SpaaceMonkee Reviews

The Touch (1971)

Veers From Unsubtle to Melodramatic Mess

[5/10 · 24 March 2024]

Karin (Bono Andersson) is married, largely happily, to Andreas (Max von Sydow), and they have two children together. Seemingly bored by her life as a housewife, Karin starts an affair with David (Elliot Gould), a visiting American archaeologist. It's not clear why. She's not a serial adulterer. Very early on in the movie, David bluntly tells Karin he loves her and has since seeing her crying in a hospital after her mother's death. Then, Karin jumps headfirst into the affair with David. We never really learn what she sees in him that's so worthwhile that she's willing to risk her existing life, and the movie doesn't give us any good answers either. David seems not to treat her well and is - at an absolute minimum - highly emotionally unstable. Perhaps it's Karin's overwhelming maternal instinct that leaves her fawning over this emotional man-child. He backhands her; in response, she runs back to him.

As the runtime drags on, things only get more muddled. This is one of those unfortunate films that uses the Holocaust as a plot twist. We learn that David's father and many relatives were killed in concentration camps. This may explain some of his behavior, but doesn't move us any closer to why Karin fell for him in the first place. Later, we learn even more about David's family, including that there's a hereditary degenerative muscular illness. To lay it on even thicker, Karin is pregnant, and it's not clear whose baby it is. It all feels quite forced and heavy handed, with the plot developments dragging the film down. By the end, you don't feel particularly empathetic towards David or Karin. Maybe that's all part of the point: life is complicated; marriages are complex; relationships have many levels. What's not complicated, however, is the fact that The Touch certainly is not one of Bergman's better movies.

Irma Vep (1996)

Not Sure It Holds Up

[6/10 · 16 March 2024]

Don't be misled by the posters or the cover art on your disc case: this isn't an action film. Instead, it falls into that category of movies about making movies.

The plot, ostensibly, is that a once-great French director is tasked with remaking Les Vampires, a silent classic, and casts Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung in the lead role. That she speaks not a word of French won't be a problem for the film, because the director decides the remake also should be shot as a silent film and in black and white, despite it being 1996. Really, the "plot" is about the relationships among the cast and crew, particularly focused on the costume designer's infatuation with the leading lady in her black spandex attire, which was bought at a sex shop.

There are endearing moments and odd ones, like Maggie Chung moonlighting, in costume, as a cat burglar at her hotel, apparently just for the thrill of it. At its best, the movie is an amusing satire of French filmmaking, taking jabs at an industry that, in the words of one character, makes movies that no one watches. Overall, I felt disappointed after watching Irma Vep given all the hype (and the fact it's being remade as a television series). Still, the ending felt totally on point.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Good but Overhyped

[7/10 · 11 March 2024]

This film had an enormous amount of buzz, and it was a darling of the professional critics. The runtime alone dissuaded me from watching it initially, and now, having seen it, I feel confident that you could see two better films in the same enormous span of 206 minutes. Perhaps if I'd gone in with lower expectations, I would have enjoyed it more.

On the plus side, Killers of the Flower Moon is gorgeously shot and features a terrific score. The acting from De Niro and DiCaprio is, as expected, terrific, but it's Lily Gladstone as Mollie Burkhart who steals the show. Despite the length, I do think the movie keeps your attention throughout. It creates a wonderfully realized world for its early 20th-century setting and features a wide cast of interesting secondary characters. Scorsese is, after all, a master storyteller.

For the negatives, the movie features no real character development or plot surprises. Early on, it signals right where it's going, and then it goes there. The social commentary isn't remotely subtle. At one point, a character actually says it's easier to convict a man of kicking a dog than killing an Indian; there are explicit (and vocalized) parallels to the Tulsa massacre; the KKK marches in a parade.

You get the idea. Indeed, you would have to engage in active avoidance not to get it. By the end of the movie, I felt as though I'd watched a well-shot, well-acted documentary about greed, racism, and historical injustice, which is fine and all, but it didn't make for the powerhouse drama that people kept billing the film to be.

Four Daughters (2023)

Powerful, But Glosses Over Some Major Issues

[8/10 · 10 March 2024]

Four Daughters is a documentary telling the story of Olfa and her four daughters, Ghofrane, Rahma, Eya, and Tayysir. The eldest two, Ghofrane and Rahma, ran away from home to join ISIS, making international headlines in the process.

