2021 Movie Log: January

Three Colours: Red – Krzysztof Kieślowski (1994)

A quick note as I embark upon the third year of this movie log: For the foreseeable future, I am going to refrain from grading films. I’ve developed the bad habit of thinking about how I’ll grade a movie as I’m watching it. I would like to get back to being as present as possible while viewing something. I’ve also realized that grading things in the moment (or at all) is hard! There are plenty of films that I think are perfectly executed, give a great grade too, and then discover they don’t stick with me. On the other hand, there are plenty of films that are messy and imperfect that I find myself thinking about weeks or months later. So for now I’ll just give my thoughts. It should still be clear whether or not I’m responding positively to a film. Just maybe not whether I think it’s a B or A-.  

2nd: Three Colours: Blue – Krzysztof Kieślowski (1993)
I think it’s fitting that to break-in my new Blu-Ray Player (thanks Mom and Dad!) we chose Blue. I have to say that this film was pretty different from what I was anticipating. Given the plot (a woman dealing with the untimely death of her husband and child) and its critical reputation, I expected this to be a heavy, weighty, emotional film. Perhaps something along the lines of Manchester by the Sea. But I have to say that I wasn’t very moved (or at least upset) by this movie. I liked it quite a bit but I found myself more mesmerized than anything. This film and Juliette Binoche are hypnotic, almost numbing. I wonder if the film is meant to mirror her character’s own grieving process? It’s strange and removed, but always compelling. I would be inclined to call the film messy, but that would feel like an insult to Kieślowski’s masterful direction. This film looks and sounds incredible. Its just the story that’s loose, surprising, and sprawling. I’m excited to see how this could possibly factor into a trilogy. Stay tuned. 
Grade: A-

3rd: Three Colours: White – Krzysztof Kieślowski (1993)
Man, I do not know what to make of Kieślowski or this film series. I’m kind of shocked at the popularity and critical reputation this trilogy has. To be clear, I think it deserves it. These films are wonderful. But they are also strange, removed, and subversive. Blue was a tragedy that was beautiful, but as I noted, didn’t necessarily move or devastate me. White seems to be the comedic version of this. There are some incredible jokes and gags, and yet I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it a comedy. There were only a handful of times in which I actually laughed. Moreover, these all occurred at brutal moments for its characters: Karol stuffing himself in a suitcase, the fake killing of his friend, and Karol’s own faked death. Something that really interests me, but I am just scratching the surface at, is the political representation in this film. Karol is a stand-in for Poland, Dominique for France. What Kieślowski is trying to say about this relationship…I’m not sure. I just don’t have that background knowledge. I’d love to revisit this film with that context though! Honestly, I’d like to revisit this film anyway. It was a good time. 
Grade: B+

4th: Old Boyfriends – Joan Tewkesbury (1979)
There are a couple of unbelievable sequences and shots in Old Boyfriends. Particularly the John Belushi sequence as well as the bathtub scene at the end of the 2nd act. The downside is that the rest of the film is too slow, meandering, and messy to really come together. That should feel like a poor critique of a Joan Tewksbury movie. She wrote Nashville, a film that is not only slow and meandering, but also one of the greatest movies ever made precisely for those reasons. But something about this movie just doesn’t take off. As a viewer, you don’t feel rewarded by the looseness or sprawl. Instead, it makes the characters, and in particular Dianne, feel unexplored.  As opposed to Nashville, the ending here doesn’t feel momentous. It just feels like a place to stop. 
Grade: C-

7th: Three Colours: Red – Krzysztof Kieślowski (1994)
My immediate reaction is that Red is my favorite of the trilogy. I liked them all, but I thought this film was especially excellent. My view of it being the best could easily change. It certainly has a lot going for it from a first-reaction standpoint. It wraps up and ties this trilogy together brilliantly. I’m sure some of my affection for it is precisely because of how well it pays off on promises made in the other two films. It is also the least subversive of the films. It’s the one in which Kieślowski is most willing to solicit emotion from the audience. It’s pleasant and moving in ways that aren’t even attempted in the first two films. I suppose whether it’s my favorite or my least-favorite of the trilogy doesn’t matter all that much. Each of these films is brilliant. The series is a real achievement. Moreover, it’s a type of film and film-series that I’ve never seen before. These films are masterful and meticulously detailed (Red in particular mirrors events in its characters lives in extraordinary fashion) and yet almost impossible to pin down. I’m glad I took a leap in buying this trilogy. I know that I’ll revisit it often. 
Grade: A

