Poor Things – 3

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A sick movie. The fantasy sets of 19th century European cities were fun, especially Dickens’s London, but there was nothing to enjoy in the rest of the two hours and twenty minutes of ugliness. The story was beyond absurd and if that was to make a point, I surely missed it. Emma Stone’s Golden Globe performance struck me more as a party trick than acting; and as much as I like sex, the film’s obsession with it was numbing.  Willem Dafoe was good, as always. Friends counseled, if you can get past the first thirty minutes you’ll like it. I couldn’t find anything that changed.

Damsels in Distress (2012) – 6.5

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Interesting that less than a dozen years ago a film could run wild with jokes about suicide. The humor also seemed dated, unless you’re still reading the Harvard Lampoon and watching Chevy Chase flicks. My viewing partner called it “stupid,” but I found it stupid funny. Greta Gerwig starred, with her trademark intelligent-naive affect, leading a cadre (coven?) of attractive college coeds who adopt a mission of raising their fraternity counterparts from hopeless stupidity, only to find their intellectual and moral superiority doesn’t protect them from romantic vulnerability. In short, this overlooked effort by Whit Stillman is nothing less than a proto-Barbie.

Between Two Worlds – 6.5

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A beatific Juliette Binoche is onscreen this entire film, which makes it worth watching if, like me, you relish her acting and beauty. The story of a journalist going undercover to do a book on cleaning ladies has a ring of truth, which it is, and the film reads more as social commentary than drama.

Vertigo (1958) – 5

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Seeing Vertigo on critics’ lists of all-time best films, including Time’s last week, and not remembering if I’d seen it, we rented it for TV viewing. Our first reaction was that it must have been colorized, so garish were the reds and greens. Whatever the cause, it gave the film a very dated look, along with all the artificial driving scenes. The next problem I had was with the acting, or maybe the characterizations. Kim Novak’s performance was wooden, or more accurately stoney. James Stewart was typical James Stewart, a gee-whiz naif, which didn’t comport with his role as a San Francisco police detective. And while he was clearly infatuated with her, there was little chemistry between them. I never suspected her love for Scottie until she announced it. Barbara Bel Geddes was better as Midge, but I couldn’t figure out that relationship either.
Those problems, however, paled compared to the plot. Right at the start Scottie is left dangling from a bent gutter with no visible means of rescue or escape as his police partner falls to his death. He walks with a cane for a short while afterward, but we are never told what happened, other than this causing an acute case of “vertigo.” The plot that follows, of course, pivots around a murder/fake suicide that exceeds Scottie’s rooftop escape for implausibility. In order to dispose of his wealth (and inherit her fortune), shipping magnate Gavin Elster convinces his girlfriend to impersonate his wife (no one else notices?), have her pretend to be haunted by an ancestor and seduce his old friend Scottie, and then lure him up a belltower firm in the belief that Scottie won’t be able to reach the top, where he is waiting with his dead wife, ready for defenestration. Oh, and then escape from the belltower unnoticed, another point that Hitchcock finessed. Surely there were better, safer ways to do away with one’s spouse.
In fairness, the film’s followers focus on its story of obsession, not its murder plot. Scottie is clearly obsessed, but it’s not pretty, nor particularly convincing. He browbeats Judy (the resurrected Madeleine) in an over-the-top manner that keeps raising the questions, what does he think he’s doing and why does she put up with it? When he is so obsessed, though, how does he flip the switch so completely when he sees her necklace? Would he really have even noticed it? And how would he have made such a quick mental calculation? In short, the whole film was one big, dated implausibility that, to my mind, ranks well behind The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, Psycho, 39 Steps, Rear Window, Strangers On a Train and probably others.

Top Ten 2022

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It has become traditional at year’s end that I look back and select ten memorable films I’ve seen in the preceding twelve months, and I shall hew to tradition, even though a look back convinces me that this was the worst year of cinema I can remember. Was it a hangover from the pandemic? A migration of talent to television series? Uncertainty about the fate of the world? Who knows? One trend that was constant was the absence of spectators in the theaters. At a 7:30 Monday showing of Devotion I was completely alone. It seems inevitable that the industry will suffer, then change. Movie budgets and star salaries could drop by 50% or more and it wouldn’t necessarily hurt the product. Many of my favorites–e.g., Banshees of Inisherin–could be made on a shoestring. At the same time, the year’s highest grossing films, albeit few and far between, were still high-budget blockbusters; so I fear Hollywood will chase in that direction for a while to come. The number of big-budget flops, however, will shake something. Usually, the last weeks of December are full of pedigreed, Oscar-intended releases that we have to wait until February to catch. This year, not so much. That said, here are my favorites:

1. Argentina 1985. A true story of a political reckoning in, per the title, 1985 Argentina, this had superlative ensemble acting around a remarkable lead performance and a convincing sense of realism (compare, e.g., to the similar She Said). It got bonus points for showing me a culture and a moment of history I was unfamiliar with. And, always welcome, a heartwarming ending.

2. Official Competition. The most fun movie of the year, with Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderis and Oscar Martinez having the time of their lives playing actors making a film. The plot twists wee delicious, the spare cinematography elegant, the intelligence welcome.

3. The Banshees of Inisherin. So Irish, so stubbornly tragic, so forlornly beautiful, but above all such amazing peformances by Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Kerry Condon and all the regulars at the pub. This was obviously and fittingly a playwright’s movie.

4. The Bastard King. A totally remarkable nature docudrama in which the life of a lion is not only anthropomorphized but raises issues central to our own species, from climate change on down. Filmed in sepia, each scene is more jaw-dropping than the last.

