Yojimbo (1961)

This was one of the picks for Movie Club this week.  I can't believe it's been a decade since I saw it last.  It's still great and you should still watch it.  It's currently streaming on (sigh) Max and on the Criterion Channel.  Completely worth it.  Originally posted 04 Aug 13.    I have no idea if this is the right movie poster but it looks really badass so I'm keeping it. 

This is the original Akira Kurosawa film on which For a Few Dollars More is based.  It's been copied many a time but that's the best of the derivatives. 

A masterless samurai (Toshiro Mifune) wanders into a town divided amongst two gangs.  Each side has been hiring thugs and criminals in an escalating arms race over who is in control of the lucrative silk trade and gambling halls.  Seeing an opportunity, the samurai begins playing both sides off of each other, culminating in all-out war.

I found this film to be absolutely mesmerizing, even though I was already familiar with the story.  It's a Criterion collection Blu-ray so the quality is razor-sharp and the whole experience was highly enjoyable.  If you're a Kurosawa fan, you're already familiar with it but if you're new to Japanese cinema, or foreign films in general, this is a great introductory piece. 

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

  Woof, I hated this so much.  Jim Jarmusch is an acquired taste at the best of times and his debut is not for the uninitiated.  

Willie (John Lurie) is living on the fringes in New York City when he gets a phone call that his cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), is coming into town from Hungary and he needs to entertain her for ten days.  He is not pleased with the arrangement, fearing she will cramp his style with her Old World ways but Eva proves to be pretty chill.  So much that when Willie is overcome with ennui, he grabs his buddy Eddie (Richard Edson) for a road trip to see her in Ohio.  The three decide to take the winnings Willie and Eddie made from cheating at cards down to Florida to escape the trudging boredom of their lives.

This is a very good example of "no matter where you go, there you are" but that's pretty much all the praise I can give it.  It is smart and has a point to be made about assimilation and finding a place in the world as an outsider, but it's so fucking ugly it's hard to get that far.  

It's shot like a stage play, interspersed with insane close-ups, in uncompromising black-and-white.  None of the three leads are actors; they are musicians.  The whole thing looks like it had a budget of negative $12.  Despite all that, I will defend it as art.  Not art I enjoyed, but still art.  If that's your bag, it's streaming on (sigh) Max and also on Kanopy.

A New Leaf (1971)

  This was the movie club pick for last week but I didn't get it drafted in time to post it.  It's a little harder to find, but worth the effort.

Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) lives for only one thing: being rich.  He doesn't have friends, hobbies, or a job.  He is rich and that is all he's ever wanted to be.  So it comes as a terrible blow to him to find out that all his inheritance is gone and he is staring down the barrel of poverty*.  His last ditch effort to ask his uncle (James Coco) for a small loan of $50,000 comes at a steep cost.  Henry must find a rich heiress and have her pay off the debt within six weeks or forfeit all his worldly possessions.  Henry reluctantly hits the marriage market and strikes pay dirt in Henrietta Lowell (Elaine May), a spectacularly wealthy but clueless woman only interested in botany.  Now with relief on the horizon shadowed only by the thought of being chained to this woman until death do them part, Henry sets a new goal.  After all, the bargain only specified that he marry, not that she survive.

*rich people poverty, not real poverty

This is a very funny dark comedy.  I wasn't familiar with Elaine May as a writer, actress, or director.  Apparently, she wrote The Birdcage.  Wild.  A New Leaf was her directorial debut as well as her first feature-length screenplay, and she starred in it.  It's incredibly ambitious and not all of it works, but enough does.  Matthau has always been a wonderful curmudgeon, and this gives him a chance to shine. There are a lot of "that guy" actors in this.  The one that stood out for me was Doris Roberts but you might have a different favorite.

You can only find it on the Internet Archive but it's worth tracking down.  

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

  It's hard to say whether this holds up.  It had such a stranglehold on pop culture for years after it came out.  Everybody tried to imitate this style, mostly poorly.  I'd really have to show it to someone who's never seen it to tell if it's actually funny today or if I'm just nostalgic.

