Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: Michel Gondry

[Revisit Review]

Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is probably Charlie Kaufman's most uneven screenplay in that its the most scattershot and unfocused. All of this is, of course, the point: it takes place in a deteriorating mind. But its attempts at visual and narrative whimsy frequently obfuscate the story. To the film's credit, it does pack a satisfying emotional punch. I say that it's uneven, but it's still a damned good film.

8/10

Sisters: Jason Moore

There's a good movie buried somewhere in Jason Moore's Sisters. The problem is that that movie is only about 70 minutes long while Sisters is almost two hours. To fill in the sizable gaps, there are numerous interminably long sequences of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler saying rude, shocking things, acting immature and bratty, and performing aggravatingly unfunny bits that go on and on (who in their right minds thought that that bit with Poehler trying to pronounce that Korean woman's name was a) funny in 2015, b) good enough to last ALMOST TWO MINUTES?!). In all fairness, it does get better in the second half. Amy has a legitimately touching scene with her new beau in an attic where they exchange secrets and secret sources of shame. But that's about it.

4/10

Pygmalion: Anthony Asquith, Leslie Howard

[Revisit Review]

I much prefer Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard's Pygmalion over George Cukor's My Fair Lady (1964). It's leaner and meaner--at times it's downright nasty. It's so nasty that the ending reconciliation between Professor Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle feels a bit hollow, artificial, and forced. I was particularly impressed with the scene where Eliza confronts Higgins after her societal debut. It's a perfectly executed scene that truly exposes what a horrible piece of work Higgins is.

8/10

Jeruzalem: Doron Paz, Yoav Paz

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/jeruzalem-movie-found-footage/71806.

3/10

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: George Clooney

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is so good it makes me want to re-evaluate George Clooney as a director. Part of that must be Charlie Kaufman's screenplay. But considering Clooney made so many changes to the script that Kaufman essentially disowned it, I think it needs to be first and foremost considered as Clooney's film. And what a film it is: boldly embracing artificiality and cinematic plasticity, at times the film feels like Clooney's take on Frank Tashlin. The moving sets which could jump between time periods, POV's, and continents with just the pan of a camera were marvelous. I loved how Clooney tacitly accepted the most insane parts of Chuck Barris' story without flinching. That was the kind of thing that Werner Herzog would have done: embrace the fiction, embrace the myth. The Hollywood stunt casting--particularly Matt Damon and Brad Pitt as hapless contestants on The Dating Game--was a nice touch, too.

8/10

Human Nature: Michel Gondry

So, here's something odd: Michel Gondry's Human Nature is basically what would happen if Charlie Kaufman wrote a screwball comedy. Kaufman's script for this film is his most overtly comedic, full of visual gags intended to elicit chortles and pratfalls. Kaufman's films have always been aggressively weird, but this is probably the only time that idiosyncrasy was calibrated to be silly. I think it was the scene where Rhys Ifans gets repeatedly electrocuted in a laboratory while humping a projection of a naked lady that first made me realize this. Curiously, the film also contains one of Kaufman's most pessimistic endings; a confirmation that living beings--human or otherwise--are incapable of abandoning prejudices and inclinations once indoctrinated. Unlike many of his other films which end in tragedies for individuals, this ending suggests a tragedy for all sentient beings.

7/10

Masks: Claude Chabrol

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/b-roll-claude-chabrols-masks-1987/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=the_retro_set&utm_content=B-Roll%3A%20Claude%20Chabrol%27s%20MASKS%20%281987%29.

6/10

The Blob: Irvin Yeaworth

[Revisit Review]

Rewatching THE BLOB (1958). Not sure which I like more: the thirtysomething "teenagers" or the brand new muscle cars.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

God bless Steve McQueen. He's legitimately giving all he's got in this preposterous cheese-fest. #TheBlob

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

This scene where McQueen gets chewed out by a traffic cop is hysterical cause McQueen is clearly about 20 years older than him. #TheBlob

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

You know, it's a good thing this movie is aggressively silly because this first act is aggressively boring. #TheBlob

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

Behold! "Teenagers" 1950s B-movie style! #TheBlob pic.twitter.com/up7IDwpTIM

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

Further proof that MST3K ruined my life: every time someone mentions Steve in THE BLOB, I immediately chant "And the Steves are there!"

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

"Not everyone is named Steve!"

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 25, 2016

5/10

Viva: Paddy Breathnach

To read this review, go to: http://screencomment.com/2016/01/viva-2/.

7/10

Carol: Todd Haynes

I know I'm late to the party, but I finally saw CAROL. It was alright: a bit too obsessed with aesthetic and emotional exteriors for me.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 24, 2016

You see, REVENANT haters? It is possible to not hate a film just because you didn't personally care for it.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 24, 2016

(Although I do find it funny that people who called THE REVENANT too long were unphased by CAROL's bloated, top-heavy 3rd act.)

