Lars von Trier is a complicated director for so many reasons. Because of that, when you go into his older work you never know what you’re going to get. I was so pleasantly surprised by this film. The writing is phenomenal and although it is extreme and unusual, the love between Bess and Jan is so real. It also feels like the type of novel written by someone of previous times Nathaniel Hawthorne or Mark Twain. The end of the film even feels a bit like THE GIVING TREE. It is interesting how von Trier imbues so much magic in this dark story. Emily Watson gives one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in a film — she is freaking amazing and probably should have won the Oscar that year. It’s crazy to me to see how religious people can act in the late 90s in the way this community is.
Quarantine Watch #565: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003)
This is a film that is pure, unbridled serenity in bottle. The film is so peaceful that it completely washes over you and causes a brief calm to flow throughout your body. It is a really interesting way to examine life not only to show it through the images and chapters, but to do it so sparingly that it causes you to dig deep down and discover something about yourself. The production design of the house floating in the lake is so beautiful. Must have been crazy to shoot this since the water had to be so still. The scene where the apprentice carves the floor is so enthralling. This is because the task has been given so much weight in regards to saving his soul.
Quarantine Watch #563: Escape Room (2019)
My dad was watching this so I decided to rewatch it with him. Had fun with it the first time. It's not anything super special but it is a fun watch. The ending is a little meh as well. Still I'm planning on seeing the sequel when it comes out.
Quarantine Watch #560: Gremlins (1984)
Got the chance to rewatch this for a bit when my sister and I were being lazy and just needed to watch something light and fun. I always enjoy watching this around the holidays, makes me feel warm inside despite the black humor and carnage. I totally forgot that Judge Reinhold was in this. In the back of my mind I feel it was done to have a little FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH reunion with Phoebe Cates. The puppet/creature work has always amazed me specifically how well it has held up throughout the years. Joe Dante’s balance of horror and comedy, the creature effects, and the performances of people like. Overall it is the energy the film runs on and the utter cuteness of Gizmo that keeps this near and dear to my heart.
Quarantine Watch #559: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
My brother-in-law had this on the TV when I was over to visit. It was just there while we hung out. No one was watching it, but I found myself time and again being drawn to it in my periphery and checking out specific scenes, since it has been a good couple of years since I revisited it. This is one of my favorite of the MCU films and is the one I consider the best of all the AVENGERS (including the first one and ENDGAME). It truly is a movie that is the closest thing we’ve ever gotten to something like IT’S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD where a truly endless number of A-Listers get the chance to not only have enough screen time, but get to play and fight with one another in all the great ways. Did I know I needed to see Dr. Strange and Spider-Man fight the Guardians of the Galaxy? No. Am I happy that I got to see what that looked like? Oh yeah. The other amazing thing about the film is that it is structured around the idea that the main character of the film is the villain, which is a bold thing to do for the 3rd film in a series of films within a series of films with established, beloved characters. It is something that I really appreciate.
Quarantine Watch #556: The Great Muppet Caper (1981)
This is such a weird movie that I wanted to love because, well, I love The Muppets and I love mystery films and heist films. The main problem the film is so hard to watch is the bad guys are so mustache twirling it is hard to take them seriously. Additionally Charles Grodin really wants to have sex with Miss Piggy and that subplot and attraction is just impossible to get past. There are funny moments and some of the songs are nice, but it is not enough to hold the film together. The cameos in the film are also lot of fun, specifically John Cleese and Jack Warden. It must have been a really weird film for American children to see this as it is just a super weird film (like most Jim Henson directed films), but also because it is very steeped in English culture.
Quarantine Watch #555: The Uninvited (1944)
This was such a great movie. There are also genuinely creepy and scary moments, like when Stella stares at the siblings through the window. The film also does such a great job of making a room feel scary without doing anything to it, just having the characters react. The production design of the haunted house is so great and the film works even when watched today. The mystery of the film is so engaging that you really need to think about what is going on. The ending helps to really contextualize everything we’ve been seeing and even though it becomes a bit predictable as you get closer and closer to the conclusion, it doesn’t matter because it’s satisfying.
