What's on your Daily Viewing List? (2 Viewers)

[Thomas T]

Interesting. Incidentally, didn't Neon distribute both? I love Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

Yes, Neon distributed both. If you loved Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, I suspect you won't be as kindly disposed to Ammonite but I could be wrong.

Incidentally, I'm not pushing my blog but if you're interested on my opinion on certain films, I have over 6,000 capsule reviews up. That's all the blog is ... capsule movie reviews.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Originally Released: 12/14/2018
Watched: 02/06/2021
4K UHD disc via Panasonic DP-UB820

Friday's episode of "WandaVision" got me thinking about multiple universes and Marvel Comics, which naturally led me back to this movie -- which won Best Animated Feature at the 91st Academy Awards.

It's just delightful: every frame is brimming with visual invention, the creativity explodes off the screen. It borrows from many, many forms of visual arts and brings them together into something I've never seen before.

All of the bold, unorthodox visuals are paired with a very accessible and crowd-pleasing coming of age adventure narrative. This movie juggles a lot of balls, and it never drops any of them. The characters are all well-defined, and we do care about the ones we're supposed to care about.

There are seven Spider-People in the movie (not counting the cameos in the end credits):

1. Peter Parker/Spider-Man (E-1610) - voiced by Chris Pine: This 26-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed iteration of Spider-Man is very similar to the version from the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, only more competent. This is the Peter Parker who did everything right, and found a balance between his two identities that allowed him to thrive in both halves of his life.
2. Miles Morales/Spider-Man (E-1610) - voiced by Shameik Moore: This 14-year-old teenager is from Brooklyn and just transferred started at a new middle school. He is our protagonist, and this is his origin story.
3. Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man (E-616) - voiced by Jake Johnson: This 38-year-old iteration of Spider-Man is the closest to the mainstream comics depiction of the character. He has been Spider-Man for nearly quarter of a century, and it has taken its toll both physically and mentally. He is Miles's mentor.
4. Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman (E-65) - voiced by Hailee Steinfeld: This 15-year-old teenager comes from a reality where the spider bit her instead of Peter Parker. After a series of tragedies, she lived a solitary existence before being yanked into E-1610. She is Miles's friend and possible love interest.
5. Peter Parker/Spider-Man [Noir] (E-90214) - voiced by Nicholas Cage: This iteration of Spider-Man grew up during the Great Depression in a monochromatic universe and was yanked into E-1610 from the year 1933.
6. Peter Porker/Spider-Ham (E-8311) - voiced by John Mulaney: From a cartoon universe of talking animals, he was a regular spider until he was bit bit a radioactive pig.
7. Peni Parker/SP//dr (E-14512) - voiced by Kimiko Glenn: The daughter of the Peter Parker of her universe, this Japanese-American teen also hails from New York City, but from the year 3145. While she doesn't possess all of the superpowers that the other Spider-People have, she makes up for it with a genius-level intellect and knowledge of centuries worth of future techology. She has a telepathic bond with her radioactive spider, which pilots a massive mechanical warrior.

The three main ones -- Miles, Peter B. Parker, and Gwen -- are all complex and three-dimensional, endearing yet flawed, and play off one another wonderfully.

The supporting voice cast is also terrific:

• Mahershala Ali: Brings warmth and nuance to his role, as Miles's Uncle Aaron. Ali previously played the villainous Cottonmouth in the first season of "Luke Cage", and is set to play the title role in the upcoming MCU film Blade.
• Brian Tyree Henry: He plays Miles's father Jefferson as the kind of father who will embarrass his kid over and over again, but will always be there when he's really needed.
• Lily Tomlin: She voices what is easily my favorite silver screen version of Aunt May. Just as the Peter Parker of this universe is the most competent version of Spider-Man, she is the most competent version of Aunt May. And it's obvious that she's really seen some shit.
• Zoë Kravitz as Mary Jane Parker (E-1610)/Mary Jane Watson (E-616): One of the fun opportunities with animation is to cast really outside the box. Kravitz doesn't look anything like her character, but she captures her perfectly.
• Kathryn Hahn: I love her in everything, and this is no exception.
• Liev Schreiber as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin: The opposite of the Mary Jane casting, Liev Schreiber with a shaved head or a bald cap would absolutely be plausible as the Kingpin.