5. Call Jane. In spirit a sequel to the superior The Trial of the Chicago 7, this was the political feel-good film of the year, unfortunately made timely by the Dobbs decision.

6. Tar. The final ten minutes ruined what was otherwise the most powerful, thought-provoking American film, with two great performances by Cate Blanchett and Nina Hoss and a unique dive into the world of classical music.

7. Cyrano. As much a ballet or opera as a movie, this reimagining of a well worn fable with Peter Dinklage as the fulcrum brought the 17th-century French settings to lovely life.

8. Phantom of the Open. Always room for a feel-good comedy with a good heart. The golf sequences were spurious but Mark Rylance’s characterization was deft.

9. Top Gun: Maverick. Strictly formulaic but an expertly executed tried-and-true formula. The anonymity of the enemy downplayed the militarism, and Jennifer Connelly was the heartthrob of the year.

10. The Good Nurse. Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain in a quietly powerful “based-on-a-true-story” indictment of our health care system.

PS: The Quiet Girl and All Quiet On the Western Front While not available for viewing in Santa Barbara in time for the initial list, both of these films are up for 2022 Oscars and merit inclusion on the above list, replacing Phantom and Nurse, as much as I liked those quirky choices. All Quiet is powerful both as action film and political statement, while Quiet Girl is a pure expression of love and beauty, a psychological probing worthy of an Irish Bergman.

Top Performances
While not a fan of combining the categories of Best Actor and Best Actress, I do see merit in eliminating the often artificial distinction between Lead and Featured Actor, when studios use it to game the Oscars and snag an award for a featured performance that may be onscreen as much as many leads. So, without increasing the total number of nominees, here are the performers whose work I consider award-worthy.

Cate Blanchett, Tar
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Jessica Chastain, The Good Nurse
Emma Corrin, Lady Chatterly’s Lover
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Sally Hawkins, Phantom of the Open
Nina Hoss, Tar
Zoe Kazan, She Said  
Keke Palmer, Nope 
Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu 
Sigourney Weaver, Call Jane

Antonio Banderas, Official Competition
Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
Ricardo Darin, Argentina 1985
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Eddie Redmayne, The Good Nurse
Mark Rylance, Phantom of the Open
David Strathairn, Where the Crawdads Sing

Ten Worst
Finally, I can’t go quietly without singling out the major disappointments. I’m avoiding obscure titles here and considering only films that made some critic’s best-of list:

Aftersun 
Crimes of the Future
Elvis 
EO
Everywhere Everything All at Once
Fire of Love
Glass Onion 
Nope
Petite Maman
Woman King

Almost Famous – C-

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Why bother? The original film was memorable, and presumably is still available, and was sharper, more intelligent and, of course, more original. The actors in the musical are appealing, especially when viewed from our seats in the second row, center, but inevitably invite unfavorable comparisons with Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson and Philip Seymour Hoffman, not to mention others I’d forgotten: Frances McDormand, Zooey Deschanel, Jason Lee, Jimmy Fallon (I concede props, though, to Rob Colletti in the Lester Bangs role). If the added attraction was new music, the score is blandly generic; the story plods along, between trite and obvious. Perhaps the show will survive through the holiday season on its name an nostalgia. The actors work hard but deserve better.

Da 5 Bloods – 7.5

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A hit-and-miss affair from Spike Lee–nowhere as polished as BlackKklansman, but provocative in its looks at race, Vietnam, friendship, greed–remarkable in its aspirations if not its execution. First off, I should say that Delroy Lindo should be a lock for an Oscar nomination, at least, for his performance. Next best was having a range of six Black characters fill the screen; so you didn’t see them as “Black,” you saw them for their distinct personalities. The plot (which I assume was borrowed from Treasure of the Sierra Madre), was serviceable, but that was about all. It was mainly an armature allowing us to get to know, understand and empathize with the Bloods. At the same time, the French woman (white) was great.

Seeing Da 5 Bloods shortly after watching When the Levees Broke about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina made clear how relevant and important Spike Lee is to the moment of national consciousness-raising we are going through.

Sanditon – 8

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Much of the charm is supplied by the charming Rose Williams’s expressive face, voluptuous body and bottomless pit of dresses, which materialize out of the blue. The rest comes from the smoky Theo James as Sidney Parker, the love/hate cynosure of Rose’s Charlotte. We get to know a dozen other denizens of, and visitors to, the rising beach resort of Sanditon, and they are all sharply delineated and sufficiently interesting. It is easy to fall into the world of Jane Austen’s fiction (easier than it was in the recent Emma), and if we feel cheated at the end (a manufactured tease designed to permit a second season), that is a compliment to what we know from reading Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice, in our pasts. Once again it was our affection for the female lead that made us race through eight episodes.

Once Were Brothers – 4.5

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Robbie Robertson may be a great musician, but as a documentary narrator he is ponderous. As in Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, the story of a five-man band suffers from being told solely from one member’s perspective. Performance clips breathe some life into the film, but with only one great song to The Band’s credit, they’re not enough. The final clip, of Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” made me wish I’d spent the time watching The Last Waltz instead.

Emma – 6.5

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After a rather slow first hour, we come to know the residents of Highbury and derive some pleasure in this familiarity – particularly with Mr. Knightley, a true gentleman. The settings and costumes are gorgeous, but the story – much like the superior Little Women – plays like the 19th-century novel it is. If there was a surprise to be had, I missed it. I also wished that the Harriet Smith character could have been more attractive, to justify both her screen time and the attention paid to her.