I. LOVE. LYNN. SHELTON. I have always loved her work. While it isn’t as strong as YOUR SISTER’S SISTER or LAGGIES, but I enjoyed it. This mostly in due to the cast (Marc Maron, Jon Bass, Jillian Bell, Michaela Watkins, Dan Bakkedahl and Toby Huss). This is also the second movie I’ve seen in the last few months with both Jillian Bell and Michaela Watkins in it (after BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON). Marc Maron is so funny in this and really carries the film. It’s also such a bizarre topic that I can’t help but be drawn into this world. It has without question the funniest Mexican standoff I’ve ever seen.
Quarantine Watch #47: The Wicker Man (1973)
This movie is really of it’s time. I liked it, but it's almost comical that the biggest thing to be afraid of is the fact that these people aren’t Christians. It’s the biggest case of satanic panic ever. I had no idea Christopher Lee was in this so that was a pleasant surprise for me. He ends up being the best part of the movie. It is also so obvious what is going on that I had a hard time going along with Howie. It’s almost like he doesn’t care about living as he constantly underestimates these people.
Quarantine Watch #46: Arthur (1981)
I had always heard that this movie was very funny since I was a kid. It had it’s charming moments, but I didn’t really laugh as much as I thought I was going to. John Gielgud is awesome in this and definitely deserved that Oscar. He kind of sets the template for butlers to the rich that would come after him. There is even an air of Alfred Pennysworth in the portrayals that came after this movie. Liza Minnelli is also so cute in this. I love the Joan Jett haircut on her.
Quarantine Watch #45: Persona (1966)
This is the first Ingmar Bergman film I’ve seen (I’m not counting the time I fell asleep half way through THE SEVENTH SEAL in college). It was a bizarre film that fills many different genres. It’s an experimental, psychological, psychosexual, thriller drama. I’ve honestly never seen anything like that. I don’t really know what to think of it and I guess that’s the point. It’s like a psych test that asks, “Tell me what you think this is about?” It’s not as experimental as other films, but it oddly is so open to interpretation. Bibi Andersson reminds me of Jodie Whitaker or a young Ellen Barkin. There were moments I really loved in this. You can really see how so many people (like David Lynch and Robert Eggers) were influenced by this one.
Quarantine Watch #44: Jumbo (2020)
This wasn’t as strange as I thought a movie about a woman falling in love with an amusement park ride would be. It is a beautiful idiosyncratic metaphor for forbidden love outside of societal norms. The colors were so cool. I’d love to know how they made this. The ride is able to show a range of emotions and beauty through lights alone. Noémie Merlant is such an amazing actress. I loved her in PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE last year and she is so good in this one too. She carries the emotional weight of a whole romance on her shoulder, as most of the time she acts opposite a large piece of machinery. The scene on stage at the end of the film alone is so brutal to her. You get a real sense of her loss and pain. The Mom is also such a huge dick in how she treats her daughter that it is painfully gross. I don’t know what to make of her because the relationship between her and her daughter is a major crux of the film and all I want is for Jeanne to be away from her.
Quarantine Watch #43: M (1931)
Peter Lorre is so damn good in this, although I miss his distinct voice he uses later in his American accent. It’s shocking this is his first leading role. The concept of being mentally unable to stop yourself from doing something evil vs. choosing to do something evil is such a deep and human argument. I’m shocked a film like this about murdering children was even able to be made in Nazi Germany. The sound is so well done in this, and considering it’s Lang’s first sound film is very impressive. He experiments with so many things that become second nature today. The camera and lighting is also so well done for the time it was made in. This is truly one of the most “ahead of it’s time” films I’ve ever seen. I’m still whistling In The Hall of the Mountain King.
Quarantine Watch #42: The Vanishing (1988)
This is a somber movie that I feel goes a little too slow at times with it’s pacing. I didn’t really connect with the film until the final 10 minutes of it. The film explores the cost of knowing something terrible. It was something I never really thought about before and it was done so cleverly in the end. My favorite shot is the one at the cafe where you can see the killer out of focus behind Rex. You just scream out, “HE’S RIGHT THERE!” It’s such a simple shot yet adds so much. The film reminded me a lot of films like THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES (the original one), SEVEN, THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and others that I’ve watched this quarantine like HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER or I SAW THE DEVIL.
