2019 Movie Log: July

6th: Midsommar – Ari Aster (2019)
Watched at Regal City with Wills and Gioia. An incredible movie. I have never seen anything like it. The only thing that would come close is Aster’s other film Hereditary. He is just a master at so many aspects of storytelling. For example, he uses this brilliant misdirection at the very start of the film. He spells out exactly what is going to happen to this family, and yet when you see it it’s still shocking. It binds you completely to Dani’s pain. Likewise, there’s an incredible scene about 35 minutes into the film. Two of the characters die in stunning fashion. Yet, it’s all spelled out clearly. It’s always exactly what’s going to happen. But like the group of Americans watching, you just keep going along, oblivious to it all until it hits. And like the scene earlier, you feel the same residual effects as the characters. I felt numb for 25 minutes after it. The film is so brilliantly conceived and thought out. The main group of characters is perfect. From the beginning of the film they each act in the same selfish way. It’s just masked by the traumatic murder/suicide at the start. You’re unaware if they’re acting strangely because of the situation, or because they’re American assholes. This is the type of movie where even writing all of this, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface. The themes and message of the film are so complex and fascinating. And every moment in the movie reflects it. All the while it’s so entertaining, funny, and hypnotizing. It is by far the best movie I’ve seen this year.
Grade: A
Midsommar – Ari Aster (2019)

7th: Girlfriends – Claudia Weill (1978)
Watched at home by myself. It’s a beautiful story. It is a prototype of so many stories I love from Girls to Frances Ha. Yet, it doesn’t feel rudimentary or underdeveloped. Rather, it feels essential and true. It’s the type of movie that once you see it, you feel like you’ve always known or had seen it before. I found Suzie to be so charming. I was so connected to her story even though her life has little resemblance to my own. Overall, it was just a beautiful character study.
Grade: A-
Girlfriends – Claudia Weill (1978)

15th: Nashedonia – Will Berry (2017)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. This one was pretty incredible. Felt the most in line with the tone we went for in Friendpage, but done much tighter. The short is essentially one joke that’s just perfectly told.

15th: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating – Elisabeth Tova Bailey (2019)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. A really beautiful short. A couple of components stood out to me. First, is just the writing/narration which is so thoughtful and poetic. It made a lot of sense to learn that this had developed from an essay and then a memoir. Second, was the photography of the snails which was amazing to watch.

15th: Three / Four – Gordon LePage (2019)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. A delightfully funny stop motion short. The balance between the animation and the story is really perfect. It’s bursting at the seams with energy. It’s something I guess that would come from how precise the filmmaking has to be. It really reminded me how you much life there is in exploring the positive nature of a character as opposed to something more cynical.

15th: The Grey Zone – Brian Gersten (2018)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. A really interesting documentary. It was well made too. Out of the shorts I saw, this seems like the most likely to develop into a feature. The documentary did a great job at presenting so many angles to this one issue. I hope that he does do something else with it.

15th: Night of the Fluffet – Raymond Wallace (2018)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. This was probably the most visually polished film out of everything in the program. I loved the referential tone this short had. And as silly as the concept was, the special effects behind the fluffet looked incredible. I don’t think the short could have worked if it didn’t look this good.

15th: About John – Lauren Shaw (2019)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program. Maybe the most moving film I saw during the festival. I loved the approach to the documentary. John’s poetry was so beautiful. I think it captured him more than a traditional interview-style documentary could have. The filmmaking was really nicely done. You could tell there was a lot of affection and reverence for John in it.

15th: Deciduous Impotence – Martha Campbell (2018)
Part of the MIFF – Maine Shorts program though it definitely should have been in the Uncommon Visions section. A really cool concept for an experimental film. The visuals were arresting and the idea of the person in the costume added some levity to it.

16th: Midnight Family – Luke Lorentzen (2019)
A feature that was shown at MIFF. It’s one of the best family films I’ve ever seen. Without any exposition, I felt that I knew everyone’s role and personality in the family. Which was a great approach to take, given the subject of the documentary. Going into the film, I knew so little about EMT’s in America, let alone their privatized nature in Mexico’s health care system. The family provided such a good window into this world. By being so connected to the characters (or subjects as it is technically a documentary), you could really explore how it felt to operate within this system. It’s a tactic I had never considered in a documentary, and it proved so effective here. I was also struck by so many of the visuals. It was hard to remember at times that this was a documentary. Totally blown away by this one.
Grade: A

16th: Hers is a Lush Situation – Samuel Valenti (2018)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. This was such a cool, sleek film. As soon as Samuel mentioned Chungking Express in the Q&A it really clicked for me. It totally operated in that style. There was certainly a story and an arc to hold on to, but this one was centered on feeling more than anything else.

