Category: Movie

Movie

Snowpiercer (2013)

Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.

Where to find it: Rent on BFI or Amazon
Length: two hours
Synopsis: The Communist Manifesto on wheels
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: metaphor, action
What I don’t like about it: not fun

Review:
I gained a lot of appreciation for this in retrospect after watching Parasite and deciding I liked this one more. The metaphor works better – a train, constantly in motion and “unable” to stop, moves around a world ravaged by climate change. At the back of the train are some overworked and underfed people living in darkness and squalor, a revolution ensues and one of the proletariat fights his way through increasing luxury to the front of the train. There (spoilers for capitalism) he learns that the train is actually fuelled by human bodies and stops it in disgust, taking his chances in the frozen wasteland. And all of that, unlike Parasite, in an action film that I could show to pretty much anybody.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): violence

Culloden (1964)

Throughout September I will be raiding my collection of favourite movies to review one a day, with a focus on overlooked and underappreciated films.

Where to find it: YouTube
Length: just over an hour
Synopsis: The Battle of Culloden, in the style of BBC documentaries of the time
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: a wonderfully didactic history lesson
What I don’t like about it: it’s no fun popcorn flick

Review:
Peter Watkins is a fascinating filmmaker, tending to favour an experimental documentary style over what he refers to as ‘the monoform’ of dramatic entertainment. Throughout his career, he filmed many fascinating and unflinchingly bleak documentaries on subjects like nuclear weapons and the Paris Commune, as well as satirical fiction such as Privilege, Punishment Park and the fantastic Gladiators. He would prove to be a formative influence on Adam Curtis, who is a formative influence on me.

In this, his first feature-length work, the Battle of Culloden is re-enacted by amateur actors as if a documentary crew were able to time-travel to the battlefield. The effect really works as unfolding developments build significant emotion for what seems, at first, like a dry history lesson.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): grim horrors of war, vividly described

I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020)

Where to find it: Netflix
Length: 134 minutes
Synopsis: “Give it a rest, Charlie Kaufman, some of us have work in the morning, damn!”
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: Jessie Buckley, the writing (sometimes), themes connected hard with me
What I don’t like about it: almost indecipherable, lost entirely up its own arse

Review:
You know how sometimes an internet movie review will say something like, “This is a really good movie when you watch it the second to twelfth time!”? Well I’m gonna try to save that first painful nonsense viewing for you by providing some context upfront, even though it’ll spoil the ‘reveals’ along the way. If you really want to go in knowing nothing – I assume you have time for the extra rewatches – this is not the review for you.

Most of the film consists of a young woman going to meet her boyfriend’s parents even though she’s unsure about the relationship. As is typical for Kaufman, strange things happen and get increasingly surreal as it goes; for instance the young woman doesn’t seem to have a name or occupation that sticks for more than ten minutes before being changed without any acknowledgement from the characters. The main story is inexplicably intercut with scenes of a quiet janitor cleaning a high school. By the end of the story, we learn that the janitor is an older version of the boyfriend and the only ‘real’ part of the whole film – the story that takes up most of the movie is in fact him daydreaming about what life would have been like if he had ever actually talked to a woman.

If you’ve ever seen one of these before (Being John Malkovich; Synechdoche, New York; Anomalisa) you’ll understand the kind of pretentious surreal symbolism you’re in for if you take this one on. Has a 4:3 aspect ratio, characters quoting poetry at each other and an extended Rogers & Hammerstein dream ballet. But if you can tolerate all this, it makes more sense than most of his back catalogue, possibly due to being an adaptation. Has a far better treatment of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope than his earlier Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): suicide, relationship trouble, sudden loud bell sounds, the “autistic guys die alone” trope

Promising Young Woman (2020)

Where to find it: NowTV
Length: 110 minutes
Synopsis: A fearless but directionless woman finds a purpose in vengeance
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: writing, aesthetics, soundtrack, Bo Burnham getting to flex some acting muscles, Laverne Cox (with a septum ring)
What I don’t like about it: sometimes cheesy or offensive, very heavy subject matter

Review:
This appears on the face of it to be a #MeToo slasher flick, a genre film cheaply cashing in on the zeitgeist, but it delivered on far more than that. Yes, the expected straw-bros are here with “locker room talk” that is as nauseating as it is stilted but around that is a tale with some remarkably considered and nuanced moments and plot twists that, if you don’t examine this too closely, make it stick with you. The thoughtful soundtrack is a highlight – particularly a slow, creepy string-quartet arrangement of Britney’s Toxic – and while not quite a great film, it is a very promising feature debut from writer-director Emerald Fennell and fascinating company if you can handle it.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): sexual abuse, violence, rape culture

David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020)

Where to find it: may be on NowTV
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Broadway show from the art pop auteur
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: choreography, band, music
What I don’t like about it: singing, time better spent rewatching Stop Making Sense

