G’day teem!
It’s thursday and it’s more movies!
Wowza yowza!
FOR SOBER REFLECTION
For movies that’ll fuck you up emotionally for the rest of the day, sometimes in a not nice way!
Ad Astra (2019. dir. James Gray- AMAZON PRIME VIDEO / ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY)
Ad Astra is a movie about Brad Pitt going to space to rescue his dad. Only it’s not! It’s actually about his space depression! Or, rather, his regular depression that sends him into a spiral that has him running all the way to space to escape his problems.
A dark and firmly adult sci-fi in the vein of Gravity & The Martian, only a hell of a lot more insular, introspective and dark. Brad’s on his a-game here, drawing you deep into a well of spacey sadness that is both captivating and crushing. The special effects laden cinematography has the capacity to leave you breathless, not just because of the wild, mesmerizing lo-sci-fi stuff that director James Gray has Brad doing, but also because of the incredible lonlieness that comes with being in Brads head. It’s strange to feel yourself so claustrophobic in a film that feels so open. Like, literally. Like you can see the infinite void of space and it feels like someone has a hand gripped over your heart. If that isn’t your cup ‘o’ tea, Brad also does fight a Monkey in zero-gee’s. If nothing else, please do watch that scene. It’s wild.
Arrival (2016- dir. Denis Villeneuve- NETFLIX / NEON RENTALS /ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY)
This and the next entry are extrordinary entires in the Gravity trend of late 2010’s sci-fi. That is to say adult oriented spaceship stuff that cares more about the thoughts and feelings of it’s human characters instead of enormous neon explosions. Though it does have fun with those as well.
Arrival might be the best of this genre, an extraordinary effort from everyone involved, not in the very least stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and director extraordinaire Denis Villeneuve. In this Adams plays a linguist who is hired by the government to try and communicate with mysterious aliens who make first contact. It’s a slow-burn, dealing with large scale political implications and the tiny little effects it has on these characters lives. As Adams gets more and more involved, the story gets more and more confusing, unwrapping an utterly unique narrative that’ll have you left feeling emptier and more whole. It’s a monumentous achievement of cinema, and Renner doesn’t even plug his app once.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017- dir. Denis Villeneuve- NETFLIX / ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY)
Blade Runner 2049, another Villenuve joint (this dude cranks out banger after banger) is the best of the sequel 20-years-later trend of the last ten years. Substituting Ford for Gosling, and the cluttered cyperpunk cities of the first film for sparse, almost post apocalyptic landscapes, complete with desolate buildings, empty warehouses and Dave Bautista, this flick transports you to another world. A bleak, harsh, emotionally draining world.
My memory is garbage. I’ve made that abundantly clear I think. It’s hard to remember all the details and themes of a movie I haven't seen since 2017. What I do remember is the feeling of despairing awe as Gosling arrived at what felt like a world that time forgot. An orange hellscape, like stepping into the circles of hell itself, surrounded by broken buildings and statues. Long forgotten remnants of another time. That’s what this movie kind of feels like. Like it exists of another time.
Fruitvale Station (2013- dir. Ryan Coogler- ITUNES)
In complete contrast, Ryan Cooglers debut feature feels extremely of the now. One of Michael B Jordans first starring roles, Fruitvale tells the true story of Oscar Grant III on the last day of his life, shot in an all-too present act of police violence. In the day before that happens, he crosses paths with friends, enemies and everyone in between.
This is another film that I couldn’t tell you everything that happens in it cause of my garbage memory and the global pandemic that cresses our feet every single day. What I do remember is the enormous gaping hole it left in my heart.
Coogler is an expert at making you feel alive. Creed & Black Panther are obvious examples of this. They make you go absolutely nuts when the good guys win and the bad guys lose. Here, there are no clear goals. Just a kind, generous man and the people who’s lives he made better around him, touching as many as possible before he’s gone. It’s beautiful filmmaking, made all the more spectacular by Jordans performance. It should go without saying the amount of gravitas and power that he brings to a role. The man has proven to us time and time again the kind of powerhouse he is. The kind that will cradle you as you cry yourself to sleep after watching this movie.
A Ghost Story (2017- dir. David Lowery- ITUNES)
A Ghost Story follows a man (Casey Affleck) who dies shortly after moving into a new house with his partner (Rooney Mara). Shortly after, he dies. Shortly after that, he starts to haunt the house as a ghost, bedsheet with eyes cut out style. He watches her grieve, confined to the same space. Shortly after that she moves out and new tenants move in. Time moves on without him.
