A new David Fincher film starring Michael Fassbender? Sign me up! This is an absolutely incredible movie about a professional assassin (we never hear his name) on a job in Paris. There’s no major dialogue for awhile, other than The Killer’s thoughts, which we are privy to. This guy is very good at his job, telling us that he can’t claim a 100% success rate because one target died of a heart attack before he could be killed. The build-up to this newest target is fantastic, full of tension and a real look inside the mind of our anti-hero. However, the job goes awry when someone steps in front of the target just as The Killer takes the shot. He goes on the run, returning to his home in the Dominican Republic, but there are ramifications for not being successful at this level. He gets home to find his girlfriend has already been attacked and tortured; she has survived, but only through luck, and is in rough shape. Now The Killer is on a mission to hunt those who hired him, and who tried to clean up his mess. There’s some middling reviews online about this movie from fans expecting more of an action thriller, but that’s not what this movie is supposed to be (though there is one really incredible fight scene in the second half). The movie all about the psyche of a killer, his routines and mindset, and what happens when he deviates from that to protect the person he loves. I was enraptured from the very opening scenes, the total quiet that The Killer works in, with nothing but his thoughts. By the end, I was repeating the mantra that he regularly says to keep himself focused. Amazing film. ★★★★½

Nyad, on the other hand, lacks any kind of excitement or emotion, despite being a based-on-a-true-story film about an inspirational person. Diana Nyad was a world famous marathon swimmer in the 70s, swimming around Manhattan and from the Bahamas to Florida, but her goal of swimming from Cuba to the USA always eluded her. In 2010 and now in her 60s, she gets the urge to try it again. In the film she makes several attempts at doing so, until finally accomplishing the task in 2013. The swims themselves are fairly exciting, but what kills this movie is the absolutely awful, robotic dialogue, which never once sounds natural. Even a subplot regarding Diana overcoming childhood drama failed to move me. And don’t blame the actors (Annette Penning as Diana and Jodie Foster as her friend and coach Bonnie). All I can point the finger at is the directors and screenwriter, who don’t seem up to the task. I’m not always a fan of biopics as they can often be very dry, and this is one of those. I did stick it out to the end of the film, only because I wasn’t familiar enough the Diana’s story to know how it ended, but if I had, I probably would not have made it all the way through. ★

Every now and then a movie comes along with an absolutely standout performance by an actor, even when the movie itself doesn’t come together right. That’s the case for Reptile, a police procedural thriller starring Benicio del Toro. He plays a detective named Tom, who is assigned to a case where a woman was murdered in an empty house she was selling. The police have a couple minor leads but nothing great, so everyone is a suspect at first. There’s the woman’s husband Will (Justin Timberlake), her estranged husband Sam, and a stalker named Eli. The more Tom digs, the more questions come up. The movie starts great, with intense music that really adds to the intense feeling, but after awhile, I started to feel like the film was just spinnings its wheels. It really got to a point where the story was more convoluted that it needed to be, with the plot throwing everything against the wall to see what stuck. There’s even a couple amateurish “gotcha” moments. The one glue holding it all together though is del Toro, who is as good as he’s ever been. If anyone should get Oscar buzz despite not being in a very good movie, this is it. My rating is based on the movie itself, but I highly recommend seeing it just his performance alone, you won’t find better. ★★★

Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire is a film as unwieldy as its name. It’s no surprise that the idea for this movie began as a pitch from director Zack Snyder to Lucasfilm, as it looks very much like how Snyder would do Star Wars, and borrows heavily from it. The film begins on a remote planet at a peaceful farming village, where a woman, Kora, came 2 years ago as a refugee and has found a home. She was fleeing something, but what, we do not exactly know. Her peace comes to and when the Imperium, the war mongering rulers of the galaxy, come seeking information on rebels in the area, and threaten the village harm if they do not supply food to the soldiers. With a promise to back for grain soon, they leave a small contingent and depart. Kora will not watch the Imperium destroy her new friends and family, so she kills the soldiers and sets out to find like-minded people to help her protect the village, in a Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven style. Her path takes her around the galaxy, recruiting a handful of powerful people who have a grudge against the Imperium, setting up a big battle in the end. The movie has style, but unfortunately that’s about all it has, and too often, Zack Snyder is doing his Zack Snyder-y thing with the constant slow motion action scenes. It grows old quick. The movie is lifeless, with a boring plot, which is exactly what you don’t want in a movie about revolution. Snyder has grand plans to produce an entire Star Wars-like franchise out of this, but he better produce a better sequel or it will be the shortest franchise in the history of film. A couple stars because it is pretty, but really not worth your time. ★★

May December is one of those films with a very uncomfortable subject, so while it will creep you out more times than you’d care for, it does feature outstanding performances by its 3 mains. From acclaimed director Todd Haynes, May December follows an actress named Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) who is in Savannah to interview the real-life person she’ll be portraying in her next movie. The subject of the film is the story of Gracie (Julianne Moore), who, 24 years ago, was arrested and sent to prison for seducing and marrying a 13-year-old boy. The boy, Joe (Charles Melton), married Gracie once he was old enough, and they went on to have kids and a life together. It very much looks like Elizabeth is a method actor, as she is basically becoming Gracie as the film progresses. She interviews everyone around town: Gracie’s ex-husband, her estranged kids from her first husband, her lawyer; basically anyone who has a Gracie story to tell. And Elizabeth gets conflicting views: Gracie is either an emotionally abusive power-hungry narcissist or a lonely, sad, victim of abuse herself. The film is a little on-the-nose sometimes, but the characters drive the story, and each is fantastic. Elizabeth will do anything to “become” Gracie, Joe is a man who never emotionally grew past that of a 13 year old and truly had his, not only childhood, but whole life stolen from him, and then there’s Gracie. Who is either the most vile or the most complicated person in the movie. If the plot sounds familiar, it is loosely based on a true story from the early 90s. ★★★★

Though I’m not a country music fan, I’ve always respected Dolly Parton as a person and artist, so I thought I’d start with her breakout film role, 9 to 5. She joined established actresses Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as a trio of working women in the 1980’s male dominated business world. They work at a company as secretaries, where they must deal with their chauvinist boss Frank Hart, who doesn’t seem to do any actual work of his own, living off the ideas of Violet (Tomlin) while chasing skirt, his personal secretary Doralee (Parton). Judy (Fonda) is the new girl learning the ropes, but quickly sees the imbalance of power. United, the trio set out to right some wrongs. The movie points out some glaring problems in the work environment, but unfortunately anytime it delves deeply into a glaringly sexist issue, a minute later it turns to comedy (and often, silly comedy at that) which takes the bite out of its social commentary. I think this was done on purpose; supposedly the film was originally a drama but was thought to be too feminist (probably by a man in upper management) and it was rewritten as a comedy instead. I would have liked to see the original version. As it sits, it has great moments but as a whole is very uneven. Still, Parton stars and the film is worth seeing for her energy alone. ★★½

