The Lady From Shanghai (1947)

Saw The Lady From Shanghai and oh boy how I loved it!  It was a fairly classy noir film written, acted, and directed by Orson Welles.  It follows a Irish sailor who saves a pretty, rich woman from being raped and she, in return, hires him on to the crew of her husband's yacht.  From there, they discover that he has a criminal past and he begins to be pulled into their webs of semi-serious games, as they taunt each other and threaten divorce and humiliation and murder.

The film is fairly by-the-numbers with rich old men and beautiful broads, hats and guns.  The engine that drives much of the film for me is to see how innocent the pretty wife is.  Is she the naive bait being dangled by her sinister husband?  Or is she the true Svengali, pulling everyone's strings?  But all of this is beside the point for me.  I just loved the excesses of the noir genre on display here.  At one point the wife mumbles a song to the camera as her face fills the screen.  There's hideously ugly old women who scream and point at the gunman, a courthouse scene with a befuddled judge, and there's even a climactic shootout in a fun-house hall of mirrors that has to be seen to be believed!

If the behind-the-scenes trivia is to be believed, the film was fit so firmly into the noir mold by studio execs.  Indeed, the film doesn't achieve the levels of restraints and polish of, say, The Magnificent Ambersons (or Citizen Kane of course, for that matter) but I appreciated the simplicity of the results.  This film isn't interested in subverting or reinventing anything.  It's interested in digging so deeply into the noir groove that it strikes gold.

Vox Lux (2018)

Saw Vox Lux, a film about a pop star's childhood and rise to fame.  Once the rise is established and just starts to begin, we quickly skip directly to the denouement: the staggering, drugged, drunken, weeping mess she has become in adulthood (ie: 31)  I watched the film hoping for some glorious over-the-top pop numbers and theatrics, maybe some delicious melodrama, but unfortunately the film felt more tawdry and kind of sad than glitzy or dramatic.  It was more tabloid and less music video.  Maybe I've become old, or maybe the film just had something else on its mind.

The film is fairly dismal and dour.  Everyone is dressed in rhinestones and leather, but they are all miserable and concerned and sad.  The film opens with a narration by the deep, dry voice of Willem Dafoe, telling us in true-crime tones about the girl's childhood.  She's catapulted to fame after she sings a song during a memorial service in the 90s and later on, during her rise to fame, 9/11 coincides with another pivotal life moment.  Finally, in the present day of 2018, some terrorists wear masks styled after one of her music videos.  The arc of the main character's life mirrors the evolution of modern American fears.

The end of the movie provided the best payoff for me, where it's revealed (spoilers here.  Highlight to see) she sold her soul to the devil.  This brings a lot of the film into coherency but makes the parallel with real, post-9/11 history confusing and muddy.  What's the parallel?  It feels muddy and muddled and kind of in poor taste.

I don't know.  This film disappointed m.  This may be my fault for judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree, but I went in hoping for hysterics and hopefully some catchy tunes, but left with dour, pessimistic meditations on America's continued descent mirrored by the dissipation of this pop star.  A grim, taught little film.

The Dead (1987)

Saw The Dead, a film based on the James Joyce short story of the same name (which I know I have read but which I do not remember.)  The film depicts a family party hosted by spinster aunts sometime in the early 1900s (I suppose.)  Like a visit to grandma's house, the film is fairly slow and tame and quaint, but also touching and strangely poignant too.

The film's most main characters are a husband and wife who are both sensible and pleasant people.  They get along well, but there's a foreshadowed undercurrent of tension between them though.  The wife is strangely intent when a guest recites a poem about a woman breaking a man's heart, and there's a few scenes where the husband seems oblivious or cold to the wife.  What's going on between them is explored more at the end, so I won't spoil it here.

As you might guess from the name, the theme of the film is death and memento mori.  The spinster aunts are nearing death and are precious in their fragility.  They reminisce over dead singers and there's talk of monks who sleep in their own coffins to keep the certainty of death near by.  The closing of the film has a long monologue about the dead and us the living.

The film is very soothing, very stultifying.  It's slow and quaint in a kind of BBC Charles Dickens kind of way.  It's really like a visit to gandma's.  It's not a blast and it's not the most fun you might have, but you feel better for having watched it and you feel lighter as a result.  It was a sweet little film.