In the late '60s, Austin Powers (Mike Meyers) was England's greatest living spy, fashion photographer, and style icon.  But in order to combat his arch-nemesis, Dr. Evil (Mike Meyers), Powers agrees to be cryogenically frozen until Dr. Evil resurfaces, which happens in 1997.  Now a man out of time, Powers struggles to adjust to changing social mores with his new partner, Vanessa (Elizabeth Hurley), while also trying to foil Dr. Evil's schemes.

It still works as a James Bond spoof, specifically the early Bonds: Connery and Moore.  I would actually really enjoy a sequel that makes fun of the Craig and Brosnan Bonds, that turn to something very serious played for laughs.  The humor is both incredibly sophomoric and really sharp and insightful.  It's a very difficult line to walk and like I said, I'm not sure it entirely holds up.  It feels so innocent and silly.  I watched this on my server and you're going to have to rent it because it is not streaming anywhere for free.  

The Brand New Testament (2015)

  Content warning:  physical child abuse (off-screen but audible), child endangerment, bestiality

God (Benoit Poelvoorde) is an abusive alcoholic who lives in Brussels with his wife (Yolande Moreau) and daughter, Ea (Pili Groyne).  Fed up with his pety dictatorship, Ea sabotages his computer and escapes to the outside world to find her own apostles and write a brand new testament.

This reminded me a lot of Amélie, but a little darker.  Same kind of cute fantastical mixed with mundane.  It does portray the Christian God as a total asshole, which might put some people off, but I thought it was funny.  Not for the faint of heart, I guess I'm saying, and that's before Catherine Deneuve has sex with a gorilla.  It's currently streaming on Kanopy.

Things I've DNF'd this week:  Go (1999), Sliver (1998), season 3 of Once Upon a Time, and The Reader (2008).  I gave all the movies 30 minutes and the TV show three episodes but I couldn't find any of them compelling enough to finish.

The Hunt (2020)

  I can't decide if I liked this or not.  It is very smug and not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, but I can't tell if that makes it entertaining or not.  I'm going to have to re-watch it at a later date and see.

Twelve strangers wake up in a field with no memory of how they got there.  Their only connection is that they posted online about Manorgate, a right-wing conspiracy about leftists hunting people for sport.  

Is is satire or is it just hate-bait?  Is it satire of hate-bait?  I don't know.  I only remember it came out at the same time as Ready or Not, there were a lot of comparisons being made, and this got worse reviews.  I wasn't going to see it (it wasn't even on my list) but Tyler came downstairs and said he wanted to watch it.  I thought he was talking about the Willem Dafoe movie, The Hunter, until it was too late.

I do like Betty Gilpin and she is very good at being deadpan but still expressive.  Somebody needs to put her and Ryan Gosling in a movie together.  It is a violent slasher film and it mostly ticks the right boxes for creativity and gore.  The only thing that I'm on the fence about is the tone.  It's so hard to nail both-sides satire without losing a point-of-view. (Because just pointing fingers and saying "see, everyone sucks" isn't a point-of-view.  It's a cop-out.)  There are really funny moments, especially the final fight, but that comes down to performances more than script.  Like I said, I'll have to give it another shot later.

It's currently available to stream on Peacock but only with their premium tier.

Self/Less (2015)

  This is not a great movie.  It's not even very good.  It's probably Tarsem Singh's weakest work, and that's including Mirror Mirror and Immortals.

Billionaire real estate developer Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) is desperate not to die of the cancer eating through his body.  He receives an anonymous card for a service only available to the ultra-rich:  the chance to put his consciousness into a new, younger, lab-grown body.  The side effects are minor and easily controlled with a once-a-day pill, doled out weekly by the project supervisor (Matthew Goode).  But when Damian accidentally skips a dose, he is overwhelmed with memories of a place and family that have never been his.  Digging, he discovers that "lab-grown" is optimistic and to keep up with demand, the bodies are sourced from the poor and the desperate.  Damian's contribution was an Army soldier (Ryan Reynolds) who sold his body in exchange for medical treatment for his daughter (Jaynee-Lynn Kinchen).  He must keep "Mike's" family safe while wearing him like a suit.

