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(USA 2021) Sean Baker has been on a roll with his last few films. He’s heavy, but he wins me over because he makes me love his characters, all of whom are fringe throwaways — illegal migrants, petty thieves, sex workers, transgenders, drug addicts, dirty little kids — getting by in an economically hostile environment. He quietly but powerfully makes his points about benevolence in contemporary…

The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez

(USA 2000) I love Björk. Not like this, though. The Video Diary of Ricardo Lopez is disturbing to say the least. It’s a real-time documentary — I would say exploitation film — of one twisted super fan’s mental descent and his plan to get even with Björk by sending her a letter bomb. Why? Because of who she chose to date. More than any other event I witnessed over the past two decades, even…

(USA 2021) A dear friend coined a handy if snotty phrase she employs when she enjoys a film or a play that she doesn’t find particularly cerebral: “It’s not a major work but I liked it.” I’ll borrow her phrase for Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci, an engrossing and splashy biopic that doesn’t seem like the nearly three-hour investment it demands. The story chronicles the rocky relationship of…

For all its low budget shortcomings, 'Buddies' packs an emotional whollop. Truth and heartfelt sincerity go a long way in making the sum here much greater than its parts.

Buddies (USA 1985)

Initially, nothing about Buddies jumps out as remarkable. I never heard of the film, screenwriter/director Arthur J. Bressan Jr., or anyone involved. It feels like it was thrown together and pumped out in a matter of days, like a porn. At best, it’s as if Ed Wood were aiming for Jean-Luc Godard; at worst, early John Waters doing an Afterschool Special.

Technically, it’s messy.…

A Fantastic Woman [Una mujer fantástica]

(Chile 2017)

“The thing is, Orlando started feeling sick. And he died.” — Marina “When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing.” — Sonia

Whichever meaning of the word fantastic is employed, A Fantastic Womanis a fitting title for Sebastián Lelio’s latest film; some might consdier the protagonist a fantasy (i.e., not real) or think her head is in the clouds, but she’s definitely marked…

A Fantastic Woman [Una mujer fantástica]

(Chile 2017)

“The thing is, Orlando started feeling sick. And he died.” — Marina “When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing.” — Sonia

Whichever meaning of the word fantastic is employed, A Fantastic Womanis a fitting title for Sebastián Lelio’s latest film; some might consdier the protagonist a fantasy (i.e., not real) or think her head is in the clouds, but she’s definitely marked…

A Fantastic Woman [Una mujer fantástica]

(Chile 2017)

“The thing is, Orlando started feeling sick. And he died.” — Marina “When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing.” — Sonia

Whichever meaning of the word fantastic is employed, A Fantastic Womanis a fitting title for Sebastián Lelio’s latest film; some might consdier the protagonist a fantasy (i.e., not real) or think her head is in the clouds, but she’s definitely marked…

(USA 2017)

Newcomer Cory Finley’s nihilistic dark comedy Thoroughbredstells the story, as one of its promotional posters puts it, of good breeding gone bad. Two suburban Connecticut high school girls, misfit Amanda (Olivia Cooke) and go getter Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy), reconnect under the guise of tutoring. They were friends in grade school until Lily’s father died; now Amanda’s mother (Kaili…

2001: A Space Odyssey

(USA / UK 1968)

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

— HAL

I caught a 50th anniversary screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I’ve seen it before:

https://moviebloke.com/2016/02/26/2001-a-space-odyssey/

I’m moved no more nor no less. This film speaks for itself, and it says a lot.

149 minutes Rated G

(Music Box) A

URGH! A Music War

(UK 1982)

I really don’t expect Derek Burbidge’s rather pedestrian and no-frills URGH! A Music Warto move all that many people — only those who landed somewhere between puberty and college during the early Eighties. This movie, a paean to punk, reggae, and new wave bands, reads like a playlist from the early days of MTV. It’s comprised of nothing but live performances, starting and ending with…

URGH! A Music War

(UK 1982) I really don’t expect Derek Burbidge’s rather pedestrian and no-frills URGH! A Music Warto move all that many people — only those who landed somewhere between puberty and college during the early Eighties. This movie, a paean to punk, reggae, and new wave bands, reads like a playlist from the early days of MTV. It’s comprised of nothing but live performances, starting and ending with…

(USA 2018)

“The topic of today’s video is being yourself.”

“Growing up can be a little bit scary and weird.”

— Kayla Day

Eighth grade was the worst year of my life — I hated everything about it: my shitty peers, my changing body, the high school application process. I never looked back once I got out.

It’s probably no big shock then that my favorite movie taking on the horrors and inequities of…

(USA 1958)

We’ve seen Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece Vertigo before:

https://moviebloke.com/2016/02/19/vertigo/

This time, we saw it with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing along live — with Joshua Gersen conducting. In an outdoor pavilion. Even a group of overweight and overbearing suburban middle aged ladies whispering and giggling throughout it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Vertigois…

(Italy / France 2018)

Paolo Virzì’s last film, Like Crazy, won me over with its quirky lead characters, their wacky antics, and the surprisingly moving turn the story takes. His follow up, The Leisure Seeker, which also happens to be his first English language feature film, employs a similar template — Massachusetts golden girl Ella Spencer (Helen Mirren) has arranged a trip with her husband,…

The Brady Bunch Movie

(USA 1995)

Here’s the thing about The Brady Bunch: it’s complete fantasy rolled into eye candy. Who didn’t want to live in that house? Who wouldn’t kill Mrs. Beasley to take cousin Oliver’s place?

The 1990s spoof is brilliant:

https://moviebloke.com/2016/11/25/the-brady-bunch-movie/

I can’t resist. I mean, we meet the Dittmiers. And they suck! I love this movie, even if it’s total fluff. And even…

(UK 1934)

It’s not very often that I’m torn on a film, but Robert J. Flaherty’s pseudo documentary Man of Aranis one where I am. First the good news: from a technical standpoint, this is a visually captivating film; crammed with impossibly rich and downright dangerous shots of the treacherous North Atlantic, the blacks are as dark as squid ink, the whites are as shimmeringly luminous as Tijuana…

Vesyole Rebyata [Moscow Laughs] [Jolly Fellows]

(Soviet Union / Russia 1935)

It might seem strange to see a 1930s Soviet slapstick big band musical ostensibly made just for fun, but that’s what Grigoriy Aleksandrov’s Vesyole Rebyata [Весёлые ребята] [Moscow Laughs] [Jolly Fellows] is. Frankly, it is strange, or at least not anything I expected.

A sort of Depression Era communist Three’s Company, the humor here is crude: sex, mistaken identity,…