3.5 stars out of 5
First things first: Vanna White does not appear in this film. Having just named Drive My Car my favorite movie of 2021, I was excited to see another offering from director Ryûke Hamaguchi. And this time I’d be judging him fully on his own merits, as there wasn’t a Haruki Murakami story to base the screenplay on.
I must admit to slight disappointment in learning that, like Buster Scruggs and French Dispatch, this was yet another anthology film. (And bigger disappointment to discover that some people are calling them portmanteau films — the comparison doesn’t seem to fit.) It’s not that I’m against cinematic short-story collections, but I guess when I’m sitting in a theater, I prefer to immerse myself in one long story.
Here we get three stories: an unexpected love triangle; a #metoo plot against a college professor; and a mistaken-identity reunion of two women in a post-technology world.
The first segment drew me in with its tale of introverts finding love, and being wounded by infidelity, and the “queen bee” ex who doesn’t want you yet doesn’t want anyone else to have you either. I can relate to all of that! I appreciated that Hamaguchi fleshed out the main character so we didn’t see her simply as a selfish villain.
I found the second segment to be the weakest (of course, with 3 parts, that’s usually going to be the case). We have a young mother cheating with a younger college student, who devises a “honey trap” scheme against a professor he feels has wronged him. (Is honey trap a common term in Japan?) The segment devolves into Black Mirror-lite territory, which, again, is not what I go to the movies for.
In the final segment, after a virus has destroyed the internet (stop watching Black Mirror, Ryûke!), two women who may or may not be acquainted run into each other after a high school reunion. As they talk, they learn that each has something to offer the other emotionally. There was a sweetness to this one which reminded me of “Augie Wren’s Christmas Story” by Paul Auster (already captured on film in Smoke).
I admire that Hamaguchi is delving into the murky areas of the human condition — as he ages I imagine he’ll gain even more insight. And kudos to him for featuring female protagonists, though in the middle segment, a cautionary tale for women presented by a male screenwriter was a little icky. I’d also warn him against making movies that are too talk-y; in the short-film mode perhaps it’s easier to revert to writing a one-act play. But movies let us go bigger. I’m interested to see what this filmmaker comes up with next, hopefully in feature-length story form.
Movie Review: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Movie Review: France
2.5 stars out of 5
Note to self: Just because a movie’s in French and is playing at an art theater doesn’t automatically mean it’s good. In this case, I must admit I didn’t do much advance research. A film starring Léa Seydoux? What she say, I do! Seydoux first caught my eye in The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014, and retroactively caught every other part of my body when I finally saw Blue Is the Warmest Colour. So I bought a ticket to France tout de suite.
Seydoux plays a celebrity journalist in France named… France. Everyone wants a selfie with her! And Emmanuel Macron is sort of in the movie! This is, how you say, le satire. And as we either learned or didn’t learn from Don’t Look Up, satire ain’t easy. You either need to lampoon a topic that hasn’t been done to death before, or else you better bring a unique perspective. France fails on both counts.
France the character is more interested in presenting herself than in presenting the news or her interview subjects. She “directs” camera angles and actions while reporting in the field, to tell the story as she sees fit. The media being staged was covered pretty well by Broadcast News back in 1987. And yes, France is cynical, but didn’t Network already take a delightfully dark look at the news media in 1976?
I guess the twist here is that France has an ethical awakening. She then steps away from television and becomes charitable so, they decide she’s mad! And thus is sent to fancy rehab in the Alps. Next there’s a scandalous report about her. But her savvy assistant knows that everybody loves a comeback and besides, the public has a very small attention span. Along the line, we learn that being phony is easier than being real, and dishing it out is easier than taking it. Not too original. C’est la vie!
Aquarium Playlist, 1/11/22
EPISODE #469: CLASSIC ROCK
Theme suggested by contest winner Marian Steffens.
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Led Zeppelin — “Rock and Roll”
The Doors — “Peace Frog”
Jimi Hendrix Experience — “Manic Depression”
ZZ Top — “La Grange”
Chicago — “Questions 67 and 68”
Rolling Stones — “Respectable”
Creedence Clearwater Revival — “Fortunate Son”
Patti Smith — “Ask the Angels”
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young — “Ohio”
Yes — “Long Distance Runaround”
Fleetwood Mac — “Second-Hand News”
The Who — “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere”
Bob Dylan — “If Not for You”
Queen — “Somebody to Love”
The Beatles — “Dig a Pony”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hobok
Pandemic Cinema, Year 2
A chronological list of movies (feature length and short films) that I watched at home during the continuing COVID-19 crisis in 2021. The great majority of them were new to me.
