M'kay, might as well write a first post for this year and see if I can turn it into regular updates. Doubtful, but here goes nothing.
Will pick up not from my last input in November, but only from the most recent movies I watched since Rogue One, for which I dedicated a different entry.
Color palette scheme as usual:
A/A- /
B+ /
B /
B- /
C /
D /
F / No rating
Indignation, one of two Philip Roth adaptations this year (and the better received one, considering that
American Pastoral appears to have been pretty much panned). I am completely uninitiated in Roth's novels and only picked this because it showed up as a rather unique pick in this
yearly best video montage. Seemed overall as a very poised, slow burning drama, with rather low-key actors in the mix (although I did recognize Sarah Gadon from some previous flicks, such as Denis Villeneuve's
Enemy), heavy on character study and identity plot, while also polished with some aesthetic, cultural or historical appropriations. The protagonist's moral choices, dillemas and vexations are both elliptical and immediate. Is this what I should expect from the book, as well? Probably.
Hell or High Water, a well-made heist / western-like movie starring in serious acting mode, of all celebs, Chris Pine and also Jeff Bridges (who, for my own taste at least, has been really hammy in recent years, but seems to have found his normal range in this case), a movie that, to my surprise, turned out as an awards contender, so I had to cross it on my own list. The layout of the story and drama is quite basic - the robbers as two brothers, sharing a goal, yet divided in character (between intelligent poise and moony outbursts and between seeking an objective and seeking the sheer thrills of lawbreaking), versus an aging detective in search for his own last thrill of a cat-n-mouse procedural - but it is held up well by the script, the fleshed-out characterisation and the aesthetic grand vibe of the movie. Plus the extra gritty, McCarthian even, way in which all tensions lead to a final clash. Not sure I'm ready, after only one viewing, to call this masterful in any way, but it certainly calls to mind
No Country for Old Men and I can't actually recall a more solid flick in the interval since.
Loving, Jeff Nichols' take on the story of the couple whose interracial marriage and ensued controversy led to the landmark '60s case of Loving vs. Virgina. Now, after having seen enough movies by this constantly acclaimed young director (
Take Shelter,
Mud,
Midnight Special), I'm starting to feel that his style can be described as working well within certain genres, but always finding a way to enrich them or add something special, subtle, whereas most other filmmakers would come up with (more) mundane results. With this movie, I suppose the most subtle details or style choices would concern how it focuses almost entirely on the couple's life story (and their reserved way of coping with both their burdens and their hopes for a better resolution, plus with how their case ends up being of such justicial and historical significance), as opposed to showing much of anything from the court case itself, except for a few elliptical scenes and side actors which feel kinda... uninspiring; or how, for such a subject, it almost avoids any typical scenes of passive or open racist altercations (I counted three-four, tops, throughout the whole movie); or simply how intimate the drama is shaped out.
Nonetheless, this still feels by the numbers and meant to earn easy high praise and award contention; it's probably the first in his filmography that, despite all the nice touches and nuances, doesn't feel elevated enough from the bunch.
===
New Years' Weekend provided a lot of junk TV watching, so the quality will drop with the following mentions. HBO especially has this custom of providing a "surprise NYE's midnight movie", except that it's always anything but surprising, especially this time, when it anticipated the moment by binging the first two Captain America movies. Wow, surprise, the midnight movie was
Civil War! *rollseyes*
Truth be told, this movie can hardly be taken serious anymore on second viewing already. Compared to it,
Winter Soldier almost holds up as enjoyable and senseful. If the MCU movie-making formula would not be so adulated by critics and fan(boys) alike, I'd say either this or
Ultron is the jump of the shark moment. Alas, we'll get even more bloated and expansive and intertwined ones. This viewing also provided hilarity when my parents couldn't piece up the new cape characters between
Winter Soldier and this one (because they never saw
Ultron to make the connections).
A day later, there was also
Deadpool, which is still fairly cool, although again, it proved too fast paced and quippy for 80% of the jokes to land in the living room.
