Filmic Friday 251: Can't Stop Here This Is Santa Country

In Which I Put Off Fear And Loathing for one more week, lol

It's going to be Christmas in FOUR DAYS

Oh crap.

I am soooooo not ready.

I never am.

Since I'm an unprepared potato, I thought I'd let you in on a little secret: I kinda don't like sentimental Christmas movies. Like... at all.

But I'm also not fond of comedies (I have a soft spot for Ernest Saves Christmas, but that's because I'm a 90s kid).

So what the heck kinda Christmas movies does a nerdy birdy like me like to watch?

Stupid ones, mostly, it turns out. Stupid movies, action movies, and the occasional detective romp.

My top five Christmas movies are:

• Die Hard
• Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
• How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
• Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas
• A Charlie Brown Christmas

That's... a weird top five, right? I mean, no The Santa Clause, no National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (and probably never that one thanks to the other Chevy Chase movie I watched this year... ), no A Christmas Story or Polar Express or Elf...

I mean, not even Rudolph or Frosty, and they were my childhood favorites. Seriously, I'm pretty sure I wore out the VHS tapes for both of them...

Why these five?

They all mean something to me.

Die Hard and KKBB were movies I saw for the first time with the love of my life, and that sticks with ya. It doesn't hurt matters any that they're just solid, wonderful, fun movies on their own, either.

Grinch was ubiquitous in my youth, but I was madly in love with Karloff's voice and cadence. I was also very disappointed to find out that my singing voice would never reach the deep, buttery tones of Thurl Ravenscroft...

And yeah, that's the name of the dude who sang the song.

And yeah, that's possibly the most badass name on Earth...

Emmet Otter was another childhood treasure, but it became a quest of sorts for me, where I was constantly hunting down the tv cut we'd all seen as kids where Ma mumbles about the fox falling off the dock. I was searching for it for my mother's sake, since she'd expressed a wish for it, and I'm frankly terrible at gift-giving. Suddenly, in college, I became friends with my Film And Editing Friendo, who was at long last able to conclude my search. It's a friendship that's still strong today, and I'll always be grateful for the one year where I actually got someone what they wanted.

And I know I said that I wasn't a saccharine Christmas movie person, but there's something about Charlie Brown, man. Maybe it's because we grew up surrounded by Snoopy (my parents are both fans). Maybe it's because between Charlie and Mr Rogers, that was the only real exposure to jazz music I was able to get without anyone complaining. Maybe it's just that sometimes, you want a bunch of kids singing "loo loo loo" around a crummy little tree that someone tried so hard to get for them. All I know is that it doesn't feel like Christmas to me until I hear the music from this cartoon.

Btw, my next five faves are:

• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (Rankin/Bass)
• Frosty the Snowman
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Fleischer/Jam Handy)
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• White Christmas

If you think that's weird, that's 100% okay. I'd probably find your top ten fav Christmas flix to be a bit weird too.

This does make me wonder what kinds of holiday films there are for the other... dozen or so non-Christian holidays there are during this season...

Maybe next year...

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Filmic Friday 243: The Witch (2015)

In Which My Heart Nearly Exploded

I've mentioned in the past that I'm a big wimperooni when it comes to scary movies.

So then why did I watch The Witch?!

And yes, the Hare is very important.

There are many other movies I need to talk about in the near future, but the fact that I saw this movie on Monday and I'm still thinking about it should tell you that The Witch is something truly special.

This movie follows a family of Puritans who have been cast out from their plantation and have to make their home on the edge of the woods. We know only that they have been cast out for religious reasons involving the father, and we know that the eldest daughter, Thomasin, is not at all pleased by this. She does her best to obey and be pious, however.

Because, yeah. They're Puritans. They're super duper religious.

This is a family trying their best to hold themselves together completely cut off from civilization. They work, they pray, they beg forgiveness from an apparently utterly disinterested god.

Thomasin seems to be treated the way most eldest girls were in those days - as a backup mother for the rest of the children while the actual mom does her best to work the farm. I think. To be honest, I don't see her doing an awful lot of helping. She mostly seems to just be resentful and angry, but I would be too if my husband got me kicked out of literally the only thing that stood for a town on the continent....

One day, while watching over the baby, Samuel, Thomasin plays peek-a-boo with the baby. And suddenly he's gone. In the span of covering her eyes and uncovering them, Samuel has been spirited away from Thomasin. And if you're thinking that this is left up to your imagination...