I probably don’t need to say much about Young Guns; outside of myself, I bet most film watchers have seen it. Somehow I missed it though. Released in 1988, it seems like nothing more than a way to take some of the men of the Brat Pack-ers and make a western with them. Loosely based on the Regulators, the posse that made Billy the Kid famous, the movie tells their tale from how they came together up through Battle of Lincoln, basically major events of the Lincoln County War. It stars Emilio Estevez, brother Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, and a host of others (including established old-timers like Terence Stamp and Jack Palance). In the movie, rancher John Tunstall has a soft spot for young men who society has given up on, and he teaches them how to work hard but also how to read. Tunstall has rung afoul of another rancher though, Lawrence Murphy, who has Tunstall killed. Tunstall’s boys vow revenge, and set out to bring the killers and Murphy to justice, old west style. The movie is ok, nothing spectacular, and unfortunately has an 80s soundtrack that is distracting and takes you out of a real western feel. While the actors are, for the most part, no more than pretty faces, there’s enough there to keep you watching to see how it all ends. The movie was meant to be a one-and-done, and gives a narration at the end to tell you how all the characters lived out their days, but did well enough that a sequel was made a couple years later. ★★★

While director Francis Ford Coppola was adapting SE Hinton’s The Outsiders to film, he was also putting together another, lesser known Hinton film adaptation. Coppola would meat with Hinton on Sundays (when The Outsiders wasn’t filming) to work on Rumble Fish, and would ultimately film it back-to-back once The Outsiders was completed, with some of the same cast and most of the same crew. However, it is a much different movie. Called “an art film for teenagers,” Rumble Fish follows teenager Rusty James. Rusty James is a tough guy in the neighborhood, always getting in fights and always in trouble in school. His girlfriend Patty wishes he would stop fighting, but where Rusty James comes from, that’s all he knows. His father is an alcoholic, and his mother is rumored to have gone insane, having abandoned the family long ago. Rusty James idolizes his brother (never named, and called only The Motorcycle Boy), who may be following their mother’s footsteps, as far as sanity goes. Nothing is good enough for Rusty James’ brother; he carries himself always in a cool, calm, and collected way, above the minutia going on around him. The Motorcycle Boy left the family himself for a time, traveling to California and supposedly running into their mother, but is back now, stirring up trouble through no fault of his own. After all, people like to tear down those that are better than them, and everyone sees it. As much as Rusty James worships his brother though, he himself may be more like this father than his mother. Outstanding, thought-provoking film, with elements of noir and coming-of-age, with an amazing cast of future stars as teens, including Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, and Lawrence Fishburne, as well as some established actors like Dennis Hopper and even a small role for Tom Waits. ★★★★

I stumbled upon Border Radio and thought it sounded kind of early Jim Jarmusch-y, so thought I’d give it a whirl. After watching it and prepping to write this, I read some reviews, and apparently it’s not very well liked, but I didn’t think it was terrible. Not great, but not terrible. The movie takes place in LA and is portrayed as a quasi-documentary at times, with the story revolving around a local musician (Jeff) who has stolen something from a club owner and is now on the run. We don’t learn what he has taken until later in the movie, but it was important enough that the club sent some goons over to try to rough him up and get the item back. Unfortunately for them, Jeff hit out of town quickly, and went to Mexico, leaving his wife and kid behind. The wife doesn’t know what is going on, so she starts asking around town to unravel the mystery, while also taking the opportunity of Jeff’s absence to sleep with his friend. As the movie winds down, the mystery is solved (and it is a pretty weak mystery after all that), and the film shifts to a tale about the demise of the punk rock scene in LA, as bands are signing record contracts and leaving the city to go tour. Filmed on a super-low budget using actual local musicians as the actors, the movie gives off a Clerks-like vibe (years before Clerks), but with even worse acting and less entertainment. However, I did like the feeling of a bunch of friends just getting together to film a movie, and the soundtrack, put together by local rock bands at the time, is fantastic. Not sure I’d watch it again, but it isn’t as awful as you may read online. ★★½

I’m cheating a bit on The Bodyguard; not 80s obviously, being released in 1992, but with leads who became stars in the 80s. And I’d never seen it, and it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to. Should have left this one off the list, as it certainly feels like pure 80s cheese. Kevin Costner plays a former secret serviceman named Frank Farmer, who never forgave himself for not being there the day Reagan was shot. He now hires himself out as a personal bodyguard, but usually stays away from celebrities because they are high maintenance and not worth the hassle. He is begged to take the job to protect superstar actress and singer Rachel Marron (Whitney Houston in her film debut) by her manager, after Rachel has received death threats. Unbeknownst to Rachel, someone snuck into her house one day, left a note, and masterbated in a guest room; her handlers haven’t told her in order to not scare her. Not knowing how serious it is, Rachel pushes back against hiring Frank, but eventually acquiesces. As Frank makes the home more secure and implements rules that Rachel and her hangers-on must follow, the two of them begin to grow closer, even as Frank knows that getting into a relationship with her will distract him and hurt his ability to keep her safe. Despite a solid performance by Houston and that big song that was a staple of 90s radio (you know which one), the movie just isn’t very good. Wild twists and turns that could only come from an 80s movie, with flimsy plot points that don’t hold up under scrutiny. If you’ve managed to avoid this movie to this point, don’t bother rectifying that. ★½

• TV series recently watched: Mayor of Kingstown (season 1), Slow Horses (season 3), What If…? (season 2)
• Book currently reading: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

Depending on your generation, you’ve either read the original book by Roald Dahl, seen the first film with Gene Wilder, or the later version with Johnny Depp (or all 3!). Rather than retelling the same story again, Wonka is an original film telling Willie Wonka’s origin story: how he came to be the king of chocolate that we all know.

In the beginning of the movie, Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) is returning to Europe after traveling the world gathering ingredients to be the best chocolate maker ever. However, he is met with immediate resistance from the 3 big chocolate companies in the region, who get the police on their side to harass Wonka at every turn. To make matters worse, Wonka finds himself indentured to a shady boarding house owner, who forces him to clean laundry in the basement. Thankfully Wonka makes a friend there, Noodle, who sees the passion he has for his chocolate and agrees to help him achieve his goals. But the chocolate lords will not make it easy.

