2024 Cinema (Picks and Pans)

Watched Andrew Bujalski's "Computer Chess", an indie film on the early days of computer geekdom.

A mockumentary that is periodically interesting, featuring some bizarre characters.

Not altogether successful.

Saw a matinee performance of Yorgos Lanthimos' "Poor Things" and Sherron and were amazed at how good the movie is.

Not a single false note, the acting, set design and cinematography of the highest order.

Far superior to "Oppenheimer" and any of the other films being touted as Oscar contenders.

Genuinely original, brilliant from start to finish.

Best film we've seen in ages.

>2 CliffBurns:, already on my must-see list, but that affirms it.

Neil Jordan's "Marlowe" last night.

Dreadful film, completely phony and off-key, right from the opening frames.

Had high hopes with Jordan at the helm but this flick is tuneless and if anyone on the production staff had read a Chandler novel, I'd be amazed.

Avoid like an angry rattlesnake.

"La Piscine", a story of love and entangled lives set in the south of France, featuring three of the most beautiful people alive in 1969, Alain Delon, Romy Schneider and Jane Birkin.

Interesting for the first half, but the film started to drag and ended up being a half hour overlong.

Still worth a look.

>5 CliffBurns: Yes, I DNFed 'La Piscine' but I have to admit Delon and Schneider were the ultimate beautiful couple. They beat Brangelina any day.

And then throw Jane Birkin into the mix--more eye candy than a store window filled with varieties of Swiss chocolates.

A godawful Western last night, "Dead For a Dollar", starring Willem Defoe and Christopher Waltz.

Again (as in Jordan's "Marlowe", viewed a few night ago), there's not a real or authentic moment in this movie. And everyone looks so clean, even the streets don't have any piles of horseshit evident. No one sweats and even though there are two African-American characters and they run afoul of some nasty crackers, no one dares use the "N" word.

Walter Hill's "The Long Riders" is my all time favorite Western (and, of course, he was one of the creators of "Deadwood"), but this film is simply deplorable, almost laughable.

James Whale Bake Sale is a curious account on YouTube. It is a collection of short snippets of filmmakers and other celebrities talking about other people's films. There's some interesting stuff. Below some examples:

Bergman on Taxi Driver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M01-L9e3VOc

Various artists on Robert Bresson:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuZ39Zg1u-w

Quentin Tarantino on Ishiro Honda (not so short)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9j29UXqllj4

"Daybreakers" last night, directed by the Spierig brothers.

Not nearly as smart or accomplished as their later film "Predestination".

A near future where a virus has turned most people into vampires--only 5% of humanity remains, many existing in facilities where they are "farmed' for blood.

Gory and unbelievable and featuring Ethan Hawke, an actor I've never cared for.

Not my cup of tea (or blood, for that matter).

"Eo", directed by Jerzy Skolimowski.

Winner of the 2022 Jury Prize at Cannes.

I'm not...sure.

Intriguing aspects to this film but some of the aesthetic choices seem...odd. The hallucinatory sequences are out of synch with the rest of the movie and, while I applaud its intent (highlighting the many cruelties and indignities humankind inflict on animals), I just found the whole thing didn't quite come together.

A matter of taste, I suppose, others might find it much more appealing than me.

"Memories of Underdevelopment", directed by Tomas Gutierrez Alea.

Produced in post-revolutionary Cuba, very professionally photographed and edited, with an exceptional cast.

Recommended.

"The Prestige", directed by Christopher Nolan.

Based on a novel by Christopher Priest, recently departed, which is why I borrowed a copy.

Loved the twists and turns, two strong leads, good evocation of the period...and David Bowie as Tesla was an inspired choice.

Not normally a big fan of Nolan's work--the bombastic soundtracks and, in the case of "Tenet", an incoherent plot--but this one impressed.

And good to know Priest approved of the adaptation, which makes it all the better.

>13 CliffBurns: Chris wrote a short book on his relationship with the film: The Magic: the story of a film.

"Y Tu, Mama, También", directed by Alfonso Cuaron.

Okay film, but I didn't find it particularly engrossing or (despite its advertising) greatly erotic.

A charming, insubstantial story, which left no lasting impact on me.

"Memories of Murder", directed by Bong Jong Ho.

An early film from the Oscar-winning director of "Parasite" and it's a good one.

A serial killer is terrorizing a rural area and the local cops receive help in the form of an inspector from Seoul. Styles and personalities clash and, meanwhile, the killer continues his gruesome, relentless work.