One of the fun things about the movie is that the universe that the movie is set in, E-1610, is not the one that is closest to ours. This is reflected in ways large and small, including little details like: the police department goes by PDNY instead of NYPD; Inglewood is the center of film production in Los Angeles instead of Hollywood; water polo is a major professional sport; and Koca-Soda, not Coca-Cola, being the major soft drink brand.

The movie opens up a lot of exciting possibilities for sequels and spinoffs, but it is first and foremost a satisfying one off.

* * *​

Coherence
Originally Released: 06/20/2014
Watched: 02/06/2021
1080P HD digital streaming on Hulu, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

Continuing on the theme of multiple realities, but from the opposite end of the production values spectrum comes this low-budget science fiction thriller from James Ward Byrkit, who shot the film in his own home in less than a week. Everything was tightly plotted, but nothing was scripted. Instead, each actor was separately told what he or she needed to convey during that night's shooting.

The result is a movie that uses its production limitations to its advantage. The house feels both like a more expansive setting than it actually is an oppressively claustrophobic.

The scenario devised changes the rules of cause and effect for one evening, but it doesn't introduce any external obstacles or villains. Instead, everything that happens is the consequence of the characters' choices.

It's a fun mystery to watch unfold, but I don't know that I'd get anything out of subsequent viewings.

 

[dana martin]

so cracked open the shrink wrap, and started

 

[Jake Lipson]

Tonight -- spoiler warning below for a 12-year-old Best Picture-nominated blockbuster that you should have seen by now:



I never need a reason to revisit Paradise Falls, but Christopher Plummer's passing gave me one. A lot of the tributes pouring in for him over the last few days have omitted mention of this film. Maybe it is easier to overlook his presence because it's an animated film and he isn't on screen in a physical capacity. But he is great in it and gives Charles Muntz such a commanding presence. He feels like a genuine threat to our heroes, and Plummer makes the most of his role despite the fact that the story is already well underway before he appears in the main action of the film.

Pixar has probably done the twist villain thing one too many times, but with Muntz, it works. We can feel the weight of the disappointment when Carl realizes that his childhood hero is now trying to kill him. Indeed, Muntz feels like a mirror image of what Carl could become without the companionship and new perspective given to him by Russell. We're pleased to see Muntz fall at the end f the film, but a lot of that is due to how well Plummer played him. Given its popularity, Up might even be the most widely seen movie that he was in that isn't The Sound of Music. The movie as a whole continues to be wonderful no matter how many times I've seen it. I highly recommend another viewing if you haven't seen it in a while. I certainly throughly enjoyed it tonight.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Stargirl
Originally Released: 03/13/2020
Watched: 02/07/2021
4K digital streaming on Disney+

No, this isn't about the DC Comics superhero.

Adapted from Jerry Spinelli's well-reviewed young adult novel, this movie had a troubled production history; originally developed by Catherine Hardwicke for theatrical release with Joey King in the title role, it was retooled under Julia Hart for Disney+.

I haven't had the best experience with other Disney+ originals for young audiences, but I've had a sinus headache that's grown steadily worse all day and I was looking for something undemanding that would hold my attention. And Hart's previous film, Fast Color, was one of the best films of 2018.

The movie begins on the morning of Leo Borlock's 16th birthday. At the end of marching band practice, he spots Stargirl from across the football field and is immediately captivated. When she serenades him with "Happy Birthday" at lunch, in front of the whole school, he's completely entranced.

Leo's father died when he was eight, and afterward he moved with his mom across the country to a drab, dispirited little town in the Arizona desert. Since his father's death, he had taken to wearing his father's goofy porcupine tie everywhere. The first day at his new school, a bunch of kids beat him up and cut his porcupine tie with scissors. Since then, he's focused on mastering the art of conformity, to drawing as little attention to himself as possible. The one cherished echo of his more unrepressed childhood is the new porcupine tie that shows up mysteriously on his birthday each year.