You'd be wrong.

And it's incredibly messed up, despite not showing anything violent.

So poor Thomasin is trying to cope, just like the rest of her family, with the sudden loss of baby Samuel. Then her brother Caleb, who is just old enough to be starting puberty, disappears. The family is in utter disarray and Thomasin is accused of witchcraft.

Which is where I kinda get... tetchy.

See, here's my issue: These parents suck.

Their eldest has complained repeatedly that the youngest two spend all their time hanging out with the big black billy goat, Black Phillip, chanting and dancing and neglecting their work. The little girl even claims to be a witch at one point.

The kids are scream-singing that Black Phillip is "Lord of All The Earth" at one time, and literally everything they say relating to this big. black. goat.

is Satanic.

The kids are so obviously bewitched and they'd rather blame Thomasin because how dare she grow boobs and maybe start her period soon.

These turds. These turds ruin everything for Thomasin.

And despite the fact that Thomasin is constantly being emotionally and psychologically abused by literally everyone but Caleb (because she isn't aware that he's confusedly lusting after her, poor doomed boy) and Samuel (who was a flipping baby), she loves her family so much that she'd happily put herself in danger to help them. Repeatedly. She was even going to run away from them and possibly die in the woods just to make things easier for them.

So of course this story ends very, very poorly for this family.

Heck, by the end of it, you're almost rooting for the witch.

Then again, she did murder a baby and turn it into a potion...

I won't spoil the ending, but I will say this: You'll never look at hares, ravens, or big black goats the same way ever again.

This is, in short, the perfect film to watch when you're feeling spooky.


Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 242: El Camino

In which I talk about A Very Good Movie

So, I have never watched Breaking Bad.

I know.

But I have seen a couple seasons of Better Call Saul, and like most people with an internet connection, I've got the basic story beats down. Teacher slowly gets crazy and evil after the health care system fails him miserably, drags a former student down with him. I know, I know, it's a lot more in-depth than that, but as a total outsider, that's what I gather to be the main drive of the plot. I know about Lydia and Hank Schraeder and Skinny Pete and Gale and Los Pollos and all of that. I know these things.

I also know that I cannot actually watch Breaking Bad in its entirety. I would stress myself to death.

Finally I know this: This ain't no Halloween flick.

But it's brand new and I really wanted to talk about how awesome it was from even an outsider's perspective!

That Film, of course, is "El Camino".

Oh man, this movie was great. It's kind of an epilogue to Breaking Bad, but it's also something that makes me wonder...

Because it leaves some possibilities for Better Call Saul's Gene segments.

Certain people have done certain things in this movie which could impact whether or not Saul/Gene/Jimmy have to answer for their actions in Breaking Bad.

El Camino is the story of Jesse Pinkman after he escapes the clutches of the white supremacists. From what I can gather, this Jesse is very, very different man than the one who was captured by the monstrous men. Suffering from severe PTSD, starved and desperate, this Jesse Pinkman just wants to leave without getting anyone else killed.

Jesse is desperate to avoid more violence. Yes, he takes guns. Yes, he even fires them. He does not at all want to hurt anyone. He wants to leave. He needs money to leave. Thankfully, Jesse remembers things that his captors would probably have rather he'd forgotten. Like where some of their money was hidden, or who exactly did the metal work for them.

And everything is important.

It's a very moody film, bittersweet one moment (Jesse remembering his first girlfriend who Walter watched die) and brutal the next (Jesse's flashbacks to his torment at the hands of the white supremacists). Nothing, however, compares to just how upsetting and creepy anything involving Todd is.

Freaking Todd, man...

I loved this movie, and since I knew relatively little about the events leading up to El Camino (compared to rabid fans of Breaking Bad) I came into it with no expectations.

For me, this was a satisfying tale of a man breaking free. His life will never be easy. He will never be completely free of his past.

But he might never be caged again.

And that's enough for him.

Go Enjoy Something.

FC

Filmic Friday 240: Scarface

Scarface; 1983

If you're a film fanatic, you've probably seen Scarface before, so nothing I tell you will surprise you. If, however, you're a novice to modern film and you don't know anything about this movie, the buckle up, because it's way more than just the originator of a thousand pop-culture references.

This is a really, really good example of how the movie plays, too!

