WEEK 17

Eye in the Sky- Want to watch a movie about the horrors of fighting a war via drones from thousands of miles away? Eye throws every conceivable moral issue and participant it can at you in hopes that you will not lose interest and takes no clear stand on what it thinks about the issue. Technically well done but you forget that every big name actor except for Barkhad Abdi is not where the action occurs, and are instead acting with telephones and computer screens. If one were smart, one could derive from that a message in its own that the removal of witnesses and participants to horror allows the horrors to continue indefinitely. I am not smart so I just think it was probably cheaper to film on sets with green screens.

C7 A6

 

Trainspotting 2- You can mostly guarantee that when Danny Boyle is involved you will have a special product on your hands. It may not always be satisfying or cohesive but it will be one-of-a-kind. In this instance, I think there was a lot of Scottish themes happening that I didn’t really comprehend or get. It was a European movie and that’s totally fine. The best thing about it is the combination of present day characters, old footage of the same actors and casting younger versions as well. It makes for great viewing when they are all edited together in one scene. I don’t understand most of the music choices here. Again, Europe. I recently saw a trailer for this movie and it made me think on it more fondly than when I was watching it. Trailers are pre (and sometimes post) film revisionism.

C7 A6

 

It Comes at Night- Nothing comes at night. There is no “It”. This movie is not bad but was marketed much different than what it is which is post-apocalyptic survival. I think I will see this some years in the future with new eyes and knowledge and appreciate it much more. For now, I remain bitter.

One Good Thing: The aspect ratio (size) of the screen changes for the nightmare scenes is a clever and subtle trick.

Watch Instead: Director Shults’ first outing was last year’s Krisha which took me way too long to watch.

C6 A5

 

The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead- I didn’t know anything about the Damned and now I do.  All the different line-ups really just boil down to who is getting paid for writing the songs. A bit of a fizzle for a promising documentary with great music. That was my favorite part and months later I’m still listening to Neat Neat Neat.

C7 A6

 

Lego Batman- Watching a Lego movie (like playing the Lego games) is an endurance exercise for your eyes. There is so much happening in any one scene there is not much in the way of central focus. It’s the Where’s Waldo of film animation. I was extremely excited at the premise of the movie, but somewhere after my fourth viewing of the last Lego movie the premise wore thin. This is an entertaining, funny film but my attention just couldn’t be held despite the great vocal work from Cera and Arnett. I may have to revisit when I’ve gained some distance from the genre.

C7 A7

 

Operator- Here is the IMDB synopsis because I can’t sum it up any more succinctly: “Joe, a programmer and obsessive self-quantifier, and Emily, a budding comedy performer, are happily married until they decide to use one another in their work.” The only other thing I would note is the great use of a fake operating system they created for this movie. Stuff like that gets overlooked but it’s similar to wardrobe or production design. The movie wouldn’t be the same without it and its well done here.

C7 A6

 

The Interview (1998)– How did no one know Hugo Weaving before the Matrix? Probably just my ignorance and youth. What the hell was I doing in ’98 anyway? Probably watching Usual Suspects for the 100^th time. Speaking of Suspects, this movie owes a lot of its dialogue tension to that film while making the scenario very much its own.  This is a really fun movie for the cast and setting which is almost noir at times but very Australian in its presentation.

C8 A6

 

MOVIE OF THE WEEK:

Gone with the Wind- What the fuck. Again, I felt I’d seen this movie all my life without ever sitting down and watching it. This is a sprawling film so I’ll condense my thoughts as best I can. First, that shot where Scarlet walks into the railyard with all the wounded soldiers is downright amazing. I am constantly impressed at Golden Age filmmakers doing what they did with hefty cameras and real film.  Second, Scarlet is a dick. I had always assumed she was a typical love interest to Clark Gable’s central character but she’s very much the center of the film. Yet, instead of making her a likable center she’s constantly manipulating and conniving to get her way. Now, I’m not saying she MUST be likable if she holds the main character position I’m just saying I didn’t care for her the majority of the time. I felt no urge for her to win at any time and mostly felt sympathy for people who dealt with her. That aside, this is a beautiful movie with a memorable cast and story and I don’t even need to talk about it.

C9 A8

UPDATE: I watched A Streetcar Named Desire recently and I may just not like Vivien Leigh. So, sorry Scarlett.