what i watched last week

The Night of the Hunter. I’d say this was unlike any movie you’ve ever seen, except 1) I haven’t seen every movie you’ve seen, and 2) there are times it reminds us of other films. Nonetheless, this unclassifiable movie, which was recently shown on Turner Classic Movies as part of their Halloween fest, is a horror film, an Expressionist classic, a Southern Gothic, a tale of a world gone evil told from the perspective of children … it’s about l-o-v-e and h-a-t-e, it’s To Kill a Mockingbird crossed with Picnic, except Boo Radley isn’t harmless, and William Holden has become Robert Mitchum … he doesn’t save the pretty blonde from her humdrum existence, he slits her throat and hides the body in the river. There’s Lillian Gish as Mitchum’s opposite, fighting for Good … there’s Charles Laughton, directing for the only time in his life (and demonstrating why that is a very sad fact). 10/10. #37 on the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They list of the top 1000 films of all time.

Changeling. At this point, reviews of Clint Eastwood movies write themselves. There is more than one kind of Eastwood review … there are people who think he is a great director, people who think he is a bad director, and people who don’t see what all the fuss is about. Whichever category you are in, I’m betting you’ve thought pretty much the same thing about every Clint Eastwood movie of the past couple of decades. “Like a good wine, the master only gets better as he gets older.” “Another dull paint-by-numbers snooze fest.” Or, in my case, “A decent movie, but fifty years from now, people are going to scratch their heads in befuddlement wondering why we thought this man was a great director.” Do I need to write my Eastwood review again? He directs like he acts, he’s Don Siegel reincarnated, he doesn’t do anything wrong because he doesn’t do anything, actors love him because he doesn’t do a lot of takes. Changeling struck me as better than his usual, but I doubt it would stand up to a second viewing, since the intriguing plot twists that carry the film forward would have no power once you knew they were coming. 7/10.