for Short, who properly tones down his mania here), but it's their collaboration with Selena Gomez that really makes this show work. It's a funny but gentle satire of true crime podcasts and NYC privilege, a sweet story about intergenerational friendship, and a pretty decent murder mystery, too. <i>More in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/only-murders-in-the-building-review/">review</a>.</i></p><p><b>7. <i>Hacks</i> (HBO Max)</b> The best representation of Las Vegas on TV since the third season of <i>GLOW</i> (even though very little of it was shot here in Vegas), this is also an intelligent comedy about aging and sexism in showbiz. Jean Smart is excellent as the kind of Vegas entertainment lifer that is very familiar to me after covering local productions for so long, and she brings layers to a character who seems at first like a simple caricature. Hannah Einbinder matches her as the snarky youngster who is also more than a set of recognizable quirks, and their growing friendship and respect is endearing without being sappy.</p><p><b>8. <i>Central Park</i> (Apple TV+)</b> Coverage of this show's second season was virtually nonexistent, but it's still sweet and funny and full of multiple Broadway-caliber songs in each episode. Yes, I have two Apple TV+ musical series on this list, but they're very different shows. The animated <i>Central Park</i> is a warm, inviting ode to family and the oddities of New York City, and the second season deepens the character relationships while pulling back on the serialized story. It's family-friendly in the best way, and I hope it gets more attention when new episodes resume.</p><p><b>9. <i>Star Trek: Lower Decks</i> (Paramount+)</b> This is another animated series that seemed to get very little coverage in its second season, but it remains my unlikely favorite of all the current <i>Star Trek</i> series. It's a perfect combination of respect for and mockery of the franchise, both rooted in the creators' extensive knowledge of <i>Star Trek</i> lore. I'm only a casual Trekkie, so I certainly miss quite a few references, but the show stands on its own as a fun, lighthearted space adventure with appealing characters and creative missions.</p><p><b>10. <i>Search Party</i> (HBO Max)</b> The fifth and final season of this dark comedy is already streaming, but this entry is about the fourth season, which continued to showcase the main characters' entitled awfulness in hilarious and disturbing ways, while remaining engaging and clever. Even when creators Charles Rogers and Sarah-Violet Bliss make a misstep, it's always bold and unexpected, and they always have a new even more outrageous direction to take the story next. The fourth season ends at a perfect stopping point, but I'm still eager to see what the new season has to offer. <i>More in my Slant Magazine <a href="https://www.slantmagazine.com/tv/review-search-party-disjointed-fourth-season-eventually-finds-its-footing/">review</a>.</i></p><p><b>Honorable mentions:</b> <i>Ted Lasso</i> (Apple TV+), <i>Mr. Corman</i> (Apple TV+), <i>Starstruck</i> (HBO Max), <i>WandaVision</i> (Disney+), <i>Reservation Dogs</i> (Hulu), <i>We Are Lady Parts</i> (Peacock), <i>The Shrink Next Door</i> (Apple TV+), <i>Brooklyn Nine-Nine</i> (NBC)</p>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-29266652723794401492022-01-01T21:25:00.004-08:002022-01-07T03:56:07.055-08:00My top 10 non-2021 movies of 2021<p>When I started making these lists in 2008, I was inspired by a random commenter on an AV Club post. Letterboxd didn't exist yet, and I hadn't seen anyone else regularly recap their year of watching movies from previous years. Now, I see lists of "first-time watches" all over social media, sometimes monthly, and I think it's an awesome development, highlighting people's explorations of cinema's past (even if it's just a year or two in the past). Maybe that makes me less special for posting this list every year, but it's still one of my favorite things to do. These are the best movies I watched for the first time in 2021 that were initially released in previous years. </p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2WupclZ6yNNcgfk3qErDkAZED-hbhP8rVwSUVRGuNx3-vW_b4F6fMcv3jr_SN5pkl9MoZVu1M6tkEBQ9SLNB7yDw9zhd4z8OtLJvoKJRZqQ9shiTfxZBwRxlghNyxpNryOFs0abx1cNtpppJym5sRyYMIzUsuB-l0KoIa0mzYWhZuZ_EIMQ=s1231" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1231" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2WupclZ6yNNcgfk3qErDkAZED-hbhP8rVwSUVRGuNx3-vW_b4F6fMcv3jr_SN5pkl9MoZVu1M6tkEBQ9SLNB7yDw9zhd4z8OtLJvoKJRZqQ9shiTfxZBwRxlghNyxpNryOFs0abx1cNtpppJym5sRyYMIzUsuB-l0KoIa0mzYWhZuZ_EIMQ=w130-h200" width="130" /></a></b></div><b>1. <i>The Night of the Hunter</i> (Charles Laughton, 1955)</b> This is the first time in a while that I've had a well-known classic at the top of this list, and of course it's shameful that it took me this long to watch Laughton's lone directorial effort, featuring an iconic, terrifying lead performance from Robert Mitchum. What's great about Mitchum's performance is the way he shifts so easily from the ingratiating, likable preacher to the menacing killer, while making it clear that those two sides are part of the same continuum within a single person. The story is suspenseful and often unexpected, and the haunting visual style, influenced by German expressionism, is still astounding nearly 70 years later. It's pointless to lament that Laughton never made another movie, but it's also impossible to watch this movie without having that thought.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgiWx_o_GbLG_aVmk4hoDXmIKQ4JWF-U0L98bc4Jgo7LdQ2K2HK_KIpVkN46-1FOfuLrfEDyfveM7N58ZLE0273Imd2MvnAt6ZRzM1BeYL0mrbvnBV3QVtPfk6dnbkpkZGoI0vQiSKhqr-E0VyQeL1GOMN3q0Z032_pATnwUyEOBMW0w_FJMA=s383" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgiWx_o_GbLG_aVmk4hoDXmIKQ4JWF-U0L98bc4Jgo7LdQ2K2HK_KIpVkN46-1FOfuLrfEDyfveM7N58ZLE0273Imd2MvnAt6ZRzM1BeYL0mrbvnBV3QVtPfk6dnbkpkZGoI0vQiSKhqr-E0VyQeL1GOMN3q0Z032_pATnwUyEOBMW0w_FJMA=w135-h200" width="135" /></a></b></div><b>2. <i>Prospect</i> (Zeek Earl & Christopher Caldwell, 2018)</b> I love sci-fi movies that feel like they are a glimpse into one out-of-the-way corner of a fully realized future world offscreen. Earl and Caldwell clearly had a small budget for this sci-fi movie set on a remote mining planet, and all they really need are a couple of worn-out space suits and a janky-looking pod command center set in order to create a believable alien setting. <i>Prospect</i> is full of unexplained jargon that gives it a more authentic, lived-in feel, and the core of the plot is about the relationship between Pedro Pascal's hardened prospector and Sophie Thatcher's fierce teenage girl. It's a timeless human story of survival and connection, with plenty of nods to classic Westerns, given new life by being placed in an otherworldly context.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjwYfR1A86FtS_hnc2Y9kFWjfMwnaPr148Al-l35jT6p_9AQAmUPa3aa1e-MvJXoibmxjzMDNiqJmrbtt_eZ6v6wRsOKB0nN8TX_PpIjYZO9Mq4a5gsuj3ZaNql8GVmQbC5OX06DkEBUuefzQjOHqVmLEF16rmGZkakaXwRpHd0AM_zqwEoA=s378" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="378" data-original-width="248" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjwYfR1A86FtS_hnc2Y9kFWjfMwnaPr148Al-l35jT6p_9AQAmUPa3aa1e-MvJXoibmxjzMDNiqJmrbtt_eZ6v6wRsOKB0nN8TX_PpIjYZO9Mq4a5gsuj3ZaNql8GVmQbC5OX06DkEBUuefzQjOHqVmLEF16rmGZkakaXwRpHd0AM_zqwEoA=w131-h200" width="131" /></a></b></div><b>3. <i>Outland</i> (Peter Hyams, 1981)</b> And speaking of sci-fi worlds that are believably grungy and lived-in, this mostly forgotten Sean Connery vehicle could easily take place across the solar system from <i>Prospect</i>. It's also about blue-collar space miners, rank-and-file employees rather than <i>Prospect</i>'s freelancers, toiling for a heartless company that would rather get its workers addicted to productivity-enhancing drugs than offer them decent working conditions. Connery plays the outsider security chief who's the only man of integrity on the base, setting up a <i>High Noon</i>-style showdown with organized criminals. Connery is at his ornery best as the upstanding lawman, and Hyams delivers a noir-style crime story in the midst of convincingly ramshackle future technology.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4vnGW8Bu7cyWwUIKjYK2A-HicQTaJ_0aA6l3nIjNGSV6ajzy8bdJIA3tpZHRDeQdOH2AZIxzAku3mnAJ_JQ4VTOEGxf_xoevl0bLbAtdrQWHqj8aukc_R4Iop56r3vmn_em_8_DFw1QyB5tfPMtjx9vDiLfsDzumMKublRFYv73fqja2x0Q=s388" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="257" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4vnGW8Bu7cyWwUIKjYK2A-HicQTaJ_0aA6l3nIjNGSV6ajzy8bdJIA3tpZHRDeQdOH2AZIxzAku3mnAJ_JQ4VTOEGxf_xoevl0bLbAtdrQWHqj8aukc_R4Iop56r3vmn_em_8_DFw1QyB5tfPMtjx9vDiLfsDzumMKublRFYv73fqja2x0Q=w133-h200" width="133" /></a></b></div><b>4. <i>Klute</i> (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)</b> This year, I wrote articles on two vintage Jane Fonda movies that I love (<i><a href="https://www.screenslate.com/articles/china-syndrome">The China Syndrome</a></i> and <i><a href="https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/sci-fi-movies-free-online-may-2021-barbarella">Barbarella</a></i>), and this could fit right alongside them, with another complex, intelligent and alluring Fonda performance. She plays Bree Daniels, a high-end escort in New York City who gets caught up in the investigation of a missing executive. Donald Sutherland plays the title character, the private detective on the case, but this is really Fonda's movie, and she makes Bree into a smart, capable woman who isn't defined or diminished by her profession. The movie has a remarkably forward-thinking perspective on sex work for 1971, never denying Bree her own agency as a person. Often grouped in with Pakula's other 1970s conspiracy thrillers <i>The Parallax View</i> and <i>All the President's Men</i>, <i>Klute</i> is more personal than political, although the way the two seamlessly blend together is part of what makes it great.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_OMFeL6z65LRSOsSkCZswX3EOBdPl3pWJs9rVyeFUrTJRQaYIAye8hJLWOfeUU3fnKX_KsbPy02sMQYhEtoxmYSLANjSu2s52JMCSlaZ2IabAqtGDeVcF2wOB7BDP1ZnHcfqIEg-_fuVL6M9yfaLLFSAgflMSaLGxrAWRjUYyyIMuHGcKmg=s391" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="391" data-original-width="255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh_OMFeL6z65LRSOsSkCZswX3EOBdPl3pWJs9rVyeFUrTJRQaYIAye8hJLWOfeUU3fnKX_KsbPy02sMQYhEtoxmYSLANjSu2s52JMCSlaZ2IabAqtGDeVcF2wOB7BDP1ZnHcfqIEg-_fuVL6M9yfaLLFSAgflMSaLGxrAWRjUYyyIMuHGcKmg=w131-h200" width="131" /></a></b></div><b>5. <i>Wait Until Dark</i> (Terence Young, 1967)</b> I watched this movie right before we started our 1967 season of <a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/">Awesome Movie Year</a>, and I almost switched up my pick for the season after seeing it. I'm happy with <i><a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/2021/07/07/point-blank-1967-joshs-pick/">Point Blank</a></i> (which topped this list for me in <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-top-10-non-2019-movies-of-2019.html">2019</a>), but <i>Wait Until Dark</i> is an excellent, somewhat underrated thriller, making great use of a single location and a simple home-invasion premise. Audrey Hepburn was deservedly Oscar-nominated for her role as a blind woman facing criminals who break into her house looking for their smuggled drugs. She conveys the character's terror and vulnerability, but also the defiance that she musters to prove that she doesn't deserve to be a victim just because she's disabled. Alan Arkin is devious and menacing as the main villain in the kind of role he doesn't usually play, and Young comes up with new and inventive ways to maintain tension in the confined space.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVmqshNs_sGYqwdl1VnXN1jUngF8QM_D3Z2eJAHNZUdDUjzadKSGFOjGr4xFC_l4TIclmObFL8yeBg7D2JfqBUqiihWOJAsywWE02e4ObCEf6bPa8IpHVselkH-53uLir7YXsqZs3hEczV8QloaXm2WHlnzD7uGqH2_RqQgODbKtP-lrK0Gg=s330" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjVmqshNs_sGYqwdl1VnXN1jUngF8QM_D3Z2eJAHNZUdDUjzadKSGFOjGr4xFC_l4TIclmObFL8yeBg7D2JfqBUqiihWOJAsywWE02e4ObCEf6bPa8IpHVselkH-53uLir7YXsqZs3hEczV8QloaXm2WHlnzD7uGqH2_RqQgODbKtP-lrK0Gg=w133-h200" width="133" /></a></b></div><b>6. <i>Casting JonBenet</i> (Kitty Green, 2017)</b> I had Green's debut narrative film <i>The Assistant</i> pretty high on my 2020 <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-best-movies-of-2020.html">top 10 list</a>, and this docu-fiction hybrid has many of the same unsettling qualities. It's a deconstruction of the idea of true-crime documentaries -- which have proliferated even further since it was released -- as well as an interrogation of the motives for people's obsessions with the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. Green uses deliberately artificial re-enactments featuring actual members of Ramsey's local community, and she interviews those people about their reactions to and thoughts about the crime. The movie is less interested in investigations and solutions than in perceptions and emotions, using the participants as a reflection of the crime, and vice versa.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC4LC3tMIGR-a3SNkRn9xJmVlNe1Fvh4iBBJ-O4JPlbxSNT03jeKoSFKSRtHO87PwQ7rG0hVFnBUDhL4KiqgXFrCTSUiFMhy0PtZOtthNNQw5_I2WaZGQJeTtE4NopmC2ZrcvHkgR_VRyksGSrQipFI-L6jtu7anULG8ACLrnrtAIB11FDqg=s305" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="305" data-original-width="206" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhC4LC3tMIGR-a3SNkRn9xJmVlNe1Fvh4iBBJ-O4JPlbxSNT03jeKoSFKSRtHO87PwQ7rG0hVFnBUDhL4KiqgXFrCTSUiFMhy0PtZOtthNNQw5_I2WaZGQJeTtE4NopmC2ZrcvHkgR_VRyksGSrQipFI-L6jtu7anULG8ACLrnrtAIB11FDqg=w135-h200" width="135" /></a></b></div><b>7. <i>Seconds</i> (John Frankenheimer, 1966)</b> Rock Hudson plays with his pretty-boy image as the reconstituted version of a frustrated middle-aged man who accepts an obviously sinister offer to be reborn as a handsome playboy. The concept of <i>Seconds</i> is a <i>Twilight Zone</i>-style morality play that sounds a bit limited at first, but Frankenheimer turns it into a surrealistic nightmare that's also a meditation on the culture clashes of the 1960s. Hudson is great as the tortured everyman who doesn't appreciate his mundane life until he loses it -- and then is violently prevented from ever getting it back. <i>More in my Inverse <a href="https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/free-science-fiction-movies-streaming-online-seconds-june-2021">spotlight piece</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIaEIL2dyy__LRCfR0N_C7wlWtmitD7_VjHcO4pBDKK_vxkXeivbiN9yUPyuB3lACRS9rXHEl-uGCPm2M_lwUH8KmNSReYxhJuxhPRnHJcUAaxip9qBlxqvcU9d6uUcVZyjbr_6i_JzOwaJreX8kqVZxelxsQvJgz9HhQE7HlsAwj1Dct90A=s1200" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIaEIL2dyy__LRCfR0N_C7wlWtmitD7_VjHcO4pBDKK_vxkXeivbiN9yUPyuB3lACRS9rXHEl-uGCPm2M_lwUH8KmNSReYxhJuxhPRnHJcUAaxip9qBlxqvcU9d6uUcVZyjbr_6i_JzOwaJreX8kqVZxelxsQvJgz9HhQE7HlsAwj1Dct90A=w133-h200" width="133" /></a></b></div><b>8. <i>The Shop Around the Corner</i> (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)</b> I ended up watching quite a lot of Christmas movies this year for various articles, and this was catch-up viewing for my list of <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/770935/the-best-christmas-movies-on-hbo-max-in-2021/">HBO Max Christmas offerings</a>. It definitely has a holiday flair, and the climax takes place on Christmas Eve, but it's not quite as Christmassy as many seasonal favorites. It's probably best known now as the source material for the Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks rom-com <i>You've Got Mail</i> (which I've never seen), but it's more than just a love story between two bickering retail employees (played by James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan) who don't realize they're secretly romantic pen pals. It's a witty, warm portrait of all the employees at this little shop in Budapest, the community that forms among workers and the ways they come together in the face of their various emotional and financial struggles.