The film is set up in an unusual way. The younger daughters play themselves, while actors play the older two sisters as they all reenact various scenes from the past. An actor also plays Olfa, and there are many instances where real Olfa interrupts the "scene" to explain what's incorrect about it or how it actually happened, while at other times the actress Olfa critically questions the real one about her views or her interactions with her daughters. It's a strange design, often creating a meta feel where you're watching a woman watching (and interacting with) an actress play a scene from her past. But, this method seems to work in that it creates an elaborate mechanism to allow the remaining three women (Olfa, Eya, and Tayssir) to tell their own stories.

The direction is even-handed, and the movie doesn't overtly frame anyone as the villain. Instead, it allows the viewer to draw their own conclusions, which is more powerful than telling you what to think anyways. It's hard not to walk away seriously questioning Olfa's parenting, but you also see her as a complicated, largely contradictory character. For example, she beats one of her daughters bloody after finding out she shaved her legs and was hanging out with a boy, but Olfa herself knocked her own husband around on their wedding night and she seemed later left him of her own accord. At another point, she tells her daughters that their future husbands own their body. Olfa's a strong, independent woman who perpetuates misogynistic views.

Overall, Four Daughters an engrossing story about a family and intergenerational trauma. For a movie with such an emphasis on female empowerment, though, it largely glides over the key question I was wondering when I walked into the movie: why would a woman want to join ISIS and enter a group where they have far fewer rights than they do before? The film never really goes there. There's discussion of the cultural changes after the Tunisian revolution, the increased number of radical street preachers, and the daughters starting to wear niqabs, but the documentary never seriously explores the question. The eldest daughters' decisions once radicalized are played out in a few scenes, but the radicalization itself happens off screen, and we get surprisingly little discussion of the how and why.

Chungking Express (1994)

Loneliness and Love

[7/10 · 18 February 2024]

Chungking Express tells two stories of lovesick cops. The first, reeling from the end of his relationship, keeps buying canned pineapples that expire on May 1, the date he has set for when his relationship truly is over and that his girlfriend is not coming back. The second cop, also lonely from the end of a relationship, falls for the eccentric waitress working at the food stand where he eat lunch everyday.

I saw the movie after hearing much hype, and it wasn't quite what I was expecting. It's hard to say the film weaves the stories together, because it really doesn't. Both plots follow lonely cops, but the fact that they're cops isn't that important to either plot. This isn't a crime drama. The only real connection between the stories is that both officers regularly visit the same dining counter. I generally don't like movies that are a series of tenuously connected vignettes, but for Chungking Express, that tangential connection seems like part of the point. There's a randomness to human connection, to relationships experienced or missed. Pure chance could put you in contact with your love or you might miss the perfect person because events played out every so slightly differently than they might have.

It's an engaging movie, but not for everyone. I'd definitely file it under art house. The camerawork is innovative, and the soundtrack is delightful. The actors do a great job expressing loneliness and longing. I'd rate Chungking 7.5/10, if that was an option. I enjoyed it, odd as some parts of it were, but it didn't feel like the unparalleled masterpiece everyone hyped it up to be.

American Fiction (2023)

Touching, Funny Satire

[8/10 · 5 February 2024]

American Fiction follows a novelist whose literary books have fallen out of style. He writes books, and he's Black, but he doesn't write "Black" books, which are all the rage among publishers and readers, especially white readers. He believes there's more to the Black experience than slavery and oppression, but a woke, white world around him feels otherwise, and it wants to be validated by reading books and seeing movies focused on nothing but those subjects. His frustration builds and eventually bubbles over, manifesting itself in a pandering, stereotypical, inner-city novel filled with violence and ending with death by cop, written under a pseudonym of a writer alleged to be a felon on the run. It becomes a runaway success.

It's a smart movie, effective at straddling the line between dark comedic satire and touching family drama. Given the subject material, it'd be easy to botch the execution and make something entirely unfunny and uncomfortable to watch. American Fiction generally doesn't fall into those pitfalls, but it's not a subtle movie either. The satire at times is so on the nose - particularly one teleconference with the publishing house - that the film can border on absurdism.