9th: Tenet – Christopher Nolan (2020)
God I wish this movie were simpler. It’s hard to do anything with it. I want to pan it because it’s incoherent and unentertaining. But I also think that’d be unfair. In a lot of ways Tenet reminds me of Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, a film to which I didn’t really respond but still gave the benefit of the doubt because it was Villeneuve. What I’m trying to say, is how would I feel about this movie if it weren’t made by Christopher Nolan (and I like a lot of his movies already, I just think they tend to be illogical)? But taking Nolan out of it, Tenet is strange, ambitious, and visually stunning. It’s also a movie that you really have to work at. Those are all features I generally like. But because it’s Nolan, I’m questioning whether there really is any deeper meaning here. If I watched this movie 5 times, would I discover it as a masterpiece? It’s a legitimate question. The problem with this film though is that it’s so stilted, I can’t imagine watching it even one more time. 
Grade: C-

10th: The Peanut Butter Falcon – Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz (2019)
What a beautiful film. It’s disarming, charming, surprising, and really just a pleasant watch. I loved the portrayal of Zak. I think anyone who watches it would have to agree that this is the film’s central achievement. I haven’t seen anything quite like it. The opening with him breaking out of the retirement home is a particularly inspired moment of characterization. I thought the casting around Zak was excellent as well. Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson are just really, really good. They’re able to sell a level of warmth and earnestness that this movie doesn’t work without. If there’s a critique, it’s that the movie feels a bit thin at times. It only runs at about 90 minutes and there are still at least three montage sequences that fill significant chunks of time. It’s not the worst problem, but I found myself wishing for just a little more to it – whether that would be another storyline, character, or what, I’m not sure. 
Grade: B
Peanut Butter Falcon, The – Tyler Nilson, Michael Schwartz (2019)

11th: Fighting with My Family – Stephen Merchant (2019)
While I have never cared about wrestling, I am a sucker for sports movies. Luckily for me, Fighting with My Family leans heavily into that formula. It’s a decision that I think works mostly for the better, though there are some weak spots. Let’s start with the good. Florence Pugh is incredible. I would watch her in anything. I do think it’s laughable that a plot point in this movie is that her character is supposedly unattractive. Besides that, the movie does a great job of letting her shine. Really, I think the entire cast is good. They’re funny, charming, eccentric. It’s easy to understand and root for them. Broadly, the movie is well-written and well-directed. The beats all work. There aren’t any major holes. Even though it can feel a bit generic, it does everything at such a high level that I don’t really mind. Now for the bad. This movie feels like propaganda for the WWE at times. They are really laying it on pretty thick in some scenes. Maybe it wouldn’t be such an issue for me if this movie wasn’t produced by the WWE, but alas it is. Likewise, I think the movie is just missing an ounce of surprise or subversion to really shine. But for what it is, it’s pretty good and that’s coming from someone who still couldn’t give a shit about wrestling. 
Grade: B-
Fighting with My Family – Stephen Merchant (2019)

12th: Variety Lights – Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada (1950)
I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this. The only other Fellini films I’ve seen are 8 1/2 and La Strada. As it turns out, Variety Lights feels like a halfway point between them. To be honest, I think I enjoyed it even more than those better-known Fellini works. The spirit here is freer and looser. It might not have as profound things to say as La Strada and while certainly ambitious, it doesn’t carry nearly the same scope as 8 1/2. But Fellini still does a remarkable job of expressing and capturing the joy of performance in this film (even if all the characters in this film are poor and miserable). It reminded me of some classic Hollywood movies. I don’t think, for instance, it’d be crazy to watch this as a double feature with Singin’ in the Rain. I guess what I’m trying to say is that to me, this was almost the perfect balance between being an art film and being a commercial entertainment. What a way to start my Fellini journey!
Grade: B

