This Week In Film (3/22/21 - 3/28/21)

March 22, 2021 - March 28, 2021

Hello readers. Chicago is one of those places where if it hits 45° outside, people are in shorts and bikes invade the neighborhoods. I decided to venture out. I wanted to hit up one of the trendy areas, walk from one CTA stop to the next. In this stretch there's used book stores, nine independent coffee shops, an open-till-3am cookie dispensary, at least eight vintage clothing stores, another four to six vintage wares stores, used record shops, and any food you want. This could be any gentrified neighborhood in Chicago. My goal was to make it to the record shop where they have used Criterion Blu-Rays and head to the grocery store. My wife and our mutual friend accompanied us. I centered myself before stepping out the door. Repeated a little mantra about my generalized anxiety disorder, something like, "F*ck my life." Put my mask on (literally and figuratively) and out we went. 

It was way worse than I expected. Not only was all of Chicago out, but my team decided they wanted to experience everything. I'm an introvert with a panic disorder. That means that inside my head there's a battery, not unlike one on a smart phone. The moment it knows that I'm going to need it, it starts flashing that 20% remaining warning. And when it depletes, that's it for the day. From an extrovert's perspective: "First we grabbed a drink, then we ventured into all the vintage stores and found the most wonderful clothes, later we stopped at a Cajun cuisine place, grabbed oysters, we went to a record store, did some light grocery shopping, and headed back home. What a nice day?" Those things happened, but my battery drained at the first vintage store. All of a sudden, the people standing behind me talking about how wearing non-Tarantino-trendy Hawaiian shirts were going to be the new trend and a Soft Cell soundtrack in a tiny basement closed in around me. I had to run up the stairs to get away. But how do you get away from yourself? How were they talking about trends, when we've been walking our living room fashion runway in pajamas for over a year? Why were there so many people out? Why did I choose to leave the house? I've been inside for two weeks anyway, why leave now? But that's not what I came here to tell you about...

This Week In Film where I create a weekly rundown of the random sh*t I watch. There’s a HIGH / LOW at the end of this entry, so if words aren't really your thing, you can scroll quickly, look at pictures, and skip to my favorite viewings of the week.

Lets begin...

OVERVIEW:

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GODZILLA (2014)

dir: Gareth Edwards

It's game time people. We are merely days away from Adam Wingard's world-ender opus Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). We geared up and exercised due diligence last week readying our pallet for Zack Snyder's Justice League. This week we're giving the same weight to Godzilla's latest outing. While being a huge Gojira (1954) fan, wife and I only slightly considered the task of a marathon of kaiju classics. Not all thirty sequels would have made the list. Maybe Mothra (1961), King Kong vs. Gozilla (1963), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), Destroy All Monsters (1968), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), or Gozilla 1985 (1985) would have been a perfect fit. But, we're going to just focus on the 2014 reboot, it's sequel, and Kong: Skull Island (2017). To be honest, these big battle with high casualties movies are taking their toll. It's been a difficult road since Kal-El and Zod destroyed Metropolis all those movies ago. Watching Edwards 2014 reboot, made me fall in love with kaiju beasts all over again. I'm psyched to continue.

The reveal of the alpha monster, Godzilla, is breathtaking and brilliant. From seeing the tide ebb on the beach, to scales piercing the surface of the water, to the shape of a creature swimming under the aircraft carrier, to the shots of flairs illuminating only sections, to the final reveal of Godzilla's head and roar the sequence is perfect. Skydiving past the dueling ancient ones and through their destruction shows Edwards talent at focusing on the human element in the midst of our old world ending. This concept isn't entirely foreign to Gareth Edwards as his feature film Monsters (2010) was made for half a million dollars, hid the towering creatures through creative cinematography, and looked like the big-budget counterparts. In Godzilla, Edwards is just given a larger sandbox to play in. His one-two punch of Monsters and Godzilla landed him Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). And I know these are fighting words, but Rogue One may be my favorite Star Wars film after Empire Strikes Back (1980)

 

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017)

dir: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Fact checking myself, Godzilla vs Kong comes out March 31st and not Friday as expected. This shouldn't matter to a weekly post, but I'm lazy and do not want to go back and re-edit my writing for Godzilla (2014). With this extra time am I going to dive into a marathon of the classic Godzilla films? Nope, like an extra life in a video game, I'm going to waste it. 

