Rewatch, up from a 7. Maybe the rating jump can be attributed to the fact that I’ve seen a lot more movies since my first viewing (notably a handful of impactful Hawks films), or maybe it’s just the upgrade from dusty laptop to big screen 4k restoration (a staggering difference, as abyssal blacks, impressive in their own right, accentuate the masterful and diverse use of lighting, from red emergency flares to yellow bulbs that flash blue-white when they’re shattered). Whatever: knocked me flat!
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Crimes of the Future 2022
Had a somewhat muted reaction to this on first viewing, but in the intervening six months (yeah, yeah, I know, but I figure my review backlog can just be a project for future generations to shoulder) the ruined Mediterranean setting and Stewart’s polarizing gremlin act have grown on me considerably. And, when I remember that Cronenberg is nearly 80, and when I take my own aging family members’ oft-repeated advice into account (“Don’t get old”), the pain Saul Tenser exudes…
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Barry Lyndon 1975
Wonder how much my adoration for this film stems from how little I knew about it going in? I mean, Kubrick’s other work is obviously still quite good (hot take), but scenes like “Here’s Johnny!”, the bomb ride, and singin’ in the rain have had their edge dulled by several decades of parody-worship, entrenched in pop culture as they are. 2001 gets around this for the most part by having those moments be among the most universally profound in cinematic…
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Vertigo 1958
The ne plus ultra in the work of an already legendary director, who here utilizes the theme of “obsession” perhaps more profoundly than anyone ever could thanks to his voyeuristic reputation. Vertigo is like a tacit admission on Hitchcock’s part. He goads his audience, depicting the downward spiral of a man as he succumbs to his desires for a woman, the concept of a woman, whom he never even knew. And yet we can never look away from the horror;…