14th: The White Sheik – Federico Fellini (1952)
Okay, so in some ways this feels more like Fellini’s debut than Variety Lights. Not that Variety Lights was lacking for anything. In fact, I think the opposite is true. It was polished and executed in a way that few debuts ever are. Which makes sense considering Fellini was a co-director on it. And from what I’ve read, it sounds like the experience was almost an apprenticeship for Fellini. The White Sheik, by contrast, is smaller, a little messier, and certainly not as polished as Variety Lights. It has more of the typical scrappy energy of a great debut. In fact, at times Fellini’s instincts for comedy and spectacle almost overwhelm the constraints of the film. That sounds like a negative but it’s something I really admire. This film is bursting with energy. The amount of life here is actually kind of amazing given the extremely limited scope of the film. The story and drama of The White Sheik is exceedingly simple. It would probably be a sitcom episode in today’s world. We have two stories. One follows Wanda as she attempts to make a quick and secret sojourn to meet the White Sheik, a hero from a series of romance novels. In this attempt, she gets caught up in the excitement and romance and is taken away from the city. Meanwhile, we follow her new husband, Ivan, as he covers for her mysterious absence with his family and freaks out internally over her disappearance. Honestly, I kind of can’t believe how well this story works as a feature film. It’s a reminder that if you have enough going for you in every other aspect of the film (the performances, the comedy, the spectacle) you can get by with a pretty simple story. Maybe it even works better that way.
Grade: B+

16th: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – Stanley Kubrick (1964)
A couple of years ago I went to see Barry Lyndon in theaters for the specific purpose of watching the film with as few distractions as possible. Although it has the legacy of a masterpiece, it also has a reputation for being slow, methodical, and precise. I feared that if I were to watch it at home, I would find myself reaching for my phone by hour two. This was not a concern watching Dr. Strangelove. While it has the same director and critical reputation, it couldn’t function any more differently as a viewing experience. Strangelove is fast, loose, and incredibly funny. It seemed to me that Kubrick paces it intentionally this way to mirror the mania happening in the script. In one instance, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake attempts a call to the president in order to provide the code that will avoid the missile attack and nuclear annihilation. It’d be the climax of any other film. The next cut reveals that both the call and the code were successful. We don’t even see it. The main tension, for now, was resolved entirely off screen. Perhaps the most striking part of Strangelove is Kubrick’s focus on the actors. The performances are absurd and extremely showy. They’re at the center of this movie even more than Kubrick’s direction or script – something that, as far as I can tell, doesn’t happen anywhere else in his filmography. 
Grade: B+

16th: I Vitelloni – Federico Fellini (1953)
This is the first Fellini film I’ve watched without a prominent comedic element. Ostensibly, there are the same ingredients here for humor as in any of his other films. In fact, most of Fellini’s other films seem to be dramas or tragedies that take a comedic approach. I Vitelloni is the opposite. The setup is the most frivolous of any of his movies I’ve seen so far (perhaps besides The White Sheik). The film follows a group of five friends, the sons of middle-class parents in a small town, who are reluctant or incapable of giving up their juvenile inclinations for real adulthood. There are the same antics and drunken inclinations as in any other Fellini film, but here it’s portrayed entirely with melancholy. We see the toll these shenanigans take on friends and family members. We see the toll it takes on themselves. As opposed to the drunken stupor, we see the hangover. It makes the film the least enjoyable in the moment, but one that has profound and lasting moments. The best of which is the ending in which one of the boys does leave town while Fellini cuts between the lives of his friends who are staying behind. 
Grade: B

