”A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.” HAMLET is my favorite of Shakespeare’s works so I’ve been meaning to see this for some time now. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman. They are like Abbott and Costello with Guildenstern being the straight man and Rosencrantz as the funny man (even though its hard to discern who is actually who). Gary Oldman is hysterical, I really wish he’d play more comedic roles and when he would I wish he’d play more dummies. The language in this is so quick, biting, smart, and funny. However, I enjoyed Tim Roth so much more in this. His face is smart, thoughtful, yet with an air of deceit in it His performance is so much more subtle, but I loved it. You can see part of his PULP FICTION character’s personality here too. It was cool getting to see a (really) young Iain Glen. Ian Richardson was also great as Polonius. My favorite moment was the game of Questions on the tennis court. I once played that in an acting class I had to take in college. I always thought this was about what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were doing during HAMLET, but it is so much more than that. It is them trying to figure out what is going on without letting it on. It’s like someone arriving late to a party after a fight and trying to figure out how everything went down and I absolutely love it.
Quarantine Watch #265: Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
I saw FITZCARRALDO before I saw this and man they are the perfect double feature. I'm shocked both Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski would even attempt FITZCARRALDO after doing this one. I do'n’t know how they made either of these films. It seems impossible to bring all of the heavy film equipment not mention the canons, armor, people, rafts, weapons, explosions, etc. through the mountains. Something you can always tell is masterful is when stunts and large set pieces are shown in long shots (especially back then). You know it’s not faked with editing/camera tricks (you see this a lot in Jackie Chan fight scenes in his older films for instance). That is here in droves from the climbing to the mountains to the rapids scenes. Lope de Aguiree is truly the definition of crazy and Klaus Kinski plays him perfectly. He really is one of the biggest villains in cinema. I can’t wait to see MY BEST FRIEND and see what production looked like cause it looks even more harrowing than what is covered in HEARTS OF DARKNESS about the making of APOCALYPSE NOW (which this film is dripping with — Coppola obviously loves this movie). I’m shocked Herzog is as old as he is now, I feel like all of this type of filmmaking in his youth would have killed him young.
Quarantine Watch #264: La Jetée (1962)
I am shocked by how engaged and moving a film told only through still photography and narration could be. It feels like a project that would be given to someone in film school. While elements of the story confused me, the core of the film is so enthralling. The editing choices work so well to keep the pace up, it could be easily overlooked. When they chose to cut versus dissolve and how quickly they cut is masterful. Going into it, I thought the narration, might not be that strong, but it is written so concise with sentences so well constructed (it reminds me of how smart dialogue could be as in THE FAVOURITE for example) that it pulls you in. This was a film that grabbed my brain and dragged me into it. I haven’t seen 12 MONKEYS yet (mainly cause I don’t love Terry Gilliam), but now I wanna check it out.
Quarantine Watch #263: Leviathan (2012)
I can only imagine how many cameras were destroyed during filming. I don’t know how they filmed some of these shots. They are so hypnotic like when the birds are flying by the chum, or the shells and starfish are flowing either from the ship onto the camera or just through the water. The editing is also seamless. One moment you are getting fish dumped on you and before you even know it you are in a bucket with. The butchering of the fish is very sad (especially the manta rays). When you see the eyes of the fish, its hard to tell if this is just how fish look or if their eyes have just budged out of their faces due to lack of water and being stuck in a net dangling in the oxygen enriched air. They look like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he is on the surface of Mars in TOTAL RECALL. I really feel for the animals and there are so much real blood and guts I find this harder to watch than a SAW film (even though this has less gore). It’s hard to tell if. the real power of the film is you feel like you are on the boat. You feel like a fish flopping on the deck. You feel the cold. Smell the salted air. By the end you are drenched with sea water.
Quarantine Watch #262: Pretty in Pink (1986)
John Cryer is amazing as Duckie. The scene where he lip syncs to Otis Redding’s ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ is the best scene in the film. It seems impossible that the test audiences hated Andie ending up with him. It just makes sense and Andrew McCarthy’s character just doesn’t deserve her. It really ruins the film. Annie Potts, Harry Dean Stanton and James Spader (who is channelling the Mike Damone character from FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) also give good performances. The ‘80s New Wave and Punk looks that color the world of the film is also a standout, but the greatest thing about it will always be the soundtrack. An issue that persists throughout the film is that the main 3 characters are all assholes (Duckie the least of all, but he is still a dick throughout). This makes it hard to get very invested in everything.
Asterisk is now on YouTube
ASTERISK is now available on YouTube. Check it out by clicking the poster!
