Kenji Mizoguchi directs Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi and Kyōko Kagawa in this adaptation of a Japanese folktale where two aristocratic children are sold into slavery.
Ripples in the water. A humanist epic. Every scene has a powerful emotional effect but with seemingly minimal editorial prodding. It is a big movie that sneaks up on you. Once the second half starts taking form, and we drill down to the eponymous protagonist, it starts justifying its “Greatest Film Of All Time” status.
Mel Smith directs Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson and Rowan Atkinson in this British romantic comedy where a struggling American actor in London falls for a no-nonsense nurse.
You can see a lot of that virulent Richard Curtis DNA here in this early script from him but The Tall Guy is a jot spikier and has a bit more reality to it. Goldblum isn’t your traditional romantic lead, Thompson takes zero shit from him and that’s quite refreshing. Atkinson plays an utter bastard and I like it. The Elephant Man: The Musical is an extended comedy highlight, as is the messy bonking sequence. Certainly less abrasive than those Love Actually Factory’s later trifles. Nice Soho / Camden / Hampstead location work.
Maybe it is a little slight. Maybe the two kids in the leads are a bit too bland for the band. But the scorched, bloody atmosphere of Near Dark is hypnotic. Having the Aliens reunion of Vasquez, Bishop and Hudson as a gnarly tribe of campervan vampires was always going to make this a cult item… but boy, oh, boy does the whole thing thump. Like an electrical fire in a slaughterhouse, only really funny. I can’t see a situation where I wouldn’t instantly rewatch this seconds after the end credits roll. Tangerine Dream soundtracks for every film, ever, please! “Finger lickin’ good!”
M. Night Shyamalan directs Dave Bautista, Ben Aldridge and Jonathan Graff in this apocalyptic thriller where four strangers invade a family’s holiday home asking them to make a sacrifice to save the world.
Like most Shyamalan movies this is about taking a twisted leap of faith. If you can’t – your world turns to hell. If you can put aside your logic and cynicism, well… M. Night can keep making his extended spins on The Outer Limits / Twilight Zone. And I want him to. As even though he is very hit and miss, even though the deadpan, declarative style of acting he encourages is off putting and even if he’s not really given a chance by a big corner of film fandom… there is something quite worthwhile in the niche he furrows. The opening sequence between Bautista (exemplary) and seven year-old Kristen Cui is electric, full of foreboding and tenderness. Jarin Blaschke’s celluloid cinematography is lush and deep. The title theme by Herdís Stefánsdóttir and choice of credit font really sets the tone. Think Eighties VHS shop era sleeper. I’m not saying Shyamalan manages to sustain the thrills or keep you out of your own headspace throughout. But it’s a pretty rattling thriller at its peaks, one that could easily inspire the next generation of Jordan Peeles or Robert Eggers.
7
Perfect Double Bill: The Cabin In The Woods (2011)
Jean-François Richet directs Gerard Butler, Mike Colter and Tony Goldwyn in this action movie where a pilot and a prisoner must rescue the passengers of a crashed commercial flight.
Surprisingly good. The action is handled with a rare sustained straight face – closer to a really good pair of episodes of 24 or Arnie’s swing at drama in Collateral Damage. Certainly Plane is never cute and that helps the intensity. Pretty much every movie Jean-François Richet has made has scratched a genre itch for me… and that makes me want to revisit his Assault On Precinct 13 remake with evolved expectations.
7
Perfect Double Bill: Assault On Precinct 13 (2005)
Todd Field directs Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss and Noémie Merlant in this character study of a lauded classical music conductor who is revealed to be a horrific human being… but ultimately a human being.