So Scarface is the story of Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant who comes to America to make a living. That sounds great, right? Except Tony Montana is a killer before we ever meet him. He's a hit man. He's a con artist. He's a very bad man. But you can't help but want to see him succeed, despite the fact that he is, by the standards of most moralities, quite evil.

Yes, he only somewhat values human life. Yes, he sees nothing wrong with selling or even using drugs. Yes, he has no respect for the law.

But he loves children. He really wants to be the father he never had. He wants to have a wife and babies and to love and be loved.

He's just utter garbage at that part, though.

See, Tony Montana loves kids, but he loves money just as much, and money is much easier to come by in 1980s Miami.

I'll spare you the total overview of the movie and skim past his uneasy relationship with his mother. I'll skip past the strange relationship with and overprotective streak he has for his sister. I'll even skip over his doomed friendships and partnerships over the years. I'll just say this: If Tony wants, Tony takes.

Including his first boss's cokehead wife.

Tony's story is one of violence - every facet of his life is bound up in violence from the moment he steps off the boat to the moment he steps off the mortal coil.

There's one particular scene where that stands out - his first drug buy gone horribly wrong.

And while we never see quite what happened, we do know that it's about as horrific as it can be.

So what makes Scarface a good movie? Everything. It's a beautifully written story that is so tight and twisted you'd believe it was 100% true if you didn't know better. It's a fantastically directed film where the camera is always where it should be when it should be there with lighting and sound design to match. The score is exquisite and compliments everything perfectly.

It's a masterwork.

And then there's the acting, which is intense. Pacino is both comically over-the-top and deadly serious as Tony Montana, and he drags every single other person with him to their best possible performances. It's amazing to see.

So if you were on the fence about seeing Scarface, I can assure you, it's a spectacular film. I can also promise you that, despite being an intensely violent film, it's not anywhere near the level of a modern crime film. There are buckets of blood, but nothing feels like it's... icky. When there is blood, it serves its purpose, no more, no less.

You should absolutely see this film.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 237: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood

Confession time: I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago, but I've been dragging my heels on writing a review on it because of my movie-viewing backlog. I kind of wish I'd just written the review the night I watched it, but! A couple of weeks out, I can really tell you what I think, not just how it made me feel!

I love this poster. It's possibly the most honest movie poster I've ever seen.

So, first things first - what the heck even is Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood?

This movie is Quentin Tarrentino's simultaneous love letter to the world of Hollywood in the 1960s and a hate-screed against the Manson family. And it's very good at being both without making a single one of it's characters a saint. Everyone is human. Except for the Manson Family. And Brandy, but she's a pit bull.

The main characters of this movie are threefold: We have the story of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt man Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), each with their own arc and importance, and we have the story of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). While Cliff and Rick's stories are intertwined from the first scene, Sharon Tate is Rick's neighbor up the hill, and her story is slowly bound to theirs, though they don't really meet much.

Two fantastic actors completely disappearing into characters!

DiCaprio's Rick Dalton is struggling to survive in a Hollywood that no longer needs a shiny cowboy with fancy gunwork and a stunt double. He doesn't recognize this world anymore, and it's dragging him down. Rick's stunt-double, Cliff Booth, is also struggling, since the biggest stunt coordinators refuse to work with him for... reasons. I won't spoil that for you, but I can promise you that it involves both a flashback with a speargun and Bruce Lee.

The movie mostly follows Rick Dalton's later career, which, coincidentally, is also Cliff's later career. The two have interactions with directors, actors, and... the Manson Family - though neither knows it at the time. When the movie does shift to Sharon Tate, however, what was a struggle to survive in a Hollywood that has changed suddenly becomes a tale of an actor on the rise and her zest for life.

I'd say Margot's portrayal of a young, hopeful Sharon Tate is one of her best performances.

There is an undertone of anxiety to everything - Rick's failures, Cliff's interactions with Pussycat (one of the Family), and Sharon Tate cheating on her husband while pregnant (though I'm, like, 90% sure everyone involved knew what was going on in the movie, since they're all at a party together and even dancing together at one point). Yet there's also a totally innocent side to everything - Rick meeting the young girl he costars with on Lancer, Cliff hanging out with Brandy (his beloved dog), Sharon's joy at seeing herself on a marquis...

