Son of Saul (2015)

  This uplifting weekend continues with Son of Saul, a Holocaust drama from Hungary.  Content warning:  Holocaust imagery, war violence, mass murder

Saul (Röhrig Géza - Hungarian names are surname firstname), a prisoner in Auschwitz, risks everything during the final days of the war to get a proper burial for his son.

Half this movie is out of focus and it's the kindest cinematography decision that could have been made.  That being said, the horror of this movie cannot be overstated.  It is a brutal watch.  Most of the camera work stays very tightly focused on Saul, claustrophobically so, which adds to the tension and skin-crawling discomfort.  

I know why these stories are necessary.  They are not made to be "enjoyed" but to inform and provide a record for the voiceless.  It's important.  So if you need a reminder that Nazis are bad, that othering people different than you is bad, that treating people like things is bad, Son of Saul is available on Starz.  And then watch some cartoons.  Maybe hug a pet. 

The Thin Red Line (1998)

  And this is the Cinema Club pick.  Because they were both from 1998.  (Don't look at me.  My week was last week.)  Content warning:  war violence, torture, moderate gore

The men of C Company have been ordered to take Hill 210 on Guadalcanal to secure an airbase for the U.S. in the Pacific Theater of WWII.  The film loosely centers on Private Witt (Jim Caviezal), an undisciplined but fervent soldier.

Words cannot express how much I hated this movie.  I have only seen one Terrence Malick film before and I hated that one so much, I just fast-forwarded through chunks of it.  The fast-forward button was also my friend here, but this at least had more going on than Tree of Life.  

It did launch a number of careers.  Anybody who was anybody in the 00s was probably in this movie, including Adrien Brody, Toby Kebbell, John C. Reilly, Jared Leto, Dash Mihok, and Caviezal.  Veterans like John Cusack, Nick Nolte, John Travolta, Sean Penn, and Elias Koteas round out the stacked cast, as Malick works very hard to pretend there were no Black people at Guadalcanal.  

Aside from the obvious racism in casting, there's the added squick of Christian colonialism as Witt is shown to be hiding amongst the natives at the beginning in an idyllic, Eden-like harmony, only to be thrust roughly back into the blood and carnage of war.  Said natives only make another appearance near the end, riddled with disease and doing manual labor for the Americans.

Likewise, there's only one speaking part for a woman (two lines in a voiceover) in a series of hazily lit, beatific flashbacks that only exist to show how melancholy a male character is.  It's reductive and lazy, with extended pseudo-philosophical internal monologues, and long static shots of nature.  Skip it and watch an Attenborough documentary instead.

But if you must, it's currently streaming on Starz, which I get through Amazon Prime.

Babe 2: Pig in the City (1998)

  This week's Movie Club pick is, uh... a choice.  

After his rousing success as a sheepherding pig, Babe (E.G. Daily) becomes a local celebrity, which is great because the farm is in dire straits and in danger of being repossessed by the bank after the farmer (James Cromwell) suffers an accident and can't keep up payments.  His wife (Magda Szubanski) decides to take Babe to a State Fair for a generous appearance fee, but things go wrong at the airport thanks to an overzealous sniffer dog and Mrs. Hoggett misses their connecting flight.  Stranded in apparently every city in the known world, she seeks refuge at a hotel that clandestinely accepts pets.  Babe falls in with a traveling group of apes for a series of misfortunes, while Mrs. Hoggett is arrested for inciting a riot and assaulting the police.  His generous nature and compassion sees them through, no matter the hardship.

This is a bizarre film to watch as an adult.  I vaguely remember it from when I was a teenager and I know we had it on VHS because my younger brother was a big fan of the first one.  I can't muster any particular feeling about it from then, and having just watched it, I can't really feel anything now either.  Mostly I'm just kind of amazed it was made in the first place, but especially that it was made by George "Mad Max" Miller.  You can see it if you're looking, in the leather fetish motorcycle cops, the mutant-esque pig people, the saturated colors and stark black-and-whites.  He also wrote Happy Feet, for what it's worth.  The man contains multitudes.  