I love Godzilla (2014). It was an incredible reboot for the series. Effects, characters, and destruction were all spot on. I wouldn't have any issues with Godzilla, but then we saw Kong Skull Island. Kong shows how great effects can work in harsh lighting conditions. Godzilla is a night film. All the big effects scenes take place in the darkness to shroud the mystery of what we are actually seeing. That's not the case with Kong. In the unpleasant mid-afternoon sun, Kong uses a tree like a javelin and takes down a helicopter. He swats another one down like a fly. As the chopper goes down we see Kong's face and the length of his body while we experience the long fall to the ground. While our meeting of Kong isn't as epic as our meeting with Godzilla, Kong still has his stunning moments. When he allows Captain Marvel to touch him, when he walks through a Napalm fire, when he stands in front of the sunset, or when he battles all the beasts of the island to protect humans, Kong is a magnificent beast.

Jordan Vogt-Roberts comes from a comedy background and his first feature was the Nick Offerman indie darling The Kings Of Summer (2013). While there are only four 'Monarch' films, each one of them were given to independent filmmakers that were forced to prove themselves in a blockbuster franchise. I know that sometimes these decisions are made nefariously by the studios backing the films themselves. Such as, an indie filmmaker is cheaper and as it's their first foray into the big budget world they can be controlled. As this occurs elsewhere in the industry, my hope is that these filmmakers were allowed their creative license through the process - as much as possible.

MANK (2020)

dir: David Fincher

Like every film student ever, the first film I was exposed to in an academic setting was Citizen Kane (1941). I believe we are shown this film for a few reasons, namely because you're roughly eighteen when you enter into college and Orson Welles was 24 when he made what many consider the best film of all time. This then becomes the test. You have six years to get your sh*t together and make a masterpiece or else why did you even enroll? I wasn't discouraged when I saw Kane for the first time, I was impressed. I was in the club that understood why it's remained a classic all these years. Some of my Tarantino or die classmates in 2000 didn't get it. Even when it was explained to them that a lot of Tarantino's work would have never been made without the groundbreaking work before it, they scoffed. They probably would have never believed the guy who made Alien 3 (1992), Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), or Fight Club (1999) would make a film about the alcoholic who wrote Citizen Kane. 

Well, egg on their faces. Did this film need to exist? Not necessarily. With the sole academy award for Kane going to Herman Mankiewicz and Welles for original screenplay the world already knew who wrote the film. With journalists and academics through the decades dedicating their careers to the similarities of Charles Foster Kane and William Randolph Hearst, we already knew this. Even in the forties, the rumor spread that Rosebud was a pet name ole Willy gave to Marion Davies' clitoris. So why did we need this biographical film? The short answer is we didn't. A director as prolific and important as David Fincher is allowed at least a few vanity projects. Fincher's father Jack Fincher wrote the screenplay in the 1990's. The story was close to David's heart and three decades later he created a 'technical' masterpiece.

The filming process was done on an 8K monochromatic digital camera. That means, unlike most 'black and white' films of the digital era, no color version exists. Many sequences that involved multiple actors reacting were done with multiple takes rather than several cameras during one take. Day for night tricks are used. Rear projection for driving sequences. But, to create the 1930's there are loads of CGI models, paintings, matte tracking, and other effects to seamlessly transport us. Then there's the sound. As meticulous as the picture. The sound editor was tasked on creating an 'old Hollywood' emotion through the audio of the film. They worked in mono, added hiss, added reverb, inserted crackling and additional noise, and when that wasn't enough they recorded the entire film/audio track while inside a large room with high ceilings. Every element of the audio has strange echo to it. Had we not been living within this never-ending COVID season, we may have been able to experience Mank in a theater where the echo would make sense. Instead on our 4" to 100" home screens, there's something lost in translation.

