Directed by Noah Baumbach Written by Noah Baumbach
The review:
In 2015, Noah Baumbach’s Mistress Americawould give us a screwball comedy; 18 years before that film Baumbach gave us a glimmer of coming attractions with an amusing tale of a jealous boyfriend who joins a therapy group to learn more about his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.* As with most Baumbach films, the people on screen aren’t ones you want to hang out with, but boy howdy are they interesting.** As the situation becomes more complex and the tension builds, Eric Stoltz, Annabella Sciorra, and Carlos Jacott*** really turn up the humor.
The verdict: Good!
Cost: Free via Kanopy, Multnomah County Library’s Streaming Service Where watched: at home
*I know! Can you imagine? And there’s the further complication that he pretends to be his best friend so as to remain anonymous. **Unlinke most other Baumbach films, this also includes a cast member who is a person of color. ***Also fun: Peter Bogdanovich, director of a lot of really good films, plays the group therapist.
Questions:
Joining group therapy to get details on your girlfriends ex, how shady is that on a 1–10 scale?
What’s your favorite Eric Stolz film?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
On The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance marquee that appears in the film, a quote (“a classic”) is attributed to G. Brown. The critic in question is Georgia Brown, famed Village Voice film critic and mother of writer/director Noah Baumbach.
Directed by Dee Rees Written by Marco Villalobos, Dee Rees
The review:
This was the kind of subpar movie where even analyzing what went wrong didn’t make it more fun. I think ultimately, not enough was revealed to the viewer to hook them in* and what results is 110 minutes of not-quite getting it and 5 minutes at the end where things are revealed. I also found the terse speech patterns of Anne Hathaway’s character to detract from, rather than add to, the film.
The verdict: Skip
Cost: Netflix monthly fee $8.99 Where watched: at home
Movies that capture transition periods are my favorite, especially of those that capture transitions around college,* so I greatly enjoyed watching Alex Malmquist (Cooper Raiff) struggle during his freshman year. This film is great at capturing the discomfort of not connecting,** and echoes a bit of Before Sunrise, though it also lingers a little too long in the middle. I’m also not thrilled with the ending, but enjoyed the performances*** enough to make it worth watching, though I do think the title could have been better chosen.****
The verdict: Good
Cost: $6.99 via Google Play Where watched: at home
*Either into college or out of college. I think those times, which generally feature the loss of established support networks, leave a lot of room for drama. **The conversations Raiff had with his stuffed animal were both amusing and painful to watch. ***Dylan Gelula is great as the RA that Cooper spends the night with. Logan Miller (whom I last saw in Love, Simon) continues his mostly odious streak as Sam, Alex’s roommate. ****The name comes from a house where a party is held. The house is named Shithouse. The scenes spent at the house were few, and I didn’t feel like the title extrapolated to the rest of the movie in a way that made it worth its use of a swear.
Questions:
College freshmen with full beards, do they exist? Did Cooper Raiff’s facial hair make him seem much older than a freshman?
Did anything about this movie seem similar to a college experience you had?
Depictions of Rez Life are rare in film, and it’s saying something that a Chinese director, not an American, was the person who made this film about Johnny and Jashaun Winter and their life on the Pine Ridge Reservation.* This is a Wandering Through sort of film and there’s much to observe, though there is a bit of plot holding everything together.** This film showed depressing and hopeful aspects of a community that seems to exist in America without much notice by the general public.
The verdict: Good
Cost: Free via Kanopy, the library’s free streaming service. Where watched: at home
*I was first introduced to Zhao with the 2018’s excellent The Rider, which also takes place on Pine Ridge. **As with The Rider, the plot is not super important. Zhao is great at holding your attention.
Questions:
What would life on the Rez look like if a billion promises hadn’t been broken?
What do you think it would take to have a regular pipeline of Indian-produced films?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
On a DVD extra, director Chloé Zhao said of the tight budget, light plotting, and neo-realist style casting, “We’re capturing truth—because truth is the only thing we can afford.” The production used mostly local residents as actors, and, according to Zhao, 80% of the story depicted is true to the actual life of the young man playing Johnny Winters (John Reddy). The house that Winters lives in is the house that Reddy lived in, and Reddy, also one of twenty-five children to one father, has many of his real family members playing members of his family. In fact, the man shown delivering the eulogy for Winters’ father is Reddy’s actual father.