The film has fun, catchy tunes (it is indeed a musical), and Chalamet is charming as the titular character, but it is the magic that he spins that makes this film so wonderful. I was mesmerized, transported back to my childhood, and it is easy to feel like a kid again watching this movie. Highly recommended for the young and young-at-heart. ★★★★½

I was excited for Shortcomings, as the premise is about a young filmmaker obsessed with classic films, but it pays little homage to films of the past and stays strictly in romcom territory. Directed by Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park, it follows a young man named Ben, who went to film school but it is stuck working at an arthouse film theater and can’t come up with an idea for a film of his own. He is dismayed when his girlfriend Miko’s first film is shown at a film festival to rousing applause, even when Ben thinks it isn’t high brow enough for his tastes. This leads to an argument, and Miko leaves Berkeley to go to New York, putting a pause on their relationship. Ben turns to his longtime friend Alice, a gay woman with her own problems, such as a deeply religious family unable to accept her. When Ben starts to suspect that Miko is seeing another man in NY, even as he hypocritically is dating women while she is away, Ben flies off to NY to confront her. I like the inclusion of an Asian cast, even if the film does a bit too much to continually beat you over the head with it, but the film is awfully shallow and doesn’t encourage any retrospective that Ben so glaringly calls for. I would have rather it gone one way or the other, instead of trying to find the middle. ★★½

Sometimes a film doesn’t have to be stellar to give you exactly what you want. The Dirty South is one such movie, or maybe it just caught me on a good day. It stars Willa Holland (Arrow), Shane West (A Walk to Remember and ER), and Dermont Mulroney (of many films; the most recognizable face in the movie) and takes place in a small town quite literally divided by railroad tracks. On one side is the well-to-do’s, and on the other, the trailer park-living working class. Sue Parker is of the latter, running a bar owned by her alcoholic and drug-abusing father Gary. Sue is up against a wall: the bar owes $30k to the richest man in town, Jeb Roy, and he has given her until Monday to pay up, or he’ll take the bar and the land, including Sue’s home. Sue’s get-out-of-jail-free card may have just walked in the door in the form of Dion. A drifter, Dion is a two-bit thief who gets through life by pickpocketing patrons at bars just like Sue’s and coasting until he runs low on cash, then repeating the cycle. In a town like hers, she knows where the wealthy hang out, and Dion agrees to help her if he can keep everything of their score over her needed 30k. A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of movie, there’s so much plot going on that you may need a map by the end, so don’t let your attention stray. It doesn’t promise anything more than it delivers though. Mildly compelling in all the right spots, and while it won’t win any awards, it’s a solid afternoon movie. ★★★

There’s not really much to say about The Unknown Country. The premise was something like “a woman drives cross country after the loss of a family member,” or something like that, and that’s about all the movie is about. In the film, a woman named Tana sets out from the north (only known because it is cold and snowy, and at some point after awhile we see a sign for South Dakota) and, eventually, she ends up in Texas. Along the way, she reflects on the life of her grandmother, and meets some eccentric people in the backwaters of America on her trip (real people, whose stories are told in a documentary-like way). There’s only the barest of plots here, and you know me — I need a story to get behind. Needless to say, this was not my kind of film. I stuck it out, mostly hoping for the big “ah ha” moment in the end, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy my curiosity. ★

Pakistani film Joyland is one of those films that you think it is about one thing, and ends up being about something else entirely. Sometimes that doesn’t work, but it does here. The film mostly follows a man named Haider, who lives in a small apartment with his wife Muntaz, brother Saleem (with his wife and daughters), and their ailing father Aman. In their culture, Aman, as patriarch, is head of household until his death, so his word is law, and he derides Haider for not being a “manly man.” Haider keeps the house while his wife Muntaz works, and when he finally finds work, it isn’t a job the family would approve of. Haider becomes a backup dancer at a local dance theater; not only that, but he is backing up a transgender woman named Biba. Haider is attached to Biba immediately, and we start to learn a whole lot about Haider as the film goes along. A movie like this, you think Haider and/or Biba is going to be the focus, and Haider is definitely the main actor throughout, but it isn’t his story that all of this revolves around. I can’t tell you who because that would ruin the surprise. Suffice to say that you should sit back and ride the wave of emotions of the film, and if you think it isn’t moving fast enough for you, just stick around for the ending. The movie’s a bit uneven at times, and does seem to lose focus in the second half, but it is all worth it when it comes together in the end. ★★★½

Falcon Lake is such a great film, combining elements of supernatural, psychological thriller, and a coming-of-age in French Canada. Young teen Bastien and his family are staying the summer at the vacation home of longtime friends, situated near a picturesque lake. It’s been a few years since the families all got together; last time, the friends’ daughter Chloe was 10 or 11 and Bastien was 7 — a big gap at that age. But now, Bastien is 13 (almost 14, as he reminds people) and Chloe is 16, and the gap doesn’t seem so large. At first, Chloe tests Bastien with a story about a previous drowning in the lake, and it now being haunted by a ghost, but it doesn’t seem to faze Bastien, though he does carry a fear of drowning as he can’t swim. Passing Chloe’s “test” to see if he is a kid or not, the two start to bond; however, whenever other (older) boys come around, Chloe obviously latches on to them, freezing Bastien out. Still, the two grow close as the summer progresses. They alternate between being carefree kids and adolescents on the cusp of sexual awakening. It’s a great film and a reminder of those last days of childhood, but with poignant reminders that adulthood isn’t too far away. ★★★★★

It’s been a little while since a film completely blew me away. Fists in the Pocket did just that, with a tale of a dysfunctional family in a rural villa. Once from money, the family has fallen on hard times, in no small part because of its living members. The matriarch is blind and mostly forgotten in the house; eldest son Augusto is the true man of the house and the only breadwinner; daughter Giulia is a self-absorbed bitch; and fellow brothers Leone and Alessandro are epileptic and have their own problems: Leone is simple of mind, and “Ale” is a psychopath by every definition of the word. It is mostly Ale and Giulia who vie for Augusto’s attention, but in the most unhealthy of ways. Giulia flaunts the lover letter her brother Ale wrote her, and Ale tries to exert power over anyone who is perceived weaker than himself, while fermenting an incestuous relationship with his sister. Augusto though, for the most part, keeps the family in check, but I get the feeling he secretly loves the power he wields, and he hoards it over his siblings. If Ale is going to get more of the power he covets, he will need to get Augusto out of the picture. He’s too afraid to attack him directly, so he instead plots to kill the rest of the family, which would then free Augusto to marry his girlfriend and move to the city. A lot goes on in this movie, but what makes it stand out is the amazing performances by the trio of leads. Lou Castel as Ale is always arresting in every scene, as a lunatic with no redeeming qualities, yet he fools his family enough to get by. Little things like when he rehearses movements with his hands before conversations with his brother drive home how hard Ale is working to appear normal. The film drew a lot of criticism from the Catholic church when it came out, as Ale also goes through the motions of observing his faith, often right before or after committing some crime, but I think it was used more to show the depths of Ale’s sociopathy. Loved every minute of it. ★★★★★

La Commare Secca gives the set up of the film from the very start: a prostitute is found dead along the riverfront, just outside of a park. The police round up a bunch of suspects, people who were in the park that night, and start getting alibis. For each one, the viewer sees immediately that no one is telling the truth. The film plays out as each person gives their side of the story, but unfortunately it plays out as sort of a poor man’s Rashomon. Though none of them are faultless, there’s one man in particular who exudes villainy from the get-go, so you don’t have to guess too far to know who the murderer is. ★★

