Movies

Google doc with the movies I’d like to listen to: Movies. Email me to watch one.

2023.05.21 Su – De Gaulle, Gabriel Le Bomin (2020): French biopic of De Gaulle who I knew nothing about. Came across movie from this podcast that looked at De Gaulle from business lessons point of view. De Gaulle seemed… singular!
2023.05.02 T – Contras’ City (1968): Djibril Diop Mambéty’s first short film is a tour of the city of Dakar and the postcolonial contrasts of its people, architecture, and culture. “City of Contrasts.”
2023.04.21 R – C’est La Vie, Ari Aster (2016): 7 minute short on youtube.
2023.04.01 S – Touki Bouki, Djibril Diop Mambéty (1973): Martin Scorsese commentary. “With a stunning mix of the surreal and the naturalistic, Djibril Diop Mambéty paints a vivid, fractured portrait of Senegal in the early 1970s. In this French New Wave-influenced fantasy-drama, two young lovers long to leave Dakar for the glamour and comforts of France, but their escape plan is beset by complications both concrete and mystical.” Did indeed feel like 1965’s Pierrot le Fou.
Listened to commentary from Abderrahmane Sissako
2023.03.20 M – France, Bruno Dumont (2021): Fine and a bit melodramatic but good French practice and context!
2023.03.19 Su – Kids, Larry Clark (written by Harmony Korine) [1995] – Distrubing, boring, can’t look away? Thought this Roger Ebert review nailed it and also pointed to Wikipedia critic’s take that the movie is ultimately pretty conservative: “But safe sex is not going to civilize these kids, make them into curious, capable citizens. What you realize, thinking about Telly, is that life has given him nothing that interests him, except for sex, drugs and skateboards. His life is a kind of hell, briefly interrupted by orgasms. Most kids are not like those in “Kids,” and never will be, I hope. But some are, and they represent a failure of home, school, church and society. They could have been raised in a zoo, educated only to the base instincts. You watch this movie, and you realize why everybody needs whatever mixture of art, education, religion, philosophy, politics and poetry that works for them: Because without something to open our windows to the higher possibilities of life, we might all be Tellys, and more amputated than the half-man on his skateboard.“
2023.03.18 S – Life Is Cheap… But Toilet Paper Is Expensive, Wayne Wang (1989): Watched this on the charm of the trailer. Great watch; weird collage. Criterion summary kind of gets at it: Exploding a seemingly simple premise—a nameless “cowboy” courier (Spencer Nakasako) arrives in Hong Kong to deliver a mysterious briefcase to a mercurial mob boss and becomes entangled with his femme fatale mistress (Cora Miao)—this long-unavailable triumph from Wayne Wang barrels through inspired genre deconstruction, guerrilla docu-fiction, and fierce political jeremiad, all with a keen sense of humor and a rich visual palette. Tracking the courier’s increasingly byzantine mission across every level of the city’s social strata, Wang introduces us to cabdrivers, hustlers, butchers, and more—each punctuating the high-octane neonoir narrative with instantly memorable monologues that capture a now-distant era in Hong Kong history.
2023.03.17 F – Christo’s Valley Curtain directed by Albert Maysles, David Maysles, and Ellen Giffard (1974): Was Christo and early practitioner of Progress Studies?
2023.03.17 F – Daybreak Express directed by D. A. Pennebaker (1953): “First film D. A. Pennebaker made, a mad rush of images of New York City captured from a train and edited to the rhythm of Duke Ellington’s song of the same name.” Not a bad way to spend 5 minutes!
2023.03.04 S – Tár [2022], Todd Field – Kind of confused me feeling like it simultaneously did not go far enough but also went too far.
