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January 6, 2025

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Traditional Top 10 Film List

Kirkham A Movie A Day 10 Favorite Films of 2024



The annual review of the previous year is fun to do, but it does sometimes present challenges. If I had kept data in the right software, it would have been easier to collate the information in a quick amount of time. It is not in my nature to do that, so I have to dig around and find information and create the material organically. Since I was traveling at the end of the year, this was not done until I returned home, thus the late nature of this post. It is still the first week of the new year so it is not too bad.

Ten Favorite Films of the Year

I saw fewer new films this year than I usually do. Frankly, there were many times when I went to the theater without being excited by the prospect of the film. I slept through most of “Moana 2”, and I don’t feel a need to go back and see it because it simply did not feel essential to me. “Megalopolis” felt like a huge misfire, but as it went on, it grew on me and I appreciate it more, though I still think it is not a good movie, just an interesting one. Several of the prestige pictures at the end of the year were not available to me yet, so they don’t get included on the list because I have not seen them in a theater. I saw at least three features that were streaming movies, which got token theatrical presentations so they ended up on the blog, and one of them ended up on this list. 

These are not necessarily the best films I saw this last year, they are the ones I liked the best. A crummy comedy that worked and made me laugh may very well deserve a spot on my list because it achieved it’s objective more than the well crafted drama that is impressive technically, but left me cold.  

#10  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

This film was a complete surprise. I’d heard nothing about it until it was already in theaters for a week. Judy Greer holds the movie together as an average Mom, who takes on the responsibility of  her small town’s Christmas Pageant. The difficult task is made harder by the inclusion of an unruly family of children who as known troublemakers, predispose everyone to expecting a disaster. The film is really about the kids, but it is Greer’s patient Mom character that grounds the shenanigans and makes this film a real Christmas movie, with actual Christmas elements to it. 

It has a nostalgic feel to it, similar to the beloved “A Christmas Story”, and there are several moments of redemption that will allow favorable comparisons to Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”. It may have too many juvenile gags in it to be seen as a serious film, but along with last years “The Holdovers”, it will be a regular part of my future Christmas Film watches.

#9  Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 

I will admit that of the Mad Max films, this would be at the bottom. I will also say that the Mad Max films themselves exceed ninety percent of all action films, so being the fifth best film in the franchise is not fatal the the movies worth. 

George Miller keeps enlarging the canvas on which he creates his films. The detail in the backstory of he character of Furiosa from “Fury Road” back in 2015, is amazingly detailed and interesting. There are action sequences in this film that rival any of the moments from the other film, but the use of practical effects is sometimes swamped in digital fireballs, sandstorms and fortress locations. 

Nevertheless, Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth know the goal is to make their larger than life characters interesting and worth following for the run time of the film. They do that. Revenge may taste best when it is served cold, but Furiosa has a recipe for hot revenge which is excellent.


#8   Nosferatu (2024)

After hating “The Lighthouse”, I never expected a Robert Eggers film to be featured on my year end list of favorites, but “Nosferatu” has a couple of things going for it that help me make peace with Eggers style. First of all, this is a remake of a classic silent film, so the story structure is in place and fidelity to the source material restrains Eggars from his left field swing for the fences plot developments. He sticks to the story.

Second, he using his visual strengths with material that deserves the attention that it gets. The gothic nature of the unauthorized Dracula ripoff from the silent era, craves the camerawork and lighting techiques that are hallmarks of Eggers work.

When you add the quality performances and production design, you get a winner instead of an irritation. 

#7   The Wild Robot

This film comes from the director who brought us the “How to Train Your Dragon” film franchise, so it was encouraging from the beginning. The juxtaposition of nature with technology is a winner, and the echo of “Wall-e” doesn’t hurt either.  This is a mechanical character with a heart, and watching that heart learn how to love is as emotionally satisfying as anything you are likely to see on the screen these days. 

Rendering of the natural world using digital technology seems counter-intuitive, until you see the results on the screen and marvel at how beautiful nature is as seen by a computer. When your main character is doing that very thing on screen, you can really identify with the story. 

Let’s not forget that this is also incredibly funny.

#6  Hit Man 

Director Richard Linklater and Actor Glenn Powell, have crafted a screenplay out of a real life scenario that was written about in the Texas Monthly 20 years ago. A nebbish college professor role plays as a hitman for a police department, in a series of sting operations that nabs potential clients in murder for hire crimes. 

They add an unconventional love story and turn the situation inside out in order to get a story structure for what would otherwise be a series of incidents. Powell gets to work his acting range by playing two versions of himself and a half dozen versions of what potential contractors think a Hitman should be. This is a very funny, crime thriller which escaped Netflix long enough for a two week run. 

We lucked out seeing it in Austin at a screening with the two leads and the Director doing an interview after the film. 

#5   Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One

My biggest disappointment of the year was that this terrific western from Kevin Costner, did not get a release for the second part which has already been completed. The failure of the movie to catch fire at the box office resulted in the cancelation of the planned release of part two later in the summer. Regardless, the film deserves some accolades because it makes the western sojourn an historical journey worth investing in.