Ah, fiction, bringing us wonderful fables like Billionaire-Grows-a-Conscience-and-Stops-Exploiting-the-Poor.  That's how you know this service isn't real.  They wouldn't hide it.  That company would have a worldwide roll-out and people lined up ten deep outside.  This kind of dystopian story isn't new, either.  The only notable thing about this is that it's early enough in Reynolds' career that he's still actually acting.

It's not terrible and if you're in the mood for a movie with beautiful surroundings that you can put on mute and just have running in the background like a screensaver, it's okay.  Self/Less is currently streaming on Paramount+.

Krush Groove (1985)

  As a story, there's really nothing here, but as a snapshot of the earliest days of rap, this is well worth your time.

Russell (Blair Underwood) has just hit pay dirt with his brother's band.  Run DMC's debut record is flying off the shelves and Russell's music label, Krush Groove, can't keep it in stock.  He knows it could make his name if he could just get $5000 to run another printing.  The problem is that no one will lend him the money except a loan shark (Richard Gant).

The story is really just a framework to showcase the musical numbers featuring a who's who of pioneers like Kurtis Blow, New Edition, Sheila E., and the debuts of LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys.  There's a bare-bones romantic angle just to give Sheila E. more screen time, and a subplot involving The Fat Boys as high schoolers overcoming their self-confidence issues.  It's not technically a musical because none of the songs further the plot, but if you've ever been interested in the origins of hip-hop and rap, this is an easy place to start.  This is also Underwood's debut film, although you'd hardly know it with how self-assured he is.  Krush Groove is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3 (2023)

  I wasn't rushing to see this in theaters like I had with previous entries.  I enjoyed Quantumania but I haven't had a great theater experience since before the pandemic.  I'm one of those people who really enjoyed the trend of movies coming to streaming services.  So when this dropped on Disney+, I watched it.  Content warning:  animal experimentation, dead animals

Rocket (Bradley Cooper) is injured in an attack by Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) and the medical resources on hand aren't working because he is technically proprietary genetic material owned by the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji).  So the Guardians suit up and try to track down the passkey to unlock Rocket's system while dealing with their internal grievances.  

It is funny, it is sweet, it is everything you've come to expect from a James Gunn Guardians movie but it definitely feels like the end of the road.  Gunn is over at DC now, hoping to dredge them out of the Snyderverse Swamp of Sadness they've been mired in for the last decade.  Good luck and godspeed, sir.  

You already know by now if you're going to watch this (whether it's because you are a Marvel ride-or-die, a Guardians fan, or a completionist) or not (superhero fatigue, hate Chris Pratt, hate James Gunn, hate Marvel).  People online bitched about the treatment of Adam Warlock but I thought it was funny.  Poulter is great and people are whiners.  There is a mid-credits and a post-credits scene, but another leg up for streaming is a "Skip Credits" button to jump to the end.  Ain't technology grand?

Beasts of No Nation (2015)

  I tried to watch this at the start of the pandemic and couldn't do it.  I finally made it, but it took a judicious use of the fast-forward button.  Content Warning:  war violence, dead children, moderate gore, child sexual abuse (off-screen)

Agu (Abraham Attah) was a normal kid until a civil war destroyed his family and he was press-ganged into being a child soldier for the PNF, a guerrilla group led by the Commandant (Idris Elba).  Initially, Agu believed the propaganda that they were fighting to regain their homes but after witnessing and participating in atrocity after atrocity, he realizes that there is no moral high ground in war.

There are movies that are hard to watch, and then there's Beasts of No Nation.  Cary Joji Fukunaga wrote and directed this based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, an Ivy League-educated doctor.  I know that at least one actual child soldier turned his experience into a book but it was not Dr. Iweala, who was born in Washington, D.C.  Fiction or not, the story is a powerful look at the cost of war on the most vulnerable in society.  

Elba is incredible here as the charismatic Commandant, but Attah is the real star, and his performance carries the film.  Not a fun watch, not an easy watch, but so far, the leading contender for Best Anti-War Movie.  It is currently streaming on Netflix.

Killing Me Softly (2002)

  Woof.  This movie wanted to be Basic Instinct in the worst way but ended up more of a softcore Lifetime Original.