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWs60t-rIkYL0YsucUOcFkMQVhpaWwQQuq-XGhjnb1Y7v_jczH_oUn-6gr0JZGmnf1jiWvzMGa2g0akhvHnRwU8HnVR_B_2E8fFcGQB7ptY5lSy-HkHt31QO6B-OYKJktMJT_NwI1r8GLfmhhJ0iQhn5LtQZJZsquUquExemNe2ltRPQuoSQ=s384" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="259" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWs60t-rIkYL0YsucUOcFkMQVhpaWwQQuq-XGhjnb1Y7v_jczH_oUn-6gr0JZGmnf1jiWvzMGa2g0akhvHnRwU8HnVR_B_2E8fFcGQB7ptY5lSy-HkHt31QO6B-OYKJktMJT_NwI1r8GLfmhhJ0iQhn5LtQZJZsquUquExemNe2ltRPQuoSQ=w135-h200" width="135" /></a></b></div><b>9. <i>Dredd</i> (Pete Travis, 2012)</b> This movie has become an unlikely cult classic since its 2012 box-office failure, and it's not hard to see why. It's a simple, brutal and efficient action movie, with a plot similar to <i>The Raid</i>, as the main characters work their way up an enormous high-rise en route to a showdown with the main villain. Travis and writer Alex Garland balance that B-movie simplicity with effective bits of sci-fi world-building, and even as someone largely unfamiliar with the comic book source material, I got a clear sense of the scope of this dystopian future. Karl Urban is dedicated to the title character's taciturn grimness, never even taking off his helmet, so it falls to Olivia Thirlby to provide the character development and emotional arc as his partner, and she delivers, while retaining the focus on the suspense and action.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk6tt3MfDcGBmxgVQrEtEO3P5hk8CmKBauiMCyYB-KJD-c-cJwu4MxMEHhhcqxbbsBr0WMUO2nf__JCod7_8YtlewQ36dpv9Mweu8K73eq6d9LXTz3yDT-NNo-naPyRz0GkvWUaBMJ1P7a6KdyvTZeQo7FW6kDbsigwBWoHiOa-Ex2NFR2_A=s367" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="367" data-original-width="271" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjk6tt3MfDcGBmxgVQrEtEO3P5hk8CmKBauiMCyYB-KJD-c-cJwu4MxMEHhhcqxbbsBr0WMUO2nf__JCod7_8YtlewQ36dpv9Mweu8K73eq6d9LXTz3yDT-NNo-naPyRz0GkvWUaBMJ1P7a6KdyvTZeQo7FW6kDbsigwBWoHiOa-Ex2NFR2_A=w148-h200" width="148" /></a></b></div><b>10. <i>Highlander</i> (Russell Mulcahy, 1986)</b> As I said on Letterboxd: I really screwed up by not watching this like 25 times when I was 12 years old. It delivers everything I loved about movies at that age (and still mostly love now) in a stylish, fabulously entertaining package. Mulcahy directs the hell out of this cheesy sci-fi/fantasy nonsense, crafting what is essentially a two-hour bombastic '80s rock video. The Queen music is majestic and fits the epic material perfectly, the shot composition and visual transitions are creative and evocative, and Clancy Brown (looking like Glenn Danzig for the first two-thirds of the movie) is a perfect villain. Instead, kid me obsessively watched the Dolph Lundgren <i>Masters of the Universe</i> movie, which I now realize is just an inferior version of <i>Highlander</i>.<p></p><p><b>Honorable mentions:</b> <i>The Tall Target</i> (Anthony Mann, 1951); <i>A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon</i> (Will Becher & Richard Phelan, 2019)</p><p><b>Previous lists:</b></p><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"></a><li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"></a><a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2020/03/my-top-10-non-2020-movies-of-2020.html">2020</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-top-10-non-2019-movies-of-2019.html">2019</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-top-10-non-2018-movies-of-2018.html">2018</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/01/my-top-10-non-2017-movies-of-2017.html">2017</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-top-10-non-2016-movies-of-2016.html">2016</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-10-non-2015-movies-of-2015.html">2015</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-top-10-non-2014-movies-of-2014.html">2014</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-10-non-2013-films-of-2013.html">2013</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-top-non-2012-movies-of-2012.html">2012</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-top-10-non-2011-movies-of-2011.html">2011</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-top-10-non-2010-movies-of-2010.html">2010</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2009/12/alternate-top-10.html">2009</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternate-top-10.html">2008</a></li></ul>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-4896859228973179582021-01-03T02:38:00.000-08:002021-01-03T02:38:22.632-08:00My top 10 non-2020 movies of 2020<div>Slightly behind schedule, here's one of my favorite traditions of the year (which has become an increasingly common practice for others as well, since the rise of Letterboxd), my list of my favorite movies from earlier years that I saw for the first time in 2020.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2ZvhVene2r13S9quzSS245bhmYWGF2V0PuyXrhFNEd4HyWoU2t_f5a80XCaHaYyQh1FPpiKrFj-GTxSHdxV0o9ueu9_5Xsb_3XK4vJsDpFAZLIuHE4eHZQSYw3crDvENNYNx/s381/The-Innocents.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="262" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP2ZvhVene2r13S9quzSS245bhmYWGF2V0PuyXrhFNEd4HyWoU2t_f5a80XCaHaYyQh1FPpiKrFj-GTxSHdxV0o9ueu9_5Xsb_3XK4vJsDpFAZLIuHE4eHZQSYw3crDvENNYNx/w130-h189/The-Innocents.jpg" width="130" /></a></div>1. <i>The Innocents</i> (Jack Clayton, 1961)</b> Henry James' <i>The Turn of the Screw</i> had a bit of a resurgence in 2020 with the feature film <i>The Turning</i> starring Mackenzie Davis and Mike Flanagan's Netflix miniseries <i>The Haunting of Bly Manor</i>, and I hope that any curious viewers of those will look back at this stunning earlier adaptation from director Jack Clayton, based on the play by William Archibald. Deborah Kerr is phenomenal as Miss Giddens, the governess hired to take care of orphans Miles (Martin Stephens) and Flora (Pamela Franklin), who either encounters ghosts or slowly loses her mind while isolated with the children on the family's sprawling estate. Kerr perfectly balances her performance between madness and compassion, and the child actors both project an eerie self-assurance. The CinemaScope images from cinematographer Freddie Francis are breathtaking, and the sound design is unsettling, especially the use of the ethereal theme song "O Willow Waly." It's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of bringing this story to life.</div><div><br /></div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmbbkrLRgiEXotDBF0ycCqYle2otui9MW6PHlGNL5Z58LRDAz2m6NN6XzDa_Mkrzo-JogvSicqZxn_oiiFUzufLGUfaoUWulRFRyc0O-CAXz3vqoomwSYMy8SNid_TdkR2vES/s381/Emma.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="261" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmbbkrLRgiEXotDBF0ycCqYle2otui9MW6PHlGNL5Z58LRDAz2m6NN6XzDa_Mkrzo-JogvSicqZxn_oiiFUzufLGUfaoUWulRFRyc0O-CAXz3vqoomwSYMy8SNid_TdkR2vES/w129-h188/Emma.jpg" width="129" /></a></div>2. <i>Emma</i> (Douglas McGrath, 1996)</b> The article I spent the most time researching, pitching and writing in 2020 was this Vague Visages <a href="https://vaguevisages.com/2020/10/07/in-praise-of-90s-gwyneth-paltrow/">piece</a> on the greatness of Gwyneth Paltrow in the 1990s, and my viewing of Douglas McGrath's adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel was the spark for that story. I initially watched this movie to prepare for the new version directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, and while I think Taylor-Joy is brilliant, that movie fell a little short for me. This one, on the other hand, is a pure delight, led by Paltrow's fabulous performance as the well-intentioned meddler Emma Woodhouse, who is oblivious to her privilege but also humbly open to learning from her mistakes. The various romances are all satisfying, the writing (from either Austen or McGrath) is witty, and the performances are all effortlessly charming.<div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToMw4AjPHKMVhu2SThenonhpEs90fJf9hINYf8s-vPsgPtHTuvz9smV3OMcfRwm9nA4qjnfe_jJVC8w3W7vVrJO64kiCL_EwrGjn_BsEGkDtDAr7TZRJJ2CxIiBo_h31nCNTj/s495/gold-diggers-of-1933.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="330" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhToMw4AjPHKMVhu2SThenonhpEs90fJf9hINYf8s-vPsgPtHTuvz9smV3OMcfRwm9nA4qjnfe_jJVC8w3W7vVrJO64kiCL_EwrGjn_BsEGkDtDAr7TZRJJ2CxIiBo_h31nCNTj/w126-h189/gold-diggers-of-1933.jpg" width="126" /></a></div>3. <i>Gold Diggers of 1933</i> (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933)</b> This pre-Code musical is a sheer joy, even as it tackles the realities of the Great Depression from the perspective of out-of-work theater professionals. Ruby Keeler, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon and Ginger Rogers play four Broadway dancer/singer/actresses struggling to find work when shows close before they can even premiere (the opening features authorities seizing sets and costumes for non-payment), and they are all giddy and witty in that particularly naughty pre-Code manner. There's a silly romantic storyline about Keeler's Polly falling for a rich heir (Dick Powell) who's also an aspiring composer, which provides the requisite mix-ups and entanglements. The sharp dialogue is as entertaining as the dazzling musical set pieces from Busby Berkeley, one of which features Rogers singing in Pig Latin, clearly the height of cinema.<br /><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLzEki4PUvGe2UPvYJbj8lhyphenhyphennXaDRaWZdOmOb3hdenxUAQGrOsRwttaEZHMZV7yiqmoV5S28CCKa69KuT4SI-iKRGCAEuv2Zhav7v6etP6Rl7fFIhXA_v-fKmWa5sTCnOyCPT/s1920/secrets-and-lies.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1280" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixLzEki4PUvGe2UPvYJbj8lhyphenhyphennXaDRaWZdOmOb3hdenxUAQGrOsRwttaEZHMZV7yiqmoV5S28CCKa69KuT4SI-iKRGCAEuv2Zhav7v6etP6Rl7fFIhXA_v-fKmWa5sTCnOyCPT/w127-h191/secrets-and-lies.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>4. <i>Secrets & Lies</i> (Mike Leigh, 1996)</b> We <a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/2020/05/13/secrets-lies-1996-cannes-palme-dor-winner/">covered this movie</a> (which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes) as part of our 1996 season of the Awesome Movie Year podcast, and it's a great example of Mike Leigh's humanistic, character-driven storytelling, with justifiably lauded and awarded performances from Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Timothy Spall. It takes the kind of storyline that could come from a sensationalistic TV movie (an upper-middle-class Black woman reconnects with her working-class white birth mother) and treats it with warmth and sensitivity, more about forging genuine connections than about exploiting divisions.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLL4-nBrqJADBaWp2YaXw0ZDXJgs1K307EyV22X_kiezdyten30qaOdukK8UuqZ2hrJTxyOjAK9nRX0uf5vUiV_dgDiuZYCT78ClNfueOfJGaUsDLh72EMlCdSO1__7INEvF7/s1920/home-before-dark.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1280" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLL4-nBrqJADBaWp2YaXw0ZDXJgs1K307EyV22X_kiezdyten30qaOdukK8UuqZ2hrJTxyOjAK9nRX0uf5vUiV_dgDiuZYCT78ClNfueOfJGaUsDLh72EMlCdSO1__7INEvF7/w126-h190/home-before-dark.jpg" width="126" /></a></div>5. <i>Home Before Dark</i> (Mervyn LeRoy, 1958)</b> I didn't even realize before gathering details for this list that I had included two movies by the incredibly versatile Mervyn LeRoy. <i>Home Before Dark</i> could not possibly be more different from <i>Gold Diggers of 1933</i>, and not just because it was made 25 years later. It's a rich, serious drama about a fragile woman (an excellent Jean Simmons) attempting to adjust to regular life after spending a year in a mental institution, and encountering hostility, suspicion and gaslighting from nearly everyone in her life. I watched it to include in <a href="https://knpr.org/fifth-street/2020-10/october-22-2020#rhonda">this tribute</a> to the late Rhonda Fleming, who often cited it as her favorite role. Fleming is good as the main character's scheming stepsister, but this is Simmons' show all the way, and she brings vulnerability and a reserve of unexpected strength to this surprisingly nuanced and progressive drama about mental illness.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_uQoLXkTFjsVOhoGxgMPrsAxDKc-gNSWy5G53qYV9B9C3FhHV5C6EAYBeWsivi4OCi2Y9RugDzoBDSwekkbf_fomHGmdpQRBqvNTZeAjnVbz2EZHBKtHp-GQC97xrvQ4qLKs/s389/Lets-scare-jessica-to-death.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="256" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD_uQoLXkTFjsVOhoGxgMPrsAxDKc-gNSWy5G53qYV9B9C3FhHV5C6EAYBeWsivi4OCi2Y9RugDzoBDSwekkbf_fomHGmdpQRBqvNTZeAjnVbz2EZHBKtHp-GQC97xrvQ4qLKs/w127-h192/Lets-scare-jessica-to-death.jpg" width="127" /></a></div>6. <i>Let's Scare Jessica to Death</i> (John D. Hancock, 1971)</b> Although this low-budget production has one of the all-time great horror-movie titles, it's more of a slow-burn psychological thriller than a horror movie. Similar to <i>The Innocents</i>, it's the story of a possibly unstable woman (Zohra Lampert's Jessica) living on a remote estate and believing that she's seeing apparitions. And like <i>Home Before Dark</i>, it's the story of a woman recently released from a mental institution who is treated with suspicion by the people in her life. Jessica, her husband and their best friend embrace a hippie lifestyle by moving to an old country house in Connecticut and attempting to work as farmers, and they let a squatter they find in their new house continue living there. But Emily (Mariclare Costello) may be more than a harmless drifter, with ties to the house's sordid history. Director John D. Hancock builds creepy atmosphere in the house and the surrounding town, and the story takes on an impressionistic, dreamlike quality as Jessica slowly loses her mind, or is tormented into believing that she is.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRgzOtAUExJmiOHT4_d0HRqa5i_Tl1AYuN-mWkdH1nqxIMYUJm2L-4NJNrjLgaJIoh9W5c1UkYLKKMJabuIlmqS0oZDTNuDbmR3CoBrifPxy4Opn5PzYj9tL6NmfaSZtCF7K-7/s342/Thelma_%2526_Louise.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="230" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRgzOtAUExJmiOHT4_d0HRqa5i_Tl1AYuN-mWkdH1nqxIMYUJm2L-4NJNrjLgaJIoh9W5c1UkYLKKMJabuIlmqS0oZDTNuDbmR3CoBrifPxy4Opn5PzYj9tL6NmfaSZtCF7K-7/w128-h192/Thelma_%2526_Louise.png" width="128" /></a></div>7. <i>Thelma & Louise</i> (Ridley Scott, 1991)</b> I finally got around to watching this movie as part of a round-up on <a href="https://davidlv.com/content/star-travelers">road trip movies</a> that I wrote (somewhat ironically) just before the pandemic lockdown, and it lives up to its reputation as a rollicking thriller with a dark edge. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon are fantastic as the title characters, who free themselves from their downtrodden lives when they inadvertently embark on a crime spree. Director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Callie Khouri portray female empowerment and rebellion against the patriarchy without losing the movie's sense of raucous fun. Some of it goes a little too far over the top, but it all builds beautifully to that iconic (and remarkably cynical) ending, in which the only way to truly defeat a rigged system is to opt out of it entirely.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTwd-Kjn3olgjFA6qHM-f1RsFn_Z7hlMTKZXLiE1FNbl6UZBiXiiinEkoTGaWbWlvxXtn68rvJzxTxkfCmBinFCUAJIFIcZ7oUH9iw_vtMCJ-RScoxhP38-OvGmtX9GvV-HjJI/s370/Anna_and_the_Apocalypse.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="250" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTwd-Kjn3olgjFA6qHM-f1RsFn_Z7hlMTKZXLiE1FNbl6UZBiXiiinEkoTGaWbWlvxXtn68rvJzxTxkfCmBinFCUAJIFIcZ7oUH9iw_vtMCJ-RScoxhP38-OvGmtX9GvV-HjJI/w125-h185/Anna_and_the_Apocalypse.png" width="125" /></a></div>8. <i>Anna and the Apocalypse</i> (John McPhail, 2017)</b> This was the one movie on my list of Christmas horror <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/703790/10-christmas-horror-movies-to-watch-for-a-spooky-holiday/">recommendations</a> that I hadn't previously seen, and I'm grateful to that assignment for pushing me to watch a movie I'd had in my queue since it came out. Like <i>Gold Diggers of 1933</i>, this is a joyous musical about a dark subject, although zombies are less of a real-world concern than economic depression. The cast of mostly unknown young actors capture the outsize emotions of teen angst as well as the terror of witnessing the end of the world, and then they engage in gleeful song-and-dance numbers about it. The catchy original songs don't end when the violence begins, and director John McPhail successfully balances the music with the violence, giving proper attention to both. The filmmakers impressively integrate multiple genres into an entertaining and weirdly heartwarming movie.