Costner gets to do some shootouts, Indian raids are depicted as the horror that they must have been, while at the same time showing huge sympathy for the indigenous people who are facing an invasion of immigrants with grandiose visions.

There is a vast cast who get some terrific moments, some of which are set ups for what is coming. I really hope we will get to see those payoffs down the road. 

#4   The Fall Guy

I love this movie without any apologies. It is a fantastic tribute to the stunt community and a solid argument for why there should be a Stunt category at the Academy Awards. The film is filled with the gags tha the stunt team creates and the integration of the real process into the fictional story is very clever, making what would be too in your face, something that you can be entertained by.

The stars, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling have some of the best romantic chemistry on screen that I have seen in a long time. They are also both so funny that you will be laughing at some lines just because of who is speaking them, not because they are jokes.

It so happens that the film contains some of the best needle drops of the year, and a particularly amusing use of a Kiss song, so you probably knew I was going to love it before I told you so. 


#3   Juror #2

Warner Brothers dropped this film into only 40 screens the first week of release. This is a picture from Clint Eastwood, who has been Warners most reliable film partner for forty plus years. The streaming business and the theatrical business are connected, but in a parasitic way rather than a symbiotic manner. The idea that this should first have been an HBO Max release is just disturbing to film lovers like me.

Clint takes a story, with a tenuous premise and turns it into a compelling moral Rorschach test for the audience. We have great sympathy for the conflicted character played by Nicolas Hoult, the second time on my list this year. The judicial process is supposed to render justice, but the system is not always set up to do so, and it can be subverted by any number of people who participate in the process. 

If this is Eastwood’s last film, he goes out on a high note which is misplayed by his studio collaborators. 

#2  Dune Part 2

As a big fan of the original book, and the 1984 film from David Lynch, I had looked forward to Denis Villeneuve completing the story with the second part of his adaptation. In 2021, the first part of his film was in the same location on my list as this part is for this last year. Consistent in quality, but maybe deeper in meaning, Dune Part 2 fulfills the promise of the first film by developing characters like Stilgar and Barron Harkonnen and then adding Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha, the rival genetic project from the Bene Gesserit. 

The movie has the best scene of the year in Paul’s initial conquest of the sandworm. It is a visual stunner and the sound design of the sequence will blow you away. The advantage of Villeneuve’s approach is that sufficient time has been provided to make the ominous elements of Paul’s story clearer to the audience, Muad’dib is both hero and villain, a circumstance that makes this Science Fiction more complex than most films. 

#1  Late Night with the Devil

From the first time I saw it, I knew this was a film that would be near the top of my list at the end of the year. This is a found footage style film, supposedly of a lost episode of a late night talk show from the 70s.  The period recreation is excellent and the story mixes characters based on real 70s personalities with the fictional cast of the show. 

David Dastmalchian stars as the host of a talk show that competes with the Olympus of  “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”. His second tier status seems to be driving his willingness to press on with an unconventional set of incidents on a Halloween Special. The behind the scenes moments are not consistent with the format of the film, but you won’t care. 

Like most horror films f the seventies, it is a slow burn in the first act and then things start to sizzle in act two. Unlike most horror films however, “Late Night with the Devil” manages to stick the landing in the third act with some truly scary moments. 

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December 27, 2024

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Kraven the Hunter (2024)

This movie is not good. There is something cringy about most of the Sony films that have tried to spin off Spider-Man characters into their own films. They just feel inauthentic entirely. The “Venom” films work in part because the film makers lean into the stupidity of the premise and they get that the films are commercial junk. “Kraven” is commercial junk that takes itself seriously an is laughable as a result. The opening sequences are really good, but then we get an origin story that is so preposterous, I was laughing at it as it was being played out. 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson looks great in the part, it’s just that the part is ridiculous. The child of a Russian mob figure acquires supernatural powers from a dead animal at a safari hunt with the assistance of a voodoo elixir that comes to him through a civilized girl who is visiting her grandmother’s primitive culture. If chiseled abs were enough to make a movie work, then Taylor -Johnson would have this sewn up. You also need dialogue and story for a movie to work, this film has some very stupid dialogue and some equally stupid story telling.

By the time we get to the CGI climax, I just did not care anymore. The only person who gets out of this unscathed is Russell Crowe, who plays the mob boss father with a heavy accent and a sociopath personality. It’s as if he doesn’t give a crap and just leans into the dumb mess of a film he is in. The film is set up for a sequel, but with the box office returns, I don’t expect anyone is jumping abord for another film in this series. 

I have fallen behind on films that I have seen in the theater here in December, so I am going to keep this short. There was not much to talk about anyway. I will probably turn my derision toward another film that came out more recently. Aaron, wipe your feet thoroughly before you try on James Bond’s shoes. I think you might be great for that series, but you stepped in some pooh here.