Quarantine Watch #503: Mank (2020)
There is a lot here to marvel at, specifically Amanda Seyfried’s performance, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’s beautiful score, the wonderful black and white photography from Erik Messerschmidt, Donald Graham Burt’s production design and Trish Summerville’s wardrobe design. Aside from all the technical achievements, a lot of stuff feels unbalanced. Some scenes are amazing, such as first talk of Germany and Upton Sinclair at Hearst Castle and the subsequent scene between Oldman and Seyfried as they walk along the grounds. Others feel a bit all over the place. The idea of him accepting credit is so interesting, but it feels ultimately a footnote in the overall story. This is mainly because it follows a long span of Herman J. Mankiewicz’s life and is weighed down with a lot of characters (even though the cast Fincher has fill out all of this roles are great talents and great in their roles). Everything is focused on the Gubernatorial election and the politics of the era as opposed to the making of Citizen Kane. The typed scene headings felt a bit too on the nose as well. Still it was pretty interesting how a lot of moments are so prescient in our modern era.
Quarantine Watch #442: Harakiri (1962)
Back in 2011 I got the chance to go to the premiere of Takashi Miike’s remake of this film at the Cannes Film Festival. I remember really enjoying the film, but having not seen the original version by Masaki Kobayashi. This was really well done. I specifically loved how Kobayashi lets moments land in silence. The other star of the film is the cinematography by Yoshio Miyajima. His slow zooms never feel like too much, but are constantly in the film as a means of getting closer and closer to the characters as they tell their stories. By not seeing Motome’s harakiri, for the the most part, it makes you hurt more than the red stained blood in the 2011 version based solely on performance, cinematography, and sound design. That moment in the film hurts so much watch that it chills your bones on a visceral level. I never noticed it when I saw the remake, but this is really making a commentary on job loss and poverty. It is especially noticeable now that I lost my job due to Coronavirus. The newly classed ronin are getting released out into Japan in droves, similar to the massive layoffs of today and who is responsible for that. Both Hanshirō and Saito have valid arguments about who is ultimately responsible for Motome’s death. Films that are able to toe the line of making both arguments strong tend to gain my affection. It is a fantastic argument of ethics.
Quarantine Watch #439: The Cocoanuts (1929)
This is another one of those films in the 20s/30s that really just loved to showcase film as entertainment almost like a variety show. We have the comedians, the singing, the dancing and it’s all thrown together in a very GRAND HOTEL kind of way. Get a bunch of people we like into one location and have them perform. It’s not my favorite of the Marx Brothers films I’ve seen, but you can see them really honing in on the stuff that will explode later in their career.
Quarantine Watch #431: Parasite (2019)
Watched Criterion Blu-Ray with commentary by Bong Joon-ho and film critic Tony Rayns. It's an eye opening conversation with a bunch of stuff I didn't realize, specifically in regards to Production Design. I wish I could have watched the commentary under the Black & White version of the film though.
Quarantine Watch #430: She Said, She Said (2013)
I heard Aubrey Plaza talk about this briefly in an interview and thought I’d check it out because I love all the actors in it. It’s an interesting concept, but I don’t think it takes advantage of it until the final moments where everything becomes ethereally sexy. I also don’t know how I feel about the film referring to the dog as a thing though. Tone is also a thing that is hard to gauge since at times it is meant to be wholly erotic while at other times it is played for comedy. I think having David Wain as the mediator adds to the comedic tone.