PSYCHO (1960)

dir: Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho has been in my life since I was 4 years old. I loved watching horror movies with my mom. I was told that Psycho, Night of the Living Dead (1968), The Haunting (1963), and Halloween (1978) were among my favorites. As I was so young, I don't remember a time when these films were not in my life. While I didn't understand the intricacies of these films, I remember the fear. I'll cherish the shower scene from Psycho, the eating of Tom and Judy in Night of the Living Dead, the hand holding scene from The Haunting, and Michael crossing the street from the Wallace house to the Doyle house in Halloween. These moments of horror fiction were just that, stories. That fear I felt when watching these scenes was a safe fear. I was watching them while cuddling next to my mother. Years later, after my mother passed away, that feeling still remains. When I watch a horror film, there's a compound feeling of the fear the film wants to produce and the safety of youth. This is only a part of that universal feeling that horror filmmakers have discussed from James Whales Frankenstein (1931) to now. Horror is catharsis, you can feel the wide range of disturbing feelings from the comfort of a theater or couch. You can live through your own death again and again. And walk out unscathed. Horror is a roller coaster ride at a park, but I'll go one step further and say it's safer.

FEAR OF RAIN (2021)

dir: Castille Landon

Don't you hate it when you put on a movie in the background so you can work on your BuJo, plan your grocery trip, aimlessly scroll on social media, and then that so-called background movie becomes the foreground of everything? Fear of Rain does just that. I knew nothing going into it and it sideswipes you in it's opening scene. From there a bizarre mystery is borne. And when we discover Rain, who is flawlessly played by Madison Iseman, is suffering from auditory and visual schizophrenia a new mystery is formed. While most around Rain believe she's sliding from schizophrenia into a schizoaffective disorder (which includes episodes of mania and major depression), Rain believes she's seen a little girl who's gone missing. She runs it through her reality checklist: Is it possible? Could it exist here? Is anyone else reacting? Diving deeper into her illness, the majority of hallucinations reported in primary psychotic disorders are auditory which Rain shows and also visual, but there may also be olfactory, tactile, or gustatory. I can't even imagine phantom textures, but I guess we all experience smells that aren't there or tastes that come out of nowhere.

While some have criticized the film saying the acting is sub-par and there's an exploitation of Rain's condition, but I disagree and feel Landon does a great job to advocate for mental illness. The film runs quickly, the visions are terrifying, the revelations are great, and the mystery sub-plot is made all the better when neither we or the protagonist can trust what we are seeing or hearing.

SOUND OF METAL (2019)

dir: Darius Marder

Can we just hand them the Sound Design academy award now and spare the rest of the candidates? I know a statement like that dates a review, but no other film has handled the spectrum of hearing in such a realistic way before. From the Tinnitus ring to the bass only reflexivity, seeing Ruben (Riz Ahmed) lose nearly 75% of his hearing is painful to watch. While we've only spent a few minutes with Ruben on screen before this occurs, we know he's a drummer in a band with his lover. And music is his life. We all instinctively know that this is a great tragedy. A layer is soon added for us as we come to realize that Ruben is also an addict with a few years of sobriety. He is no stranger to a life thrown into chaos. He must now learn how to live without sound.

Riz Ahmed is so damn believable in this role. I thought he was brilliant in The Night Of (2016). I have also loved Lou (Olivia Cooke) since Bates Motel (2013). Darius Marder, the film's director, makes his feature narrative debut. Having made the documentary Loot (2008), he uses a documentary style in the way he allows his characters to wonder through various worlds. We follow them and try to make sense of their decisions and inner lives. Sound of Metal opens our eyes to a community of deaf addicts in recovery and shows us how their silent world is anything but quiet. We cheer on as Ruben's perspective of the world is widened, and maybe ours is too.

SURVIVAL OF THE FILM FREAKS (2018)

dir: Bill Fulkerson, Kyle Kuchta

What is the point of this documentary? I'm seriously asking. I had a blast watching it. I loved being reminded of the video stores that littered my youth and the horror hosts I still enjoy. Interviews with Joe Bob Briggs are always welcome. I wish they would have asked Rhonda Shear to speak on her fond memories of USA's Up All Night, but maybe that wasn't the point. Let's look at the film practically: they want to tell the story of cult cinema. They do this by brushing past the midnight cinema of the 1970's with El Topo (1970), Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), Eraserhead (1977), and Pink Flamingos (1972). Then the film becomes about how we consume media. I'm assuming this is to show how midnight cinema / cult cinema becomes the niche in a new era. We are guided through the VHS, Cable, Laserdisc, DVD, BluRay, and Streaming. The VHS era gives us video stores who specialize in categorizing the sub-genres of cult. Cable gives us USA Up All Night, Monster Vision, and late night showings. Collectors markets spring forth from the disc era. And now we continue to have cult cinema. That's it. That's the doc. Ted Raimi, Lloyd Kaufman, Luigi Cozzi, Robert Galluzzo, and Adam Green are a treat and they'll garner my attention any time they talk about film. This film is not necessary. It works as an surface exploration of the cult film phenomenon, but not much more. Don't get me wrong, I love any excuse for well edited clip shows.