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November 30, 2024

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An Evening with Josh Brolin-The Paramount Theatre

I’m counting this as a Cinema related event for three reasons. First it was held at the Paramount and the vast majority of events I attend there are movies. Second, the author of the book is a movie star and several of the chapters are focused on films he participated in. Finally, the discussion was moderated by film director and local Austin hero Robert Rodriguez. So it qualifies for the blog.

Although Brolin is a film actor and there are several parts of the book devoted to movie related experiences, most of the evenings talk had to do with his life off screen. His famous father is a part of the story but it appears that Josh Brolin was most heavily influenced by his headstrong Mother. She was a hard drinking, fiercely independent woman who was foolishly fearless at times. Brolin shared several stories about her and she sounds like she was a compelling figure.

Robert Rodriguez is a long time friend of Brolins, and they shared some stories about working together and almost working together. There were also a number of stories about working with Tommy Lee Jones, who is apparently an admirer of Brolins, although he did not seem to know it. 

 Mr. Brolin read one of the chapters of the book, and the experience introduced the style of writing he is using. The chapters are really random essays on some moments in his life. It is not really an autobiography but a place where he can share his poetry, narrative prose and reporting, all to different degrees. Rodriguez shared that he keeps a journal of moments in his day, everyday, and he was able to prompt Brolin into telling some stories by referring to his own journal. This journaling approach is what Brolin used when writing, and his ability to recall details was pretty solid. Listening to him tell about his Mother, driving them a thousand miles when he was a kid, from California to Texas, just because she had a hankering for Whataburger was fun, although when the two of them talked about the burgers they had delivered to the theatre, their shrug about the quality mirrors my feelings exactly.

I’m only halfway through the book at this point and the loose structure is interesting and it makes the book easy to pick up and put down. 

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November 22, 2024

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Heretic (2024)

Suffering from the flaws of many horror films these days, “Heretic” still manages to be a fascinating variation on the premise. This is in large part due to the casting of Hugh Grant as the antagonist and the charming performances of the two lead actresses, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. This is basically a three person set piece, but the setting is an elaborately designed house with a subterranean structure that will add to the mystery and sense of dread that pervades the first half of the movie. The deceptively inviting bait includes the charming Mr. Reed, played by Grant, who at first seems the most innocuous of potential threats.  

Thatcher and East play two Mormon missionaries, Sister Paxton and Sister Barnes, out for the day on their bicycles, looking to spread their faith. The opening section includes the uncomfortable cold calls and interactions with locals on the street. Sister Paxton, has no new converts and seems to be losing confidence, especially after she is humiliated by some teen girls that she had approached in a friendly manner. Sister Barnes is a little more pragmatic, and maybe weary of proselytizing, but both she and Sister Paxton seem committed to their beliefs, even as they discuss some world challenging truths around them. They are not just doing cold calls however, they have a list of homes that have indicated an interest in their faith, and one of those is the house off the beaten path of Mr. Reed.  Set in an idyllic property, off the road, boarding a forested area, the Reed house looks friendly enough and when the mature, somewhat distracted Hugh Grant, answers the door in his patterned old style cardigan, the girls are nonplussed at his invitation to converse in the house. When they learn that his wife is supposedly baking in the kitchen, they accept the invite with very little trepidation. 

This is all set up for the most interesting part of the film. Mr. Reed confronts the girls with a series of questions and challenging statements about faith and their beliefs in particular. As the purported wife does not appear, there is hesitation by the young women about proceeding. The dawning realization that they have been trapped in the house forces them to continue the facade of their visit. The carefully crafted politeness of the girls runs into the mildly rude but intellectual challenges of Mr. Reed. Grant is perfectly cast for this section of the film, he is clear in his beliefs but expresses them with the stuttering pace that he has been well known for in his other roles. He treats the girls like students in his own introduction to theology lecture, and paints a nasty image of organized religions based on their similar origin myths. His attempts to sow doubt in the girls seems plotted to force them to make a choice, which is ultimately meaningless in his eventual plans. His whole spiel is really just a cruel twist of a mental knife in the minds of the victims he is trying to create.  

The living room and then the study of the Reed house, are decorated to invite confidence in the visitors, but as they move deeper into the house, the production design makes the floorplan more ominous. Once the girls pass the threshold into the basement structure, the film becomes a much more traditional film. Although there are a few twists thrown in to tie the escape section to the theological discussion in the early part of the film, those plot points make little sense. My friend Lisa Leaheey has said you can’t judge a horror film by it’s ending. If she is correct, we should disregard the last act of this movie, because it feels like an overworked attempt to vindicate what came earlier with a tradition horror element. I will say that I had an interpretation of the final resolution that was different from others, so maybe there is something here that is a little more challenging. 

Because it is shooting high and tries to do something different, and it has three excellent performances, I am going to recommend the film. If you want a more complete and intelligent exit to the movie, you will be a little disappointed. I often find that I like movies in spite of their flaws and this would be one of those. I compared it to a film from two years ago, “Barbarian“. A terrific opening is squandered by conventional horror tropes in the second and third acts. “Heretic” is not quite as egregious in it’s failures, so in contrast it is the better film. I also think the difference is enough to recommend it.  