Stargirl, who had been homeschooled up until this point, enters public school with a self-confidence and sense of self that Leo both admires and envies. Her colorful, retro style and varied interests are completely unshaped by the opinions of her peers.

When her ukulele performances at the high school football games rally the perpetually defeated team to victory, she experiences a level of popularity that confounds Leo, because it flies in the face of all of the rules he has imposed upon himself for social survival.

VanderWaal actually was 16 when she filmed this movie, while Graham Verchere was playing younger as Leo. But right from their first interaction, there is a definite imbalance in the dynamic between them; Stargirl is way more mature than Leo, and way more sure of who she is and what she wants. VanderWaal seems quite unconventional in real life, and both her speaking voice and her singing voice are a bit odd and unique. Her oddness gives the character credibility without undermining her intelligence or earnestness. And it's not a case of Stargirl not knowing how to fit; she does, and can, but chooses not to.

Leo, on the other hand, is the type of person who prefers to listen than to speak. Unusually for a teenage boy, he weighs his words carefully and says exactly what he means. His acceptance of ambiguity, and his willingness to admit to what he doesn't know, are more likely than not the qualities that attracted Stargirl to him.

Stargirl is the title character and focal point of the movie, but she's not the protagonist. She enters the picture more or less fully formed and -- except for a brief moment of self-doubt -- leaves the picture the same person. Stargirl is the type of person who knows what she wants to do next and acts without hesitation. Leo is the protagonist, because he learns and grows, and has the capacity to learn and grow.

In the primary supporting adult roles, Darby Stanchfield is warm, present, and responsible as Leo's widowed single mother while Giancarlo Esposito's is perceptive if a bit irregular as Archie, Leo's boss and mentor who runs the local dinosaur-themed roadside attraction.

All in all, I enjoyed it more than I expected to. There were some improbable moments -- Mandy Moore's complex and intricate choreography for some of Stargirl's song and dance numbers come to mind -- but mostly it was really grounded and small scale. It felt like a throwback to the live action Disney films from fifties, sixties, and seventies. Like those movies, it provides a safe, wholesome space for children to process the thoughts, ideas, and feelings they might be grappling with.

 

[Matt Hough]

Up is definitely one of the great animation accomplishments of this century and deserves all the praise it can get. I loved it.

My review of the 3D release can be found here. I haven't watched this in 3D on my OLED, so I think that will be today's viewing.

 

[dana martin]

last nights counter programing to what was on TV

 

[dana martin]

Last Night's Double Feature

 

[DFurr]

Tonight is Wings of the Hawk, 3D BD. Should be fun!!

 

[dana martin]

the 70's vibe is great on this, a mix of Enter the Dragon meets Big Trouble in Little China meets Batman,

and James Hong at a 91 years young, voicing the Master is perfection, with little Lo-Pan twist.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Originally Released: 10/20/2017
Watched: 02/09/2021
1080P HD digital streaming on Apple TV app, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

Sandwiched between Yorgos Lanthimos's Oscar-nominated quirky dark comedies The Lobster and The Favourite was this very unconventional thriller from 2017, a horrifying film with none of the usual trademarks of the horror genre.

Colin Farrell plays Steven Murphy, a successful cardiothoracic surgeon in Cinncinati. For reasons initially unexplained, he has befriended a teenage boy named Martin. Steven meets with Martin regularly at a diner, and then they go for walks in the park. He lavishes Martin with expensive gifts.

Steven lives in a mansion with her wife Anna, an eye doctor with her own practice, and his two children: teenage daughter Anna and younger son Bob.

The entire movie exists in a sort of dream state; all of the characters speak and behave as if they're in a trance. None of them emotion at first, and later -- when the situation has escalated significantly -- the emotion only comes as if piercing a thick fog. The dialog is overly precise, and somewhat detached of meaning and purpose.

Thimios Bakatakis's cinematography furthers the unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere. All of the environments feel institutional or drab, yet nothing feels quite real.

As the story proceeds, we learn Steven's connection to Martin: Before achieving sobriety three years earlier, Steven was an alcoholic. He was intoxicated the day he operated on Martin's father, who died on the operating table during what should have been a routine surgery.

