Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling

Saw Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling. It seemed amateurish at times but heartfelt. I have no idea why this is on my lists though.

Into the Wild

Saw Into the Wild. A good movie. It indulges in some slightly high-school-ish philosophical excesses (for example, the more precisely/inscrutably something is said, the more true it becomes) but these are forgivable foibles, given when it was made. It anyway undercuts all of its philosophizing with ultimate doses of harsh reality. It is a hard thing the main character is attempting. He appeared slightly mad to me (and characters in the film) for even attempting it. I think he's correct when he says happiness is not derived solely from human interaction, but just as money (which he also eschews) cannot either buy happiness, both surely help.

L'Age D'Or

Saw L'Age D'Or. A surrealist film, so I didn't try to analyze it much. If the director is being willfully obscure, I say let him but don't expect me to play that game with him. I am a lazy man at heart.

Dear Zachary

Saw Dear Zachary. It was very heart-wrenching. Like, really heart-wrenching. The movie relies a lot on collages of footage which is sometimes perfect (when Andrew's friends are remembering him and all repeating the same kind words) and sometimes kind of tasteless (when the autopsy reports are being reviewed.) This is an annoying thing a lot of sad documentaries do. They decide something's not sad enough and try to goose the sorrow by tarting it up with fast cuts and music. This shows a lack of faith in the viewer and makes me wonder just how commercial the film-maker wants his friend's death to be. I assume he meant well, he just isn't a pro and this is a personal project. My god it's hard to watch though, and sometimes really does capture that feeling of floor-falling-away-from-beneath-you, shocking misfortune.

Around the World in 80 Days

Saw Around the World in 80 Days (1956 version) It was very british. Lots of mustaches and tea. They met cute natives and got into cute trouble. It was sort of like around the it's a small world ride in 80 days. That said, it was slick and pleasing, so I have no real complaint. Hell of a lot of random cameos.

Querelle

Saw Querelle. It was very gay. Simultaneously very confusing and tawdry. A strange movie.

Predator

Saw Predator. A breathtaking work of subtlety and genius. The glasses-guy's sexist jokes subtly enforcing the sexism endemic in the military, underscored by the woman's feigned helplessness and eventual competence. But even she falls before the Predator who, as is revealed by his eerily human laugh, is only the worst of us. Note the mushroom cloud immediately following his laugh. Arnold must swallow his machismo and slather himself with literal dirt before he can triumph. The film reveals itself to be a critique of this gung-ho militarism in the moment when Arnold calls for quiet, only for wheezing horns to slyly start up on the soundtrack, as if to ask "am I quiet enough for you now?" The Predator's technological superiority symbolizes a military gone gadget-mad. Black-dude-who-isn't-Carl-Weathers is shown to be a self-hating black guy who literally tries to shave his skin-color away. Notice how he hates actually-Carl-Weathers-guy immediately, irrationally. His only idea of 'going to have some fun' is to wander into self-destruction with the Predator. See how he looks around himself after his soliloquy to Jesse 'Mr Boddy' Ventura to see who was listening in on him. Native-dude was listening. About native-dude: whereas everyone else has painted their faces in cammo, he has opted for little curls under his eyes, giving the impression of a Jacky-Onassis-style hairdo. Notice also how he removes his shirt and welcomes the Predator, as opposed to Arnold, who shrinks in fear as the Predator disrobes. There's so much more to unpack. I think I need more time to think about what I experienced.

Gran Torino

Saw Gran Torino. It was quite touching. There was a heavy theme of 'masculinity' in the film, which I usually find patronizing or vaguely threatening, but this time it was explored with an emphasis on how masculinity nurtures, gruffly and secretly. This is much better than the masculinity demonstrated by lesser movies, which is only defined by the things it's not (things which I either have no problem with or am.) I was frankly shocked that his dog survived. Good movie.

Sansho the Bailiff

Saw Sansho the Bailiff. It was terribly sad. It reminded me a lot of a Charles Dickens novel. The suffering of the protagonist is protracted, unlikely means deliver him to salvation, punishment of the guilty is swift and terrible. The moral of the story is repeated until you can't miss it. It's a good message (it is essentially 'be kind') and simple enough to forget, but I think I've had enough of emotionally harrowing Japanese movies from the 50s.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Saw the original Dawn of the Dead. Whole lotta references make sense now. It was very good, very thrilling and with a certain sense humor that straddles the line between slapstick and morbid very well. It is unfortunately up to one guy to screw everything up all the time (why can't you even take your key-ring off without it turning into a fiasco, you moron pilot?) I'd heard the movie was a sort-of-satire of consumer culture, but it didn't seem particularly biting to me. Perhaps I'm just used to more dour condemnations.