[I have included the video of the podcast from the LAMBcast, which featured this film, in case you want to hear and see more.]

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November 4, 2024

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Juror #2 (2024)

It would not be possible to write about this movie without the context in which I saw it. The world has changed so much in the last ten years, many of those changes are subtle and may go unnoticed by some people. I however, have noticed. I notice that theaters are often empty when new films are playing, that films which have some serious issue to discuss get ignored off of the screens that they manage to play on when they do get a release. I have noticed that it is a disparaging phrase to say “Your Dad will like it.” In the last couple of years, there have been a few films I was lucky to catch in a theater, which almost certainly would have earned that back handed compliment, films like “The Covenant”, “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” and “Fly Me to the Moon”. These were films aimed at an mature audience, and they were lucky to get any screen time in a theater. While they are of varying quality, they deserved the time I was willing to give them, and they earned a lot more respect than some films which have been huge box office successes, but which are barely real stories or movies.  Whenever I have written about them, I have made an effort to give them serious thought (even when they don’t deserve it, I’m looking at you “Barbie”).  When I see a movie like “Juror #2” being dismissed as “Your Dad’s new favorite movie”, it frustrates me. Even when those are complimentary due to the old fashioned quality of a film, it sends a message to potential viewers that there is something here that is not for them.

Warner Brothers has made it clear that they feel the same way about this film. It is not for you. The have given it the most token of releases. It is on thirty-five screens around the country. As far as I can tell, in the state of Texas, where I live, it is on one screen in Dallas. Texas with thirty plus million residents, the second most populous state in the country, has one theater showing “Juror #2”, the latest film from cinema treasure Clint Eastwood. I saw some spin on one entertainment site suggesting that this was a limited release because the film would only open in the single digits and that Warner Brothers did not want Eastwood to be embarrassed by a flop. If you believe that, let me tell you about the golden opportunity to invest in property in California City. Also I have a bridge you might like to buy in the New York area. 

I had to drive two hundred miles one way to see the movie in a theater opening weekend. That is three hours on the Interstate from Austin to Dallas. After the movie, I had the same three hour trip back. I can’t say I would always make a trip like that to see a Clint Eastwood project, after all I skipped          “J. Edgar”,  “Hereafter” and “15:17 to Paris” completely. Yet the disrespect that Warner Brothers has shown one of their most productive and creative collaborators was so offensive to me, I felt compelled to make the effort. Oh, and I am glad I did.

“Juror #2” is a thoughtful story about responsibility and justice. Nicolas Hoult stars as Justin Kemp, a man who has turned his life around and found sobriety, but who has been tested by brutal circumstances. He is committed to doing the right thing, but is faced with another test and it is one that has severe consequences for others. As we follow his story, we can easily identify with his dilemma. He knows the truth in a criminal case that he is serving on a jury for, but revealing that truth would be devastating to him personally but also to the two people who will be depending on him in the future. What is the right thing to do, where does justice come in?  Justin is also not the only one wrestling with these issues.

Maybe people will see this as an old fashioned movie because it feels like an update of “12 Angry Men”. Courtroom dramas lack the fireworks of an action film or comic book movie, but they offer drama that can be completely compelling if told properly, and Eastwood and his team are doing that here. Screenwriter Johnathan Abrams, has constructed a plausible if unlikely scenario, for our central characters to confront.  What is even more plausible is the dynamic in the jury room. We don’t get the same kind of character detail for most of the jurors that we did in “12 Angry Men”, but we do get enough of their attitudes and opinions to understand the arguments that will ensue. Marcus and Yolonda are the two jurors that resist the direction that Justin tries to lead the jury in. They challenge his rationale for hesitating to quickly render a guilty verdict. We know that Justin is motivated both by seeing justice done and self preservation, but his strategies are exactly the temperate thinking that one would hope a jury would engage in before deciding a man’s fate. 

There are complications in the process however, and Harold, played by J.K. Simmons , is both an ally to Justin’s cause and a threat to him. So another set of ethical questions get raised in the story. I said earlier, that Justin and the jurors are not the only ones wrestling with these questions. Both the prosecutor and the public defender have serious moral conflicts that they face. The prosecutor is played by Toni Collette, who in an interesting side note, played Hoult’s mother twenty years ago in the film “About a Boy”. Faith Killebrew is being tested in a manner similar to that of Justin. One of the eternal issues in our justice system is the conflict over winning a case versus doing the right thing. Prosecutor Faith begins to doubt the validity of her own case. I try to avoid spoilers in these posts, so I will not provide any more details here, but let it be said that the resolution of the film does not leave anyone looking like a moral giant.