The Chimp (1932)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Doubt (2008)
The Devil Is a Sissy (1936)
Block-Heads (1938)
A King in New York (1957)
Smithereens (1982)
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
Dogfight (1991)
Layer Cake (2004)
Waiting for Guffman (1996)
The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
Dark Habits (1983)
The Flying Deuces (1939)
Best in Show (2000)
Speak Easily (1932)
Sisters (1972)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
Airplane (1980)
Konga (1961)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Son of No One (2011)
Captains Courageous (1937)
Lilith (1964)
Easy A (2010)
The Dig (2021)
After Hours (1985)
Live Flesh (1997)
The Comedian (2016)
Rollerball (1975)
The Comic (1969)
Nomadland (2020)
Mascots (2016)
City Lights (1931)
The Brood (1979)
Somewhere (2010)
Network (1976)
Delirious (1991)
The Pawnbroker (1964)
Minari (2020)
Performance (1970)
Brainstorm (1983)
Thelma & Louise (1991)
New York, New York (1977)
At the Circus (1939)
Fighting Mad (1976)
East of Eden (1955)
Grand Prix (1966)
The Front (1976)
Coming to America (1988)
Sabotage (1936)
Bullitt (1968)
Coming 2 America (2021)
Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)
Friday Foster (1975)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Blood Simple (1984)
Smoked Hams (1934)
Little Women (2019)
The Candidate (1972)
Shocker (1989)
Happiness (1998)
Bad Trip (2021)
Lucy in the Sky (2019)
Fatty and Mabel’s Simple Life (1932)
The Chimp (1915)
Bashful (1917)
The Hot Chick (2002)
Splendor in the Grass (1961)
The Producers (1967)
My Favorite Year (1982)
Suzi Q (2019)
The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
Deputy Droopy (1955)
Red Hot Riding Hood (1955)
Bad Luck Blackie (1949)
Screwball Squirrel (1944)
North by Northwest (1959)
King-Size Canary (1932)
The Chimp (1947)
T.V. of Tomorrow (1953)
Symphony in Slang (1951)
Girl Shy (1924)
The Drowning Pool (1975)
Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
Modern Times (1936)
The Fortune Cookie (1966)
What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard? (1943)
The Front Page (1931)
Marty (1955)
Sabrina (1954)
Shampoo (1975)
Carnival of Souls (1962)
The Farm of Tomorrow (1954)
Billy Boy (1954)
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957)
Simon (1980)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
Buried Treasure (1938)
Green Book (2018)
Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exhibition (1915)
The Champ (1979)
Out of the Past (1947)
He Did and He Didn’t (1916)
This Must Be the Place (2011)
Kajillionaire (2020)
Piranha (1978)
Lunatics: A Love Story (1991)
A Rainy Day in New York (2019)
The Hick Chick (1946)
The 39 Steps (1932)
The Beguiled (2017)
Scissors (1991)
Murder, My Sweet (1944)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Murder by Death (1976)
Schizoid (1980)
Westworld (1973)
Body Heat (1981)
The Children’s Hour (1961)
Speedy (1928)
La Collectioneuse (1967)
Places in the Heart (1984)
Life Stinks (1991)
Lonesome Lenny (1946)
ZZ Top: That Little Ol’ Band From Texas (2019)
Rabid (1977)
Silverado (1985)
The Chase (1966)
Goodnight Brooklyn: The Story of Death by Audio (2016)
Our Relations (1936)
Palm Springs (2020)
Marnie (1964)
Summer Rental (1985)
Mandy (2018)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Passion Fish (1992)
Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)
La Piscine (1969)
Rachel, Rachel (1968)
The Rink (1916)
Penn & Teller Get Killed (1989)
Field and Scream (1979)
Little Johnny Jet (1953)
Papa Gets the Bird (1940)
Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982)
Seems Like Old Times (1980)
He Got Game (1998)
Them! (1954)
Slap Happy Lion (1947)
A Rainy Day With the Bear Family (1940)
Macabre (1958)
Magic (1978)
It’s Alive (1974)
Dementia 13 (1963)
The Uninvited Pest (1943)
Deadly Friend (1986)
Obsession (1976)
Bats in the Belfry (1942)
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
La Bestia Debe Morir (1952)
Dracula (1931)
Hell Night (1981)
Scat Cats (1957)
Promising Young Woman (2020)
Sweetie (1989)
High School Confidential! (1958)
Swing Swift Cinderella (1945)
Dumb-Hounded (1943)
You’re a Big Boy Now (1966)
Among Those Present (1921)
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
Overboard (1987)
The Goose Goes South (1941)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Don’t Look Up (2021)
Tall Story (1960)
Gave up on:
Wicked Stepmother (1989)
Pandemic Cinema, year 1
My Highly Subjective List of the Best Movies of 2021
Another Covid-screwed year at the movies, and until last Tuesday this was only going to be a Top 9 list. Still, thanks to the reopening of the Clairidge Theater in Montclair (kudos to Evelyn Colbert and the good people of Montclair Film), I was able to see some quality late-year releases on the big screen as the good Lord and Louis B. Mayer intended.
