"Chungking Express" (1994)

Director Wong Kar-Wai's stylish and intoxicating mood piece film-making reached its fullest expression, up to that point, in Chungking Express. Wong's previous efforts, As Tears Go By and Days of Being Wild, feel like they were just dry runs; Wong proved he had talent, but those films didn't have as crystaline a vision as Express. Express is deliriously, palpably dripping with longing and sexual desire. Everything about the film is in the name of sensuous pleasure: the precise camera placement, the atmosphere, the dazzling color scheme, the lingering emotional suggestion. The film has a plot (about two heartbroken cops coping with their loss and falling into new, strange holding patterns and relationships), but discussing the plot fails to capture what make Express so erotically charged. The film is ennui wrapped up in sexual tension. It's a slow burn, and the film is interested in exuding a time and a place, and giving us a direct understanding and identification with the youthful listlessness of its characters. But it's the novelty by which Wong does this that really makes it stand out; the longing is so specifically rooted in its characters psyche, as if it's a character study by way of mood piece. The sensuality is so strong that it lingers long after the screening, clinging to the back of your mind and making you long just a little bit yourself.

Grade: ★★★

"The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942)

Tens Items or Less

A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

Writer-director Orson Welles' ostentatious, opulent The Magnificent Ambersons is a film about the rippling effects of the past playing out into the present. Much like Welles' Citizen Kane, the film deals with people deeply wounded by events long since faded into memory, which they bitterly and nostalgically still cling to. The film shows the inevitably of change and the many scales on which it plays out on; the town goes from a Midwestern countryside hamlet to a bustling city, and the Ambersons go from wealthy benefactors to footnotes in the history of the town. Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotton) pines for the woman, Isabel Amberson (Dolores Costello), who he long lost, and his daughter Lucy (Anne Baxter) is courted by his lost love's son George (Tim Holt). This all takes place under the scrutinizing gaze of the family and the townsfolk. In some ways, the film is about how family legacies are passed through generations, as well as how the evolution of the town is seen through the lens of the Amberson's experiences. Welles' direction is purposely showy but he fills each frame with a tremendous amount of telling detail. It's no wonder why Wes Anderson looked to Ambersons when making The Royal Tenenbaums, it's a film that uses background detail, character detail and precise framing to make unstated, dense points that enrich and inform the greater narrative. It's also a film about a wealthy, dysfunctional family coasting on their inheritance and legacy. But Welles' meticulous, brazen style hides a deep sense of melancholy reflective of individuals who hurt themselves and one another by refusing to let go of the past or by denying change in the present. 

Grade: ★★★

"Darkman" (1990)

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A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

Sam Raimi's passion project Darkman is a strange movie, more interesting than good really. Raimi shoots the films with a kinetic direction that gives the film a charisma that carries it through its unsubstantial and crazy plot. But it is a film that feels like Raimi ran amok with the big budget of a studio and it led to something occasionally inspired but more often simply peculiar. A scientist (Liam Neeson - at his gravel-voiced finest), badly burnt and disfigured in an explosion, uses his experiments with synthetic skin grafting to temporarily restore his appearances or adopt the appearances of the men who wronged him in order to get revenge. This means that most of the film features Neeson covered in bandages and hugged in a heavy, black trenchcoat, walking around hunched over and growling angrily to himself. Neeson is committed to the role, if nothing else, and the film embraces its craziness (gangsters, shady real estate developers, a tragic, moody antihero) which makes it more readily acceptable. This embrace leads the film to some curious but fun moments, and the film's sugar-rush pacing and Raimi's atypical, energetic directing makes it all go down much more easily. It's a superhero-action film that grunts and laughs in the face of superhero conventions -- a precursor to the dark comic book adaptations such as The Dark Knight trilogy. The film is not trying to take itself serious -- although it takes its hero's tragic state and his descent into darkness quite seriously -- but the self-consciously absurd tonality and narrative still makes for a film that is not entirely satisfying but at least, thankfully, is not forgettable.