As usual, a Clint Eastwood film is polished and the craft in making it its impeccable. Director of photography Yves Bélanger, has worked with Eastwood before, and the film looks terrific in the courtroom scenes but even better when we get some exterior sequences. The dramatic moment that creates the whole plot is clear enough for us to understand what happened and still believe that Justin was uncertain of what took place. Clint skipped composing a jazz inflected score as he has done on some of his other projects, instead Mark Mancia provides a sparse set of musical elements that underscore moments in the film without drawing attention to itself. Longtime editor Joel Cox has done all of Eastwood’s films since “The Outlaw Josey Wales” , he seems to understand perfectly the deliberate style that Eastwood wants. The movie moves at a pace that is efficient but not rushed. The visualizations of the big moments are not frantic and they play out as thoughtful narratives as a result. Cox is working with David Cox on this film, I’m not sure if they are related. 

Finally I want to take note of the performances. Nicolas Hoult has to hold the film together as a good man conflicted by a bad situation. We can see anguish underneath some of the choices that Justin is making in the film. There is also palpable fear registering as he confronts one of his fellow jurors over the decision they must make. Toni Collette starts the film with a slight Southern accent, the film is set in Georgia after all, but I don’t think she was as committed to it in the later parts of the film. Outside of the accent issue however, her performance is strong, registering doubt and resignation at the right moments. Chris Messina plays public defender Eric Resnick, who convinces us that he is convinced of his clients innocence. He has a light touch with the guilt trips that he imposes on Collette’s character, which seems to reflect the professional relationship the two of them were likely to have. 

This movie forces us to think on moral issues surrounding the way the justice system works. As most of us are aware, it is often an ugly process that emphasizes technical fidelity to the rules rather than finding a just result. The current internet outrage over the State of New York, seizing a squirrel and a racoon and destroying them, is an example of the same kinds of power issues this film presents. Regardless of who wins, everyone who wrestles with a pig ends up covered in muck. It’s too bad that Warner Brothers decides that they wanted to tussle with film fans. So far Clint has stayed out of the marketing muck, and has stuck to drawing us a picture of the imperfections in all of us.  

400 Miles Round Trip
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November 1, 2024

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The Empire Strikes Back in Concert (2024)

A year ago we went to a performance of  the Austin Symphony Orchestra performing the score for the original “Star Wars” with the film being presented on the screen above the orchestra. I’ve attended several concerts using this approach including screenings of “The Godfather” and “Jaws”. As long as the movie is compelling, it is hard to go wrong. Another thing that makes it hard to go wrong is performing the music of film maestro John Williams. “The Empire Strikes Back” is the original sequel to the continuing Star Wars franchise and it is especially vibrant when it comes to the music.

The heroes themes in the original film are the motifs that make that film so memorable. “The Empire Strikes Back” does not exactly subvert the importance of heroes, but it does make the theme of the main villain the most iconic piece of music from the film series next to the main theme. “The Imperial March” that accompanies Darth Vader through most of this film is found in commercials, at football games and being hummed by kids and adults, the same way the theme from “Jaws” is. It is an easily identifiable music riff which indicates the presence of the bad guys or something ominous happening.  

Live music always makes the score feel more rich and full. Watching the violin bows sawing up and down or hearing the horns strike that right note are thrilling experiences. Even when you might be transfixed by the screen, an orchestra cannot be ignored when it is right there with you. The Austin Symphony is full and accomplished at playing these scores. The arrangements seem to give the individual instruments enough room to shine even in an ensemble performance. 

I suspect that we will be getting “The Return of the Jedi” next year in the pop series that we subscribe to. That would be perfectly fine to me. However, instead of moving on to the prequel Star Wars Movies after that, I think a change up by covering Indiana Jones would be completely rad.

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October 25, 2024

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Panic at the Paramount! Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

This is one of those films that I hope I’ll be able to draft tomorrow on my Lancaster show. We are having a draft of horror films made and released prior to 1973. Rosemary’s Baby from 1968 not only fulfills the requirement okay in the appropriate time, but also being a truly creepy horror film, and one that is extremely well made. It was produced surprisingly, by William Castle, who was Notorious for making the budget gimmick horror films, like The Tingler, 13 Ghosts, and the House on Haunted Hill. He snapped up the rights to make the movie, by buying a book for adaptation before anyone else could get to it. Unfortunately for him, he spent all of his money buying the rights, and had none left to make the movie, which forced him to seek financing, and resulted in a studio-based film, and the studio insisted on hiring their own director. Roman Polanski is notorious nowadays, but at the time he was one of the hot directors in Europe, and this is a movie that put him in the top ranks.

The film is a very literal story about the birth of Satan’s child. You can struggle to look for metaphor or allegory here, but when it comes to the main plot line, Satan rapes a young woman and she is forced to carry out a pregnancy it is going to result in the birth of what is likely to be the Antichrist. This movie came out 5 years before The Exorcist, and 8 years before The Omen. It has very few horror effects, there is one death on screen, and a couple that are implied which take place off screen. The makeup in the film is not full of Prosthetics and goo with blood, there’s only a hint of the devil’s actual appearance with some close-ups on demonic eyes. Most of the makeup involves showing star Mia Farrow as becoming somewhat emaciated in the early stages of her pregnancy. Instead of glowing like a pregnant woman would she seems to be disappearing, pound by pound.

