Winter doldrums FILM JOURNAL Jan.-Feb. 2019
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Tableau of Jim and the lads in Postcards in London
Winter doldrums film journal, Jan.-Feb. 2019
There is never much happening this time of year other than bad weather and the run-up to the Oscars. There can be so-bad-it's-good movies, or surprise gems, or catching up. And of course plenty of cable TV series. (Recently watched among the latter: "The Romanoffs," "Bodyguard," "Peaky Blinders.") Or film series, which include in a month or so Film Comment Selects, the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and New Directors/New Films at Lincoln Center.
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LADY IN THE LAKE Robert Montgomery (1946). It was probably my first experience of film nor, seen when I was eight. You remember this particular Raymond Chandler adaptation because it's shot from Philip Marlowe's POV: the camera is his eyes. When he gets knocked out, the screen goes black. Re-watched on YouTube 29 Dec. 2018.
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SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE ( Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey 2018). This omnibus animation is wonderful. It takes in many versions of the myth and shows them in many styles. It won Best Animated Film at the Golden Globes, blasphemously, over Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs. It is joyous, bright, and fun, and nobody much was watching it that Sunday because they were crowded into the biggest auditorium for the leaden Aquaman (budget $160-200 million - but Spider-Man isn't cheap; it cost $90 million). I watched some of Aquaman too. I was not thrilled. Metascore, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 87; Metascore, Aquaman,55. Watched 30 Dec. 2018 at Hilltop Century, Richmond, California.
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POSTCARDS FROM LONDON (Steve McLean 2018). A posh study of an aspiring too-beautiful-to-be-true rent boy who comes from Essex to London's Soho to be a "raconteur" and then a "muse" but gets stopped in his tracks by "the Stendhal syndrome." A series of theatrical tableaux with precisely intoned dialogue featuring Beach Rats' Harris Dickinson and stealing from Derek Jarman's Caravaggio, it's very pleasing to the eyes but lacks substance. Released at the Quad Cinema in November, now available in video from Strand Releasing. Watched on a Strand screener, twice. TRAILER. Metascore 42 (but see Bilge Eberi's kind review in the NYTimes.)
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CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (Marielle Heller 2018). This serous drama vehicle for Melissa McCarthy is an adaptation by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty of the memoir of Lee Israel, a New York writer in the early Nineties whose declining career as a literary biographer led her into swindling book and manuscript dealers with forged letters from Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and other celebrities. Richard E. Grant is perfect as her seedy HIV-infected accomplice and fellow alcoholic. On the one hand, a great role for McCarthy and the rest of the cast, precise in its details. Some find it hilarious and delightful, but it seemed to me too sordid and sad to see that way. Metacritic 87. Watched at Rialto Elmwood, Berkeley, 4 Jan. 2019.
Great Movies In 2018 That No One Is Talking About - INDIEWIRE
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Some excellent 2018 movies that got completely ignored are rounded up in this handy little Indiewire video
I wrote reviews or at least thumbnail notices of half of them. You can catch them all online now. There are links to my reviews.
These are the kind of films I'd have been delighted to find in the days when I roamed the aisles of the local video stores in search of hidden gems - or might have discovered through Michael Sragow's invaluable book, Produced and Abandoned: The Best Films You've Never seen.
I KILL GIANTS (Anders Walter).] Adapted by a Danish director from a graphic novel on a YA theme with an excellent lead performance. In my NY Movie Journal, one of those odd, offbeat winter Manhattan movie experiences.
LEAN ON PETE (Andrew Haigh) The touching film about a lost America features the immensely gifted young Charlie Plummer and is by the great director or 45 Years. I found it so distinctive and special I made it one of my ten best of the year. Much admired at festivals and by critics but ignored by "casual moviegoers," says the video narrator.
THE ENDLESS (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead). A haunting indie sci-fi tale got ignored because it was released the same weekend as THE QUIET PLACE. I reviewed this on a screener at the time of its little noticed April release.
THOROUGHBREDS ( Cory Finley). IT'S a sophisticated debut feature about spoiled, immoral middle-class young female murderers, including a last role for the far-too-soon-lost Anton Yelchin. I noted this in my New York Movie Journal.
GOLDSTONE ( Ivan Sen). AN Australian Outback noir detective story with the great Jackie Weaver about a missing Chinese tourist with an aboriginal detective. Greet reviews but poor box office. I missed this one.
GEMINI (Alex Katz). Crime and mystery in Hollywood with John Cho. I didn't see this but heard about it and have seen and written about two of Katz''s earlier films, including the 2011 Cold Weather. When I see this it will be my third with John Cho this year after Searching and Columbus. He's gone a long way from Harold and Kumar.
BOMB CITY (Jameson Brooks). "One part pulpy crime story, one part heart-grabbing drama, this is a brilliant little film," says the video narrator. It's about a big clash between punk musicians and local toughs in a Texas town that leads to murder. This one on an unusual topic with a lot of colorful action. It completely eluded me.
UNSANE (Stephen Soderbergh. A B picture aesthetic "psychological horror thriller" shot on an iPhone, this was called one of Soderbergh's best by Richard Brody, but got no audience. It stars "The Crown" and First Man actress Claire Foy.
YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Lynne Ramsey). I saw this twice - in Paris, then San Francisco, and I can't imagine it getting under the radar: it packs a wallop and won a big Cannes prize and has Ramsey and Joaquin Phoenix both working in top form. But it's a tough watch and not for everyone.
SWEET COUNTRY (Warwick Thornton) Another Australian film, focused on a middle-aged aboriginal farmer. It won a Special Jury Prize at Venice. The director's debut firl Samson and Delilah about two aboriginal kids, was quite memorable. I reviewed it as part of ND/NF 2010. SWEET COUNTRY is another one swamped by the massive success of A QUIET PLACE.
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Bomb City - trailer Works on every level" - Richard Linklater