Quarantine Watch #41: The Pink Panther (1963)
I’m always a fan of a comedy where multiple people are accomplishing a goal, but keep running into each other (like WHAT’S UP DOC). I had a tough time keeping all the characters straight as so many people look alike and everyone is in multiple costumes at the end of it. Claudia Cardinale is so pretty and charming. She has the air of a Bond girl and she is played just like Audrey Hepburn in BREAKFAST AT TIFFANYS (which was directed by the same director). I haven’t seen a lot of Peter Sellers movies (really just DR. STRANGELOVE and BEING THERE), but he is really good in this role, which obviously became his most well known role. He sets the template for so many characters that came after him like Austin Powers and Derek Zoolander. The score and the theme music is just fantastic, but the crowning achievement is the car chase at the end of the film. It is one of the funniest action scenes I’ve ever seen.
Quarantine Watch #41: Clueless (1995)
This is my first rewatch of a movie during this quarantine. I just love this movie. It’s so smart, funny, and full of heart. Paul Rudd really never ages. I watched this after Scriptnotes did a deep dive on it.
Quarantine Watch #40: Show Me Love/Fucking Åmål (1998)
I am big fan of Lukas Moodysson’s film WE ARE THE BEST! and until today I never really heard of any of his films before. This has so much heart and style that would eventually appear again in WE ARE THE BEST. It is amazing how well he is at dealing in coming of age stories for young girls. I love the super 16 look of the film. I can’t put my finger on why it is so perfect for the story, but it just is. Rebecka Liljeberg is such an interesting actress and she kind of reminds me of a young Anna Paquin while Alexandra Dahlström reminds me of a young Sarah Michelle Gellar. This film is so touching and it really resonated with experiences I’ve had in the past. It is yet another film I wish I saw back in high school. It also feels so ahead of it’s time.
Quarantine Watch #39: Brief Encounter (1945)
I love the lighting in this film, it may be one of my favorite uses of lighting. Top 10 for sure. It’s also an amazing romance that really resonated with me. I have been in a situation similar to theirs on two occasions which made the ending all the more heartbreaking. The final 20 minutes are so sad but because the love in this film is so strong. I feel myself yelling at these two to just be together. It’s such a pure film and I wish I saw it when I was in high school when I was even more romantic and doe-eyed. David Lean does a superb job of showing us the opening twice and making the impact of what we see the second time so much more powerful.
Quarantine Watch #38: I Saw the Devil (2011)
This is what happens if you take TAKEN and ratchet up the amount of violence and depravity, while mixing a little OLDBOY into the mix. It really plays on the idea of the consequences of revenge both to the world at large and to the person committing it. This film is relentless. That is the only way I can think to describe it — in it’s action, terror, the resolve of Kim Soo-hyun and in the need to kill in Jang Kyung-chul. The film also explores the idea of violence, specifically violence against women (similar to THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO ). Jang Kyung-chul just is alsothe embodiment of an incel. I hadn’t seen a Kim Jee-woon film before and it makes me want to check out his other stuff (Specifically THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE WEIRD and A TALE OF TWO SISTERS). Some of the shots in this are also just so beautiful.
Quarantine Watch #37: Shadowed (2020)
I was waiting to see what creative things people would make in all this quarantine mess. I liked this more than I liked his LIGHTS OUT short. it was so well done, especially the sound considering the circumstances. The shadows also looked so good. I hope they make even more shorts.
Quarantine Watch #36: Under the Shadow (2016)
This film gave me flashbacks to some movies: PERSEPOLIS, THE DEVILS BACKBONE, and THE BABADOOK to name a some. Set in during the Iran-Iraq war, the connection to terror and pain in relation to location and what is happening in the world at this time is just really smart. It takes the concept of the haunted house and adds another layer to it. It’s also really scary.
