What Films Are We Watching?

[jenkins]

vibing. cinematic purgatory is a great description. there is this scene that touches upon what this movie might offer though. it's true that it doesn't offer hope, resolution, or catharsis. it's true that this movie says life doesn't offer that. but here's the scene i mean, it's Bruce Greenwood talking to Sarah Polley in a car at night

Sarah: Do you consider my dad a friend?
Bruce: Why?
Sarah:  J-Just asking.
Bruce: Does he consider me a friend?
Sarah: I don't know.
Bruce: Why not?
'Sarah: Cause he always seems different when you're around.
Bruce: Different in what way?
Sarah: J- Tense.
Bruce: Is that bad?
Sarah: Well, I don't really like to feel tense around my friends.
Bruce: Well, sure, yeah. I didn't like to feel tense around my friends when I was your age either.
Sarah: But you do now?
Bruce: No, it's not a question of liking it or not. It's just something that happens.
Sarah: Why?
Bruce: Um...well... as you get older…you become aware that the people you meet and the person you are... um, as carrying a certain amount of baggage. And, and that baggage creates tension. So what do you do about it? Well, you can pretend it's not there... or you can choose not to have friends... or you can acknowledge that it's there and have friends anyway.
Sarah: Like my dad?
Bruce: Right.
Sarah: I don't think that I like my dad when he's around you.
Bruce: Hmm. Well, that's...because your dad doesn't like himself when he's around me. But that's okay. That's... part of what friends do to each other.
Sarah: Good night.
Bruce: Good night.

[wilder]

That’s a quality exchange. Actually makes me want to go back and watch it, again.

Exotica makes me think about what movies should be about, if a movie like Exotica, for all its depressive tendencies, has worth (it does, but for argument’s sake…) and that movies, or scenes, are fundamentally about people connecting or not connecting. Not if they do or do not, from one scene to the next, but how they do or how they don't.

When movies like Exotica, or Amour, or Solondz’s comedy-tempered works err towards the more disappointing answers to those questions when pursuing the brighter answers in so much earnest, they become hard pills to take. In those films specifically, effort expended to connect is not necessarily matched in favor, and coping mechanisms that might help alter the character's behaviors seem to be beyond their grasps. It’s the fearless gaze on the answers found to how they don't connect that give these types of films “worth”, I think. They don't. We know they don't. But these movies see the moment-to-moment how, and that’s what I want movies to be.

[jenkins]

outside The Silence of the Lambs (special category), Melvin and Howard remains my favorite Jonathan Demme movie. and Paul Le Mat remains an actor i treasure, from this, Aloha Bobby and Rose, and Citizens Band.

so i was sitting around wondering whatever happened to Paul Le Mat. and it turns out he's a writer now, with a YouTube Channel



i was going to say more about Melvin and Howard, which i just finished rewatching, but i became distracted by Paul Le Mat as a writer. i wouldn't call it a bad distraction btw, as in i'm not like "look how far he's fallen," if anyone is thinking that, rather i'm thinking "look how human he is"

[Something Spanish]

been wanting to see Exotica long time now, Felicia's Journey too. only significant Egoyan I've seen is The Sweet Hereafter.

over the weekend I saw Miami Blues, a film that got on my radar nearly four years ago when BAM was having a film noir series ahead of Inherent Vice's release. not certain if this falls into film noir, it's way too batshit and off the rails to be categorized there. if not for baldwin and jason leigh and fred ward i don't think i would have made it all the way. it's awesome to see baldwin so untamed , his eyes glint animal primacy the entire time. he's a great actor, but no role he's had in the past 25 years compares to the lunacy of career criminal Junior. the movie is fucking out there, in the cheesiest of bad good movie ways. at one point baldwin attempts to stop a convenient store stick-up using a large jar of pasta sauce to fend off the gun toting robber. also, he somehow has the preternatural  abilities to place himself smack in the middle of criminal activity, be it a drug deal or robbery. if you're looking for something kitsch, completely unbelievable yet fun, you could do much worse.

also saw The Ballad of Jack and Rose last week for the first time, knew i was in for a good one the second 'i put a spell on you' plays at the start. a few good Dylan tunes come later. it's a very good, slightly disturbing, portrait of a father-daughter relationship.

[eward]

I saw Miami Blues on 35 at The Roxy a few months back and found it similarly enjoyable. Jennifer Jaaon Leigh stole it for me.

[Something Spanish]

Yeah, she’s very sweet in it. A bit naive for a prostitute, but we’ve seen those type before (in movies, that is). Never been to the Roxy before, any theater that plays 35 is a blessing.

[jenkins]

it's beach noir, in this case Florida noir, stemming from Floridian writer Charles Willeford, the first in his Hoke Moseley series.

Willeford also known for Cockfighter, which he adapted for Monte Hellman, and this memoir of his youth

[polkablues]

been wanting to see Exotica long time now, Felicia's Journey too. only significant Egoyan I've seen is The Sweet Hereafter.

All three of those are so good. Ararat is another one I'd recommend seeking out.

[jenkins]

Down Terrace took me seven days to watch (the longest i've spent watching a single movie?) and i almost gave up on it at least twice, but eventually i finished it and was glad i did. was that my second or third time watching it, i'm not sure, but i'm sure it's been seven years since i last watched it. i think Ben Wheatley has a fascinating career. the co-writer for Down Terrace is one of its lead actors, Robin Hill. the writers for Sightseers are listed as its two main actors, along with additional material by Amy Jump, who wrote the High-Rise script, and co-wrote Free Fire with Wheatley.

Down Terrace has an overall rubbish logic, i believe. as in i don't think its logic aligns with realworld possibilities. but its self-contained nature, its logic within itself, its logic as a movie, works fine. all you have to do is listen to the characters, and feel what they feel. now i'm realizing that i don't have much to say about this movie. why am i glad i watched it? i like how it keeps its narrative near the hearts of its characters. it reminds me that when you do that you can do anything.

[KJ]

I watched Win It All last night. it wasn't as enjoyable as Drinking Buddies, and I am not exactly sure what the point of it all was, but it was entertaining enough. joe swanberg and jack johnson is a good match.