Well-acted, terrific cinematography, exceptional film.

"Skinamarink", written, edited and directed by Kyle Edward Ball.

An "experimental" horror film, set in a family home where the parents are absent and two small children are left on their own in an increasingly malevolent environment.

Slow-moving, very little happens and I think this would have made a far better short film.

Not without its appeal and give the young director credit for doing what he could with a budget of $15,000.

"Suburbicon", directed by George Clooney.

The script (by the Coen Brothers) dates back thirty years but George and his creative partner dusted it off, adapted it and what results is a pretty good movie. It gets progressively darker, the comedy and drama mixing well. I thought the racial subplot (no spoilers) was dealt with in a perfunctory fashion at the end, but for the most part found it an agreeable, occasionally never-racking cinematic experience. The child actor, Noah June, and Julianne Moore were particularly good.

Watching “Three Body Problem “ on Netflix & finding it wonderfully entertaining (as opposed to so much heralded but turn out to drivel shows on the site) . Here is something to prepare you for the multidimensional alien encounters;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CtjhWhw2I8

Takeshi Miike's "Audition".

Miike is a big favorite of Tarantino's, who hypes his films at every opportunity.

A widower decides it's time to remarry and a friend in movies suggests he hold a series of auditions to find a wife. One particular candidate catches the widower's eye...and it turns out to be the wrong gal in many, many ways.

Psychological thriller with a genuinely gruesome finale (and I mean gruesome). Not for all tastes but certainly an experience.

Daguerreotypes by Agnes Varda. I don't think I've seen an Agnes Varda film that I don't like. This one is a very simple essay on people that had businesses on her street in Paris (Rue Daguerre). Lovely. 1975 has never looked so prehistoric.

No Bears by Jafar Panahi. Panahi playing a fictional Panahi is filming a docudrama in a remote village in Iran. The film has a whiff of Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us and made me wonder if it was an homage. Critics raved about it. Not a bad film but I found it convoluted. 3 Faces, one of my favorite films of 2023, was more straight forward. In any case Panahi is always pleasant company.

24 Frames by Abbas Kiarostami. For his last project Kiarostami wanted to recreate some of the photographs that he had taken over the years and imagine a before and an after. It's a beautiful concept, a meditation on art and life from a artist facing his own mortality. As film though it's not quite successful. The images are gorgeous and intriguing but it is hard to identify a before and an after. Not much happens on the screen, not enough to sustain my attention anyway. Sad to report that I only watched 12 of the 24 frames.

Almost forgot:
Gate of Hell by Teinosuke Kinugasa. An imperial warrior falls in love with a lady in waiting who happens to be married, so he becomes a real jerk. Story is very simple, almost feels like a parable. Main character is kind of a toxic idiot so not the most fun movie to watch. Gorgeous colors though. Won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1953.

"The Last Voyage of the Demeter", fair to middling horror movie from director Andre Ovredal.

Based on a single chapter from DRACULA, the Count's immortal remains transported from Bulgaria to Whitby, England. When the Demeter arrives, the entire crew is dead and an ancient horror is unleashed.

Only sporadically interesting, though I did find the foley sound very creepy.

"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny", directed by James Mangold.

It took, count 'em, four writers and three editors to make a sense out of this mishmash.

Saw it because I'm a completist and a sucker for nostalgia--Sherron fell asleep halfway through (coincidentally enough, right after Antonio Banderas played his small, non-essential part).

Overlong and annoyingly unbelievable, even for a film of its type.

>23 CliffBurns:, it couldn't recapture the magic for me either. The best I can say is that it surpassed Crystal Skull, a low bar. Sure, Indiana is as old as Ford and they wisely weren't disguising it, but an Indiana Jones movie requires more in the way of creative problem solving under crisis, which only one moment fulfilled for me (the horse ride though the subway tunnel).

Where is the Friend's House? by Kiarostami. A boy's mistake could create immense problems for his friend so he desperately tries to find his house in a neighboring town. In the thinnest of plots small details are huge and Kiarostami knows how to see the world through a child's eyes. Reminded me of White Balloon by Panahi, which came out later. That one is warmer and in my opinion more successful. Kiarostami's is not bad. It made it into Kurosawa's list of 100 favorite movies of all time. It has some beautiful moments, and lots of running.

