Hopefully with uni over I'll eventually get this back down to weekly installments. As it is, I had to split this up from my other fortnight and hope for the best. Maybe I'll actually write something worthwhile. As always, read the plot details in the descriptions, I'm here to talk about my experience with the movies themselves.
304. Elvis (1979) - November 12th
I'm glad watched this before I watched Bohemian Rhapsody, because it showed me just how much of a meme the 'musical biopic' story structure has become for how similar the too films are, from the framing device of a dramatic point where the artists are out of practice to the all too sombre ending (understandably) mourning the loss of a titan of music. The difference here is that Elvis does so almost forty years Rhapsody attempted, so the fact that the narrative structure hasn't evolved over that time and has in fact warped itself to better fit this style of story so overplayed that it was lampooned over a decade before by Walk Hard puts both this film in a more positive light and Rhapsody in a more negative one. It's a movie with enough room in it for Russell to breathe, too, allowing for a truly nuanced performance of the lost king, one that characterises his flaws as much as his virtues. It's really solid stuff that shows how limitations can be strengths, and how this story structure was so obviously gold that it's been done so often since, even to this year. - 7/10
305. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) - November 12th
One outstanding performance can't save a movie made up of a story so lacking in commitment it can't be bothered to properly examine anything it shows and just relies on shorthand to force its way through a trite version of the musical biopic story that's been told again and again for decades. That said, one outstanding performance can make that sort of movie worth watching despite itself. My full review can be found here. - 6/10
306. The Station Agent (2003) - November 13th
This movie is pretty incredible, offering all the nuances of a lonely existence; the not-quite gruff approach to every uncomfortable conversation, the teetering contentment of solitude juxtaposed with those scattered moments where being alone gives no room to breathe. Writer-director McCarthy had real vision here for the characters, and they all offer their own take on that need to connect with other people that we just can't avoid no matter how hard some of us try. He knows every moment to show, and just when to show them, and because of this we get one of Dinklage's best performances. - 8/10
307. First Man (2018) - November 14th
This is the sort of film you need to experience in a cinema. While the softly spoken moments of humanity and the turmoil you can only see within the eyes of Gosling make the movie, well, moving, it's the thrum of the machines around him and sudden silence that follows that make the movie feel alive in a way that only the cinema can evoke. My full review can be found here. - 8/10
308. Halloween (2018) - November 14th
After suffering through so many bad sequels, Halloween finally gets one that's worthy of the original, a taught, angry, surprisingly wholesome horror that builds on the themes and experiences of the first and gives Curtis room to create a powerful performance. My full review can be found here. - 7.5/10
309. Hotel Artemis (2018) - November 16th
I appreciated the cast more than the movie itself. Foster, Brown, Boutella, they all give performances that go beyond the one note in the writing and actually give the movie something really worthwhile beyond its distinct style. - 6/10
310. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) - November 16th
Movies are generally used to tell stories, not needlessly expand lore in a way that only further exposes how haphazardly it was put together in the first place. If The Crimes of Grindelwald actually had a plot instead of a sequence of disconnected events that sometimes happen to the characters, I might have liked it. My full review can be found here. - 3/10
311. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) - November 17th
While some shorts (1, 2, and 4) are stronger than others (3, to an extent 6), this occasionally uneven anthology has all the trimmings of the Coens' work, a bizarre mix of the macabre and the serendipitous that aims to treat all manner of life with a bit of laughter. At its best, this feels like both a lampoon of the Western genre's lionisation of certain themes and ideas combined with a reflection on their own work through the lens of the Western genre. The opening short (the best of the bunch), its name the same as the title, manages to disarm while also blatantly expressing the type of character Buster is, all with the help of Tim Blake Nelson's perfectly goofy smile; it's the touch of insanity and strange fortune that acts as a perfect little microcosm of the stories the Coens tell. Each piece that follows does things differently, but they all express an aspect of Westerns with a Coens' twist, and while every outcome isn't as satisfying as each other, it all adds up to the weird yet haunting sensation of both peace and restlessness that the Coens' are masters of leaving you with. - 8/10
312. Jack and Jill (2011) - November 17th
Al Pacino and the three times that I actually laughed were enough to scrape this movie from the absolute bottom of the barrel and not make me want to burn my eyes out for committing to watch this painfully dull affair that shows the exact moment Adam Sandler traded his soul for money. - 1.5/10
313. The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918) - November 17th
Meet the blockbuster of the 1910s, the film that tries to wow you with spectacle and had to have its artistic vision cut down to size so that theatres could make enough money off of it by showing it more. Time hasn't changed the industry that much, I guess. As with The Great Train Robbery, it's hard to gauge an experience with a film like this, because it's so prototypical within the medium that it's more about the existence of the film and the importance of early film such as this that played its part in getting us to where we are today than it is about any individual consideration at this point. That said, the fact that this was cut down came as no surprise because the film essentially does what it advertised, first explaining how the characters got to a land of dinosaurs and then showing the dinosaurs in that gloriously stiff early stop-motion animation, and then the film just cuts abruptly, with the conceit of it being a story one of the characters tells his nephews. Make of that what you will.