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7PoJ0do3FlOojB7pWYB3YcDvBiKtR32TH46wY0pacoGfYHGtRWUtU93cjX-hspoIJN9ugf9N0Bg3IE_ISp4rcnti9CTFPRYdUkaI1nI4yz_XvQWMcHTDPv7W-jreFXWyhFfWU/s392/the-right-stuff.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="253" height="194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7PoJ0do3FlOojB7pWYB3YcDvBiKtR32TH46wY0pacoGfYHGtRWUtU93cjX-hspoIJN9ugf9N0Bg3IE_ISp4rcnti9CTFPRYdUkaI1nI4yz_XvQWMcHTDPv7W-jreFXWyhFfWU/w125-h194/the-right-stuff.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>9. <i>The Right Stuff</i> (Philip Kaufman, 1983)</b> The recent Disney+ adaptation of Tom Wolfe's nonfiction book about the early days of the American space program was a disappointment, but <a href="https://www.cbr.com/the-right-stuff-review/">reviewing it</a> got me to watch this earlier film adaptation, which is quite long (over three hours) but is consistently engrossing. Director Philip Kaufman somehow fits more range and nuance into his movie than the series creators can fit into an entire TV season, and he includes the story of pioneering test pilot Chuck Yeager (Sam Shepard) that the series leaves out. Yeager's refusal to join the space program and the way he's subsequently left behind adds a melancholy counterpoint to the scenes of hotshot future astronauts like John Glenn (Ed Harris) and Gordo Cooper (Dennis Quaid). The movie makes these towering national heroes into flawed, even sometimes unlikable people, bringing them satisfyingly back down to Earth.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEgns86mfyt1dvnOdZE_zK_YNb_Tg41Z5sDGk-gRDVyAdQzIRsPh0YN_3CyYPmODD2NzLSCkupQMCVapLJIchFy1RhWEPTjX_ete-QbTBlgayFSHFPqmPM6q_GwB2QM8abQm9/s400/Pumping_Iron.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="262" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNEgns86mfyt1dvnOdZE_zK_YNb_Tg41Z5sDGk-gRDVyAdQzIRsPh0YN_3CyYPmODD2NzLSCkupQMCVapLJIchFy1RhWEPTjX_ete-QbTBlgayFSHFPqmPM6q_GwB2QM8abQm9/w124-h190/Pumping_Iron.jpg" width="124" /></a></div>10. <i>Pumping Iron</i> (George Butler & Robert Fiore, 1977)</b> This is another Awesome Movie Year <a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/2020/08/26/pumping-iron-1977-documentary/">selection</a>, and I didn't really have any expectations for this documentary about the bodybuilding scene in the late 1970s. But it's so much fun to watch, with future stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno hamming it up for the cameras, alongside other bodybuilding champions who became minor celebrities. Schwarzenegger comes off like the villain on a reality TV show, self-consciously playing up his devious scheming in a way that he would never do now that he's a beloved celebrity and former politician. It's a fascinating glimpse into a younger, less guarded Schwarzenegger, and a snapshot of a scene poised between wider pop-culture recognition and weird underground subculture.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Honorable mentions:</b> <i>Beverly Hills Cop</i> (Martin Brest, 1984); <i>Dark Water</i> (Hideo Nakata, 2002)</div></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Previous lists:</b><br /><ul><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2019/12/my-top-10-non-2019-movies-of-2019.html">2019</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-top-10-non-2018-movies-of-2018.html">2018</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/01/my-top-10-non-2017-movies-of-2017.html">2017</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-top-10-non-2016-movies-of-2016.html">2016</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-10-non-2015-movies-of-2015.html">2015</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-top-10-non-2014-movies-of-2014.html">2014</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-10-non-2013-films-of-2013.html">2013</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-top-non-2012-movies-of-2012.html">2012</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-top-10-non-2011-movies-of-2011.html">2011</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-top-10-non-2010-movies-of-2010.html">2010</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2009/12/alternate-top-10.html">2009</a></li><li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternate-top-10.html">2008</a></li></ul></div>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-60633000582980291522020-12-28T19:00:00.002-08:002020-12-28T19:00:17.510-08:00The best movies of 2020<p>As has been the case for the last few years, although I wrote a lot of articles and reviews about a lot of movies in 2020, I didn't have an outlet for a traditional top 10 list. So here are my favorite movies (plus some favorite performances) of a very strange year for cinema, in which theaters were mostly closed but I probably saw more new releases than I ever have before.</p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw-U1icDb09L09l6K58zRGLtIoN5JhQ7j-XBY9OAnqqUMFk_BC0-39lzLnjiD2xaUMHEyFbAXonvg9mndVfDT_cuQhokeXo2WGiMuM_ZmpQ6bC-fm5Nduc_mL7FEyeWLs11ck/s275/dreamland_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="183" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWw-U1icDb09L09l6K58zRGLtIoN5JhQ7j-XBY9OAnqqUMFk_BC0-39lzLnjiD2xaUMHEyFbAXonvg9mndVfDT_cuQhokeXo2WGiMuM_ZmpQ6bC-fm5Nduc_mL7FEyeWLs11ck/w115-h173/dreamland_poster.jpg" width="115" /></a></b></div><b>1. <i>Dreamland</i></b> I remain surprised that this movie hasn't become a major awards contender, but I don't want to turn people off by describing it as typical Oscar bait. The Depression-era drama about an intense but doomed connection between a fugitive bank robber (Margot Robbie) and a troubled dreamer (Finn Cole) explores elegiac themes about the lost American dream, with a strong Terrence Malick influence (albeit more accessible than anything Malick has made in quite some time). Gorgeous cinematography, haunting score, careful pacing, evocative use of cross-cutting, and a great performance from Margot Robbie make this easily my favorite movie of the year.<p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL7voG5SU1cfF2TC60HVBT8IwqxgVBm-Gg-qGm-B6fURL3dcb7Na5f5C3NEFD4oKP9mWIapa9aBNSF4gDS7-lXL_HvT1Fi-2VHYS76-zmHvQnSJNXZOqjTahuEfUvOGH90PY4/s383/Selah_and_the_Spades_poster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwL7voG5SU1cfF2TC60HVBT8IwqxgVBm-Gg-qGm-B6fURL3dcb7Na5f5C3NEFD4oKP9mWIapa9aBNSF4gDS7-lXL_HvT1Fi-2VHYS76-zmHvQnSJNXZOqjTahuEfUvOGH90PY4/w114-h169/Selah_and_the_Spades_poster.jpeg" width="114" /></a></b></div><b>2. <i>Selah and the Spades</i></b><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Tayarisha Poe makes a striking debut with this gorgeous, clever and totally original take on the high school drama, with what should be a star-making performance from Lovie Simone as the title character, who runs the mafia-like underground at an elite prep school. Poe combines the plot elements of a crime thriller (threats, betrayal, rival factions) with the environment and activities of a typical high school (the major showdown is over the prom). The visuals and the dialogue are heavily stylized, immersing the audience in a world that is both unique and entirely familiar. <i>More thoughts in my CBR <a href="https://www.cbr.com/selah-and-the-spades-review/">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3aZJKKsNdBWiJ5Rka9uYWowY1jIUSWdMJAD7VnUQo7aa6-FlLSlSz9SrRuZzpfq-OaPQffWbUI1AQ55HcSaGyl1kSXyDhUCZkgUDZjwu6zWrTQVU-Uxe9xg0A4vq9Wh6A_0a/s326/Gretel_%2526_Hansel_poster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="326" data-original-width="220" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI3aZJKKsNdBWiJ5Rka9uYWowY1jIUSWdMJAD7VnUQo7aa6-FlLSlSz9SrRuZzpfq-OaPQffWbUI1AQ55HcSaGyl1kSXyDhUCZkgUDZjwu6zWrTQVU-Uxe9xg0A4vq9Wh6A_0a/w115-h170/Gretel_%2526_Hansel_poster.jpeg" width="115" /></a></b></div><b>3. <i>Gretel & Hansel</i></b> I saw Oz Perkins' third feature in a mostly empty movie theater back in January, when people weren't staying away because of pandemic restrictions, but because apparently nobody cared about this movie. But they missed out on another haunting, atmospheric horror movie from Perkins, who has established a distinctive impressionistic style in his three films. His take on the classic fairy tale is moody and artistic, with a surreal narrative, gorgeous production design, and great lead performances from Sophia Lillis (as Gretel, a young woman tempted by dark power) and Alice Krige (as the witch who attempts to bring Gretel under her spell). <i>More thoughts in my Piecing It Together <a href="https://www.piecingpod.com/2020/05/18/gretel-hansel-featuring-josh-bell/">podcast appearance</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDIsI-J3wMkJhbehGbNJBdhOZV3oVZeJh_O0LWG5NsM4TmJsNyegoMMTXGtqRLjzV4aRx8CtBJpAhxp_B6aLnCfQhYMkBgejwHgwVmuV7jXK6s8tNJmYbjyabhDfSLgIGFnAp/s383/The_Invisible_Man_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="383" data-original-width="259" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDIsI-J3wMkJhbehGbNJBdhOZV3oVZeJh_O0LWG5NsM4TmJsNyegoMMTXGtqRLjzV4aRx8CtBJpAhxp_B6aLnCfQhYMkBgejwHgwVmuV7jXK6s8tNJmYbjyabhDfSLgIGFnAp/w116-h173/The_Invisible_Man_poster.jpg" width="116" /></a></b></div><b>4. <i>The Invisible Man</i></b> This is another horror movie I got to see in a theater before the pandemic shutdown, although I watched this one with a full house, and that probably added to my enjoyment of Leigh Whannell's delightfully suspenseful reimagining of the iconic Universal monster movie. Elisabeth Moss is predictably great as the victimized woman standing up for herself against a literally invisible abuser, making the somewhat absurd scenario completely believable and emotionally devastating. And Whannell creates such a convincing narrative that he manages to generate tension just by pointing his camera at empty spaces. <i>More thoughts in my Film Racket <a href="https://filmracket.com/the-invisible-man-2020/movie-review">review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbcbUVaKTNc0bzieorajiDtG8hzpAvNwjZiFEELNBbMKW6TyvuIIBRUPAKFNvHK43iZLHauvrh8Qjsh72cX3VGI26CoXGpENZBLB3_brlLRsiFY6DJqooUE1CPkc3fcXaG6r-4/s384/Banana_split_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="260" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbcbUVaKTNc0bzieorajiDtG8hzpAvNwjZiFEELNBbMKW6TyvuIIBRUPAKFNvHK43iZLHauvrh8Qjsh72cX3VGI26CoXGpENZBLB3_brlLRsiFY6DJqooUE1CPkc3fcXaG6r-4/w117-h172/Banana_split_poster.jpg" width="117" /></a></b></div><b>5. <i>Banana Split</i></b> There were quite a few charming teen coming-of-age movies this year, but this delightful comedy from co-writer and star Hannah Marks was easily my favorite, with its story about the bonds of teen-girl friendship transcending any romantic entanglements with boys. Marks and Liana Liberato have fantastic chemistry as two teenagers who should be fighting over the same guy (one is his ex, one is his current girlfriend) but instead discover that they love hanging out together far more than they care about who's dating whom. It's joyous and funny while tackling real, complex emotions. <i>More thoughts in my Crooked Marquee <a href="https://crookedmarquee.com/vodepths-what-to-see-and-avoid-on-demand-this-month/">capsule review</a>.</i><p></p><p><b>6. <i>The Assistant</i></b> The scene in which Julia Garner's title character attempts to report her boss' serial sexual harassment and abuse to her company's HR department is the best (and most uncomfortable) scene I saw in any movie this year. Kitty Green's movie is full of those mundane and yet horrifying moments that add up to a portrait of the dehumanizing cost of being a low-level female employee at a corporation full of entitled men who never face consequences for their actions.</p><p><b>7. <i>Bad Education</i></b> I loved director Cory Finley's first film, the dark teen comedy <i>Thoroughbreds</i>, and <i>Bad Education</i> (which he directed but didn't write) is a very different kind of story. But it's sharp and funny and wonderfully acted by Hugh Jackman (in possibly his best-ever performance) and Allison Janney, among others, taking a ripped-from-the-headlines scandal and turning it into a meditation on the costs (and benefits) of institutional corruption. <i>More thoughts in my Film Racket <a href="https://filmracket.com/bad-education/movie-review">review</a>.</i></p><p><b>8. <i>Palm Springs</i></b> This rom-com riff on <i>Groundhog Day</i> is far more than that high-concept pitch suggests. It's a smart take on the time-loop formula, a hilarious comedy about the soul-sucking experience of attending a destination wedding, an existential musing on the nature of identity, and a giddy romance between two soft-hearted cynics played by the dynamic team of Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti.</p><p><b>9. <i>Shithouse</i></b> This is a frighteningly assured debut from 23-year-old writer/director/star Cooper Raiff, who finds honest, vulnerable ways to tell a familiar story about two young people (college students played by Raiff and Dylan Gelula) discovering a thrilling, unexpected connection. The story struggles a bit after the heady first night the two characters spend together, but it's still a sweet romance and a sensitive look at the difficulties of being away from home for the first time.</p><p><b>10. <i>Boys State</i></b> I don't watch nearly as many documentaries as a lot of critics (or my <a href="https://awesomemovieyear.com/">Awesome Movie Year</a> podcast co-host Jason Harris), and I tend to prefer nonfiction films that play more like cinematic narratives. So this character-driven documentary about a mock-government retreat for Texas teens works perfectly for me, making incisive (and scary) points about the political future of our country while remaining focused on its engaging central personalities.</p><p><b>Honorable mentions:</b> <i>The Dark and the Wicked</i>, <i>The Devil All the Time</i>, <i>Driveways</i>, <i>The Platform</i>, <i>Sea Fever</i>, <i>Swallow</i></p><p><b>Top five lead performances:</b> Julia Garner, <i>The Assistant</i>; Elisabeth Moss, <i>The Invisible Man</i>; Hugh Jackman, <i>Bad Education</i>; Margot Robbie, <i>Dreamland</i>; Christopher Abbott, <i>Possessor</i></p><p><b>Top five supporting performances:</b> Brian Dennehy, <i>Driveways</i>; Allison Janney, <i>Bad Education</i>; Cristin Milioti, <i>Palm Springs</i>; Rene Auberjonois, <i>Raising Buchanan</i>; Frank Langella, <i>The Trial of the Chicago 7</i></p>Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-8546620667115654772020-04-07T03:16:00.002-07:002020-04-07T03:16:32.461-07:00Bette Davis Month Bonus: 'John Paul Jones' (1959)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm not sure I should even bother including the 1959 biopic <i>John Paul Jones</i> in my Bette Davis series, since Davis' appearance in it is so brief that in the intro to the TCM showing I recorded, Ben Mankiewicz referred to her role as a cameo. Davis gets a splashy "special appearance" title card all to herself in the opening credits, but she only shows up for about four minutes near the end of the movie. The rest of the two-hour-plus movie belongs to Robert Stack as the title character, a hotheaded naval commander considered one of the founders of the modern U.S. navy.<br />
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The final film directed by John Farrow (father of Mia, who briefly makes her first onscreen appearance at age 13), <i>John Paul Jones</i> is a lavish but stilted military epic, full of bombastic patriotism but very little human emotion, even in its attempts at depicting its title character's romantic dalliances. Stack is stiff and robotic as Jones, like an exhibit in Disney World's Hall of Presidents, playing the rough-and-tumble Scotsman as a humorless scold who condescendingly dismisses pretty much all of his colleagues as spineless idiots.<br />