Greta Gerwig describes what's good in it better than me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEzdNESa4mY

"The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes", directed by Billy Wilder.

Haven't seen it for more than 2 decades, rewatched it for fun.

First half of film pretty good but the movie begins to drag, then introduces a ludicrous sub-plot involving the Loch Ness Monster.

Well-acted but definitely a curio in the Holmes canon.

I was talking about this short animated classic with my in-laws recently--some of them weren't familiar with it so I take this opportunity to re-introduce "Hot Stuff" to the world. I first saw this film in high school and laughed myself legless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFrFRslbJ2s

God bless the National Film Board of Canada.

Last night, Sherron and I watched Albert Brooks' "Lost in America".

We hadn't seen it since its initial theatrical release back in 1985 (it was one of our "date" movies).

Very sweet film, Julie Hagerty in fine form. It still possesses a kind of nostalgic charm. Glad we saw it again.

"Blast of Silence", a noir film originally made in 1960 which has developed a cult following. The film was even given the ultimate accolade, chosen for remastering by the folks at Criterion.

The photography (b/w) was lovely, the movie showing influences of the French "New Wave", very gritty, a documentary-like feel to it.

Not as great as advertised in my view, lots of shots of walking the city streets, not much in terms of suspense or story.

For aficionados only.

"A Most Violent Year", a 2014 film set in a 1981 New York rife with corruption.

Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain as a couple trying to swing a big business deal while their company is under siege from competitors, cops and crooks (shades of "The Long Good Friday").

Chastain's role could've been stronger but Isaac is out of this world good.

A movie written and directed by J.C. Chandor.

All the Beauty and All the Bloodshed- A documentary by Laura Poitras on photographer Nan Goldin and her crusade against the Sackler family. Haven't been a fan of Goldin's photography but what a documentary and what an amazing, courageous life. Will definitely change how I see her work. Her influence on how we think about the relation of philanthropy and the arts is undeniable. Highly recommended.

Last night watched Bob Rafelson's "The King of Marvin Gardens", with Bruce Dean, Jack Nicholson and Ellen Burstyn.

Haven't seen it for at least 35 years and still found it powerful, not merely the performances but also the script, cinematography, editing...brilliantly executed.

Recommended to fans of great cinema.

"Living", directed by Oliver Hermanus, written by Kazuo Ishiguro and starring Bill Nighy and Aimee Wood.

A charming remake of Kurosawa's "Ikuru" but, unlike the original, "Living" can't avoid falling into the maudlin/sentimental trap. The last fifteen minutes are hard to take. Pure treacle.

Nighy and Wood are excellent but this film is a pale shadow of the Kurosawa classic.

Sherron's away, so last night I took a chance on Ari Aster's "Beau is Afraid".

Decidedly not a fan of Aster's earlier work ("Hereditary" and "Midsommar"), which I found excessive and brutal.

"Beau" is a stranger one, odd surreal bits, episodic, does not quite cohere into a finished work but certainly watchable, Joaquin Phoenix and the rest of the cast giving it their all.

Far more interesting than his first two films, though certainly no crowd-pleaser.

"40 Guns", directed by Samuel Fuller and starring Barbara Stanwyck.

A very strange western, produced, directed and written by one of cinema's true characters and iconoclasts. Fuller preferred making cheaper movies because then film studios were willing to give him greater creative leeway. I don't know if I'd call Fuller an auteur but he certainly had a unique take on the world.

Somehow I was convinced to watch another Bela Tarr film, "The Man From London".

Mistake.

It was only slightly more tolerable than "The Turin Horse"--overlong, absolutely ponderous. Not even the great Tilda Swinton made this one watchable.

One day I'll meet Tarr in an elevator and rip his trachea out.

>36 CliffBurns: You really should give his Sátántangó a go.

I am SOOOOOO done with Tarr.

I rather go skinny-dipping in a pond stocked with piranhas than see another frame of his films.

>38 CliffBurns: Ha! But Sátántangó is only 439 minutes long.

Took Sherron to "Alien: Romulus" last night and neither of us was impressed. The young cast couldn't hold a candle to the veteran actors in the original movie and there were far too many references to the previous films to satisfy the idiot fans. Would've preferred something more narratively risky and innovative.

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" tonight.

Paul Giamatti is brilliant, as per usual, but the film is marred by an annoying soundtrack, lengthy musical bits that play hell with the pacing.

Good, but could've been much better (and shorter) with a minimalist score.