Quarantine Watch #261: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976)
I went into this really wanting to love it. Cassavetes is someone I’ve been dying to explore. The lighting in this really cool and plays with the noir aspects he is exploring. However I had a hard time liking anything else. The nightclub scenes went on far too long and weren’t that interesting despite Cosmo wanting them to be more than just a strip show. The MC Teddy reminds me of how Danny DeVito will eventually look when he plays the Penguin in BATMAN RETURNS. The actual plot is good, but the pacing is so slow that it was hard to follow along with everything. If this had been a short film that was 30 minutes long I’d have appreciated it more.
Quarantine Watch #260: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
I bought this during the last Criterion Collection sale and thank god I did. It is really a majestic work of art. It seems impossible that they were able to make this. It’s beautiful and feels like it took an impossible amount of hours to accomplish. Even so, Wes Anderson has gotten even better with his stop motion animation. This was the last Wes Anderson feature film I needed to see in order to see his whole filmography (although I have only seen like 3/4s of BOTTLE ROCKET). I thought the premise of this way different than what it ended up being, especially the first half of the film is a heist film. Fox dresses exactly like Anderson and I feel like he must have had an amazing time with the design on it. I loved the voice work by both Jason Schwartzman, Wally Wolodarsky (the guy who was the basis of Otto in THE SIMPSONS), and Willem Dafoe — I didn’t even recognize Dafoe’s voice.. Additionally the casting of George Clooney is pitch perfect as it harkens back to his role of Danny Ocean in the OCEAN’S ELEVEN films.
Quarantine Watch #259: Take the Money and Run (1969)
I’m coming to love the very early Woody Allen films, which have more in common with Marx Brothers and Chaplin films rather than other Woody Allen films. The great thing about this one is that it is joke after joke after joke. It’s like the movie version of a stand-up special. You can see the MODERN TIMES influence when he is in prison and using the folding shirt machine. I’m surprised this is the first time I’ve seen Janet Margolin I don’t remember her in films like ANNIE HALL and GHOSTBUSTERS 2). She was great. You can also make a case for TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN, BANANAS, and SLEEPER to be a thematic trilogy of films.
Quarantine Watch #258: Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
I know people consider this one of the greatest films ever made, but I had difficulty seeing that. It feels more like an experimental film than a narrative. That being said, it is a VERY interesting film. It is so big with using so little. With its long run-time, following Jeanne doing mundane housework and errands for three days, the static shots force you to focus in on not only what is there (like the kitchen’s wallpaper or the flashing light from outside during dinner), but what is also absent. Absence is something felt throughout the film whether it is decorations on the walls or the deceased father/husband (whom she may or may not have even really loved). This is also especially so with the relationship between her and her son. Jeanne treats everything in her life the same whether it is peeling potatoes or having sex with a john — it’s all imbued in the DNA of her daily life so it is neither interesting nor fun — it’s just something that needs to get done. Another smart thing about the film, is that it sets up expectations of individual scenes very well. Despite the low stakes, you feel compelled to see things through from beginning to end. For instance, when she peels the potatoes, the scene presents you four potatoes, so you know she needs to peel all four. This also helps once you realize she has made a mistake or has done something different like when she lifts up the pot. The film definitely causes you to think about all the little moments in your life that you are on autopilot for whether its vacuuming or driving to work or anything. It causes you, the voyeur, to think about what would it be like if my daily life was observed in this way. It also causes you to look at what happens when that autopilot life, order, and routine is disrupted, even slightly. There also is something interesting in the idea of, “if everything is interesting, then nothing is interesting,” and vice versa which the film plays with. This helps immensely as you never know what will be seen as important or what will suddenly disrupt and change the flow. I think I would have been more taken by it if I had seen it back in 1975 as I know there are a lot of feminist undertones (I see some, especially towards the end) that I am not picking up, mainly due to watching it for the first time 45 years after the fact. I also think if I were a woman I would be able to see deeper into those ideas.
Quarantine Watch #257: You Should Have Left (2020)
A lot of the design and lighting of the film reminds me of a video game I loved called CONTROL. This is complete withe modern cement architecture and the. All of the shadow effects and the initial germ of an idea that the film stems from, are really cool, but overall a lot of the film falls flat especially as it lurches towards its ending.. Kevin Bacon and Amanda Seyfried are a weird pair to be playing a married couple, despite their age difference being a plot point of the film, and I think it affects their chemistry. The towns people were also really annoying stock characters. Once you realize what is going on, it become hard to keep playing along with the film. The real saving grace of the film is the performance by Avery Essex as the young daughter who is, in a word, AMAZING.
