2024 Movie Log: June

4th: Hitman – Richard Linklater (2024)
We’re so back. I have genuinely liked all of Linklater’s endeavors since Bad News Bears & Fast Food Nation (yes, even you, Where’d You Go, Bernadette) but this is undeniably his best film in a while (since Everybody Wants Some!!).

As a plot-heavy, broadly appealing comedy, I imagine the litmus test for this one will be School of Rock, which I think is totally apt. Although we’ll never know because of Netflix, I anticipate this will also do the best business since that movie.

What I’ve found most endearing about Hit Man is that while broad appeal and financial success can often be misconstrued as negatives for an “indie” filmmaker, I genuinely find no point of compromise in Linklater’s direction here (as there wasn’t in School of Rock). 

While there may be plot, there’s still all the trademarks of his usual style. The film is an amazing vehicle for its actors, the story is rooted first and foremost in character, and even as a straight comedy, it still retains his singular shortstop/poet, philosopher/jock tone of voice.

Linklater was my gateway drug to falling in love with movies and I just could not be more thankful he keeps turning out films with the ability to surprise and subvert expectations. Especially excited for him to pivot into his next two projects about The French New Wave and the Transcendentalists.
Grade: B+

7th: One Sings, The Other Doesn’t – Agnès Varda (1977)
A film only Agnès Varda could make work. In any other hands, the film is immediately sunk by the weight of its idealism. And to be clear, at just about every corner I was waiting for this to cross that threshold from being a film with ideas to being a manifesto disguised as a piece of art. But across the film, Varda’s singular charm and experience blending styles win out and for that she’s able to convey her message all the more meaningfully.
Grade: B+

8th: Vagabond – Agnès Varda (1985)
Along with Le Bonheur, this is Varda at her most scathing. In fact, Vagabond is perhaps all the more remarkable for not being shrouded in the warmth and color of the false eden portrayed through the first two acts of the former film. Instead, Vagabond is a desolate wasteland throughout in which you’d be hard-pressed to find a single redeeming quality in any of its occupants (the sole exception being our protagonist who at the very least is uncompromising). What’s remarkable is that along with Le Bonheur, I also think this is Varda’s greatest film, which is just endlessly fascinating to me. Like how is it that in the enormous body of work of one of our most colorful and humanistic filmmakers, these two cynical outliers are perhaps her best work? Of course, that’s all subjective, but for me, I almost wonder if the messages in these films are all the more effective because they stand out so starkly from the rest of her filmography.
Grade: A-

8th: Jane B. by Agnès V. – Agnès Varda (1988)
I can think of few filmmakers in which this would not feel like the most indulgent vanity project. While I’m not quite sure it all entirely works, it’s really quite a delight to watch. And let’s be honest, the Laurel and Hardy homage is just transcendent.
Grade: B

9th: RoboCop – Paul Verhoeven (1987)
This is toward the very top of the list of movies I wish I could have seen in theaters. It’s remarkable to me, albeit not all that surprising, that people have tried to remake both this and Total Recall. Granted when I’m going back and watching these older films, I’m selectively picking what I expect to be good. But watching these films really shows how much we’ve lost the plot in terms of quality filmmaking and storytelling, especially in genre work. Like, know what’s a good way to deliver a critique of the growing military-industrial complex that will actually reach audiences? Make something that’s satirical and fun and works not only as a political message but as a stand-alone movie. Anyways, this was fucking sick, Verhoeven rules, and that one guy sure got shot in the dick.
Grade: A-

9th: Kung-Fu Master! – Agnès Varda (1988)
Boy oh boy, I was dreading this one. Should I be concerned that this isn’t the only Blu-ray I own featuring an acclaimed filmmaker putting their real-life child in a role in which they carry out an inappropriate relationship with an adult? Looking at you, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Um yeah, I really don’t know what else to say about this one. Overall, it was much better than I had anticipated. The three leads (Mathieu Demy, Jane Birkin, and Charlotte Gainsbourg) all give great performances. They feel authentic and natural, which I imagine is a direct result of making a film with your real-life friends. And I admire Varda taking a swing like this and not shying away from it at all. But ultimately, I’m not sure I can really reconcile my discomfort at the premise.
Grade: B

9th: Showgirls – Paul Verhoeven (1995)
This is not a perfect movie, but it is a five-star one in that the sum total is far greater than its parts. Could a film be more prescient or scathing in that the message it foretells about the entertainment industry played out in its own reception, most tragically in essentially cutting down the rest of Elizabeth Berkley’s career? It’s great to see that this has since had a critical re-evaluation and yet I have to say, even if this came out today, I think audiences would react poorly to it. If anything, people today are far more afraid of sex, entertainment, and power dynamics than they were in the 90s. But what can you do? At the very least this has and will continue to stand the test of time. How much is that worth? You’d have to ask Verhoeven, Berkely, or any of the other people who took the fall for making something this bold and ambitious.
Grade: A