Not sure there’s a better movie about the wrecking ball that is self-interest
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Escape from New York 1981
Aside from a few brief moments of CGI (met with me saying “there they are” every time they showed the twin towers), Carpenter’s vision of a dystopian, lawless Manhattan prison still holds up. If they made this today it would be twice as long, twice as expensive, everything in front of a green screen, and it would not even be half as good. And we don’t have anything close to a Kurt Russell today. I must note: that is the single largest cell phone I’ve ever seen on a screen. I didn’t even know what I was looking at initially. Thankful Carpenter didn’t call that one.
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West Side Story 2021
It really is such a shame how much better this could have been without Ansel, even without the allegations he just sucks the life out of every scene. I don’t know if it’s more evident in numbers like Cool where the contrast between he and Mike Faist (who is undoubtedly the MVP of this movie and absolutely deserved a Best Supporting nom) is jarring, or the scenes with just him / him and Maria that ultimately fall flat. I do…
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An American Werewolf in London 1981
Watching Griffin Dunne and David Naughton walk around the English countryside together in the dark did for me what Black Swan did for straight men in 2010
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In the Cut 2003
if early 2000s mark ruffalo w a mustache called me up after he saw a dismembered woman and told me to finger myself and then hung up I would do it
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The Batman 2022
I love this for the same reason I love Zack Synder’s Watchmen (don’t say a gd thing) which is that more than anything it is committed to being film noir. The difference here is that there are no campy flourishes, not one single moment of lightness. Just terrorism, greed, and human suffering punctuated by Nirvana needle drops and sequences of a reclusive, angry R Patts beating the shit out of people. I think this is the most fully realized vision…
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Belle de Jour 1967
There is definitely a reading of this where most of the events that take place, including the consequences of Severine’s own actions, are part of the fantasy. The movie is hyper focused on punishment and degradation, and the guilt she lives with in the end could merely be an extension of that need to feel shame. With little to no distinction between what is fantasy or reality it can’t be ruled out, and that’s why I love this so much. Is it more twisted to actually betray her husband or to find joy so much joy in the idea of doing so?
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The Great Beauty 2013
In all fairness, had a lot of technical difficulties (thank you HBO Max) that may have affected my viewing experience, stretching the runtime to an additional 20 minutes and really testing my attention span. There was nothing novel about Jep’s revelations that I emotionally connected with; in that regard was a pretty standard portrait of a disillusioned artist, perhaps more self-aware although not necessarily more self-critical. But visually this is one of the most stunning movies I have have seen…