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 24, 2016

Real talk, though: you could launch a sub-Reddit devoted to poignant close-ups of hands, nails, and hats in CAROL.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 24, 2016

Also: the real MVP of CAROL is Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett's lipstick wrangler.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 24, 2016

7/10

Martyrs: Kevin Goetz, Michael Goetz

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-martyrs/71254.

2/10

A Special Day: Ettore Scola

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/dvd-review-ettore-scolas-a-special-day-1977/.

8/10

2 Rabbits: Afonso Poyart

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-2-rabbits/71033.

5/10

Bridge of Spies: Steven Spielberg

Finally watching BRIDGE OF SPIES (2015). Is it weird that my favorite thing so far is the editing? I love calm, restrained Spielberg.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 20, 2016

I love how Janusz Kamiński doesn't so much try to replicate the past as evoke it. This is a world of sharp shadows and even sharper light.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 20, 2016

People call Spielberg melodramatic. I think he's just fascinated with stories that juxtapose the worst of people with the best of people.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 20, 2016

BRIDGE OF SPIES: Calm, controlled, gently insistent. It's minor Spielberg, inasmuch as Spielberg can make a "minor" film.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 20, 2016

7/10

Being John Malkovich: Spike Jonze

[Revisit Review]

Making Being John Malkovich funny was one of director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's best ideas. If there hadn't been some levity, I think most people would have been turned off from this cinematic ode to masculine self-loathing. In fact, it goes beyond self-loathing--it's practically self-flagellation. Upon my second viewing, I realized that what truly terrified me about this film was its sexual politics: there's an entire college thesis to be written on the issue of sexual consent vis-à-vis entering John Malkovich and controlling him.

9/10

Broken Lance: Edward Dmytryk

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/explosive-silences-edward-dmytryks-broken-lance-1954/.

7/10

Purple Noon: René Clément

The thing that makes René Clément's Purple Noon so delicious is that Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet), the man who gets murdered and has his identity stolen by Tom Ripley (Alain Delon), is more of an entitled asshole than Ripley. In a strange way, we want Ripley to kill him and assume his life. After all, Philippe is an abusive womanizer (he destroys his girlfriend's manuscript in a jealous rage by throwing it into the ocean), and gleefully takes advantage of people less fortunate than him. Really, the only unfortunate thing about Purple Noon is that Clément loses his nerve and ends the film with Ripley essentially getting caught. I guess within the context of the film this ending sort of makes sense, but it isn't in keeping with the Ripley character. Side note: I've never seen so much film grain in a digital copy of a movie (I watched it for free during a weekly Criterion festival on hulu).

8/10

The Spirit of the Beehive: Víctor Erice

[Revisit Review]

Rewatching THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973), I'm reminded what precious--and misused--commodities are silence and stillness in cinema.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 17, 2016

Also: Víctor Erice's Castilian plateau looks on the screen what Cervantes' La Mancha looked like in my head. #TheSpiritOfTheBeehive

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 17, 2016

9/10

House: Nobuhiko Obayashi

[Revisit Review]

Huh. You know, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House isn't nearly as bizarre and indecipherable as I originally thought. It's basically a bare-bones slasher film: a group of teenagers get killed off by a ghost in a haunted mansion. That's it, really. I guess the first time that I watched the film I was disoriented by how delightfully weird the whole thing was. But now that I knew what to expect from this Dadaist slasher, I could enjoy the plot itself. But first and foremost I love how artificial everything is. Rarely do you see a film so gleefully embrace its own superficiality.

7/10

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi: Michael Bay

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/13-hours-the-secret-soldiers-of-benghazi-michael-bay/70719.

2/10

The Straight Story: David Lynch

A strange sight, this strange man in his John Deere Lawn Tractor making his strange way along the Iowan highways. Behind him, a makeshift tractor trailer full of gasoline and hot dogs. Before him, 240 miles of road. Going at a maximum speed of five miles per hour, it should take Alvin Straight about six weeks to make the journey from Laurens, Iowa to Mount Zion, Wisconsin. Surely, he could make the trip in a single afternoon if he drove a car instead of a lawn mower. But at 73, Alvin isn’t as healthy as he once was: his legs are partially crippled; his lungs bursting with the early stages of emphysema; his eyesight not so sharp anymore. With his driver’s license revoked, his lawn mower remains his sole mode of transport. But journey he must. At the other end of the road awaits his brother—the same brother he hasn’t spoken with in ten years. A decade ago these brothers had a falling out. What happened, what was said remains a mystery. But with his brother having recently suffered a stroke, Alvin realizes he might not have much longer to make things right with him.