Quarantine Watch #422: Happiest Season (2020)
It seemed strange going into this film to have an adult “fear of coming out” film in the modern era, but again I’m a straight guy so I don’t have any point of view on that. It ended up working in a way that I was not expecting. There are moments that are broadly comedic that feel out of a different movie — like the Timothy Simmons/Lauren Lapkus mall cop scene. I love the actors and it is funny, but it is jarring and something the film didn’t need. One thing this movie has is a stellar cast. Mary Holland (who also co-wrote) is a revelation. She gives a performance unlike anything I’ve ever seen, she’s so funny. I always love Mackenzie Davis in anything she is in. She’s fantastic. There’s a moment especially when she freaks out that she’s been outed and you can see the fear and panic in her eyes. It wasn’t too big, but it was a big reaction. It stings so hard when it happens for both characters. Everyone really is pretty great, but the film really needed more Victor Garber cause he doesn’t get a lot of screen time. There actually seems too many characters in the film. If it was just the family, it would be have been a lot leaner/stronger. Instead, the film pays too much time to ancillary characters like Allison Brie’s kids, the campaign staff, and Jake McDorman’s character. Not saying that these characters aren’t important to plot, but we just spend too much time with them.
Quarantine Watch #408: One Piece: Stampede (2019)
Wow, it is impressive that this movie has as many characters in it as it does while never feeling forced at any point. It is indescribable as to how perfect it works so much so that it feels like the AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR of Anime films. This film was released on the 20th anniversary of the ONE PIECE series and it has everything you want out of an anniversary film in the best ways possible. The characters, the call backs to the beginning of the series, a tease at the treasure of One Piece, the fights, and so much heart that I teared up at the end. So much is packed into it but it never feels like you are overwhelmed. I decided to check this out since I just caught up with the English Dub to the series (at episode 614) and I remember the trailer looking fun. Boy it was. All of that being said, the 3D animation was pretty bad, especially with the villain Bullet.
Quarantine Watch #407: Shaolin and Wu Tang (1983)
This is the first film I watched on Wu Tang Collection, which is a great collection of these types of Martial Arts films. The transfer wasn’t great, it felt like the side of the frame was cutting people off and it also felt like it came from a VHS recording. It was also dubbed, but as I said on other kung-fu film reviews, it really compliments the film in terms of how we think about Chinese martial arts films of this era. There are some many things I like in this — mostly the fight scenes — but a lot of it drags, specifically the prison scenes. The plot is also something we’ve seen so many times: Corrupt lord, betrayals with a master dying, and someone running away to join the Shaolin Temple (all of those scenes feel very much the world of THE 36 CHAMBERS OF THE SHAOLIN). This is also my third Gordon Liu film this year. He really is something special, and I’m actually shocked this is one of his only directorial efforts. It is pretty cool to see him in this with the abbot looking exactly like the role he would play way later in life in KILL BILL VOL. II. Like most people I was introduced to this film from it’s samplings on the Wu Tang Clan album Enter the Wu Tang (36 Chambers) and it was very satisfying when those parts came up in the story from the amount of times I’ve listened to that album. Idy Chan is also a great fighter in this and I’m shocked she didn’t do more film work. I really liked her.
Quarantine Watch #405: They Look Like People (2015)
This is a level of independent cinema that gives me hope of what anyone can make with a little money and a camera similar to feelings I had when I saw PRIMER, CLERKS, or THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. It really shows how scared and tense you can make an audience feel simply by turning off the lights in the right way. This film has a creepy atmosphere that absorbs you. This is done so well due to the sound design, music, and acting of MacLeod Andrews. I also keep coming back to how simple the film is — and that is a great compliment. There is so much showing the audience how stuff works (wether its the nail gun or the acid) and how Wyatt sees the world that there is so much payoff in the tension of later scenes. It is a great exploration of madness and paranoia and has you go back and forth between asking yourself if this all in Wyatt’s head or is it actually happening. The ending is also great in terms of tension and catharsis. All of that being said, there is a lot of clunkiness around the film. This mainly comes from how far Christian goes at the end to help Wyatt confront his psychosis. It goes from making sense to being borderline stupid how long he goes with trusting him, which I guess is also the point. There is also too much going on with Christian from his working out and affirmations, to awkwardness around Mara, to getting fired (which doesn’t make any sense in the way it happens), to his thrown away mentioned comment about a suicide attempt, it is hard to see what they were trying to accomplish with his character.