Grade: ★★

"Thor: The Dark World" (2013)

The comic book world of Thor is the most grandiose and operatic of the current Marvel franchises, and therefore it is the one that has the most difficulty discovering the human core that makes it all ring true. Similarly, Thor is one of the less compelling characters of the Avengers. Captain America struggles with the meaning of heroism in an age that has shrugged off heroism into the dustbin. Tony Stark combats his ego and the expense it causes on his personal and professional life. It is not like there is not an underlying thematic pinning to Thor's struggle, but it feels very one-note. Thor confronts the nature of power and its corrupting influence, but it is not exactly the most well nuanced examination nor does the franchise seem all that keen on seriously exploring the issue. It does on the other hand love huge CGI spectacle, but it is often at the cost of really getting a grip on what makes Thor tick; he is into old fashioned notions of honor in a way that aligns him with Captain America but the films have yet to fully shade his character in a relatable or understandable way. He's a big heavy who can kick some serious ass and wants to defend all the worlds and innocents, but mostly because he was born to be this person rather than because he necessarily chooses to. Far more interesting than Thor are the many characters surrounding him, particularly Loki who continues to get more fascinating and complex each time we encounter him. Tom Hiddleston gives a Shakespearean eloquence to line-readings, turning even less than stellar moments into fun fleeting passages in between the brutal, epic fights elsewhere. Idris Elba even gets some expanded screen time as the gatekeeper Heimdall, giving surprisingly weighted, but brief, thoughtfulness on the duel-edged sword over the burden and love of duty. An under-serviced Kat Dennings brings comic relief but she also gives far more of a sense of what makes her character, the intern Darcy, who she is than the writing does for Thor. Chris Hemsworth looks the part and can deliver lines with stoic grandeur, but Thor just isn't that exciting of a character. He's only more well-considered than his love interest Dr. Jane Foster, in an embarrassingly simplistic part that turns Natalie Portman shamelessly into a damsel in distress.

The plot is not worth pondering too long on. Aliens plot against Thor's homeworld of Asgard and the plan threatens to harm Earth. There's some mumbo-jumbo science-magic stuff called Aether that uses Jane as a vessel to attempt to turn all worlds into primordial darkness. It doesn't matter; there are Big Bads and they intend to do harm, but it is the least memorable part of the film, a serviceable but forgettable excuse for initiating conflict. Thor: The Dark World is a fun film but it suffers from re-establishing characters and plots after the gap of time in between seeing most of these characters in any film. It also suffers just as much from being a stepping stone towards bigger ambitions that Marvel has in mind for the sequel to the Avengers. Finally, it suffers from excess; Thor kills a giant rock monster at the end of a lengthy battle sequence early in the film and the question then becomes: where is there to go after we've watched such a sprawling battle that ends on such a grace note? The film finds ways to mock itself, its dense mythology, and the success of Marvel films generally within both its world and our own, and that allows for a good deal of fodder. But the film's best moments are when the action, the motivation of characters and a sense of unrestrained exuberance come together (Thor's mother (Rene Russo) fighting in one-on-one combat to defend Jane, or Thor and Loki reluctantly teaming up to exact revenge). It doesn't happen enough throughout the movie but it definitely is an improvement upon the first Thor movie, which in too many ways felt like an after thought. This has far more ambition and care even if it lives under the duel edged sword of burdens to its duty and pressure over doing justice to that obligation.

Grade: ★★

"To Have and Have Not" (1944)

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A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

