Richard Lester sure has a distinct style. Big chunks of this could be seamlessly dropped into A Hard Day’s Night. And like A Hard Day’s Night, there isn’t much story here. One guy wants to learn how to get girls from his roommate. Another guy who wants to paint everything white moves himself in. A woman moves to London with nothing and is looking for the YWCA.
And then the hi-jinks happen.
It’s… fine. Lester’s trying to be avant-garde/artistic; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if I watched it in a London movie theater six decades ago, but I foolishly wasn’t born yet.
I decided I needed something light and pleasant to clear Gladiator II out of my brain, so I do a quick search through the classic movies I’d never seen and landed on a movie about Nazis invading Poland. Fun! What a wild mix of screwball comedy and WWII spy adventure.
I only knew Jack Benny from bits on television, where he usually overplayed his cheapskate shtick and shamelessly mugged at the camera, so it was a bit of a shock to see him actually acting, and being good at it . Lots of comedy, but lots of serious bits as well.
Also: is it too late to have a little crush on Carole Lombard? Asking for a friend.
The biggest mistake this movie makes is including footage from the original Gladiator. Every time it happened I thought “wow, look how much better that movie looks.” This one is a giant wash of dull colors and obvious CGI.
It’s a good cast that is trying to make the movie work; Denzel Washington in particular is having a lot of fun. I just wish they were all in a better film.
I was in my mid-thirties when this movie came out, when I thought I was too old to go to a Disney cartoon. That’s a shame, because this doesn’t feel like a Disney movie; it feels like Warner Brothers infiltrated the Magic Kingdom and made a Looney Tunes movie. Lots of quick gags, characters who are aware they’re in a movie (but only when it serves the story), sneaky adult jokes… a very different feel from a typical Disney film. Funny stuff.
I know Greta Gerwig directed Barbie, and that was huge- but how is she not a massive force as a performer? She’s a skilled and magnetic actor, and she’s what scientists have been known to call “good lookin’.” My best guess is that she was choosy about her roles, and would rather be in smaller productions with strong characters than in big budget movies as Generic Leading Lady. Either that or Hollywood is dumb.
Holy crap, Allee Willis did everything! If you don’t know who she is- I sure didn’t- this whole documentary is full of “wait- she also did THAT?” moments. You’ve heard the pop music she wrote (starting with Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”). You’ve seen the art she created. You know the musical she did the music for. She was an early champion of Internet art and digital creativity for all. I can’t even estimate how much of the pop culture of my childhood originated in her brain.
This documentary also has a huge advantage: Willis constantly documented what she was doing. Photos, audio, video, extensive notes; if there was a way to keep a record, she did it. It’s an unabashed celebration of her bonkers life, and it’s crazy fun.
I realized after I got home that this is the second “two relatives with wildly different personalities tour Poland to see where their pre-WWII families lived,” but unlike Treasure, this one is actually good. Sure, the primary conceit doesn’t seem like something any rational person would actually do – “Grandma died, so let’s deal with the pain by visiting historical Holocaust locations from her life” – but it’s pretty clear from the start that neither of these guys is thinking clearly.
Jesse Eisenberg is strong as “Woody Allen, but as a devoted family man instead of a creep,” and Kieran Culkin is fantastic as the coolest guy/biggest loser you’ll ever likely to meet.
Also: this movie really made me miss Jennifer Grey’s original nose. Not that her current one is bad at all, but it’s not the nose of my youth.
Today was a “two movies at two theaters” day: Heretic at the Universal Citywalk AMC, and Memoir of a Snail at Alamo Drafthouse. Gotta keep those movie passes working!
Heretic
Once I assumed that these were two Mormon missionaries who had so little sense of danger that they’d walk wide-eyed into a unsafe situation, this movie was a lot of fun. Nonsense, but fun. Also: Hugh Grant is a natural at playing a creep. What a surprise.
Memoir of a Snail
If you saw clips from this and thought “Oh, a stop-motion animation movie- I shall bring my children,” maybe give it another look before you load the kids into the SUV and head down to the multiplex. It’s a great movie, but it’s clear from the very first scene where someone dies- not in a Disney “maybe they’re just sleeping” way, but in a “gasping for their final breaths in their deathbed” way- that this is made for adults. Also, it’s Australian; are kids allowed to watch Australians (even in cartoon form)?
Bonus image!
I can only use one image for the featured image. Normally when I see two movies in a day I mash the images together in some way, but I didn’t care for the one I made for Heretic so I’m hiding it here. I bet you will love it so much that you will write an epic poem about it.
I see most superhero movies because I’m a sucker for them. It doesn’t matter how much nonsense they have; my brain goes into low-power mode and I accept it all.
But I something about the first two Venom movies made me skip them. After watching this one, I can say that was probably a pretty good idea. My brain just couldn’t downshift enough for this thing. It clearly wasn’t expecting to be taken seriously- Venom is constantly making jokes that would make your dad say “that’s a little corny, don’t you think?” – but the movie is so determined to use as many stale and dumb tropes that it forgets to find new dumb trope to keep people interested.
But as far as I know, it contains the first use ever of Chekov’s Hyperacid. I guess that’s something.