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The characterization may not be far off, since the real Jones was known for his questionable leadership tactics and possible criminal activities as much as for his bravery and strategic insight. But this movie glosses over any sordid aspects of Jones' life, portraying him as unerringly honorable and correct, whether arguing with the founding fathers of the United States or facing down a rival British sea captain. He comes off as equally pompous when interacting with his love interests, neither of whom get much screen time or make much of an impact on the story. Charles Coburn brings some earthy wit to his performance as Benjamin Franklin, whom Jones befriended during the Revolutionary War when he was based in France, but he's the only cast member who brings one of these historical figures to life.<br />
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And what about Bette Davis? She plays Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who employed Jones' services for a few years after the war, and she's appropriately regal in her brief appearance, even getting to speak some Russian and French. After that, though, it's back to Stack's bloviating, which continues all the way to Jones' deathbed. The movie is framed by modern-day Navy footage, connecting Jones to the integrity and honor of the contemporary American Navy, in a way that plays like an extended recruitment film. Given the movie's lackluster sea battles and self-important blowhard of a hero, though, it's hard to imagine it convincing anyone to sign up for military service.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-80400860625086492742020-03-27T16:33:00.001-07:002021-06-06T23:01:49.305-07:00Bette Davis Month Bonus: 'Beyond the Forest' (1949)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bette Davis' final film in her 18-year career at Warner Bros., <i>Beyond the Forest</i> is mostly known for its extraneous qualities, from the behind-the-scenes battles that led to Davis' departure from Warners, to her later comments about its low quality, to the bad reviews (including a designation from the founder of the Razzies as one of "the most enjoyably bad movies ever made"), to the iconic Davis line ("What a dump!") that's generally used as a clip without any context. Although it's still mostly regarded as terrible, <i>Beyond the Forest</i> has also picked up a cult following of sorts, like any campy movie with big stars tends to do, and some critics have re-evaluated it as subversively brilliant.<br />
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I fall somewhere in the middle, I suppose. Watching the movie, I had kind of forgotten about its reputation, so aside from waiting for that famous line (which is such a throwaway that I never would have guessed it was particularly notable), I wasn't focused on how notorious it apparently is. Mainly, as usual with these lower-tier Davis movies, I was watching for Davis' performance, which is vampy in the extreme, possibly because she held the production in such contempt and just decided to let loose on what she felt was a poor script. Davis plays Rosa Moline, a vain housewife who's contemptuous of her small Wisconsin town and her square doctor husband Lewis (Joseph Cotten).<br />
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Rosa dreams of moving to the big city (Chicago, just because it's the closest), and is having an affair with a rich businessman named Neil Latimer (David Brian) who clearly does not care about her at all. The movie is sort of a tragedy about Rosa's ambitions ruining her happiness and ultimately leading to her death (after she attempts a self-induced abortion by literally throwing herself off a cliff), but Rosa is such a haughty, mean-spirited person that it's hard to sympathize with her. Davis is great at playing these kinds of imperious villain figures, but the movie doesn't seem to know whether Rosa is actually a villain or not, and so Davis' nasty line readings don't have much of an impact.<br />
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Poor Joseph Cotten plays the world's blandest, most upstanding man, who endures all of Rosa's abuse with saintly patience, takes her back after she runs off with Neil and then is rejected, and serves his small-town patients with compassion and dignity, even if they can't pay. The dynamic between them is so lopsided that there's no interest in them staying together, but there's also no reason to want to see Rosa end up with Neil, especially after she commits murder just to keep word of her pregnancy a secret. Seeing Rosa end up dead isn't very satisfying, either, since she's at least partially a victim of sexist expectations of women (and possibly of unspoken racial prejudice, according to some viewers who read her as Latina, although that's never explicitly stated).<br />
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Director King Vidor puts together some striking compositions (as is often the case, Davis makes sure to get great lighting during her most dramatic scenes), and the story is so increasingly over-the-top that it's at least an entertaining train wreck. It's not quite insane enough to qualify as a camp classic, and I think the people who read sophisticated social commentary into it are reaching too far. But it's far from Davis' worst film, and it's certainly far from the least memorable (any number of 1930s cheapies outweigh it there). It's at least worth a look from anyone interested in Davis' late-period turn toward camp icon.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-2709740405620941052020-01-13T13:13:00.000-08:002020-01-13T19:19:09.233-08:00Triskaidekaphilia: '13 Days in France' (1968)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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A disclaimer at the beginning of the impressionistic sports documentary <i>13 Days in France</i> declares that it's not the official film of the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, France, and it's not hard to see why this movie would be the wrong choice as a sanctioned record of the Olympic games. Produced and co-directed by French New Wave icon Claude Lelouch (along with more than a dozen credited collaborators), <i>13 Days</i> is an abstract snapshot of the games that's almost entirely devoid of context, with virtually no dialogue and very little diegetic sound. It more closely resembles something like <i>Aquarela</i> or <i>Samsara</i>, documentaries made up of a series of images around a central theme, rather than what you'd expect from a movie about the biggest sporting event in the world.<br />
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Considering that I have no interest in sports or the Olympics, this approach generally works for me, although at nearly two hours, the movie does get repetitive and tedious at times. Having at least some sports knowledge would probably help, since there's no explanation of the various events or competitors, and while I eventually spotted a couple of famous athletes via context clues (Jean-Claude Killy and Peggy Fleming, both of whom have songs sung about them on the soundtrack), most of the time I had no idea what was happening in the competitions, or even what many of them were (there's a weird skiing one where you shoot a gun in the middle of it?). Lelouch and his collaborators are just as interested in local color and behind-the-scenes details (including parties and musical performances), though, and the movie is really a feat of editing, as various athletic accomplishments are juxtaposed with mundane activities.<br />
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Even when portraying the athletes, the filmmakers focus on the less obvious aspects of the competition. There's a montage of hockey players spitting, and one rapid-fire sequence of a starting pistol indicating the beginning of multiple races that we never see. There are scenes of spectators frolicking in the snow, and one shot of a baby's diaper being changed by the side of a ski slope. Lelouch matches the shots of the Olympic flame being lit with shots of a cameraman's long, dangling cigarette ash. It's playful and also clearly meant to sort of deflate the self-importance of the games, especially in brief shots of newspaper headlines about Vietnam inserted between marching bands and cheering crowds. The point of view is a bit muddled, but the movie is distinctive enough to make it worth watching as cinema, and not just as a recording of sports history.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-85740250884099764522019-12-31T16:32:00.000-08:002019-12-31T16:32:09.872-08:00My top 10 non-2019 movies of 2019After 10-plus years, this is still one of my favorite things to write, a look at the best movies from previous years that I saw for the first time in 2019.<br />
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<b>1. <i>Point Blank</i> (John Boorman, 1967)</b> Although the structure of this existential thriller is your basic revenge story (criminal gets screwed out of money by his associates, tracks them all down and kills them), Boorman presents it as a sort of fever dream, to the point where it's not always clear what's meant to be real and what might be occurring in the mind of taciturn main character Walker (Lee Marvin). Marvin is brutish and implacable as the single-minded Walker, who appears to derive no pleasure or satisfaction from any of his efforts, and his mission becomes increasingly abstract, culminating in a deliberately obtuse ending that turns the simple quest for stolen funds into a meditation on the pointlessness of existence.<br />
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<b>2. <i>Road House</i> (Jean Negulesco, 1948)</b> No, not the Patrick Swayze movie. I saw this sweaty, sensuous noir projected on nitrate at the <a href="https://filmracket.com/festival-report-tcm-classic-film-festival-2019/movie-review">TCM Classic Film Festival</a>, where it was easily the highlight of my festival weekend. Ida Lupino is outstanding as a singer in a roadside diner/nightclub/bowling alley who is pursued by the establishment's shady owner (Richard Widmark) but instead falls for his more upstanding, respectful right-hand man (Cornel Wilde). Lupino delivers world-weary dialogue and anguished torch songs with equal beauty and poise, and the movie gets more unhinged as it goes along, moving from a low-key potboiler into a full-on chase thriller by the end.<br />
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<b>3. <i>Catch-22</i> (Mike Nichols, 1970)</b> I watched this movie almost as an afterthought after writing about the new (and <a href="https://www.cbr.com/review-catch-22-hulu-george-clooney/">mostly solid</a>) Hulu miniseries, to prepare for a TV segment talking about both. But while I thought the Hulu series was fine, Nichols' somewhat forgotten movie version is much better, preserving the fractured structure from Joseph Heller's novel and keeping more of the dark, nasty edge. Nichols balances the satire with the genuine horror of war (and of callous, amoral officers only out for themselves), and his stellar, eclectic cast, including Alan Arkin, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Art Garfunkel and Orson Welles, matches his every ambition.<br />
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<b>4. <i>Strait-Jacket</i> (William Castle, 1964)</b> The only William Castle movies I've previously seen have been cheesy (but sometimes entertaining) schlock like <i><a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2012/05/triskaidekaphilia-13-ghosts-1960.html">13 Ghosts</a></i>, <i>The Tingler</i>, <i>House on Haunted Hill</i> and <i>Zotz!</i>, but <i>Strait-Jacket</i>, despite being an obviously trend-chasing mix of <i>Psycho</i> and <i>What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?</i>, is genuinely fantastic filmmaking, with a stunning performance from Joan Crawford as a woman released from a mental institution after decades locked up, who finds herself possibly reverting to her delusional, homicidal ways. The twists in the script from <i>Psycho</i> writer Richard Bloch are maybe a bit obvious, but Castle executes them all masterfully, with Crawford playing the perfect balance between insanity and insecurity.<br />
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<b>5. <i>The Killers</i> (Don Siegel, 1964)</b> Hey, it's Lee Marvin again! Marvin only has a supporting role in this brutal thriller, providing a bit of comic relief alongside Clu Gulager as a pair of sardonic hitmen tracking down the associates of a man they were hired to kill. John Cassavetes is the real star as that man, a racecar driver drawn into a life of crime by a mob moll played by Angie Dickinson (who had a similar role in <i>Point Blank</i>). The story (drawn loosely from an Ernest Hemingway short story) is relentless and unsentimental, with Ronald Reagan (in his final onscreen role) as the weaselly villain. Reagan's reported discomfort with playing a bad guy actually enhances his performance, making his character fidgety and untrustworthy, and Cassavetes brings pathos to the role of the doomed nice guy.<br />
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<b>6. <i>Woman on the Run</i> (Norman Foster, 1950)</b> The woman in this movie (played by Ann Sheridan) isn't really on the run; rather, she's tracking down her husband, who may be on the run or may just want to be left alone. He's being sought by the cops after witnessing a murder, but he clearly isn't interested in cooperating. Sheridan's Eleanor Johnson tries to stay one step ahead of the cops (who are constantly following her) as she looks for her husband, along the way questioning whether she actually really knows him at all. The dialogue is razor sharp, the characters are all complex, and the visual style is moody and evocative, with great location shooting around San Francisco.<br />
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<b>7. <i>My Brilliant Career</i> (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)</b> I saw two Armstrong movies for the first time this year, and her 1994 take on <i>Little Women</i> is certainly the more well-known of the two. But her feature debut is even better, with many of the same qualities (a warm period piece about a headstrong young woman who dreams of becoming a writer and rejects her romantic suitors, based on a beloved work of literature) but a harder, more pragmatic edge. Judy Davis shines in her first role as stubborn 19th-century farm girl Sybylla, and she has lovely romantic chemistry with Sam Neill as her repeatedly thwarted paramour. Armstrong vividly captures the sense of possibility and the endless frustration of creative pursuits, along with the rhythms of rural Australian life.<br />
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<b>8. <i>Thunder Road</i> (Jim Cummings, 2018)</b> Cummings' 2016 short film of the same name is a pretty perfect encapsulation of one man's emotional collapse in a single scene, so I was skeptical about its adaptation into a feature film (the original short is re-created here as the movie's opening scene). But Cummings (as director, writer and star) expands on it in impressive ways, taking the awkwardness of the short and applying it to everything in the life of a cop undergoing a complete mental breakdown. The movie is tough to watch but also emotionally powerful, with the same impact as the short film sustained over the course of 90 minutes.<br />
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<b>9. <i>First Cousin Once Removed</i> (Alan Berliner, 2012)</b> Berliner, like Ross McElwee, is a master of the personal documentary, and this heartbreaking movie about his cousin (noted poet and intellectual Edwin Honig) succumbing to Alzheimer's is poignant and sad without every becoming maudlin. Berliner filmed Honig over the course of many years, but he edits footage together in a non-linear fashion that shows how Honig deteriorated but also how many core elements of his personality remained intact. Rather than a sentimental tribute to Honig, <i>First Cousin</i> is a clear-eyed look at a man with many flaws as he faces down the end of his life.<br />