Dillinger is Dead is a slow-burn drama and very nearly one-man show, a showcase for the talents of esteemed French actor Michel Piccoli. The film follows his character, Glauco, over the course of one long day. We immediately see that the man is a bit disturbed and pervy, into voyeurism (when he can get away with it), and he is hiding his “true” self from the world around him. After leaving work (he designs gas masks, and his coworkers laud his work as an existential effort about masking ourselves from industrialist society, when in reality Glauco designed them from his own dark soul), he goes home to find his wife sick in bed. She made him dinner, but it is cold, so he begins to prepare a new, gourmet meal for himself. While looking for ingredients in the back of the cabinet, he stumbles upon a very old revolver, wrapped in a newspaper extolling the death of John Dillinger. Thinking this may be the killing weapon, Glauco sets out for the evening to restore the gun, cleaning and oiling it while he prepares his dinner. At times, he’ll hold it to his head and play-act at suicide. At some point, the family maid comes in, a woman to whom Glauco is attracted, and he later seduces her. The movie ticks by slowly, with this always-simmering feeling of perverseness and a real sense of impending doom. The finale does not disappoint. I got sort of Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles vibes. There are a lot of similarities, such as a nearly complete lack of dialogue, as well as watching our main character go about mundane actions (cooking, watching TV, etc), but mostly because of the boiling sense of wrongness and the fact that the character loses it in the end; but whereas Jeanne was just done with society because of the role it forced her into, Glauco is a pure sociopath from the beginning. ★★★★½

Some heavy films in a row there, so for some lighter fare, I hunted down a comedy, and to boot, it stars arguably the most recognizable Italian actor of all time, Marcello Mastroianni. Divorce Italian Style is fantastic, and an easy viewing for all, even if you are usually hesitant about reading subtitles. Mastroianni plays Ferdinando Cefalû (Fefè), a man from a formerly wealthy estate but whose father has lost much of their lands to his brother (Fefè’s uncle). Fefè is married 12 years to Rosalia, a woman for whom he has no more feelings. In fact, Fefè is deeply in love with his cousin (said uncle’s daughter), 16-year-old Angela. And Fefè is willing to do anything to get her, up to and including murder. After witnessing a recent trial where a woman was given a light sentence after murdering her philandering husband, Fefè hatches a plan to find a man to woo Rosalia, so that Fefè can kill her and free himself. He has trouble finding a candidate, until fate throws him just the man he needs. Rosalia was in love with a man before the war (WW2), but he was thought dead, and she moved on. Turns out he is alive, and Fefè hires him to do some work around the house. When this man and Rosalia see each other for the first time, Fefè thinks he is golden. But he still needs to enact his scheme. Lots of funny stuff, including from Fefè’s sister, who is in love with a man but whom Fefè has yet to approve their marriage, despite he continually walking in on their amorous actions in every dark corner of the house. You’ll laugh often and loud throughout this one. ★★★★

I liked the above movie so much that I went and found another from the same director (Pietro Germi). Seduced and Abandoned is another comedy, from 1964, and while elements are a whole lot darker, it was uproariously funny at times too. In a small town where everyone is in everyone else’s business, patriarch Vincenzo cares very much for his family’s honor. His daughter Matilde is about to marry a young man named Peppino, but Peppino seduces and beds Matilde’s 15-year-old sister Agnese one afternoon, setting off the film’s chain of events, especially after it is found that she is pregnant. Vincenzo will slap around Agnese and call her a tramp in his own home, but he doesn’t want anyone else knowing it, and he is dead set on getting Peppino to marry her before she starts showing. In a strange turn of events through, Peppino refuses, as he wants to marry a virgin (not forgetting that Agnese isn’t a virgin because of him). In the little town full of gossip, both families are doing everything they can to save face. It has slow moments, and some of the humor can be hard to get behind in 2023, but a lot of it is still very funny, and it’s an overall enjoyable comedy. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Succession (season 4), The Serpent Queen (season 1), Lawmen: Bass Reeves (series), Gen V (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan

Today, going to look back at some of the films that put Jackie Chan on the map, thanks to the excellent set from Criterion. Starting with 1978’s Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, which is a silly movie, but it’s a fun silly movie. Chan would continue this style of slapstick-style comedy mixed with fantastic fighting sequences for a long time. In this film, with so many subplots that your head will spin, Chan plays a bumbling nobody who has a dream of learning kung fu. For awhile, he always seems to turn up at the wrong place at the right time, Some big villains get killed by kung fu experts when Chan is around, and it is Chan that people think did the killing, so his reputation grows as a hero. With his new status under his arm, he seeks out a kung fu master to teach him. In a running gag, the way Chan ends up learning all of his moves is through reading the pages of the master’s “kung fu manual,” and can seemingly pick up advanced moves from a quick look at each page. By the end of the film, Chan is a master, fighting off hoards of bad guys at a time, with 3 separate gangs coming after Chan and his master for some ancient artifacts they supposedly carry. Silly antics go hand-in-hand with incredible fighting sequences. You might laugh one second and “ooh and ahh” the next. I’ve admittedly not seen a lot of these old kung fu films before, but I was very impressed with the action scenes, made in a time long before computer-aided effects could make anyone look like a fighting master. ★★★

In Spiritual Kung Fu, Chan plays Yi-Lang, a student at a martial arts school under attack. A rival has stolen a book teaching the Seven Deadly Fists technique, which is supposedly unbeatable. Legend has it that only one other technique would stand a chance against it, the Five Style Fists. Unfortunately this book has been lost to time, and the wielder of the Seven Deadly Fists has been going around killing the masters of other schools. Thankfully, Yi-Lang has the spirits on his side. Five spirits descend from the heavens, each representing a style (Crane, Serpent, Dragon, Leopard, and Tiger), and they begin teaching Yi-Lang their long-lost techniques. The beginning of this movie is silly to the point of stupidity, and I very nearly gave up. The spirits are invisible to all by Yi-Lang, and their hijinks on the other students in his school are nothing more than tricky camera work and 70s style special effects, and it goes on way too long (nearly 30 minutes). Get past that though, and the high flying kung-fu is even better than the above film. The final hour of this film is incredible, if you can wade through the opening slosh. ★★★

Jackie Chan takes full control of a film for the first time in 1979’s The Fearless Hyena, his directorial debut. With more control comes more of Jackie’s personality, including all those silly bits, ramped up to level 10. If you are a big fan, you’ll find plenty to like, but I’m here for the action, and while there is less of it, what is there is still top-notch. The story revolves around a young kung fu student (seeing a trend here?) named Lung who is learning from his grandfather Pang-fei. Pang-fei doesn’t want Lung using his skills outside of their home, because his clan has been targeted by a rival in the past who would love to wipe out its surviving members. Lung is young and impetuous though, taking a job at a local kung fu school as an instructor of his own, but mostly as the hired muscle, to beat rival toughs so as to recruit more students at the school. His rise in fame does catch the eye of grandfather’s rivals though. In the final fight, Lung is trained in “emotional kung fu” to finally take out the big bad guy. Yes, it is as silly as it sounds. Slapstick runs amok, but not entirely wasteful. ★★