Mia Farrow gives on heroic performance as Rosemary, loving wife of a struggling New York actor, who is befriended by some oddballs in the somewhat sketchy apartment building she and her husband have taken up Residence in. Early acquaintance, when Rosemary has met in the laundry room basement, ends up dead and that is the most gruesome scene in the film. The young woman was staying with the older couple who lives next door to Rosemary and her husband. And it seemed that they were helping her recover from a sorided life of drug use and promiscuity. We never really learn why she died, but it is strongly suggested that the appearance of Rosemary suddenly was a opportunity that was a lot more promising for the coven of witches that occupy the building. Yes that’s right, I said witches.

The older couple next door, take up a particular interest in Rosemary and her husband, and begin to insert themselves into the young couples lives. To some degree Rosemary is happy to have some company, but she does seem to recognize that her husband is taken an unhealthy interest in their neighbors life story. He frequently spends time with the older couple, well Rosemary tries to maintain some distance. Rosemary’s husband is played by the great John cassavetes, and at times he is a solicitous husband, but at other times he’s an insensitive prick. He and rosemary seem sexually compatible and happy, but he struggles with career uncertainty, and the fear that comes from where your next job is going to be coming from. Things get a little desperate when he loses a part in a play that could have brought him some much-needed attention. My cassavides himself, the actor resents having to work for money, particularly in television commercials. His luck suddenly changes when tragedy strikes the actor who had been cast in the role that he was up for, and the part defaults to him.

This is all my way up set up, because this is really a character based film more than a plot based movie. Rosemary is driven to preserve her marriage in the face of the economic uncertainty that the two of them  are confronted by. She also is in the process of nesting, and the desire for a child feels very natural at this point in their relationship. Once it is discovered that Rosemary is pregnant, the old couple next door begins to offer assistance. Ruth Gordon is an eccentric woman who has what appear to be friendly intentions, and some odd cooking skills. Her husband insists that Rosemary see the obstetrician that he is friends with. So the story focuses on this vulnerable young woman, being prayed upon with affection by her husband and Neighbors, and she doesn’t realize how much she is being manipulated. The doctor she sees is played by Ralph Bellamy, and he seems the picture of a wise and comforting older doctor, full of credibility. He needs all of that credibility because he keeps dismissing the problems the Rosemary is facing in her pregnancy. It’s hard for us to imagine the pregnant woman will allow her health to deteriorate the way it did in the early stages of the pregnancy, without seeking some substantial Medical advice. The assurances of her doctor only carry weight because of his reputation. It takes the intervention of some of her younger friends to convince her that she needs to see the original doctor she visited with in order to get a second opinion. Conveniently at that point the negative symptoms she’s experiencing cease, and it seems that the doctor was right all along, which reinforces The credibility he had originally.

The whole movie is about atmosphere, and the old apartment building that’s a couple moves into is full of it before we even meet the characters that fill it up. There’s a long sense of dread in the last third of the film, but they’re also some comical moments with the witches coven struggling to deal with playing nursemaid to hell spawn.  Mia farrow’s expression when she finally gets a chance to see her baby is one that is perfectly horrifying, and ultimately maternal which is the real horrific twist in the film. Roman Polanski Maybe a horrible human being but he was a hell of a director, and as noted in another film, this movie made him the biggest director in the world at the time.

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October 3, 2024

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Megalopolis (2024)

Francis Ford Coppola has created his dream project, and I’m afraid for many people it will be a nightmare. Megalopolis is an ambitious film that is nearly incoherent in its first half, wait let me take out that modifier and say in a very clear way that it is incoherent in its first half. That’s one of the reasons that I was hating this movie for the first hour. Unless you were up on your Marcus Aurelius and your history of the Roman Empire, you will be lost on a regular basis. But even if you’ve recently read extensively about those subjects, you will still be lost because Coppola does not have a narrative structure in that part of the film. It consists of characters being introduced with long passages of dialogue that sometimes mimic the words of a Roman senator or those of a Shakespearean character. For what reason we don’t really know, and Coppola isn’t going to tell us. All of this is happening while we are being Bedazzled by visuals that are original and startling in their conception, but are not clear in function. Meanwhile there appears to be I’m going on in the time space continuum that is not clear at all. So welcome to the film.

Having said this about the movie, I do want to adjust my opinion a little bit as we get to the second hour, where there appears to be a little bit more narrative structure. And I do mean just a little bit more. It was however enough for me latch onto the film and begin to find more redeeming elements to it than just the visuals. Coppola appears to be trying to say something about consumerism, ambition, corporate capitalism, and the traditional corruption of democratic societies. Exactly trying to say about all of these things though remains ambiguous. He has big things on his mind, but we have to Wade through his mind to figure out what it all is about, and it’s a jungle in there.

