January 18, 2016 – January 24, 2016
Monday, January 18, 2016
1) They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
Why I watched: MUBI’s film of the day.
After World War II, financially desperate Clem Morgan works with Narcissus, a shady black market dealer.
After Narcissus betrays him and frames him for murder, Clem escapes from prison and seeks revenge.
There are a few moments of insight, but this is a standard lite-noir thriller.
3 stars
2) Crosby, Columbo, and Vallee (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
The women of an Indian tribe fall in love with the crooning singers they hear on the radio. As they sing along, they’re joined by all of the men in the tribe and many of the local animals.
While they’re distracted by the merriment, a fire rages out of control.
The good news: I’d never heard of Russ Columbo before.
½ star.
3) The Good Dinosaur (2015)
Why I watched: The only Pixar film I haven’t seen.
In an alternate reality, an asteroid barely misses earth and the dinosaurs never go extinct.
This film introduces us to a family of agrarian dinosaurs, dad Henry (Jeffrey Wright), mom Ida (Frances McDormand) and their three children Libby, Buck, and clumsy youngest sibling Arlo.
While tracking a meddlesome caveboy with Arlo, a freak storm causes Henry to fall into a ravine and drown. Alone and frightened, Arlo befriends the rogue caveboy and names him Spot. Together the pair fight snakes, pterodactyls, velociraptors, a pack of Tyrannosaurus Rex, and other nefarious creatures as Arlo tries to return home and reunite with his remaining family.
It’s an okay effort, but tries to be too many things including a buddy movie, a coming of age film, and a redemption story. Henry dies too soon, Arlo’s family is too deep in the background, and the relationship between Spot and Arlo, which could have been the film’s emotional core, never develops.
At one point John Lithgow and Neil Patrick Harris were signed to provide voice talent, but the cast was replaced very late in the process (the only holdover was Frances McDormand). The film’s troubled production shows.
This marks the first time Pixar released two films in the same calendar year. A conspiracy theorist could argue they released this in the wake of the enormously successful Inside Out to minimize damage to their pristine brand. My guess is they knew this was a stinker, but had too much invested to write it off.
This isn’t Pixar’s worst film, but it’s a lot of wasted potential.
3 stars.
4) Bosko’s Party (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
When Bosko throws a birthday party for his girlfriend Honey, there are hi-jinks and inconveniences.
½ star.
5) Moonlight for Two (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
As two dating dogs attend a dance, a bear with a shotgun causes mischief until a walking stove fends him off.
Anthropomorphic animals are cute, but not enough.
½ star.
6) Bosko’s Dog Race (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Bosko enters his beloved, but nonathletic dog, Bruno into a race.
When a squirrel knocks a beehive on his head, the sudden motivation propels Bruno to victory.
1 ½ stars.
7) Boy & the World (2013)
Why I watched: It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.
When his father leaves to find work, young Cuca follows along behind.
The lively animation provides audiences the opportunity to see things as Cuca sees them. Unfiltered through adult impressions and experiences, the world is more colorful, diverse, and frightening than we realize.
This film forces us to look at the world with fresh eyes and rediscover the childlike wonder we lost long ago.
3 ½ stars.
8) Reuben, Reuben (1983)
Why I watched: Tom Conti was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Selfish Scottish poet Gowan McGland (Tom Conti) uses his second-rate poetry to woo the women in a wealthy Connecticut town and leech off their generosity.
When his abhorrent and callous behavior gets him into trouble, he decides to kill himself. He has a change of heart at the last-minute, but a lumbering dog (the titular Reuben) causes him to accidentally asphyxiate.
Adapted from a play which was in turn adapted from a novel, McGland was loosely inspired by famed Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. Conti is electrically charismatic as the morally challenged poet, but the film meanders and fails to deliver anything outside his central performance.
2 stars.
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
9) A Fool There Was (1915)
Why I watched: Watching as many silent films as I can.
A rich lawyer and diplomat is sent to England without his wife and daughter. During the journey, he’s seduced by a “vampire” (Theda Bara).
Because of this infidelity, his seemingly perfect life falls apart.
Beyond Bara, there’s not a lot to recommend in this anti-adultery PSA.
1 star.
10) The Queen Was in the Parlor (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
The king comes home to find his queen attending to her own affairs. To distract himself, he calls his jester Goopy Geer to perform whose boring and forgettable hijinks include fighting a knight.
½ star.
11) The Look of Silence (2014)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
In this companion to his phenomenal documentary The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer follows an unidentified man as he surreptitiously confronts the Indonesian communists who murdered his brother in 1965.