Review:
This show opens with Byrne alone on stage making observations about neurology, he’s wearing a grey suit with nothing on his feet, he’s soon joined by two backing singers dressed the same way as they all indulge in an interpretive hand-signalling dance. They’re joined by increasing numbers of live musicians/dancers (they do both at once and everyone else in this show is frankly more impressive than Byrne) and the choreography is also regularly reminiscent of Stop Making Sense, feeling like a big budget rehash. The setlist is basically a personally-selected Greatest Hits set, containing too much new stuff for all but the most hardcore Byrne fans but it is very well played and mixed. He was never a good singer but he seems to have gotten flatter and weaker with age. The artistic statements are beyond baffling, ranging from Dadaist poetry to a salute to Colin Kaepernick to just repeating “nyah nyah nyah” into the microphone. Plenty of cheap pops for the liberal Broadway crowd.

If you like spectacle, choreography and autistic art as much as I do, you won’t regret watching it – but then not many people do.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): strobe lighting

Nightmare Alley (2021)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: Two and a half hours
Synopsis: Ambitious drifter climbs out of the carnivals but slips on a Freudian
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: stylish, considered, compelling
What I don’t like about it: long, often unpleasant

Review:
Nightmare Alley (1947) was a great overlooked old noir – I confess I only saw it when I heard this remake was in production – about a drifter who joins the carnival and learns some mentalism tricks, using them to look out for himself and con everyone who cares about him until he meets his match in a wily psychologist. Remarkably dark and gritty for Hays Code Hollywood, it’s easy to see why it appealed to Guillermo Del Toro and this remake proves that the tale is a perfect match for his macabre visual genius. Particularly great are the larger-than-life carnival and Art Deco sets which present an absorbing imaginary world for a non-fantasy story, unusual ground for Del Toro but he packs plenty of fantasy into those visuals all the same.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): abuse, addiction, a man bites the head off a (convincing CGI) chicken, other grim CG violence

Shakes the Clown (1991)

Where to find it: Rent on Amazon
Length: 87 minutes
Synopsis: “The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies”
Recommendation rating: 3/5

What I like about it: the punky DIY vibe, the core analogy, Tom Kenny
What I don’t like about it: it’s very unpleasant and falls just short of being much good

Review:
The bitter tone pervading most of this movie comes from writer-director-star Bobcat Goldthwait’s jaded experiences on the stand-up comedy circuit. In this low-budget debut film, he dials up the absurdism by making them into actual clowns but keeping their cliques and status obsession. They all desperately want to host a TV show and get jealous of one another’s bookings at children’s parties. The core analogy works very well, lampooning comics taking their art too seriously and viewing their audience as children, among other targets, in the premise alone. They drink their days away fighting amongst themselves in a cliquey clown bar, only uniting to ridicule and beat up mimes (here playing the part of prop comics, I assume). The plot does not work as well as the premise, feeling formulaic and obligatory. Bobcat’s lifelong friend Tom Kenny is a highlight as the villain of the piece.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): alcoholism, urine, violence

Turning Red (2022)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: A Chinese-Canadian teenager rebels against her parents as a menarcheal red panda
Recommendation rating: 4/5

What I like about it: good themes, fun setting and cartoon animation
What I don’t like about it: it’s a little forgettable compared to Pixar’s best

Review:
The real Pixar movie of this year, Turning Red is a fun all-ages adventure about puberty and growing up. It’s a very worthy addition to their collection of message movies such as Inside Out and Soul, movies you could watch and discuss with older children to introduce them to certain ideas and themes. I appreciate that this film comes the closest I’ve ever seen in children’s media to endorsing rebellion against parental authority, it’s pretty great to see that barrier being broken down.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): menstruation, friend drama, parental conflict, megalophobia

Lightyear (2022)

Where to find it: Disney+
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Buzz attempts heroics for an hour and a half
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: occasionally looks pretty, Sox
What I don’t like about it: miserably pointless

Review:
Ranking at the bottom of the Pixar canon alongside Cars 2 and Toy Story 4, this misadventure begins with the following mind-boggling title card then dives in media res before we have a chance to ask questions: “In 1995, Andy received a Buzz Lightyear toy. It was from his favourite movie. This is that movie.” What follows is an almost complete mess of plot holes and questionable decisions soaked in a dusty atmosphere reminiscent of The Martian (2015), the Pixar team are wasted here and don’t seem to have connected with or taken the time over the material. Sox will move plenty of merchandise, I’m sure.

Content notes (may contain spoilers):

Vicious Fun (2020)

Where to find it: Amazon Prime
Length: 100 minutes
Synopsis: Slasher comedy
Recommendation rating: 2/5

What I like about it: competently made on a low budget, hammy acting
What I don’t like about it: grim, formulaic comedy

Review:
This film finds a horror movie fanatic stumbling upon a support group for serial killers and then having to evade them all movie. It was moderately preferable to sitting in silence.

Content notes (may contain spoilers): murder, vomit, gore