And then Charlie Manson decides he wants to visit someone who used to live where Sharon Tate lives now. He appears in exactly one scene. His only lines are to innocuously ask where the previous tenants have gone, but you know. You know who he is.

The smug turd...

The story really gets going once Cliff gives Pussycat a ride and meets Squeaky Fromme at the old ranch where he and Rick used to shoot westerns. There are fights, arguments, and rage, but somehow, the weirdest thing to come out of this interaction is an acid-laced cigarette.

And a very young lady trying to bed Cliff, who has none of her nonsense.

Meanwhile, Rick is trying to remember what it was to be a real actor once more, and his interactions with child actor Trudi are fantastic.

It's also amazing to watch a man who has disappeared into a role make that character disappear into another role.

Without (hopefully) spoiling too much, let me just say that the absolute MVP of this movie is actually Brandy, who just wants her dinner, but keeps getting interrupted.

This is a very, very good dog.

In the end, I would absolutely recommend watching this movie! I mean, it's still got four showings a day at my local major theater, and they dropped the Nolan Batman films way faster than this. It's good stuff!

If you want to see just how alternate the alternate history of Quentin Tarrentino can be, definitely give this one a watch. Just be prepared for him continuing to indulge his weird foot fetish. I don't get it dude. I'm sorry. At least it's not 80% of the movie this time...

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 235: The Aviator

The Aviator
2004; Martin Scorsese dir.
Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchette, Kate Beckinsale

I'm being given a wonderful opportunity to watch all of the great movies I missed out on due to either being a wuss or just... not liking DiCaprio when he was at the dawn of his career (since my older sisters were obsessssssssed). Today's review is for a movie I never thought I'd see, but I've been quoting it for years. I was sat down in front of The Aviator, the 2004 biopic about Howard Hughes starring DiCaprio and directed by Scorsese.

And it's so much better than I though it might be!
And I thought it'd be great, since it's Scorsese.

I'm big into period pieces (and apparently, so is Alec Baldwin, but I'll get into that later), so this was a fairly easy sell for me. Set in the 1920s-1940s, this film follows the rise and collapse of Howard Hughes, industrialist, filmmaker, and sufferer from OCD. I'm serious - this is one of the best takes on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder I've seen in movies. It's not played as something silly or harmless - you see how it destroys everything it brushes past. Hughes is a slave to his delusions, which are so not helped by the fact that basically everyone is actually out to get him.

We start with his mother bathing him during one of the many outbreaks of disease he avoided as a child, and boy, does she seem a little crazy too. My guess is the OCD ran in his family. Maybe don't tell your child that he's not safe. Maybe tell him you'll do everything you can to protect him, instead.

Eventually, though, we come back to him as he's trying to shoot a totally bananas war movie and refusing to accept that, just maybe, he's going overboard. He reshoots everything multiple times (and waits for almost a year for cloud cover to shoot against), reshoots it again for sound, and even after the premier, which he was basically forced to hold, he's still trying to edit the thing!

Through it all, DiCaprio is fantastic, especially when playing off of a very put-upon John C Reilly.

The movie isn't afraid to show us the many loves of Howard Hughes, either, including the incomparable Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn!

Seriously, she's awesome!

This movie did, however, have me wondering if, perhaps, Hughes was a bit color blind. You see the blue in the picture above? That's all green. I'm not sure why there's green in any scenes with cameras but blue whenever it's the two of them or whenever he's away from cameras, but that's how it is. It's fascinating.

Regardless, the main pivot of the movie rests on the OCD and how it's making the eventual legal troubles between Hughes and Pan-Am's attempt at a monopoly on international air travel (assisted by Senator Brewster, played by Alan Alda). In some ways, the OCD helps - Hughes remembers details others would miss, fixates on strange things that come to mean something very important, and eventually proves that Alda's Senator is in Baldwin's CEO's pocket. I should clarify - Alec Baldwin is playing the CEO of Pan-Am, and he's basically bought out Maine's Senator, Ralph Owen Brewster (Alan Alda) so that he can seize control of the air.

It's very tense, and it's all set on the backdrop of a serious break from reality on Hughes' part where he secludes himself in his private theater, naked and alone, peeing in jars and babbling nonsensically while simultaneously trying to get the infamous Spruce Goose (an enormous wooden cargo/troop plane he was designing) to fly.

Spoilers, Pan-Am failed to make themselves the sole international carrier for the US, the Spruce Goose flew, and Howard Hughes totally lost his marbles.

