Winter’s Bone. Such a damn good movie. Every bit as good as the first time. It has the perfect balance between feeding you information and leaving you in the dark. Who knows what to do next? And I love the little moments of life in the Ozarks: splitting firewood, hunting, neighbors looking after each other, cooking. Between this and Martha Marcy May Marlene, I’ve got to find some more stuff with John Hawkes.
Days of Heaven. Re-watched. Re-loved. Still near the top of my all-time list. (My first viewing.)
Mission Impossible. The gadgets have not aged well, but the rest of the film definitely has. Max is one of the best characters of the ‘90s.
Star Trek. This is more space opera than intellectual scifi salon, for better or worse. The best comparison I can think of is Rise of the Planet of the Apes: It’s not an all-time great movie, not really even close, but it’s great at what it does. Silly adventure that’s nice to look at. The cameo is dopey. But I do hope that movies following this reboot are a little more nerdy.
Miami Vice. It’s not nearly as good as his best, but it’s good corny fun. I mean, it’s Miami Vice. Visually, it’s also the most Michael Mann-ish thing I’ve seen (see Pinnland Empire on Mann’s motifs). It’s also got the typical cop/criminal dynamic he loves. Best analogy I read somewhere was this movie would happen if Malick decided to make a cop film (from the general reverie to the looser, drifty handycam shooting). Sadly, the score is merely functional, but Mann knows when to turn the music down and let it ride. I feel like if I watched it again, I’d like it even more. I really, really like this dude’s movies. Updated Michael Mann rankings:
Jiro Dreams of Sushi. 80 minutes of rapturous fawning and food porn! I liked it.
It really comes down to making an effort and repeating the same thing every day.
The Original Kings of Comedy. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes awful. I gotta find some more Bernie Mac.
Solaris (2002). I really liked the Tarkovsky version of the novel, and Soderbergh’s is very good, too. It’s more trim and spare. What I really loved was the sound throughout. Footsteps, rustle of clothing, breath. And that soundtrack! Cliff Martinez to the rescue again (see: Drive; Contagion). So perfect. That said, the script is a little painful here and there. What are you gonna do? At least the ideas about memory, empathy, regret, etc. are evergreen.
There’s not a single dud in any of the Soderbergh films I’ve seen lately. Looking forward to more. My current rankings:
The Five Obstructions. A documentary in which Lars von Trier puts his hero/mentor Jørgen Leth to the test. Leth has to recreate his own surrealist film, The Perfect Human, five times with five different sets of constraints, dreamed up off-the-cuff by Von Trier, who’s really just trying to get Leth to make something that sucks. Interesting to see the back-and-forth here. Rumor has it that Von Trier and Scorsese are going to do a similar project. My Lars Von Trier rankings:
The Usual Suspects. I’d already heard so much about this movie that I went in jaded and suspicious and looking for clues. I figured out the Big Thing early, was underwhelmed, had a hard time staying awake during the last 1/3, gained no satisfaction from being right, and then I woke up and spoiled it on Twitter (spoiler!). I do think great stories withstand spoilers. This might not be one, but there’s good camera and cast and characters. I bet this was fun to make.
Blade Runner (Final Cut). Dang. Like Alien, this one holds up so, so well. Incredible movie. Cast, sets (!), shots, sound, score. I love the eye imagery and symbolism throughout. Themes of empathy, memory, humanity. Deckard has a sweet bachelor pad. If I were more of a jerk, right around now I’d take a second to mention how bad Prometheus was in comparison. Night and day.
The Driver. Did not enjoy.
Bloodsport. ★★★★★. Finally saw it on the big screen. And there’s nothing like seeing a movie with a crowd that cares as much as you do. This movie is one of the first things I remember me and my big brother bonding over, so I’ve lost all critical perspective. That actually might have happened before I saw the movie, when my brother told me about the shin scene (spoiler!). I was horrified/sold. I love how briskly it all moves. Backstory and dialogue are mostly functional. A route from A to B. We all know why we’re here: fights! Surprisingly good soundtrack, though. I haven’t met anyone who’s seen this that didn’t love Paco. And there’s a young Forest Whitaker!
Contagion. Pretty good. Deliberate, precise, dispassionate. It’s not a weepy melodrama. The point is to get a sense of all the moving parts. I’d call it scifi, but in the less-fantastical sense of exploring a hypothetical that isn’t (yet!?!!?!?!) true. Jude Law’s blogger/gadfly was a hoot. Another good score by Cliff Martinez (Cf.). This is only the third Steven Soderbergh movie for me, outside of the Ocean’s trilogy.
The Last of the Mohicans. I might have seen this more times than I should have, but it’s mighty fine dramatic Hollywood entertainment. Such a great pace and you really feel like you’ve been on a story, y’know? Frontier love fantasy! Majestic scenery! An outsider caught between two worlds (seems to be a recurring Mann theme)! A strong, noble woman who won’t be brought down by the savagery around her! DDL with long, flowing hair! Scalpings! Gun fu, but with muskets! As much as I bitch about the main melody’s omnipresence throughout the score, I’d totally forgotten about the vocal tune at the climax. I like that the movie bookends with those mountain running scenes. I think I have to re-sort my Michael Mann rankings:
Thief. Hell yeah. Fun stuff. Some good writing here and a great Tangerine Dream soundtrack. I love how the camera kind of zones out every now and then and the movie is all form (like the welding climax). I also like that this thief isn’t an MI-style sneaky ninja techno-athlete (or some kind of capoeira breakdancer coughOcean’sTwelvecough). He’s an old man. He’s got a limp. He wants to have a wife and kid. He uses power saws and hammers and welding torches. I forget how cool James Caan is. And Willie Nelson is in it! You can definitely see the influence on Drive.
Here’s my rankings for Michael Mann films I’ve seen so far. Strong, strong work:
Sleepers. Has a nice momentum to it, but once it becomes a simple revenge story, it all goes to waste. I really liked Dustin Hoffman’s role, though. Mean Streets was another story of friend/neighborhood loyalties that I didn’t enjoy very much. I’ve heard good things about Levinson’s Diner.
Ronin. You know how, according to me, Haywire is a smart dumb action movie? This is kind of a dumb dumb action movie. But it’s still got fun. Was this really only 14 years ago? Ebert’s review sums it up well.
The Seven Year Itch. Good stuff, but there aren’t many things stage-to-screen that I’ve really, really loved. Brief Encounter is up there, though. (It also deals with adultery and features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 prominently in the score… coincidence?). Grease and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof are other strong contenders.
Mark Larson 
