Rififi (rewatch)

The last of my recent purchases (for now) in a month where it seems like all I’ve done is try to keep up with my reckless spending habits.  I thought this might be another one for the eBay stack, but it’s grown on me an awful lot.  Besides the much-ballyhooed heist sequence, the rest of the movie is excellent as well, right up there with Dassin’s best work.  A little slow, maybe, but it has so many great moments and marvelous touches.  I did have an odd thought while watching it, something I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.  I thought, “I bet I’d like this a little bit more if it was in English.”  I tried to shake it off at first, but it lingered with me.  Never mind that the film is based on a French novel it just seems that the grittiness would be better suited to an American locale, and the hard-boiled dialogue would have more bite.  Not that I’m calling for a remake, mind you.  Rating: 8

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The Limping Man

I wanted to own The Scar, so I bought a double-feature DVD that also includes this film.  Lloyd Bridges steps off an airplane in London and finds himself entangled in a twisted murder.  It suffers from a common noir drawback: a terrific third act, but preceded by a somewhat less interesting build-up.  The music is also mixed too loud.  But there are some very good photography and a number of thrilling sequences.  Most interesting is a rather meta moment where Bridges and Moira Lister (both fine performances, by the way) are able to sneak through a house because all the occupants are too enthralled by a television murder mystery to take notice.  From this point until the climax it’s a pretty engaging movie, and I was definitely warming up to it.  And then, disaster.  I’m going to spoil it, but trust me, I’m doing you a favor.  It all ends with the most pointless, unjustified, inexplicable ”it was all a dream!” twist ever.  It completely crushed my spirits.  I can’t imagine why they thought it was necessary.  Given how much of the story takes place outside of Bridges’ viewpoint, it doesn’t even make sense.  What a waste of an otherwise reasonably entertaining (though far from exceptional) noir.  As a sidenote, Helene Cordet performing a song during a magic act reminded me of a similar scene with Veronica Lake in This Gun for Hire.  Rating: 6

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Paul F. Tompkins: You Should Have Told Me (rewatch)

My favorite comedian finally has his own DVD.  I saw this when it aired on Comedy Central, but there’s a bit more material on here.  Also about 3 hours worth of bonus features, all very entertaining.  In this performance, Tompkins moves away from his usual cultural esoterica and wry observations and gets more personal, culminating in a long routine about his mother’s death.  But his comedic chops are strong as ever, and his wonderful sense of delivery is fully intact.  I just love the way he talks (and can’t stand it when people try to crib his style, like one local comic whom I won’t name… okay, it’s “Big Jim” Willig), I could listen to him all day.  One really nitpicky thing, though.  Stand-up shows are often cobbled together from different sets, everyone does it, no big deal.  In this case, however, I really felt some of the cuts were a little rough.  You could feel when different parts of the same routine were from different shows.  I know it’s a retarded thing to complain about, it’s just that I noticed it, and you’re not supposed to.  No big deal, though.  It’s the material that counts, and the material is golden.  Rating: 9

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Plastic Bag

The epic (post-apocalyptic?) journey of a plastic bag, involving love, danger, depression, soul-searching and a spiritual awakening.  American Beauty is not nearly as profound as it thinks it is, but it did get at least one thing right: there is a certain beauty to a bag blowing in the wind.  And director Ramin Bahrani captures it nicely in this short that’s thoughtful, humorous, and intriguing.  I’ve heard of Bahrani’s other films but never given them much thought… now I might check a couple of them out.  The real draw is the Herzog narration, his voice is so distinct and oddly soothing.  I couldn’t tell if the environmental message was intended, or just a side effect, and that strikes me as a possible failure by the filmmaker.  As a sidenote, I was irrationally excited to see the bag’s “maker” had the same RSA security ID thingamagig on her keychain that I use.  Rating: 7

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My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

Herzog’s career has been spotty in the 21st century, but I think he’s getting his groove back.  While this isn’t on the level of his masterpieces, it’s pretty good.  I think Lynch’s involvement with this project was rather minimal, but it does feel exactly like what you expect a Lynch/Herzog collaboration to feel like.  The obsessive madness of Herzog, the melodramatic strangeness of Lynch, combined with their unique views of America and Americana.  In Herzogian fashion, the film does not attempt to recreate the exact truth of the story which inspired it, but reaches for a more poetic, ecstatic truth.  There are some wonderful moments here, even a couple of transcendent ones.  The cast is a nice mix of oddballs being allowed to be odd (Brad Dourif, Grace Zabriskie) and oddballs reining it in a little.  I was unsure about Michael Shannon and Chloe Sevigny at first, but they grew on me a lot.  Terrific music, too.  The pieces don’t necessarily add up to much (and according to the Herzog interview, some of it was made up on the spot) but for the most part they’re compelling pieces.  Rating: 8

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Alien: Resurrection

This appears to be commonly regarded as the worst of the series, but I’ll put it on an even level with the third.  It’s definitely the weirdest of them all.  Jeunet directing + Whedon script + Alien franchise is a formula that should never work, and it often doesn’t… but amazingly, sometimes it does.  Jeunet working with Khondi is a winning combination, and the look of the film is superior to the previous two sequels.  The “ragtag group of space smugglers” is a clear precursor to Whedon’s “Firefly” (Ripley is actually not unlike River).  Whedon’s usual sarcastic quips and tendency for ironic genre-denying moments fit surprisingly well in this universe, injecting the franchise with some needed levity.  But it should be noted that a lot of times the dialogue completely flat, due partly to the writing… and also to the casting.  Winona Ryder is awful as usual, Dan Hedaya is so obnoxious he can’t get killed off soon enough, Gary Dourdan and Michael Wincott are too bland for their roles.  Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon is okay (except he seems to struggle with the language at times), as is Ron Perlman.  As for Weaver… well, it’s an oddball performance for sure, but a refreshing change.  I guess that’s how I feel about this whole thing.  It would be easy to poke holes in it, but it’s so gleeful in its absurdity that I found it easier to just go along for the crazy ride.  I really had braced myself for a terrible movie, but hell, I mostly enjoyed it.  Rating: 7