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Saw Yaaaankeee Doooodle Dandeeeee. I'm now filled with an overwhelming urge to buy war bonds.

Ace in the Hole

Saw Ace in the Hole. I wanted to see it because it was directed by the same guy who directed Sunset Blvd, Billy Wilder. Boy, did it deliver. Like Sunset Blvd, the protagonist is a guy naturally drawn to exploitation. He's a down-on-his-luck reporter who's found a great story: a man trapped in a cave-in. As he exploits the story he starts off paying lip-service to his job ("I don't make things happen, I just report 'em") but eventually even this sham is abandoned as he lets his own lust for notoriety and showboating get the better of him. Wilder lets the stakes and tension mount and mount until the feverish, hysterical end. Some of the symbolism was a bit heavy (His old editor is good, often shot with crosses. His new friends are evil, have pet rattlesnakes (which I think they kill)) but he has some great "terrible" scenes, like when the miner comes into the protagonist's office, proclaiming doom. Great stuff.

Tombstone

Saw Tombstone. It was a western.

Playtime

Finally saw Playtime. It starts out mining comedy from mass production. A travel agent's office has posters showing off identical skyscrapers in different locals. In one scene, four identical men get into four identical cars in synchrony. The main character looks so identical to every other person that no one can tell who he is. This all climaxes in a restaurant scene which is funny I guess but goes on a bit long (I also don't find rich, eccentric/drunk Americans to be very funny. It's a comedic archetype from a different time I suppose. It's funny how comedy can separate us from the past sometimes.) I liked the beginning, but I liked the ending of the film best of all. The film makes this identical, mass-produced Paris into a carnival. A roundabout becomes a merry-go-round, a cherry-picker becomes a giraffe, car-lifts become rides. It's very sweet and ends on a merry note which, judging from the "oh, this hectic modern life" tone of the beginning, I didn't expect. Ending in this way, the film seems to be saying "Life is crazy! Enjoy the ride!" And I think that's great.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Saw Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. It's about an old woman who falls in love with a young Moroccan man. It was terribly sweet and touching. The ending was especially good. Happy but not pat, only life bumbling on in its messy way. The reaction of her neighbors after she takes a trip halfway through the film confused me (of course the trip may have been years long?) I liked how she wasn't conventionally attractive, but kind of old and genuinely dowdy. A very sweet film.

A Place in the Sun

Saw A Place in the Sun. Such a feeling of desperation. It was complex and interesting but had a constant feeling of crushing, squeezing. It turned strangely moralistic near the end, but nicely showed and didn't tell the resolution of the film. Haunting.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was very well put together. I was annoyed that they actually showed the aliens, but I guess it had to be done. Someday I'll see an alien movie with the guts to not show something in a rubber suit. I really liked the nervy maybe-mental-problems in the beginning.

Night Watch

Saw Night Watch. It was a lot of fun. It got kind of bogged down in slow-motion and flashbacks near the end and there are a lot of loose ends of course. I kind of feel like I'm cheating the movie by not immediately watching the sequels. Apparently it was originally intended to be a four-part miniseries for TV. I think it would have been better in that format. There's a neat world here to be explored, but we're breathlessly rushing about it in one cataclysm after another. The opening scene with its Matrix-like suggestion of mysteries hiding just beneath the surface was my favorite part of the film. I was annoyed at the endless camera-tricks on display, but I do have a great weakness for strange visuals and in that this movie successfully delivered. All in all, not as good as I was hoping, but not bad either.

Voyage to Italy

Saw Voyage to Italy. It was about a husband and wife trying to salvage their failing marriage. The script/acting were very good, with both characters trying to score points and divine the other's feelings without tipping their own hand. I was disappointed that we didn't get to know the husband as well as the wife. He was supposed to be cold and distant, but it would satisfy me more if I'd seen something to love in him.

Rich tension is mined in the contrast between their petty but potentially life-changing squabbles vs the ancient and unchanging ruins of Italy. There is an excellent scene where they watch the bodies of a man and woman being excavated from Pompeii. "A man and a wife, perhaps" says the archeologist. Really good stuff. Very melancholy stuff though. I don't think I was in the right mood for it, but it was quite good.