But he was awesome as he did it.

I liked that the film was honest about how messed up the OCD made Hughes - compulsive handwashing, compulsive verbal repetition, detail-oriented obsession, and pathological rituals all control his life and alienate everyone he tries to love. He's a hard man to get along with - almost impossible - but he tries very hard to do everything right. Which is also a symptom of his OCD...

They also work with the fact that Howard Hughes, having been among aircraft and machinery for the bulk of his life, was very hard of hearing, which had plot significance several times, including (even as a joke) during his hearings in the Senate.

Alda is literally about ten feet away and Hughes cannot hear him without the headset.
Even with the headset, there are times he cannot hear properly.

All in all, if you like aircraft, history, Howard Hughes, Katherine Hepburn, good acting, and good cinematography, you should absolutely watch this movie.

It's well worth it!

Now, Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Filmic Friday 233: Blue Velvet

Blue Velvet is amazing

And yes, the Criterion version is also incredible.

I had the opportunity to watch David Lynch's Blue Velvet recently, and let me tell you, that thing gave me more nightmares than tax season does. That's not an indictment, though, because it's also one of the most beautiful and dreamlike movies out there. Ever want to see how Twin Peaks' Agent Cooper got his start? Ever wanted to feel like you were simultaneously dreaming and in very real danger? How about watching Dennis Hopper scream obscenities and be a VERY bad man?

Then this is your film.

You'd think this album cover-y shot of roses on a white picket fence would be comforting.
It's not.

Our hero is Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle McLachlen) who has been forced to return home from college due to his father's stroke so that he can help run the family hardware store and save them some money. On his way home from visiting dear old dad in the hospital, Jeffrey finds an ear in a field. Yes, a severed human ear. Lynch leads with the freaky.

He has a shockingly measured response to this.

Being a concerned citizen, Jeffrey brings the ear to the police. From there he gets entangled with not only the detective's daughter, Sandy (played by Laura Dern), and the case, but also ends up getting dragged into some pretty dark places.

Why yes, she is the lady from Jurassic Park!
Also, look how flipping young they both are! Adorable!

At the center of the case of the severed ear are troubled nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and terrifyingly psychotic Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). Jeffrey, being a curious and intrinsically heroic young man, gets completely swallowed up by the horrific world these two dwell in.

Though looking at Dorothy, it may be a world worth losing oneself in.

Or maybe not.

However bad you may now think it is between Dorothy and Frank, it's far, far worse and infinitely weirder.

One thing you cannot accuse this movie of is sugarcoating the violence. Every moment of violence feels both inevitable and shocking. The finale is also possibly one of the most tense and frightening moments of 1986 cinema.

Because having Dennis Hopper wheezing into some kind of druggy gas
while pointing a silenced pistol at you is never fun.

I'm being sparse and vague here because I really want you to go see this movie. Get ahold of a copy. Settle in with comfortable seating and snacks, and be prepared for the subtle references to the Red Room and the Black Lodge (especially in the Slow Club).

Also be very prepared for an amazing movie.

My final note is this: you cannot convince me that Frank Booth isn't a previous earthly incarnation of Bob the Killer from Twin Peaks.

And on that note, I bid you adieu.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC

Filmic Friday 231: Ladyhawke

Once upon a time there was an actor named Rutger Hauer. He was brilliant and starred in many movies, bringing far more to even the silliest roles (Blind Fury, for instance) than they could ever have called for. All legends die eventually, however, and this month we lost this brilliant star. In honor of his life, I'd like to take a moment to talk about one of his most underrated roles in a very underrated fantasy film from the 1980s. I'd like to talk about Ladyhawke.

Though I confess, I do not own a copy of the BluRay and was unaware there was one!

One time, my father was working late at his job and it was New Year's Eve. I don't remember exactly if this was the Y2K thing (he works IT), but regardless, we were holed up in an unused conference room, myself and my siblings, and this movie was in the pile of DVDs we were using on the projector my dad had set up for us. Let me tell you, it was quite the shock going from Fantasia 2000 to Ladyhawke.

Our story begins with Matthew Broderick's character, Philippe "Mouse" Gaston, escaping from an inescapable dungeon in the walled city of Aquila, which I'm pretty sure is supposed to be in France, but even back then I knew my French countryside from my Italian countryside, and you know in an instant that this is Italy, not France. Regardless, Mouse digs and swims his way to freedom, chatting to God the whole time like a crazy man. Eventually, he steals a guard's unattended purse and some clothes from some peasants, and then he ends up at a tavern.

