a collection of things that caught my eye/ear/brain
see also:
mlarson.org
Following. Christopher Nolan’s first feature film set the trend for his later puzzle-piece, time-shifted narratives. Solid, modern noir. I like seeing early work like this without fancy production, pristine private sets, celebrity talent. My rankings of Nolan movies I’ve seen:
Yeah, after his last two I mostly lost interest in Nolan’s work. This one was good enough to get me curious about Insomnia and The Prestige, though. I’ve also done rankings for Hitchcock, Eastwood, and Fincher.
One of the weaknesses people have noticed about his work—but have not, I think, yet commented enough upon—is that he can’t do comedy.
Louis C.K.: Chewed Up. Good stuff. A few of my favorite bits are in this one.
The Gauntlet. They used at least 300-thousand-million bullets in this film. It’s not the best Clint Eastwood movie I’ve seen, not by a long shot, but I went in with appropriate expectations. It’s just a fun and highly ridiculous road trip movie with a loser cop and a clever prostitute. We need more helicopter chases in movies. Interesting parallels with Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night. Check out that promo poster!
My updated rankings for Eastwood’s directing:
Mean Streets. Didn’t enjoy this very much. I appreciate how Scorsese mixes up the camerawork and the musical interludes, but otherwise it seemed a bit of a drag.
The Iron Giant. The greatest anti-war film ever made. I LOLed a lot. So good.
The Crowd. It took a while for the talkies to catch up with the camerawork in this 1928 film. Nicely done. And as I find with many silent films, it was much funnier than I expected. The work scenes anticipate Il Posto (one of my favorite movies) in some ways. Technically, it’s supposed to be one of the pinnacles of silent film. One early long zoom moment reminded me of Hitchcock’s famous zoom-in in Notorious, 20 years later. Themes include changing social mores in relationships, expectations about masculinity, the arrival of modernity, self-realization, practicality. Probably hard to find on DVD, I lucked out with a live screening and piano accompaniment. Looking forward to the rest of Emory Film Department’s spring 2012 series.
Beginners. What a good, sweet movie. If you miss and/or dismiss this you’re dumb. Excellent soundtrack with old blues and standards and, much to my delight, an arrangement of the Adagio from Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D minor, one of my favorite tracks from one of my favorite albums of 2010. Another good movie about starting over that co-stars a charismatic dog: The Artist. The dog has the best line in the whole thing:
Tell her the darkness is about to drown us unless something drastic happens right now.
Brick. Hard-boiled film noir in modern high school suburbia. Everything was treated very carefully here, and it totally works for me. I could understand how ostensible 17- or 18-year-olds talking like Dashiel Hammett characters might not work for some, though. Some of which characters are clearly set to type (femme fatale, loyal informant, short-fused blockhead, sad-sack, etc.). Most of the movie has great, lively style but isn’t afraid to undercut itself every now and then. Solid score. I say it’s worth your time.
Bill Cunningham New York. Very highly recommended. What a guy.
If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do. That’s the key to the whole thing.
Here are 15 things I learned from watching and writing about these 101 movies.
I loved following along with @jamesfflynn’s screenplay series.
The New World. In which the title is a metaphor. Terrence Malick is a seductive director. I thought it started a little conventionally, but partway in, it turned into something special. You’re forced to set aside Disney memories and whatever historical précis you’ve got leftover from school. Interesting to see what expected bits of history and relationship development that he delays or leaves out completely, or proceeds quickly through and moves on. Lots of amazing nature scenes and life out of doors. I love the contrast of Smith’s time in the lush forests, and then the return to grey, denuded, muddy Jamestown. Malick uses narration again, which is kind of a clever cheat. You allow characters to voice their thoughts over visuals, and that keeps you from having to dialogue all the time. Couple that with the often elliptical camera—characters rarely face to face, often staggered in distance or in gentle motion, seen over-the-shoulder or trailing behind—you just get to gaze and treat your eyes and ears. I like Ebert’s observation: “The events in his film, including the tragic battles between the Indians and the settlers, seem to be happening for the first time.” Right now I think Days of Heaven is still my favorite Malick, with Badlands coming in close third.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I enjoyed this much more than expected, because/despite the fact that I got lost every now and then. This one shows a lot of sitting, reading, thinking, talking—a nice contrast to more action-packed spy movies. I’d gladly see it again, in the comfort of my own home.
Hunger. Not sure how I feel about this one overall. I was glad Bobby Sands wasn’t really portrayed as martyr-hero or villain-fool, just a really committed guy. Much more about the choices of a life than the politics that motivate them. I wish the dreamy bits at the end had been chopped down a bit, maybe a better balance with the first two acts that way.