Overall, it's a very enjoyable movie. There were segments where the writing project felt like a side plot to the more foregrounded family issues, but that's a feature, not a bug; it structurally drives home one of the main points of the movie: there's a Black family with any number of difficult family issues, but they're the kinds of problems faced by everyday people, regardless of race.

Poor Things (2023)

A Bizarre Artistic Odyssey

[9/10 · 31 January 2024]

Poor Things is a weird movie, one of the stranger films I've seen. There's elaborate whoring, a borderline-unhinged Mark Ruffalo, and set pieces with a color palette that seem like they came from the crank bin at the local science fiction artists' workshop.

Ultimately, I think it's a coming-of-age story from a novel perspective: dead woman implanted with the brain of her infant. You get all of the childlike wonder at the world and the digs at social norms that are possible from the outsider perspective, as well as the emotional horror at visceral class injustice (which fades away unresolved as the plot progresses). But, it's all done from a politically safe vantage. We have a full-grown woman with the brain of a child; she matures, loves sex, finds empowerment, and is our heroine.

If you really think about what's going on though, it's really a late adolescent or teen girl - from the standpoint of mental maturity - exploring the world and her own sexuality. The whole film is a novel conceit for a modern take on that classic premise, made even more clever by the fact that it's set in the Victorian era. Query: if it was an eighteen-year-old girl in the exact same plot, would the film have the same critical reception, or would it be trashed as a sexploitation flick? Maybe part of the brilliance of Poor Things is being able to pull off it's story in the present political climate; perhaps that's one of the film's most excellent instances of artistry.

The writing is terrific and often hilarious. The acting is delightful. Willem Defoe is an absolute marvel, and the rest of the crew is running in pace with him. After a while, you may wonder why the camera crew has a fetish for fisheye-lens shots. But, overall, Poor Things is a weird, wonderful, thought-provoking piece that goes on about a half hour too long with some inexplicable plot detours, but you walk away feeling like you've seen an authentic artistic statement. Go see it.

Eating Raoul (1982)

Delightful Cult Comedy

[8/10 · 21 January 2024]

Eating Raoul is a weird movie. Ostensibly, the story is about a strait-laced couple trying to raise the money for the down payment on a restaurant they want to open. But, after several roadblocks and a series of inappropriate moves by the swingers in their building, they hatch a new scheme: lure the swingers to their apartment, kill them, take their money, and sell the dead bodies for even more money.

The acting is deliberately stilted, the dialogue is hokey, and the plot is ridiculous, but somehow it all meshes together into a wonderful dark comedy. It's a hilarious movie that's still funny all these years after its release, with great situational humor.

By the end, it's unclear if there's any sort of "message" from the movie. "Swinger" seems to be a catchall for every variety of sexually liberated pervert the writers could dream up, and many of them are portrayed as rapey, but they all get killed and robbed the same. Maybe murder is a tad overkill for someone with a cartoon character fetish? Either way, watching Eating Raoul is a great way to spend an hour and a half.

Monster (2023)

A Triumph of Filmmaking Technique

[9/10 · 16 January 2024]

Monster is a mystery film of sorts that presents the same series of events from three separate perspectives. It's difficult to say anything about the plot without spoiling parts of the film. At the end, though, I felt as though I had just sat through a masterclass in film construction.

The movie is perfectly executed, using each segment to present a different experience and, from the vantage of the characters involved, a different version of reality. At one point, a character claims that "what actually happened does not matter," but the film itself is not taking sides. Instead, it offers up an entirely credible worldview of a worried mother trying to protect her son, then of an awkward schoolteacher finding his world turned upside down, and finally of a confused child attempting to navigate a complicated world. Each portion is fully realized, forcing you to confront the limits of a finite perspective and the all-too-present possibility that we cast aspersions and accusations on others who may be innocent, or at least not nearly as guilty as we perceive. Perhaps the real monster is us after all.

The film is a poetic exploration of the importance of humility and empathy. It's beautiful and moving, traversing both the innocence and cruelty of childhood as well as the complex realities of adulthood. I wonder if, having seen the whole thing, I would think less of the earlier parts on a rewatch, but I think it speaks worlds of Monster that I want to see it again just to find out if it really was as excellent as I thought when the credits rolled the first time.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Three Inconsistent Acts

[6/10 · 13 January 2024]

Artificial Intelligence takes place in a future where global warming has caused sea levels to rise, flooding out coastal cities, with a response by wealthy countries to strictly limit child birth (and corresponding population growth) and a corresponding rise in robot workers and assistants. The movie opens with a company aiming to create a robot that can love, a child robot that will fill the gap for couples who want children but can't have them, with more profits from the sales in this new market.

