Category: Movie Pass Adventures

Nosferatu

So many rats.

I’m learning that the amount I like a film has very little to do with the amount I have to say about it. I liked this a lot, and I should be talking about the style and performances to show that I liked it, but for some reason all I’ve got is “So many rats.” Don’t let that stop you from seeing it.

Cries & Whispers

This is one a series of films at Alamo Drafthouse that Dave Eggers says influenced his creation of Nosferatu. I can see a lot of it in the long takes and tense silences, but this is a much “artier” film. Mostly realistic, and much less direct in its storytelling. It probably would have been more effective for me if it wasn’t the second half of a double feature.

Very red.

Bonus graphic!

Here’s the graphic I made for Cries & Whispers I made but didn’t use for the featured image:

The Atomic Cafe

I’ve seen big chunks of this before, either as part of this collection or as separate pieces, but this was the first time I watched it all together. What I’ve now realized: Atomic bombs are bad.

Los Frikis

The wild thing about this movie is that people in 1990s Cuba really did inject themselves with HIV for a chance at a better life (the better life being having food and a place to sleep). Weirdly positive for people in such dire circumstances, but it works. I’ll bet it’s better if you know Spanish and don’t have to rely on subtitles.

Bonus image!

Two movies in one day means I have an extra movie image! Here’s the one I made for Los Frikis:

What says Christmas more than Nicolas Cage, playing struggling actor Nick Cage, having personal and financial troubles that get him involved in a CIA scheme to recuse a girl and prevent the destabilization of a foreign power?

It’s a brave movie that starts out openly borrowing from the star’s previous roles and builds to a climax that steals from Austin Powers. It doesn’t always work, but there’s fun to be had. Also: I know no one has ever said this, but that Pedro Pascal fellow is pretty darn charming.

The men of the Peltzer family are menaces to society. They bring non-native, invasive species into their town, and cause possibly millions of dollars of damage to their tiny town by failing to follow the instructions they were given. The father gets the species by ignoring the responsible adult and listening to a child.

Mrs. Petzler, on the other hand, is a badass. She takes out three gremlins in close combat.

Also: Why doesn’t Billy know the story of Kate’s father? Didn’t they grow up in walking distance of each other in a small town? I would think that story would be a local legend.

Music biographies face a lot of challenges. Some can be dealt with, like combining and changing events and people to make the story flow, but there are two nearly insurmountable problems that this movie, even with great performances, does not overcome.

Big Problem One: Music rights versus truth. You can’t make a music biopic without the music (though people have tried), and you can’t get music rights from an artist or his estate if you’re going to show anything they don’t want shown. So Dylan here does some not-great stuff, like being unreasonable onstage and having an affair with Joan Baez when his girlfriend is out of the country, but he never uses any illegal drugs. Actually, I don’t think anyone in this entire movie about musicians in the sixties is even shown smoking pot.

Big Problem Two (the bigger problem): Walk Hard. John C. Reilly’s 2007 fake music bio’s story of Dewey Cox accurately and effectively mocked every beat of a conventional music biopic that it’s impossible to watch a real one without comparing it to the equivalent scene in Walk Hard. Alamo Drafthouse made it even harder by playing the Bob Dylan parody scene from Walk Hard before the movie.

Here’s the thing: if you can somehow shut those issues out of your mind while you watch, there are some really strong performances. Chalamet’s Dylan performance and voice (both talking and singing) is great. Edward Norton seems like a cartoon version of Pete Seeger, except if you’ve seen the real guy and realize it’s spot on.

But someone needs to reinvent the music biopic. Do something crazy, like replace the artist with a CGI monkey. Nah, that’s dumb.

After seeing The Girl with the Needle yesterday I was afraid that The Brutalist would be equally soul-crushing. It’s definitely not lighthearted, but not relentlessly down. The story actually lets László the architect have some good days. Crazy! It’s also over three hours long plus an intermission, but it didn’t feel long at all.

BONUS RANT! WHEEEEE!

My main problems with the movie had nothing to do with the movie. For the record: Going to the Westfield Plaza Century City AMC 15 Theatre suuuuuuuuucks. The underground parking is narrow and labyrinthine; the spot I eventually found required parallel parking against the driver’s side, with a bonus low pole to make it extra challenging. Inside the theater the people next to me kept having a conversation, and two people in front of me thought a long movie with subtitles was a great time to send text messages. Oh, and a guy’s phone rang. People still have their ringers on?

Part of the “It’s weird I’ve managed to go this long without seeing this movie” collection. Brian will probably be surprised.

Some thoughts:

• This was a good movie to watch wearing headphones.
• Jessica Harper is 25, but looks like a 35 year old who looks 25.
• Brian De Palma sure does love his split screens.
• Faust wasn’t enough story, so they threw in The Video Tape of Dorian Gray.

This feels like someone like a stage production of The Rocky Horror show but didn’t want to pay for the film rights.

The Girl with the Needle

If you like movies that start with a woman getting evicted and forced to live in filth because her husband disappeared during World War One, and then things get worse, this is the movie for you. Beautifully shot, well performed, compellingly told, and I never need to see it again. I came out of the theater so down that I decided to watch a lighter film to clear my head.

And that’s how I ended up seeing…

Tampopo (1985)

A cowboy trucker helps a woman form a crack team to make the perfect ramen restaurant, with a storytelling method that’s like a slightly more structured Dazed and Confused? Count me in!

Bonus Graphic!

I can only use one graphic for the “featured image,” so here’s the one I made for The Girl with the Needle.

Another film crossed off the “I know all the memes but I’ve never watched the movie” list!

This movie has the simplest plot possible – “I gotta get my gang out of this bad area” – but it zips by before you can get bored or tear open too many holes in the plot (and there are plenty of holes to choose from).

Some thoughts:

• There sure were a lot of costumes at the start of this movie. Some of them were pretty detailed – some costumer made a set of yellow satin jackets with custom “Electric Eliminators” logos for less than a minute of screen time.
• On the other hand, a lot of gang costumes seemed to be “everyone gets the same color of dirty shirt.
• So, all the gangs of New York send unarmed representatives to a meeting, but then they all split up?
• I like the idea that somewhere in New York City people live in terror of a group of kids with mime costumes.
• Weird to see one of the cast of Too Close For Comfort as a sex worker. Henry will be flummoxed.
• Also weird that the sexy radio announcer is The Chief from Carmen Sandiego.

Also, if Mercedes Ruehl is sitting alone on a bench in Central Park in the middle of the night, don’t try any funny stuff.