Quarantine Watch #35: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990)
This is one of those movies where the plot is so lean, simple and deals with such few characters it just makes everything stand so strong. Henry is such an interesting character. He is surprisingly not the most vicious or evil person in the film and is somehow gentle at times. He conveys this mostly with his eyes. You feel the darkness and you feel the damage at the same time. You get the sense he is addicted to killing people in some way. Tracy Arnold is also great in this. I’m surprised she didn’t have a bigger career. I know most of the killings were only shown with audio after the fact due to their low budget, but it really works and is very effective. It’s like JAWS and not seeing the shark. What you can imagine will always be so much more visceral. The rape stuff seemed over the top to me and wasn’t necessary, but it did help the ending when Otis finally becomes too deranged for Henry to handle.
Quarantine Watch #34: The Scheme (2020)
I had only known a little about what was going on in NCAA basketball in 2017 mainly because my boss is a huge University of Arizona fan. This is one of those stories that really plays into the idea of how the NCAA considers it’s players amateurs while not paying so they seek ways to make the most of it. That allows people like the coaches and people behind the scene to make money as well. It was interesting and a good story, but this is another one that I felt was too long. I had to pause in the middle and do other other things before picking it back up. It’s really telling that a single two hour documentary feels longer than a docuseries broken into 4 parts or more.
Quarantine Watch #33: What's Up, Doc? (1972)
I’ve never thought of Barbra Streisand as cute before, but man is she adorable in this as a Bugs Bunny-esque agent of chaos. It is absurd that she wasn’t even nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy at that year’s Golden Globes. It’s such a great performance. She just leaps off the screen and with her smile she gets away with anything. Kenneth Mars (who is always a great addition to any comedy) plays physicality in such a unique way. I’d love to see more of his style come back in modern comedies. For that matter, slapstick really has taken back seat in recent time. It’s always fantastic watching screwball comedies. Everything from the action to the dialogue is fast paced. The writing is so smart and fun at the same time. And man, that chase scene. Its fun, action packed, and hysterical all at the same time. It’s nice to see where the ‘two guys with glass walking’ thing got it’s start.
Quarantine Watch #33: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
I remember as a kid when the movies for BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES would come out. That show though, was before my time. I watched STATIC SHOCK and JUSTICE LEAGE instead (even though I had a couple toys when I was younger). In those series, Batman is so much colder than he is here. Whenever I watched them I was always like “I can’t se Bruce Wayne being a good dude.” Here he is much much softer. What I liked about this is that we get to see a Batman origin story that is fresh and doesn’t show the damn murder alley scene. I thought the Joker being involved with the story was a waste. They didn’t need to lean on it — although Mark Hamill’s Joker is always a delight — as the Phantasm could have easily been the sole villain. Another great thing to marvel at is the gothic art deco style of the Gotham City. It reminds me when I would go into New York City as a little kid back in the 90s.
Quarantine Watch #32: Capernaum (2018)
There is so much to say about this film. First Zain Al Rafeea is a powerhouse. He brings so much maturity to the role with being so young. His maturity can be due to his own life as a Syrian refugee, but still he carries this film on his shoulders and then some. The scene that starts Zain on his journey is when his sister is ripped apart from him. It is really brutal and sad. You hate his parents for doing it, but when they describe their actions in court, you can kind of buy they believe they are doing the right thing. Then again they could just be lying because in then end they really do not care about their children. Either way Zain takes charge of his own life and destiny despite the adults around him trying to do it for him. It was a little too long for my taste, but for the most part it really was a deep and exposing dive into poverty and immigration in other parts of the world. The film also reminds me a lot of other Cannes Film Festival films Ramin Bahrani’s CHOP SHOP and that same year’s Hirokazu Kore-eda’s SHOPLIFTERS.
Quarantine Watch #31: Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
The 1980s were really not a flattering time for wardrobe. Except for Madonna (and then Rosanna Arquette when she wears her clothes) everyone else is dressed like crap. It’s easy to see how Madonna and Rosanna Arquette made acting careers off this — they both pop on screen and are effortlessly charming. I do think it was a weird thing that in a lot of ‘80s movies, if someone hit their head and got amnesia that was totally a normal thing (I’m looking at you OVERBOARD). This is also the only PG-13 movie I’ve seen with nipples in it (unless you count those James Bond opening titles, but those were technically PG).
