Fire

Fire (2022, Claire Denis) depicts an idyllic paradise vacation shared by a couple, captured in Denis’ inimitable style: sensuously textured intimacy with shapes of bodies in contact verging on abstract expressionism. But upon returning to Paris, what ensues is a moody melodrama set to an ominous Tindersticks score.
     The narrative’s construction could be described as opening with a quaint bubble where a comfortable romance is contained within; then from that point is followed by an unvarnished, heavy, fearsome outer space that offers little to no comfort for anyone—but isn’t this more satisfying anyway? Denis’ raw emotional claustrophobic confrontation with the formidable performances of 2 of her most captivating performers—Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon—is blanketed with her warmth and tenderness in ways not found in Cassavetes or Bergman. But this isn’t to say it isn’t painful.
     Claire Denis has always been a filmmaker who paints pain beautifully. Fire doesn’t moralize the position of either of its central characters. And the complications are the subject of the film, not any type of resolutions. So, it’s here that again the French prove how to provide that which Hollywood forgot how to.
 
7/22/2022 Regal Tara
Atlanta, GA
DCP

Gordy's Home

SOCRATES: Should movies be about something?
ANONYMOUS: Sirk said he cannot make movies about something, only with something—flowers, reflective surfaces.
SOCRATES: But aren’t his movies said to be about systemic hypocrisy, unrequited love, and sexual frustration?
ANONYMOUS: How could they not be?
SOCRATES: Then movies shouldn’t be made to disseminate a message, but should say something, does that sound right?

Nope (2022, Jordan Peele) is a horror movie that’s incidentally adorned with a ufo invasion façade. It’s also a virtuoso display of inspired storytelling. 
     I can’t remember the last time I watched a horror movie that felt this delightfully psychologically-macabre. Nope strikes the perfect balance of unsettling and absorbing that makes for the most accomplished of classic horror. Isn’t that the hardest to earn? Aside from terrifying the audience or disturbing devices, when was the last time the story itself felt original?
     Jordan Peele’s made some movies that feel like they have a message. Nope hits hard because it says something without saying it. I don’t know that everything adds up to some specific statement, but what I gathered is: there’s a delicate balance between life forms and entertainment. Nevertheless, the ufo could symbolize people spending too much time on junk media (TV, apps, social media?) that suck them out of real life. And maybe there’s a connection between the way some animals you think are tame can sometimes unexpectedly attack when you get too close.

     At the moment when Alfred E. Neuman is depicted as Gordy I was instantly transfixed by the kind of joy of story that's been all to elusive lately. Specifically, the backstory of Gordy’s Home and the listing of all those cast members from the ’95 season of SNL was scarier because of its authenticity. And Nope isn’t just a great horror movie, it also transcends box office concessions by substantially proving its artistic merit. Hoyte van Hoytema’s diffuse palette is as soothing as can be, with night exteriors particularly lit so delicately as to convincingly evoke the feel of being so far removed from city limits. (Also the Edge car tracking OJ on horseback is Muybridge to the future.) And Ruth De Jong with the Haywood house, and rustic amusement community gives the time spent in Agua Dulce a sense of really going somewhere else for 2 hours.
     The whole time watching Nope I kept thinking there is no way they can fuck this up. And by the end, although I’m not taken with the whole Christo and Jeanne-Claude thing, I accept it. Nope isn’t about ufos. By the way how cool is Michael Wincott? I’ve recently brought his name up several times in conversation, mostly because I’m such a huge fan of Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow); I watch it every New Year’s Eve. I just wondered what happened to him and how cool that moment in 1995 the dude’s in The Crow, Strange Days, and Dead Man.

 

7/21/2022 AMC Madison Yards 8

Atlanta, GA

DCP

Very Metal

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022, Taika Waititi) is the best comedy of the year. And as a follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok (2017, Waititi) it doesn’t disappoint. Like its predecessor, it deserves to be seen in a movie theater.

Marvel sucks. It’s usually because the movies (and series) draw out a banal origin story (interchangeable with new premise) that relies too much on mediocre drama, peppered with low-grade attempts at sarcastic wit, and overly indulges in choreographed fights and vfx spectacles that look identical—unless they’re done by James Gunn or Taika Waititi.

     When the MCU launched I avoided that garbage. Until that is Thor: Ragnarok opened on the biggest IMAX screen in Texas and I went in on a whim. What sets Taika Waititi’s Thor films apart is that he reverses the ratio of mediocre drama to comedy the rest of the MCU suffers from. And he actually knows funny. (It’s similar with James Gunn, but Gunn gives a little more emphasis to genre delights; although, he’s also an expert with comedy.) And rounding out Waititi’s own style that sets itself apart from the bland uniformity of the rest of the MCU output is his every primary color of the rainbow art direction.

     To limit my comments about the content of Thor: Love and Thunder, I’ll quickly mention I was unsure if it was going to fall short of the expectations some might have had in comparison to Thor: Ragnarok, until I got to the Golden Temple set piece. Everything I love about the visual imagination and creativity in execution, along with the culmination of comedy and action comes together in the Golden Temple.

     In closing, although I really didn’t find a way to adequately work this in, I stan NEBULA. She’s easily my biggest draw to the MCU. She’s cold, and less a sociopath than a being whose primary existence is to hate. And THANOS is her dad! (I also love Thanos but he’s like mopey emo sullen.) Sure, even though her bald head, black contacts and dour demeanor give her an uncanny resemblance to Hellraiser, she's still very sexy. And random nerd trivia: in Thor: Love and Thunder am I the only one who suspects the giant screaming goats bear an overwhelming resemblance to the endangered screamapillar Homer discovers in DABF16, penned by John Swartzwelder?

 

7/20/2022 AMC Madison Yards 8

Atlanta, GA

DCP

Beach Cairns of the Pacific Northwest

 

Beach Cairns of the Pacific Northwest