So goes David Lynch’s The Straight Story (1999), a film of quiet, illuminative power and beauty. Based on the real-life story of Alvin Straight, the film is part road movie, part melancholic drama about life and old age. This G-rated story of steadfast love and compassion may seem a strange fit for Lynch, that old enfant terrible of American underground cinema, famous for such bizarre, oneiric, and explicit masterpieces as Eraserhead (1977), Blue Velvet (1986), and the cult classic television show Twin Peaks. But through gorgeous, meditative widescreen cinematography, a penetrating screenplay (Roger Ebert praised the naturalistic dialogue as being reminiscent of Hemingway), and a career-defining lead performance by Richard Farnsworth—himself terminally ill with bone cancer while the film was shot—The Straight Story transforms a newspaper front-page oddity into a stunning Christian parable.

8/10

Amarcord: Federico Fellini

Rewatching AMARCORD (1973). How can anyone watch this film and not feel love? Love for people, love for joy, love for sorrow, love for love.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 13, 2016

Even though Amarcord is deliberately less focused than 8½ (1963), I feel like it's still somehow more focused and direct than that film ever could be. Maybe it's the sheer beauty of the cinematography, maybe it's the melancholy wistfulness, maybe it's the spectacle of scenes like Mussolini's head and the steam ship...but I will always like this film more than 8½ (1963).

10/10

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead: Tom Stoppard

To read this review, go to: http://theretroset.com/dvd-review-tom-stoppards-rosencrantz-guildenstern-are-dead-1990/.

4/10

Le Notti Bianche: Luchino Visconti

[Revisit Review]

Let me level with you: I was in a bad place the first time I watched Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Blanche. I was going through a severe bout of depression and I watched 4-5 movies a day mostly as a way to keep myself occupied. In all honesty, I don't remember much about the films I watched during those months. But having a chance to re-watch it now, I was pleasantly surprised to find a devastating romantic tragedy that hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. The best scene, however, was a prolonged sequence where a crowd of young Italians danced to rock 'n' roll in a nightclub. It was like watching ballet dancers try to rock out for the first time. But I digress: Le Notti Blanche is stunningly beautiful; the black-and-white cinematography--particularly in a climactic scene where it starts to snow--is in a league of its own. It's a bit too long, though.

7/10

I Vitelloni: Federico Fellini

[Revisit Review]

Sweet! @Criterion is streaming I VITELLONI (1953) this week! It's been years since I've seen it. Time for a re-watch!

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 10, 2016

Few people could direct crowds of people like Fellini. In this opening scene, the crowd flows like the sheets of rain outside. #IVitelloni

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 10, 2016

Wait, this film had THREE cinematographers? Could have fooled me...It all looks like the work of a single genius. #IVitelloni

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 10, 2016

For one of his earliest films, there's a dreamy lightness and detachment at work here that predicts his later kaleidoscopes. #IVitelloni

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 10, 2016

Watching #IVitelloni, you may wonder where's Fellini's trademark circus and/or parade. It's right there in Nino Rota score.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 11, 2016

Can't get over this film's beauty. #IVitelloni wasn't Fellini's first film, but it was his first that truly worked. The nascence of a master

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 11, 2016

Fausto is the most tragic character in #IVitelloni. Not b/c HE'S tragic; but b/c his family bends over backwards to always believe his lies.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 11, 2016

9/10

Hour of the Gun: John Sturges

John Sturges' Hour of the Gun is a boring, staid, static, tepid, deflated affair. I do love the premise: focusing on the Wyatt Earp gang in the immediate aftermath of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. And, to be fair, I found Jason Robards to be a surprisingly compelling Doc Holliday, particular during the early courthouse scenes where he's grilled about his involvement in the aforementioned shootout. I love his matter-of-fact answers to brutal questions about how many people he's killed and whatnot. But the rest of the film simply isn't compelling. It's a series of bland confrontations where Wyatt Earp & co. confront the members of the Ike Clanton gang one-by-one and kill them. There's a lot of stillness and silence, but very little of it carries weight or dramatic purpose.

5/10

Wrote a bit more about this film over here: http://theretroset.com/hour-of-the-gun-files-the-legend-prints-the-fact/

Taxi zum Klo: Frank Ripploh

I've thought long and hard about what score I wanted to give Frank Ripploh's Taxi zum Klo. At first I just wanted to give it a N/A because of all its explicit, non-simulated gay sex. But then I realized this would make me a hypocrite: I've never denied a gory movie a good score just because it was gory. So, yes, Taxi zum Klo is a powerful film about the gay experience in West Berlin. It simultaneously reaffirms the centrality of easy sexuality and the male body in gay culture (the first shot of Frank Ripploh is literally of his anus and testes; we watch him get an invasive rectal exam; we watch him have real gay sex with several people--messy orgasms included) while rejecting mainstream stereotypes of homosexuality by having the main character be a schoolteacher. One of the best sequences of the film is one where scenes of Ripploh and a transvestite friend watching an instructional video for teaching young children to avoid sexual predators are cross-cut with shots of Ripploh tutoring a young boy and fervently maintaining his personal space. Taxi zum Klo is a challenging, uncomfortable sit. But I think it was supposed to be.