As usual I’m going to forgo trying to recap the whole story for you, there are plenty of other sites online that will attempt to do that for you. I’m just going to give you my general impressions and a little bit of advice about whether or not to see the movie. I will tell you, that I hugely anticipated the film since it’s Premier back in Cannes in May. The word at the time was not hopeful, with many critics suggesting that the film was a complete mess, although visually stunning. That seemed enough for me to feel that the movie might have something for me that closes out copula’s career with something Worthy. I insisted on viewing this movie in an IMAX theater so I could get the visual impression that the director clearly wanted us to have. I think that was a good choice on my part. However as I watched the film, I was getting more and more depressed. Art needs to speak to you at some level, and without a narrative or characters that I cared about, this film was not reaching me. Even as an abstract piece of art it was problematic.

Once the characters began to function in a recognizable story, which involved conspiracy, subterfuge, and betrayal, I began to feel like there was something in the movie that I could understand. I was able to reinvest in the movie at that point, I guess is that there will be a lot of people who won’t get to that point. Even if someone does manage to stick it out with the film, they may not be willing to forgive the incoherent mess at the first half of the movie consists of. Apologists of Art that is abstract, and not easily consumed, will certainly find ways to recommend this film to the community of Cinema fanatics that might be tempted to view the movie. More power to them. For General moviegoers though this film is going to be, not challenging but off-putting. It is deliberately obtuse, and the characters are dense, and unlikable. Frequently actors engage in cartoonish performances, certainly encouraged by director Coppola. Shia LaBeouf and Aubrey Plaza are two of the actors who seem to be working in a completely different tone and mode than everyone else in the picture. It might even be true that their performances are the true soul of this extravagant farce that has been labeled a fable. Maybe if everyone else had gone in the same direction this movie would have been a more audience friendly success. 

The passage of time May reflect well on the movie, but my readers, you were looking at this contemporaneously and so I must give you fair warning. This movie is not for everyone. In fact it’s probably not for most people. As a film artifact it will be interesting to look at down the road. As a film, playing in the movie theater, to a general audience, it’s simply a mess.

I’m not exactly sure why Coppola sets this movie in an imagined Roman Empire seated in the United States and headquartered in a place like New York City. Combining the Roman Empire with us hegemony seems like a interesting mix of allegories, but it also seems completely pretentious. When Adam Driver starts delivering monologue from Hamlet at the unveiling of a pitiful Casino model from his rival the mayor of New York, I started drifting. To be or not to be it needs a better answer than what this film gives us.

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September 20, 2024

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The Babadook (2014)

One of the things I enjoy about social media (yes there are some things worthwhile there) is the opportunity to discover films that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. “The Babdook” was a film that never played in more than two theaters at a time on it’s original release. However, the word of mouth on the film back in 2014 was that it was terrifying. Those praises made it worthy for me to seek out when it became available for home viewing. I can say that it is in fact one of the few horror films that lives up to it’s hype. The set up of the story is maddening, but when the supernatural elements kick in, you are ready to believe in what follows.

Amelia is a widow with an incredibly challenging six year old son. Samuel is both very bright and enthusiastic, but he is also incredibly needy and like most children, self centered. From the beginning of the film, actress Essie Davis makes Amelia look worn out and fragile. Hers is one of the best depictions of physical and mental exhaustion I can remember seeing on screen. Samuel and his obsessions, keeps her constantly on edge, and her brittle protection of him is driving a wedge between her and almost everyone else she is connected with, even the friendly co-worker and her sister. The monster in the story is here well before the trigger mysteriously appears.

This is a psychological horror story, and at the end, there is a very valid question about where the “Babadook”, the monster of the tale, comes from. It is quite possible that everything that occurs is a manifestation of Amelia’s mind. The true source of her difficulties is the unresolved grief she has for her husband, who died in a car accident while driving her to the hospital to deliver Sam. The character is extremely sensitive about discussing her late husband, in part because it appears that Sam reminds her constantly about the loss. All of us have dark thoughts that creep into our heads now and then, but her character allows those thoughts to grow, in part because she is so exhausted from trying to manage Samuel. Even a temporary respite from the tension she lives under is interrupted by Sam. 

There are some great uses of sound to create a aura of dread in the house that Sam and Amelia occupy. As almost every film fan knows, the less you see and the more you imagine, the greater the fear factor can be. Even when the title figure is manifested, he plays mostly in the shadows and our chances to see him are very brief and ambiguous.  The horrifying foreshadowing in the book that she and Sam first discover the “Babadook”, lets us know how this terrible horror will manifest itself. [Potential Spoiler: Animal Lovers Beware]. The resolution of the film comes after a harrowing third act where the norms of parent child relations are stressed to the limit. It is not so much that Amelia has let the Babadook” in, as it is that she is letting her grief out in a very destructive manner.