Part one of the movie is incredibly powerful. It focuses on the first prototype child robot, David, living with a family whose own child, Michael, has been in a coma for years. Shortly after David becomes integrated into the family, Michael comes out of his coma and returns home. This segment is very moving, raising ethical questions about love and loss, and showing family dynamics and struggles.

Part two finds David largely on his own, with only Teddy as his companion. This is where the movie starts falling apart. Initially, the scenes with the Flesh Fair are interesting, showing a sort of religious sect bent on an anti-robot mission. There's a Mad Max aspect to these scenes, but they succeed in making you feel something for the machines and you see the moral failings of some of the people involved. From there, things get weird. Joe the Gigalo, a pleasure droid, teams up with David and they go on an adventure to find the Blue Fairy (from the Pinocchio fable) so that David can become a real boy and return home. The plot gets increasingly odd. After visiting Rouge City - some sort of red light district - they steal a police helicopter/submersible and go to Manhattan, a flooded out city that somehow is still hosting the research lab for the David model of robot.

Part three is where the aliens come. David parks his submersible on the ocean floor and prays to a blue fairy statue in the flooded Coney Island. He does this for two thousand years, ending up frozen there until eventually discovered by the aliens, at which point all of the humans are dead. Teddy, the most redeeming, selfless character in the entire movie, saves the day by offering a lock of the mother's hair, so the aliens can resurrect the mother for one day, allowing David one day of joy before he seemingly powers down in an act of android suicide, leaving poor Teddy all alone forever. We aren't told whether the aliens keep him company afterwards.

Parts of the movie are moving, parts are bizarre, and the whole thing feels overly long, but it's worth watching once.

King Rat (1965)

Powerful Drama

[9/10 · 8 January 2024]

King Rat takes place in Changi prison, a Japanese POW camp in Malaysia holding British and American soldiers, many of whom have been there a long time. Central to the action is Corporal King, an American soldier whose wheeling and dealing and black market activities with the locals have allowed him to establish a decent life for himself, a small fiefdom amongst the near-starvation of his fellow prisoners. His payroll includes a variety of other soldiers, including officers who in normal military circumstances would vastly outrank him. But, life in Changi creates its own social structure.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the movie, and the name made me think it might be something silly. But, this isn't really a film about war buddies, despite the large focus on the relationship between King and the Peter Marlowe, an upper-class, multilingual British Lieutenant. King Rat certainly is not a comedy. Overall, it's a bleak - yet highly memorable - film about survival that raises a lot of questions about morality under difficult circumstances.

King is cast as the lead, in an anti-hero role, and, throughout the film, Lieutenant Grey - a British officer who serves as camp provost in charge of overseeing supplies and rules compliance - serves as the nemesis of sorts. It's a fascinating parallel, because Grey serves the interests of the camp as a whole, attempting to ensure everyone has enough food and no one is stealing, while King's enterprise is focused on self-enrichment. Even as the film progresses towards the conclusion, you're left wondering whether King's seemingly generous decisions in fact were transactional all along.

This was a powerful movie, and seeing it was a pleasant surprise. It's an engrossing character study, with plenty of social commentary on class structures and human hierarchies. It's well worth a watch.

After the Rehearsal (1984 TV Movie)

Mixed Feelings

[6/10 · 6 January 2024]

After the Rehearsal is essentially a three-actor performance. An older, renowned director (Henrik) rests on the stage after the rehearsal and reflects on the theater, only to be interrupted by Anna, the actress playing the lead in Henrik's latest production, who appears under the sham pretext of searching for a lost bracelet. The two talk, discussing the play, acting, the theater, and Anna's now-dead alcoholic mother Rakel, who was a famous actress with whom Henrik had a relationship. Later, Rakel herself appears, late in the stages of physical decay and with her acting powers compromised, pleading with Henrik to be with her again.

