Everything Else We Watched
in Autumn 2021
Jade
The French Dispatch
Wes Andersen simply can’t stop. He seems to be getting swallowed up in a machine of his own making. He’s lost in the brand he’s created and can’t find his way back to the more pure and simple inspiration that inspired earlier films like Moonrise Kingdom. Dispatch is a fun ride through a twee literary carnival. I especially enjoyed Jeffery Wright’s performance as a James-Baldwin-inspired character. Unfortunately, the circus tent is easily packed up and forgotten. Wes Andersen is over, man.
Alex
The Lighthouse
My third viewing of this masterpiece, and the relentless brutality of its subject matter (two men, marooned in a storm in a lighthouse in the 1890s, slowly go insane together, and perish) finally began to recede. With its retreating tide is revealed even more of Robert Eggers’ story-building genius. Every single piece of this film fits, without a chink to fit even a slip of paper into. It is this radical stability of structure (almost everything happens in direct linearity, for directly linear reasons) that shows up the unexplainable and psychological aspects of the world in sharp relief, producing disturbing ripples within the mind of the viewer. This is one of the greatest films ever made, but you already knew that.
J
Lamb
A husband and wife work on their sheep farm. The world of the human home is sterile and quiet, while the sheep barn is full of life, noise, dirt, the sounds of animals bleating and breathing. When the couple brings the chimera into their home, the old laws which separate the human and animal world are broken. The film takes its time revealing the nature of this strange part-man part-beast creature, and as we are eased in, we actually fall under the spell. Tragically, the spell of mystery is broken when we see the chimera with our own eyes. The story from this point on undermines the mystery instead of deepening it.
A
Goldeneye (007)
The first 007 starring Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Because of his timely alignment with my childhood, Brosnan is my Bond. Peering back in time, to this era before Daniel Craig, is to see a James Bond that could still afford to be cheesy and nonsensical and cartoonish. Peering back in time, these more comic-book-clear stories actually hit on profound themes, occasionally. Sean Bean creates a striking anti-Bond, in image and performance and story, who starts with all the same tragic origin-story elements as James, but chooses a self-defeating resentment over honor and responsibility.
J
Howl’s Moving Castle
I saw Howl’s Moving Castle again on the big screen at Cinemark in Chico, California. I was struck by how very worthwhile it was to watch the masterful animation on a large scale. Beyond that, the depth of the character arcs continues to delight and reveal new depths, upon returning to the story for a third time. The interdependence of each character's evolution, which seemed doomed from the start on my first viewing, is leveraged for the most elegant possible transformations. Miyazaki manages to interweave heroic successes for each character–individual successes that are aided by companions, but ultimately serve to make each character even more singular.
A
Suspiria
Luca Guadagnino’s remake of the 1977 horror film, about a coven of witches who run a dance school for young women. Guadagnino has said that he began dreaming of creating his own Suspiria when he was a teenager and saw Dario Argento’s original for the first time. Certainly this adaptation is completely unique, using mere dashes of the original film to accent Guadagnino’s own vision. Suspiria is an excellent harmony of image with sound with performance with style of shooting. There are huge errors in this movie, yet they are presented within a context of refreshing novelty, and thus can be forgiven. Such a movie as this has not been made before.
J
Belladonna of Sadness
A 70s sex fantasy wet dream. Come for the immaculate watercolor art, stay for the psychedelic satanic witch plot. This is the story of a woman’s sexual awakening after a traumatic rape. Underneath that are the bones of the classic hero’s story: the protagonist suffers under tyranny, to eventually strike out alone and find freedom and peace through their own empowerment. On the topic of sex, the movie actually fails to impress. It does far more artful and visceral work depicting rape, and falls tragically flat when it comes time to show the alchemical event that transforms Jeanne’s relationship with sexuality into something positive. Instead, the film resorts to tacky 70s cartoon images, making a caricature of itself at its most important moment. This is an even greater disappointment because the power of this film is not really its plot or its dialogue, but its incredibly beautiful art which at its best moments is creative, elegant, and beautifully symbolic.
A
The World Is Not Enough (007)
My favorite James Bond film since childhood. Pierce Brosnan, of course. Coming back to it in my nostalgic and espionage-addicted present, the theme song (performed by the singer from Garbage) is probably the best part. This is the best James Bond theme song. The rest of the movie is good too, spelling out the tragic story of two villains for whom the world is literally not enough. Their love of each other, and their love of life, threatens to burn the entire world. I feel that.
J
The Flowers of Shanghai
Memoirs of a Geisha was one of my favorites in childhood and has revealed itself to be something of a disappointment in adulthood. So I was very pleased to find this film: The Flowers of Shanghai is what Memoirs of a Geisha should have been. Rich interiors set the backdrop of a dense cultural world which is completely unapologetic in its otherness, making no attempt to translate itself to a Western audience. Instead, it fully immerses us in the world of Chinese brothels, and every opportunity is taken to soak in the etiquette and ritual of this old, other world. I never thought I would be so pleased to watch people doing such mundane tasks as setting tables or preparing opium pipes for smoking. Beyond this, the emotional turmoil of stone cold and broken hearts lying hidden under so much opulence feels surprisingly relatable. Though we do not now live in a world with such particular customs and rituals, the core problem of this film is extremely present in the sexually free culture of today: The relationships between flower girls and their callers are supposed to be strictly sexual and strictly transactional, but emotions can’t be stopped; they rise up and bubble over. There are obligations, expectations, social pressures, attachments and desires that cannot be completely dismissed, nor completely fulfilled.
A
Casino Royale–actually, Knight and Day
My popcorn-munching mind moves on to the next glorious display of masculine prowess and ingenuity. This is supposed to be the best James Bond film–it’s pretty good, but I was noting the lack of cartoonish (and thus accidentally archetypal) characters and story arcs, traded for a down-to-earth and gritty espionage quest that ends up saying nothing about the human condition. Certainly it has the strongest story of all of Daniel Craig’s 007 films, borrowing heavily from Ian Fleming’s 007 novel of the same name. The third act veers sharply away from the momentum of heroism and espionage to spell out a feminine betrayal, which never sat right with me. I stopped the film here and watched a Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz rom-com where the hyper-male secret agent trains a car mechanic chick to be a secret agent herself. Popcorn-munching mind satisfied
J
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
A theatrical, Czechosalvok Alice in Wonderland kind of tale which, even within a nonsense wonderland context, manages to set itself apart as particularly strange. Valerie begins her first menstruation and is suddenly surrounded by a carnival of shifting characters who are sometimes family members and sometimes vampiric villains. There is a felt tension throughout, between purity and budding sexuality. What is particularly wonderful about this story is that the horrors Valerie confronts are not of some strange other world down a rabbit hole, but instead coming from the center of her village, the pulpit of her church, the matriarch of her house. Valerie confronts these machinations with more dancing curiosity than stunned fear, and finds gentle respite in the clean sleep of her still, white bedroom.