Martin is homely and awkward, but possesses a strange charisma and power that draws people to him. He offers Steven the sort of ultimatum that Artemis issued to Agamemnon in Greek mythology: Since Steven killed a member of Martin's family, Martin demands that Steven kill a member of his own family to balance the scales. If he does not, his wife and children will fall ill and eventually die.

Steven dismisses Martin at first, but then his son experiences paralysis from the waist down, and stops eating. His daughter follows suit not long after.

What makes Barry Keoghan's performance as Martin so terrifying is the lack of menace. He checks all of the boxes for a psychopath: only superficial empathy, a complete lack of remorse, and a bold lack of restraint. Yet Martin pursues his revenge like a janitor scrubbing a dirty toilet: it's a distasteful and unpleasant task, but he's getting on with it because it needs to get done.

The film's power comes from its ambiguity -- it is left unexplained how Martin is able to impose his will on Steven's family -- and its mounting sense of inevitability. As a surgeon, Steven is used to being the master of his universe. Martin slowly, steadily strips away Steven's hubris and sense of control. Steven is a wealthy and connected doctor and Martin is a dorky teenager. Yet in the battle of wills between them, Martin is indomitable and Steven is continually forced to yield.

For the movie to work, the entire cast has to be on its very specific wavelength, and they are.

As Steven, Farrell brings a ferocity to those handful of moments when he breaks free of the trance.

Nicole Kidman, brings a sort of collected pragmatism to the role of Anna, Steven's wife. She pursues her agenda without ego or pride, first to figure out why Martin is terrorizing her family, and then to find a way to survive his reckoning.

Raffey Cassidy, so winsome as the plucky child android in Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, unearths a lot of nuances under in daughter Kim. The movie finds Kim at that awkward juncture between girl and woman; the fact that she has just started getting her period is remarked upon by multiple characters. Kim is somewhat plain, and her musical ambitions outstrip her talent. She has left behind the child she was, and is only beginning the process of figuring out the adult she will become. Kim becomes infatuated with Martin because Martin has conveyed desire for Kim, and it is novel for Kim to feel desired in that way. The character's early insecurities and sense of alienation can distract from her later grit. Kim got an A+ for her essay on Iphigenia; she knows, maybe better than the rest of the family, the terms of her father's current dilemma. And she will not go quietly into that good night.

Sunny Suljic, as the youngest member of the Murphy family, does a good job playing a confident young lad who soon finds himself trapped in a game that everybody else is more skilled at playing.

I don't know that it's an objectively good film; Lanthimos's pitch black sense of the absurd certainly isn't to my liking. But it held my attention, made me deeply uncomfortable, and has been rattling around in my head since.

 

[HawksFord]

The Detective (1968) — Next up in my pile of unwatched Twilight Time discs was this one starring Frank Sinatra as a police detective bucking the system. We get a sense of his character right away with the brutal murder of a gay man. Sinatra's character stands apart from the other officers in his respectful attitude toward the victim and witnesses. It's an ambitious film but one that falls short of the mark. My wife liked it more than I did. She connected with Sinatra's character from the beginning and liked his story arc. I thought the story was too muddled. There's a very entertaining commentary track with Nick Redman, David Del Valle, and Lem Dobbs.

I don't have a great theme for the week, but we'll get in at least one more New York City based crime story from the late 60s before the week is out.

 

[dana martin]

last nights viewing, another from the large blind buy / unwatched pile

This from Etiquette Pictures a sub label from Vinegar Syndrome, that sadly ended after only four very unique releases, luckily, I got these when they was first announced, instead of that insane prices that the OOP copies go for now.

Interesting because Hopper was such a mix of so many things, this documentary drama, where is is himself, but at the same time acting as Dennis Hopper; it is such an insight into the mind of a creative genius during part of his self imposed exile from Hollywood, during the editing phase of The Last Movie. And at that point I loved his comparison of himself to Wells, and if the film failed at the box-office it would be his "The Magnificent Ambersons".

