I avoided Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy for years because I was a little too worried about the dog.* Having overcome my fear, I found another quality movie focused on a small slice of life. Michelle Williams brings another quality performance to a Reichardt film and the stakes are high for such a small story.
Cost: free from Multnomah County Library (my Kenton Library branch is very close to the Walgreens where this movie was filmed. There’s a lot of North Portland spotting for those in the know.) Where watched: at home** in preparation for Filmspotting Madness best of the 2000s
*The dog is fine, I needn’t have worried. **Matt was half watching. “Is this a crime or horror movie?” he asked when the movie started. I assured him it was neither, as even Kelly Reichardt’s film that involved crime was not a crime film. As the movie ended he said, “I kept waiting for her to be raped, or harmed in some way.” Though I did fear for the dog, I knew that the trouble for Wendy was not going to involve physical harm. That’s not Reichardt’s way. (Slight exception, Night Moves, though it makes sense in the context of that film.)
The Sixth Sense remains M. Night Shyamalan’s directing triumph twenty years on. It’s still scary, still packed with great performances,* still brings the tears. While I mourned a little that I knew the big secret** I spent my time both looking for things I could now see because I did know the secret and fondly remembering my first viewing.
*Haley Joel Osment has so much going on with his eyes; this comes from Bruce Willis’ late 90s peak; Toni Collette is, as ever, the actor who is going to do so much with her performance **As does probably everyone by now, but if you don’t I suggest watching this tout suite, before someone spoils it for you.
Movies I watched in 2018 that were just so good I think you should watch them too. Today’s (non) theme: Hodgepodge
Dads with Daughters
Movies with dad/daughter combinations seem to be more common than movies with moms/daughters. It’s easy to see why. The mom/daughter relationship is hard to get right. (Lady Bird did, though.)
Hearts Beat Loud—Nick Offerman and Kiersy Clemons together in a movie about endings of things. Music is the connection that keeps us together, no matter Kiersy Clemons’ reluctance.
Leave No Trace—Sometimes a dad provides for his daughter the best he can, despite his demons. Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie are so very good in this so very good film by Debra Granik
First Man—The daughter isn’t on the scene for long. But her death from cancer fuels Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong portrayal.
Also a dad/daughter movie? My 2018 #1 film, Eighth Grade
Documentaries I Loved
I don’t see as many documentaries as I would like too. There are only so many hours in a day and I prefer fiction to nonfiction. I did see these two films, and they were worth my time.
Three Identical Strangers—Every person who has ever fantasized of having a long lost twin will love this movie. If you aren’t convinced, watch the preview.
Fred Rogers appears in Won’t You Be My Neighbor? by Morgan Neville, an official selection of the Documentary Premieres program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Jim Judkis.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?—Fred Rogers. A movie theater full of crying people, and yet it’s so cathartic. In these hectic times, you know you want to spend 1.5 hours in Mr. Rogers’ calm presence.
Classics for a reason
Some classics that I watch are like taking medicine. And some have me sitting up saying, “Yes! This film! This is good!” These are those films.
Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly
Directed by
Fred Zinnemann
High Noon—The movie that had me wondering just what exactly was going on in 1952. (It was blacklisting.) Even if you don’t know about that subject, this is a tense film.
Witness for the Prosecution—Best viewed when you don’t know much about it, and there’s a fun disclaimer at the end where they ask you to avoid spoilers when talking about the movie, except they didn’t have the term spoiler. (I can recall when that term came into use, and boy was it a handy language innovation.)
Defying categorization. Still good.
Sometimes you get to the end of your categorization and you can’t find a common thread. Wait! The common thread is women as lesser beings. But that’s too much of a bummer to make a heading.
Battle of the Sexes—I initially avoided this film becuase I wasn’t up to the normalized sexist attitudes of the 1970s. But the movie was complex in a way I wasn’t expected and was well worth my time. My DVD copy had an interview with Billie Jean King that I suggest searching out.
(L-R) REBECCA HALL, JASON BATEMAN and JOEL EDGERTON star in THE GIFT
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The Gift—A psychological thriller that is nearly a perfect film. So. Incredibly. Creepy.
Wind River—I initially avoided this film because I was annoyed that a movie set on an Indian reservation was written by a white dude and stars white people. I eventually set those things aside and I found a taut thriller that calls attention to the many unsolved murders of Native American women.
Are you looking for the Volumes I and II? Find Volume I here And Volume II here
Adam McKay wants to include everything in Vice, and that is the number one thing that sinks the movie.* How much more successful would this film have been if it had just focused on one issue like the Big Short did, perhaps Cheney’s use of the unitary executive theory? Also, despite the makeup and extra weight, Christian Bale never completely disappeared into Dick Cheney, though Amy Adams was good.
Verdict: Skip
Consider watching instead: The Big Short, The War Room
Cost: $10.50
Where watched: Cinema 21
*Also sinking the movie: the conundrum of making a biopic about someone who is intently private. Sure, you’ve got that disclaimer with the f-word at the beginning, but when a lot of your movie moments focus on private conversations, we can guess that those conversations were made from thin air. And then what do we really know about this person?
I’m glad I watched Peter Farrelly’s Green Book in a theater, because it gave me further insight into who is really enjoying this movie.* Both Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen were impressive, fully embodying their characters and taking on a physical persona very different from previous roles. However, every single plot point in this film was incredibly predictable, something that ultimately sunk whatever slim hope there was of me liking this film.
Verdict: skip, unless you are a die-hard Mortensen or Ali fan.
Cost: $6.00 Where watched: Laurelhurst Theater with friend Kelly.