17th: Il Bidone – Federico Fellini (1955)
The first Fellini film to fall a bit flat for me. There’s still plenty to admire. In general, I liked the idea and themes Fellini is trying to capture. It feels like an extension of I Vitelloni or even an anticipation of what a show like The Sopranos would try to do. There are a few amazing sequences. The New Year’s party is thrilling. I also loved the movie theater scene in which Augusto’s daughter watches as he’s arrested. Unfortunately, there are just too many lulls between these moments for the film to really work. Fellini is trying to move back and forth between the highs of these cons and the lows of their aftermath. But because the cons usually target poor peasants, these moments feel like lows too. The film just seems to lack the same spark that makes Fellini’s great films really stand out. 
Grade: C

18th: La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini (1960)
Remember when I was remarking on how amazing The White Sheik was for its simplicity? It’s amazing to watch Fellini’s transformation as a director by La Dolce Vita. By contrast to his earlier work, this film is extravagant, winding, and incredibly nuanced in structure. The overall story is somewhat simple. We watch Marcello’s descent into “the sweet life” over the course of a week in Rome. But even that is complicated by Fellini’s telling of it. Fellini breaks up the film into grand episodes that are really only linked by Marcello’s presence in them. It’s almost jarring at first as you wait for characters to return to the narrative. Moreover, the film is so broad, it’s hard not to get just lost in these sequences as they’re occurring. How can you do anything but watch during the Baths of Caracalla or Trevi Fountain scenes? There are themes and connections that are readily apparent. I particularly love the scene in which Marcello’s father desperately tries to escape Rome and the lifestyle he so easily fell back into (even if just for a night). But this strikes me as a film that rightfully rewards the effort you put into it.
Grade: B+

21st: Nights of Cabiria – Federico Fellini (1957)
This film couldn’t have come at a better time for me. So far I have really enjoyed all of Fellini’s films. But in the last few I watched, I felt myself missing a certain element. While still ranging from good to excellent, I Vitelloni, Il Bidone, and La Dolce Vita are all much more serious and weightier than Fellini’s first films. There is still fun and incredible spectacle in them, but the general feeling they leave you with is largely melancholic. I realize this is all a strange prelude for Nights of Cabiria, a film that plays out like a Greek tragedy. But with the exception of La Strada (another tragedy) I can’t think of a film that bursts with so much life. For as much as I have been enjoying Fellini, I wonder if I am even more drawn to Masina. Her performance here, like in La Strada, is just incredible. There isn’t a dull moment in the film precisely because she is present for all of them. Honestly, I feel like I would need to watch the film again to really analyze Fellini’s own work in it. 
Grade: A

23rd: The Town – Ben Affleck (2010)
It’s hard for me to really evaluate this film. On one hand, it’s incredibly entertaining. There are three heists in the film that are unbelievably well-done. And each one gets better and better as the movie goes on. The Fenway Park scene is as good as action filmmaking gets. It feels like a Heat homage in the best way possible. Moreover, this movie is over 2 hours long and I would have guessed it was 90 minutes. It flies by. I also think the film and the script do some really smart things on a general / big picture level. The “sunny days” line is pretty on the nose when you first hear it, but I like the way the film ties that phrase into its climax. Same goes for Jon Hamm’s FBI agent repeating the line about Claire needing to lawyer up. On the other hand, there are lines, moments, shots, and plot points that are just needlessly clunky. The movie is working fast to get everything done. And I get that when there are three heists in the film, it’s hard to do a lot of character development. Still, so much of the Ben Affleck – Rebecca Hall relationship, on which the plot hinges, is really heavy-handed. The film gets lucky in that Affleck and Hall have the charisma to pull it off, but it doesn’t make these moments seamless either. The same thing applies to the subplot around Affleck’s character’s mother. It’s forced and obvious. It makes you want to groan when the florist suddenly goes on his evil villain soliloquy about it. Overall, there is more than enough here to make the movie work. I just wonder how much better this film could have been if a few pieces were cleaned up. 
Grade: B