The Witch (2016)

Saw The Witch (or is it VVitch?)  It was a claustrophobic period drama about a family who is exiled for over zealous religiosity.  They settle in a new place, but soon the weather turns against them.  The crops fail, animals will not be snared, and when a baby vanishes, they finally suspect witchcraft and begin to turn against each other, petty cruelties and betrayals culminating building on each other to a hysterical climax.

The true horror of the film, the horror beneath the talk of witches and devils and so on, is betrayal.  Several times the characters betray each other in small and large ways, or they betray their own ideals through cowardice or self-indulgence.  The supernatural forces which eventually show up almost need not bother: the family is primed to turn against each other and to fall apart after their baby vanishes.

The film was produced by the A24 studio and has the signature house stylish austerity to it.  It's very dark and, although the forest and the frontier look very lush and beautiful, it looks very cold and bare.  This austerity extends to the dialogue as well, unfortunately.  The characters talk in a very authentic olde English which is reasonably straightforward to understand but which I had a hard time with as the characters muttered and sobbed out lines like "I have become as the wife of Job" or "would you like me to visit you oft?"  I had to turn on subtitles a few times, old man that I guess I now am.

I enjoyed the film okay.  It was interesting and fairly brief.  It didn't tickle me the way psychodramas often do, but this film is more grim anyway.  It's not the fun sort of everyone-turns-against-everyone kind of film.  It reminds me of Hereditary and The Crucible (of course) which are both more intense than this film.  It's not a bad film, but it didn't grab me, alas.

Some Came Running (1958)

Saw Some Came Running, a delightfully frothy film about an army man coming home to his small home-town.  There he meets with his older brother whom he has a bad history with and he (the army man) brings with him a half-finished novel, an alcohol problem, and a ton of money from the army.  The film then follows the small-town politics he sets in motion, culminating a choice he has to make between two women and, ultimately, the lifestyles (or sort of levels of integrity) they represent.

The film gets better as it goes along.  It starts focusing on the oh so mysterious and oh so troubled main character as he swills whiskey (it's a man's drink he says) and flirts with bar-room ladies and dramatically throws out and then un-throws out his manuscript.  I was all set for this to be a film about a put-upon man who is angry that the world won't recognize his obvious and incredible genius, but since this is the 50s and not the 70s, it stays a bit more sensible.

The main character slowly demonstrates more integrity as he interacts with his hostile brother and teams up with a card shark.  He is self-centered and impulsive, however he is also sincere and knows what he wants.  He is not living the most measured life but he is not hurting or judging anyone.  This being the 50s however there is an unfortunate amount of forcing oneself upon the dames which is unfortunate but such is life.

As the film goes on, it works itself into a fever-pitch ending which starts with the black silhouette of a man against a red, neon-lit background, gun in hand, gulping down booze.  A paragon of the form!  Amazing!  I loved it.  There's lots of great declamations and showdowns before then as well, but they remain a bit muted, more natural than stagey.

I thought the acting was a tad weak.  It's Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and I'm just some guy, so what do I know about it, but one of the two women Frank must pick between is some flavor of prostitute and the other is a somewhat restrained professor.  During one of these showdowns, the professor hisses that she isn't one of "your barroom tarts!" and I think this is supposed to be sort of torn out of her as a guilty admission, however I think she doesn't say it that way.  Similarly, Frank is sometimes a little flat.  He underplays things (he is a man, you see) but sometimes it's too faint to register.

Anyway, these grouses aside, it was a deliciously frothy and dramatic film.  The characters are enjoyable and the central question of which woman and what they represent is a nice one to discuss.  The ending is amazing, but you have to kind of endure the opening bits.

Cruella (2021)

Saw Cruella, a live-action reboot/reimagined prequel of 101 Dalmatians from the antagonist's perspective.  So, we meet Cruella as a budding but rebellious fashionista, being kicked out of school and coming to the big city where she meets up with Horace and Jasper, not just semi-anonymous henchmen, but her Artful Dodger-style cockney friends.  From there, the bulk of the film follows Cruella trying to upstage a villainous Baroness, the current reigning queen of the fashion world.  The film is a lot of slightly empty fun, but it is fun though.

The fashion war gives rise to a bunch of fanciful costumes and outrageous set pieces which I enjoyed thoroughly.  At one point Cruella literally stands on top of the Baroness, overshadowing her under her enormous, parachute-like dress.  There's also a lot of deliciously campy super-villainy (on both Cruella and the Baroness's parts!)  They both get to humiliate and outplay each other, craftily sabotaging and subverting their dress-related schemes.