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur Written by Aaron Kandell, Jordan Kandell, and David Brandson Smith
The review:
I think one has to be in a certain mood to watch survival-at-sea-type films, and if you are anywhere near such a mood, please find time for Adrift which is not only a solid entry into the genre, but a great depiction of a woman getting things done.* I thought the back-and-forth structure worked well for the film’s general tension—there was both respite and insight in the flashbacks and I liked how they were often linked to the present. Claflin is good, and Woodley is her usual excellent self, so there’s no reason not to find and watch this film of survival.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home
This article wondering where all the female-centric survival films are
Further sentences:
*That we don’t have a better pipeline to these types of films is frustrating. I was intrigued by the trailer but did not prioritize this film for a few years. Part of it was not being in an ocean survival mood, but I wonder if I would have been quicker on the draw if I knew how much woman power this film has?
Questions:
How would you have cut the trailer to better bring out this story?
What’s your favorite Shailene Woodley role?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
According to Shailene Woodley, there were times on the open sea when, except for the director and cinematographer, everybody was throwing up overboard due to severe seasickness.
(I’ve never wanted to be an actor, and for sure I’ve never wanted to film a movie on open water.)
Directed by Ben Wheatley Written by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapenel, Anna Waterhouse
The review:
While this new version of Rebecca brings us the story of the second Mrs. de Winter in Technicolor and with a bigger budget* than its predecessor, it manages to drag, even though its runtime is eight minutes shorter.** I appreciate Kristin Scott Thomas’s take on housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, but it wasn’t as effective as Judith Anderson whose performance made the 1940’s version so enjoyable. Overall, the kind of newer version that is fine, especially if you haven’t seen the previous version, and perhaps it will encourage people to seek out Hitchcock’s classic.***
The verdict: Good
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home
*So much lingering on vast vistas! Perhaps that’s what made it seem long. **On the plus side, though Maxim’s proposal retains its put down, Lily James has a bit more agency as the second Mrs. de Winter, especially near the end of the film. ***Which, if your library doesn’t have it, is a little hard to find. This needs to pop up on streaming tout suite!
Questions:
What’s your Rebecca pleasure? 1940 or 2020?
Would you like to live in the suite of rooms that were Rebecca’s?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
The car is a 1937 Bentley.
I got some great Cruella de Ville vibes from the driving scenes.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison
The review:
Rebecca has the usual problems one runs into with a film older than my social-security-collecting parents,* but that shouldn’t keep you from watching it. It’s a whole atmosphere, from the first line** to the last, iconic image, and so much of what’s fun about the atmosphere is the head housekeeper stink-eye provided by Judith Anderson. This is a great intro to Hitchcock, both for the universality of feeling being in over one’s head and for the Hitchcock camera angles.
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: Free via DVD copy from the Multnomah County Library. That copy kept freezing, so I also watched part of it via TV Time, the Roku channel that shows old movies and has commercials. Then the internet dropped out, so I went back to the DVD. It was a journey. Where watched: at home
*Older man treating the woman he loves like a child, the woman in question wandering through her life, the couple “falling in love” in the time it takes a rich lady to recover from pneumonia, the proposal that was a put down, etc. The infantilization of women in classic films is sometimes hard to take. **”Last night, I dremt I went to Manderley again” gave me chills and when paired with the visual and the distant tone in Joan Fontaine’s voice throughout the monologue, propels this first line right to the same territory as: “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”*** ***Goodfellas. AFI has neither of these quotes on its list of top 100 movie quotes, but what do they know?
Questions:
What would your reaction have been, coming home to Manderly?
It’s weird that there aren’t any titles used, eh? Like is he a lord, or a commoner from a very rich family?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
The first movie that Sir Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood, and the only one that won a Best Picture Oscar. Although it won Best Picture, the Best Director Award that year went to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
For those interested, back in the 90s, I watched an interesting documentary called Hitchcock, Selznick and the End of Hollywood. I really liked the comparison between the two men and it’s worth searching out. It seems to be an episode of American Masters.
Full opening quote: (Though more fun to watch. I’ve got it queued up here.)
Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter for the way was barred to me.
Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden, the supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long tenacious fingers, on and on while the poor thread that had once been our drive.
And finally, there was Manderley. Manderley, secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows.