Quarantine Watch #256: Hamlet (1948)
While he is a bit too old, Laurence Olivier is really the best part of the film in his role of HAMLET. I never cared for the characters of Gertrude and Polonius, as they are both so annoying, so it was hard for me to enjoy the performances from those actors. The fencing match at the end of the film was stupendous, however. It felt so naturalistic yet skillful. I loved it. The death of Ophelia was probably my favorite part as it was handled beautifully. It kind of reminded me of the death of Anju in SANSHO THE BAILFF a few years later. It also really resembles John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia from 1852. For as much as I remember about the play, I forgot all about the whole “madness of love” subplot that ultimately leads to Ophelia’s suicide while Hamlet is tricking Polonius and Claudius. Additionally it is interesting to look at what Olivier cut out of the film, namely the characters of Rosencrantz, Gildenstern, and Fortinbras. The production design here is pretty cool. I loved how the film ends where it begins. Another great thing to look at is during the play within a play bits, Hamlet is sitting in a chair that looks just like a director’s chair, fitting that the is essentially directing what is going on in order to get a rise out of Claudius. I also really liked seeing a young Peter Cushing in this.
Quarantine Watch #255: Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
It’s amazing to see how something can fail one place and be so resonate in another. Nowadays its hard to think someone wouldn’t notice, but in the days before the internet, it is something that probably happened all the time. Sixto Rodriguez becomes a folk hero from just the mythos behind him. One of the most interesting things is how the South African people attached themselves to him during Apartheid in the same way Americans attached to Elvis and the Beatles. I feel like if this was made today Reddit would have been very much involved in the tracking down the information about Rodriguez as it was in the docs THE THREAD, DON’T FUCK WITH CATS, and I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK. A lot of the elements in the film also reminded me of the fantastic FINDING VIVIAN MAIER. I loved every song in this and I can’t wait to listen to these albums. He is a true contemporary of Bob Dylan, with all the clout that comes along with it. The scene where he walks the streets of Detroit reminded me of Jack White — the wardrobe and the snow and Detroit, just felt very Jack White. I bet the two of them have met at this point.
Quarantine Watch #254: Alphaville (1965)
What a special love letter to the noir and sci-fi films of the past, that it balances both so equally that it seems almost impossible to do so. Even films like BLADE RUNNER skew more in one direction — not this. The lighting is some of the best I’ve ever seen and the cinematography really compliments it. I loved the shots of Karina — again he eyes are just majestic especially the way Godard shoots her. I also love how Godard uses Neon lights (as he did in past films like PIERROT LE FOU and A WOMAN IS A WOMAN). Here he takes his neon photography to another level. Paul Misraki’s score reminds me so much of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, but this could also be because the story is reminiscent of a Serling story, especially when it is coupled with the black and white photography. A lot about the film is very obvious from the clear Orwellian and Bradbury references to the specifics of the world of Alphaville. There is rarely subtext since it is all text, which is an oddity in Godard films. The voice of Alpha 60 is also SO creepy. It makes you feel sick whenever you hear it. It reminds me of how The Daleks in DOCTOR WHO speak. The whole, “Time is like a circle” bit also reminds me so much of TRUE DETECTIVE’S flat circle themes.
Quarantine Watch #253: Yes, God, Yes (2020)
This entire film is just a long way to make you feel so bad for Natalie Dyer’s character. All you do the whole film is yell at her to stand up for herself. It’s painful to watch, but her doe-eyes help carry you along because she is just so innocent. I’ve always been a Timothy Simmons fan, but he wasn’t playing the comedic character he normal excels at. Everything here is about hypocrisy and its something that a lot of coming-of-age films don’t really explore. Hypocrisy is something everyone realizes about the world as no one lives their 100% open and honest (maybe a Buddhist monk, but who’s to say really?). This is applied to everything from sexual experiences, religion, school, everything. Setting the film during the ‘90s is also pitch perfect as it really takes advantage of that time period’s world and technology in all of the best ways from AOL to playing snake on the Nokia phone. It feels very inspired by what the Hulu series PEN15 does, albeit in a more grounded way.
Quarantine Watch #252: The 36th Chamber of the Shaolin (1978)
This has to be my favorite of the Shaw Brothers films. A lot of times those are shot on sets, but not here. You really get a sense they built these different temples outside. They aren’t as big as what Kurosawa was accomplishing in Japan, but I bet that was due to their business model and smaller budgets. It’s some of the best fight choreography I’ve ever seen and directly influenced films such as THE MATRIX, KILL BILL, and probably every other Kung-Fu film that came after it. Gordon Liu is so good in this. His character, San Te, seems like the prototype for so many “one man versus many” characters such as Ip Man from the IP MAN films, Rama in THE RAID films, Neo in THE MATRIX films, John Wick in the John Wick films, and The Bride in KILL BILL. I loved so much here, especially his three-section staff. The editing is so fantastic and compliments the fight sequences. It also cuts in an almost French New Wave way complete with match cuts and random time jumps. I didn’t realize most of the film would be the training sequence and frankly I didn’t care because you could easily watch him go through all 35 chambers and not be bored at all. It makes me want to get back into martial arts.