So what does a man who has just escaped hanging do?

He announces what he's just done for everyone to hear and invites them to toast him. Of course half of the patrons are guards from the city he just escaped and there's a fantastic fight scene while he tries to escape his fate. Just as all seems lost, however, a mysterious man steps in and fends off the soldiers with blade and crossbow alike!

It's Rutger Hauer!!!

Hauer is playing a brooding knight-errant called Navarre who travels with a hawk named Isabeau and a huge steed named Goliath. He presses Mouse into service, demanding that he guide them into Aquila.

Mouse is quite willing. After some strong-arming...

Eventually, however, it becomes clear that Mouse has gotten entangled in something both magical and frightening. Isabeau the hawk is not merely a bird, but a transformed woman - Isabeau of Anjou (Michelle Pfeiffer) - who was beloved by Navarre. The two made vows to a priest but were betrayed to the Bishop of Aquila, who had developed a very unhealthy fixation on Isabeau. He cursed the two to be always together, yet always apart. During the day, Isabeau is the eponymous Ladyhawke, but at night, Navarre becomes an enormous black wolf. Needless to say, there's a lot of playing around with this, including some downright Cyrano de Bergerac "let me speak for you" stuff with poor Mouse playing in-between.

Finally, during one of the many brushes with the Bishop's Guards on their way to Aquila, Isabeau is shot with a crossbow bolt and Mouse is forced to leave behind an injured Navarre and take the wounded bird to a crumbling castle where we meet Imperius, the monk who betrayed the lovers.

I love this character.

Imperius, drunk as he usually is, does his best to heal Isabeau and explain what's happening to Mouse. Then he breaks the big news: there's a way to break the curse! See, all they have to do is get both Isabeau and Navarre to confront the Bishop in their human forms. Problem: they're never human at the same time but for a split second at dawn and dusk, and that's not going to work. Thus, they need to do it at a very specific time: when there is day without night and night without day.

Can you guess what that means? Because I was probably 9 and guessed it, but I guess things being pretty distinctly 12th century here, they're not really publicly aware of certain celestial events...

It takes several more adventures and brushes with death for Navarre to get on board with Imperius' plan, including him nearly killing Mouse in his wolf form while Mouse is trying to save him from drowning in a frozen river, but they get there eventually and ride into Aquila.

Navarre ends up charging into mass on horseback, having an amazing fight with the wicked Captain of the Guard, and then he confronts the Bishop.

Who is a fantastically weaselly scumbag

The final blow does not come, however, until the cathedrals enormous agate window is shattered, revealing what I'd guessed was coming half the movie ago:

"Day without night, night without day"
Solar Eclipse.

Isabeau walks in and the two confront the wicked Bishop together, breaking their curse. The Bishop tries to rally himself once more and attempts to kill the lovers while Navarre's back is turned, but he buries his family blade in the evil man.

Isabeau and Navarre then presumably live happily ever after!

So happy.

So yes, this is a slightly predictable film, if you've watched a lot of fantasy, but it's beautiful. I mean, how could it not be, being a Richard Donner film? It has fantastic 80s synth/70s demi-disco, which should feel entirely out of place in a historic fantasy but somehow works perfectly; the world is soaked in sunlight or moonlight; every threat feels like it could end in tragedy.

There are no bad actors in the main cast, and my only complaint is that every child is very obviously dubbed by the same falsetto-rich voice actor.

If you want to watch a movie where Rutger Hauer is a total badass, this is probably the film for you.

I'm going to miss him.

Go Enjoy Something
FC

Filmic Friday 230: The Last Black Man in San Francisco

If you are able to see this movie, do it.

Sometimes you watch a movie and it's just a movie. You sit back with your popcorn and your soft drink, you stare at the scene, and the pictures move, and you're watching a movie. It doesn't affect you. It doesn't make you uncomfortable or make you think or tell you anything new.

But sometimes, you go to a movie and you cannot deny to yourself that filmmaking is an art.

That actors are powerful beings.

That writers are something approaching gods of the heart and mind.

That directors are just as magical as painters when it comes to transporting you to another world.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is ART.

