same deal as always. no new favorites this time around but still plenty to recommend.
The Dark Room (Questerbert, 2000): pretty much exactly what i was hoping for, this sort of quasi-self aware rohmer type beat medieval love movie. i’m rarely an acting person but the lead performance in this is pretty phenomenal and worth the price of admission, not to mention how nicely it flows and how the writing is on point for most of it. been a while since i seen something that captivated me in the way this one did.
Legend of the Mountain (Hu, 1979): based purely on this and the other hu film i saw 5 years ago, i can sort of get in the right headspace for his movies with the knowledge that they’re slow-burn wuxia instead of insane action wuxia. however, this is pretty great as far as a slow-burn goes; 3+ hours of increasing buildup to a finale that’s unexpectedly tame as far as the amount of time devoted to it goes. still, a pretty lovely film. colors and sounds are very cool.
Manhunter (Mann, 1986): there’s an issue i have with pre-digital mann films that is kind of difficult to pinpoint but i think i can summarize in saying that they play a bit /too/ much into grounded hollywood sensibilities and i really treasure the sort of spectral quality his later work takes on. this movie definitely has that sort of otherworldly appeal to it, despite it mostly working as a grounded mystery film of sorts. far and away my favorite non-digital mann and i think it’s a special work.
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky (Koberidze, 2021): i saw koberidze’s previous feature and thought it was a neat stylistic outing for a while but found it way, way too long. was kind of afraid there’d be a similar thing here with how twee its touches were at the start, but i actually fully think this earns its patient, relaxing, breezy runtime. begins as a romance, turns into a city symphony of sorts, ends on as happy a note as possible. very kind movie.
The Bridges of Madison County (Eastwood, 1995): romance movie about kinship above all else, something that doesn’t even blossom into much of anything until around the halfway point. i think that is, in itself, a beautiful movement; not to mention that this is likely (one of) clint’s best looking movies. like all of my favorite things thesedays, its tenderness is what draws me.
Highlander (Mulcahy, 1986): apparently boorman isn’t the only one who can create these delirious, hyper-masculine, borderline experimental 80s flicks. no idea who the director is but i know that this movie is insane and, while usually just acting as an excuse to romp between eras and warrior fetishism, is about as successful at such an endeavor as one can be. a movie for the guys.
The Century of the Self (Curtis, 2002): perhaps falls a bit short of the usual curtis formula since it’s more focused on somewhat esoteric topics like public relations and focus groups as opposed to like, dictators and terrorists. the approach to montage however keeps it all going at a great pacing; if it’s less all-encompassing than some of his other more ambitious pieces, it makes up for it in the precision of its message(s).
To the Ends of the Earth (Kurosawa, 2019): it’s funny that kiyoshi kurosawa is not very high on my list of directors who are great in the “nothing happens” mode of filmmaking (think tsai ming-liang, weerasethakul, some akerman), and yet here he is with an extremely barebones narrative stretched over two hours that never overstays its welcome or drags or is anything but compelling. i’m not usually super into these sorts of character studies, yet this one by a probably under-appreciated master of sorts is certainly a great picture.
Terror Toons (Castro, 2002): an extremely odd and usually offputting combination of sadism and looney toons slapstick, complete with tons of surprisingly well-done gore. fever dream SOV horror stuff, but this one has one foot firmly planted in the camp grave. pretty insane idk lol
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