One take on this short film is that it's essentially a Bergman retrospective. Having completed the much-acclaimed Fanny and Alexander the year before, it's easy to view After the Rehearsal as Bergman himself looking back at his almost-four-decade directorial career, one that included many relationships with his leading actresses. Read from that autobiographical framing, you can take the voiceovers from Henrik, the discussions of a life spent in dedication to the arts, and the relations between director and actor in a specific way, an auteur's retrospective on his work and life.

But, I have a particular dislike for needing outside knowledge to "appreciate" a film. I prefer to take it in as though you found it in the wild. You turn on the television knowing nothing and this movie is on. What do you think of it then?

It's sparse, often-pretentious dialogue or monologue about life spent in acting and directing, the world of creating make believe and the blurring of reality and the stage that comes along with it. That's fine, frankly; there's nothing wrong with an intellectual film, but this one's not particularly enjoyable to watch. You get a lengthy scene that's either a dream sequence or a visually represented reminiscence and a man who decides against an affair with a person who may actually be his daughter, not because of any moral qualms, but instead because Henrik narrates the future of the imagined affair along with Anna and apparently decides he's simply too tired for what promises to be a short-lived drama.

For what it's worth, the person I watched the film with fell asleep, and it's only a seventy-minute run time.

The Magic Flute (1975)

An Opera Movie

[6/10 · 4 January 2024]

The Magic Flute is Ingmar Bergman's version of Mozart's opera. I didn't know what to expect going in, as it was simply the next film in Criterion's box set. I greatly dislike opera and watching opera on the screen seems even worse, because you lose the live experience of the theater, so I wasn't thrilled to discover a Bergman opera movie. With all those caveats, I'll say it was tolerable. The "movie" is shot mostly as if you're watching stage actors perform the opera, but the shots cut to various audience members at points and the camera even follows some of the actors backstage between acts. It's a strange technique that both makes the movie more than just a camera filming a stage performance and also reminds you that you're watching a movie about an opera performance, which apparently includes the opera actors on break.

If you like opera and Bergman, this likely will be a delightful experience for you. If you don't like one or both of those things, don't watch The Magic Flute.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Beautiful and Moving

[10/10 · 14 December 2023]

Scenes from this movie are so beautifully illustrated that they feel closer to an art gallery show than an animated film. For those familiar with Miyazaki's animation style, you'll find it here, though it often feels set against an impressionist background somehow grander than the settings of earlier films. It's likely the most fully-realized animation in cinema.

Many are saying that this really is Miyazaki's final film, a claim previously made about The Wind Rises. Like that film, The Boy and the Heron feels written predominantly for adults in a way different from other Studio Ghibli films, like Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Counsel. Set in 1943 after its main character loses his mother in a fire during WWII, The Boy and the Heron squarely faces down the loss of the past while looking to the uncertainty and confusion of the future. Though putatively about the boy's mother, the setting amidst the late-WWII period speaks to larger issues about countries and peoples at the crossroads, including Japan in particular. It seems no coincidence that both The Wind Rises and The Boy and the Heron take WWII as their theme, with an artistic lead at the helm looking back at his career and the trajectory of his country.

My only complaint is the slapstick-y dialogue with the heron in the second half of the film, which I thought distracted from the power of the story. But, that's a minor complaint. Overall, this film is a work of intense artistry and love. It moves you with its story and gorgeous animation. You walk away thinking about it well after the credits roll. To this point, it's the best animated film I've seen in my life.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Enjoyable Monster Film with a Human Touch

[7/10 · 11 December 2023]

How many monster movies come with substantial critical claim attached? I was intrigued, even though I've never seen any of the classic Godzilla films. You won't regret seeing the film, but I didn't walk away feeling like I'd just watched the film of the year either.

Godzilla Minus One follows the story of a kamikaze pilot who aborts his mission and lands on a small supply island. Later, Godzilla emerges and wipes out nearly everyone. Haunted by his actions, both in failing to carry out his mission and failing to act in saving the others on the island, the pilot returns to Tokyo and attempts to rebuild his life. Before long though, Godzilla reemerges and he feels compelled to join the defense of Tokyo.

It's a good story, and there's an endearing human element to it all. The movie's not short of political commentary either, whether in subtext or unambiguous comments from the characters, ranging from views of honor and duty, criticism of the government, or even Japan's diminished autonomy in light of defeat in WWII. Notice that no government really does anything in the movie. The U. S. is sidelined because of concerns over raising tensions with the Soviets; the Japanese government is unable to act. Instead, it's the people themselves who have to act and save themselves.