9/10

Diablo: Lawrence Roeck

To read this review, go to: http://theyoungfolks.com/review/movie-review-diablo/70255.

6/10

Snow Flurry: Keisuke Kinoshita

Keisuke Kinoshita's Snow Flurry embodies that special brand of sublime, wistful melancholy so prevalent among Japanese dramas of the 1950s. The film is centered around a failed suicide pact between two lovers--a pact which failed because the pregnant woman survived. Even worse: the man who didn't make it was the son to a prominent, rich family. Not wishing to encourage gossip, the prominent, rich family adopts their son's lover and her male child. But their lives are made a living hell, particularly the new son who is cruelly given a name which approximates to "abandoned child." The film should be largely applauded for its wide-screen cinematography--count the number of times characters run across a bridge or road that stretches from one side of the frame to the other--and its daring narrative structure. Eschewing linearity, Kinoshita hits the audience with seemingly random moments and events which he periodically revisits over and over again, each time providing more and more context to their importance. Snow Flurry is a very sad, very beautiful film. The problem is that I've seen plenty of other Japanese films just like it.

7/10

Martyrs: Pascal Laugier

Since I'm going to be reviewing the remake, I've decided to watch Pascal Laugier's Martyrs (2008). Now, I've got no qualms with the New French Extremity...in theory. It just seems like almost all of the respective films drop the ball. Alexandre Aja's High Tension (2003) was ruined by one of the stupidest, most poorly thought out twist endings I've ever seen. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo's Inside (2007) would have been a masterpiece if the characters weren't total, complete morons. In all fairness, Martyrs does seem to have a point: examining the nature of human cruelty and suffering. But honestly, the last thirty minutes are just boring and repetitive. It's like the rape scene from Meir Zarchi's I Spit on Your Grave (1978): at some point it becomes more about the graphic content itself than what the graphic content is being used for. Here, the violence and gore just stopped shocking me. I like the idea of transcendence through torture. I just don't think it was done well here.

5/10

Snow Trail: Senkichi Taniguchi

Watching Senkichi Taniguchi's SNOW TRAIL (1947). Interesting to see wipe edits used so prominently in a film that isn't sci-fi or action.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

This sequence of the hotel guests figuring out that the escaping crooks are crooks would've worked better w/o the opening police scene.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

We're just watching them figure things out that have already been explained to us, the audience. There's no tension.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

It's almost like if Hitchcock had begun PSYCHO (1960) with the concluding speech about Norman Bates' psychosis.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

Alright, that scene where Takashi Shimura quietly weeps to the song "My Old Kentucky Home" makes the entire movie worth watching. #SnowTrail

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

Senkichi Taniguchi's Snow Trail is memorable for being the first film to feature Toshirō Mifune. Boasting a screenplay by Akira Kurosawa and co-starring Takashi Shimura, the film is almost prophetic in how it predicts the trajectory of their careers together. But other than that the film is wobbly and uneven: the first act seems like a thriller with the big reveal of the criminals' identities given away; the second act a bittersweet drama; the third act a clumsy combination of the two. But still, I did like how the film seemed to also predict the obsession with nobility that would play such a role in Kurosawa's career, particularly with the scenes between Shimura (at least I think that was Shimura) and the mountaineer guide who risks his life to save his. Why didn't he drop the rope while Shimura was dangling over a cliff despite the fact he had forced him on that dangerous journey at gunpoint? Because of the code of mountaineers: don't let go of the rope when you're tied to somebody.

6/10

Young Mr. Lincoln: John Ford

[Revisit Review]

Re-watching John Ford's YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939). I forgot how poetic and painterly this film is; one of Ford's most measured and calm.

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 2, 2016

Look how much of the Lincoln myth Ford is able to evoke and codify with this one shot of him reading a law book... pic.twitter.com/LgGa3fgXTR

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 2, 2016

The log-splitting scene. IIRC, this was one of Sergei Eisenstein's favorite scenes in all of cinema. pic.twitter.com/Q5OJSpUC6N

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 2, 2016

Film School Lesson #1235: How to use your actor's height to your advantage vis-à-vis frame composition. pic.twitter.com/91onwgxamK

— Nathanael Hood (@NateHood257) January 3, 2016

8/10