Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
With unprecedented access to Kurt Cobain’s personal letters, home videos, and surviving family members, Brett Morgen creates a searing portrait of the rock icon.
While the film wisely avoids portraying Cobain as a stereotypical tortured artist, it’s clear his unstable home life contributed to the angst and rage in his music.
Nirvana’s music was an important part of my adolescence, so I found this fascinating. The only omission was the absence of the band’s drummer Dave Grohl.
Anomalisa (2015)
Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is incapable of distinguishing between faces and sees everyone, including women, as an identical man (Tom Noonan).
When he meets saleswoman Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), he’s surprised to discovers she looks different from everyone else. Overcome, he nicknames her Anomalisa and seduces her.
Through Michael’s relationship with awkward and bland Lisa, the movie reminds us how beautiful ordinary can be; one of the most haunting scenes features a reluctant Lisa singing an a cappella version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girl Just Want to Have Fun.”
Based on his own play, Charles Kafmann’s bizarre film is a thought-provoking take on identity, relationships, and purpose in modern existence.
I’ll See You in My Dreams (2015)
Widow Carol Petersen (Blythe Danner) lives alone in a California retirement community. After euthanizing her dog, she begins a tentative friendship with her new pool boy, Lloyd (Martin Starr), and a romantic relationship with a newcomer to the community, Bill (Sam Elliot).
It’s a delightful turn by Danner and her adventures with fellow retirees (June Squibb, Rhea Perlman, and Mary Kay Place) are touching. Starr has perfected a kind of uber outsider persona and Elliot is charming. There’s a lot of dark comedy, and Carol’s relationship with Lloyd comes close to Harold and Maude territory, except more earnest. Lonely and desperate, they need a deep connection with someone to confirm life is about something, to prove there’s a purpose to the anxiety and suffering and sadness.
Carol’s path to accepting her place in the world is bittersweet, but ends on a hopeful note. The film is a sweet affirmation about the possibility of life, and the excitement of a new day.
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
This adaptation of the Sondheim musical is full of energy and wit. Fresh off his work with The Beatles in A Hard Day’s Night and Help!, Richard Lester maintained the same zany level of absurdity in this anachronistic tale of a slave who schemes to gain his freedom by playing matchmaker.
Buster Keaton’s last screen performance is a fitting farewell for the legendary performer. I’ve loved Jack Gilford since I first saw him as Sophia’s lover in The Golden Girls. Zero Mostel was a phenomenal performer, whose career was sadly limited by the Hollywood blacklist. Throw in Phil Silvers, and you’ve got an incredible array of comedic talent.
It feels like an amalgam of Shakespeare circa Twelfth Night and Oscar Wilde, with a Stephen freaking Sondheim soundtrack.
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019)
Zak, a young man with Down Syndrome who dreams of becoming a professional wrestler, is stuck in an assisted living facility with Carl (Bruce Dern). With Carl’s encouragement, Zak escapes and heads to Florida to a wrestling school run by The Salt Water Redneck (Thomas Haden Church). Along the way he meets Tyler (Shia LeBouf) a petty thief running away from his own problems.
Tyler agrees to help Zak, but they’re stopped by his social worker Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) who wants Zak to return to the facility. Luckily Tyler convinces her to give him a chance to fulfill his dream.
I love the movie’s carpe diem ethos and its empowerment of people with disabilities. I worked at a camp for mentally challenged adults every summer for nine years and because the idea for this movie originated in a very similar camp, its depiction of Down Syndrome rings true to me, especially Zak’s fixation with wrestling. As a fan of the WWE Attitude area and the Monday Night Wars, I was thrilled to see Mick Foley and Jake the Snake Roberts cameo in the film.
With its infectious (if predictable) blend of heart and quirkiness, this movie hit me in all the right places and I look forward to what directors Tyler Nislon and Michael Schwartz do next.
Paddington 2 (2017)
This delightful family film featuring the beloved children’s character strikes a perfect tone of whimsy without being too cute, reminding me of Amelie.