It's totally fine for kids, although the original is probably better.  It's currently streaming on Starz which I get through Amazon Prime.

Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

  This was a Tyler pick.  We missed this one when it came out back in 2019. Well, maybe "missed" is a strong word.  Also, can we point out the casual misogyny in putting Karen Gillan (5'10") at the end of the poster so that Kevin Hart (5'2") and Jack Black (5'6") look taller?

In the year since they narrowly survived the video game Jumanji, Spencer (Alex Wolff), Bethany (Madison Iseman), Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain), and Martha (Morgan Turner) have remained friends but Spencer particularly feels the strain.  What was supposed to be a meet-up for coffee turns into a search party when Spencer doesn't show.  Bethany, Fridge, and Martha are let into the house by Spencer's grandfather, Eddie (Danny DeVito), desperate to get out of a hard conversation with his former business partner, Milo (Danny Glover), and the kids are horrified to learn that Spencer has painstakingly pieced the destroyed video game back together and gone back inside.  They decide to rescue him but something goes horribly wrong and Eddie and Milo are pulled into the game instead of Bethany.  Martha remains Ruby Roundhouse, killer of men (Karen Gillan), but Eddie is now Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge is Oberon (Jack Black), and Milo is Mouse (Kevin Hart).  They have to navigate new levels, new powers, and new weaknesses to find Spencer, defeat Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann), and save Jumanji once more.

I don't know that anyone really needed another sequel but Welcome to the Jungle was surprisingly profitable, so it was inevitable.  And it was a good time.  This is slightly weaker but still a very fun, easy watch.  The action sequences are great, the scenery is really beautiful, and the script is funny.  Popcorn cinema gets maligned but it's just as valuable as prestige, maybe more so in its accessibility.  The Next Level is currently streaming on Starz, which I get through Amazon Prime.

Asteroid City (2023)

  This lesser Wes Anderson film comes to you today courtesy of Movie Club.  I probably would have seen it eventually, but I still haven't seen The French Dispatch so who knows when that would have been.

Playwright Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) is putting his newest play, "Asteroid City," on Broadway.  In the play, a photographer (Jason Schwartzman) is escorting his four children to the tiny town of Asteroid City so his son (Jake Ryan) can participate in a Junior Stargazer event with other genius kids.  Also in town are a famous actress (Scarlett Johansson), her daughter (Grace Edwards), traveling musician cowboys, a busload of schoolchildren with their teacher (Maya Hawke), scientists, and military.  All are intent on the proceedings until they are interrupted by an actual alien (Jeff Goldblum).  

The story-within-a-story is in the brightest Looney-Tunes-background colors while the framing device is black-and-white narrated by Bryan Cranston.  The surreality of the experience is heightened by the breaks in character as the set pieces blend into one another.  

It is aggressively whimsical, as the name Wes Anderson has come to signify.  I don't know that it totally works.  This felt less like it had something to say and more just wanted to see how many Named Actors it could fit into one runtime.  It comes off almost like extended cameos rather than characters with depth and motivation.  People come on, say their 3-5 lines, and then leave, never to be seen again.  

It's definitely not my favorite of the director's.  It's nowhere near his worst, though, so if you like pastels, stilted dialogue, and vaguely sci-fi 50s nostalgia, it's there.  Currently in theaters or for VOD rental for $20.  Give it a couple more weeks and it'll be somewhere more cost-effective.

Two of a Kind (1951)

  The tagline makes this movie seem way more hardcore than it is.  It's still a noir but it's a sunny, Southern California noir with a non-bullet-riddled ending.