During the feature, he discusses so many things and philosophical thoughts in a communal sense, that at one point you see the interpretation of the Photojournalist that would show up in Apocalypses Now. And the more I watched it, I believe that Hopper adlibbed most of his dialogue in that film.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Tonight:

 

[Mike Frezon]

Peg and I were in the mood for something light...so we opted for a Sandra Bullock rom-com that had been on our "to watch" list for years: Hope Floats.

This is a supremely unspectacular film. A rote story with unimaginative pinnings. If the cast wasn't as likeable as it was, it would have been agony. (Peg has a thing for Harry Connick...so that helped her quite a lot. ) Very much a by-the-numbers story of a divorcee and new-found love.

 

[dana martin]

Tonight's Feature Presentation

Another from the purchased pile that I needed to desperately knock the dust off of and finally watch. I haven't seen this if my memories serve me correctly in almost 47-50 years as a kid, maybe 11 or 12, on probably a Saturday afternoon, when the local station would program things like this, early John Wayne Lone Star westerns, occasional Weissmuller or Barker Tarzan's or Rathbone Sherlock Holmes and the Charlie Chan films. And even then those films left an impression, as to getting me to pay attention to the differences each film had to offer.

What a revelation looking at this with adult eyes, and how great it really is, the interplay amongst the cast is great, the humor is just as needed. and well that recommendation from RAH , is spot on, so let me echo that other comment in his " A few words about..." If Warner Archive would be gracious to look at another great film in the adventure genre from the golden year of 1939.

Gunga Din would be a wonderful release, for some of us older "boys" who still like old school adventure films.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Meek's Cutoff
Originally Released: 04/08/2011
Watched: 02/11/2021
1080P HD digital streaming on Amazon Prime Video, upscaled to 4K via Roku Ultra

The year is 1845, only two years after the Great Migration of 1843, and a wagon train of three families is heading west along the Oregon Trail. Their guide, Stephen Meek, has promised to shorten their journey by taking them along a horse trail through the Oregon High Desert.

The movie opens with them collecting water at the Malheur River, the last time they will see a fresh source of drinkable water for the length of the movie. By the time it becomes clear that Stephen Meek has grossly oversold his knowledge of the region, it is too late to turn back.

The wagon train is fortunate that to have as its captain the sensible and even-tempered Solomon Tetherow, who able to think clearly and strategically in a crisis. When they encounter, and later kidnap, a lone Native American who seems to know this region far better than their supposed guide, he does not allow himself to be overcome by prejudice. Instead, he sees the man as a resource, a stance supported and reinforced by his fierce and capable young wife.

This is not a movie for people with short attention spans. It is devoid of dramatic storytelling, and there isn't really any villain except the sheer vastness of the American West and the inhospitable nature of this specific area.

The entire movie is just watching these people travel roughly 200 miles. In just living with them and existing with them, the movie conveys a certain sense of what being pioneer must have been like. Not just the hardness of the life, but also the uncertainty.

Will Patton and Michelle Williams are very good as Mr. and Mrs. Tetherow. Bruce Greenwood is suitably colorful as Stephen Meek. Native American actor, stuntman, and rodeo star Rod Rondeaux is suitable inscrutable as "the Indian", whose unsubtitled dialog is entirely in the Crow language. Real life partners Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan play a young couple; Dano's character is submissive and uncertain, while Kazan's character is frequently hysterical.

* * *​

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
Originally Released: 02/12/2021
Watched: 02/12/2021
4k digital streaming on Amazon Prime Video via Roku Ultra

This teenage rom-com continues the trend kicked off by Netflix's "Russian Doll" stories about two people trapped in a Groundhog Day-style time loop together.

It was on my radar because the screenplay was by The Magicians author Lev Grossman, adapting his own 2016 short story. @DaveF and I were posting recently about our shared loved for Syfy's television adaptation of those novels. This movie has a similar mix of the outrageous, the absurd, and the absolutely heartbreaking.

This movie picks up in medias res, with teenager Mark on roughly his thousandth loop through the same day. It assumes that the audience has seen enough of these types of stories to understand what is going on without having to walk us through what's going on.