And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell, with no whisper of a past about its staring walls. We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams, I do go back to the strange days of my life which began for me in the south of France…
It’s baby boomer nostalgia written and directed by our favorite walking and talking baby boomer: Aaron Sorkin.* But this is baby boomer nostalgia that all generations should catch up with because holy cow, the parallels with today. This film has a tight script,** great performances,*** and manages to balance ten-plus main characters in ways that let them have their moments.****
The verdict: Recommended
Cost: Netflix monthly fee ($8.99) Where watched: at home
Consider also watching:
Inherit the Wind
Primal Fear
12 Angry Men
Anatomy of a Murder (interesting just to compare then and now)
*You know, walking and talking like in The West Wing. I had hoped that Sorkin was born after 1965 so I could have said: …baby boomer nostalgia written by everyone’s favorite Gen Xer that includes political parallels that will seem familiar to the millennials and Gen Z-ers. But alas. Sorkin was born in 1961 and he’s too old to be a Gen Xer, so no dice with that sentence. **The intro of the many players is handled in a robust and amusing fashion. ***Tom Hayden and Abbie Hoffman are the main players, and to my great surprise Hoffman was played by Sacha Baron Cohen. I had no idea! ****I liked seeing the different approach to protesting that the various groups brought. It’s common to hear about “the protesters” during the 60s, but they didn’t act as one body.
Questions:
What part of this film reminded you of today?
Which of the seven (eight) did you identify with most?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
Sacha Baron Cohen admitted he was terrified of having to do an American accent for the film. He had used a few different variations of the accent before for comedic reasons, but never for a dramatic role. He knew Abbie Hoffman had a unique voice, having a Massachusetts accent but also having gone to school in California, and was worried he would “sound wrong.” Aaron Sorkin had to reassure him that the role was “not an impersonation, but an interpretation,” which Baron Cohen claimed did not help much.
Directed by Elaine Constantine Written by Elaine Constantine
The review:
Northern Soul is a fine niche* coming-of-age movie from the usual male point of view. I loved the setting and all of the grimy details, especially the intersection of drug use and the dance scene.** While it follows the usual coming of age/drug use trajectories, the enthusiasm for Northern Soul music makes this a fun watch.
The verdict: Good
Cost: free via Hoopla, one of Multnomah County Library’s streaming services. Where watched: at home
*The niche in question is Northern Soul music which Wikipedia tells me is “a music and dance movement that emerged in Northern England and the English Midlands in the late 1960’s from the British mod scene, based on a particular style of black American soul music…with a heavy beat and fast tempo.” You can read more here, including the information about how the lesser or unknown tracks were the most popular Northern Soul music. A plot point hinges around this. **At times, it seemed that the big pops of color were the uppers the characters were taking.
Questions:
What music was your coming of age music?
Would you have been into Northern Soul in the early 1970s? (Or were you?)
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
Was originally only meant to be playing in five screens across the UK but due to high demand it got a blanket release of over 160 screens
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Evan Hunter
The review:
I’m gonna say right off that this movie was unsatisfying because it doesn’t have an end, which is not to say that it wasn’t very satisfying all the way up until the point were there wasn’t an end.* This satisfaction comes despite the fact that every single person in the film makes dumb choices.** While the Rod Taylor/Tippi Hedren relationship was something I’m chalking up to stress induced relationship building,*** it was even more fun to see various other townspeople’s reactions to the onslaught.****
The verdict: Good
Cost: Free due to donated ticket. It would have been $35 for the two of us. Where watched: at Zidell Yards as part of Cinema Unbound’s pop-up drive-in series.
*While all the mayhem was happening, I was puzzling through why this thing might occur. That I never found out bugged me. Lazy writing!!! **I’m going to chalk this up to the fact that no one in the film had seen the many horror film analysis videos and movies that have proliferated since the mid-90s. So of course they would go outside (where the birds are) when they could stay where the birds weren’t currently, which was inside. (Most of the time. Those birds were pretty inventive about getting into buildings.) ***I mean really, why are they in love already? ****The scene at the restaurant was great!
Questions:
If birds were attacking your town, what would be your plan of action?
What do you think made those birds so vengeful?
Favorite IMDB trivia item:
The schoolhouse in Bodega, California has been known to be haunted. According to Tippi Hedren, the entire cast was spooked to be there. She also mentioned how she had the feeling while there that “the building was immensely populated, but there was nobody there.” When Sir Alfred Hitchcock was told about the schoolhouse being haunted, according to Hedren, he was even more encouraged to film there.