314. First Reformed (2017) - November 19th
I'm a sucker for films that actually manage to capture the agony of moral quandary when framed through the Christian lens. Writer-director Paul Schrader (who co-wrote with Scorsese on The Last Temptation of Christ) manages to juxtapose humanity between religious dogma and political diatribe in a way that is both moving and frustrating. It feels like a perfect partner to Scorsese's own recent Silence, in the sense that it turns its perspective inwards and questions our capacity for the faith we hold dear; in this case, First Reformed is a challenge to consider the politicisation of spirituality and how we measure the value our own beliefs. The film literally deals with a church dying in the shadow of a megachurch, questioning whether or not the simple beliefs of love and acceptance at the heart of the faith can be preserved in the complex and brutal world that is slowly destroying itself and causing the church to do the same with its focus on financial stability causing it to bow to the needs of those who will maintain it. It's a deeply critical inward look at the state of the church in the 21st century, the kind of film that makes you think about the direction of the church and question what can and needs to be done for the faith at its core to survive. - 8.5/10
315. Waterworld (1995) - November 21st
This is such a strange case, because the effects were incredible and felt before their time, but the story was so haphazard it felt like it was playing catch-up. It's as if the concept of the world was considered, and the producers said "tragically ironic Mad Max, I like it, let's do it" and green-lit the project before they hammered out the details for how a story would play out in that world. As it is, they basically pulled a Mad Max 2 on the ocean, at its core a pretty good idea considering how great Mad Max 2 is, but with no real depth or attachment to the characters and a weird over-emphasis on The Mariner's moral ambiguity in the first half that's so excessive it's more a disconnected shock than a realised hope when he inevitably turns around to be the hero. Still, the effects and action sequences are excellent, more riveting than anything the story or characters have to offer, with an extravagant weight to them that makes their locations feel that much more buoyant. The film doesn't meet its ambitions, but I had a decent time when it was moving. - 6/10
316. The Intouchables (2011) - November 21st
This is the kind of story that I find lovely while I'm watching and then forget about pretty quickly afterwards. It's a good movie that could have been better, marked by charismatic performances that don't offer much depth and and easy answers to complex situations in need of more considerate examination. It makes the comedy beats breeze by in a dizzying series of bounces between the two leads, and the dramatic moments hit with all the weight of a pillow. I like it, but I'm not going to think about it after I finish this sentence. - 6.5/10
317. Total Recall (2012) - November 22nd
The world this movie introduces is more interesting than the movie itself, and what's left isn't enough for me to really enjoy this humourless and redundant piece of filmmaking. It's not bad, but the original exists. - 5/10
318. Wonder Wheel (2017) - November 23rd
I feel like Woody Allen is stuck in a loop at this point, covering the same sort of ground over and over again, as if he's looking for something new in the stories he's already told, and in the process he's forgotten how to do anything really effectively outside of directing talented actresses. The story is bland, and no amount of pretty images or clever blocking can disguise that, but Winslet applies wonderfully tragic aplomb to her role nonetheless, and I have to give credit to that no matter how stilted the love triangle and all the betrayals that come with it feel. - 5.5/10
319. Moonrise Kingdom (2012) - November 23rd