He contrives a reason to visit and never explicitly tells them who he is. As he asks specific questions about their murderous activity, they demonstrate an astonishing lack of contrition; no one expresses any remorse.
Everyone rationalizes the less savory things we do, but most of the time we’re unaware of this because we’re never confronted with the people we’ve affected.
This is a fascinating look at how even the most horrendous evil is normalized, rationalized, and justified.
3 ½ stars.
12) Bosko at the Beach (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Bosko takes his girlfriend Honey to the beach where their usual misadventures ensue.
½ star.
13) I Love a Parade (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Circus performers parade into the city to the title song in one of the funnier early shorts from the Merrie Melodies gang. It’s not great, but better than a lot of their earlier stuff where the joke wore thin after a few minutes.
1 ½ stars.
14) Last Day of Freedom (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary
Years after he returned from US military service in Vietnam, Manny Babbitt killed 78 year old Leah Schneidel. He was convicted for the crime and, after a lengthy appeal process, executed in 1999.
The year before his death, he controversially received the Purple Heart.
No one denies he killed Schneidel, as his brother, Bill Babbitt, narrates the circumstances of the murder, it’s clear Manny suffered from severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder stemming from his experiences in Vietnam.
This short film is a chilling indictment of the way we treat mental illness and the cruel ways we treat our veterans who sacrifice their lives and well-being to protect us, but return to apathy and indifference.
3 ½ stars.
15) Bosko’s Store (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Store owner Bosko fights to keep his business from falling apart when young Wilbur comes in.
Typical Bosko zaniness. A lot of sight gags, not much else.
½ star.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
16) A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)
Why I watched: Watching 1915 films.
Charlie Chaplin parodies Bizet’s 1875 opera Carmen.
Gypsy Carmen (Edna Purviance) distracts Dan Hosiery (Charlie Chaplin), one of the guards at the entrance of Seville, while a group of smugglers run into the city. He falls in love with her, while she falls in love with a famous bullfighter. Eventually, a jealous Hosiery kills Carmen.
However, this film ends with Hosiery and Carmen demonstrating it was a fake knife, exposing the whole thing as an artifice in a clever bit of metafiction.
Essanay Studios were nervous the film featuring an unproven Chaplin wouldn’t make money, so, in some versions they added a totally unrelated subplot with famed slapstick comedian Ben Turpin. I watched both versions and can say with certainty Chaplin’s shorter version is far superior.
Turpin’s shtick stopped being funny at least half a century ago, while Chaplin’s sublime humor has withstood the test of time.
Unfortunately even the Chaplin only version is too serious. The metafictional end is amusing but doesn’t quite diffuse the emotional weight of their death and instead comes across as flippant.
1 star.
17) You’re Too Careless With Your Kisses (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
After a long night out, a bee comes home to an angry wife.
After they fight, she’s kidnapped by a malicious ladybug, and everyone in the hive joins forces to retrieve her.
The anthropomorphic bees are cute, but it needed something else to make it work.
½ star.
18) What Happened, Miss Simone (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.
Aspiring classical concert pianist Nina Simone was rejected from a number of prestigious schools because of her race. Turning to popular singing, she achieved commercial success but never able to forget the slights of her early career, she developed an uneasy, contentious relationship with her audience and her performances were often confrontational and demanding.
Despite her temperamental behavior, she was an important voice during the Civil Rights era and her protest song, “Mississippi Goddam” is a preeminent example of the genre.
Failing to pay taxes, she lived abroad for a long time in Paris, and her contributions have been minimized since her 1993 death, but for a period of time she was one of the most vibrant, original, and enigmatic artists of the 20th century.
3 ½ stars.
19) Ride Him, Bosko (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Bosko and Honey get into their usual trouble, but this short ends with a twist. As Bosko rides a horse to rescue his beloved, the film cuts to a scene of the animators watching the action. They briefly discuss how they should end his latest adventure, but failling to reach a consensus, leave Bosko riding his horse indefinitely.
It’s neat to see a film dealing with the relationship between the films we see and the world we live in, but later Looney Tunes films would explore this more fully.
½ star.
20) My Country, My Country (2006)
Why I watched: MUBI’s film of the day.
In this film. Laura Poitras follows Iraqi citizens during the US-led occupation, focusing on a Sunni political candidate. The film is eye opening for those in the west not familiar with the various factions and allegiances of Iraqi society. More than mere political squabbles, these disagreements are intertwined with deep religious and ethnic conflict.
It’s one thing to hear US politicians complain about the cost and relevance of our efforts in Iraq, but it’s something else to hear the same complaints from the mouths of Iraqis. Their resentment and anger is chilling.