2023.02.04 S – Muscle Shoals, Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier [2013] – free on youtube. Almost didn’t watch when recommended but glad I did. Made clear how much of American popular music is still in a blindspot for me. Felt very much like a case study in place produced public goods and cultural localism. Felt like a survey of American music history. Muscle Shoals has got the swampers
2023.01.23 M – Triangle of Sandess, Ruben Östlund [2022]: Fun, entertaining, eye catching so worth a watch but a little on the nose.
2023.01.22 M – Tampopo, Juzo Itami [1985]: Enjoyed this Tony Zhou framing of The Amateur and the Craftsperson. From Michael Chabon, “amateurs are people who combine obsessive scholarship, passionate curiosity, curatorial tenderness, and an irrepressible desire to join in.”
2022.01.19 R – Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive, Ian Derry [2022]: To be very mean to this netflix documentary, all of the interiority on display in Meshes must have caused the complete lack of interiority of this story of someone who wants to dive under ice long distances.
2022.01.19 R – Meshes of the Afternoon, Maya Deren/Alexander Hammid [1943]: A litte confusing how this came in at 16 on Sight & Sound but after having it explained to me, I can see why it was ground breaking. “For years, this 14-minute film was claimed as a founding inspiration of a distinctively American form of highly personal poetic psychodrama…. Meshes has never reached the top 100 before in the S&S poll (despite some interesting previous backers, such as Derek Jarman in 1992). So this year’s result must reflect some significant shifts in taste – most obviously the recognition of female creativity apparent in the poll leaders, but perhaps also a renewed interest in the phantasmagoric, as explored by Deren’s most consistent fans among contemporary filmmakers, the David Lynch of Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr., and Jordan Peele.”
2023.01.17 T – Magic in the Mountains, Cody Stokes [2022]: Documentary on 1960 Tahoe Olympic Games; Commercial and political inflection point combining cold war, walt disney, and some dedicated personalities. Loved the vision of resort founders and trying to read between lines of conflict. Cool to see how the television technology was applied in such a novel way. Sort of an underlying commercial sadness or something though as everything was sponsored off.
2023.01.13 F – Borom sarret, Ousmane Sembène [1963] – Heavy.
2023.01.13 F – He Who Dances on Wood, Jessica Beshir [2016] – Rhythm is in all things… There’s a need to speak to god but everyone has there way of doing it.
2023.01.13 F – Les 3 boutons, Agnès Varda [2015] – While watching I thought I recognized the one Parisian street from lunch outing near the catacombs on recent trip to Paris but thought it was unlikely but turns out it was! “Commissioned by Italian high-fashion house Miu Miu and shot in part on Varda’s beloved Parisian home street, rue Daguerre, Les 3 boutons slyly juxtaposes the ancient and the modern, the pastoral and the urban, the real and the imaginary to create a fairy tale rooted not in passive wish fulfillment but in spirited self-empowerment.”
2023.01.07 S – The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh [2004]: Was expecting 20% more funny and 20% less bleak but still pretty funny and beautiful shots of Ireland offset the bleakness (or amplify it?). Conflict, conflict, conflict. Irish Civil war, friendships, genders, place, home, ourselves. Memorable performances all around. Here’s to the good guys? Here’s to good, normal chatting? Mozart was 18th century. 10 fingers as evidence of something. “The character is described as dull but there is nothing dull about the performance.”
2023.01.07 S – Six Shooter, Martin McDonagh [2004]: Short film on youtube. Bleak, funny, dark, felt like a play.
2023.01.05 R -2023.01.05 R – Breaktime, Abbas Kiarostami [1972]
2023.01.04 W – The Colors, Abbas Kiarostami [1976]: Reminded me of El Guincho Bombay music video, Petite Maman, and Wes Anderson