When I saw the trailer for it, I knew I'd like it - the sun-soaked scenery, the strange, quirky characters, the beautiful setting of California...

I was not in any way prepared for this to be as beautiful as it was.

This movie is the story of Jimmie Fails (playing himself), a black man living in, as you might expect, San Francisco. He lives with his friend Montgomery Allen, an aspiring playwright and director and artist (played by Jonathan Majors). We open on the two waiting for a bus into the city while a street preacher cries out against the dangers of the polluted waters and the hypocrisy of the cleanup efforts.

Majors' performance is exquisite, I feel. He's both ethereal and completely human.
Fails is amazing, with complete control over himself and his craft, and I'm completely in awe.

The two eventually give up on the bus, riding into town on Jimmie's skateboard in one of the most beautifully choreographed rides I've ever seen on film. With San Francisco's golden sun beaming down and the city coming alive around them, it's one of the most incredible ways I've been consumed by a film opening ever. I'm not kidding - with every turn and perfectly timed push, it was like some sort of beautiful hypnosis, bringing me into the world of the film and welcoming me into their lives.

Eventually, they arrive at there destination - a gorgeous mansion in the Fillmore District, which they carefully break into.

But they're not here to cause any kind of trouble...

Jimmie excitedly points out the proper paint color of the wrought iron gate before having Montgomery keep a lookout for him. It's now that we see why they've come.

They're here because Jimmie wants to paint the trim.

Yeah - it's a strange, wonderful movie. Buckle up

See, Montgomery gets distracted with his drawings (which are, by the way, incredible), so the homeowners suddenly appear. The wife begins hurling produce at Jimmie and asking him why he won't just leave them alone, all while her husband tells her that Jimmie's only being helpful and they are not calling the police and look, he's taking better care of the place than they are, and calm down!

My favorite part is where she tells him to GET THE F*** OUT OF HER BIRDIE BAAAAAAAAAAAAATH!

But why is Jimmie obsessed with this one mansion? Because when he was a kid, before his father lost everything to his drug addiction and conman ways, this was his home - a home he maintains was built by his grandfather.

This movie is about Jimmie's quest to reclaim this piece of his past - home of his only happy childhood memories, as it turns out - and to take back some of what San Francisco's gentrification has stolen from him and others like him.

Things really pick up when the rich white couple are forced to move out due to the woman's mother dying (which means the angry birdie-bath lady didn't even own the house!), and Jimmie sees his opening.

And, of course, promptly seizes it.

This movie isn't about the house itself, though. It definitely wants you to start out thinking that, sure, but that's not the purpose. It's not the San Francisco version of Flip or Flop. It's a movie about gentrification, the black experience in America, and the perfect impermanence of all things in life.

Because Jimmie doesn't own this house. No one does.

It's not about Jimmie finally getting his childhood home back. It's not about Montgomery putting on a play in the attic (though it's a truly potent scene). It's not about Jimmie's mother fluttering into and out of his life like whirlwind without ever touching down. It's not about Jimmie's father selling bootleg dvds out of a Single Room Occupancy unit. It's not about Montgomery's relationship with his aging, blind father and their love of D.O.A. It's not even about the Chorus - a group of tough guys who hang out in front of Montgomery's house.

It's about life and knowing when to let go of the past.

Although I'd love a movie about the Chorus guys here.
They rock.

Seriously, though, everyone in this movie is incredible. Danny Glover is fantastic as Mont's dad. Daewon Song (yes, the skateboarder) made me howl as Jimmie's uncle. But I feel like one of the actors to watch out for is Jamal Truelove, who played Kofi. He's the one in the yellowish jacket at the far right. The first time you see these guys, you don't think they're anyone important - just a bunch of guys hanging out and talking trash in front of the only house they haven't been chased away from.

But Kofi becomes such an important character, and it wouldn't have had anywhere near the impact it did from an actor who wasn't so good.



If you only see one movie this year, definitely make it this one. The Last Black Man is strongly anti-gentrification without being preachy, it refuses to crank up the white guilt (after all, nothing really belongs to anyone in this movie), but it lets you see the way things are from a perspective I cannot access on my own.

The Last Black Man in San Francisco is a masterpiece, and you should see it.

Also, it references I Got Five On It, which is awesome because who knew that would be the song every movie uses this year?!

Go Enjoy Something (preferably this movie!)

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