Source Code. It’s good clean fun!
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Letter of Recommendation: Airport Layovers
I loved this essay on layovers. Airports are usually incredibly relaxing for me:
All sorts of big questions wait on the other side of the gate. Will Bill still love you when you get home? Will you make it out there at college? Will Morocco be everything you’ve always dreamed of?
But you don’t have to answer questions like that during a layover. You can’t: The whole point is that they have to wait. You have been granted a reprieve — a chance to consider life as it was before it goes away, or as it might be when it arrives.
See also: Let’s fly.
M.F.A.
The Little Things Matter: A Microeconomic Travel Guide
How are the sidewalks? […] What kind of pollution?
Revenge
Revenge. Really liked it. Take some pulpy Kill Bill and cross it with high-contrast Spring Breakers and The Guest-like creepiness and soundtrack. Thematically heavy-handed sometimes, with the fruit and the bugs and the beer cans and tattoos. Contrast the male gaze at the opening with the appreciatigve gaze after the cave scene – one of awe, of power rather than lust. And that leads into one of my favorite shots in a while, with her riding the ATV through the desert with that earring gleaming. Maybe file this one under loincloth chase films?
Annihilation
Annihilation. Second viewing (the first). Felt more sluggish and less magical this time, but I don’t regret the rewatch.
Angel Heart
Angel Heart. Love the mood and atmosphere. A nice blend of noir and horror, sort of ambling along as our PI reluctantly goes where the clues take him. Mickey Rourke was super charismatic. Haven’t seen much with him aside from the recent stuff (Iron Man 2, The Wrestler, and the small bit in Man on Fire).
Coherence
Coherence. Very nice little chamber scifi. I liked it quite a bit. Just put people in a room and give them a problem. Easy. This would pair well with other small-scale scifi like Primer, Upstream Color, The One I Love, or something like The Invitation for stressful dinner-party hijinks.
Allied
Allied. Second viewing (the first). The seams showed a bit more and the pastiche was more apparent and I liked it more because of it, I think. The too-clean appearance heightens the fairy tale, like memory tends to soften things. Noticed a few fun edits, like the lightning shifting to the lantern on the landing strip, and the beats of the final gunshots at the tank crew matched by the curtains being drawn open. I also liked the parallels with two big decisions happening in cars – once during the sandstorm, again in the rain at the airstrip.
There’s More to This World Than You Have Seen
I really liked Ethan Warren‘s reflections on Punch-Drunk Love. (Bright Wall/Dark Room is one of the best publications going.)
Rush Hour
Rush Hour. Lots of it is very fun. It’s also of an era where, with 2018 eyes, a lots of it makes me cringed. I miss these action/adventure movies. Low stakes, focus on fun.
Barracuda
Barracuda. Features one of the most unlikeable yet magnetic characters I’ve seen in a while. Good fun.
Carrie
Carrie. Last time I saw this was middle school I think. Long time ago. So sad, wrenching. We remember the mad scene for good reason, but build-up to it at the prom is exquisite.
The Hole Where All the Success Leaks Out
Everything has its own list of classic amateur blunders. […] Just one of these blunders, made consistently, can undermine almost everything you’re doing right.
There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood. Second viewing. Daniel Plainview is a sad sad sad lonely man, who is also very funny sometimes. Filed under: Paul Thomas Anderson.