Poitras has done a fine service documenting the historical record of post 9/11 America. I know she has an agenda and only picked individuals who would say the things she wanted, but it’s nonetheless instructive to get a sense of Iraqi dissatisfaction with our efforts on their behalf.
3 ½ stars.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
21) Phantasm (1979)
Why I watched: In a list of the 500 best horror movies.
After their parents die, Jody and his 13-year-old brother Mike move to a small town where they encounter a mysterious local mortician they call Tall Man who’s been systematically killing the residents of the town, shrinking them, and then reanimating them.
Among the film’s many mysteries: an unexplained gateway to another planet and creepy, metallic spheres with drills attached to them.
This low-budget passion project is similar to the original Halloween, but not nearly as disciplined. It’s not particularly scary, and the end is pedestrian. Director Don Coscarelli has a knack for vivid imagery, but I’m not sure he understands plot or character development.
If you’re a die-hard horror fan, it’s worth watching once, otherwise I can’t exactly recommend it.
2 ½ stars.
22) Near Dark (1987)
Why I watched: In a list of the top 500 horror films.
Caleb (Adrian Pasdar) meets and sleeps with drifter Mae. At the end of their night together, she bites him on the neck, turning him into a vampire.
Over the protests of Severen (Bill Paxton), the group’s leader Jesse Hooker (Lance Henriksen) gives Caleb a week-long try out to join their nomadic pack of vampires.
A child in the pack, desperate for companionship, wants to kidnap Caleb’s sister and turn her. This leads to dissension within the group: Caleb and Mae versus the rest of the pack.
Since the advent of cinema, every generation has reinterpreted and updated the vampire mythology. Released the same year as The Lost Boys, this film appeared during the peak of the 80s vampire craze. It’s a competent film and Kathryn Bigelow proves herself a capable director, but this is her most inferior work.
The vampire mythos has been done better elsewhere, and the cure (a blood transfusion) is lazy and lame. If you love vampire movies, check it out, but it’s nothing special.
3 stars.
23) I Wish I Had Wings (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
It’s morning on an unnamed farm. A rooster wakes everyone, and a little chick sings about wanting his wings.
Not much worth watching.
½ star.
24) Bosko the Drawback (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
That irascible, racist stereotype Bosko tries his hand at professional football.
Things get crazy and silly.
½ stars.
25) Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.
This chilling documentary about Ukraine’s attempts to thwart the interfering machinations of the Russian government reminds us Vladmir Putin is a dangerous, power-hungry despot.
Most politicians are empty suits, public faces of the real power brokers. Even if only briefly, the people of Ukraine saw through the charade and yelled “enough.”
3 ½ stars.
26) The Oath (2010)
Why I watched: MUBI’s film of the day
In this documentary, Laura Poitras focuses on two men, Salim Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden, and his brother-in-law, Abdul Jandal, one of bin Laden’s bodyguards.
Shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, Hamdan was arrested by US forces and imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay where his legal challenge to the US treatment of “enemy combatants” led to the US Supreme Court declaring the Bush administration policy unconstitutional. After eight years in a US run prison, he was released in 2009.
Poitras was unable to access Hamdan directly, but she filmed the press conferences where his military lawyers presented their case against US policy and used letters from Hamdan to Jandal to paint a portrait of the man.
in contrast to Hamdan, who was never a fully committed jidahi, Jandal swore an oath to al-Queda. Poitras films him in Yemen where he talks about his family, defends the 9/11 bombings, and explains why he believes in radical Islam.
A part of Ms. Poitras’s important work chronicling US reaction to the events of September 2001, this fascinating film humanizes complex political matters and forces us to face uncomfortable truths about who are enemy is and why they want to kill us.
4 stars.
Friday January 22, 2016
27) When Marnie Was There (2014)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Difficult and moody, 12-year old Anna lives with foster parents in Sapporo. During a particularly rebellious phase, they send her to spend the summer with relatives in a seaside town where she discovers an abandoned mansion and its apparent owner Marnie, a mysterious blonde girl.
Eventually we learn Marnie is a manifestation of Anna’s deceased grandmother who imparts to Anna an appreciation for her heritage and a sense of the depth of her foster family’s love.
The possible final film from Studio Ghibli explores the unintended consequences of the actions of our ancestors. Much of our lives is influenced by the actions of others years before our birth. Despite the overwhelming evidence, many of us never understand this and rebel against things beyond our control.
3 ½ stars.
28) A Great Big Bunch of You (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts
A discarded mannequin creates an impromptu piano and stages a revue.