The cast is wonderful, especially Hugh Grant in a devilish turn as the film’s primary antagonist. I love hearing Michael Gambon and Imelda Staunton voice the adoptive parents of Paddington (which means his parents are Albus Dumbledore and Dolores Umbridge)
It’s a sweet, beautiful film in an age when there aren’t many being made. Even most films marketed to children are slick, cynical affairs. As the world becomes increasingly hostile and bitter, it’s nice to be reminded it doesn’t have to be.
The Monster (1925)
Amateur detective Johnny Goodlittle stumbles upon a mad doctor, Gustave Ziska (Lon Chaney), who’s commandeered an asylum and convinced his former patients to help him conduct bizarre experiments.
When Johnny’s love interest Betty is captured by Ziska, he uses all of his sleuthing skills to solve the case and rescue her.
Chaney is interesting as the mad scientist and this film established the tropes of the now common stock character, but it can’t decide if it wants to be a horror film or a comedy and the tone switches too quickly to establish a rhythm.
Civilization (1916)
Count Ferdinand refuses to fire his new submarine on a civilian ship reportedly carrying enemy ammunition.
He dies and goes to purgatory where Jesus gives him another chance at life if he’ll become a peace advocate.
This lavish, beautiful piece of propaganda, is rumored to have influenced the election of Woodrow Wilson.
This movie is one of two from legendary silent director Thomas Ince included in the National Film Registry. Sadly, Ince is mostly remembered for his mysterious death and the alleged involvement of William Randolph Hearst.
This is not subtle, but movies like this are an important reminder of the rhetorical power of Christ.
The Lovebirds (2020)
After four years together, Jibran (Kumail Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae) are drifting apart.
On the way to a party, they inadvertently witness a murder. Afraid they’ll be seen as suspects because of racial profiling, the pair evade the police and work to figure out who is behind the murder, uncovering an elaborate blackmail scheme involving corruption of the police department and high ranked politicians. During their adventure, they rekindle their love.
The plot is thin and formulaic, but Nanjiani and Rae are incredibly charismatic and the jokes land.
Not all good movies are great pieces of art. Some are light and funny. I will not long remember what happened or the names of characters, but I will remember having a good time for ninety minutes.
End of the Line (2018)
Struggling with infertility, Anka and Joe Garner (Kathryn Hahn and Jay R. Ferguson) arrive in Vladivostok to adopt a baby.
The adoption agent surprises them with a baby suffering from clear developmental delays reminiscent of fetal alcohol syndrome. Anka is angry and wants to leave, but Joe believes he owes the baby a better life. Their differing viewpoints cause a great deal of strife.
In the end, after Anka refuses to take the child, the chaste social worker brings out an alternate child who appears normal; Anka enthusiastically takes this child and Joe goes along with the plan, but clearly struggles with his feelings of guilt.
The Romanoffs was wildly uneven, but this episode is a highlight and a lovely exploration of family, obligation, and parenthood by Matthew Weiner.
The Terrorist (1998)
Nineteen year old Malli is chosen to perform a suicide bombing to take out the leader of the opposition to her cause. The same cause her brother already died trying to advance. Her family and everyone she knows believes in what she’s doing.
While enjoying her last days on earth at a secluded, idyllic farm, she discovers she’s pregnant. A lesser film would have used this as a turning point, but this new life inside of her does not spark an existential crisis; it’s just a fact of her life, not a sign from above.
Director Santosh Sivan’s film is loosely based on the assassination of Indian Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, but does not take sides, instead exploring the mindset of someone willing to do this and the motivations behind their actions, how someone could become so hopelessly in love with the idea of self-sacrifice to take their own life and those around them.
Malli doesn’t seem different from any other 19 year old girl, which makes the film terrifying. She’s a normal girl, raised to believe in a monstrous ideology. It makes us wonder what ideologies, what unspoken and assumed truths inform our decisions and actions.
Yes, the movie humanizes a terrorist, but she is a human. What it doesn’t do is sympathize with the evil which informed her decision.