Towards the end, the film veers harder and harder towards melodrama, which detracted from the nice balance of seriousness and humor that had been present throughout the first several acts. Maybe it's a terrific Godzilla film; I can't speak to that. (This reminds me of the 007 films. There are "good" Bond films that still aren't good movies.) I can say that this Godzilla is a good movie and worth your time.

The Executioner (1963)

Wonderfully Executed Dark Comedy

[8/10 · 16 November 2023]

The Executioner's plot is simple: after his father-in-law retires, a man must take over his role as an executioner in order to preserve the family's state-leased apartment, but he hates the job. It's not a flashy film. There's no nudity, violence, or special effects. It's hard to say there's even anything like a serious plot twist. Instead, it's just an excellently scripted and well-designed satire.

From the beginning of the movie, Jose Luis is a weak-willed man. He talks of wanting to go to Germany to become a mechanic, but instead stays in his day job as an undertaker. Although he seems to find the state executioner's job repellent, Jose Luis ends up sleeping with the executioner's daughter, possibly because no one else will date an undertaker. From there, he winds up applying to become the next executioner - notwithstanding his own numerous objections - in order to keep the family in a nice, new state-owned apartment. When he's finally called up to execute a man, Jose Luis gets cajoled by his father-in-law and wife (who wants a vacation) to go consider it at the site rather than resign. Once he's finally there - in one of the film's best scenes - Jose Luis gets egged on even more by the prison warden after he tries to resign at the site. By the end, Jose Luis somehow finds himself having done exactly what he said he wouldn't do. His comfortable wife seems not to care.

The Executioner doesn't have a lot of out-loud laughs, but it's very funny. It manages to achieve great situational irony without descending into slapstick; it's an absurd plot that feels totally believable. Throughout, there are a number of memorable scenes, and the dialogue usually is witty and excellent. It's a movie that somehow manages to satirize capital punishment - with clever commentary along the way, particularly about state bureaucracy - without coming across as political or partisan. Overall, The Executioner is well worth a watch.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)

Probably Not a Good Date-Night Movie

[6/10 · 4 November 2023]

Salo is a divisive film. Some say it's exploitative torture porn masquerading as art. Others say it's a deep critique of fascism. Watching the film nearly fifty years after it's release, I see both sides, somewhat, but I'm mostly inclined to say it's a film that lives on for its (somewhat diminishing) shock value than any sort of lasting political commentary.

The plot: during late WWII, with Northern Italy under German occupation, four quite perverted senior members of the Italian ruling class, assisted by their henchmen and Nazi soldiers, select a group of teenage boys and girls to be kidnapped and taken to a villa as their sex slaves and torture subjects.

On the shocky torture porn: yes, it's full of nudity, outlandish sex fetishes (particularly scat), and violence, including physical torture. Given that all the youths were kidnapped, basically every sex scene involving them can be considered a rape scene. Virtually everyone is bisexual, anal sex gets higher billing than normal sex, and there are grotesque segments that will stay with you. For memorability, Salo gets high marks. I imagine it likely was the most controversial film ever made at the time of its release, though changing attitudes towards homosexuality - which looms large in the movie - have defanged that aspect a bit.

On the political angle: the captors are fascists; this isn't subtle. There are comments peppered throughout about fascism and the captors discuss the ultimate modes of oppression and inflicting suffering. They're unabashed sadists, using their power to inflict pain on others sheerly for personal enjoyment. This is highlighted most explicitly in the final scenes as one of the captors becomes aroused while watching the physical torture of the prisoners and he begins fondling the boy next to him while continue to look on in delight at the horrors being inflicted below.

The political side is where I think the film falls short. If the opening scene (explaining the movie is taking place under Nazi rule) didn't exist and the interspersed discussions about fascism were tweaked ever so slightly, you'd have essentially the same movie, and it'd just be a movie about sadism. Frankly, then it'd be nothing more than a torture-porn exploitation flick.

