What movies did you see last week? (7/30-8/5)

Pride - 8.5/10
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (US, re-watch) - 9/10
Moulin Rouge! (re-watch) - 2.5/10

Okay, let's talk.

Mia Kirshner is my all-time #2 for Supporting Actress for this performance. It's one of the most haunting performances I've ever seen, like witnessing a ghost in an old photograph. It's incredible that the Elizabeth Short character is largely an afterthought in the source novel and original script, and that Brian De Palma suddenly got a burst of genius inspiration by deciding to use Kirshner, who was helping him with auditions at the time, as Elizabeth Short. The screen tests are the film's best moments. The scene where she gives her rendition of Scarlett O'Hara's "As God is my witness" speech in that hideous Southern patois, and then it suddenly switches from laughable to heartbreaking in the span of a single sentence gives me chills. When she tells the director (De Palma himself!) about her old boyfriend dying in a plane crash, and you can tell she's making that shit up as she's going along but at the same time actually believing it . . . it's incredible to behold.

But then there's the problem, and it's Swank. She's not only miscast in the role of a femme fatale, but she also looks absolutely nothing like Kirshner. I don't understand why De Palma didn't realize that he could easily use Kirshner for this role as well. She's gifted at playing femme fatales as it is, and it would really highlight the doppelgänger aspect of it all. Plus it would've granted Mia far more screentime.

I think the film is better than its rep suggests, particularly on a technical level. It's got the most sumptuous noir cinematography I've ever seen (it's my 2006 win over the likes of Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth), its jazzy score evokes a bygone era to an eerie degree (also my win), and the costumes are just excellent. I just wish that De Palma had resisted some of his trashier impulses, cast Kirshner in the Swank role, and not butchered the film's three-hour cut in post.

Oh, I absolutely agree with your overview of Kirshner.  That's one of the best assessments I've read about a performance.  I loved those "As God as my witness" echos coming from her.  As far as delivering that goes, Vivien Leigh can suck Kirshner's dick.  

I strongly disagree with you on Swank though.   Maybe because I never understood the definition of the term "femme fatale."  I always felt it was one of the most vaguely used catchterms that I have difficulty pinpointing the meaning.  While Kirshner had depth and soul, Swank was simply an appealing wavy-haired character, an embodiment of an old persona.  And if you ask me, based on what Swank showed here, she easily should've played Blanchett's role in The Aviator.  She can do a Hepburn voice better than Blanchett.  But don't mind me, I just have a white soft spot for that girl, and I never understood the hate she gets.  As far as your suggestion of Kirshner playing double parts go........well that's obviously a personal take of yours.... but if you ask me, if anyone's miscast, it's ScarJo.  

Children of Men had a very lively and visual feel to it, but The Black Dahlia had a certain evocation to it that makes it a formidable opponent in the Best Cinematography category even against Lubezki.   It felt like a fine silky night and the tone is just right.

This week wasn't too interesting for me as it was mostly re-watches ... though I did have first-time viewings of Certified Copy and Stop Making Sense, both of which are masterful. 

Avengers: Infinty War
Rampage
Collateral
Mission Impossible: Fallout

Victim (1961) - this one broke my heart. The story is about a successful closeted gay barrister (played by Dirk Bogarde) who finds himself embroiled in a blackmail conspiracy which spells scandal and personal ruin at a time in the UK when homosexuality was still illegal. I didn't realize until after watching it that Dirk Bogarde was a closeted gay man himself, which added another devastating level of bravery to this already beautiful and heartbreaking performance. During a scene in which his wife confronts him about her suspicions, you can see in his face and hear in his voice the pain of a man desperately trying to stifle an aspect of himself that he hates and doesn't understand. You get a very real, authentic sense of a person struggling with their identity and what it means for their relationships, their perceptions, their self-image, and their place in society. When he finally comes to terms with it at the end, he also comes to terms with the fact that he's going to be reviled. "They're going to call me filthy names," he says resignedly. "My friends are going to lower their eyes and my enemies say they always guessed."  It's heartbreaking. 9/10

The Stunt Man (1980) - I had so much good will for this one coming off the first two acts because the filmmaking is so frenetic and fun and Peter O'Toole is a force of nature, but it loses its way toward the end and climax is pretty unsatisfying. Some critics noted the the film is technically clever but thematically vacant, and I kinda agree. It's a movie about making movies, and it doesn't say anything new or surprising about that process. But yeah, this is my second favorite O'Toole performance ever so it's worth a watch for that alone. And then there's Barbara Hershey, just being flawless. 7.5/10

Killer Joe (2012) - this is some deep-fried Southern Gothic pulpy noir lowbrow trash, and I kinda loved it. McConaughey and Gershon get a ton of praise (deservedly so) but Thomas Haden Church doesn't get nearly enough credit for delivering most of the film's dark humor. I get that the movie's trashiness and violence and apparent classism is why some people hate it, but I don't know. It just spoke to my deeply cynical sense of humor. Anyone want some fried chicken? 8/10

Raging Bull (1980) - I didn't "get" this movie. I watched it years ago and didn't think much of it so recently I figured I should give it another shot because and see if I felt differently. But nope, still nothing. I respect the film from a technical standpoint (cinematography, editing, Scorsese's visceral directing -- yeah that's all fantastic), I just don't get the screenplay is trying to convey with this story. I don't get the point. From a narrative perspective, the movie is quite bare-bones. I don't know who La Motta is, what makes him tick, or why he is the way that he is, and without knowing those things I can't be bothered to care about his general cuntiness. There's zero backstory and practically no context for his rage, at least not provided by the film. Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life is another film about a rage-fueled member of the working class who throws himself into competitive sport as the only available avenue to feel some control over his life. The rage in that film is much more palpable than in Raging Bull where La Motta's class and social status are just window-dressing. Also window-dressing is Cathy Moriarty as La Motta's battered wife. The movie only really sees that character through La Motta's eyes, which effectively reduces her to object status. The audience is never invited to understand her, only to passively sympathize with her as one would a dog that's being kicked, because she has zero agency both in the screenplay and in the world her character inhabits. She exists in the film for the sole purposes of taking abuse and driving a wedge between La Motta and his brother. The script uses her and then throws her out, perhaps in a case of art imitating life. I'd have less of a problem with this if it wasn't so endemic to Scorsese's filmography. His female characters often feel like missed opportunities and that has never been more true than in this film. 6.5/10

Private Benjamin (1980) - another Goldie Hawn performance I love in a movie I hate. This is becoming a pattern. 5/10

Life of Pi (2012) - maybe I'm too cynical to appreciate this movie's fortune cookie spirituality, but fuuuuck what a dull film. I love you Ang Lee, but this movie was like going back to church. No thank you. 5/10

I will never not love a Pesci-Scorsese pairing.

Not yet but it's been on my radar a while.

My favorite Hawn performance as of now is probably Shampoo. After that I can't decide between Butterflies Are Free (which I actually really like) and Cactus Flower. She's just adorable.

Just Return to OZ, which I've seen many times before, and still adore. It is a brilliant film, completely under-seen and underrated. The visuals are fantastic, the score is gorgeous and the performances superior overall to those in Wizard of Oz. Also, parts of it are genuinely creepy. I could see children who scare easily, being terrified of this film. Mombi and her many heads...chilling for real.

I would easily put this in that bracket with Godfather Part II, Toy Story 2 & 3, Aliens, Batman Returns and others as one of the greatest sequels ever. Another winner from 1985, which possibly has the most high quality, entertainment films of any year.