24th: Kicking and Screaming – Noah Baumbach (1995)
This movie was so much funnier than I remembered it being. Perhaps I was a little too close to the subject matter the first time I watched it. To be fair, I think there are many aspects of this film that could rub someone the wrong way. In other words, it doesn’t surprise me that this has mixed reviews. The characters are all truly unlikable. I also think some of Baumbach’s directing feels like a student or first film. For instance, I really struggle with the opening reception scene in which we meet everybody. It’s just flat, especially compared with the rest of the movie. And while I think this is Baumbach’s funniest film, the jokes are fairly inconsistent. Set-ups like the book club or the video store really work. Other jokes, like the repeated “did you beat off today?” feel like placeholders for something better. Overall though, I liked this much more than I remembered. While I wouldn’t even say it’s a great film, it’s the type of movie that I’d really want to make if I were a director. The themes, jokes, and ideas that Baumbach does capture are universal for a certain group of people. It’s also interesting watching this film as a piece of Baumbach’s career. To my knowledge (I haven’t seen Mr. Jealousy), he doesn’t really make another movie like it.
Grade: B+

25th: Memories of Murder – Bong Joon-ho (2003)
Man, what a movie! I don’t even know where to start. One thing that I’ve noticed about Bong Joon-ho’s films is that they’re really idiosyncratic, even when they operate within a genre. That’s a tough thing to do. As in The Host, there are moments, sequences, and decisions in Memories of Murder that are so weird and unexpected. The general portrayal of the detectives, for instance, is pretty striking for a crime film. Not the fact that these characters are bad or dirty – that’s pretty standard – but the level to which they are incompetent really surprises me. Especially considering this is based on true events! The same goes for some of the storylines. I actually can’t believe one of the cops loses his legs to tetanus. It’s so fucking weird. But these types of decisions are refreshing to see in a movie this well-made. Even though this film is horrifying at times, it’s also really fun. When I think of the very best movies in this genre, Silence of the Lambs or Zodiac, that’s what they’re able to do. I really can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this movie. It’s pretty easily my 2nd favorite Bong Joon-ho film. It’s also pretty easily in that pantheon of great crime / serial killer movies. 
Grade: A-

28th: Jules and Jim – François Truffaut (1962)
This is going to be more a collection of my thoughts than a review. I did quite like this movie. It’s endearing, energetic, compelling, and perplexing. But it’s hard for me to know what to really make of it without knowing much about the French New Wave.  To date, the only other films from this movement I’ve seen are Godard’s Breathless and Truffaut’s The 400 Blows. From a story perspective, Jules and Jim is really strange. There’s a first section in which Jules and Jim have an idyllic and inseparable friendship. They add Catherine to the group and both fall in love with her. Jules proposes to Catherine, Jim doesn’t interfere, and they get married. Then there’s a montage of the Great War in which Jules and Jim fight on opposite sides. We then get a final section in which Jules, Jim, and Catherine reunite. This time Jim does intervene. With encouragement from Jules (who fears he’ll lose Catherine altogether otherwise), Jim begins an affair with Catherine. However, this only adds to the confusion of the situation. It finally appears to Jules and Jim, that no man can really satisfy Catherine permanently. Jim returns off and on to his fiancé in Paris (who more or less has Jules’ approach to relationships). The film ends as the three of them reunite and Catherine kills Jim and herself.

One thing I struggle to know is how unlikable these characters are supposed to be? The film seems intentionally designed to provoke audiences by its love triangle. Still, Catherine seems especially unlikable compared with the two male leads. And after all, this film is called Jules and Jim not Jules, Jim, and Catherine. To some extent, the film reminds me of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. But I think that novel is even more sympathetic to Brett than this film is to Catherine. It’s something I’d love to read more about, especially since Breathless was also pretty harsh toward its characters. The other main piece I come back to is the war. Is this film supposed to be a commentary or an illumination on it? Truffaut links the war directly to Jules and Catherine’s marriage. In either case, things go south for our characters right at this point. Is Truffaut trying to make a point about what can’t be reclaimed after war, marriage, or both? Again, I suppose I’ll have to do some digging to find out. Oh! One final point. Boy, does this feel like the prototype for every Wes Anderson film.
Grade: A-