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<b>10. <i>Alien Raiders</i> (Ben Rock, 2008)</b> I have no idea what led me to add this movie to my Netflix DVD queue (yes, a thing I still have) many years ago, but I'm glad that I did, and I'm glad it finally came up for me to watch. This is the kind of low-budget genre fare that floods streaming services and VOD in 2019, most of which is not worth seeing. But Rock and screenwriters Julia Fair and David Simkins come up with a clever twist on two direct-to-video staples, the single-location siege and the stealth alien invasion, beginning with what looks like an action thriller with a group of criminals taking hostages at a grocery store and turning it into something like <i>The Thing</i>, as the hostages realize that the attackers are actually the seasoned alien hunters they claim to be. Don't let the generic title and cheesy poster art fool you: This is a tense, effective and well-acted thriller.<br />
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<b>Previous lists:</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/12/my-top-10-non-2018-movies-of-2018.html">2018</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/01/my-top-10-non-2017-movies-of-2017.html">2017</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2016/12/my-top-10-non-2016-movies-of-2016.html">2016</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2015/12/my-top-10-non-2015-movies-of-2015.html">2015</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/12/my-top-10-non-2014-movies-of-2014.html">2014</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-top-10-non-2013-films-of-2013.html">2013</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-top-non-2012-movies-of-2012.html">2012</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-top-10-non-2011-movies-of-2011.html">2011</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-top-10-non-2010-movies-of-2010.html">2010</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2009/12/alternate-top-10.html">2009</a></li>
<li><a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2008/12/alternate-top-10.html">2008</a></li>
</ul>
Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-84659006926473264552019-12-13T13:13:00.000-08:002019-12-13T16:57:09.947-08:00Triskaidekaphilia: 'Blood 13' (2018)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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It's good to know that even in other countries, there are generic crime thrillers that feel like extended episodes of police procedural TV series. The Chinese movie <i>Blood 13</i> is a dull, rote cop drama about the search for a serial killer who targets prostitutes, aiming for some sort of David Fincher-style darkness but ending up a lot closer to <i>Criminal Minds</i>, or something from the '90s starring Ashley Judd. There's no mystery here, really, since the identity of the killer is revealed halfway through the movie and never called into question, so the theoretical entertainment value is just in watching the two main detectives slowly realize that this guy they have repeatedly been questioning is in fact the killer, then racing to apprehend him.<br />
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The only mild tension comes from the main detective's prejudice against prostitutes, which is explained in a heavy-handed flashback to her father leaving her mother (presumably because of his habit of visiting prostitutes). But it doesn't have much of an effect on her dedication to the case, and other than a single scene in which she gets lectured about giving sex workers basic respect, it's not a major theme of the movie. That detective, Xing Min (Lu Huang), is a cop-movie stereotype, a reckless lone wolf (note her leather jacket) who never listens to anyone's advice. The movie just uses that as an excuse to place her as a damsel in distress for the last half-hour, though, when she offers herself as bait for the killer and ends up being abducted.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxFwmk6WwzBeNe9Lz0M1302mvLNAKYkoVo7U334_2pdXvzggcboq77fu_izlXcuH3pWbeFVdNn0u-RGUN6jxGoYaBHUS6u_hPajWX1Vut4Rr19xGlJTqMaPKy9furkwmY7zsu/s1600/blood-13-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1600" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQxFwmk6WwzBeNe9Lz0M1302mvLNAKYkoVo7U334_2pdXvzggcboq77fu_izlXcuH3pWbeFVdNn0u-RGUN6jxGoYaBHUS6u_hPajWX1Vut4Rr19xGlJTqMaPKy9furkwmY7zsu/s200/blood-13-3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The other detective on the case is veteran Lao Zhou (Gang Xie), who's been obsessed with this killer since failing to catch him 15 years ago. I think he's meant to be a tragic figure looking for redemption, but his habit of carrying around the first victim's skull in a wooden box wherever he goes mostly just makes him seem creepy. The characterization of both detectives is pretty minimal, and the killer is the one who gets the most development, in a long monologue toward the end as he explains his evolution as a murderer. None of it is particularly interesting, and the movie especially drags once the audience knows who the killer is and we have to wait for the detectives to figure it out. It's not surprising that director Candy Li has worked on productions in both the U.S. and China, since she seems to have learned all about making bland, forgettable low-budget cop movies directly from the original source.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-90716349242918248992019-11-13T13:13:00.000-08:002019-11-14T03:34:09.186-08:00Triskaidekaphilia: '13th Child' (2002)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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Although it looks like it was shot for a budget of around $100 wherever the filmmakers could grab locations, horror movie <i>13th Child</i> boasts a cast that includes Robert Guillaume, Lesley-Anne Down, Christopher Atkins and Cliff Robertson, whose co-writing credit may explain this inept indie production's ability to attract so many recognizable actors. None of them are doing their best work here, and Down's role, at least, is little more than a cameo. But Robertson throws himself into the part of a strange, wealthy recluse living in rural New Jersey, delivering his lines with the kind of devilish menace that he probably imagined in his head while he was writing the terrible dialogue. If nothing else, <i>13th Child</i> gives a veteran character actor a chance to realize some sort of bizarre personal vision (Robertson's only other writing credits are a 1962 episode of TV Western <i>Outlaws</i> and the 1971 cowboy movie <i>J W Coop</i>, both of which he directed), in one of his final onscreen roles.<br />
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Robertson aside, <i>13th Child</i> is your basic no-budget horror movie, with a story based around the urban legend of the Jersey Devil, a creature that haunts the Pine Barrens, the vast forest area of southern New Jersey. The movie gives the Jersey Devil a back story as the 13th child of a Native American tribe who clashed with early English settlers, although the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Devil">Wikipedia entry</a> doesn't mention anything about Native Americans. Also, for some reason Robertson's Mr. Shroud calls the monster "Bruno," which does seem like a very New Jersey name for an evil entity. Mr. Shroud turns out to be the English priest who initially ordered the Native American man put to death, or at least I think that's what the movie's ending implies. He's definitely not quite human, and he has a supernatural bond of some kind with the Jersey Devil.<br />
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That all sounds a lot more exciting than the movie actually is, since the bulk of the story is about Kathryn (Michelle Maryk), a somewhat snarky investigator for the New Jersey attorney general's office, who's looking into the case of an escaped convict who's been mutilated by some kind of creature deep in the woods. It's not clear why the regular police aren't part of the investigation, and Kathryn teams up with a forest ranger (Atkins) and an officer "on loan" from the NYPD to look into the attack. The trio mostly stand around making awkward jokes and blatantly violating the chain of evidence, at one point leaving a bag of body parts in their car overnight before taking it to a coroner. This is the kind of movie that has the coroner's assistant perform some sort of magical, instantaneous analysis on a strange claw found at the murder scene that can identify it as a combination of multiple types of animal DNA, as well as date its existence back 200 years.<br />
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The other main plot strand involves Guillaume as a mental patient obsessed with the Jersey Devil, and the movie's confusing timeline indicates that his ravings about the creature while locked up in the world's dingiest, most poorly staffed mental institution come after the main events of the story. Most of Guillaume's dialogue is delivered in what sounds like voiceover while director Steven Stockage shoots him from a curiously distant angle, like they just got some random footage of Guillaume stumbling around his cell and then added whatever audio they needed later.<br />
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Really, though, these scenes are no more disjointed or clumsy than the rest of the movie, which includes things like one character struggling to put on a jacket in the foreground of the shot while two other characters have a conversation next to him. The monster barely ever appears onscreen, and the killings are mostly just quick splashes of blood before Stockage cuts away. A disclaimer at the end of the credits states that all of the dead deer seen in the movie (the preferred bait for the Jersey Devil, apparently) were repurposed roadkill, which is just the kind of thrifty yet distasteful technique that exemplifies this odd mess of a movie.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-43491694150469475532019-10-13T13:13:00.000-07:002019-10-13T13:13:02.519-07:00Triskaidekaphilia: 'Investigation 13' (2019)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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A group of college-student ghost hunters lock themselves into a seemingly abandoned, allegedly haunted old insane asylum for the night, determined to record conclusive evidence of the afterlife. The weird old lady who owns the property promises to return for them the next morning. Do you really need any more info to guess what happens next in the rote direct-to-VOD horror movie <i>Investigation 13</i>? It's definitely not that everything goes well and all of the characters leave the asylum the next morning in perfect health, satisfied with the important data they've collected.<br />
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Just because the plot of <i>Investigation 13</i> (the title refers to 12 previous paranormal investigations that have all been inconclusive) has been seen dozens of times before doesn't mean it couldn't be effectively executed. But director and co-writer Krisstian de Lara does an abysmal job of generating scares or constructing a cohesive plot, and the movie fails to make use of even its exceedingly meager resources. A few splashes of very fake-looking blood are about as gruesome or scary as anything gets in <i>Investigation 13</i>, and De Lara relies on crude animatics for the extensive flashbacks to the asylum's history, suggesting, as one Letterboxd commenter pointed out, that the production ran out of money and was forced to use its own storyboards in the finished movie.<br />
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Whether those animated sequences were a deliberate artistic choice or a financial necessity, they're still incredibly ugly and amateurish, sketchy drawings that almost never actually move, layered with stilted voiceover. The acting from the onscreen performers isn't much better, and even genre legend Meg Foster (<i>They Live</i>, <i>The Lords of Salem</i>, <i>Masters of the Universe</i>) doesn't add much to the movie in her brief appearance as the creepy caretaker. Star Stephanie Hernandez spends the entire movie in a distracting, ill-fitting wig, and the male actors mostly just petulantly snipe at each other. In the grand tradition of micro-budget direct-to-video thrillers, the majority of the action involves slowly skulking around poorly lit corridors.<br />
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The boogeyman of the asylum is a former inmate named Leonard Craven (Peter Aratari), who is also nicknamed the Mole Man for reasons that I could never quite figure out. It's not clear if Leonard is meant to be a ghost or just a deranged murderer, but he's pretty corporeal for a ghost, and he'd have to be close to 80 years old (according to the movie's timeline) if he had just been hanging out in the abandoned building all this time. Either way, with his tight black clothing, stringy black hair and steampunk-style goggles, the Mole Man looks more like the singer of an industrial metal band than a possibly immortal psychopath. He's about as unimpressive as horror-movie villains get, which makes the promise in the movie's IMDb summary (presumably written by the filmmakers themselves) of a whole Mole Man franchise about as laughable as everything else in this worthless movie.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-88397024805675166152019-09-19T11:31:00.000-07:002019-09-19T11:31:13.780-07:00Summer School: 'Rambo' (2008)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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When Sylvester Stallone returned to his other iconic movie character with 2006's <i>Rocky Balboa</i>, he took a more thoughtful approach to a character who had become a bit cartoonish, garnering positive reviews and positioning Rocky for a rejuvenation in commercial and critical success with the subsequent <i>Creed</i> movies. That seems to be Stallone's aim with <i>Rambo</i>, which brings back John Rambo after a 20-year absence, and is in some ways grittier and less cartoonish than the second and third Rambo films. But there's nothing thoughtful or sophisticated about this movie; it's a grim, shockingly violent B-movie with virtually no plot that barely runs 80 minutes before the final credits start to roll.<br />
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As the movie opens, Rambo is still living in Thailand, having traded underground stick fights for underground snake handling. He rents out his boat, helps the local handlers catch snakes and does various other odd jobs, living a seemingly quiet life. But that changes when a group of Christian missionaries from Colorado hire him to take them into Burma, where they want to bring medicine and food (and Jesus) to the persecuted Karen people. Stallone (who directed in addition to once again co-writing the screenplay) opens the movie with real-life footage of atrocities in Burma, setting the stage for movie's cheap exploitation, reducing the people of Burma (on both sides of the conflict) to faceless cannon fodder.<br />
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Like Afghanistan in <i>Rambo III</i>, Burma is just a convenient place for Rambo to go kill a bunch of people without feeling conflicted about what side he's on, so it's especially disingenuous for Stallone to pretend like he's doing some sort of humanitarian good deed by highlighting the paramilitary campaign against the Karen minority. The violence in this movie makes the second and third films look like G-rated Disney movies, and Stallone doesn't just rack up the body count; he also makes every kill as graphic and gory as something out of a <i>Saw</i> or <i>Hostel</i> movie, with limbs getting hacked off, heads exploding and blood and guts flying everywhere. At least the second movie humanized Rambo's Vietnamese love interest and the third movie had him bond with an Afghan kid. The Burmese characters in this movie (including the sadistic villain, played by Maung Maung Khin) have no personalities, and what little dialogue they get is often presented without subtitles, as if to further underline how unimportant they are.<br />