10) Ghostbusters: Afterlife This kinder, gentler Ghostbusters from Jason Reitman turned out to be a true family flick, and a really charming and well-made one at that. The pace and fun pick up as it goes along, and by the time some old friends arrive, I knew that bustin’ still makes me feel good.
9) The Summer of Soul Director Questlove shares amazing concert footage (I am still reeling from seeing the incredible duet by young Mavis Staples and old Mahalia Jackson) from the basically forgotten 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival — and helps place it in the historical context of inequality and unrest in the city streets.
8) The Sparks Brothers Persistence, cleverness, and wild creativity are Sparks’ hallmarks, lovingly captured in this detailed music documentary from Edgar Wright. And a rare example of a doc that is actually funny.
7) Flag Day Sean Penn does an excellent, artful job directing himself and his daughter Dylan (who provides a terrific lead performance). Based on a true story, it’s a compelling family saga in which a young woman slowly realizes her dad isn’t all that. Is she doomed to follow in his flawed footsteps… or can she reinvent herself?
6) The French Dispatch Wes Anderson goes the anthology route and gives us some slapstick, some animation, a little food for thought, lots of familiar faces and strong comedic performances (especially Jeffrey Wright and Timothée Chalamet), plus all those great little details we count on from Wes.
5) Nightmare Alley Guillermo del Toro combines his passions for classic movie tropes and freaks in this moody noir remake. Bradley Cooper is an everyman with a dark past who hooks up with an old-time carnival, then gets greedy for more. Willem Dafoe, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, David Strathairn, and Richard Jenkins help raise this well above a genre exercise.
4) Licorice Pizza Hands-down the most fun at the movies this year, courtesy of P.T. Anderson. Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim both give breathless, star-making performances in a rollicking Once Upon a Time in Hollywood-lite adventure, with Sean Penn and Tom Waits along for the ride. Plots are for suckers!
3) West Side Story Steven Spielberg delivers a master class in filmmaking in this fresh, hyper-naturalistic retelling of the beloved musical. The singing, dancing, music, and cinematography crackle with urgency and excitement. And society’s fear/hatred of “the other” which runs parallel with the love story here is sadly more relevant than ever.
2) The Tragedy of MacBeth Joel Coen strips away anything extraneous — even brother Ethan — to present a stark, vital, beautifully shot, and faithful telling of Shakespeare’s pre-noir classic. Denzel Washington delivers a towering performance as MacBeth and Frances MacDormand deservedly shares the out-damned-spotlight.
1) Drive My Car I might not have guessed that a 3-hour Japanese film would be my favorite of the year. But, as one would hope of a film based on a Haruki Murakami short story, modern humanity is so sharply and unflinchingly observed here, and I stayed engrossed throughout. It’s an epic, intellectually challenging treatise on control, loss, and healing via sex, Russian theater, and, yes, cars.
Worst movie: Not horrible, but after such a long wait, the ho-hum 007 No Time To Die was a real letdown.
New releases I saw this year: 30 (including 3 films from 2020 not included in last year’s ratings)
My best-of lists from: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017/16, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009
You can check out all my movie reviews by clicking here.
Movie Review: The Tragedy of MacBeth
5 stars out of 5
I’m not much of a Shakespeare buff, but MacBeth is my boy, yo! We read it in junior year of high school, and with my pals Steve, Rob, and Ken, made a related video project entitled Late Night With David MacLetterman. Two years later, I was lucky to see Christopher Plummer as MacBeth in Pittsburgh. So, of all Shakey’s works, I know this play the best.