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Alien3 (rewatch)

Haven’t watched this in about 10 years.  Decided to go for the so-called “assembly cut” since I’ve never seen it.  Most people seem to hold this film in contempt, but I think it’s not that bad.  Fincher does pretty much the exact opposite of Cameron, for better and for worse.  Instead of hi-tech weaponry, the cast is made to cope with the barest of tools.  There’s not a single line of dialogue that made me wince like Cameron’s shitty tough talk.  It’s not a thrill ride, but more of a dark, introspective nihilistic slow burn.  It’s a more interesting setting and scenario, with a complex dynamic between the characters — characters who, although not especially likeable, have something approaching real personalities and not just clichés from bad war movies.  The musical score is… well, okay, the score is still bombastic, but it’s also much more unusual, I liked most of it.  But there are some trade-offs.  First of all, the effects are rather poor.  At several points in the movie, the alien is clearly superimposed over the action… it has an odd outline or something that makes it look pasted in.  No sequel should have worse special effects than its predecessor.  More importantly, Fincher doesn’t have Cameron’s skill in putting together an action setpiece.  The geography of the location is never clearly established, which makes most of the action (especially the whole business with the corridors) a confusing clusterfuck.  Like I said, it’s pretty much the opposite of Aliens… the buildup is really quite interesting and engaging, but the last 45 minutes are tedious (while we’re comparing Fincher to Cameron, however… it’s kind of funny that the ending is jarringly similar to Terminator 2).  So while I don’t hate the third movie nearly as much as most people appear to, there’s not a lot to love either.  It’s got some good photography (special effects aside) and some intriguing stuff going on, but it’s still nowhere near as impressive or iconic as the first movie.  Rating: 7

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Aliens (rewatch)

The more I see this, the less I like it.  The Horner score is far more bombastic and pushy than Goldsmith’s.  The performances, especially from the marines, are mostly annoying.  But mostly, James Cameron is a child.  He has little of the restraint, depth or nuance of Scott.  Carter Burke (Paul Reiser as the company man) is a ridiculously shallow villain.  Cameron’s boner for technology is adolescent… this film is all about the flashy weaponry, the final stand-off centers around a piece of machinery, and even the android in this movie is a savior rather than an inhuman threat (although at least this makes for a somewhat interesting contrast with the first film).  And worst of all is his macho bullshit.  All that military bonding crap, the stupid one-liners and cocky posturing and tough guy jargon.  Cameron’s like that kid in high school who wears camo and subscribes to “Guns & Ammo” magazine and goes to the firing range, but never actually enlists for service.  I get really irritated quite frequently during the first two-thirds of the film.  So it’s a damn good thing that the last 45 minutes form a masterpiece of tension.  Cameron crafts action very, very well and the amount of it that he crams into the third act is extremely impressive.  It’s heart-pounding, edge of your seat stuff, so I’ll give credit where credit is due.  I just wish the buildup was half as satisfying.  Rating: 7

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Alien (rewatch)

At last, I’ve decided to dig into the massive, intimidating “Alien Anthology” box.  I dunno if I’ll get through ALL the extras, but we’ll see.  Alien has perfect casting, a great Goldsmith score, some astounding art direction, a gripping horror/sci-fi premise, and some effective scares.  But what really makes it special are its twin themes of sexual violence and motherhood.  You’ve got the phallic Giger design of the alien, whose preferred method of killing is violent penetration.  You’ve got a ship named MU-TH-UR (“You bitch!” Ripley exclaims when “mother” fails to protect her) and an alien whose means of reproduction is forcible impregnation (Ash refers to the new alien as “Kane’s son”).  You’ve got Ripley’s maternal instincts towards the cat.  You’ve got oozy, viscous substances as residue from the alien.  You’ve got Ash literally trying to suffocate Ripley with a phallus made of pornography.  You’ve got the final showdown, which absolutely reeks of rape.  You’ve even got a computer panel with a button labeled “SHAKTI” (Hindu “mother goddess”) and also buttons labelled “LINGHA” and “YONI” (Hindu icons representing the male and female genitalia).  It’s a Freudian wonderland!  Cameron’s sequel explores these ideas to some degree (most obviously focusing on the motherhood angle) but does it with far less finesse.  But it’ll be something to keep my eyes and ears open for as I wince through all that tough guy dialogue.  Rating: 9

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American Heart

A good friend has been bugging me to watch this movie for a while, so Benno, this one’s for you.  It’s a domestic drama/character study that feels awfully familiar (bits of Straight Time, The 400 Blows, maybe a little Midnight Cowboy, and a dozen others) but it works well enough.  I don’t hate Jeff Bridges, but I’m also not a huge fan.  I’d say this is one of his better performances.  Edward Furlong is a bit annoying, fortunately not as much as in Terminator 2.  I guess I’d have to say I enjoyed watching the movie yet I can’t find any superlatives for it.  It’s fairly well-written, fairly well-shot, pretty well-acted, nothing really bad about it but nothing great either.  I thought the ending was a little too much, and out of step with the subdued, honest tone of the rest of it.  Rating: 7

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