The final scenes have more social commentary than the rest of the film combined. Upon seeing the physical torture of the captives, the musician finally decides she's seen enough and commits suicide. The captives, on the other hand, rat each other out in an attempt to save themselves; those who have not broken the rules then are offered the opportunity to "collaborate" with the captors and continue on with them. If the movie has an underlying political message about what fascism is, it seems to be this: Die or suffer under it, then face the choice to join it and inflict suffering on others in order to continue on, but if you do, you may find you like being the one with power.

So, yes, there's more to the movie than a lot of naked people being forced to eat excrement. But by the time you get to the end, you've been watching so much sexual exploitation and violence that it's easy to lose sight of any larger message. Maybe that's part of the point, but Salo is not a movie that makes you want to pop it back on the screen right away for a rewatch to see what you missed the first time.

Come and See (1985)

Powerful Film About the Devastation of War

[9/10 · 27 October 2023]

Come and See is a masterful film about the human cruelty, war, and the loss of childhood innocence. It's moving and memorable. See it if you get the chance.

Set in what today is Belarus during the 1940s, Come and See follows the teenage boy Flyora as he joins the Russian partisans to fight the Germans, who have invaded the Soviet Union. Opening on a beach, young Flyora digs through the sand with his friend looking for the weapons of fallen soldiers. You can see the glee of their faces as they pretend to fight the Germans. After Flyora finds a gun, word of his discovery apparently spreads and the resistance fighters arrive at Flyora's house. He joins them, eager to fight. Before long, Flyora finds himself in one dangerous situation after another. You watch Flyora's childish naivety fall away as he starts experiencing loss and witnessing suffering and barbarism.

It's a bleak film, punctuated by moments of gentler humanity. In many ways, Come and See reminded me of Jerzy Kosinski's 'The Painted Bird.' Both are unsettling experiences not quickly forgotten.

Cure (1997)

Slow Moving with an Interesting Concept

[6/10 · 25 October 2023]

Cure follows an obsessive detective tracking a serial killer of sorts. Rather than directly murder victims, the mysterious man hypnotizes those with whom he comes in contact, causing them to unleash inner, repressed rage against others. Afterwards, the perpetrators remember nothing and express confusion at their actions. The film's concept is intriguing, but the movie itself is a slow burn punctuated by moments of violence, followed by a return to the same slow-burn pacing. Even at the conclusion, it's hard to say there's much of a climax in any normal sense of the word, which felt disappointing. Overall, Cure is a fairly memorable film, but if you're hoping for a clear resolution or an explosion of a finish, then perhaps it's not the movie for you.

Jacob's Ladder (I) (1990)

Leaves You Questioning

[7/10 · 1 October 2023]

One of those war movies where most of the action takes place away from the battlefield, Jacob's Ladder is a psychological thriller/mystery with a heavy dose of conspiracy. At its best, it raises powerful questions about love, loss, and what makes life worth living. For the downsides, it can feel disjointed and premised on dubious plot developments. There's also a certain political edge to it that I suspect resonates much less with most viewers than it did upon release. After all, it's a 1990 film about the Vietnam War. No one alive today in America who served in that war is under 60.

I'll say nothing of the plot. The ending was spoiled for me before I started the movie, and I think that detracted from some of the film's punch. That said, it makes me wonder how much value the film has on rewatch.

Titane (2021)

Preposterous Awards Bait

[5/10 · 27 September 2023]

Titane is an art house Transformers prequel. A psychopathic young woman named Alexia gets impregnated by a car. You'll be guessing until the end whether the offspring has two legs or four wheels. Along the way, Alexia racks up a large body count of victims and sexual partners (including a Cadillac and possibly a firetruck), disguises herself as a young man, becomes the ward of an aging firefighter addicted to steroids by impersonating his missing son, and along the way lactates motor oil (presumably 5W-30, given the child's father).

The movie leaves you with nagging questions about transmission. How exactly did the car impregnate Alexia? And, more importantly, given both the car's willingness and Alexia's complicity, should we assume this an automatic or a manual?

The critics can write all of the high-brow defenses of this film they want. A deep psychological analysis of the difficult relationship between a woman and her father, who caused the accident and seems not to love her. A movie about the complex interactions between humans and technology in the modern world. An exploration of gender fluidity and the difficulty of belonging as a female, hence the need to strap one's breasts down to pretend to be a man in order to survive.