There was also
We Are Your Friends, a "serious acting mode" moment from Zac Efron, as an aspiring (and, at least, presented as talented, intuitive) DJ who looks for guidance in the "complex" combo of a pretentious mentor / life drunktard trainwreck (played by Wes Bentley), only for things to get complicated when the latter's bombshell / bombshell girl (played by Emily Ratatat...something?) enters in a love triangle mix. There's some wise-ass montages and scenes meant to carry a message about who this electronic genre should be more than mashed up sounds or on the need to look for real life / inward sources in creating art, that almost,
almost land, but nah, not really.
===
Back to quality watching.
American Honey, by distinguished British female director Andrea Arnold, making her first film on U.S. soil. It earned her a third Jury Prize at Cannes and I've been a great fan in the past of her movie
Fish Tank (she also did a recent version of
Wuthering Heights, for those who might be interested). Just like in
Fish Tank, Arnold seems to focus on the impassioned, rogue, sensible qualities of a youthful protagonist, whilst placing it in harsh, tough-life, self-discovering situations. Here, a young woman is recruited / seduced (by Shia LeBeouf's - in serious acting mode - character) to abandon her unfulfilling town life and join a nomad-like group of dirtbag teenagers on a rough road mission and pack adventures, involving scamming people in various places to subscribe for magazines, earning money day by day and yet finding some pleasure in this. It should be noted that most of the actors, except Shia and another one-two familiar faces, were street cast, so basically amateurs, including the main actress Sarah Lane, who is modeled into quite the magnetic lead character, certainly a sort of breakout performance. The movie is quite long and, while it has certain typical set pieces, it rather embraces riding the momentum than spiking towards a narrative or characterial fulfilment; it's almost impossible to describe on first viewing and it does open a scuzzy, grungy window into human drifting, but it's also elevated past any teenage wasteland, miserabilist connotations.
Aquarius, a Brazilian film by Kleber Mendonça Filho, also screened at Cannes, although without any special nods in the end. It stars Sonia Braga in a standout performance (close to the rarefied heights of Isabelle Huppert this year, to be honest) as an old woman, widower, retired music critic, in which the main conflict is between her and a company that wishes to take hold of and demolish the old-style, seaside apartment building in which she resides, with her being the last stand (as the last, dissident tenant), a conflict that bursts into a more and more despicable setpiece of harassment and mindgames on the company's behalf, that's run by old and young hounding antrepeneurs alike (probably to symbolise that no generation can be impassive to corruption). But the tale of old age is also able to pigment a personal story of family bonds or issues, burdens and nostalgia, experience, pride and flaws in human character and interaction. Reading all this, I'm not sure if I managed to describe too well what the movie is aiming for, but there is certain poetry (and music of course), visual sensibility and acting prowess in it. It's a loose, sprawling movie, but it can win you over with the storytelling and performances.
Fences, Denzel Washington's adaptation for the big screen of August Wilson's play. Certain to come up in regards to Denzel's push for another award or two, for what drives the movie is his spitting and rambling performance, as the difficult and hardheaded patriarch of a family that he'd rather fence (nudge nudge) on the inside from the outside world and any progressive ideas, something generated by his own life disenchantment or by his conservative sense against racial injustice. However, I'm afraid the movie is very much plagued by the adaptation from stage to screen syndrome, as it retains a lot of the theatricality without any cinematic compensation. There are no doubt some heavy ideas and moral dialogues that hit hard, all part of an original content that would surely prove riveting if seen on stage, but it's too damn safe in style and near Oscar-bait-ish for a movie. For a better example of a movie that retains its staginess effect, whilst also gripping as cinema, I'd recommend 2008's
Doubt (the one with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman).
And finally, rewatched
Goddo supiido yuu barakku emparaa, the 70s documentary from which GY!BE derived their name, about an infamous biker gang, capturing some of its members' status as outlaws, day routines, gang interactions or conflicts, all interspersed with jap rock or soft ballads. Unfortunately, very low-key filmed and half of the material is not even eventful.