16th: The Dressing – Patrick Moser (2019)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. I was really into this one. It follows a couple of cardboard monsters with some really trippy sound effects. Although there wasn’t any dialogue, I felt latched onto a story. More than anything, I loved the look of it. The cardboard pieces were so funny and evocative. I was pretty blown away.

16th: Alma Bandita – Marco Antonio Pereira (2019)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. This one came from Brazil which was so cool. The storytelling felt in line with Hers is a Lush Situation. There were characters and a story but its telling was fragmented enough to place emotion over logic.

16th: The Sacred Union – Tom Snelgrove (2018)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. This one was from Mongolia. Probably the most experimental thing I saw (if you can even qualify something like that). This one was all about the vibe. I think to attach any type of logic to it in the moment is impossible. It requires you to give yourself over to it.

16th: Don’t Save – Davey Rocco (2018)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. This one was simple. Just 1 minute of deleting photos. I loved it.

16th: Eidolon – Louise Milne (2018)
Part of the MIFF Uncommon Visions program. Another international one too! This one coming from the UK. I was really into this one. It was a bunch of really cool Super 8 footage soundtracked by repeated classical texts. I think of all the shorts, this one seemed the most self-assured, which is wild considering it’s essentially found footage. But the images chosen, along with the readings were so confident in tone.

16th: His Master’s Voice – György Pálfi (2018)
A feature shown at MIFF. It is a Hungarian / Canadian co-production. It is also maybe the best film I’ve seen all year. The film was so unique, I felt completely immersed in it. There was never any part where an actor, a reference, or a song even took me out of the movie. In some ways, the characters in the film felt more “real” to me than the ones in Midnight Family. Which I think is a testament to what both films were working to accomplish. The film did such a smart job of foregrounding all of its characters. It allowed for all of the really heavy Sci-fi and fantastical moments to work. I could watch this film ten more times and come up with new interpretations. I hope I get the chance to watch it again.
Grade: B+ / A-

19th: Moneyball – Bennett Miller (2011)
Watched at Gioia’s. It’s really surprising. It’s a sports movie that’s completely understated. Which so perfectly fits and encapsulates the message of the movie: substance over flash, deeper meanings, etc. I can’t think of another sports movie that’s so muted. Maybe there are elements of that in Bull Durham or Everybody Wants Some!!. It’s hard for me to exactly pinpoint where the magic is coming from in Moneyball. Right now, I’ve landed on Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill’s characters. They’re both so likable, and maybe most importantly, right. I think their belief in this system is what you latch on to as an audience. Aside from all of this, I should mention that the movie is really fun. Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill’s dynamic is charming and even quite funny at times. The baseball scenes look great. I think it’s in the running for one of my favorite movies from the decade.
Grade: A
Moneyball – Bennett Miller (2011)

20th: A Quiet Place – John Krasinski (2018)
Watched at home with Gioia. I am in on this movie. I do think there are holes with the logic. Why not find a soundproof studio? Why not live near a waterfall if that masks sounds? If you can move past those questions, the plot of the film is good. I love the dynamic with the family. That the daughter is deaf makes a whole lot of sense. The fact that her implant pays off at the end of the film is brilliant. I like the pressure of trying to give birth silently and how to maneuver around that. I also was a fan of the cuts between the family at different times. The lighting system and the fireworks bit were great. There are a hundred things I could nitpick, but the movie probably doesn’t work if it tries to answer them.
Grade: B-
A Quiet Place – John Krasinski (2018)

21st: Bottle Rocket – Wes Anderson (1996)
Watched at home with Gioia. It’s so smart. Much more so than I remember. The script is really just airtight. Especially given that’s it’s centered around Dignan who is not the most logical agent.  More than anything, I love the theme of the film. Enthusiasm vs. cynicism feels more timely than ever. I think it really makes the movie in a lot of ways. I don’t know if you can buy into any of the plot if you don’t buy into Dignan and this idea. I love it. It may be my favorite first film by any director.
Grade: A

21st: Rupture (short) -Pierre Etaix and Jean-Claude Carrière (1961)
Wills showed me this short! It’s insane how much milage the film gets out of a simple task. Just one gag after another and they all mostly work.