As a result, I was less intimidated by the prospect of seeing a new filmic adaptation. Especially because it was directed by one half of my beloved Coen brothers, Joel.
And yet… hearing that Shakespearean language can be a struggle. I’ve seen several, ahem, lesser productions of the Bard’s oeuvre, and I usually have to refer to hastily googled synopses to have any idea what’s going on. Joel Coen is credited as the screenwriter here, so I was thinking, maybe he smoothed it out for me.
He did not.
And yet… not a problem! Coen is such a skillful filmmaker, with such a remarkably talented cast, that I was able to follow this from nave to the chops, and was riveted throughout.
Along with Nightmare Alley, this is the second great neo-noir of the season. MacBeth is the classic noir protagonist: He gets a taste of success and becomes greedy for more, by any means necessary. As the story progresses, his moral deficiencies are laid bare. Denzel Washington knocks it out of the park, immediately becoming an Oscar favorite for me. He seamlessly takes the character from humility to insecurity to bravado to paranoia and at last, to madness. We see on Washington’s face the inner torment he struggles with more and more, as guilt asserts itself. In a career of excellent performances, this is one of his best.
Then there’s Lady MacBeth (a.k.a. Lady Coen), Frances McDormand. With fresh eyes, I’d argue that Willy Shakes underwrote the character a tad. Still, she definitely makes an impression. When MacBeth is nervous and unsure, Lady Mac eggs him on to follow his worst instincts. She’s the cold-hearted schemer behind the scenes, a Dick Cheney, a Steve Bannon — history is littered with them. And when Big Mac starts to snap, she glares at him to keep it together. McDormand too pulls out all the stops. Her eyes light up like a pinball machine when she learns MacBeth is the man who would be king. Yaaaasssss queen!! She’s carnal, calculating, and finally, koo-koo. (If I had a nickel every time a woman said to “unsex me here.”)
Brendan Gleeson is suitably royal as good king Duncan, and you always know there will be fun when fellow Coen returnee Stephen Root emerges from a desk in the basement.
The cinematography and dramatic lighting are masterful. (This is how black and white is supposed to be done, Branagh.) The sets are spare and suggest a theatrical production except, you know, better. Coen composer Carter Burwell ups his game with a powerful score. The film is scary (oh those weird sisters!) and exciting and there’s not an ounce of fat. (Unlike so many bloated current flicks, Coen keeps it tidy at 105 minutes.) I am still eager for the next full-length, one-story offering written for the screen and directed by the Coen Bros. — come on, fellas, it’s been six years since Hail, Caesar! — but in the interim, this will do quite nicely.
Aquarium Playlist, 1/4/22
EPISODE #468: MOTOWN
Theme suggested by contest winner Marian Steffens.
The Who — “Happy Jack” [THEME]
Kiwi Jr. — “Maid Marian’s Toast”
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles — “(Come ’Round Here) I’m the One You Need”
The Supremes — “Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart”
The Four Tops — “You Keep Running Away”
Martha Reeves & the Vandellas — “I’ll Have To Let Him Go”
The Temptations — “(I Know) I’m Losing You”
Gladys Knight & the Pips — “Any Girl in Love (Knows What I’m Going Through)”
The Contours — “Whole Lotta Woman”
Mary Wells — “When I’m Gone”
Marvin Gaye — “You’re a Wonderful One”
The Spinners — “Truly Yours”
Edwin Starr — “If My Heart Could Tell a Story”
The Marvelettes — “Girls Need Love and Affection”
The Isley Brothers — “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)”
The Jackson 5 — “The Love You Save”
Stevie Wonder — “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)”
Jack Silbert proudly records the Aquarium podcast in Hoboken, NJ.
New Year’s Resolutions 2022
1. Stop meddling in friends’ lives, focus on medaling in the Winter Olympics.
2. Create a set of lower-case numbers.
3. Start letter-writing campaign for a Grey Poupon Groupon.
4. Add a plus after my name.
• Resolutions 5 and 6 unavailable due to covid protocols.
7. Realize that my nervousness about not getting felt up by the ex-New York governor was only Andrew FOMO.
8. Build a giant foam O.
9. Set up monthly recurring option to reduce the balance on my car, which for those of you not “up” on tech terms are known as auto auto payments.