I literally got chills at least three times in last nights screening. There are a few well done jump scares that fit with the story and are not simply cheap moments that the director is imposing to get a rise out of us. This is writer/director Jennifer Kent’s debut feature film. It is an accomplished piece of work that makes the most out of it’s limited setting and small number of characters. There are some emotionally deep themes in the film, and in the end it is uplifting, but you have to absorb some disturbing moments to get to that more positive resolution. 

This is a Tenth Anniversary screening, and if it is playing in your local cinema, be sure to stick around for a ten to fifteen minute conversation between Kent and Alfonso Cuarón, as they talk about the themes and the process of writing the film. 

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Am I Racist? (2024)

Matt Walsh is a conservative provocateur who has taken up filmmaking as a way of getting his message across. As a filmmaker his goal seems to be to create something entertaining not just a polemic on his philosophy. Of course that doesn’t mean that his views will not be a part of the film, it simply means that the way he’s going to present those views will be in film terms rather than in pundit form. His previous film “What is a Woman?” was available only on the Daily Wire platform, with a brief exception for a YouTube presentation to expose the film more broadly. His new film, “Am I Racist?” is being presented is a theatrical release and is available on 1500 screens around the country. This feels like a major departure for the Media Group that he is working with, and part of an overall goal to expand cultural entertainment to include conservative perspectives.

The approach that he takes in this film is similar to the one taken by Sacha Baron Cohen in his Borat films. Walsh assumes an identity, in order to interact with unsuspecting advocates of the DEI movement. When, pretending to be a fellow Traveler, he manages to get them to reveal their true thoughts and feelings about anti-racism and a variety of other ills. These are the most entertaining part of the film, because he’s letting them hoist themselves on their own petard. In an early sequence he attends an anti-racism training session, ones filled with rituals and comments that are simply shown to be odd in the way the people in the seminar act and speak. He inserts himself by asking frequent questions and offering comments to provoke responses from the seminar leader. The results are contentious, cringe-worthy, and hysterical. After being recognized, he later tactics, by arranging interviews with a variety of so-called anti-racist speakers, academics, and theorists. He poses as a DEI advocate on a journey to understand how to “de-center” racism. The questions he asks, demonstrate some of the contradictions in the whole DEI premise. Those contradictions become points at which it is easy for the audience to laugh.

For me, the most uncomfortable, and the most revealing segment of the film comes when he infiltrates one of the “Race to Dinner” sessions held by two women of color who guide white women to confront their white guilt. Walsh himself is not supposed to be able to participate, since the dinners are only open to women. He manages to insert himself into one of these dinners as a server in the facility that the dinner is being held at. What he manages to get away with is audacious, and continuously uncomfortable, much like the humor you will find in one of those Borat films. My favorite moment, came when he comedically acts out as a incompetent waiter by dropping a set of dishes at a particular moment in the monologue being presented by one of the two women who host these events. There may be people who agree with what’s being said at that particular moment, I however I’m not one of those people, and I thought that the interruption was particularly called for, and amusing.

Not everyone is going to enjoy this film, especially those who espouse some of the Critical Race Theory that underpins the DEI movement. The average person however will probably find this movie to be very entertaining, as well as enlightening. Maybe those folks who go through DEI training in their workplace will see this as old news, but there are plenty of people out there who have not been exposed to some of the details of these theories, and they’re likely to be befuddled and offended by some of the things that are being said.

Matt Walsh is basically playing himself in this movie, with a tongue in cheek attitude as a Seeker of anti-racism excellence. Of course he is also a master troll when it comes to mocking those ideas that he sees as being contemptuous. One of the times where he steps out of character a little is a sequence where he reimagines that Jussie Smollett hoax of a few years ago. It’s a funny bit, but it does take us out of the diorama that he has created for the rest of the picture.

Two sequences in the last third of the picture probably highlight the places that will be most controversial about his comedy approach. In the segment with anti-racist author Robin D’Angelo, he engages her with a series of questions that illustrates some of the convoluted thought processes that are required in order for the anti-racist ideology to function. As amusing as those contradictions might be, they end up being overshadowed by the improvised conclusion of this segment, which mocks the idea of financial reparation for past racist actions, especially slavery. D’Angelo in her desire to remain true to her position demonstrates the absurdity of that position by her actions. It will probably be the most talked about part of the movie.

The last segment consists of Walsh trying to take what he has learned about DEI and apply it by creating his own seminar on anti-racism. His ability to act in a dead pan, serious demeanor, makes most of the things that he does in the film feel satirical. In his role as DEI seminar leader, he comes across as inept because the premises of the philosophy don’t hold up. The response of the trainees to his approach provide the most insightful element at this point. It demonstrates that the goal is not to bring us together but to further drive us apart.

I completely understand that this will not be everybody’s cup of tea. If you find Sacha Baron Cohen to be a little bit uncomfortable, or if you find the films of Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore to be less than tolerable, you will be put off by this film. On the other hand, if you are who enjoys clever trolling, and taking down untrustworthy authority figures a peg or two, I think you’ll be entertained by this movie.