MINARI (2021)

dir: Lee Isaac Chung

If you have not seen the video of the 7 year-old star Alan S. Kim accepting the 2021 Critic's Choice Award for best young actor/actress, then stop reading this and go find it. His little tears of joy make your heart immediately swell and a choking feeling will envelope your throat. Don't worry, this is a common side-effect to how adorable and thankful he is. There's a line in the film he repeats in his speech. In the film when he tells his mom that he uses the bathroom in his dreams, she tells him next time he should pinch himself and ask if he is dreaming. He uses this line in his acceptance speech. He physically pinches his cheeks and asks if he's dreaming. After such a long year of loss in the real world, this film, and Alan Kim is the medicine we need.

While watching Minari, every moment, you are reminded of the Book of Gob. From the imprint of A24's logo, we are worried for this family. But really from a storytelling perspective we were also worried from the beginning. You can't have a story without conflict. And we worry how much conflict the Yi family will have to endure. With Christian values being introduced to the Yi family and Will Patton's crucifix totting believer, we need only to look at the patriarch of the Yi family's first name to know what may happen.

Steven Yeun plays the father, Jacob. If familiar with Christianity, which the film asks of us from time to time, we know that Jacob is another one of God's pawns to teach man a lesson. Genesis 32:24-25 tells us of God wrestling with Jacob (a man) and how God saw it necessary to break him. The belief is that in order for the spirit to flow through us, we must be broken, and only then may God enter us. While Gob is a man who's faith is tested again and again via his world being ripped apart around him, Jacob is a figure who must physically be broken to believe. In this, we have a context for Minari. 

Not is all as it seems. While the breaking of Jacob must occur for the narrative, we as the audience are not broken in the process. We see relatable snippets of life that create moments of happiness. And throughout the experience we are reminded again and again, life prevails.

GODZILLA KING OF THE MONSTERS (2019)

dir: Michael Dougherty

A few notes friends. The story was enjoyable, I guess they had to throw in some plot device that could help in awakening all the titans, and I'm okay with that. But the effects in this CGI heavy film only work if we view them from the perspective of an early 2000's audience. Now, they feel as though they were not completed. As though the budget ran out mid-way through. Instead of hiding what you couldn't properly show, they went for it anyway. How did the final print get Dougherty's seal of approval?

I mean he made a gingerbread man cookie come to life and wield a knife with all sincerity in Krampus (2015). Anna Paquin perfectly unzips her skin as she became a werewolf in Trick 'r Treat (2007). How can he let Godzilla look unfinished? I have a theory. Michael Dougherty spent 99% of his time trying to get a decent performance out of Kyle Chandler and had no time to oversee any other aspect of the production. I love Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights as much as anyone, but he doesn't work as Dr. Mark Russell. And luckily for us, we'll get more of him in Godzilla vs. Kong (2021). Everyone else turns in a decent performance. Of course Vera Farmiga shines through the lines she's been given. Millie Bobby Brown, Thomas Middleditch, Bradley Whitford, and O'Shea Jackson Jr. all work well. It's just Kyle Chandler who gives an over-the-top soap opera line-reading that induces cringe every time he is forced to open his mouth.

I wanted to enjoy this clash of the titans spectacle even with all the cracks in the veneer. But after seeing how amazing Kong Skull Island is, the bar is higher. And this one fails to meet the grandeur of the spectacle it attempts.