This is one of the better early Merry Melodies shorts because they had a target for the humor. Instead of Bosko or another vaguely defined character acting silly, they parodied popular celebrities of the age, including Maurice Chevalier.
3 stars.
29) Bosko’s Dizzy Date (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Honey asks her boyfriend Bosko to help teach Wilbur how to play the violin. When this goes poorly, they ditch him to go for a picnic date; it rains.
Wilbur is annoying; Bosko is flat and uninteresting.
½ star.
30) Cartel Land (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary
This documentary from Matthew Heineman focuses on vigilante groups on both sides of the US-Mexican border as they struggle to contain the growing influence of drug cartels in the region.
In the United States, we hear about citizens groups committed to protecting the American border, but rarely hear of similar groups such as the Autodefensas on the Mexican side which are equally frustrated at the inability of their government to perform its most basic functions.
While offering a grim prognosis for the current situation, the film reminds us of the power of individuals and movements to affect change.
3 ½ stars.
31) Three’s a Crowd (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
An old man reads a book, then goes to bed.
When he leaves, Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) crawls out of the book, followed by a litany of other famous literary characters.
When Mr. Hyde abducts Alice, the rest of the characters band together in a rescue mission.
This feels like a wasted opportunity. Good idea, poor execution.
½ star.
32) Bosko’s Woodland Daze (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Bosko falls asleep in the woods and dreams of elves, giants, and a huge piano, until his beloved dog Bruno wakes him up.
These early shorts have no character and the copious sight gags are hit or miss. There’s no consistent point of view, although there’s an occasional glimpse of the surrealism which would become a hallmark of later Warner Brothers shorts.
½ star.
33) Bosko and Honey (1932)
Why I watched: Watching all of the Looney Tunes shorts.
Bosko helps Honey with her newest violin student, an impatient kitten.
Frustrated, the pair abandon him and go for a bike ride until a storm cuts their plans short.
Once again the mirthless Bosko series lacks any wit. Replace the cute kitten with Wilbur and this is very similar to Bosko’s Dizzy Date.
½ star.
34) Only When I Laugh (1981)
Why I watched: Marsha Mason, James Coco, and Joan Hackett were all nominated for Academy Awards.
Broadway actress Georgia Hines’s (Marsha Mason) alcohol addiction has derailed her career and impaired her relationships with her daughter, Polly (Kristy McNichol). Georgia’s best friends are struggling gay actor Jimmy Perrino (James Coco) and Toby Landau (Joan Hackett), an aging woman obsessed with holding on to her fading looks.
Neil Simon’s film work in the late 1960s to mid 1970s (including The Odd Couple, Barefoot in the Park, and The Sunshine Boys) is rightly regarded as genius. However, in the late 70s he turned to regrettable farce in The Cheap Detective and Murder by Death and his career never rebounded to the heights of his earlier work.
This is Simon at his most self-indulgent. The characters are whiny stereotypes. James Coco is the highlight and his energy is admirable, but the film has not aged well.
2 stars.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
35) Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
Why I watched: Ruth Gordon was nominated for an Academy Award.
After hearing a demo, film producer Ray Swan (Christoper Plummer) signs desperate wannabe starlet Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) to a contract.
To further her career, Swan convinces Daisy to put her eccentric mother (Ruth Gordon) in a mental institution, then arranges for Daisy to meet a young actor at his production company, Wade Lewis (Robert Redford). After a brief courtship, the two young stars marry only for Daisy to discover Wade is a closeted homosexual and their marriage is a public relations move.
The pressure of stardom, Swan’s demands, and guilt surrounding her abandonment of her mother cause Daisy to have a breakdown and attempt suicide.
Considering when the movie was released, it’s astoundingly sympathetic to the plight of homosexual Lewis.
This film is too focused on the negative side of notoriety, as if there are no benefits to being well-known. Although it’s impeccably cast, the tone is uneven; it can’t decide if it wants to be a farce or a serious drama about the pitfalls of stardom. With more focus and tighter plotting, it could have been very good, but instead feels like a rough draft.
3 stars.
36) Mustang (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Five Turkish sisters struggle to find fulfillment in a patriarchal society. They’re not allowed physical contact with boys or to leave their home. They’re expected to be domestic servants until they’re old enough to marry.
Inspired by a former teacher, the youngest sister, Lale leads the others on several unorthodox adventures including a surreptitious trip to a forbidden soccer game.
The two oldest sisters are married. One happily to her lover, the other to an ill-suited stranger. The third sister, unable to cope with her uncle’s lecherous advances, commits suicide. At the fourth sister’s wedding, the indomitable Lale convinces her to runaway to Istanbul and reunite with their former teacher.