10. Launch my one-man show, Hal Holbrook Tonight!
11. Publish my academic paper “Why Texans Don’t Know the Middle of the Alphabet: Remember the LMO”
12. Fly into space with Scrooge McDuck.
• My resolutions for 2021
• My resolutions for 2020
• My resolutions for 2019
• My resolutions for 2018
• My resolutions for 2017
• My resolutions for 2016
• My resolutions for 2015
• My resolutions for 2015
• My resolutions for 2014
• My resolutions for 2013
• My resolutions for 2012
Movie Review: Nightmare Alley
4.5 stars out of 5
During pandemic days, or shall I say nights, I’ve really upped my watching of Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley offerings on TCM. One film I haven’t caught — or didn’t even known about till today — is 1947’s Nightmare Alley. Which is probably for the best, as I strolled into 2021’s Nightmare Alley remake without any preconceptions beyond my fandom for Guillermo del Toro.
Del Toro gets to indulge a clear love of noir — the lighting, camera angles, heavy music, etc. — while combining it with his established fondness for freaks, this time in a carnival setting. At the beginning I worried that the whole “backstage at the old-timey carnival/circus freak show” thing was cinematically played out, featured in recent years in everything from Tim Burton’s Dumbo to American Horror Story. But a storyteller as gifted as del Toro can make an old concept (not to mention an old movie) his own, especially with an A-list cast. Bradley Cooper leads the way as a mysterious but game drifter willing to work his way up in Willem Dafoe’s (occasionally) traveling show. Cooper initially seems good-natured and eager to learn the tricks of the trade. But this is noir, so we soon learn that he’s greedy and looking for shortcuts to the big time as a mentalist. It’s a good role for Cooper: being the mid-American nice guy is something he can do in his sleep, but he gets to sink his teeth into the darker core of this character.
Dafoe has the perfect face and voice for the mostly on-the-level but “come on kid this is carnival life” boss. Also around the tents we have subdued, innocent Rooney Mara, kind-faced veteran mentalist Toni Collette and her booze-slowed partner David Strathairn, and strongman Ron Perlman. Once Cooper convinces Mara to run off to the bright lights of the big city for their own two-person act, we meet femme fatale Cate Blanchett, smiling socialite Mary Steenburgen, the always great and initially unrecognizable Richard Jenkins as a man of wealth and taste, and my boy Holt McCallany (Mindhunter, Lights Out) as Jenkins’ muscle.
As the drama revs up, so does del Toro’s bravura filmmaking, and Nightmare Alley is a thrilling, beautifully-constructed neo noir.
Movie Review: Drive My Car
4.5 stars out of 5
When my Golden Books picture book The Christmas Aliens was published in 1998, my friend Dave wrote a joke review on Amazon proclaiming it the “best book since Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase.” I’d never heard of Haruki Murakami but soon picked up that novel and was entranced. Two-plus decades later, when I learned this movie was based on a Murakami short story (one I haven’t yet read), I knew I had to see it. I am pleased to report that Drive My Car is perhaps the best movie I’ve seen this year.
There is a lot going on in this film and it fills 3 hours comfortably. The basics: Kafuku (played with subtlety by Hidetoshi Nishijima) is an actor and director, married to Oto, a screenwriter. He is diagnosed with glaucoma, threatening his ability to drive his beloved car. Also troubling for him: Oto is unfaithful. Something bad happens. And we haven’t even seen the opening credits yet.
The bulk of the film is set later, in Hiroshima (!), where Kafuku has been hired to direct a production of his specialty, Uncle Vanya. They want Kafuku’s innovative method of casting actors who speak different languages. (For his audiences, subtitles are projected on a screen.) So characters communicate in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, even sign language, with some English thrown in from the crew. Kafuku is staying on an island an hour outside the city; the festival staff inform him they’re required to hire a driver to transport him in his beloved car. (Curb Your Enthusiasm fans will get an unintended laugh when he meets the driver.)
Over the course of the movie they deal with control and the loss of it, death, guilt, love, sin, fame, stoicism, youth vs. experience, surrendering oneself, the difficulty of communication and the satisfaction of overcoming that, etc. The director/co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi deftly interweaves sections of Uncle Vanya (during rehearsals, and also played on tape during Kafuku’s commute) to mirror what’s going on in Kafuku’s life and mind.
What maybe impressed me most of all about Drive My Car was a maturity of thought, a realization that over time we can admit our errors and, with luck, move on. It’s a lovely, quiet, thoughtful film that I highly recommend.
Jack Silbert, curator