Mark has perfected his routine, which combines small things that bring him pleasure with tiny moments of kindness. He's been working on winning over this British girl he's got a crush on, having perfected a couple key moves to impress her, but he's stymied by the fact that she has plans in the evening and there's never another day to follow up.

One day a girl he's never met before strolls blithely through this scene he's seen play out countless times. She is the first unrepeated thing he's encountered in a very, very, very long time. Her name is Margaret, and it's roughly her thousandth loop through the same day too.

I really appreciated this movie's understanding of causality. Mark and Margaret live life without traditional consequences. Because everything resets, and because they know what is going to happen, they can do things that would never be acceptable or even possible normally. But it also means that they can understand with perfect clarity the immediate consequences of their actions. What they do, or don't do, affects everyone around them.

And once they come into each other's lives, there is a continuity that is reintroduced into their existences. The world may be essentially static, but they're not, and what they mean to each other isn't. People change people, and the impact Mark and Margaret have on each other changes and deepens even their experience in this endless day. Through each other's eyes, they see moments of mundane, everyday absolute magic -- the tiny perfect things of the title.

As the two main characters, Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton have wonderful odd couple chemistry. Mark is your classic Type-B personality: easy-going, relaxed, content to let life happen to him. Margaret, on the other hand, is very Type A: Driven, meticulous, goal-oriented, and anxious. What they have in common is years of experience navigating this day and this existence, which has warped them in similar ways while not depleting them of their kindness or decency.

The supporting cast doesn't have a lot to do, because this movie is squarely Mark and Margaret's, but they are all solid: Josh Hamilton brings a warmth and fragility to Mark's father. Cleo Fraser is very plausible as Mark's bratty little sister, and equally plausible when that brattiness is revealed to mask deeper frustration, sadness, and disappointment. Jorja Fox is particularly strong as Margaret's mother, who has to convey a lot with relatively little screen time. Jermaine Harris is also fun as Mark's best friend and sounding board, who has had to listen to Mark's trials and tribulations many, many times -- but, fortunately for him, every time is the first time.

 

[HawksFord]

Wait Until Dark (1967) — In the Before Times, we used to regularly go to community theater shows. One of the last we saw before everything shut down was a local production of Wait Until Dark. That got my wife to remembering seeing the movie on TV when she was in high school. It was a major influence in her love of suspense stories. This week seemed a good time to finally revisit the movie which is excellent. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman being terrorized by the psychotic Alan Arkin. We watched the Warner Archive blu-ray which as a too short mini-documentary about the film with Arkin and Mel Ferrer.

 

[dana martin]

The Early Show
Another in the film in the short Etiquette Pictures line

Modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello, that was originally a stage play in the United Kingdom. When it came time to film this Patrick McGoogan, fresh off of his stint from The Prisoner was living in New Mexico and decided to transpose the story there. Unfortunately, it's a convoluted mess, a great cast and a very creative person in their first and only directorial effort. The story does not translate as well as it should have, the music and songs are great. But this was coming out at the same time as Jesus Christ Superstar. Ultimately this ended up as a failure at the box office.

Arguably, probably one of the greatest writers ever, Shakespeare will always be open to interpretation, sometimes though it’s best just to take literally the play that he wrote and film it that way. That's why better interpretations by Orson Welles and Kenneth Branagh do such a wonderful job.

Maybe I am being to overly critical, as the music is really good on this, and the actors do fill the parts well, may have to give this another watch, to make a more definitive impression of how I feel about it.

 

[bujaki]

Wait Until Dark (1967) — In the Before Times, we used to regularly go to community theater shows. One of the last we saw before everything shut down was a local production of Wait Until Dark. That got my wife to remembering seeing the movie on TV when she was in high school. It was a major influence in her love of suspense stories. This week seemed a good time to finally revisit the movie which is excellent. Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman being terrorized by the psychotic Alan Arkin. We watched the Warner Archive blu-ray which as a too short mini-documentary about the film with Arkin and Mel Ferrer.

Good thriller, and Hepburn was nominated for an AA. In my opinion, for the wrong film. She deserved it much more for the same year's Two for the Road.