2022

2022.11.24 R – Midnight in Paris, Woody Allen (2011): A very bad very good movie. Delightful to watch. Reminded me of a Woody Allen of making this video of 1920s Paris. Not exactly subtle but who cares. To be watched avec plaisir before any trip to Paris or after an existential crisis about missing the golden age.
2022.11.21 M – The Triplets of Belleville: Sylvain Chomet (2003)
2022.11.19 S – In the Mood for Love (2000), Wong Kar-wai: Most exciting compelling boring movie. Felt like snapshot of a time and place infused with love. Watching some deleted scenes and interviews gave me an appreciation for whoever did the 4k restoration and thankfulness that Wong Kar-wai managed to pull this all together when the movie looks like it could have been a lot less understated. The smoke!
2022.11.05 S – Drive My Car (2021), Ryusuke Hamaguchi – I finished the Murakami short story collection which I liked. But I loved this movie. It connected together some of my favorite things from the stories (esp Kino) in a way that really worked for me all while being beautiful to watch. The rare 3 hour movie where I was glad the director took their time. I also liked this bit of IMBD trivia: The japanese title (both film and short story) Doraibu mai kaa is not actually a japanese sentence. It’s a Katakana (the foreigner words japanese alphabet) “transliteration” because it’s a direct quote of The Beatles song “Drive my car”. Haruki Murakami is known for quoting songs (including other Beatles’ songs) in his writings. It’s almost like every one of his stories have it’s own soundtrack. The actual japanese sentence for (You) Drive my car is Anata wa watashi no kuruma de unten shimasu. Nonetheless, the expression “mai kaa” also commonly refers to one’s own car / private car (jikayosha). But it is often used in discussing environmental issues. E.g., “datsu mai kaa” advocates less use of private cars. In Osaka on Fridays you can buy a “No mai kaa de” (no my car day) public transport ticket. A Japanese phrase made up of 4 English words that would not be grammatical in English. The possessive pronoun “my” has been adopted by Japanese in a very idiosyncratic way. Even when a Japanese (speaking English) say something like “Do you have a my-bicycle?” or “Is this my-house?” meaning “your own bicycle” and “your own house” because of the use of the expression.
2022.10.15 S – The Pirogue, Moussa Touré (2013)
2022.10.05 W – Pierrot le Fou, Jean-Luc Godard in French (1965) Spoiler alert: He shoots her and him, then paints his face blue and decides to blow himself up by tying sticks of red and yellow dynamite to his head. He regrets this at the last second and tries to extinguish the fuse, but he fails and is blown up. And Samuel Fuller quote: “Films are like battlegrounds. Love. Hate. Action. Violence. And death. In one word: Emotions.”
2022.10.01 S – The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges (1960)
2022.09.28 W – Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski (2022)
2022.07.25 M – Nope, Jordan Peele (2022)
2022.07.24 Su – Petite Maman, Céline Sciamma (2022)
2022.07.04 M – Alphaville, Jean-Luc Godard (1965)
2022.06.25 S – Slacker, David Linklater (1990)
2022.05.05 R – All In this Tea, Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht (2007)
2022.04.30 S – After Yang, Kogonada (2021) [thoughts]
2022.04.17 Su – You Won’t Be Alone, Goran Stolevski (2022): Brothers Grimm meets Tree of Life
2022.04.10 Su – Everything Everywhere All at Once, The Daniels (2022)
2022.03.20 Su – AlphaGo (201), Greg Kohs – weirdly compelling.
2022.02.28 M – Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, Rory Kennedy (2022) – Needed more sweet schematics.
2022.02.27 Su – No Country for Old Men (2007), Ethan Coen and Joel Coen: Old Testament for sure.
2022.02.05 S – Spencer, Pablo Larraín – Watching… Car scene towards end really felt classic with top town and music blasting. Overall spooky and absurd and sad.
2022.02.04 F – The Mauritanian (2021), Kevin Macdonald: Maybe a bit of an airplane movie but a good pairing with This American Life story on the incident. Not sure if I’m surprised this happens at all or grateful it doesn’t happen more?
2022.01.30 Su – BBC Shakespeare: The Taming of the Shrew, Jonathan Miller (19080) – Fun cus of John Cleese but sort of hard to watch. Made me appreciate Ethan Coen interpretation which was at least beautiful.
2022.01.29 M – The Tragedy of Macbeth, Ethan Coen (Dec 2021) – not a popcorn movie but stunning. Star scenes, fight scenes, forest marching scenes, the weird witches. Drip drop. Is it realistic feeling or stage bound or both?
2022.01.16 Su – The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal (Dec 2021) – tangled, education, dolls, daughters and mothers, rot in the tropics
2022.01.15 S – La Campaña (2021), Eduardo del Llano Rodríguez – which one did we eat? The revolutionary one or the counter-revolutionary one?
2022.01.14 F – 14 Peaks, Torquil Jones (Nov 2021) – Talk about a movie that makes you want to get out there. “I like people that do and not chat.” “Most of us our forgetting that from the beginning of our life we are approaching death. Life is absurd. But you can fill it with ideas. With enthusiasm. You can fill your life with joy.”
2022.01.14 F – Red Rocket, Sean Baker (Dec 2021)
2022.01.09 Su – Dune, Denis Villeneuve (2021)
2022.02.04 T – The Alpinist, Peter MortimerNick Rosen (Sep 2021) – I Liked that this movie should be the same as Free Solo and wasn’t the same. It is almost like they should be viewed together. It is almost like people are all very different even if very similar.
2022.01.02 Su – The Green Knight, David Lowery (2021)
2022.01.02 Su – Mountain, Jennifer Peedom (2017)

2021.12.30 R – Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson (Nov 2021)
2021.12.29 W – Don’t Look Up, Adam McKay (Dec 2021)
2021.12.25 S – Inside Llewyn Davis, Coen Brothers (2013)
2021.12.25 S – Harlan County, USA, Barbara Kopple
2021.12.24 F – Sound of Metal, Darius Marder
2021.12.12 Su – Walking on Water, Andrey Paounov
2021.11.12 F- Another Round, Thomas Vinterberg
2021.11.06 S – The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson
2021.09.21 – The Truffle Hunters, Gregory Kershaw, Michael Dweck
2021.08.23 M – Public Trust, David Byars
2021.03.21 Su – Promising Young Woman, Emerald Fennell
2021.03.02 T – Small Axe – Mangrove, Steve McQueen
2021.03.01 M – Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki
2021.02.27 S – Nomadland, Chloé Zhao
2021.02.25 R – The Vast of Night, Andrew Patterson
2021.02.15 M – Barn Burning, Haruki Murakami & Burning, Lee Chang-dong
2021.01.17 Su – The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, Frank Marshall
2021.01.05 T – Emma, Autumn de Wilde