Mike Farrell (Edmond O'Brien) has spent his life hustling, so when he's approached by Brandy Kirby (Lizabeth Scott) with a deal worth millions, he figures he knows what he's getting into, even if it does require a little mutilation between friends.  See, Brandy has a line on an old rich couple who lost their son many years ago.  Their son was missing the top joint of his finger, but with a couple of months of salt and sun exposure, a new wound looks much like an old one.  She and her silent partner, Vincent (Alexander Knox), the old couple's attorney, have worked out a scam to steal the multi-million dollar inheritance by substituting their own Anastasia Romanov.  With inside knowledge to help him prep, they introduce Mike to Kathy (Terry Moore), the couple's niece, a naive do-gooder anxious to "reform" him.  But as Mike and Kathy's relationship progresses, Brandy and Vincent's jealousy begins to grow until it threatens to derail the entire plan.

This is a cute movie.  It's breezy and not particularly tense, with screwball elements courtesy of Kathy.  I would definitely consider it a lesser noir, but it's worth a watch.  I don't find Lizabeth Scott particularly beautiful but she is magnetic.  You can't take your eyes off her.  That's a level of star quality that is missing from a lot of performers today.

Unfortunately, it's not available to stream anywhere.  You're going to have to dig out a physical copy.  This came from the "Bad Girls of Noir" set.  I got it from Netflix while they're still in the physical media game.  This is your periodic reminder to make copies of your shit and buy physical if you possibly can.  Streamers and studios will just disappear content like Josef Stalin removing dissidents from photos.  Never thought we'd see the day where piracy has the moral high ground but yaaar, mateys, thar t'is.

City Heat (1984)

  This is the worst Burt Reynolds movie I've ever seen, and I've seen Striptease.

After his partner (Richard Roundtree) is killed, private eye Mike Murphy (Burt Reynolds) is drawn into a rivalry between two gangsters over a set of cooked books.  Murphy reluctantly teams up with Lieutenant Speer (Clint Eastwood) to help him recover the books after Gangster 1 (Rip Torn) kidnaps Murphy's socialite girlfriend (Madeline Kahn).

Yeesh.  I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a hard-boiled noir, a comedy, or some unholy combination of the two but whatever it was, it didn't work.  Eastwood feels like he's doing a parody of his Dirty Harry films and Reynolds seems like he's not even supposed to be in the same movie.  Like they got two different scripts.  Khan, Roundtree, and Irene Cara are completely wasted in this.  Zero stars.  Cannot recommend.  Fortunately, it's not streaming anywhere except Apple+ for rent.  Don't do it.  Save your $3.99 for something worthwhile.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)

I did buy this and it does get better on a repeat watch.  I decided to make it my Movie Club pick because I wanted to stay with the musical/performance theme but I wanted something a little lighter and fluffier after Black Swan.  I think it's a nice juxtaposition of Art for Art's Sake and Art as Commodity.  Nina Sayres is willing to die to achieve perfection in her art form but Lorelei Lee just wants to have a comfortable retirement.  Both women know their careers are short-lived and that time is running out.  And that's why we have to burn down the patriarchy because there is a 50-year time difference in these films and absolutely nothing has changed.  Originally posted 17 Mar 14.    I've never been a big Marilyn Monroe fan.  I just don't see what the big deal is.  I could be convinced to be a Jane Russell fan, though, after this and His Kind of Woman.

Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy (Jane Russell) are showgirls and best friends.  Lorelei is after money and she has her eye on dull millionaire Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), but Gus's father won't approve their marriage.  Lorelei and Dorothy decide to cruise to France in the hopes of getting Gus to chase after her and get out of his father's influence.  What they don't know is that Daddy Esmond has hired a private detective (Elliott Reid) to follow Lorelei in the hopes of catching her being a gold-digging whore.  The detective is much more interested in Dorothy, however, it doesn't keep him from snapping some pictures of Lorelei and the owner of a diamond mine, "Piggy" Beekman (Charles Coburn).  But it's when Beekman gives Lorelei a diamond tiara belonging to his wife that things really start to go downhill.