Classic western, Anthony Mann's "Winchester '73".

In the 1950s, Mann and Budd Boeticher reinvented the western genre in an attempt to imbue storylines with authenticity and give a strong psychological underpinning to performances. Actors like Jimmy Stewart and Gary Cooper thrived, especially when they were surrounded by a strong cast of supporting players.

Great entertainment.

The difficult collaboration between Ray Bradbury and John Huston, i.e. the making of "Moby Dick":

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/i-am-herman-melville/

>29 CliffBurns: Any chance of a brief summary? Sounds atmospheric & if so that's the best possible recommendation, so long as plot & characters don't overwhelm atmosphere.

>44 bluepiano: Imagine a mashup of noir and French New Wave. Tries to be naturalistic but is as affected as any other film.

The story's really secondary to atmosphere, the sense of mean streets and brooding criminal types. Shot on the cheap, but worth a look if you're a crime fan.

Watched Ken Loach's "The Old Oak".

Wonderful film about a small community in northern England that experiences upheaval because of the arrival of Syrian refugees.

Just about flawless...until the last ten minutes when it gets overly sentimental. Unfortunate.

But the film is still worth seeing, timely and powerful.

Some Italian neo-realism tonight, Vittorio de Sica's "Shoeshine".

Not as magnificent as his masterpiece "Bicycle Thieves", but a taut little picture about street hustlers in wartime Italy. Very stark and very sad.

Recommended.

Czech New Wave offering "Diamonds of the Night".

Clocking in at a mere 67 minutes, the film works on three levels: present day, flashbacks and dream-like sequences. Two young men escape from a train meant to transport them to a death camp and hide in the woods from their pursuers.

Intriguing, the ending a bit vague, but the overall effect is simultaneously powerful and perplexing.

Hirokazu Kore-Eda's 1998 film, "After Life".

Fascinating look at a version of limbo where departed souls are offered a chance to enter eternity with a single memory of their choosing.

Sad and poignant, the non-actors superb.

Recommended.

A bit of eye candy after a tiring week: Guy Ritchie's "Operation Fortune" which is wayyyy over the top, but features fun performances by Aubrey Plaza and Hugh Grant.

The first half is better, but then it descends into gunfights and silliness, the body count edging higher and higher.

Not one of the director's best.

Rewatched "Cabaret" for the first time in decades.

It hasn't aged, unforgettable performances by Minnelli and Joel Grey.

Still humming some of the songs as I wind down for the evening.

>51 CliffBurns: I was thinking of that just last night, as I was watching an episode of the tv version of Philip Dick's The Man in the High Castle (an alternate history story where Hitler won, in case there's anyone out there unfamiliar with the novel), and at the funeral of one of the major characters' sons, a member of the Hitler Youth sings The Linden Tree in a direct tip of the hat to Cabaret.

Revisited another old favorite, Anthony Minghella's "Truly, Madly, Deeply".

Sherron and I saw it when it was originally released and loved it. Juliet Stevenson amazes, the breakdown in her psychiatrist's office would wrench a tear from the inscrutable Sphinx.

We thought it held together well, though Sher fell asleep during the "Extras".

>52 RobertDay: I watched a few seasons of the "High Castle" adaptation but thought it really started to drag, veering away from the original novel.

Too much padding and subplots, though some of the performances are quite strong.

>54 CliffBurns: This is my second time watching it. PKD's plots could be all over the place, and The Man in the High Castle is no exception. As I saw it, most of the ideas in the tv show were extrapolated from things that were in the novel, even if that extrapolation goes some distance from the original. Plus we are now looking at a degree of knowledge about some of the policies of the Nazi regime that were not such general knowledge in 1962 when the book was written.

Episodic tv is a different beast to a novel, and relies much more on signposting certain things for an audience. It also has a requirement for plot lines to have closure, whereas in a novel the author can leave much more to the readers' intelligence.

There was a lot of clever world-building in the tv show, down to quite a level of detail. This appeals to my inner nerd. Having said that, there are some things it gets wrong, especially the music. At one point, there is some incidental music applied that the subtitles (failing hearing makes me use these things) declared to be the overture to Wagner's Tannhäuser when it was nothing of the sort. (Finale to the Bruckner 3rd Symphony, I think.) An egregious example of Nazi-washing Wagner by deciding any large-scale orchestral music in the show must be Wagner, whether it is or not. And using the song Edelweiss as the music over the opening credits is wrong on so many levels; the song came, of course, from The Sound of Music (set in Austria, not Germany) and was supposedly carrying an anti-Nazi message (even though the film is quite confused on its politics); and anyway, the song was a product of Tin Pan Alley rather than springing from the fields and Alpine meadows.