*My theater was filled with white people with white hair, most likely of the early-to-mid baby boomer age. They greatly enjoyed Mortensen’s character. I would love to see this with a younger, less-white audience. I’m guessing the reaction points and noises would be different.
Synecdoce, New York starts as a standard middle-age-white-guy picture, meaning things aren’t going well.* Then it takes an odd turn and I realized with a start that this is a Charlie Kaufman movie!** What followed was a series of delightfully weirder scenes and interesting performances.***
Consider also watching: Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Anomalisa
*In this case, with his marriage. **It’s been so long! I mean, I watched Anomalisa (2015) last year, but it wasn’t quite the Kaufman whackadoodle weird that was the period from 1999 (Being John Malkovich) to 2008 (this movie). ***I was also quite sleepy when watching this and it paired well that state of being. By the end, it started to feel like a very weird dream.
Also: RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman. It’s been four years and I still miss you.
Movies I watched in 2018 that were just so good I think you should watch them too. Today’s theme: funny, romantic, and romantically funny
Romantic Comedy Renaissance
Oh my goodness, it’s like the Hollywood execs looked at their spreadsheet of excess and said, “Whoa, Nelly! We’ve been pumping out superhero films like there’s a big comet headed toward the earth and only a superhero movie can save us! But where is the love?”
They seem to have said that a year ago because this summer was the summer of romantic comedies for me. And they were so good! Here are the standouts.
To All the Boy’s I’ve Loved Before
Just getting started.To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Lana Condor’s unsent love letters are mailed, and she gets a fake boyfriend out of the deal.
Set it Up
Young career women. Zoe Deutch is an assistant who cooks up a matchmaking scheme with Glen Powell in Set it Up. Gillian Jacobs is on a business trip to Spain in Ibiza and Jessica Williams is a marvel in The Incredible Jessica James.
The Incredible Jessica James
What else do these three movies have in common? Two of them follow the new romantic comedy formula that provides romance, but is just as focused on the woman staying true to herself.
Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne, and Chris O’Dowd appear in Juliet, Naked by Jesse Peretz, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. | photo by Alex Bailey.
A more mature romance. Rose Byrne confronts her relationship at midlife in Juliet, Naked. Maybe her boyfriend’s (Chris O’Dowd) obsession with recluse musician Tucker Crowe is going to be the thing that breaks them up. Or maybe Tucker Crowe (Ethan Hawke) is.
Nappily Ever After
Sanaa Lathan is a successful career woman who’s got everything under control in Nappily Ever After. Until Everything falls apart.
Couples Walking and Talking
The Before Sunrise trilogy set the bar high, and these two films are worthy entries into the genre.
In Blue Jay, Sarah Paulson and Mark Duplass’ chance meeting in their hometown leads to a night of remembering their high school relationship.
Before We Go
Alice Eve and Chris Evans meet by chance and spend an evening walking around New York City, trying figure a way to get out of a conundrum in Before We Go.
I could not stop laughing, it was so funny
Really great comedies are cathartic and I recommend them for Friday nights. All that laughter wipes away the work week and makes you lighter for the weekend. Here were three that were great.
Blockers
In Blockers, three friends decide to lose their virginity on Prom night. Their parents (Leslie Mann, John Cena, and Ike Barinholz) get wind of the pact and spend the evening trying to thwart their daughters’ efforts.
Jesse Plemons in Game Night
In Game Night, Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman have friends over for an evening of entertainment via board games. From that point, nothing goes according to plan, resulting in much hilarity and many homages to games.
Lost in Paris
Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel create a different kind of humor in Lost in Paris, the story of a Canadian woman who heads to Paris to find out what’s become of her aunt. Very odd hilarity ensues.
Looking for You Should Totally Watch this Volume I? It’s here. And here is Volume III.
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We welcome Mimi Leder back to the directing fold with On the Basis of Sex, a movie that attempts to illuminate another step on the path to seeing women as people, in this case, via a tax law case adjudicated by the Tenth Circuit Court. Felicity Jones does a great job masking her anger and dismay at the many slights Ruth Bader Ginsberg endures as a “lady lawyer” ahead of her time. I particularly appreciated Cailee Spaney as Jane Ginsberg, who spends a lot of the film not being impressed at all by her mother’s achievements instead issuing multiple cutting remarks.* The movie is a little draggy during the court scene, with much too many reaction shots of the judges, but other than that was a good use of movie-watching time.**
Cost: $5.55 (though free due to gift card) Where watched: Regal City Center Stadium 12
*According to an article in Vanity Fair, she was exiled to TV directing because of Pay it Forward. This is her first movie since 2000. I liked Pay it Forward. *Something masochistic in me really enjoys that hyper critical stage of adolescence depicted on screen. Also, Armie Hammer also was quite good at Marty Ginsburg’s supportive husband role. **Also, that last suit Felicity Jones wears as she walks up the steps of the Supreme Court? Amazing! The very last shot of the movie? Perhaps a bit pandering. Discuss.
Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale is very successful at creating trapped, uncomfortable, angry feelings which made this movie not fun to watch. Which it is not to say it wasn’t a very good movie because it’s packed with spot-on performances* and succeeded at creating the above range of feelings. While Noah Baumbach films of late tend to be populated with people I don’t want to spend time with in real life, but enjoy tremendously seeing on screen, the Berkman family were a bunch of people I didn’t enjoy all around.
Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library Where watched: at home
*Including a 22-year-old Jesse Eisenberg playing a high school student. My goodness, what must he have looked like when he was an actual high school student?
