Chinatown. (Previously). I think my fourth or fifth viewing and worth every one. A perfect movie, pretty much. The pure evil of Noah Cross rings a little too true these days. :(
The Descent
The Descent. Gets to the point! Set the scene, give me foreboding hints about who’s up to what, then creep me out. Very efficient opening. I’m surprised we haven’t seen more movies set in caves.
Arnold Schönberg: Playing Cards
Arnold Schönberg: Playing Cards. I love those designs.
This facsimile edition of playing cards painted by the composer Arnold Schönberg in c.1910 was published by Belmont Music Publishers in 1981 and produced by Ferd Piatnik (Vienna), with a preface by the composer’s daughter, Nuria Schoenberg-Nono. The original cards were made in watercolours and gouache on cardboard with gold and silver, size: 10.5 by 5.5 cm. No reverse has been found for the cards so a coloured pattern painted in one of his diaries was used.
Filed under: not just a composer.
Sullivan’s Travels
Sullivan’s Travels. Second viewing (the first), this time on a big screen. Holds up.
The Blair Witch Project
The Blair Witch Project. I missed it back in the day. Pretty fun! Refreshing to see how such good work can be made at such small scale, and still kick off a little revolution in the genre.
Support the Girls
Support the Girls. We need about 15 movies like this every year. Pretty great. Love the everydayness of the struggles, but still a huge and deserved catharsis. I’d like to see more movies about managers. Seems like a rich but neglected vein for material.
The Score
The Score. Decent cat-and-mousing. Shape-shifting characters seems like a whole thing back in the 90s/2000s. Fun to see actors that are just plain old now in their younger and more athletic days. I love when movies show all the gadgetry and tools that thieves put to use, borrowing from other realms to suit the need.
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
Ninja: Shadow of a Tear. I think you see the title and know what you’re getting into. I still stand by the first Ninja. This one is longer, darker, angrier, but doesn’t quite rise to that level.
Alan Watts – “Music and Life”
Alan Watts – Music and Life. (via somewhere on Twitter months and months ago)
Kung Fu Killer
Kung Fu Killer. One of the small pleasures of international films is seeing the little differences in societal choices. For example, how the police uniforms and prisoner uniforms are different than what we see in the States. Nothing new here story-wise, but plenty of good fightin’, and the variety of weapons, styles, and freakish athleticism is always fun.
Starship Troopers
Starship Troopers. Not for me. Ditto Robocop:
I appreciate the intentional over-the-top-ness but eventually it became a bit tedious for me.
John Wick 2
John Wick 2. A+, I say. Expands the universe, crazifies the action. Just as fun as the original for me.
Alien 3
Alien 3. Interesting thematically, but more fun to read about than to watch. It’s a very very steep drop-off from Alien and Aliens to this (same is true for most movies, to be fair). Filed under: David Fincher.
Dressed to Kill
Dressed to Kill. This was excellent. Love the wordless moments, just guided by soundtrack to clue you in and shape the emotion. That museum scene! The tension! De Palman surveillance and paranoia in full force. And something about all those clocks? Nancy Allen is a hoot. And Dennis Franz! Perspectives on psychosis and the trans community haven’t aged well. It is of its time. Filed under: Brian De Palma.
Harry Brown
Harry Brown. Grumpy old man vengeance like Gran Torino, but much much more dark and grim and cynical. Too much so for me.
V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta. Wow, I didn’t remember this being so tedious. What a drag.
People of the Horse | Erika Larsen
I was looking through some old journal entries and remembered seeing an exhibit of Erika Larsen’s photography. This series really stuck with me.
Night Moves
Night Moves. Second viewing (the first). I forgot how good this one is, visually. So many shots underscoring the protagonists’ perspective, seeing their environment torn apart, or reshaped, or unappreciated.
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace. Loved it. Such a good quiet story. I like melodrama but it’s also nice to see this, too: just naked presentation of people trying to do what they must while trying to take care of each other. Other good movies with Oregonians wrestling with modernity: Old Joy, Night Moves, The Goonies.
Logan Lucky
Logan Lucky. Preeeetty good. Heist movies are inherently absurd. Just gotta lean into it and I love that this one does. Neat to see scenes with cameos of local regular Atlantans like me. Shaky accents here and there. Can’t shake the feeling that at times it’s mildly classist in a pointing-and-laughing kind of way more than a laughing-with-them way. (Some defensiveness bubbling up, I think – I feel like I notice and feel this more about movies set in the South than movies with similar casts in other regions.) No less fun for it. Filed under: Steven Soderbergh.
Mark Larson 