Quarantine Watch #370: Sounds Good to Me: Remastering The Sting (2004)
This is just so silly, but it makes total a sense when you understand how much of a film nerd Bill Hader is. Of course this is the type of character he would construct. It’s also interesting to see him playing around right before he joined Saturday Night Live.
Quarantine Watch #355: War and Peace (1966/1967)
I can’t even begin to fathom how they were able to make this film. The scale is something the likes of which I have never seen before considering that there is no CGI and this is all practical. Sergei Bondarchuk is the prototype of the other epic director/actor artists we would see later in the works of Warren Beatty and Kenneth Branagh. The film is a lot, in the sense that it is very daunting. In between the massive battles and set pieces there are scenes that are so powerful they suck you in so hard that you feel you are there (such as the opening party or the duel in Part 2). The transitions between these moments is where the film finds its lulls, which is to be expected in a seven hour + film. Part 3 is probably the best of the four parts as it is really something else. The battle is gigantic, even moreso than the other battles we see before. I also believe that David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were inspired for ‘The Bells’ episode of GAME OF THRONES by the way the Fall of Moscow is depicted here. The cinematography by Anatoly Petritsky, Yu-Lan Chen, and Alexander Shelenkov is fantastic at capturing the large scale battles in an omnipresent way but also able to zero in on small character point of view. It is masterful. Cinematography also compliments the amazing production design by Mikhail Bogdanov, Aleksandr Dikhtyar, Said Menyalshchikov, and Gennady Myasnikov and costume work by Vladimir Burmeyster, Nadezhda Buzina, Mikhail Chikovani, and V. Vavra. The combination of the three makes it feel like you are watching a moving painting. The amount of craft all over this film is insane. Its no wonder than it took six years to shoot and caused the death of a lot of horses. Other people to highlight are editor Tatyana Likhachyova and the performances by Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Lyudmila Savelyeva.
Quarantine Watch #335: F for Fake (1975)
This is so ahead of it’s time. Meta doesn’t even begin to describe it. The world of art forgery has always fascinated me and idea of what makes something fake vs real is amazing thing to explore. Can something be real if you don’t know it is fake? Does this mean authenticity doesn’t matter? What does it actually mean to be authentic and for that matter, what does it mean to be fake? All of this is probed and you see more of these questions being explored later in other documentaries such as CLOSE-UP and BELTRACCHI: THE ART OF FORGERY. The magic shown in the beginning is the perfect comparison to other falsehoods not only with art forgery, but the process of filmmaking as well. It may be one of the best edited documentaries ever, even though this is not your typical documentary. It plays around with your expectations on what a documentary or a film essay can be. Welles’ narration is pitch perfect, he really has an amazingly unique look and voice that just fits the film. The ending is also an interesting transition between fact and fiction, truth and lies, and documentary and fabrication. This whole film really is a special experience.
Quarantine Watch #320: Aladdin (1992)
Still in crazy depressive/transformative period in my life. I thought it best to revisit this. Aladdin was the first film I ever saw in a movie theater and it is probably one of, if not the most, important movies to me. i felt really comforting to get back into this world and with these characters. The colors and the animation style always sucked me in ever since I was a child and it still does to this day. It still amazes me how well the character of the magic carpet is constructed. Without a word the carpet has so much personality. It is so expertly crarfted. Robin William as the Genie is also very important to me. I just love him in this. I realized later that impressions he does in this of Jack Nicholson and William F. Buckley taught me about them before I even knew who they were. I am also really proud of Disney making such a Middle Eastern film in 1992. It is way ahead of its time. Also the songs and score are so good. Gotta love Alan Menken.