DARK HABITS (1983)

dir: Pedro Almodóvar

Household name Pedro Almodóvar began his feature film career in 1978 with the little seen Folle... folle... fólleme Tim, then with Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980). Pepi... started the director's path of a semi-punk aesthetic. Or at least punk in the subject matter he began to use. Almodóvar first widely seen film came in 1982 with Labyrinth of Passion. Here, he began to use his campy / soap opera sensibilities and match them with risqué subject matter. In Labyrinth the story revolves around a nymphomaniac, a gay terrorist, an emperor's son, and a dry-cleaner's daughter set in a punk rock Madrid. After his success with Labryinth, Almodóvar had a producer and made his next film with a film company. While this allowed him a larger budget, he felt it also created restrictions in what he wanted to create. This film was Dark Habits.

To read a synopsis of Dark Habits, one wonders what vision Almodóvar had that he was unable to create. Yolanda, an ex-agriculture teacher turned seedy nightclub singer, brings home heroine to her junky boyfriend who dies in front of her. Fearing police will assume she had some part in his death, Yolanda seeks refuge in a convent. She seeks the aid of the Mother Superior while learning about the fellow sisters. Sister Manure, Sister Snake, Sister Sewer Rat, and Sister Damned each have their quirks. These quirks include addictions to LSD and heroine, secret desires to elope with priests, raising a pet tiger, and writing trashy romance novels under a pseudonym. When you take into account this variation of nunsploitation, you wonder, what else did Almodóvar want to include? None of these elements feel as though they are there just for shock value. Each strangeness is diagnosed through the film's language. And while the film is made to veer into the realm of dark comedy, a steady pulse of emotion is felt throughout.

Almodóvar's next films thrust him into the limelight and garnered worldwide acclaim. With Matador (1986), Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) and Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989) still tipping toward the beginning of one's career it is easy to see why Almodóvar became an international sensation.

CUJO

dir: Lewis Teague

Coming off the fun and cultish fame of Alligator (1980), Stephen King asked for Teague to work on Cujo. King himself states that he was so deep into his alcoholism that he doesn't even remember writing the book. And while the book takes a few strange turns with being an indirect sequel to The Dead Zone with Cujo being possessed, the film is more straight forward. Oh, and Tad lives. Yeah, if you haven't read the book, that's a spoiler. But, killing children isn't something new for a King story. 

I always forget that a quarter of the film is about Dee Wallace having an affair and three-quarters of the film is about getting out of a Pinto. There are few scenes as jolting at when Cujo first leaps at the passenger window of the car. There's misdirection and the 'Jaws' coming out of the water shot all rolled into one. Cujo, as a film, is unnerving. The car doesn't run, its doors don't work right, the farmhouse is only a couple hundred feet away, the police are there but can't save themselves, the kid is having seizures and can't breath, and there's a huge Saint Bernard with rabies ready to maul you. Teague does a great job ratcheting up the suspense by keeping us locked in a single location. Cujo is always more fun that you remember it being.

THE SHINING (1980)

dir: Stanley Kubrick

The Shining, from the first time I saw it, burrowed itself deep within me. Kubrick, growing up and through film school, was my hero. His ability to capture images in a beautiful symmetry, no matter their subject matter, still resonates with me today. The Shining is a perfect horror film. I love Suspiria (1977), Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978), and even later Silence of the Lambs (1990). I will champion these films as great horror films. They teeter on the edge. But as far as perfection achieved in horror, that honor goes to The Shining and The Exorcist (1973). No matter how many times I've seen the perfect ones, they still terrify. These titans of terror create images that illicit anxiety and a nausea reserved usually for panic. Kubrick crochets Stephen King's story into a completely new blanket. The beats from the book are present: alcoholic father, cabin fever, haunted hotel, clairvoyant kid, and expository cook. But the way these ingredients are cooked by a perfectionist auteur filmmaker create an unconscious dread casserole that is always delicious to revisit.

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Best viewing of the week. We saw some Oscar noms this week including: Minari, Sound of Metal, and Mank. We also did some prep for Adam Wingard's Godzilla vs. Kong. Some classics were rewatched: Psycho, The Shining, Dark Habits, and Cujo. These were all highs this week. I loved Minari and Sound of Metal, but I'm going with the most fun I had this week.

HIGH:  KONG: SKULL ISLAND

Worst viewing of the week. This goes right off of the High this week. While I loved, Kong, this was just lacking.

LOW:  GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS

TV CORNER:

No TV watched this week. I really don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I'm sad we haven't stayed up to date with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or Resident Alien, but there's always next week.