This is Wes Anderson's work as expected; I'm not sure what else to say, the guy has a distinct style that both works for him because it always gives him a lens through which to view what he creates and limits the number of ways he can tell a story because of how slavish he is in applying it. Moonrise Kingdom showed me that no matter the kind of story he wishes to tell, it's going to be defined more by the Wes Anderson eccentricities than by the genre it draws from; Kingdom is a coming-of-age film that's defined by its twee surrealism, with callbacks to everything from Stand By Me to Lord of the Flies presented in a way that's distinctly his. As a result, a lot of the same strengths and weaknesses are expressed again, with characterisation left largely shallow and the plot scattered between witty and wonderful comedy beats and unfelt drama beats, and the rest of the film so technically dazzling that the uneven mix of everything else hardly matters to most. Visuals are always a great strength, with the soft pastel playing beautifully against such a natural backdrop. There's not much else to say about the film without diving deeper, and I didn't feel engaged enough by the movie to really do that here, but I encourage anyone who reads this to do so if they were moved by this movie. I was grabbed by the visuals and the comedy, but not much else. - 7.5/10
320. The Proposition (2005) - November 24th
Now, I might be biased because of my nationality and how rarely this happens, but this is one truly awesome Australian movie. It's absolutely unyielding in its bleak view of the world and the time in which it's set, with no character ever given even the opportunity to act truly good, and the entire concept of good being brought in to question as acts of lawlessness are precisely what set every aspect of the story in to motion. The proposition itself is an act of lawlessness done in the hope of redeeming the world, one in which innocence can't ultimately exist as it's lashed by the hatred of those in pain and driven towards total destruction. Every step of this movie is so casually brutal, and it has no remorse for the story that has to be told; see this if you can stomach it. - 8/10
321. Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) - November 24th
This is surprisingly effective as what amounts to an abridged version of the first quarter of the original series. While the first half is a little disjointed as it tries to simultaneously introduce and gloss over the key conflicts from that arc in the show and thrust the movie straight in to the first angel fight, but by the end the themes and key imagery have all been placed coherently enough for the story to have a proper climax that feels like the ending to a key conflict that also acknowledges the inevitability of future ones. For what is essentially a quarter of a story that is itself made up of six smaller stories, it's actually effective at telling a complete story without being a complete mess. Of course, it also helps that the animation and imagery are more beautiful and stylish than they've ever been; aside from one awkward moment of CGI, the whole thing is absolutely beautiful and disturbing to look at, as to be expected from Hideaki Anno at this point. While the abridging of the story means the whole thing is exploring less and ultimately leaving viewers with a watered down version of what the original series tackles, and this movie in particular has too much world to establish to really explore even what it does introduce with any real depth just yet, it's still a solid introduction to the ideas of the original story if you've never had an inkling about what Evangelion really is. - 7/10
322. Sorry to Bother You (2018) - November 25th
This is one of the most absurd movies I've seen all year, and I love it for how well it manages to intertwine that absurdity with burning satire. The film is original, funny, and all kinds of both right and wrong, so I won't spoil anything here and just say you should watch it. - 8/10
Re-watches
64. Unbreakable (2000) - November 24th
This is still one of the best superhero movies ever made for how well it understands the humanity beneath it all that makes the sort stories told in comic books compelling; the sort of thinking present in the film has been expressed in a lot in superhero fare since (and there's certainly been a lot of superhero fare since), but this film strips all of the tropes down to a select few and uses them to tell a story about the mythology of man as hero and what that actually means; the powers and the tropes are spoken about openly because the film just uses them to tell a story about how we find and make meaning in our lives, and how superhero fare is an extension of that. To top it all off, re-watching this film has cemented my hype for the upcoming sequel, Glass, and given me hope that there will be something both different and good in this superhero-saturated movie landscape. - 8/10
Published November 26th, 2018
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