Maybe it's those things, all of them and many more. Or maybe it's a ridiculous film about a woman who has sex with a Cadillac that gleefully bounces up and down on non-existent hydraulics while it ravages the all-too-willing heroine who strapped herself into the back bondage-style with the seatbelts. Then the Cadillac gets her pregnant, and where is the car when it's needed? Nowhere to be found. There's the key. It's a movie all about absentee fathers not supporting their offspring when they need a tune up.

Watch Raw instead, a much better film by the same director. Raw is a tightly constructed horror movie that leaves you thinking about it long after the credits roll. Titane does that too, but for all the wrong reasons.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

It's Something

[8/10 · 3 September 2023]

Technically amazing, with effects that largely hold up fifty-five years later, shot with stellar cinematography that alternatively creates intense suspense and sends you through mind-bending color palette, and backed by a classical soundtrack that fills the otherwise endless silence of space, it's not hard to see how this film changed cinema forever. That said, I don't really know if I liked it or not.

2001 is not an action film. In fact, it's quite slow. That's fine, and it helps build serious suspense and dread as the film goes on, but you'll be sorely disappointed if you're expecting something closer to Star Wars. Instead, 2001 is a smart, philosophical film with a lot of commentary about humanity that's set in space. Its villain is a pleasant-sounding computer. Its human cast has minimal dialogue. I enjoyed most of the movie, but it lost me in the final act. I'll leave commentary about the ending to others.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

A (Usually) Engrossing Biopic

[8/10 · 14 August 2023]

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer tells the story of the father of the atomic bomb through three segments: Oppenheimer's early time as a physicist through the completion of the Manhattan Project; Oppenheimer's later administrative hearing challenging the revocation of his security clearance; and the Senate confirmation hearing of Lewis Strauss for a presidential cabinet post, where Strauss's oversight of and relation to Oppenheimer featured prominently.

I have three reactions after seeing it tonight. One: It's gorgeously shot, well worth seeing in IMAX. Two: the film generally succeeds at establishing the various personalities at play despite the dense subject matter of physics and the splicing together of the three different segments. The various storylines all proceed in tandem and it would be easy to mis-edit a film like this and make it confusing or even incomprehensible to the audience. In that regard, kudos to the development team. Three: It still felt about a half an hour too long. Given the span of time covered from different angles, it's not unfair to expect a long runtime. But, if you can hit the restroom and return five minutes later without the plot progressing, there's room for tighter editing.

Overall: definitely worth seeing, but if you're not going to see it in IMAX, wait for it to leave theaters.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)

Serious or Not?

[6/10 · 30 July 2023]

The first Lone Wolf film was enjoyable and innovative, but this first sequel unsuccessfully straddled the line between comically violent and serious in a way that the film couldn't maintain.

In this film, Itto continues his journey of vengeance with his young child along for the ride, rolling along in a cleverly weaponized wooden stroller. (Never before has a toddler been complicit in so many killings!) It's a fun movie for the mindless action, but it never really goes beyond that. At times the movie seems like it wants to be a more serious film, but then it veers back to a perpetually nonchalant Itto effortlessly slaying would-be killers along the road.

Overall, it felt like a movie attempting to bridge genres without ever cleanly landing in the one that fit.

The Magician (1958)

Tight Blend of Seriousness and Witty Comedy

[8/10 · 13 July 2023]

The Magician follows a traveling magic troupe that's arrested by the local police, purportedly to investigate whether the the reports of their activities elsewhere - an alleged blend of pseudo-medicine and charlatan illusions - pose a danger. Really, the police chief had them arrested and escorted to the house of a local wealthy person and his wife in order to settle a bet between the man and his doctor friend: whether there exist inexplicable forces beyond the ken of science. To settle the bet, the magician troupe is forced to perform their act in the morning before an audience of the various house members and guests.

The movie is somewhere between Bergman's earlier Smiles of a Summer Night in its comedic elements, particularly in the funny but melodramatic flirtatious scenes, and Bergman's later and more serious The Rite, which also involves members of a stage act being interrogated by the authorities over the content of their performance. Overall, The Magician is quite enjoyable. It does a terrific job of by turns entertaining the viewer and exploring the lines between reality and the supernatural as well as stagecraft and truth, leaving you guessing until the end whether the titular magician actually has extraordinary powers or is "merely" a skilled illusionist. This film also has some excellent camera work that creates creepy scenes.