If you’ve got an hour and a quarter and want to see an old boxer have a brutal fight while being betrayed by nearly everyone, this is the movie for you! Lots of snappy dialogue, tons of deep sharp shadows, a story that starts at miserable and goes down from there- classic film noir stuff.
Continuing my personal “I can’t get to the theater so I’m watching really old stuff” festival. I probably haven’t seen this movie since I took a film appreciation class at Pierce College in 1984, and it was old then. Now it’s coming up on a century, and it still holds up. It’s amazing to see how much of a blueprint this was for future comedies.
This didn’t do much for me.
Maybe it’s because I worked as a sort-of projectionist at Beatlefest in Los Angeles for a few years, showing tenth generation copies of obscure footage that the promoter had loaded onto home-grade Betamax tapes, so I’ve already seen a lot of rare Beatles stuff. Maybe it’s because I just saw a DEVO documentary that was more energetic and more directly connected to my world. Or maybe there’s been so much Beatles content in general that I’m approaching my Beatles saturation point.
Sure, there were some fascinating moments- The Miracles covering “Yesterday,” David Lynch talking about attending their first concert in the United States- but very little of The Beatles themselves felt fresh or surprising.
I found a list on Letterboxd of 100 overlooked films directed by women. I hadn’t seen any of them, and I decided I should. This is the first.
My thoughts while watching:
The Watermelon Woman has all of the strengths and weaknesses of Go Fish. It’s about fascinating subjects that are under-represented, and it uses natural settings and performances that sometimes increase the feel of reality. It also struggles to stretch its tiny budget, and the less polished performances can be distracting. It also has the bonus issue of being shot in color. It makes sense to use color to separate current events from the old films and photos, but it’s a lot harder to get color right.
One movie down, 99 to go!
Apparently I’m in Silent Movie Mode. This one came out within two months of The General, but it feels much more dated (well, except for The General’s heavily implied pro-racism stance). The story is whisper-thin. It’s a movie where people meet one day, and by the end of the next day they’re engaged. The main reason it still holds up at all is Clara Bow; she makes even the most nonsensical plot point watchable.
I did not expect to hear Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” in a movie about a lonely gay man in post World War II Mexico, but that’s actually pretty tame for a Luca Guadagnino movie based on a William S. Burroughs novel. There’s a little too little story to sustain a movie this long, and the tonal shift in the third act is jarring, but it mostly works.
Also features significant discussion of telepathy.
This movie is nearly a century old, and it’s still engaging. It’s full of incredible stunts that would never be attempted today. Keaton’s expressions tell more than most actors can do with words. A great film… except for the whole “hooray for the Confederacy” thing. If you can manage to turn off the part of your brain that knows he’s fighting in favor of slavery, it’s a great ride.
As for the unclear date: most places say it was released in December of 1926, but a lot (including Amazon, where I watched it) say 1927. Release dates weren’t as locked in then, so that’s not surprising.
“Lighthearted fun” sounds dismissive, but making lighthearted fun that’s actually lighthearted and fun is an impressive skill. This is the best movie about Japanese schoolgirls (and a boy) accidentally causing food poisoning and then being forced to join a jazz band I’ve ever seen.
Well worth the subtitles.
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.