30th: 8 1/2 – Federico Fellini (1963)
I liked 8 1/2 the first time I saw it, but I spent most of the film almost trying to figure it out. All I really knew about it was that it’s considered one of the greatest films of all time. Typically, films in that category tend to be really weighty and serious. Especially, if they’re films from 50+ years ago. 8 1/2 is obviously not that. The skeleton key for me to understanding the film the first time was that while there is a story and plot, they’re secondary. The movie doesn’t happen because it’s following these beats. The plot almost occurs because it’s following the events of the movie. What’s more, these events aren’t all happening in “reality.” The film weaves in and out of reality, dreams, and memories. What you ultimately get is a composite of one man’s interior life as he struggles to make a movie (a movie that seems like it will more or less become the very movie we’re watching). Amazing! Watching this film a second time was freeing. I felt like I could sit back and just let it wash over me. I wasn’t working to understand it anymore, I was just enjoying it. And it’s immensely enjoyable. My favorite thing about 8 1/2 is that while it has all the hallmarks of a classic, art-house film (innovation, lasting images, complexity) it’s also terrifically funny. I keep thinking about the scene in which Guido, his wife, and his sister-in-law are out for coffee and his mistress shows up so he hides behind his newspaper. It feels like something from a Charlie Chaplin film or Seinfeld. Re-watching the film, I don’t think 8 1/2 is just the best Fellini film, I think it’s also pretty easily my favorite. 
Grade: A

30th: Some Kind of Heaven – Lance Oppenheim (2020)
Quite the double feature with 8 1/2! In one, you get one man’s fantasy of life. In the other, you get the reality that is the collective fantasy of The Villages, FL. I’m fascinated by Oppenheim’s process making this film. So much of it almost felt too good to be true. There are moments with his characters that feel like they’d have to have been staged. One that comes to mind is as Barbara meets a golf cart salesman and proceeds to go on a date with him. I don’t think a moment like this was artificially created or anything, I just am curious as to how Oppenheim developed or lucked into capturing it. Typically, I like the approach Oppenheim uses here – focusing on characters as opposed to an overarching portrait of this place. I have to say though, I do wish there were 10% more exposition about The Villages. I’d love to know more about the financial aspect behind living in this community, its founding, and any politics that are occurring. Alas, that’s not really the purpose of this film and that’s okay. The moments we get with some of the characters are certainly worth this tradeoff.
Grade: B-

31st: The Little Things – John Lee Hancock (2021)
My first takeaway after seeing The Little Things is that I wish there were more movies like it. Which may be a bit surprising, considering I don’t think the movie is all that great. But the film falls into a genre and type of filmmaking-style that doesn’t seem to really exist anymore. It’s a crime thriller centering on the dynamic performances of “movie stars” (Denzel is obviously a movie star, I’m not sure about Rami Malek or Jared Leto). It’s the formula that worked for Silence of the Lambs or Se7en. Which could be a great thing. This movie is fun and entertaining in a way that few movies are anymore. The major issue, is that this film is nowhere near as good as those other movies. I think there are two main issues that the film can’t overcome. One, the writing is just awful in some places. It’s not even the dialogue or the police lingo either (which you would think would be the hard part) it’s just the actual logic of the script. For instance, Ronda disappears late at night and by the next morning at 8am there are missing posters of her at the diner (in 1990 no less)? Or when Baxter and Deacon aim to investigate Sparma’s apartment they call to arrange a fake meeting with him? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to do what they do in the next scene – wait for him to leave on his own? Or that there’s no follow-up or concern from the police department that their head investigator is spending all of his time with a disgraced former officer investigating an already cleared suspect? It’s amazing to me that you can get a movie with Denzel freaking Washington that still has holes this big. The second issue is that Rami Malek is miscast. I honestly don’t know if he’s a good actor or not (I tend to like him) but he is not the person for this role. You just never believe that he’s a hot-shot lead investigator (especially next to Denzel). So there it is. While I actually mostly enjoyed the movie, I really can’t help but wish it were better.
Grade: C