This film features the song "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" and one of Monroe's most iconic costumes.  I had seen the musical number (and countless rip-offs) before, I just hadn't seen the whole picture.  It still stands up as a comedy and Monroe excels at playing the dumb blonde, that's just not a character archetype I'm fond of watching.  I'm definitely going to own it, though, since I think it'll just get better with repeat viewings.

Black Swan (2010)

I know I've seen this at least five times.  I love it so much.  And it's my pick this week, so all of Cinema Club gets to share my joy at this extended metaphor for puberty.  It remains my absolute favorite Aronofsky.  The only trouble I had was what to pair it with for Movie Club.  I almost went with Jennifer's Body, because that continues the thread of Teen Girls Being Horrifying but then I remembered how good Cassell is here at being a gross creeper and thought Brotherhood of the Wolf.  But I decided to go with a non-horror musical because I didn't want to be too Extra.  Originally posted 18 Dec 10.    Finally!  I've been waiting for weeks to see this movie.  And it did not disappoint.

Holy shit, was this disturbing.  The creepy visuals started way earlier than I would have expected, too.  I guess because there were So. Many. Of. Them.  There were several times where I was violently startled. I'm not going to tell you which parts.  When you see, you'll know.

Okay, okay, just one...

She's in the bathroom washing her hands and notices a hangnail bleeding.  She starts to pull it off and peels a strip of skin all the way past her second knuckle.  /whole body shudder

Subtle wrongness permeates every facet of this movie so much so that it would be impossible to list.  My favorites:  the beat of wings in the sound of dancers' footsteps, the claw-like shape of Barbara Hershey's hand on her daughter's shoulder, and the abundant (and freaky) use of mirrors.

Here's the story synapsis:  Nina Sayres (Natalie Portman) is a repressed ballerina desperate to play the lead in Swan Lake.  She lives with her controlling, borderline-psychologically-abusive mother, a failed ballerina who doesn't hesitate to blame her daughter for that failure.  The company director thinks she's perfect for the role of the White Swan but too sexually frigid to play the evil twin.  I'll leave it to you to decide if his efforts to 'loosen her up' fall under the category of Avant-Garde Genius or Sexual Predator.  He gives her the part anyway on the eve of announcing the "retirement" of the company's prima ballerina, Winona Ryder.  The queen is dead, long live the queen.

Hands down, Winona has the creepiest role in the entire film.  It single-handedly restored my respect for her as an actress.

Anyway, so once Nina has the part she starts to come completely unglued and becomes convinced one of the other dancers, Lily (Mila Kunis), is trying to use her overt sexuality to steal the role.  This is not as major a stretch of paranoia in the world of professional ballet as you might think.  They're all half-starved and crazy with it.

  She may look serene, but that's just because she's already decided to cut you.

She fears Lily's sexual freedom, while at the same time being drawn to it.  Aronofsky uses mirrors to reflect her internal struggle for control and to provide a glimpse into the growing darkness that is waiting to be released.

Visually, it's sharp and striking.  Every single frame is used to set the scene.  The beginning is extremely claustrophobic, the camera following so close on Natalie Portman's heels I'm amazed they didn't have scuff marks.  I can't pinpoint the moment when it begins to pull back but there's still no room to breathe.  Calling the film beautiful is an understatement but I can't think of a word that captures it more.

Resplendent, maybe, like the iridescent reflected sheen of sunlight off the plumage of a particular metaphor.

The Last Five Years (2014)

  I just really don't like modern musicals.  I love Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan but this left me completely cold.

Jamie (Jeremy Jordan) is a novelist and Cathy (Anna Kendrick) is an actress.  They are young, in love, and very happy.  Jeremy's book is bought by a major publisher, bringing him overnight success while Cathy struggles to find parts and fulfillment as she is increasingly pushed into Jamie's shadow.  