21st: Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday – Jacques Tati (1953)
Watched at home. It’s so delightful. There’s no plot. It’s just a group of French vacationers and Mr. Hulot. The gags are so funny. Even funnier than I expected. My favorites were Hulot climbing up the stairs with the bag and the fox carpet getting stuck on his boot. What I am so surprised by is how much heart the film has. It’s really a contemplation on human existence. Sorry if that sounds too college freshman-y. But the film really is examining how attached to work and structure society is, even at this time. So much so, that only Hulot and a few others really appreciate being on vacation. And as weighty as all that sounds, it’s never preachy or judgemental. It’s really all fun and the butt of the joke is almost always Hulot. I don’t know how to really contextualize it, but it felt more akin to a novel or a play as opposed to a movie. I’m pretty blown away.

28th: Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino (2019)
It’s so weird processing a Tarantino movie in real-time. This is the third one (Django, Hateful Eight) where I had been anticipating the movie forever, and while watching the movie, already thinking about how it fits into Tarantino’s filmography. Is it living up to the hype? How does it fit into his world? There are directors I like more than Tarantino but there aren’t any other directors whose work I feel as compelled to see as soon as possible.

I loved watching it. I was also hyper-aware that so much of it stemmed from factors outside the actual story of the movie. I got so much mileage just out of the actors in this movie. And that ranged from seeing DiCaprio and Pitt together down to seeing Timothy Olyphant, Lena Dunham, Maya Hawke, Al Pacino, and Dakota Fanning show up.

Similarly, I loved all of the driving and the music that went with it. The first driving scene where the tunes changed every street was wild. I half expected him to throw in a Beatles song just to show off how much money he could put into it. It’s a long way from him blowing his entire music budget just to get “Stuck in the Middle With You” into Reservoir Dogs.

Again, these are all just factors that operate outside the script and the story. As much as I loved it, I was constantly wondering if anyone that’s not a Tarantino fan would be into it. I realize most everyone likes cars, music, and movie stars. But I’m curious if it bothered anyone how much Tarantino really shows off in this movie?

Tarantino is hyper-aware that this is a Tarantino movie. Going into this film I expected that it would fall in line with Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained. A wishful, violent, profane, re-write of history. But as the movie rolled along I completely moved away from this expectation. I was so delighted by how muted, sentimental, and heartfelt this movie felt compared to so much of his work. It’s probably the warmest movie he’s ever made (besides Jackie Brown?) By the time the Manson family shows up, I really thought that they were going to go through with the murder. And I thought it would finish on a sad, sentimental note about not being able to change this tragic event.

But alas, I’m probably just a fool. I talked to one of my coworkers about the ending and he said: “Of course it was going to end like that, it’s a Tarantino movie.” But I truly believed it wouldn’t. Which made the ending pretty incredible (at least for me)!

I probably should have seen it coming but I was genuinely surprised. Stunned even. I feel like Tarantino essentially lulled me into thinking this was the movie that would be different in his filmography. And when it ended in the most Tarantino-esque manner possible, I was somehow blown (and flame-thrown) away.
Grade: A

30th: The Love Witch – Anna Biller (2016)
Watched at home with Gioia. I’m not quite sure what to make of the movie. First off, it’s definitely an homage, parody, and tribute to a certain type of 60s film. The problem with that, for me, is that I haven’t seen a ton these films. In essence, I’m not fluent with the language of the movie. Still, I loved the look of the film. The shots, wardrobes, and color were really striking. I did find the story hard to watch. This isn’t a straightforward movie. The dialogue is intentionally awkward and clunky. It’s playing off a style of film to make a contemporary point. The problem is that it can feel like sitting through a pretty bad movie to be delivered a message. I tend to not love irony in films most of the time anyway. So I think this is a movie I like in theory much more than in reality. I thought the metaphors and message of the movie were really thoughtful and poignant. Again, I just didn’t really enjoy watching the vehicle delivering the message.
Grade: C