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The American missionaries aren't much more fully developed, and the connection between Rambo and compassionate missionary Sarah (Julie Benz) is little more than a plot device to get him in place to slaughter Burmese soldiers. Presumably Rambo's reputation has brought numerous people to him over the past two decades seeking help, so why after all this time is this the one plea he agrees to? There's no personal connection (Richard Crenna died in 2003, so Col. Trautman doesn't show up), and the missionaries' pitch is pretty weak. But Rambo helps them get into the country and then returns to save them when they inevitably get captured, leading a team of generic mercenaries that feel like the sketchy first draft of <i>The Expendables</i>.<br />
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As a character, Rambo is a bit more like the haunted, traumatized veteran of the first movie than the gung-ho warrior of the second and third, but that just makes his murder spree feel like drudgery, the resigned obligation of a man who's no longer fighting against the killing machine that the military turned him into. A single question from Sarah about life at home propels Rambo to the perfunctory epilogue, arriving back at the ranch apparently owned by his never-previously-mentioned father. But this movie is less a culmination of a pop-culture fixture's character arc than a tired, cynical exercise in brand extension.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-5278550689082865882019-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:002019-09-18T12:15:11.386-07:00Summer School: 'Rambo III' (1988)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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As absurd as <i>Rambo: First Blood Part II</i> was, at least it attempted to connect to John Rambo's history with the Vietnam War and his conflicted feelings about how it ended. <i>Rambo III</i> makes no such efforts, instead plugging its title character into a generic action story that could have been a vehicle for Chuck Norris or Dolph Lundgren just as easily as for Sylvester Stallone. After the events of the second movie, Rambo seems to have settled down in Thailand, living on the grounds of a monastery, where he helps the monks with maintenance jobs and probably meditates or something. He also, uh, participates in underground stick fights, which is where Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) tracks him down.<br />
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Trautman and American government functionary Griggs (Kurtwood Smith) want to recruit Rambo for a mission to Afghanistan, where the Soviet army has been waging war against local rebels. Apparently there's one Soviet commander who's so ruthless and effective that Afghan forces can't make any progress against his forces. So Trautman is going on a covert mission to aid the rebels, and he wants Rambo to come along. There's some hand-waving about Rambo being the best soldier of all time or whatever, but otherwise the movie doesn't really care about why Rambo's being recruited for this particular mission. In the movie's only consistent character beat, Rambo declines the offer, but when Trautman goes in alone and is captured by the Soviets, Rambo decides he has to rescue his friend.<br />
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Up to that point, <i>Rambo III</i> is actually somewhat restrained compared to the previous movie, but once Rambo gets to Afghanistan, he just goes ballistic, mowing down every Russian in sight in his quest to rescue Trautman. At one time, <i>Rambo III</i> held the records for both the most expensive movie ever made (surpassed just a year later by <i>Back to the Future Part II</i>) and the most violent movie ever made (a dubious record, but certified by Guinness), and it's not hard to see that onscreen. The second half of the movie features near-constant explosions (which Rambo always easily escapes, of course) and the wholesale slaughter of enemy soldiers, along with most of the Afghan rebels who are foolish enough to offer to help Rambo.<br />
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Stallone once again co-wrote the screenplay, and he and co-writer Sheldon Lettich give Rambo some cheesy one-liners and a kid sidekick, making the character's transformation into a cartoon pretty much complete (Rambo had, of course, starred in an actual cartoon series for kids two years earlier). Crenna at least gets more to do here, even though it makes no sense that a senior officer like Trautman would be sent alone into a war zone. Marc de Jonge sneers as the Soviet villain but doesn't do much else, and Smith, who is great at playing callous government and corporate functionaries, disappears after his first couple of scenes, never turning into the kind of petty, power-tripping bureaucrat that Rambo took on in the first two movies.<br />
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Even more than the intensity and excess of its violence, <i>Rambo III</i> has become notorious for the way it positions the guerrilla fighters of the mujahideen (who would later form the Taliban) as the underdog heroes, with some uncomfortable political prescience when Trautman tells his Russian captor that Afghanistan will be their version of Vietnam. The movie doesn't really have any kind of political message beyond the same patriotic "might makes right" nonsense of the second installment, but its choice of the Afghan setting is telling. At this point, Rambo just needs somewhere he can go and slaughter dozens of people who can be dismissed as soulless enemy fighters, and in 1988, Afghanistan happened to be that place. The closing dedication to "the gallant people of Afghanistan" is just as hollow as all the onscreen ultraviolence that precedes it.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-57639172769564339032019-09-17T12:10:00.000-07:002019-09-17T12:10:19.883-07:00Summer School: 'Rambo: First Blood Part II' (1985)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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The second movie in the Rambo series (and the first to bear the character's name in the title) is the one that really cemented Rambo's place in the pop-culture consciousness. Pretty much any parody or rip-off of Rambo references this movie, which is every bit the excessive, reactionary ode to ultraviolence that <i>First Blood</i> was not. Much of <i>Rambo: First Blood Part II</i> plays like it was made by people who completely misunderstood the point of <i>First Blood</i>, although star Sylvester Stallone once again co-wrote the screenplay (this time with James Cameron). Maybe it was the lack of David Morrell's source novel to guide them, or maybe Stallone just wanted to bolster his career as a star of action blockbusters. Either way, <i>Part II</i> ends up as the epitome of '80s action cheese, pretty much ruining the character of John Rambo in the process.<br />
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The movie opens with Rambo breaking rocks as part of a prison labor gang like he's in a 1930s melodrama, and it seems like he's been living a quiet existence for the past three years. Col. Trautman (Richard Crenna) shows up to change all that, offering Rambo the chance to return to Vietnam for a covert U.S. mission investigating POW camps to see if any American soldiers are still being held prisoner. Everything that we learned about Rambo in the first movie indicates that he wouldn't return to Vietnam for anything, but he doesn't hesitate to agree to Trautman's mission, and he's immediately let out of prison, apparently no longer obligated to serve his sentence for destroying half a small town and assaulting dozens of law enforcement officers.<br />
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None of that matters, because <i>Part II</i> is an entirely different kind of movie, quickly putting Rambo in a position to essentially re-fight the Vietnam War. While his resentment of "not being allowed to win" was just a small part of his overall trauma in the first movie, here it's his reason for existing, and he enters the country with what seems like a vendetta against the Vietnamese. Stallone, Cameron and director George P. Cosmatos turn Rambo into the eager, trigger-happy killer that everyone in the first movie misconstrued him as, and he murders dozens of people starting almost immediately after he enters the country. Discovering that there are in fact American POWs still being held at a prison camp in Vietnam, Rambo guns down every Vietnamese soldier in sight, and then when he's abandoned by the craven bureaucrat (Charles Napier, suitably craven) running the mission, he guns down dozens more, along with some Russian soldiers for good measure.<br />
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<i>Part II</i> isn't just over the top in its characterization of Rambo; it's full of absurdly bombastic action sequences that obliterate the grounded sense of reality of the first movie. Rambo doesn't just shoot a bunch of people and save the POWs; he seems to be literally invulnerable to bullets fired directly at him, and he's able to trigger explosions seemingly on command. At one point he shoots an explosive-tipped arrow at a single Vietnamese soldier armed with a handgun, and the guy blows up like he's a shed full of dynamite. I saw Weird Al Yankovic's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ui9TwNrNEw">Rambo parody</a> in <i>UHF</i> way before seeing this movie, and what struck me most about watching <i>Part II</i> is that Yankovic barely exaggerates its ridiculousness.<br />
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The movie half-heartedly suggests that the spineless American officials represented by Napier's pencil-pusher are the real enemy, but that's hard to buy when Rambo spends all his time killing the Vietnamese (except his offensively cartoonish love interest, who dies in his arms) and the Russians. His killing spree culminates in the murder of the typically massive '80s computer (with lots of flashing lights) that supposedly determines the viability of rescuing POWs. In <i>First Blood</i>, Rambo was unhinged and irrational, a victim of bullying and neglect. Here, he himself is the bully, the filmmakers turning his justified frustration into crowd-pleasing bloodlust.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-49174651165973642972019-09-16T11:26:00.000-07:002019-09-16T11:26:03.935-07:00Summer School: 'First Blood' (1982)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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The first movie in the Rambo series doesn't even have the character's name in the title, and bears little resemblance to the cheesy, over-the-top jingoistic violence that forms the franchise's pop-culture reputation. <i>First Blood</i> is actually quite critical of America and American policy, especially the way that veterans are discarded and mistreated. Far from an indestructible action hero, Sylvester Stallone's John Rambo is a broken man suffering from severe PTSD, abandoned by his government and without any friends or family. The Vietnam veteran literally wanders into a small town in Washington after discovering that the only other survivor from his unit has succumbed to cancer.<br />
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All Rambo wants is something to eat and maybe an honest day's work, but the intolerant sheriff (played to asshole perfection by Brian Dennehy) doesn't take kindly to long-haired drifters in his town (although Rambo's hair is barely long enough to qualify him for a .38 Special cover band), and he hassles Rambo the moment he sets foot inside the town limits. When Rambo exhibits quiet defiance to the unlawful order to leave town, the sheriff arrests him for vagrancy, taking him to a police station where the small-town cops take sadistic pleasure in their abusive power trip over a seemingly helpless vagrant.<br />
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Despite his fragile emotional state, though, Rambo is far from helpless, and when the cops' treatment triggers flashbacks to his experience being tortured by the Viet Cong, he snaps, attacking the officers and fleeing from the police station, eventually establishing a strategic position in the dense forest outside of town. He just wants them to leave him alone, but the sheriff is now consumed by vengeance, enlisting the help of the state police and the National Guard to flush Rambo out and capture him. The title refers to Rambo's assertion that the cops were the ones who drew "first blood," and throughout the movie he goes out of his way not to kill anyone, even when he's not afforded the same courtesy. The only law enforcement death is accidental, caused at least as much by overzealous bloodlust as by any of Rambo's actions.<br />
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Stallone (who also co-wrote the screenplay, based on David Morrell's novel) makes good use of his limited acting range as a taciturn, traumatized loner. Rambo barely speaks until an emotional monologue at the end, which could seem a little overwrought but works as an expression of all the pent-up emotions that this trained killer has been keeping inside for way too long. The middle stretch of the film, as Rambo hides out in the woods, taking out the ill-prepared men chasing him, is tense and stark and full of well-crafted action, with Dennehy and Richard Crenna (as the military officer who trained Rambo to be a deadly weapon) sparring sharply over what to do about the situation.<br />
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Even before the final monologue, the climax goes a little too broad, as Rambo comes into town and starts exploding and machine-gunning everything in sight (even while scrupulously avoiding endangering any civilians). But Stallone and director Ted Kotcheff keep the focus on Rambo's expression of mental trauma, and the violence is always an outgrowth of that. Rambo lashes out at both protesters and the law-enforcement establishment, showing how alienated he is from all sides of the political spectrum. <i>First Blood</i> isn't liberal or conservative; it's just about human frailty, something that anyone can understand and sympathize with, regardless of their political perspective.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-78061010030433717112019-09-13T13:13:00.000-07:002019-09-13T13:13:02.199-07:00Triskaidekaphilia: 'The 13th Friday' (2017)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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It's been a little while since I ran out of movies from the <i>Friday the 13th</i> franchise to feature in this series, but the concept of Friday the 13th is such a potent source for horror that there are still <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2015/03/triskaidekaphilia-shriek-if-you-know.html">plenty of</a> <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2018/07/triskaidekaphilia-friday-13th-orphan.html">other</a> <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2010/09/triskaidekaphilia-friday-thirteenth.html">movies</a> that riff on that idea (and may get a little boost from the opportunistic association with a well-known property). Justin Price's straight-to-VOD crapfest <i>The 13th Friday</i> definitely falls into this category, with a title designed to catch the eye of Jason Voorhees fans even though the movie itself bears no resemblance to the adventures of the hockey mask-wearing killer. A <i>Friday the 13th</i> rip-off probably would have been more watchable than this completely incoherent mess, which makes absolutely no sense and contains nothing resembling scares or suspense.<br />