This is a dumb movie that thinks it's profound.  Like, it wants you to think it has something to say about fame and resentment and the loss of love that comes from diverging paths but it's really about very young people rushing into something and then regretting it.  Here's a hint:  when one of the two leads has a song about how he really wishes he could cheat on his wife because now he has so many opportunities as a star, that's not poignant.  

Jordan and Kendrick should absolutely do more musicals.  Just wish they hadn't done this one.  It's currently streaming on Kanopy for free.

Polite Society (2023)

  Hey, look!  A new movie.  It kind of bridges the gap between The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel* and this week's Movie Club pick, Atomic Blonde.  

(*I am aware one is Indian-British and one is Pakistani-British and they are not the same.)

Ria (Priya Kansara) wants more than anything to be a stuntwoman.  She's got it all planned out.  She will gain the approval of her idol, Eunice Huthart, after shadowing her for a work-study while her sister, Lena (Ritu Arya) makes a splash in the art world.  Except Eunice isn't answering her emails and Lena has dropped out of art school and --horror of horrors-- is actually thinking about marrying Salim (Akshay Khanna), a flashy geneticist.  Ria hates all of this, especially Salim's creepy mom (Nimra Bucha), but can't get anyone to believe her.  She sets out to save her sister from what is definitely a bad situation and totally not her fear of losing her dreams.

I don't know how re-watchable it is, but I had a good time on the first pass.  Kansara is obviously a star in the making and the film maintains its highly dramatic surreality that screams Teen Girl without being patronizing or judgmental.  Writer/director Nida Manzoor had already made a splash with the TV show We Are Lady Parts and this sophomore effort is a bright promise of maintaining that level of quality.  

It's streaming exclusively on Peacock if you're in the mood for fearless young women kicking ass and taking names.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015)

  It's not as good as the first one, but not a bad sequel overall.

After eight months of success, Sonny (Dev Patel) and his partner, Muriel (Maggie Smith), are looking to expand the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel to a second location.  Sonny has a failed hotel in mind for purchase, but to get the funds they have to court an American retirement home conglomerate.  Evergreen has promised to send out their anonymous hotel inspector.  Sonny is convinced it is new arrival Guy Chambers (Richard Gere), who claims to be working on a novel but mostly seems interested in wooing Sonny's mother (Lillete Dubey).  Love affairs are very much on the minds of the other residents as well, with Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Evelyn (Judi Dench) tiptoeing around their feelings, Madge's (Celia Imrie) inability to choose between her two suitors, and Norman (Ronald Pickup) accidentally putting out a hit on his girlfriend (Diana Hardcastle).  Sonny's relationship with his fiancée, Sunaina (Tina Desai) is also being jeopardized by his insecurity when faced with a richer, more handsome "friend of the family" (Shazad Latif).  

The heart and bubbliness are still there but this sequel feels underbaked.  In particular, the Madge sub-plot should have been cut and more effort put into Muriel's maternal affection for Anokhi, which was pivotal in the first movie and mostly overlooked here.  Still, it's not bad for a lazy Saturday where you just want something light with a guaranteed happy ending.  It's currently streaming on Max (formerly a streaming service with HBO brand recognition.)

Butterflies Are Free (1972)

Happy 4th of July and happy having-all-ten-fingers day to everyone else.  This is a worse Breakfast at Tiffany's.  I'm not sure why it exists but it does.

Born blind, Don (Eddie Alpert) has struggled to get a measure of independence from his overbearing mother (Eileen Heckart).  He gets an apartment in downtown San Francisco and an agreement of two months' trial run of living alone.  Barely a month in, new neighbor Jill (Goldie Hawn) shows up.  She is a whirlwind of free-spirited free love with absolutely no inclination towards commitment.  So naturally, Don falls head over heels for her.  