I also enjoyed that they made Cruella genuinely unpleasant for a fair stretch of the film.  With Maleficent, the reboot nice-ified the main character to the point of her not even being that interesting to me anymore.  With this one, Cruella is ultimately sympathetic, but we do see real cruelty and indifference.  There's a moment when her allies abandon her and I was completely on their side.  Good show, Disney.

There's also a great queer character in this film in the form of Artie, a guy who owns a second-hand shop and dresses very femininely.  This is a big step for Disney which, for all of its progressive posturing, is absurdly conservative with same-sex representation.  Often we only get gay panic gags or throwaway, "oh my same-gendered partner would love that!"-type one-liners.  Artie's character is probably permitted because he does not have a relationship, but his sort-of cross-dressing and arch mannerisms I feel count and are great to see.  There's also a sub-theme of chosen families vs genetic families which will also resonate with many queer folks in the audience (and which may be an even more disruptive notion to the nuclear family than mere homo love.)

The only bum note is that since it's a Disney film, it kind of dithers in different philosophical directions.  Yes there's talk of chosen families, but blood relations drive the plot.  There's like girl-power stuff, and heist stuff, and there's kind of no point to it all.  This is not a disaster (not every film has to present a philosophy, after all) but it makes it feel a little muddly to me.  I sort of feel this is by design however.  If it takes a strong and unambiguous stance on some topic which is even remotely controversial, it will turn off some part of its audience and that's precious dollars you know and we can't have that.  Eh - this is a small thing.

I enjoyed the camp excesses of the film and the familiar 60s hits (despite how literally everyone dresses, the film is set in the 60s.)  There's also a lot of arbitrary dog-related imagery and references which were fun to spot.  Also plenty of references to 101 Dalmatians which I have fond memories of.  These all made me feel smug and smart for spotting them.  All in all a comfy, stylish film which I happily enjoyed.

I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)

Saw I Know Where I'm Going! A sweet and kind of pokey film about a headstrong woman who is very self-determined.  She is going to marry a wealthy businessman however she is waylaid in Scotland and begins falling for the wrong man.  The main thesis of the film is about inner wealth (as personified by the simple honesty of the Scottish fisher-folk) vs riches (as personified by her entirely off-screen fiancé.)  The film has a couple of visually interesting elements, especially near the beginning and end of the film, and although it starts out very arch and unreal, it works itself into a lovely melodrama by the end.  I enjoyed the film, however it was a bit of a snoozer.

True to the 40s, the film comes off a bit anti-feminist and retrograde to my eyes.  The protagonist lady is forced to abandon her carefully laid plans and to humble herself before the unknowable mysteries of love.  It's not like she's blameless either however.  There's a dream sequence where she fantasizes about all the wealth she will have access to.  She seems to be marrying not for love but for money.  I feel she should be allowed to be as mercenary as her future love will allow, however it's not like she's making the best choices.

This fantasy also ties in to the theme of money vs decency.  Later in the film, she meets up with a snobby rich couple who are (according to her fiance) the only people on the island worth knowing.  They are vapid and speak in shrill tones and are unpleasant.  They are juxtaposed with a rich woman who reminisces about the honest peasant parties.  It's very snobs vs slobs.

The slobs however are not even that slobby.  Not to give too much away, but the new boyfriend (ie the wrong man that she falls for in Scotland) has plenty money of his own, he just also happens to be friends with friendly people, and is able to commune with the common man.  These signifiers indicate he is a man of worth, but the message of the film is sort of undercut by being not money vs morals, but money vs morals+money.  The new boyfriend is just clearly the better choice.  The only conflict is within this woman's mind: her self-determination vs jumping on new opportunities.

The film has its moments however.  There's a goofy sequence in the start of the film where her train, on a model set, crosses from rolling green hills into rolling tartan hills, signifying her journey into Scotland.  Similarly, there's a daring sea crossing late in the film that feels like a spare reel from the Poseidon Adventure or something.  It's a sudden sharp turn into disaster-movie territory that I was surprised and delighted by.

The majority of the film however is this woman interacting with variously colorful Irish folks and trying to decide which man to marry.  It's a little precious and a little tedious.  It's an entertaining and tame film that your grandparents might enjoy.  Wholesome and kind with moments of excitement and excess.  It was a bit of a snoozer, but not a bad film by any means.