Tár has the rhythm of a slowly dying metronome. It starts in big overlong swings, sequences that take up a reel, then they gradually shorten so that the finale is told in rapid glimpses. I’ve reached that regretful point in this awards season where I have got my favourites (Babylon, Aftersun, TG:M) and any gold bait movie released in their wake is going to have to do something pretty special to not wither under their shadows. TÁR is very accomplished and tackles some prescient themes but it didn’t hook me and I felt quite disconnected and wearied by it for huge swathes. Technically I’m not going to fault Field too harshly and just accept his long gestating magnum opus wasn’t for me. Yet I would argue you could start the film over one hour in and not really lose any nuance or plot. There are big issues about self image, gender, #metoo, whether the artistic ends justify the totalitarian means… but all are covered with a more compelling clarity elsewhere. Many will be drawn to Blanchett’s performance but she has always been a bit of a Streep to me… acting for actings sake, glacial, when I want a full fat genre movie with with a full fat genre movie star. I will give credit to the few spikes of unexpected horror (a jog disturbed, the neighbour’s plight, the black dog basement, the final surreal audience) but I could and did leave pretty much the whole meal on the side of my plate. Too cold, too calculated, way too long.
Steven Spielberg directs Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and Seth Rogen in this ‘fictional’ coming-of-age drama based tightly on the iconic director’s childhood and family.
Nothing but love for Spielberg but his memories of a middle class childhood aren’t exactly the most fascinating. Unhinged but hot mom who he clearly wants to fuck. Steven Spielberg had envisioned Michelle Williams as Mitzi, the character inspired by his mother Leah, ever since he saw her performance in Blue Valentine… Hmmm! His fictional proxy, Sammy, easily gets whatever resources he needs to follow his dreams. Mild antisemitism from bullies, one of whom sees the error of his way in the narrative’s most unbelievable moment. “My daddy divorced my mummy… when I was only 17!!!” There’s not really a movie here, more a period drag episode of Dawson’s Creek… and I say that with upmost respect for Dawson’s Creek. Williams and Dano aren’t exactly stretched by the material… the only really fun performances are from an underrated Rogen, newcomer Chloe East as a nutty romantic interest and that last scene cameo. Now, the epilogue to The Spielbergs is wondrous, a real punch the sky, leave the theatre with a massive smile on your mush, showstopper. And there are half a dozen other decent scenes that are dotted throughout, mostly about amateur movie making, meaning The Spielbergs is never boring or as whiny as it could come across. Yet, he could have made the fifth Indiana Jones movie without having to defer to George Lucas’ mad suggestions for the first time in his career instead of this… Fine but inessential.
McG directs Tom Hardy, Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon in this spy action comedy rom-com where two CIA spies, who clearly love each other, fight over the same civilian lady.
How could you cast THESE three leads and make such a dull, rote movie?
Teinosuke Kinugasa directs Masao Inoue, Ayako Iijima and Yoshie Nakagawa in this Japanese avant-garde drama about a guilt-stricken man who maintains a job at an asylum with hopes of being near his imprisoned wife.
Japanese silent movies were accompanied by benshi (live narrators) to help explain the plot. The streaming version of this movie had no such accompaniment and was damn near incomprehensible. Some haunting imagery saves it.
Penny Marshall directs Geena Davis, Tom Hanks and Madonna in this period sports comedy about the WWII women’s baseball league set up to entertain the folks when the boys went to war.
“There’s no crying in baseball.”
Here’s a sweet movie that’s cultural footprint is improbably bigger than the quality of the actual product itself. That’s no shade towards the sleeper hit of 1992 but its impact on popular culture seems to have outlived that of even the summer’s big hitters (Lethal Weapon 3, Patriot Games etc.) (also, no pun intended). Watching gentle feminism – somewhere between Germaine Greer and Geri Halliwell – was still a pleasant rarity in a studio release back then. Tom Hanks was taking his tentative steps away from comedy into serious romantic leads and even serious-er prestige roles. Hard to believe he wasn’t a fully fledged A-Lister at this point given the consistency of his releases. His shuffles towards mega stardom, post-Big, were subtle and faltering – irascible Jimmy Duggan was the first quantum leap that got him to the rarefied position where he still is today. Madonna also, at last, found another role that played to her strengths. So much stronger in a showy support rather than having to carry the movie. She provides a nice ballad as well in “This Used To Be My Playground.” Overall, it is a lark to watch though never rises above the set course that most sports movies run around. Watchable, afternoon friendly, but you have to wonder what the makers of Boomerang, Far & Away and Unlawful Entry feel about a slightly inferior package standing the test of time over their own 1992 summer releases.
