ENDIES PART II: Movies
Okay, Endies part 2 (maybe final part?)
Movies
I watched 70+ movies this year, and I’m not gonna cover all of them. Just the top 5. Which is in itself going to be difficult, I think. So here we go:
(in no particular order)
1. One Battle After Another - What a blast. Just nearly three hours of pulse-pounding (yet lyrical) tension. Everyone is firing on all cylinders here. Tons of great sequences: the tenement, the church, the car chase. Benicio del Toro is a particular standout as the levelheaded sensei to DiCaprio’s frantic father on the run. Sean Penn turns in maybe the performance of his late career as an absolute sicko jarhead. And the entire thing is anchored by the quiet dignity of Chase Infiniti as DiCaprio’s daughter Willa. If you haven’t seen it, run and stream it. (Though its definitely meant to be seen on a massive screen, everything is HUGE.)
2. Dr. T and the Women - In a completely different direction, though existing in a similarly near magical realist space, this movie is a hoot. Directed by one of my favorite directors, Robert Altman, he utilizes his overlapping dialogue to near musical effect here, especially in a recurring sequence in Dr. T’s waiting room, where a horde of busybody Texas housewives chatter and swirl like piranhas. A candy-colored phantasmagoria of fizzy dialogue, soapy drama, and one incredibly beleaguered father (an absolutely dashing Richard Gere). I watched this entire movie with a big smile on my face.
3. Body Double - This was an early one, I watched it in January of this year, so the details are a little fuzzy in my head, though I’ve thought about the sequence where a music video porn shoot segues back into the film nearly once a month since. A dizzying Brian DePalma joint, this sucker packs twist after twist into its neon-lit frames, serving up an 80’s-soaked redo of Rear Window absolutely brimming with coolness. This felt like a touchstone for last year’s The Substance, with its candy-colored Hollywood boiling with darkness under the surface, and its campy pulp sensibilities when the blood starts flowing. An absolute banger of a film.
4. Friday the 13th Part IV - So this October, my partner and I watched all of the Friday the 13th films (it took us until November, actually). I’ll tell you right now, there may not be a more uneven franchise out there. Some of them really sucked butt (I’m looking at you Part V and Jason Takes Manhattan) but some of them, like Part IV touched on the sublime. A bit of a mashup between the Goonies and a traditional Friday the 13th film, this one features Corey Feldman (of Stand By Me, the classic Stephen King kids-on-an-adventure movie) as a little weirdo obsessed with (what else?) horror movie make-up! He has a weird connection to Jason and USES HIS FX MAKEUP TO DEFEAT HIM. Crazy stuff. The tone of this one is great though, with the lighting a particular standout, and the layout of the two houses being particularly legible in the later sequences when Jason goes on his rampage. Its a movie where a Friday the 13th movie in toto happens in the first 30 minutes, and then we spend the rest of the movie dealing with the fallout. If you’re going to watch one, watch this one.
5. Deep End - A weird coming-of-age doodle by Jerzy Skolimowski, I caught this one on the Criterion app. Its a strange dark comedy set in a bathhouse (not that kind) in 1970s London, where a shitty little kid gets a job as a towel boy and discovers a lot about sexuality and himself. There’s an older girl he’s infatuated with, creepy older women who try to get him to pay them extra attention, and a lot of strangeness. The soundtrack by Cat Stevens sets a very particular chill vibe that takes a bit of the bite out of what might have been a more uncomfortable film (not a bad thing!). I don’t want to spoil anything, especially the bananas ending, so go watch it.
Honorable Mentions:
The French Connection
Cruising
Sisters
Hundreds of Beavers
The Lion in Winter