By 1983, Chan was no longer an up-and-comer, but a bonafide star, which can have good and bad consequences. The bad can result in a film like Fearless Hyena Part II. Not sure it is actually a sequel, because while the actors are the same, the characters seem different. This is just a really bad movie. There are a million characters that appear and disappear with little rhyme or reason, and the movie’s biggest star, Jackie, disappears for huge stretches. And when he’s gone, it is gravely apparent: the fighting isn’t nearly as fast-paced nor as intricate as when he’s involved. There’s a loose story about two men whose fathers are killed by a duo of bad guys, and the men go out to seek vengeance, but there’s so much else that goes on that I became hopelessly lost. Characters come in for a seemingly important reason, only to leave after their scene and never be heard from again. And that missing Jackie Chan problem… I first suspected something was up in the final fight sequence, when there is clearly re-used footage from the previous film. After finishing the movie, I read that Jackie left the film halfway through, left the studio entirely, to go to a rival studio. This prompted the director to finish the film with reused film and outtakes from the previous entry, while substituting Chan with a double where needed. Anything for a buck. We’re in a spiral here, hope the next one is better. ★

The Young Master was Chan’s first film at his new studio home (Golden Harvest), and was released in 1980 (before the previous studio was able to finish the above film sans Chan’s involvement). It’s a much more dramatic turn than his previous films, and is my favorite yet. He plays a young man named Dragon, who, along with his brother Tiger, was taken in as an orphan by a kung fu school master. The school raised the boys to be the brightest students in the establishment. The annual lion dance competition is coming up, and Tiger is slated to be the head, but he is injured just before the comp. Dragon takes his place, and during their fight as the Gold Dragon against the Black Dragon, Dragon (the person) sees that his brother Tiger is performing as Black Dragon, for the rival school. Turns out Tiger took a bribe to do so, and when he is found out, he flees his home in shame and hooks up with a gang of thugs. They free a convicted criminal named Kam, but unfortunately it is Dragon that authorities think did the job. Dragon runs aground with the local constable (and his family!) but it isn’t until Tiger is made to be the scapegoat of the villains’ latest bank robbery than Dragon gets a chance to save his brother from himself, and take down Kam too. Chan gets to show a more emotional side for the first time in these films, and while no one is ever going to wax poetic about his acting chops, it is nice to see him play something besides the goofball. ★★★½

Finishing up with 1985’s My Lucky Stars, the middle of a loose “trilogy” of films starring the same actors across the series. Chan get’s top billing due to his drawing power by 1985, and while he is the first person you see on screen, he disappears for a large section in the middle before returning in the end. The film involves a quintet of friends, all petty criminals tied to each other from having all been orphans in the same home as kids. Muscle (Chan) is a cop trying to take down a mob family, and he hails from the same orphanage. Muscle knows dirty cops are keeping him from his goal, so he recruits his five childhood buddies to infiltrate the bad guys’ lair, along with some eye candy in the form of a kung fu wielding badass woman nicknamed Poison Ivy. Action in the beginning, action in the end, with a lot of comedy in the middle. Not too bad, and seeing a martial arts film set in current day (well, 80s, that is) was a refreshing change of pace after all of the earlier films. A little hokey, but not terrible. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: The Wheel of Time (season 1), Star Trek Lower Decks (season 4), Colin From Accounts (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Stonewalling is technically a Japanese film (Japanese directors and production company), but it was filmed in China and has the feel of some of the great, leisurely Chinese films of the last decade. The film follows 20-year-old Lynn in the year 2019. She’s living with her boyfriend, going to school to be a flight attendant, and taking English classes to help her career choice, but she doesn’t seem excited about any of it (including her boyfriend). Back home, her dad runs a health clinic and her mom is always into get-rich-quick schemes, the latest being a pyramid scheme involving beauty products. As such, Lynn’s parents are always in debt, and Lynn is continually trying to find odd jobs to send money. Her latest is an egg donation clinic, but lo and behold, she is unable to donate because she finds out she is pregnant. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she moves back home to give birth in secret with her parents, and they start looking for ways to sell the baby to a couple looking to adopt. There’s laughs about the absurdity of Lynn’s life, but also lots of heart-wrenching moments that sometimes pop up unexpectedly. As I’ve said, Lynn doesn’t seem to care about much in life, but she obviously does want to have children one day (when she first found about egg donation, her first question was if she could still have children after the surgery). And in a don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it short dialogue, we find out the real reason Lynn wants to sell this baby, and her reasoning will make you wince with pain for her. And even as her due date in the spring approaches, I had this sense of foreboding, because we all know what came out of China in early 2020. A very poignant film, but definitely takes its time in telling the story, so go in with time and patience and let it come to you. ★★★★

The Lesson is a “thriller” (heavy on the quotations, because it isn’t really) following a promising young writer named Liam. Liam has all the talent but has been working on the same first novel for years, but he is well regarded in scholarly circles. Because of this, he is hired by renowned author JM Sinclair to tutor his son Bertie, as Bertie nears his entrance exams for Oxford. Liam jumps at the opportunity, as Sinclair is his personal hero. Sinclair hasn’t written a book though in five years, and is feeling the pressure to keep the legacy going. As such, Liam enters a household fraught with tension: Sinclair, who can’t seem to finish this book; Bertie, who doesn’t even enjoy writing, but is being forced to follow in his father’s footsteps; and Sinclair’s wife Helene, who has her own part to play in all this. Add to everything the loss of their first son, Felix, who drowned a couple years ago in the small lake behind the house, and whose presence is still felt throughout the house. At first, I was getting vibes from the Letters from Zedelghem sections of the novel Cloud Atlas; substitute “author” for “composer” and it felt like much the same set up, and it would seem, even if the plots diverge, the writer for this film definitely found inspiration there. In the end, it does become its own story, though the acting is better than the telling of it. It has some heavy hitters (Richard Grant and Julie Delpy) but ultimately became too pulpy for what I was initially expecting. ★★½

The title Scrapper refers to Georgie, a 12-year-old girl whose mother recently died after a prolonged illness, leaving her alone. She’s convinced the world that an uncle, “Winston Churchill,” has moved in to take care of her, but she is very much by herself, with only a friend (Ali) knowing the truth. She is scraping by by stealing bikes and selling them, but the writing is on the wall that this will not last forever, despite what she may think. Her plans go awry when her biological father, Jason, shows up. She doesn’t remember him, as he’s never been in the picture, but Georgie’s mother contacted him before she died, pleading for him to come take care of Georgie. The two immediately butt heads, as Georgie doesn’t think she needs him, and Jason has made a life of shirking responsibility. Jason needs to grow up, and Georgie needs to move past her grief. We all know where this is going. I didn’t much like the movie in the beginning; it seemed the young director (Charlotte Regan) was trying too hard to press all the right “indie film” buttons, but it settled in after awhile, and the performance by the always great Harris Dickinson (Where the Crawdads Sing, Triangle of Sadness, Beach Rats, etc) really helps. ★★★

