This Week in Film (9/8/13 - 9/14/13)

It was another average week at Popcorn and Existentialism where I continue my, thus far, year long trek into the depths of cinephilia. And if the films yet again seem to abide by no coherent logic or order it's because my tastes and interests and desire to explore as far flung afield neutered any opportunity for such a semblance of unity. There are some winning, strange horror movies, two very different historical dramas, a poetic road movie, a gangster movie that refuses to be a gangster movie, and brutal samurai epic. So needless to say, it's exactly what you'd expect from me here. Let's tally it up:

Paris, Texas (1984) - Wim Wender's road movie takes advantage of gorgeous Texas locales to create a stunning film about suffering and loss. It's meditations and enigmatic beauty create something poetic and achingly real.

Breaking Bad: "To'hajiilee" - Well. Fuck. Words can't really begin to not-spoilery describe the epic events of last week's fourth to last episode. Watch it.

Videodrome (1983) - David Cronenberg's thoroughly bizarre and unsettling horror movie feels ahead of its time, contemplating issues of technology and our dependency that are still relevant today. Also, there's some moments that will make you go "What the fuck!"

The Battleship Potemkin (1925) and What Movies Owe Us - I sort through why we place the kinds of expectations on film that we do and why that can be problematic.

The Host (2006) - Joon-ho Bong's horror blockbuster broke box office records in South Korea and for good reason: it's a lot of fun. Part horror movie, part political commentary, part melodrama, part idiosyncratic family drama, and all very entertaining.

No (2012) - Pablo Lorrain's latest film about the Pinochet government tackles the corruption of the regime with a good dose of humor as seen through an anti-Pinochet ad campaign that looks more like a 1980's Coke commercial than a political ad.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) - John Cassavettes' loose film about a club owner who's ego and massive gambling debt suck him deep into a criminal underworld that's too seedy for even him to comprehend. It's got too many moments that awkwardly linger for far too long but the noir action is top notch.

Le Samourai (1967) - Jean-Pierre Melville's gangster movie is buttoned-down cool. The stylish and massively fun story of a contract killer who tries to lose the heat of the cops and the people who hired him after a job goes awry.

13 Assassins (2011) - This samurai epic owes a great deal to Seven Samurai and other classic samurai films but it takes their get-the-gang together narratives and brings them brutally into the modern film age without losing any of their contemplativeness.