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I'm not even sure I can recount the basic plot, since the movie jumps around abruptly from scene to scene and character to character in such a haphazard manner that I was almost never sure what was happening or how the people onscreen were connected to each other. The movie opens with both expository title cards and expository narration, both of which begin with "It is said ..." and offer no useful information for what is about to happen. There's a prologue that is apparently set in the early 1900s featuring a woman setting her young daughter on fire, and as one Letterboxd user pointed out, the girl in this supposed period setting is wearing braces on her teeth.<br />
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That kind of sloppy inattention to basic detail is a hallmark of Price's work, which I've actually encountered before via his equally dreadful Christmas-themed horror movies <i>The Elf</i> and <i><a href="https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/21/18136600/new-christmas-horror-movies-2018">Elves</a></i>. After the prologue, <i>Friday</i> introduces a bunch of people hanging out at the world's most listless party, holding obviously empty red Solo cups as they stand outside this supposedly haunted house (which is also a church, maybe?). The actors all deliver their lines so completely devoid of emotion that you could almost imagine this movie as some sort of experimental performance-art project commenting on terrible no-budget horror movies. But no, it's just a cheap, rushed production that follows these interchangeable people as they all die in various ways after they're cursed by this evil house (where they voluntarily have a party, for some reason).<br />
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The curse involves an object that looks kind of like the puzzle box from <i><a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2011/10/hell-week-hellraiser-1987.html">Hellraiser</a></i>, but apparently is some sort of calendar that requires the group to sacrifice someone each month for 13 months (hence the title, I guess, although there is more than one Friday in a month). Price awkwardly fast-forwards through most of this, killing and introducing characters so clumsily that I had no idea who was who, even when he sort of settles on Lisa May's Allison as the protagonist. Some of the victims get sacrificed in a cave, although I could never figure out where the cave was or how they got there. There are some crappy-looking monsters that are obviously people in flimsy masks, but then there are also characters who are supposed to be wearing flimsy masks to make themselves look like monsters, I guess?<br />
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Anyway, it all relates to the young girl from the prologue being possessed by Satan, I think, and also to the erasure of the cursed 13th month of the year from the ancient calendar (also a plot point in the similarly awful bargain-basement horror movie <i><a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2013/10/triskaidekaphilia-131313-2013.html">13/13/13</a></i>). It doesn't matter, because the climax just involves the remaining characters wandering around the haunted house before the movie ends abruptly without resolving anything. May, who's worked with Price on multiple projects, delivers all of her lines in a sort of halting whisper, and the rest of the cast sound like they're being fed their lines one word at a time. The special effects are so rinky-dink that you can practically see the strings holding up the ghostly sheets, and even basic things like spiders and butterflies are created with horribly unconvincing CGI. Somehow Price keeps getting funding and distribution for these abominations (I watched this one on Hulu), but he's clearly not doing anything to improve his craft as a filmmaker.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-61372187672619226772019-08-22T04:49:00.004-07:002019-08-22T04:49:45.503-07:00Summer School: 'London Has Fallen' (2016)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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Nothing about <i>Olympus Has Fallen</i> called out for a sequel, and I'd be surprised if anyone involved in its production expected there to be a follow-up. But the movie was successful enough that three years later Gerard Butler returned as Secret Service superhero Mike Banning, once again forced to protect U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) by murdering as many terrorists as possible. <i>London Has Fallen</i> is even more hyper-violent than its predecessor, with more grossly xenophobic pandering, and Mike comes across less as a freakishly competent agent than as a psychopath who gets off on killing.<br />
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While the action in <i>Olympus</i> was pretty much confined the under-siege White House, <i>London</i> takes place across the city of London, as well as above it, allowing director Babak Najafi to stage more elaborate action sequences, although the shoddy effects (even shakier than in the last movie) hold him back from doing anything particularly impressive. There are car chases and helicopter crashes and lots of explosions, but none of it carries any weight. Late in the movie, there's a stitched-together single-take shot of Mike infiltrating a terrorist stronghold, and it looks just like gameplay footage from a video game, with Mike as the deliberately blank protagonist. That's representative of the movie as a whole, which has a sort of plug-and-play feel with characters thrown into a generic action-movie template.<br />
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That template involves some anonymous Middle Eastern terrorists staging an attack on world leaders who are in London for the funeral of the British Prime Minister. <i>Olympus</i> sacrificed the leader of South Korea as a plot catalyst; here the filmmakers raise the stakes by killing at least five heads of state within a few minutes. Of course Asher manages to escape thanks to Mike's projected invulnerability and unerring aim (he shoots multiple bad guys in the head before even getting Asher into their getaway car), and then the terrorists are focused solely on tracking him down so they can complete their revenge for an American drone strike on the head terrorist's family.<br />
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Although Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt return as the screenwriters (with additional writing from several others), <i>London</i> is more focused on snarky dialogue and mean-spirited jabs than <i>Olympus</i> was. People most remember the infamous "Go back to Fuckheadistan" line, but Mike spends the whole movie throwing out racist and dehumanizing insults that make him sound like he places no value on human life. It's a strange approach to a character who's meant to be a hero, someone with a stronger moral code than the bad guys. But Mike's really just the American flip side of the equally vengeance-driven Middle Eastern terrorists. It turns what should be a fun action movie into an angry rant about foreign policy, making it hard to enjoy even on the level of mindless trash.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-83433647316948623502019-08-21T03:48:00.000-07:002019-08-21T03:48:16.242-07:00Summer School: 'Olympus Has Fallen' (2013)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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When <i>Olympus Has Fallen</i> was released in 2013, most of the media attention was focused on it as the first of two very similar movies about terrorists attacking the White House, released just months apart. Yet somehow, while both <i>Olympus</i> and Roland Emmerich's <i>White House Down</i> (released three months later) were idiotic, loud, overblown action movies with nonsensical plotting and terrible dialogue, <i>Olympus</i> became a huge surprise hit, spawning an unlikely franchise for grim, single-minded Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler).<br />
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As a character, Mike is completely uninteresting, with barely any personality or back story in this movie, even with an opening prologue that provides him with motivation to seek redemption. As a conduit for violence, he's brutally efficient, plowing his way through dozens of faceless henchmen in his single-minded mission to rescue captive U.S. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart). The movie opens with a car accident in a snowstorm as Asher and his family are on their way to a Christmas party, and Mike is following behind. Mike saves Asher from a car that's skidded off the road and is dangling from a bridge, but Asher's wife (Ashley Judd) plummets to her death, and Mike is tortured by his inability to save them both.<br />
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A year and a half later, Mike has been relegated to a desk job at the Treasury Department, but of course he manages to infiltrate the White House when it's taken over by a Korean terrorist organization. Mike is so absurdly competent that literally every other character, aside from Asher and his aides, is disposable cannon fodder. Either they're easily dispatched minions of terrorist mastermind Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune), or they're fellow U.S. operatives who lack Mike's skills and apparent invulnerability (he makes it through the entire movie without so much as a humanizing flesh wound). Mike single-handedly takes down the bad guys, to the point where he's giving Speaker of the House (and acting president) Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) orders, as the country's top military officials sit dumbfounded in a control room.<br />
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Butler is one of Hollywood's most inexplicably successful actors, and his performance here is just as flat and one-dimensional as usual, complete with his typically terrible American accent. Poor Radha Mitchell is stuck in the suffering-spouse role as Mike's nurse wife in a handful of scenes, but Mike never comes off like a real person. The easy shorthand for this movie is "<i>Die Hard</i> in the White House," but John McClane had a genuine emotional life that made his heroism more meaningful (at least in the first movie). The filmmakers here (including director Antoine Fuqua in one of his worst efforts) are interested only in excessive violence and over-the-top patriotism, from the slow-motion unfurling of the American flag to Melissa Leo's secretary of defense literally reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as the bad guys drag her away. It's crass, disingenuous pandering that turned out be disgustingly effective.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-84326801888113849312019-08-13T13:13:00.000-07:002019-08-13T13:13:07.804-07:00Triskaidekaphilia: '13 Hours by Air' (1936)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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It's pretty amazing how much air travel has changed in the last 80-plus years, as is plain to see in the otherwise forgettable 1936 B-movie <i>13 Hours by Air</i>. Directed by journeyman Mitchell Leisen and starring affable but bland Fred MacMurray as pilot Jack Gordon, <i>13 Hours</i> strolls leisurely through its brief 74-minute running time, only generating mild suspense toward the end. The title refers to the time it takes for a United Airlines flight to get from New York to San Francisco, making numerous stops along the way. Jack is first a passenger before taking over as pilot on the second half of the journey, but his fellow passengers mostly remain the same, including socialite Felice Rollins (Joan Bennett), with whom he shares a low-key flirtation.<br />
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MacMurray and Bennett have some appealing chemistry, but their romance, like everything in this sedate movie, is pretty underwhelming. There are only a handful of passengers on the flight, including an annoying spoiled brat named Waldemar (Bennie Bartlett) and his exasperated nanny (Zasu Pitts); a pair of suspicious men (Brian Donlevy and Alan Baxter) who turn out to be a bank robber and the FBI agent tracking him; and a haughty aristocrat (Fred Keating) trying to stop Felice from getting to San Francisco for reasons that are not very interesting once they're revealed. There's only slight intrigue in seeing these various plot threads develop, and the movie mostly proceeds at the same unhurried pace as its titular flight.<br />
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Eventually, there's a bit of danger, as the plane is forced into an emergency landing by inclement weather, and the bank robber decides to finally reveal himself and threaten his fellow passengers. Even with all the gunplay (of course in 1936, anyone could bring a gun on board an airplane without any interference), nobody seems like they're in much danger, and loudmouthed Waldemar ends up saving the day somehow. Even dedicated MacMurray or Bennett fans could easily skip this one, as both actors coast through the undemanding roles. The best reason to see the movie is really to witness the early incarnation of commercial air travel, when passengers could just wander into the cockpit or open the outside door mid-flight. That stuff is far more attention-grabbing than anything in the sleepy plot.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-75646900767678640842019-07-13T13:13:00.000-07:002019-07-13T15:22:19.578-07:00Triskaidekaphilia: '3:13' (2015)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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One of the great things about Amazon Prime is that it's so open, allowing indie filmmakers to post their small-scale, micro-budget productions without many barriers, so that they can be discovered by viewers around the world. Of course, most small-scale, micro-budget productions are terrible, so Amazon Prime is also full of obscure trash, making it very hard to discern what's worth seeing in this avalanche of anonymous content. I watched David Jaure's <i>3:13</i> because its title fits this project, but I can't imagine anyone other than the friends and family of the people involved in making this movie stumbling across it online and actually sitting through the entire thing.<br />
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I suppose Jaure has good intentions in creating this drama about the life of a homeless man following the 2008 financial crisis. The movie opens with an epigram about homelessness that is full of tortured syntax, but the bottom line is that Jaure is attempting to engender empathy for the forgotten and ignored people who live on the streets. Unfortunately he fails in pretty much every respect, and even the efforts to make main character Peter Grecco (Paul Alexandro) sympathetic as he struggles to survive often achieve the opposite effect. Peter speaks in stilted voiceover about his plight, making laughable pseudo-philosophical pronouncements like "What does 'human being' mean? Is it being human?"<br />
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The acting is terrible, the story is clumsy and heavy-handed, and Peter himself comes off like a selfish idiot who's largely responsible for his own situation. Flashbacks show Peter eagerly signing up for an unsustainable interest-only home loan, and Jaure seems so determined to demonstrate how corrupt the loan practices were leading up to the financial crisis that he has the loan officer plainly tell Peter that they are committing fraud. And yet Peter doesn't hesitate to go for it! His wife leaves him for reasons that are unclear, and then he refuses to come visit their young daughter, even after she begs him. He packs up and leaves his house seemingly hours after losing his job, not bothering to fight to keep it, just like he doesn't bother to fight for his family.<br />
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It's hard to say whether that's a character flaw or just poor filmmaking from Jaure. There are a lot of weird inconsistencies in this movie that may or may nor be intentional. At one point Peter is stalked and shot multiple times by some teenage thrill-seekers, and the bullet holes in his back have just disappeared by a few scenes later, without any medical attention. Those thrill-seekers show up again at the end of the movie, which shifts abruptly from its empathetic tone to a doom-and-gloom screed about human nature, as Peter winds up killed (at 3:13 in the morning, hence the title) by being set on fire by some faceless assailants while he's sleeping on a bench.<br />