This harrowing film forces us to confront the harsh realities of life in the middle East and other places of the world where women are treated as property. It’s a beautiful statement about the power of the human spirit to overcome seemingly insurmountable difficulties.
While we’re obsessed with the gender politics of celebrity tweets, there are real young women like Lale struggling with issues larger than the implication of Taylor Swift’s new haircut. This film chastens us to not get so lost in the rabbit hole of western feminism we forget the people left behind in its wake.
3 ½ stars.
37) Ragtime (1981)
Why I watched: Howard E. Rollins Jr. and Elizabeth McGovern were nominated for Academy Awards.
Based on E.L. Doctorow’s novel, Milos Forman’s film is a fascinating panorama of early twentieth century New York.
Two threads compete for attention. The first is based on the real life trial of Harry Kendall Thaw who murdered famed architect Stanford White (Norman Mailer) after White created a nude statue modeled on Thaw’s wife, Evelyn Nesbit (Elizabeth McGovern).
The second introduces us to African-American ragtime pianist Coalhouse Walker Jr. (Howard E. Rollins Jr.) whose pregnant, unmarried girlfriend, Sarah winds up at the home of an unnamed, white family living a comfortable suburbian life. The matriarch of the family (Mary Steenburgen) takes pity on Sarah and invites them into her home.
Unfairly victimized by local, racist firemen, Coalhouse tries to use the system to get justice, but he’s thwarted at every turn. As his anger builds, he stages a series of violent attacks and takes over the Pierpoint Morgan Library.
After a tense standoff, Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo (James Cagney) diffuses the situation, but when Coalhouse emerges from the siege, he’s killed by a sniper.
Cagney’s last role is as vibrant as ever. Mandy Patinkin is wonderful as a Jewish inventor turned film director. The film is populated by colorful historical characters like Waldo, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, and Booker T. Washington. It features a young Samuel L. Jackson, the great Richard Griffiths, and Jeff Daniels in supporting roles. McGovern’s sexy turn reminds me of Barbra Streisand in What’s Up Doc?. Rollins effectively channels unbridled rage and frustration. Steenburgen provides her trademark combination of earnestness and blissful ignorance.
Despite all of this, the finished product is a overbearing and too long. It should have been two movies instead of one. The Nesbit story tended towards comedy, while the Coalhouse story was about righteous indignation. Switching between the two kept the film from finding a rhythm or a consistent tone.
3 stars.
38) This Sporting Life (1963)
Why I watched: Richard Harris was nominated for an Academy Award.
After a fight with the captain of the local rugby team, Frank Machin (Richard Harris) is given a tryout.
His aggressive play is effective, and he quickly becomes one of the team’s stars. Sadly, his personal life, plagued by the same undisciplined aggression, is full of discord and strife.
The movie suggests existential angst is not the exclusive purview of the intelligentsia, but also the lesser educated, working class. It asks tough, still relevant questions about the predatory business practice of professional athletics (consider the recent headlines of NFL players and the dangers posed by concussions).
It was nice to see William Hartnett (the original Doctor Who) in a non science fiction role. The rugby scenes capture the violence of the sport and make it understandable to unfamiliar audiences. Harris is engaging and charismatic, but while I admired what this film wanted to do, somehow the finished product fell flat and didn’t quite deliver.
2 ½ stars.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
39) Theeb (2014)
Why I watched: Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In 1916, a British officer asks two orphaned brothers of a nomadic Middle Eastern tribe to guide him to a Roman well.
When they arrive, they’re attacked by raiders; the youngest brother, Theeb, is the only survivor. He hides in the well and emerges the next day, stranded and alone.
Wandering around, he finds one of the mercenaries who carried out the attack. Realizing they need each other to survive, they travel together, but when Theeb sees the mercenary’s true nature, he murders him to avenge his brother’s death.
This is an indictment of violence as a political solution. This is the result when violence and aggression is favored over negotiation and compromise: a lonely orphan boy, wandering in the wilderness.
3 ½ stars.
40) A War (2015)
Why I watched: Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
When a routine mission goes haywire, commander Claus M. Pedersen prioritizes the life of his men. He saves one from certain death, but in the process, several innocent civilians are killed.
When he comes home, Pedersen faces an inquisition to hold him responsible for their murder.
This insightful film explores the grey areas of war and asks if the only difference between a legal and illegal murder is someone above you in command authorized the former.
3 stars.
Best Film I saw this week: The Oath (2010)
Worst Film I saw this week: Bosko’s Party (1932)