Week #11. Hip hip hooray. Big week. 

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) dir. Brett Ratner
14/05/16

A giant flaming, unrestrained mess of epic proportions; destroys all sense of faith I had in the X-Men saga built by the previous two films, and presents a genuinely uninspired recycling of superhero trash. I watched this almost a week ago and am already struggling to remember the majority of what happened. It’s kinda that bad. ★½

Bad Boys (1995) dir. Michael Bay
14/05/16

Written for Letterboxd: 

There are glimmers of formal grandeur from Bay here and there, which take the form of montage-y quick cut editing techniques (presenting itself more spatially coherent than, say, Taken 3; not that that task seems entirely difficult), a glorious and indeed flashy colour palette (in many ways mirroring something of a domesticated Fury Road) and I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t well directed at many, many points. It obviously owes this advantage to being his feature debut (before reaching the point where Revenge of the Fallen became a good idea) but blooming chemistry between Smith and Lawrence can only go so far and the scoff-worthy, culturally invisible dialogue is far too plenty, if not amusing. Also, if the title is anything to go by, Lawrence definitely is bold, varsity-style B A D at explaining literally everything. Never let that man attempt to speak again. Kinda like a Mann without his inherent ‘Manness’, something he would go on to arouse further in 13 Hours, but here there is no lonely, brooding figure at the centre; instead we are blessed only a hail of sweat, gunfire and pyromaniacs. The opening third had me ready to king Bay for such an achievement (the pre-title confrontation sold me) but, in classic Bay style, glaring superficiality hauls itself to the film’s forefront–Ebert’s review unsuspectingly asked “Whom do they make these movies for?” to which Bay in the prime of his career suggested “…for teenage boys. Oh dear, what a crime.”–and at 19 I still fit this category and undeniably enjoyed this beautiful monster. I’m a sucker for slo-mo. ★★★½

Blue Ruin (2013) dir. Jeremy Saulnier 
15/05/16

Written for Letterboxd: 

Bookended by its highest notes and packaged with enough vengeful expectation head-flips (from plot to plot points throughout) to dizzy even the most familiar with the genre, this is a silky smooth revenge flick-turned-thriller which persists to remain honestly humane for a film of its classification. Macon Blair is rare talent (can rock a beard). Everything about this makes me excited for Green Room (and potentially other movies of the rainbow?). ★★★½

Green Room (2016) dir. Jeremy Saulnier
16/05/16

The cinematic equivalent of someone shouting “HOLY FUCK” at the top of their lungs for 95 minutes. One of the few films I’ve ever been physically repulsed by, and deafeningly engaging through its repulsion. Probably, definitely, a masterpiece. ★★★★½

Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972) dir. Werner Herzog
16/05/16
rewatch

Saw this bad boy on a slightly water-damaged 35mm print, which hardly inhibited the experience; rather, it worked to extend the film’s sense of dread and hopelessness, a constant, calculated static searing the souls of the wanderers. Among the best films with IMDb trivia at hand:

• This film, as well as several other early films by Werner Herzog, were shot on a 35mm camera that he stole as a young man from the Munich Film School.
• During a particularly rowdy night of production, Klaus Kinski repeatedly fired a Winchester rifle into an occupied tent. One of the bullets took the tip of an unnamed extra’s finger off. Werner Herzog immediately confiscated the weapon and it remains his property to this day.
• According to director Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski threatened to abandon the film entirely at one point during the shooting. Herzog says he threatened to kill Kinski and then turn the gun on himself if Kinski left.
• Werner Herzog claims to have written the screenplay in two and a half days. He wrote a good portion of it while traveling with his soccer team, during games and on bus rides. Following one game, the team was very drunk, and the player seated behind Herzog vomited on his typewriter, ruining many pages of the script. Herzog was unable to salvage the pages, and tossed them out the window. He was also unable to recall what he’d written on them.
• The complete crew comprised only eight people.
• During one scene set in a native village, Klaus Kinski hits one of the crewmen over the head with his sword. The blow nearly killed the man, and only his helmet saved his life.
• Werner Herzog was attacked by fire ants when he was chopping a tree branch with his machete. ★★★★½

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) dir. Werner Herzog
16/05/16

Had lukewarm feelings about this one until further discussion following the film. Herzog is still a mystery to me, one I owe myself to attempt to unravel (unsure at this point whether I prefer him as a fiction or documentary filmmaker, through the latter definitely gives greater depth to the former). Here, in the absurdity of Herzog’s fictional cinema, Kaspar Hauser is set free from his long and secluded life and is forced to reconcile with those who exist in the established society in Nuremberg in 1828. With this he deconstructs (and in some ways ridicules) the norms of the culture, from mathematics to art to the role of women in the 19th century (“What are women good for?… Can you tell me that, Katy? Women are not good for anything but sitting still!”). Tragedy I am willing to revisit. ★★★½

If Herzog’s life isn’t of perplexing intrigue to you, then I don’t know what else would be:

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) dir. Ana Lily Amirpour
18/05/16

Written for Letterboxd: 

A film of an assemblance of genres, and out this Amirpour gives birth to a a wonderland rich in allusion and homage to a plenitude of things; it builds from the American indie ‘cool’ defined through the works of Jarmusch (I can’t be alone in thinking that ‘The Girl’ strikes a particular resemblance to a young Winona Ryder in Night on Earth; plus, this comes off the back of Jarmusch’s latest poetic entry into the ‘new’ vampire era) and Hartley, and lends formal elements here and there from the Western, namely the characteristic tunes and lone character archetype (and further, evoking a James Dean figure in its lead). Above its fleeting central romance (kinda perfect), the film weaves its way around the horror division with its approach to lighting and framing, among other stylistic components (her use of shallow and deep focus particularly tickled my fancy–something to look into). Here, Amirpour plays explicity with iconography of the traditional draped cloak of vampiric disposition with traditional woman’s headdress, and through the intertwining of the chador with that of the cape through the characterisation of the film’s protagonist (the lovable, untitled vampire) it flips its self-created and highly secluded society on its head. In Bad City, the women are truly those who hold the control, who strike the fear down the backs of those who dare to act as a continuation of evil. Still currently in processing, and a second (and third, and fourth, etc.–for my sheer pleasure) viewing is necessary to touch on all that is bubbling underneath the ethereal, illusory and sensational surface. A film of deception. ★★★★½

Shadow Panic (1989) dir. Margot Nash
18/05/16

The Cinematheque this week was joined by Australian maverick filmmaker Margot Nash, who debuted her latest film The Silences and did a little Q&A on the side. Preceding that, one of her few short films was show (on celluloid, glorious as usual) which set the bar for her unusual filmic talent, tableaux compositions and precise editing on show.

The Silences (2015) dir. Margot Nash
18/05/16

Less of a ‘film’ film, more of a deeply personal and poignant video essay (/documentary?), though Nash utilises her own story through her own editing process (fairly basic, though not detrimental in a film like this) and lays the narration in her own voice, allowing for a truthful examination of past truths and sacred family relations. Deeply sad, moving and raw. Makes me love my family.

Vacant Possession (1995) dir. Margot Nash
18/05/16

The kinda film that makes you sad the director didn’t more aggressively pursue fictional cinema. Early work from master Australian-born cinematographer Dion Beebe (Collateral, Miami Vice, Edge of Tomorrow) shines strong, and the central narrative (penned by Nash) evokes a Lynchian temperament with the intertwining of past and present through enveloping flashbacks. ★★★

 

exhales