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It's inspired by real-life attacks on homeless people, but it's so jarring and poorly depicted (with fake-looking CGI fire) that it's mostly just laughable. After a Bible quote (from a passage also reference by the title), the credits roll adjacent to interviews with some real homeless people, which are far more genuine and affecting than anything in the preceding movie. Maybe Jaure should have just made a documentary instead.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-17624159127081849332019-06-19T11:00:00.000-07:002019-06-19T11:00:08.714-07:00Summer School: 'Toy Story 3' (2010)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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By the time Pixar got around to <i>Toy Story 3</i>, 11 years after the release of <i>Toy Story 2</i>, the property was deeply entrenched as a major part of people's childhoods -- and their adulthoods, too, thanks to the relatable themes of growing up and moving on. The third movie really leans into those themes, with a story that repeats a lot of the plot elements of the second movie, but with higher stakes, more intense emotions and more beautifully rendered computer animation. Often regarded as the best movie in the series, <i>Toy Story 3</i> gets a little too emotionally manipulative for my tastes, but it's still wonderfully entertaining and emotionally rich, a perfect capper to the trilogy (even if a fourth movie is on the way this week).<br />
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Once again, the toys are worried about being discarded, this time because Andy is all grown up and headed to college. And once again, a mix-up leads to some of the toys being carted off to an unfamiliar place, in this case to the seemingly idyllic Sunnyside Daycare. While in <i>Toy Story 2</i>, it was just Woody (Tom Hanks) who'd been taken away, here it's Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and all the remaining supporting toys who get donated to Sunnyside, and Woody, who's been packed away to join Andy in his college dorm, must break in and save them from being demolished by reckless toddlers. So there's another rescue mission in another location where the toys meet a whole bunch of new characters, only this time the stakes are even higher (by the end, the toys are in imminent danger of being incinerated).<br />
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Still, the Sunnyside location is impressively envisioned, and the tyrannical Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty) is easily the series' best villain. Woody's fixation on staying with Andy at all costs is starting to get a little tiresome by this point, and the reversion of Buzz to an oblivious simpleton who thinks he's an actual Space Ranger seems like a step backward for the character, who's never been as fully developed as Woody in the later movies. All of the plot and character elements come together perfectly in the central prison-break sequence, though, which is far more elaborate than the breakout in <i>Toy Story 2</i> and benefits from even further advances in computer animation. The new and returning characters fit together well to create an immersive world of toy-based conflict.<br />
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And then the movie kind of overplays its hand with the climax at the garbage dump, which puts the toys in actual mortal peril for the first time, and features multiple fake-outs that string the audience along (even though it's obvious that Disney/Pixar isn't going to kill off some of its most popular characters in a movie aimed at kids). The final scene between Andy and young Bonnie, as he passes his toys to a new generation, is equally manipulative in a different way, pressing way too hard on the feelings of nostalgia and regret that were more gently evoked in the second movie. Sure, it gets (mostly adult) viewers to cry, but it's a little cheap. That said, the overall sentiment is lovely, and it does find a satisfying way to end the story, while emphasizing the circle of life (to quote another Disney movie). If Pixar is getting corporate pressure to keep returning to this well, at least they do justice to it each time.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-35589342870202111042019-06-18T11:53:00.000-07:002019-06-18T11:53:00.186-07:00Summer School: 'Toy Story 2' (1999)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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Although the original <i>Toy Story</i> was a huge success and a major catalyst for the shift from hand-drawn to computer animation in feature films, 1999's <i>Toy Story 2</i>, released four years after the first movie, is really what cemented the series' reputation as Pixar's crown jewel and a wellspring of melancholy emotion. In the first movie, the toys were a little concerned about being usurped in Andy's favor by new arrivals, but it was a relatively minor issue that was mainly a plot device to generate conflict between Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). The sequel is all about the fear of mortality and obsolescence, with Woody experiencing an existential crisis after his arm gets torn and he's accidentally put out at a garage sale.<br />
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Before Woody can get back to the other toys in Andy's room, he's snatched up by greedy toy collector Al (Wayne Knight) and placed in a display case in Al's apartment for imminent sale to a vintage toy museum in Japan. It turns out that Woody is based on an obscure children's TV character from the 1950s, and any toys of the characters from <i>Woody's Roundup</i> are now sought-after collector's items. While the first movie provided plenty of back story for the Buzz Lightyear character, the sequel does the same for Woody, including giving him a group of supporting characters. The toys for Woody's pals Jessie (Joan Cusack), Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) and Bullseye the horse are already in Al's possession, just waiting for Woody to arrive so they can be a full set suitable for museum display.<br />
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Jessie has become an integral part of the <i>Toy Story</i> franchise, and she has lively chemistry with Woody, who of course just wants to get home to Andy. The other toys mount an extensive rescue mission to save Woody from Al's high-rise apartment, taking a detour to Al's Toy Barn, where they encounter new friends and foes. The rescue operation and the new toy-filled environment are the core elements of each movie in the series, but this movie offers probably the best versions of them, especially in the aisles of the toy store. What happens when kids leave their toys behind has emerged as the central theme of the franchise, and Woody's big decision here is whether to join the museum display or return to Andy's room and risk eventually being discarded.<br />
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Al and Stinky Pete are both worthy villains, especially since Pete's motives are not hard to understand (he wants the <i>Roundup</i> gang to stay together so they aren't put back into deep storage). The mission to infiltrate Al's apartment is fun and suspenseful, and the balance between humor and pathos is well-maintained. Even just four years after the original movie, techniques for computer animation have improved dramatically, and the opening <i>Star Wars</i>-style sequence of Buzz's adventures in space (as part of a video game) is still pretty awe-inspiring. <i>Toy Story 2</i> has often been cited as the rare sequel that improves on its predecessor, but all of this movie's strengths come from the groundwork laid in the first installment. It's an expert expansion on an elegant, resonant concept.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-3223193846662512682019-06-17T12:45:00.000-07:002019-06-17T12:45:00.205-07:00Summer School: 'Toy Story' (1995)<i>Once again, I'm looking back at previous installments of some of this summer's big returning franchises.</i><br />
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With the current proliferation of computer-animated movies, it's easy to forget how revolutionary Pixar's <i>Toy Story</i> was when it was released in 1995. The idea of a full-length feature created entirely via CGI that could rival the hand-drawn animated movies from Disney was unimaginable just a few years earlier, and probably still unimaginable to many when <i>Toy Story</i> was released. From the perspective of 2019, <i>Toy Story</i> looks a bit unsophisticated, with animation less detailed and elaborate than in much lower-profile current CG-animated movies (and the human characters are stuck in the uncanny valley). But even if Pixar's animators didn't have as many strands of hair or facial details to work with, they still make every character distinctive and appealing, and it's a testament to the creativity of this movie that even as CGI technology has improved drastically, the core design of all these characters has remained the same.<br />
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The cutting-edge visuals wouldn't mean much without great characters and an engaging narrative, though, and while <i>Toy Story</i> may seem a little thematically slight compared to later Pixar movies (and to its own sequels), it's still consistently entertaining, with a lively story, clever dialogue and well-drawn characters who've deservedly become part of the Disney pantheon (now that Disney owns Pixar). Tom Hanks' cowboy toy Woody and Tim Allen's space-ranger toy Buzz Lightyear have such great chemistry that I had forgotten that the first movie was about a rivalry between the two, with Buzz as the fancy new toy that young Andy (John Morris) gets for his birthday. Woody is insecure and jealous that Buzz may become Andy's new favorite toy, while Buzz is oblivious to his existence as an action figure and believes that he's a real space explorer.<br />
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It's a simple, straightforward story that allows for simple, straightforward lessons about believing in yourself and embracing differences, and celebrates the power of friendship (as expressed in Randy Newman's theme song "You've Got a Friend in Me," easily one of the best songs in Disney animated cinema). Woody and Buzz are both a bit self-centered and inconsiderate, which gets them into increasingly desperate situations as Andy's family prepares to move into a new house and the toys need to ensure that they aren't left behind. But the main characters are never unpleasant or irritating, and their screw-ups come from places of wanting to do better and be better, so they are always likable. The supporting characters are charming and funny, with great voice work all around (it's no wonder that <i>Toy Story 4</i> plans to use archival recordings of Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head, since he seems irreplaceable).<br />
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The idea of toys that come to life when kids aren't around is such a strong hook that this movie doesn't need much else. Woody and Buzz's odyssey away from Andy's house drags at times, and its outcome is of course predetermined, but exploring the secret world of toys is the real appeal here. There's genuine creepiness among the cobbled-together toys of neighborhood bully Sid, and there's a sense of wonder to the whole new universe of toys at the kid-friendly arcade Pizza Planet. <i>Toy Story</i> only scratches the surface of a world with endless possibilities. It's a sweet, low-key beginning to a sweeping saga.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8666879.post-23207188020476417672019-06-13T13:13:00.000-07:002019-06-13T21:02:05.529-07:00Triskaidekaphilia: '13 Style Strike' (1979)<i>On the 13th of each month, I write about a movie whose title contains the number 13.</i><br />
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I've written about numerous <a href="https://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2017/08/triskaidekaphilia-13-worms-1970.html">martial</a> <a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2014/10/triskaidekaphilia-13-cold-blooded.html">arts</a> <a href="http://signalbleed.blogspot.com/2016/07/triskaidekaphilia-ninjas-condors-13-1987.html">movies</a> over the course of this project, and they've almost all been terrible: cheap-looking, poorly written, incomprehensibly plotted, broadly acted and completely lacking in suspense or excitement. Probably that's a byproduct of the kinds of movies that end up being retitled for home video with the number 13 in them; most of the horror movies I've written about suffer from the same problems. But since I have a general aversion to martial arts movies, I probably have less patience for these shoddy examples than I do for the many, many terrible horror movies I've seen over the years. I tend to tune out during even the most elegantly staged fight scenes, which I find inherently repetitive and dull. That's not to say that I've never enjoyed a martial arts movie, but it's often other elements (plot, character, set and costume design, cinematography) that draw me in.<br />
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All of which is to say that 1979's <i>13 Style Strike</i> (also known as <i>Eighth Wonder of Kung Fu</i>) is very bad, and not just because it's a cheap martial arts movie. The plot is more or less incomprehensible, the characters are difficult to tell apart, the editing is choppy, and the fight scenes are sloppily staged, with punches and kicks that often land only vaguely near their targets. Some of the flaws can be blamed on the English-language version available to watch on Amazon Prime, which in addition to its laughable dubbing may have been edited for the American market (it runs just 76 minutes) and had its sound effects added or changed (the entire soundtrack, not just the dialogue, sounds like it was overdubbed). Amazon's video was clearly copied directly from VHS (including multiple tracking problems, which are always hilarious to see on streaming video), and no one's bothered to restore this poorly made obscurity.<br />
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I've thus far avoided recounting the plot, because I'm not quite sure I know what it is. There's a kung-fu school in what characters keep referring to as Shanghai, even though the movie is from Taiwan. A couple of white American businessmen have imported an American martial-arts champion to fight against Chinese kung-fu masters for some reason. There are references to the combination between Western and Eastern styles (maybe 13 of them?), and in an early scene, one of the kung-fu champions fights an American boxer, complete with boxing gloves. I'm tempted to credit this movie with inventing mixed martial arts, but that would imply that I understood what was happening.<br />
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There's also a rivalry between local kung-fu masters, one of whom is also a crime lord, maybe. There's a kung-fu champion taking the fall for an accidental killing by his brother (or student?), getting sent to jail, breaking out of jail, becoming a kung-fu clown (?), and then triumphantly returning to take on the American challenger. I guess this guy is the hero of the movie, although he doesn't really seem any more important than any of the other characters, whose relationships to each other are always unclear, until the movie gets close to its climax. There are a handful of cool moments in a late-film fight sequence at a construction site, but otherwise the action is listless, and since it's hard to figure out what the characters are fighting for and why, there's very little rooting interest in these anonymous ciphers. This certainly isn't a kung-fu movie for anyone but the most dedicated schlock fans.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06119251227853197640noreply@blogger.com0