The Assistant – 5
Julia Garner has rocketed to relevance with her portrayal of Ruth in the
Netflix series Ozark.
So, can she carry a big screen movie? The jury is still
out. She’s going to need a script to
answer that question, and let’s just say this one lets her down.
She plays the assistant to a movie mogul, presumably modeled after Harvey Weinstein. We never actually see him in the movie, nor the sexual transgressions he commits. It’s just the remnants of his activities, and the assistant has to do a lot of the clean-up and cover-up. She has only been on the job for a couple of months and her dream job that she believed would provide an entryway into the movie business is not living up to expectations.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some good scenes, and Garner will probably be a star for a long time. The relentless subtlety of the story and her actions just didn’t move me.
Project Power – 7
I’m a sucker for movies filmed in New Orleans, so I had to check out this new Netflix entry in the “extraordinary powers” universe. The star power is there with Jamie Foxx and Joseph Gordon Levitt, who wisely wears a Steve Gleason jersey for much of the movie. The story involves the hot new street drug that delivers temporary super powers. Kind of an interesting premise, but nothing spectacular here, just another super hero movie of sorts. If you're entrenched in the marvel universe, this may be your kind of movie.
What She Said – The Art of Pauline
Kael - 8
Pauline Kael was probably the most influential movie critic of all time. She preceeded the Roger Ebert generation of writers, and her essays on movies when she wrote for the New Yorker were must reads in the industry. They were compiled into books that were award winners and best sellers. Her writings are complex and a little over the top, but she was respected and feared. After every other critic had panned Bonnie and Clyde, for example, she wrote a glowing review and the movie had a renaissance that has lasted until this day.
This is a pretty standard documentary with enough movie nuggets and discussion for me to really enjoy. If you are a movie nut, you will probably like, although its not going to shake your world.
Menilmontant – 5
In the documentary Pauline says this is her favorite movie of all time. It’s a little, half hour, French silent film, and it is so lightweight I’ve already forgotten what it was about. I have no idea what she liked so much about the movie.
For the Love of Spock – 8
Found this old documentary on Leonard Nimoy and his famous character from Star Trek. If you are a trekkie, and you know who you are, this is an interesting biography of one of tv’s most popular characters.
Another Earth – 8
I find Brit Marling and her posse fascinating. They do some far out stuff like The OA, The East, and this movie, that are unlike anything anyone else is doing. Do they always hit a home run? No, in fact, they are so extreme they can be erratic and too smart. But, I love a good effort, and this movie is one. One day a young drunk girl, played by Marling, kills a mother and daughter in a car accident. When she gets out of jail as a young adult, she seeks out the surviving husband, whose life is now in ruins.
Meanwhile a duplicate planet earth has appeared in the sky and when contact is made, a road trip from earth is planned. All this is tied together in a far-fetched sci-fy type tale. It’s an interesting premise.
The movie grinds rather slowly through the plot, but that underlying intelligence is there, and makes for a cerebreal if not dynamic evening.
Binge Report
Absentia – 9
The third season of this obscure Amazon Prime series has gotten little fanfare, but it is a deep, dark watch if you’re up to the intensity level. Stana Katic (so great as Becket in Castle) is an FBI Agent that was kidnapped and held for 6 years, during which she was presumed dead and her husband remarried.
And that’s the least of her problems. Her sanity is on the ropes as well as her job. It takes her two seasons to figure out why she was kidnapped, and in the third season her family is under attack.
This series is so intense it is really hard to get through, but everything about it is well done. Too bad nobody knows about it. It’s not the best thing streaming, but I’ll take it over much of what I’ve seen.
Classic Movie Report
Night of the Hunter – 8
Robert Mitchum has one of his
greatest roles as Harry Powers, a corrupt preacher who’s as evil as they come in
this potboiler from the fifties. When a
bank robber leaves $10,000 hidden with his children and soon-to-be widow, Harry
steps in to marry, then murder the widow.
The rest of the film is a battle between Powers and his stepchildren who
know where the money is but promised their father they would hold on to it.
I can see where this movie scared the pants off of audiences in 1955. It was based on a true story and was the only movie Charles Laughton ever directed. Creepy and suspenseful, and a don’t-miss for Mitchum fans.
Passion of Joan of Arc – 8
Ranked as the 9th best
movie by the Sight and Sound film critics poll, this is the story of the heresy
trial of Joan of Arc that resulted in her being burned at the stake. She was deemed a heretic for wearing men’s clothes. Like most silent movies much of this in
extreme closeup, thus dependent on the actors to portray their emotions through
facial communication, not verbiage. The
actress playing Joan is great at that, but made in 1927, the movie’s subject matter
is pretty depressing and I saw nothing that would make me include it in my top
2000 movies.
Man With A Movie Camera – 5
This is a one day documentary shot in Russia that takes us through various scenes with not a word said, and no story line. It is all visual, and fascinating in parts. My problem with this is that a score has recently been added, and as good as the music is, it makes it hard to recreate what the public saw in 1929. It’s like slipping one of today’s engines into a model T. It’s #8 on the list. Nope
M – 8
Metropolis – 10
Famed German Director Fritz Lang has two films in the top 100 of this critics poll and at least they would both make my top 2000.
M is the story of a child murderer in Berlin who has the public so scared that it is the mob and the beggars who hunt for him more effectively than the police because he is bad for their bad business. It’s a good story that builds to a great climax.
Metropolis rightfully lives up to its reputation as a masterpiece. Its set in a futuristic world where the upper class parties above ground, and everything is kept percolating by the working class below ground who operate the machinery that drives Metropolis.
There’s a love story built into the worker’s inevitable revolt, but it is the crowd scenes and sets that make this movie fascinating. As good as the story is, it takes a back seat to the stunning visuals . How did they do that? You’ll say that about 50 times. This silent movie was released in 1927 and should be on the must-see list of anyone who loves the evolution of the movies.
The Third Man – 9
Touch of Evil – 1
Citizen Kane – 10
The Magnificent Ambersons – 8
I thought I would get the Orson Welles-related four entries out of the way, including a re-watch of Citizen Kane.
The Third Man is a stylish thriller set in Vienna just after World War II. I guess that’s why the streets are so empty. Joseph Cotton arrives looking for Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who is reportedly dead but had quite a black market racket going on prior to getting hit by a car. The portrayal of a war-torn economy is terrific and the story is a good one, with a great ending. But it is the zither music, The Third Man Theme, that gives this movie a uniqueness and punch that elevates it and the villainous Harry Lime into the stratosphere.
Touch of Evil is easily my least favorite movie of this quest. After the famous opening shot, which rattles over the US – Mexico border, the movie is a garish, sweaty, far-fetched disaster. The closeups of the characters are claustrophobic, the story is ridiculous, and the acting is over the top. Charlton Heston plays a Mexican, and that should tell you all you need to know.
Citizen Kane holds up pretty well. It has always been #1 in this poll, until it was unseated by Vertigo in 2012. While it’s a great story, executed to perfection, I’ve never really understood its lofty reputation. It’s a great movie, but #1 or #2 in all movie history? Not to me, but what do I know?
The Magnificent Ambersons must have been the first soap opera. It revolves around the richest family in town, the Ambersons, and how they loaf and gossip their way through life. As the Ambersons grow poorer, they also have more family drama. It’s well played and plausible within their high cultured lifestyle. It was based on a Booth Tarkington novel, and Welles spins it out pretty well.
At this point I've seen 39 of the top 100 and the question is will the pandemic go on long enough for me to finish? Stay Tuned
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