There's no narrative reason Hawn had to be in her underwear for half this movie but choices were made.  Heckart won an Oscar and deservedly so, considering she's in the Buddy Epsen role.  I'm not kidding.  This is beat for beat Breakfast at Tiffany's, complete with the child-bride subplot.  The only difference is that Don is blind and writes music instead of novels.  He has precisely one (1) song and it gets used a half dozen times, enough for you to be grateful when he switches to "Country Roads."  

It's streaming on the Roku channel with ads, but Breakfast at Tiffany's is on Paramount+ and is a much better use of your time.  Even with the super-racist Mickey Rooney role.

Assassin's Creed (2016)

  Christy gave me the digital copy of her DVD when she bought this and I've finally got around to watching it.  It was not worth the wait.

Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbinder) is executed by lethal injection for murder.  That would seem to be the end of the story but Cal wakes up in a secret facility in Spain, run by the Abstergo Foundation.  Dr. Sophia Fikkin (Marion Cotillard) is nominally in charge as she has created the Animus, a machine that maps subjects' DNA and uses it to regress to their ancestors.  In reality, her father (Jeremy Irons) is a high-level member of the Templars and his goal is to find the lost Apple of Eden, supposedly the cure for violence.  As Cal spends more time in the flesh and mind of his distant assassin progenitor, Aguilar, he begins to realize that the Templars are looking to do much more than philanthropy.  

I only played Assassin's Creed: Odyssey so I have no idea if this is close to the original game story, but it was pretty awful.  The editing was choppy, especially during the fight scenes, which usually means it's covering shitty choreography, the plot made no sense, and the actors were completely wasted on this script.  Everyone involved has done better work so I hope they got paid an assload of money.

Reader, I deleted my copy.  Once was enough.

A History of Violence (2005)

This was the Movie Club pick for the week.  Every time I watch this, I'm struck by something new.  This time, it's how effective the use of blood is.  Cronenberg is used to throwing a lot of bodily fluids at the screen, but his touch is so light here.  The violence looks organic so the blood is shocking.  It's not gratuitous or excessive.  It sparks an atavistic reaction in its restraint.  A true horror.  And I think that's beautiful.  Originally posted 04 Jan 16.    This movie gets better every time I see it.  It's just so dark and twisted.

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) had the perfect small-town life.  He ran a diner, his wife Edie (Maria Bello) was just as in love with him after two kids as she was the day they married, and he had no enemies.  Then two crooks try to rob the diner, and threaten to murder an employee.  Tom kills them both.  The newspapers and local TV praise him as an American hero, but all the incident does is stir some very nasty men from Philadelphia who seem convinced that Tom is not who is pretending to be.

I think the reason this movie works so well is because of how little information you truly get while watching.  There's no real exposition, no flashbacks, everything just proceeds from one point in time. All the characters' relationships have to be implied and it's a masterful bit of acting.

The Sting (1973)

  I bought this DVD back in 2005 and haven't watched it again since then.  It comes to you courtesy of this week's Movie Club.  Content warning:  racial slurs

It's 1936 and small-time grifter Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) scams a runner for the mob.  He thinks it's just a particularly juicy score but when hitmen come knocking and kill his partner (Robert Earl Jones), Johnny decides to get the hell out of town.  He heads to Chicago and a man named Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), a big-time conman.  The two decide to set up the mob boss (Robert Shaw) for vengeance and a whole lot of cash.

This is what I wanted The Grifters to be, I think.  Fast, breezy, filled with cleverness, and trick after trick.  Redford and Newman were the cool kids of New Hollywood and they play off each other well; Redford's hothead balanced by Newman's ice cold eyes.  Robert Earl Jones is indeed related to the Earl Jones you're thinking of, being the latter's father, and you can hear and see the resemblance.  Supporting players Eileen Brennan and Charles Durning are bulwarks, and Shaw is a fully captivating villain.

Unfortunately, it's only available to rent or buy but it's worth the rental if you're interested in con artist movies, Newman and Redford, or classic films of the 70s.