Recently Watched Movies

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT. First watched this on TV in the mid 1980s. Michael Cimino's crime caper movie, released two years before the Bi-centennial, is a cynical action-portrait of  human nature and American history. It begins with a church and ends with a one-room school house. It involves friends and war veterans. America, the land of God, Knowledge and Brotherhood of Man, is really about money(and anyway you can get it). And as the story traverses through natural wonders of Montana, there is the reminder that the land was stolen from Indians. Rating: A-


RAN. Watched this upon release in 1985. Seen it several times since. It's like a beautiful bridge with a collapsed arch. The Lear-figure who has to shoulder the tragic weight simply recedes as character and remains as prop, resulting in an haphazard narrative of impressive but disjointed wonders.Ultimately, the greatest tragedy of RAN is it fails as tragedy. But as drama of power politics, betrayal, and revenge, it is a stunning achievement. Rating: A


DAZED AND CONFUSED. Richard Linklater's surprising masterpiece never gets old. How such a loose story of kids taking it easy was made with such impeccable(and imperceptible) expertise and precision is truly amazing. An obvious labor of love made to seem effortless. It's like slacker on a tightrope. It has the directness of cinema-verite and the fine-tuning of a Swiss watch. Rating: A+


CLOVERFIELD. Recently revisited this movie. Proof that even the most ludicrous premise can be made to work with the right blend of ingenuity and heart. The idea of a space monster smashing NY is far-fetched, so how does the movie grab hold of our senses to accept the fantastic as 'factual'? It begins with a perfect rendition of Home Movie where all the people and places are recognizable and familiar. Then, through traumatized glimpses of the horror that erupts into the lives of the well-situated characters, the audience is left with little room to process what is going on. Events become so outrageous and unpredictable that the Fear Factor takes over. We only think SURVIVAL. But then, just when the characters(and the audience) have been rendered most primal in their instinct for self-preservation, the story strikes a romantic chord as the male character ventures off to rescue a damsel-in-distress and is, touchingly enough, joined by friends who decide to risk their own lives in the spirit of camaraderie. So, the most brutal kind of action-horror takes on an element of sentimentality and fairy-tale. And it works because the characters have been rendered as 'real' and believable in the opening scenes prior to the horror. Also, the all too human theme of love-and-friendship maintains an air of veracity amidst the mounting craziness of a city being rudely rearranged by what looks like a Godzilla-sized alligator-snapping turtle without a shell. There is even poignancy in the subtle reminder of fragility of the 'real'. Just as NY is being turned into smithereens by the monster from nowhere, the old video footage(of happier times) is being erased by new footage(of the mayhem). If so much of our current 'reality' is electronic and manipulated, imagine all the 'realities' that are being made and unmade on a daily basis by countless individuals who create new worlds and wipe them clean by toying with a few buttons. Are we god-monsters too? Certain horror purists may argue that CLOVERFIELD works on surprise than on suspense, which requires more sophistication. But the conception and execution of CLOVERFIELD are pretty amazing and incredibly inventive, even if of a shallower nature. Rating: A-


HIDDEN FORTRESS. This Kurosawa action-epic looks better than ever. It features a samurai order of sacrifice and obedience. Regal and majestic but also repressive and cold-blooded. Then, there is the hot-blooded world of commoners. Spontaneous and lively but coarse, crude, and treacherous. As the remnants of a fallen clan must trek through forests and villages disguised as ordinary people, the haughty princess comes to see what is most beautiful and ugly about humanity. And the two commoners, via their accidental role in aiding the princess to safety, comes to realize a value higher than petty greed. It was never one of my Kurosawa favorites, but seeing it on Blu-Ray, I recognize its greatness. Rating: A


PAUL, APOSTLE OF CHRIST. Watched about 20 min of this and had enough. One of those movies that beat you over the head with sermonizing. There are two kinds of religious films. Ones that get close to the source(before Christianity became a sure thing) and ruminate on the sheer difficulty of bringing forth a new faith. And ones that take for granted that Christ and Apostles were so holy and correct. Even though the latter may show lots of pain and suffering, there's a smug and lazy sense of righteousness and whose side God is on. It may work as theology but not as drama. THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, for all its faults, presents a Jesus who is troubled and uncertain as to his mission, purpose, and strength. From that arises a real sense of struggle that must be overcome dramatically. We are with a man in a world before he was canonized by officialdom. NOAH by Aronofsky is similarly provocative. In contrast, most religious films are merely self-satisfied in their retroactive renditions of a time when everything supposedly happened as it was deigned by God. There was no struggle toward holiness. Jesus and the Apostles were all holy and only needed to wait it out(and suffer a bit) before humanity came around to seeing their holiness. Rating: C-


GHOST WORLD. I never get tired of this film. An instant classic. Enid is one of my favorite characters. It tell us there's a lot of caricatures in humanity and a lot of humanity in caricatures. Rating: A+


RED SPARROW. Watched about 15 min of this and fast-forwarded the rest. Worse than honest trash. It's pompous trash. Rating: D


THE RIGHT STUFF. Based on the book by the late Tom Wolfe and directed by Philip Kaufman who, until then, was perhaps most famous for his version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, a movie that also informed parts of THE WANDERERS, his best work. There is something Body-Snatcherish about THE RIGHT STUFF as well. America(and the world) is turning into the World of Organization Man. Soviets shoot rockets into space to hail the triumph of socialism and statism. US ramps up the space race, and the days of the cowboy test-pilots and individualists are over. It's the world of engineers and professionals. Against this, the Magnificent Seven do their best to retain the spirit that is human, heroic, and American. They refuse to be test-monkeys in space. They insist on being pilots. Is it a delusion? Maybe it's a dream. Excellent movie. But like Sidney Lumet's PRINCE OF THE CITY, a failure at the box office. Both films would be the last great work by the two directors. Rating: A


THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER. Is his film evil? Yes or no, it is a hauntingly beautiful and terrifying story of how a soul can fall deeply in love with evil. A masterpiece directed by the son of Anthony Perkins. Rating: A