Plan 75 is a dystopian Japanese film which shines a light on a very real problem in that country. Japan has the highest population of elderly in the world, and is a society where older folks would rather commit suicide than be a burden on their kids and grandkids. In this film, the government has enacted a program called Plan 75, in which people that age and older are given the option of a government assisted suicide. The movie follows 3 people involved in the program. Mishi is in her 70s and facing terrible age discrimination. Fired at her job, unable to find a new job because of her age, and too proud to take welfare, she’s facing the real possibility of becoming homeless. After she sees a friend commit suicide in her apartment because of similar problems, Mishi decides to sign up for Plan 75. However, as her day approaches, she struggles with letting go of this world, terrible as it may be at times. We also get to know Himoru, a young man who works at Plan 75, who discovers that the program isn’t as respectful with people’s remains as they claim to be. With this knowledge, he is torn when his estranged uncle signs up for the program. Though Himoru hasn’t seen his uncle in 20 years, he is reminded of his deceased father. The final person is Maria, an immigrant who loves caring for elderly at a nursing home, but hears that she can make more money at Plan 75. Expecting to care for old people there too, she finds the job is much different than advertised. You’d think a movie like this would be exceedingly depressing, and there are plenty of sad moments for sure, but I also found lots of heartwarming instances as well. A real reminder that, as a society, we should embrace rather than forget those that came before, and draw from their lifetime of experience and perspective. ★★★★½

The Equalizer 3 returns Denzel Washington as Robert McCall, a do-gooder with the skills to brutally kill any bad guy in his way. In the opening of the film, McCall is in Sicily, killing a bunch of thugs in a winery. He’s there’s for a key (reason unknown until the end of the film), but stumbles upon something much more: evidence of a huge drug smuggling operation. Shot while exiting the villa, McCall makes it to mainland Italy before passing out, and is rescued by a policeman and doctor in the small coastal town of Altamonte. Recouping there for a few days, he phones in an anonymous tip to the CIA about his findings, and considers the matter resolved. Unfortunately for him, the bad guys won’t let it go so easily, and neither, for that matter, will the CIA. The town he is in happens to be a focal point for the mafia, involved in that drug operation, and McCall, who has grown close to the town’s warm and welcoming people, will not let them come to harm. I was a big fan of the first film in 2014 (the year I saw practically every movie released in theaters), but the sequel, while heavy on action, felt a lot lighter on plot. This film returned to its roots a bit, letting a real plot develop and letting the viewer get to know the victims (and hate the aggressors), so that when McCall goes on his rampage, we are cheering him on. However, the ending did fall a little flat, and seemed too neat. Still, a step up from the last film, and very enjoyable overall. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Succession (season 3), Justified: City Primeval (series), Scavengers Reign (series), Lessons in Chemistry (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

How about a group of classic 1960s films from Britain? Up first is Blow-Up, the first English language film from Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni. A heralded film in its time (more on that in a bit), I had a terrible time getting into this one, even though I really liked some of Antonioni’s earlier films and am definitely a fan of his style. I enjoy counterculture cinema as much as the next guy, but when nothing much happens for an hour, even my patience is tested. This film follows a photographer named Thomas, who spends his time alternating between having sex with multiple women and berating them in his photo studio. Not a very good guy. Out one afternoon strolling through a park, he takes some photos of a couple, after which the woman chases him down demanding the film. Thomas refuses, and it isn’t until he gets back to his studio and develops the film that he realizes why: it seems the woman may have hired a man in the woods to kill the man she was with in the park, and Thomas caught a pretty good photo of it going down, without knowing it at the time. Sounds great doesn’t it? But man, this movie meanders along with no end in sight, and seems to enjoy really just pushing boundaries for what you can show on screen. And push boundaries it did. The sexual content was in open defiance of the Hollywood Hays Code at the time, and ultimately led to Hollywood abandoning the code for a new system (the MPAA film rating system that later became the one we still use today). Blow-Up is still very well regarded today, so I can only chalk this one up to not being my cup of tea. ★

The Servant was directed by American director Joseph Losey, who spent the rest of his life making films overseas after being blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era. It is a delightfully weird and strange film about a manservant turning the tables on his master in London. Tony is a wealthy socialite who always seems to have a scheme cooking (his latest is getting financiers to build cities in Brazil) but who never seems to actually do anything. He’s recently purchased a large London house to renovate, and now needs a servant to keep the place. He hires Hugo Barrett, possibly the worst mistake in his life. Barrett seems very able and willing, anticipating Tony’s desires before he asks, but Tony’s girlfriend, Susan, takes an instant disliking to him. She finds something subversive about Barrett, and as the viewer, we see that she is right. First, Barrett convinces Tony that he needs a maid too, so they hire Barrett’s girlfriend, Vera, under the guise that Vera is Barrett’s sister. It is then hinted that Barrett has told Vera to seduce Tony, to some as-yet unknown goal. As the film goes along, Tony becomes more and more reliant on Barrett, until their roles are very much switched by the end of the picture. Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography and a superb turn from Dirk Bogarde as Barrett, an actor who took a lot of envelope-pushing roles in the latter half of his career (himself a gay man in England, at a time when that was outlawed). ★★★½

Women in Love is based on the scandalous DH Lawrence novel, a book I once tried to read (but was unable to finish). Was hoping the movie would be better, but unfortunately, again, I could not get all the way through this story. Taking place in the early 20th century, the film follows two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, as they navigate life, love, and relationships in central England. Much like the book, there’s tons of discourse about current societal norms and taboos, and just like the book, the film really pushed the censors. There’s a scene where friends Gerald and Rupert engage in a naked wrestling match in front of a fireplace, and it was one of the first theatrical films to show male genitals on screen, in both this scene and others. The sexual tension between these two men is also hinted, but never shown, at least not as far as I got in the film. As I said, I couldn’t finish, and gave up about halfway through. The film is gorgeously shot, but so heavy in dialogue (and not even engaging, entertaining dialogue) that I could see no hope of it improving before the end. ½

This Sporting Life is a stark realism drama (called a “kitchen sink” film, a term I’d never heard before) starring Richard Harris as a coal miner-turned-rugby player named Frank Machin. Not particularly talented but willing to play hard and dirty, he quickly becomes a fan favorite, forcing the team to sign him to a huge salary. Suddenly, and for the first time in his life, Frank has everything he could want, but the one thing he desires seems to be out of his grasp. Frank has an almost unhealthy attraction for his landlady, Margaret, a widow whose husband died under shady circumstances. The man died when he lost control of a tool at a lathe and was impaled, but an investigation stated he did it on purpose and ruled it a suicide, leaving her with no insurance payout. Trying to raise 2 kids on her own, she relies on Frank’s income, but in doing so, makes her feel like a kept woman, and she despises the whisperings when they are out together. Frank seems oblivious, and can’t understand why Margaret can share her body but not her affection, leading to fights and further turbulence at home. This film is sort of the anti-Rocky. Frank comes from a life where all he knew was pain and suffering, and whenever confronted with any setback in life, he reacts with anger and violence, never able to rise above. The movie takes a long time to develop, but that time is spent getting inside the heads and motivations of each of the characters, so that when the final act comes, it hits hard. Excellent film, with strong acting from Harris and especially Rachel Roberts as Margaret. The two of them reaped a bunch of award nominations, with Harris winning one at Cannes and Roberts winning a British Academy Award. ★★★½