Alice (Heather Graham) is a follower.  She has no real personality of her own and is terrified of risk, existing but not living.  Then she meets Adam (Joseph Fiennes), a hot mountaineer whose hobbies involve book signing, rescuing climbers, and BDSM.  Alice immediately throws over her milquetoast boyfriend (Jason Hughes) to move in to Adam's place and a whirlwind marriage.  Then she starts receiving unsigned warnings about Adam's nefarious past, alleging violence, rape, and murder.

Erotic thrillers are a hard line to walk.  The danger has to be risqué and sexy without looking like it's condoning sexual violence.  People always want to shortcut that to BDSM and it's lazy, not to mention inaccurate.  There is a world of difference between consensual dominance and abusive control.  

This film doesn't do a good job with the thriller portion and I'm not sold that it's erotic, either.  Sure, Graham and Fiennes are hot and if that's all it takes for you, great.  I'm not here to shame.  It just didn't do anything for me.  It's streaming on Roku but even for free, it's not worth it.

Your Name (2016)

  Second movie club pick for this week.  Make sure you brush your teeth afterwards because this one's sweet enough to give you a cavity.

Taki (Ryunosuke Kamiki) and Mitsuha (Mone Kamishiraishi) don't know each other.  He lives in Tokyo and she lives in a rural town called Itomori.  But that doesn't stop them from switching bodies while they sleep.  The switch occurs randomly and both teens must figure out how to not wreck each others' lives while also discovering what is causing this.

You may have heard that there's a big twist.  It's not super-big but I'm not going to spoil it because it is important to the story.  You may also have heard that this emotionally wrecks people.  I can see that.  But I'm pretty sure that was the part where I yelled "Idiot!  You had one job!" at my TV so I'm not the best source on that one.  

It's beautifully animated, the music is good, and the voice acting is believable.  If I thought the story was mid, that's on me.  It's currently streaming on Crunchyroll but only with a premium subscription.  Might be worth a rental depending on how interested you are.

Jurassic Park (1993)

This was the Movie Club pick for this week.  This movie is a stone-cold classic.  It doesn't matter how many times you watch it.  The T-Rex in the rain?  Iconic.  "Hold on to your butts"?  All-time great.  Velociraptor snorting on the glass?  Spine-chilling.  One of the greatest action thrillers of all time.  Accept no substitutes.  Original post 19 Apr 15.    Some of you readers may not remember when this movie came out.  If you haven't seen it by now, it means no one loves you and you're going to have to take care of yourself.  I was eleven, my brother was six and our mom told us we could not see it in theaters because she felt it was too scary so we had to wait an interminable six months for it to come out on VHS (kids, go look that up) which I seem to remember being around Christmas.  I say all of that to make a point.  I don't remember what I had for breakfast today but I remember watching Jurassic Park for the first time.  That's how groundbreaking this movie was.

Archeologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his partner, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are hired by entrepreneur Richard Hammond (David Attenborough) to preview his newest theme park, for which he spared no expense.  Hammond's team of scientists and geneticists recreated dinosaur DNA from fossilized mosquitos and engineered an island's worth of creatures.  Hammond hopes to turn Isla Nublar into the world's first and only interactive dinosaur petting zoo, but outside parties have gotten wind of the breakthrough and bribed one of Hammond's software engineers (Wayne Knight) to steal the DNA combinations.  This disgruntled employee rigged certain security features to fail, unknowingly putting Drs. Grant, Sattler, Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), and Hammond's two grandchildren in danger.  Now they all must try to survive the island's predatory inhabitants.

I was curious to see how the special effects have held up after twenty years since 1993 was pretty much the Jurassic period of CGI, but the folks at Industrial Light and Magic were worth every penny they were paid.  Their integration of blue screen work with animatronics gives the dinosaurs a lovely 3D texture while smoothing some of the jerky robotic movements.  The tension is still palpable, as is the sense that the characters are in real peril.  Spielberg also eschews his characteristic slow build to really dive into the action from the first scene.

Obviously, this film remains culturally significant as it is about to have its third sequel, Jurassic World, coming out in June of this year.  I've not been jumping at the bit to see it but I will say that my interest is prodded somewhat by revisiting the first one.