Spent a good chunk of yesterday watching Bondarchuk's "War & Peace" in its entirety.

What is that, about seven hours?

Worth almost every minute.

They don't make 'em like that any more.

No CGI, huge battles, tens of thousands of extras...and yet the humanity of the major characters still shines through.

A bit of an ordeal, but also an amazing cinematic experience.

Very impressed by "American Fiction", directed by Cord Jefferson.

Based on a novel by Percival Everett, a witty, pointed satire of the American publishing industry. A Black writer is having trouble selling his latest effort and out of anger and desperation concocts a book that plays on all the cliches and stereotypes associated with his community (rappers, gangs, absentee fathers) and, lo and behold, his phony pastiche becomes a massive hit.

More than a few scenes left me cringing, White liberal do-gooders subjected to particular abuse (to my delight); the acting and direction consistently sound, the film both affecting and laugh out loud funny.

Recommended.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles by Chantal Akerman. Three days in the life of a widowed housewife raising her son in 1975. It's an odd movie, bold in its own way. Minimalist and monumental at the same time. At 3 hours 20 mins it's also an endurance test. The movie can be hypnotic and oddly moving. Maybe because of the attention to the labor of being a woman in that period, to all the small daily rituals. I remember the period as a kid so some details were very touching. I began to lose interest at about 3/4 into the movie and found the ending disappointing. In a sense that really doesn't matter. There was hardly a plot. The important thing was the subject matter and how it was approached.

I had never heard of this film until the BFI poll selected it the greatest film of all time a couple of years ago. I don't think it would make it to my personal top 20 and I really don't need to see it again. It was a very unique experience though, I agree it is an important film, I can see why it is so highly esteemed.

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/greatest-film-all-time-jeanne-di...

>58 mejix: I've seen some boring ass cinema in my time (Bela Tarr the worst example), but "Jeanne Dielman" takes the cake.

Saw it with my wife and we were both utterly baffled why this film vaulted over all other potential candidates to become BFI's "Best Film" of all time.

It was like watching a tap drip. In slow motion. For nearly three-and-a-half-hours.

Sorry, in terms of greatest, my money is still on "Citizen Kane".

Last night, Sherron and I took in "Cold War", a Polish film directed by Pawel Pawlikowski.

The movie follows a relationship between two musicians at the height of the Cold War, their love affair undergoing shocks and separation but remaining a powerful influence on them both right to the end.

Great acting, beautiful cinematography...a gem.

>59 CliffBurns:
I think people in the poll where trying to be provocative. Wouldn't make it to my top 20 either.
I do think it expands the language of film in ways that other slow films don't. I can't think of any other film that portrays labor with such care. It puts it in the foreground and it was magic... for a while.
Wouldn't watch it again unless it was really necessary. Got the point, good job. Next.

A great film combines script, cinematography, direction, editing...none of which were highlighted in any way with "Jeanne Dielman".

There was more than a smattering of political correctness for it to score so high on a poll for the best cinema.

To be honest, "Vertigo", a movie that is completely unbelievable and contrived, should be nowhere near the top ten either.

Critics: legless people who teach running (as the old saw goes).

I think the film is important precisely because of the way it uses the elements you include in the first line.
It's the type of achievement that is valued almost exclusively by film academics. Like certain books that are unreadable but are nevertheless important, and useful to other writers.
I'm sure the voting was ideological, yes.

As I recall, for that last poll the BFI decided to "expand" their critical base--I have to wonder at the quality of the reviewers and critics who contributed to the roster, how many of them had professional credentials, a long-standing exposure to film, and how many put ideology and social factors before purely aesthetic considerations.

"No Sudden Move", directed by Steven Soderbergh.

Over-complicated to the point of incoherence and top-heavy with famous faces in cameo roles.

Not recommended, despite a fine performance by Don Cheadle.

Drove in to the big city to see Uberto Pasolini's "The Return".

It brings to life the last section of THE ODYSSEY and features fine performances by Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes.

Not a perfect movie, by any means, but deserving of far better treatment than it has received from many critics.

Sherron and I enjoyed it immensely.