Quarantine Watch #251: Jack Whitehall: I'm Only Joking (2020)
Not my favorite Jack Whitehall special. There is some great things in here — specifically the part when he discusses how human beings can’t stand other people who have self control. Brilliant. Obviously the stuff about his father is great, however it’s always better when he plays off him in person. I think shooting the special in the US did him a disservice as he constantly was commenting on the fact. The whole US vs. UK differences thing feels very played out at this point. Additionally there were a lot of low hanging fruit jokes here that I felt could have been constructed better.
Quarantine Watch #250: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
The premise of this film is unbelievably brilliant: a police chief kills his mistress and tries to see if he will ever be suspected by his own officers. It examines the potential ability of abuse of power that all people in a higher echelon of authority possess. Not that all people would do anything like this, the film explores the ethics of if they did, then what would happen? This doesn’t extend to solely the one officer, it extends to the entire police department. The plot feels very resonant of films that came before it, such as Z or ROPE, however Z is the vasty superior film in regards to cover ups and abuses of power. Still, this has a lot to say with its commentary. Gian Maria Volonté gives such a passionate performance. There a moments where he has no emotion at all, like a truly numb sociopath, and then there are times where he goes so big that it becomes so stereotypically Italian. There were moments where he reminded me of Heath Ledger’s Joker in regards to his role as an agent of chaos. My favorite scene involved his character having a tin worker buy the blue ties and then confessing to him that he is the murder in order to see how far he can push and still get away with it. By the time he emotionally can’t take it anymore, which I honestly didn’t expect to happen, the police cover everything up because their institution cannot be flawed or be at fault. It is more important to uphold the reputation of the police than seek justice, which is an issue we see time and again in the modern age. This also is perfectly juxtaposed by the discussion of graffiti of revolutionaries such as Chairman Mao as well as the subplot involving the leftist radicals. This is probably the strangest Ennio Morricone’s score I’ve ever heard. There are weird springy noises peppered throughout, which almost makes it feel like circus music (although one is perfectly timed while he is having sex/murdering Augusta). Additionally it sounds like he is using a calypso (there’s probably no way he is, it’s most likely a mandolin, but it sounds like it). The cinematography is also great. My only real concern is that it felt like there was a lot of fat on this film and Elio Petri could have easily cut 20 minutes out.
Quarantine Watch #249: A Woman is a Woman (1961)
This was a fun way for Godard to have a conversation about the differences between men and women in a light love story. As always, the best part of the film is Anna Karina. Every artist needs their own Anna Karina. There are so many interesting choices here that I don’t think anyone would think of (this mostly has to do with how the film is edited, as in most Godard films). Aside from her presence, I absolutely loved how it was shot — the camera is what kept me interested in the film while the story, for me, went in one year and out the other. Though that doesn’t mean there aren’t great moments. The best scene is when Angéla and Émile aren’t speaking to each other and keep grabbing books while holding onto a lamp and then speak to one another via the book titles. I also loved when she catches the food in the frying pan after she throws it up in the air and takes a phone call. It’s such a small moment but adds to the magic of the film. The production design is so minimal that it forces you to focus in on the actors. I thought the music sounded so much like Jacques Demy’s THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROCHEFORT that this had to have inspired them. They all sound so similar. Lo and behold when I look it up and see they are all the same composer, Michel Legrand. It’s also interesting how Angéla mentions Bob Fosse as someone she loves since when she dances and sings it at the Burlesque house it reminds me a lot of CABARET which wouldn’t hit Broadway until five years later.
Quarantine Watch #248: The Speed Cubers (2020)
There is so much heart in this competition film. Most of it comes from the real friendship between the two main characters, even though they’re competition against and trying to out do one another. Max’s background and story is very compelling and its amazing to see the footage of his family talking about how it was when he was growing up. This film reminded me a lot of JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, surprisingly enough. It’s not necessarily about the culture of Speed Cubing or the World championship or the even the friendship between Max and Feliks — it’s about how generations develop in competitions. Eventually the older established people are edged out of the first place spot on the podium for the younger, newer generation. You also see how the older people end up losing more time to practice as they age to things like family and careers. This is especially the case in Speed Cubing as most of the competitors are children. I was surprised to see that Chris Romano actually produced this as I am a fan of his work in comedies such as HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and BLUE MOUNTAIN STATE.