I didn’t really set out to watch a bunch of movies that pushed boundaries, but that’s about what ended up happening, as there is more of the same in 1961’s A Taste of Honey. I guess it comes from watching movies from this era. This film shines a light on society outcasts Helen and her 17-year-old daughter Jo. The two bounce from home to home, leaving whenever they’ve fallen too far behind on rent (by sneaking out the window so as to avoid a confrontation with the landlord). Walking home from school one day, Jo catches the eye of a young sailor, Jimmy, who is black. The two start a fling just before Jimmy heads back to sea, and all Jo gets from it is an empty promise ring and a pregnancy. Before Jo is aware of the baby though, Helen finds a new man of her own and gets married fast enough to make your head spin. The new man of the house doesn’t want Jo around, so Jo finds a cheap place of her own and lands a job in shoe store. It is implied that she has dropped out of school. To help out around the apartment, Jo finds a man of her own, only this one will not be out to nab her: Geoffrey is gay, and thus an outcast too. He is willing to act a father though, in order to fool the neighbors, so you think Jo may actually have a path forward in her life. Until, that is, Helen’s husband finds a new toy and she lands in Jo’s tiny apartment too. This film starts as a comedy but gets real serious by the end, and its depiction of a gay man and an interracial couple on screen turned plenty of heads (think about what was going on in the USA in 1961…). Excellent subject matter far ahead of its time, but the movie felt a bit uneven for my tastes. I can appreciate its scope even if I wasn’t always on the same page with its presentation. ★★½

Cherry is a small indie film built on a simple concept but presented without any easy answers. Cherry is a young woman, a 20-something free spirit who seems to be pretty aimless at this point in her life. She might need to find a path, and quick, because at the beginning of the film she takes an at-home pregnancy test and it comes back positive. It’s a Saturday afternoon, and she begs her way into a clinic just as they are closing to consult with a doctor, who confirms the pregnancy and gives her a tough dilemma. The doctor pegs Cherry at 10 weeks, and California law only allows the easier (and cheaper) abortion by bill up until 11 weeks. Cherry basically has Sunday to decide what she’s going to do, and despite what all the pundits say, it isn’t an easy decision. Cherry is currently living with her boyfriend, Nick, and 3 other roommates in a tiny apartment. Nick has a mountain of student debt and is pursing a career in music, not the most reliable in terms of financial structure obviously. Cherry herself has bounced from job to job. Her mother is making a big deal that she’s happy that the house is empty for the first time and is looking forward to peace and quiet, and her dad has always been estranged. Cherry is dying to tell someone, anyone, for advice and help, but no one has the time to really listen. She goes through Sunday dealing with everyone else’s problems with no one to talk to about her own. She comes around to the idea that she wants to be a mother, but in her chaotic current situation, is that what’s best? Being a low budget film, the acting is honestly subpar from everyone except Cherry (newcomer Alex Trewhitt), who delivers as a woman at a crossroads. Clunky dialogue aside, it’s a thoughtful film, though it’s unlikely to change anyone’s minds about the subject matter. ★★★

On Fire is a super low budget film, and it shows in the opening credits, but sometimes you can find a diamond in the rough. Unfortunately that’s not the case this time. After the “based on true events” tag, we meet the characters: a father, his pregnant wife, their teen son, and the father’s aging dad, who lives with them. They live in a manufactured home in a rural mountainous community, with an under-control wildfire currently burning on the next hill over. Taking place over the course of one long day, that fire spreads quickly, creating a harrowing environment as the family tries to make it down off the mountain alive. There’s some tense moments, but those fleeting minutes are the only reason to keep watching. Just 2 familiar faces (and both character actors at that), all of the main folks are no-names and never-will-be’s, unless they start honing their craft. Cringy acting, silly dialogue, and forced emotions all add up to a forgettable film. ★½

L’immensità, however, shows what you can do with stellar acting, even without a real “story” to drive the plot. This movie is a showcase for its co-leads: established star Penélope Cruz and newcomer Luana Giuliani. Taking place in 1970’s Italy, at first, the movie seems to focus on Giuliani’s character Adri. Born a girl and named Adriana by her parents, Adri prefers to go by Andrew and dresses like a boy. His parents and family (little brother and sister) aren’t buying in, it being the 70s after all, so Andrew’s only acceptance as a boy is with a Romani girl named Sara, perhaps because she too is an outcast because of her culture. Most of Andrew’s life revolves around his family, and it is a violent household. His mom is Cruz’s character, Clara, a Spanish woman married to Italian businessman Felice, who runs around on her and beats her if she questions him. Clara hides her hurt with makeup and tries to protect her children from the truth by playing silly games to distract them. But Andrew, the oldest and approaching adolescence, is starting to see through the act and knows what is going on. The two of them carry this film on their worthy shoulders. It’s sort of a coming-of-age film regarding Andrew, but with a big helping of Clara’s journey as well, and even some fantasy/dreamlike moments as well. I’m in the 3 1/2 to 4 range on this movie, but will bump it up to a 4 based on those performances alone. They really are that good. ★★★★

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is a courtroom drama taking place almost entirely in the court, during a navy tribunal. Lieutenant Maryk is on trial for mutiny aboard the USS Caine, and is being defended by appointed counsel, Lieutenant Greenwald, who doesn’t always see eye to eye with his client but who will serve to the best of his ability. Maryk’s defense is largely centered on the incompetence of the Caine’s captain, Lt. Commander Queeq. During a cyclone in the pacific on the fateful day, Maryk relieved Queeg of duty and took command of the ship, purportedly to save the ship and its crew, but naval prosecutors are out to paint a very different picture of that day. Entirely dialogue driven, the viewer learns the events of that day and the characters of the various crew through the cross examination of the witnesses during trial, and each piece of evidence builds the case and the story. The film is based on a 1953 stage play, and while the dialogue is a bit old-timey in spots, the movie is masterfully told and utterly gripping from beginning to end. It shows that you don’t need big Hollywood special effects to deliver a tremendous attention-holding epic. It helps when you have an amazing cast and crew. It was director William Friedkin’s (The French Connection, The Exorcist) final film before his death, and cast included Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy, and Lance Reddick (again, one of the handful of films to be released posthumously after his untimely death). ★★★★

Afire is the latest from director Christian Petzold, and returns Paula Beer from his last film, Undine. First though, we meet Leon and Felix, a couple of friends staying at Felix’s mom’s seaside house in Germany (on the Baltic). Felix is there to take photos, putting together his portfolio as a photographer, but Leon is hoping for some peaceful solitude to put the final touches on his second novel, a manuscript that was not received well by his publisher. The quiet is shattered immediately when they find out they’ll have a roommate, Nadja. Nadja sells ice cream on the boardwalk of the nearby seaside town and has loud sex with the lifeguard, Devid, disrupting Leon’s sleep and putting him into an ever-more fouler mood. Despite his surly attitude, Leon can’t help but be captivated by Nadja, and goes so far as to try to nitpick and humiliate Devid. For a large portion of the film, I didn’t really know how it was going to all come together. It is beautiful told with real, complex people with charged emotions, but it seemed a bit aimless. That is, until the final 20 or so minutes, when Leon’s world is upended and everything he thought he knew is thrown out the window. Leon is used to being (or, at least, thinking that he is) the smartest person in the room, and he can be quite petulant when things don’t go his way, and that is exactly what happens. And that ending… wow. One of those movies that I think you can gleam more from multiple viewings. ★★★★★