There's a moment early on in To Have and Have Not where Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, in her debut role, are within inches of kissing and yet they don't, and it almost feels anticlimactic but the simple fact is that they didn't need to kiss. Bogart and Bacall were as successful as a pairing as they were because their chemistry was so astoundingly palpable that studios could, and did, build entire films just around their presence together, and To Have and Have Not does exactly that, playing down the Ernest Hemingway elements of the narrative in favor of watching the two actors play off eachother with fantastic interplay and charm. They would later marry in real life and you can witness that in their interactions; there are side glances and smirks arrived at that feel completely organic and that's likely because the two, at time, weren't acting but simply having such a good time playing off one another. They appear to be in on some great inside joke that we are being let in on as well. It helps that they were given dialogue as sharp as this, written by William Faulkner and Jules Furthman, and which only serves to make their scenes all the more charming and entertaining. The plot is a dark, dangerous story about revolutionaries in Martinique, and Bogart's Harry Morgan getting reluctantly caught up in the intrigue and excitement. Howard Hawks is great at efficient direction; he tells as much as he needs to in the non-Bogart and Bacall scenes and even finds ways to let the romance dovetail with the ensuing drama. This efficiency is also great at establishing and creating immediately recognizable characters, including the great character actor Walter Brennan as the lovable drunk Eddie. But ultimately it all comes back to Bogie and Bacall and their invaluable life lessons about whistling.

Grade: ★★★★

"Kirikou and the Sorceress" (1998)

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A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

Kirikou and the Sorceress is an animated fable filtered through the sensibilities of pop art while staying true to the spirit of the folk tales it's indebted to. The film draws upon West African legend, and its abundance of irreverence sets it apart from the hero's journey of other animated films. Kirikou is a baby who gives birth to himself and sets about defeating the evil sorceress Karaba, who turns out be merely misunderstood rather than malevolent. More generally though the film is about the rhythms of village life with a fairy tale twist, and there's an episodic nature where the little moments of daily life are shown with an earnest and affectionate eye for detail. Kirikou is most importantly a joyous and whimsical film. It's idiosyncratically and deadpan funny, and sporadically filled with spontaneous musical numbers and colorful characters in a colorful environment, drawn with a flat, eye-popping color design. Like all good fables, the film has small events that stand in as bigger lessons, including growing up, doing the right thing, and being inquisitive. But the strongest is about ageism told, like all the film's messages, through eloquently precise, laconic aphorisms ("I want to be big" "And when you are big you'll want to be small") and digressive side quests. The film also has a pleasingly feminist undercurrent with Kirikou's mother and Karaba refusing to give into gender expectations. While Kirikou's story and its designs are simple, its messages are not. Though its quirky, its playfulness hides a darker sense of how the world sometimes can be mean and nasty for no other reason other than that life's unfair like that sometimes.

Grade: ★★★

"The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1946)

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A new writing segment, "Ten Items or Less" is an attempt to consciously cutback and restrict how much I write. I get ten sentences or less to discuss a movie. That's it. Let's see if some genius comes out of working around my self-made obstacle.  

Some relationships burn so fast and so passionately that they're bound to implode, such is the case with Frank Chambers (John Gardfield) and Cora Smith (Lana Turner) in The Postman Always Rings Twice. Turner and Garfield have the kind of sizzling, immediately charged chemistry that's necessary for the gripping, sexy noir to work as well as it does. Turner and Garfield play it as if it was destiny that wandering, rootless Frank Chambers and the gorgeous, trapped Cora Smith ended up together and the film moves past their initial meeting -- a great moment that's all sexual tension and suggestion -- to deconstruct this, setting the couple down a path of escalating destruction and doubt. The great thing about the film though is that unlike most noirs, Turner's femme fatale appears to actually be in love with Garfield, making later double crosses and faded passion feel like a relationship turned sour in the worst way possible. The film's initial plot focuses on the couple hesitantly going forward with murdering Cora's husband, the meek but kind Nick (Cecil Kellaway), a man she married out of convenience but not love. But the the scheming, the false starts, and eventual execution of the plan are only about half the film's time. Soon comes the court case, with the vigilant, obsessive district attorney Kyle Sackett (Leon Ames) pressing the case as fiercely he can, only to be countered by rival lawyer Arthur Keats (in a great scene-stealing performance by Hume Croyn). The passion that initially drove the relationship proves to be unable to withstand not only the heated trouble, but also proves itself unlikely to have been sustainable no matter what the couple tried to do to keep it going. The Postman Always Rings Twice benefits from impeccable casting, particularly Turner and Garfield, who have some electrifying chemistry. You don't need nudity or sex when you have this sort of chemistry; sexual tension hangs over every moment as if it's another character.

Grade: ★★★★