What movies did you see last week? (12/10-12/16)

Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)- 7/10
The Danish Girl (2015)- 7/10
Lizzie (2018)- 5/10
Roma (2018)- 8.5/10
Aquaman (2018)- 6/10
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)- 8.5/10

Little Big Man (1970) -- Forrest Gump of the Frontier. A real slapstick epic. I chuckled a few times, rolled my eyes just as often. (Chief Dan George is excellent and Faye Dunaway is hilarious) 6/10

Kes (1970) -- YES 10/10

The Last Detail (1973) -- This really didn't interest me. Has the structure of a road movie which I've always hated. People go from A to B and learn something about each other and themselves along the way. Boring. Can't even recommend the acting. Jack Nicholson was just doing his typical 'I'm Jack Nicholson and I'm a rebel' thing, which is fine when his characters are more complex and there's more happening around him. Randy Quaid doubles down on the childlike naivete of his character but he comes off more as mentally challenged and socially retarded than naive. The story would have worked fine without Quaid needing to be some kind of metaphorical stand-in for "innocence." The injustice at the film's core is quite sufficient to get the message across that these men (especially Quaid) have all been dealt a shit hand. 6.5/10

The Offence (1973) -- wow THAT was intense. Sidney Lumet's directing is so crisp and focused. The acting is manic (Trevor Howard and Ian Bannen in small roles are especially brilliant), the screenplay preoccupied with perverse Freudian impulses hiding beneath the surface. Has some flaws (doesn't translate from stage to screen without losing the staginess) but Lumet's directing and the acting alone makes it so damn watchable, even haunting. 8/10

The Day of the Jackal (1973) -- tight political thriller in the vein of le Carre. This is my shit. It follows an international conspiracy by a right-wing terrorist group to assassinate Charles de Gaulle using a mysterious British hitman known only as "Jackal" (played by Edward Fox with icy charm -- an evil James Bond). The film unfolds with documentary frankness. It's so fucking clean and ambitiously-scaled, I love it. 8.5/10

Mean Streets (1973) -- Finally caught this. Couldn't really get behind it. The whole living on the streets with your criminal buddies filtered through Scorsese's catholic guilt and preoccupation with original sin just felt really dull and ponderous to me. I know it was a personal project for Marty but this kind of spiritual self-reflection felt so odd in this setting. Really a jarring experience. And once again, his female characters are just props. I'd need to go back through his filmography to double check but I'm having trouble coming up with a single female character from his films that feels complex and well-rounded on her own terms (I mean, maybe Diane Ladd in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore?). Hmmmm something to think about ... 6/10

Fat City (1972) -- really connect with these films about losers. Billy Tully (played with an almost off-putting sincerity by Stacy Keach) is a man without a future, without friends, without oppurtunities, with his best years behind him. He's an ex-boxer who never got much for his blood, sweat, and tears. At 30 years-old he's getting even less, drifting from paycheck to paycheck and entertaining a lonely fling with Susan Tyrrell's character. None of this misery is sensationalized. Huston's directing is restrained and humanistic, allowing his characters' pain to speak for itself. 8/10

Frenzy (1972) -- par for the course from Hitchocck. Not especially suspenseful but very clever, even playfully so. It's a credit to Hitchcock's genius that even in 1972 no one was quite doing it like him. My issue with the film is the layout. Jon Finch is the main character (an arrogant and angry man framed for rape and murder), and he plays his role without charm or humor. He plays everything so straight so his emotion ranges from conceit to desperation. It's such a boring character and performance, and a terrible conduit for Hitchcock's cleverness. I wish the main character had been the genial Chief Inspector Oxford (played by Alec McCowen), the case's main investigator. He gets the last line of the whole film and boy, what a closing line. I haven't read the book so I can't comment on the adaptation, but I do know Jon Finch was an awfully dull leading man. 7/10

MASH (1970) -- hate the Sally Kellerman stuff, love almost everything else. One of the more enjoyable Altmans I've seen. 7.5/10

Airport (1970) -- Next! Full letterboxd rant. 3/10

Assassination Nation (2018) -- The Purge meets Korine. The culture we live in is not something I like to think about. Even though I can't argue with most of Sam Levinson's hot takes about outrage culture and social media here, his in-your-face presentation is initially appealing but lacks staying power. Like a catchy pop song that gets old really fast. I know thematically it isn't comparable but I'd rather just watch Spring Breakers again. 7/10

enjoyed your YWNRH review. Us haters have to stick together

The Day of the Jackal is a movie that I remember really enjoying, but it just keeps growing in my memory. I really need to check it out again. Have you seen the shitshow remake with Bruce Willis and Sydney Poitier? If you haven't... don't. Save yourself.

What I love about Hitchcock is his warped sense of humor, and Frenzy may qualify as his most warped. I agree that the inspector was a much more entertaining character, but if the movie followed him more I think it would have necessarily made him more dramatic, and thus less fun. As it is, the protagonist is a (large) weak spot in what is otherwise a contender for my second favorite Hitch. I wish he had lived for another five decades. I would have loved to see how Hitchcock would continue to make movies in the far more violent years to come.