I keep forgetting about this thread and I feel bad whoops American Movie: 3/5 Movie about an amateur film maker from Wisconsin who's trying to make and distribute an indie horror film. Not really my kind of movie, but it was interesting to watch the film making process. Love Letter: 3/5 This movie was released a year after the American occupation of Japan ended. It's about japanese men who write letters in english for japanese women who can't write in english themselves. The letters are meant for American soldiers who send the japanese women money, or women who have had the soldiers children but have stayed in japan. I didn't really understand the way some of the characters behaved, but I think this is just because I don't really understand japanese culture that well. A question of Silence 4/5 A female psychiatrist interviews three women who beat a male shopkeeper to death in broad daylight in a clothing store. High anxiety 4/5 A Mel Brooks parody of Alfred Hitchcock's films. The nurse is played by the same woman who played Frau Blucher (thunder crashing sound effect!) in Young Frankenstein. I love whatever it is that she does with her mouth every time she talks.
Raging Bull 4/5 The violent fight scenes where hard to watch, and the scenes where he hit his wife were even harder. It's a very well shot movie, but I'm not sure about the plot. It was an interesting choice to have the film be black and white, but I feel like it worked out well. Mister Johnson 5/5 A movie about colonialism. Specifically of the Nigerian people by the English. There's a lot of racist language in this movie, just be warned. Spoiler It just keeps going down hill for Mister Johnson, you hope he gets what he wants but it becomes clear after he robs the English Judge Rudbeck and suggest to him the day after robbing him that he lie to the government and take money from the native treasury that he's in too deep. Because another englishman shows up and realizes something is wrong with the books right away, and starts questioning Mister Johnson. Then he gets accused of embezzlement and forgery because he's the one who writes in the books.
I got back from watching The Fall Guy. I mean, let’s just say that I loved it. Jodie is a fucking badass, and Colt is just the nicest guy. (Honestly, between Barbie and this, Ryan Gosling’s on a roll this decade, dear Lord) And Jodie and Colt are just…I think I have a new OTP. I’ll freely admit that the plot got really kind of convoluted here and there, and I didn’t get at first why Colt getting injured in an accident (well, not so much) would get him so much heat (I was pretty angry on his behalf. Like, “It’s not his fault he got injured!"), but then given that the movie cleared up that it was more Colt’s insecurity after the accident that drove a wedge between him and Jodie, it was like, “Oh, whew. That actually makes sense.” And I do love that Jodie was just such a Magnificent Bitch (as TV Tropes would say): the whole bit in the climax where she exposes the real bad guy was just…goddamn it, she is so cool. And I love how it’s kind of a metaphor for their talents: Jodie’s the director, so she naturally directs things to the conclusion she wants with nobody any wiser, and Colt’s the stuntman who basically defies death in a way that would make Michael Myers impressed. Together? They make one hell of a team. (And I love how the movie portrayed a female director as normal, and I love how it portrayed its female antagonists and characters without falling back on sexist cliches. When Jodie has to stand up to an abusive associate, they don’t play it off as “heh heh all women hate each other” or something stupid like that; they portray it as just “this dynamic is toxic and the two participants happen to be two women and it doesn’t mean that all women hate each other". I mean, given even that the college I mercifully graduated from thinks women can’t be trusted in real life and in fiction alike, I feel like I can breathe) And it helps that they have some really likeable characters, and some formidable antagonists where they’re loathsome and kind of scary, but they also are portrayed in really entertaining ways where there’s some comedy that doesn’t feel out of place. And yet they’re just…scary as hell. I think they really personify the idea of “Cool motive, still murder”, like, you understand where they started (jealousy over a skill, trying to cover up an accidental death because you fear it’ll be a bad PR disaster if the truth gets out, and even accidentally killing someone wouldn’t put you beyond redemption automatically; if the guy had just come clean and said that an accident happened, he wouldn’t have ended up doing all the reprehensible shit that ultimately made me rooting for him to get his) but the more they do in the service of that motive, the more they just not only cross the Moral Event Horizon, but pretty much run past it at super-speed. (I mean, hell, being jealous of a stuntman is one thing, but trying to sabotage him and then doubling down on it? Puts you over the edge. It kind of makes me wonder if it just really takes a lot of effort and energy to actually cross the Moral Event Horizon. And to think I got to thinking about it from The Fall Guy. I don’t know if that lesson was intended, but I like the idea. I guess I’ve had to kind of think about morality and redemption over the years and when it’s okay to have enough of someone’s shit, so well, this kind of gave me some food for thought) And this is more trivial, and I’m biased because I love dogs (and own one, though he’s substantially smaller than the one in the movie), but I love that a dog was among Colt’s allies. And the awesome things he did. Like, I pretty much ended up saying “good boy” multiple times after every time he helped someone or took down someone trying to kill Colt. Plus, the supporting characters were great too. I know the scene with the drug dealer…it’s so disturbing because even before the reveal, he just is surprisingly nice for a drug dealer and just seems to want to chat with Colt and gush about Dumbo (also, some good symbolism, all things considered, though poor Colt would have just seen it as a relief to just see pink elephants on parade. Though the gag with the random unicorn in his hallucinations was pretty funny, and I liked the creativity of the visuals when Colt’s high as a kite/drugged. Creepy but really creative). And then things go to hell. Honestly, I loved seeing this movie. I think I have a new fave.