2020.12.29 T – Punch Drunk Love, Paul Thomas Anderson
2020.12.25 F – Die Hard, John McTiernan
2020.12.21 M – Holly Rollers
2020.12.20 Su – Contagion, Steven Soderbergh
2020.12.13 S – Da 5 Bloods, Spike Lee
2020.12.01 M – Election, Alexander Payne
2020.11.29 Su – Uncut Gems, Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie
2020.11.27 F – Pride & Prejudice, Joe Wright
2020.11.26 R – Adaptation, Spike Jonze
2020.11.23 M – Primary Colors, Mike Nichols
2020.11.19 R – Take Shelter, Jeff Nichols
2020.11.18 W – Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci
2020.11.17 T – The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky
2020.11.16 M – The Bling Ring, Sofia Coppola
2020.11.15 Su – Ex Machina, Alex Garland
2020.11.14 S – First Cow, Kelly Reichardt
2020.11.13 F – Meek’s Cutoff, Kelly Reichardt
2020.09.18 R – I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Charlie Kaufman
2020.09.11 F – The Hobbit (1977), Jules Bass, Arthur Rankin Jr.
2020.09.01 T – The One I Love, Charlie McDowell
2020.08.31 M – Boyz in the Wood, Ninian Doff
2020.08.31 M – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (extended addition), Peter Jackson
2020.08.29 S – The Big Lebowski, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
2020.07.23 R – Joker, Todd Phillips
2020.07.20 M – Grizzly Man, Werner Herzog
2020.06.24 W – The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Alex Gibney
2020.06.21 – 1917, Sam Mendes
2020.06.07 – 13th, Ava DuVernay
2020.05.30 S – Lucky Grandma, Sasie Sealy
2020.05.24 Su – The Hudsucker Proxy, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
2020.05.24 Su – An Engineer Imagines, Marcus Robinson
2020.05.21 – Becoming
2020.05.13 W – Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer
2020.05.01 F – What We Do in the Shadows, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement
2020.04.14 T – A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick
2020.04.13 M – The Fellowship of the Rings
2020.04.11 S – Tigertail, Alan Yang
2020.04.03 – Hesburgh, Patrick Creadon
2020.03.31 W – Ford v Ferrari, James Mangold
2020.03.23 M – Green Book, Peter Farrelly
2020.03.22 Su – Parasite, Bong Joon-ho
2020.03.20 F – 8 1/2, Federico Fellini
2020.03.18 W – At Eternity’s Gate, Julian Schnabel
2020.03.17 M – Honeyland, Ljubo Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska

2019.12.27 F – Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Terry Jones
2019.12.23 M – Booksmart, Olivia Wilde
2019.11.28 R – The Irishman, Martin Scorsese
2019.11.18 M – Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi
2019.10.28 M – American Factory, Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar
2019.09.23 Su – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
2019.09.02 M – Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
2019.08.31 S – Sticks and Stones, Dave Chappelle’s
2019.08.30 F – The War Room, Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker
2019.08.29 R – A Quiet Place, John Krasinski
2019.08.28 W – Three Identical Strangers, Tim Wardle
2019.08.27 T – Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller
2019.08.24 S – The Paper Chase, James Bridges
2019.08.21 W – Incredibles 2, Brad Bird
2019.08.20 T – Solo: A Star Wars Story, Ron Howard
2019.08.15 R – Amadeus
2019.08.14 W – The Wages of Fear
2019.08.13 T – Playtime
2019.08.12 M – Sideways
2019.08.11 Su – Our Blood is Wine
2019.07.07 Su – The Century of Self, Adam Curtis
2019.06.30 Su – Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2019.06.20 R – The Wandering Earth
2019.05.23 R – Free Solo
2019.05.23 R – Vice
2019.05.16 R – The Favorite

2018.12 – White Christmas
2018.09.30 – A Mighty Wind
2018.07.21 – Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
2018.07.15 – Moonrise Kingdom
2018.06.21 – Blade Runner 2049
2018.06.21 – Blade Runner

Leaning into the Wind
Roma
A Fantastic Women
Columbus
American Honey
Lessons of Darkness
Tower
Jim and Andy
The Square
Disaster Artist (2018.04.29)
Ladybird
The Florida Project (2018.03.28)
Get Out
Rope
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Tickled
The Death of Stalin (2018.03.28)
The Trap
Tangerine (2018.06.03 Su)
I, Tonya (2018.04.29)
American Made (2018.04.29)
Darkest Hour (2018.04.29)
Wreck It Ralph (2018.06.14)
Dunkirk

Just Pillows

Sifting through the misc and stuff

Movies

2022