What movies did you see last week? (1/13-1/19)

Blade
A Few Good Men

That's fair for Phoenix. I appreciate the contrivance of the plot: I think that extra fantastical edge is what makes it great. Petzold emphasizes the unreality of the situation to drive home how Nelly feels, suspended in a limbo between her past and the present. (Transit uses different tricks to achieve the same effect.) Just imagine how dull this would be if this was a Weinstein produced movie.

Paterson is pretty much the kindest, gentlest movie ever made and if you have any idea how much I love movies that I label as "kind," you'll know that I adore it.

assorted 2010s stuff, 2005 stuff

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (rewatch) - even better than I remembered. 9/10

Rampart - 5/10

August: Osage County - 7/10

13 Assassins - 7/10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (rewatch) - 8.5/10

Mission Impossible: Fallout (rewatch) - 8.5/10

L'Enfant - 6.5/10

In Her Shoes - 7/10

Jarhead - 6/10

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - Gay Val Kilmer is my January obsession. I just don't like Shane Black all that much. 7/10

The Pope of Greenwich Village - 7 / 10

Heaven Can Wait (1978) - 7.5 / 10

Lethal Weapon 3 - 7 / 10

Manhunter - 8 / 10

A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood - 8 / 10

Romancing The Stone - 7.5 / 10

Someone to Watch Over Me - A fairly standard but reasonably entertaining 80s romantic thriller about a cop falling in love with the rich woman he's supposed to protect after she witnesses a murder. Alongside with a somewhat similar 1987 movie "Fatal Attraction", we're asked to invest our sympathies in a character who cheats on his by all means wonderful wife (played terrifically here by Lorraine Bracco in one of her first screen turns) and although that idea may seem dubious I'm kind of glad that he's not let off the hook that easily here. Still, the movie doesn't end up condemning him enough either but hey, it's just a fun genre piece so it's all right. Interesting that Ridley Scott decided to do this after a streak of films that deal with either historical or fantastical worlds. His visual sensibilities do elevate the proceedings.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot - I thought this was not gonna work and yet I was still disappointed. No 'surprisingly good!' revelation happened either. The first one is not a great film but it's got a special place in my heart since I used to watch it tons and tons of times when I was a kid. I still quote shit from it all the time. Unfortunately since he took on pot and dropped his 'too cool for school' attitude, Smith just became much more of a fun podcaster than a filmmaker. This is not so much a movie for most audiences to enjoy but rather a very niche thing designed specifically for those who still care about Smith and know his filmography and personal life well. And yes, all the little nods to his peers and all the cameos by his friends and family are kind of heartwarming but the movie around them just doesn't work at all. It starts off okay but the middle is just a bunch of really unfunny sketches (KKK? Pedophiles? The fuck what he trying to do and why wasn't any of it funny?) and the final act is just a clusterfuck. On top of that the thing is as sappy as "Jersey Girl" which gets made fun of here but is actually closer to what this film is than "J&SB Strike Back". Plus the totally flat digital look of the movie is all wrong for it since the colors are for some reason very cold which has an effect of detachment. Not that it's a specific choice - I'm fully sure it's all just laziness of Smith's part. I mean, I'll always have a soft spot for him and these bozos but this was pretty bad.

White Dog - The film is far from perfect but it still is a pretty fascinating look at racism and whether hatred is something that can be erased from a being. It's a shame that it was completely buried by Paramount back in 1982 - I can't imagine how despiriting it must've felt like for Fuller when the studio didn't stand up for his film and succumbed to some stupid unfounded accusations of racism. The film is as anti-racist as it can get and yet it was accused of the opposite and got dumped because of that. I'm glad it enjoyed a cult following but still, what a shame.

Motherless Brooklyn - It felt pretty good watching a 50s detective story in the midst of all the other 2019 releases, even if it wasn't an eye-opening experience or anything. The central character is interesting enough to keep the somewhat familiar labyrinth of a plot alive and the feeling of melancholy spread throughout the film was more than welcome. And even though Dick Poop's cinematography was a bit stale, I actually kinda appreciated how it didn't try to make the period feel too fussy or atmospheric. Instead the look of the film leaned more towards a feeling of realism allowing us to see the streets and offices and bars the same way that the characters saw them. So there you go, a positive side can be found in almost anything!

Magic - Even though the whole thing was pretty silly, Hopkins's unhinged performance sure made it worthwhile.

John Wick: Chapter 2 - Nope, still don't get what the big deal is. Barely any characters to speak of, too self-serious for its own good, nothing interesting happening story-wise. And the action is well choreographed, yes, but it's just pretty limited. Shoot-ups and fights - where's the ambition, the new ideas? From the looks of it, those questions will be answered in the third movie which does seem promising. But the first two chapters are nothing more than basic action flicks to me.

Kind Hearts and Coronets - I wasn't that riveted by the narrative (although I do enjoy the idea of making such a murderous comedy in 1949) but Alec Guinness's performance(s) made the experience absolutely worth it. The way he created several completely different characters was an incredible sight to behold.

Richard Jewell - Very solid and genuinely powerful when it needs to be. Telling the story from an intimate, close perspective was a very good decision - I just can't imagine a viewer who won't be at least a little bit heartbroken for Jewell and his mother.

Frankie and Johnny - What could've been a standard romcom gets elevated by the sheer authenticity and truthfulness of its two main actors - Pfeiffer and Pacino are terrific together and separately in the movie. Shoutout to Kate Nelligan's hilarious supporting turn as well. It's a weird thing - the movie indulges in some very typical tropes of its genre and yet sometimes it finds moments of pretty beautiful lyricism and honest feeling. So even if I'll forget the rest of it, those moments I will cherish.

Beverly Hills Cop II - Not among the best Tony Scott flicks - it's got some of his signature visuals and a couple of fun setpieces but mostly it feels quite routinely done. Not enough comedy, not enough action, too much standard story...I felt a bit let down by this.

Dark Waters - I do like a good investigation picture and this certainly did its job well. Particularly in terms of making the point about how enormously overwhelming the grip of the world's top companies is and how we all cannot escape it no matter how we want to. Haynes's use of color does its job well too - it's not as visually stimulating as his 50s stuff but the use of a slightly toxic color palette definitely contributes to the subject matter. My main gripe with the film is with the actors - the story itself was strong enough for the movie to work but I wish the performances were better. Ruffalo spends almost the entire film with a "" face, Hathaway does her usual super actressy thing and even the usually reliable Bill Camp for some reason turns into a bit of a caricature (not to mention the ridiculous eyebrow makeup). I wonder if this good film could've been more than that with a better set of performances.

The Apostle - Robert Duvall gives a performance of a lifetime and his direction and especially writing here is quite stellar too. He picks a very unusual and specific milieu to explore here, creates a fascinating central character and does a proper dive into both. And for a movie about a preacher I sure appreciated how unpreachy it was. We're allowed to draw our own conclusions. A pretty rare thing for a movie which has so much to do with religion. Gotta mention the young Walton Goggins in a very powerful supporting role too - he doesn't have much dialogue in the piece but his face does all the work beautifully.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire - A flat out masterpiece. I was completely knocked down by it. One genius choice after another.

Wit - 7.5/10

Brokeback Mountain - 8/10

Demonlover - 7/10

Ghost World - 7/10

Harakiri - 9.5/10

Goldman v Silverman - 7.5/10

Code Unknown - 6/10