Going back in time to France in the 1950s for a set of films today, starting with 1955’s Rififi, a film that Roger Ebert credited as “the invention of the heist movie.” I mentioned wanting to see this one over 3 years ago and am just getting to it (I have quite the “wish list!”) but the wait was worth it. Directed by Jules Dassin while he was blacklisted in Hollywood during the McCarthy era, it is a film noir/heist picture about a quartet of thugs who’ve come together to pull off a near impossible job, and how even once they are out, they aren’t able to escape the city’s underworld unscathed. Tony “the Stephanois” has just gotten out of jail for serving five years for another robbery when he is approached for this new job: stealing from a high class jewelry store. At first hesitant, Tony takes the job in hopes of wooing back his girl Mado, who has taken up with crime lord Pierre Grutter. Tony is joined by Jo (who Tony took the rap for on the previous job, saving Jo from doing time as well), Mario, a two-bit gangster, and Cesar, an Italian safecracker with a penchant for the ladies. The four men take the time to case the job, planning every detail, and then execute. They do get the jewels successfully, but when word gets out and a hefty reward is offered for the recovery of the merchandise, Grutter and his henchmen will do anything to get their hands on that ice. The set up to the robbery is fantastic, when the team painstakingly routing the nighttime schedule of the neighbors, cops, and delivery people, not to mention how they plan on beating the alarm system, but the highlight of the film is the heist itself: a 30 minute-plus scene filmed with no dialogue, no music, just pure tension in silence as the men try to get in and out before the city awakens the next morning. It’s a film technique that was often imitated later (Le cercle rouge comes to mind) but anyone would be hard pressed to do it better. ★★★★★

Fanfan la Tulipe, from 1952 and directed by Christian-Jaque, is a swashbuckling adventure film. Fanfan is a ladies man with no desire to settle down, but at least he tells that directly to his targets rather than woo them with false pretenses. He come across a traveling show where a gypsy foretells that Fanfan will marry the daughter of the King of France, and he buys in. Unfortunately for him, the gypsy, Adeline, works for the King’s army and is just making things up to get men to sign up for the army while it is at war, but even when faced with that news, Fanfan still believes it is his destiny to marry the princess. To make matters worse, Adeline herself starts to fall for Fanfan. Lots of sword fights and innuendo, and while there are some funny moments, the movie is fairly forgettable by the end. Too many loops and doubling back and some action sequences that run on a bit too long. ★★

Getting back on track with 1956’s And God Created Woman, from director Roger Vadim. This film is mostly known as the movie that launched the career of Brigitte Bardot (and termed the phrase “sex kitten” too!). She plays 18-year-old Juliette, a woman who cannot and will not be tamed by any man. She already has a bad reputation around town at the beginning of the film, when she is being pursued by two men: the wealthy older Eric and the working class Antoine. Juliette would prefer Antoine, who is young and strong, but he refuses to be with such a strong-willed woman, even when he can’t help but be aroused by her. Eric has money, for sure, but Juliette would be just another trophy for him, and she doesn’t want that either. Instead, Juliette ends up marrying Antoine’s younger brother Michel, who isn’t nearly the big strapping man that Antoine is. The older and wiser Eric knows this will not end well, as Michel doesn’t have the will to match Juliette’s, and sure enough, it isn’t long before Juliette is hanging out at the local bar and catching eyes again. Juliette bemoans her ability to find true happiness and wishes she could settle down with Michel, but it isn’t in her nature. Though the film does have plenty of sexist moments that wouldn’t fly today (it is from the 50s after all), it is a great early example of the sexual revolution. It caused quite the stir on its release: American posters used the tagline, “And God created woman… but the devil invented Brigitte Bardot,” and the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned it. ★★★½

Finishing up today with two films from director René Clément, who is famous for launching the career of Alain Delon in Purple Noon (the first film developed from the book The Talented Mr Ripley). First is 1952’s Forbidden Games, a heart wrenching film dealing with the consequences on humanity from war. Taking place during World War II, the movie begins by following a sea of refugees fleeing Paris. The people are bombed from German planes flying overhead, and Paulette’s mother and father are killed. Young Paulette grabs their dog (also dead, but it’s the last remnant of her old life) and flees to the countryside, where she is found by Michel, a young boy who lives with his poor family. Though Michel and Paulette are about the same age, his harder life on a farm has given him a much more worldly view than the sheltered Paulette has experienced until now, and it is up to him to explain death and its meaning to her. Paulette is unable to let go, and she convinces Michel to build an impromptu cemetery inside a nearby abandoned mill. The cemetery starts with the remains of the dog, but it quickly grows from there, with Michel and Paulette burying anything dead they can find, from animals to insects. To make it a proper cemetery, Michel starts stealing crosses from a nearby (human) cemetery, and Paulette’s fascination with crosses everywhere (including on the garments of the local priest) leads to plenty of humor. But the humor is hiding Paulette’s loss of innocence, and if you are expecting a happy ending, remember that there is still a terrible war going on around them. A wonderful and engrossing film, it was France’s most successful picture in 1952, and picked up a Golden Lion at Venice and a Special Award at the Oscar’s (before there was a Best Foreign Language Film category). ★★★★½

Gervaise tells the life of a woman who can’t seem to ever catch a break. In the beginning of the film, Gervaise gets left by the man in her life, Lantier, who was the father of her 2 boys. As a single mother in 1950s France she has few prospects, but seems to luck out when a roofer named Coupeau takes a liking to her and marries her, despite her past. Coupeau seems like a good guy, but an accident leaves him crippled and turns him into an alcoholic, and the couple’s path towards success is put in a precarious position. Add to this, Lantier shows back up in the area, and for some reason, he and Coupeau hit it off, so much so that Coupeau invites him to live with them. This of course starts a scandal in the neighborhood, but Coupeau doesn’t seem to care in his current state. Throughout all this, there’s Virginie, the sister of the woman Lantier initially left Gervaise for, who, for awhile, seemed to befriend Gervaise, but I always thought that she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and that certainly played out in the end. However, through all of Gervaise’s travails, I couldn’t help but think that she brought some of this on herself. If she had been more firm with Coupeau, or if she had taken the initiative to leave him for the blacksmith Goujet (Coupeau’s friend, but a much better stand-up guy who is apprenticing Gervaise’s and Lantier’s son Etienne), then maybe her life wouldn’t lead to complete shit at the end of the film. There’s some emotional moments, but honestly the movie felt really long (2 hours) and there’s a lot of soapy drama that drags. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Fear the Walking Dead (final season), For All Mankind (season 2), Curb Your Enthusiasm (seasons 9-11)
• Books recently read: Candide by Voltaire, The Time Machine by HG Wells