This heartbreaking, heavy, incredibly designed masterpiece is the slowest slow burn. The protagnist of the piece, the ghost, is like you, the viewer, in that by design he’s unable to change much of his surroundings, forced to be a spectator as things keep moving. If that isn’t your style then all good, no worries, I won’t force you to watch an hour and a half of a shuffling sheet. But for those who stay, you’ll find a heartwrenching tale of time, love and change. A meditation of everything that makes us human and the things that don’t. I don’t wanna give too much more away, considering that much more would be the meat of the piece, something I would prefer yall to discover and consider on your own terms.
As a final note, I will say that, listening back to the films score as I write this, the thing sounds haunted. Sweeping, souring strings that leap from place to place in slow motion. Deliberate and slow and intricate. Like the creeky floorboards of a possessed house are singing you a song. Not a scary song, to lull a child into a basement to be gobbled up or poltergeisted, but a sad song. A song full of regret and longing. The song of a person who just wants someone to talk to.
Minari (2021- dir. Lee Isaac Chung- ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY)
Minari is one of the years best films. It made me cry so I bought it on blu-ray. That’s usually how all my big purchases are decided on.
It’s about a Korean immigrant family who move to a fixer upper in the middle of nowhere USA. The father (the incredible Steven Yeun) starts a farm while the mother frets about their finances. The son and daughter start to adjust. The Grandma watches TV. And the whole family unit is tested and grows stronger for it.
I’m finding it hard to discuss this movie without the remarkable third act, which births strength out of tragedy. I’d rather yall just go into it as blind as you can and just absorb it the way that I did. I will say that the majority of the movie is told from the perspective of David, the youngest son (The incredible Alan S. Kim, god damn it they keep finding these stupid good kid actors that make me a crying messes) and so like him you see the world and all it’s burning hardships through a childlike sense of wonder and glee. The sun shines extra bright through David’s eyes, the grass grows extra green. Until it doesn’t anymore and I think that’s the beauty of it.
Portrait of A Lady On Fire (2019- dir. Céline Sciamma- ACADEMY ON DEMAND / NEON / ITUNES / GOOGLE PLAY)
If you’ve never heard of Lady On Fire stop everything that you’re doing, throw all your dvds and Netflix subscriptions in the trash and watch this as soon as you can. This is one of the best, most romantic, unique, special, GAY movies of the century.
It’s about a painter in the eighteenth century who’s hired to paint a woman before she’s wed on a lonesome island in the middle of nowhere. Between long gazes, small slights and the incredibly sensual art of paint of canvas, the two slowly begin to fall in love.
There’s a freedom to this film that doesn’t exist in other romances. Stuck on this island with nothing but each other and a servant girl, the two women (who are both french because this is a french film you should have expected something like this from the french damn them) are free to spread their wings and fly. Being set in the period that it is, with it’s long dresses and corsets and all, you get the feeling that these two women have spent their entire lives hunched over, staring at their feet. Around each other, in the open air and the soundtrack of the sea, they finally have the chance to stand tall, to bask. No wonder they fall in love, never in their lives have they been allowed to simply be before. Our leads (the truely astonishing Noémie Merlant & Adèle Haenel) are remarkable here, not only filling one another hearts and minds and lungs, but doing the same to us. With very few words and very subtle movements, we’re allowed into a private odyssey of passion. This is a very quiet movie, one that prefers the spaces in between dialogue to speak the volumes that words never could. Instead, those spaces are filled with life thanks to an excellent world of diagetic sound. Gulls in the sky, waves on the shore, the grass underneath their feet, this is a world made just for them and it is singing. To drive this point home, save for two incredibly powerful scenes that play out in media res, there is no non-diagetic music to speak of. A lesser film maker would fill these silences with sweeping piano and merciless strings to really drive home the point that “god damn they sure do love each other”. Director Céline Sciamma would rather the film speak for itself. All of this love and beauty leads you to a diabolically cruel conclusion that takes your heart and crumples it into dust like the pathetic ball of sand that it is. It’s masterful in it’s execution to the point of almost being monsterous. It will make to cry and shudder and do all the things you’re supposed to do when good things die. It will make you dream of the island where it is always green and things are always good where two remarkable women can sour in the sky forever.
Simply put, it’s a masterpiece.
That’s it from me today teem.
Movies are great and so are you, ya cuties.
xxx
-Mattie Bee