Steven Rubio's Online Life

film fatales #213: happening (audrey diwan, 2021)

Abortion is serious business, and a movie that features abortion better be good or it will outrage ... what a woman goes through deserves a powerful film. Of course, abortion is a crucial topic in the U.S. right now, and some movies, which occur in a time and/or place where abortions are hard to come by, really hit home. In Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020), the central character is only 17, and can't get an abortion in her state without parental consent, so she goes to New York. And the brilliant 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) takes place in Romania during the Ceaușescu era, where everyday life is oppressive.

Happening takes place in France in 1963, and the illegal status of abortion and the accompanying repression reflects our own times. The decision of the young student to have an abortion is honest and considered ... she isn't thoughtless, she is realistic. But the trauma is twofold, because abortion is a difficult decision and the procedures are risky (especially when you must go underground to get it done), and because of the social pressures on women to acquiesce to their situation as they are told to. Happening doesn't hold back ... the various attempts at abortion are grisly and extremely upsetting, and it's a bit hard to recommend the film to anyone sensitive to these things. But it's also honest and necessary, and it's a surprise that it wasn't submitted to the Oscars as the French submission. They sent Titane, another unsettling film that isn't as good as Happening. Titane was explicitly in the body horror genre ... in Happening, writer/directorAudrey Diwan manages to show how an unwanted pregnancy fits into that genre as well, almost accidentally.

This was the first time I saw Anamaria Vartolomei, and she is excellent. The legendary Sandrine Bonnaire turns up late in the film as an abortionist. It's always good to encounter new-to-me talents like Diwan and Vartolmei, even when the film is as disturbing as Happening.

 

music friday: 1998

Cher, "Believe". Cher discovers Auto-Tune.

Run-D.M.C., "Rock Box". One of the most important recordings in pop music history. Eddie Martinez on guitar, Professor Irwin Corey in the video.

Semisonic, "Closing Time".

geezer cinema: twisters (lee isaac chung, 2024)

I saw the original Twister, probably when it came out. It was fun, although honestly, the only thing I remember about it is the flying cow. Now, almost 30 years later, a sequel. Was it worth the wait?

Money talks. Twister made almost half-a-Billion dollars worldwide on a budget of under $100 Million. The only real question would seem to be, what took so long to put out a sequel? In 2024, the special effects are better, and Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones are 2024 equivalents of Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Twisters is a passable time-waster, but now that I've seen it, I'm not sure why I bothered. The action scenes were impressive, the character studies boring ... in other words, it's typical. People know in advance if they want to see it, and I suppose if they do, they won't be disappointed. But it's no match for Furiosa ... heck, I think Jason Statham's The Beekeeper was more fun. Director Lee Isaac Chung got a deserved Best Director Oscar nomination for Minari ... this is a step backwards.

 

undine (christian petzold, 2020)

A friend recommended this, and I came to it cold ... knew nothing about it, never seen any movies from director Christian Petzold, knew none of the actors. It's one of my favorite ways to watch a new-to-me film, but I think I might have needed some context.

Undines are water nymphs ... the little mermaid is an example ... and I'm not sure if Petzold embellished the legend or not, but the titular Undine in his movie (played by Paula Beer) has some specifics related to love with a human. None of it was very clear to me, which is where context might have helped. At the beginning of the movie, when a man is breaking off a relationship with Undine, she says that means she must kill him, as if that's something everyone knows. I just went with it, knowing from the start that I'd be in the dark about the fantasy elements.

And it was an intriguing watch, no matter what I was missing. Beer is excellent, and Petzold creates an atmosphere that is a good blend of reality and mythology. Undine's relationships with men are both romantic and mysterious, thanks to the underlying myth, and if I never quite got the idea, I was able to go with it anyway. Undine is the kind of movie that often bothers me, yet for some reason this time I bought into what I was watching.

music friday: 1997

Hey, I'm back! No comments this week, still working myself into shape.

Aqua, "Barbie Girl".

Hanson, "MMMBop".

The Notorious B.I.G., "Mo Money Mo Problems".

The Verve, "Bitter Sweet Symphony".

geezer cinema: didi (sean wang, 2024)

It was June 4. We went to a movie theater to see Furiosa. At the time, I wrote, "Due to my wife's current spate of chemo sessions, Geezer Cinema has been a secondary concern. This was the first time in nearly a month that we had a Geezer movie, and almost two months since we'd been to a theater." On June 19, I broke my ankle. We hadn't gone to a theater or had a Geezer Tuesday since Furiosa. Finally, two months, two weeks, and two days later, we went to a theater for Geezer Cinema #242: Didi.

The contrast between these two bookend movies couldn't be greater. Furiosa was an action-packed epic. Didi is a small indie film from Fremont, California, 30 or so miles from my house. It's a coming of age film from first-time director Sean Wang. Much of the cast is amateur, including many of the teenagers and Zhang Li Hua, who plays a grandmother in the movie and is Wang's actual grandmother. The pros include Izaac Wang as Chris (the titular character), who is very good, and the always magnificent Joan Chen as his mother. There is nothing new here, although giving us Asian-American characters is enlightening. But it's all well done. a promising beginning for Sean Wang, and a worthy return to Geezer Cinema for us.

 

la piscine (jacques deray, 1969)

Seemed like I should watch an Alain Delon movie as a tribute to the actor, who died yesterday. During my extended stay in the bedroom, recovering from my broken ankle, I watched a lot of movies I'd seen before, and I wanted to avoid that as I moved upstairs to watch the big screen TV for the first time in months. I've seen some of his films ... loved The Leopard, Le Samourai is also excellent, not to mention Purple Noon and Le Cercle Rouge. I decided on La Piscine (in English, The Swimming Pool).

Besides his other qualities, Alain Delon brings eye candy to the screen. And he is joined by some pretty sweet co-stars: Romy Schneider had been partners with Delon for several years, although they had separated, Maurice Ronet wasn't exactly shabby, and there was Jane Birkin to round things out. La Piscine is smoldering from the start ... Delon and Schneider still had great screen chemistry. The appearance of the other two stars setup a steamy who-will-and-with-whom plot. Jacques Deray, though, lets the chemistry of his actors do all the heavy lifting, so the film is actually a bit boring as it meanders its way to a thriller ending.

Ultimately, I don't think La Piscine makes any large statements ... not sure that was intended, to be honest. None of the characters is particularly likable or the opposite, they are just well-off and better-looking people than the rest of us.

hello computer, i missed you

This is my first post from the computer in almost two months.

pulp fiction (quentin tarantino, 1994)

I have no problem saying Quentin Tarantino is one of his generation's finest directors. His influence on other film makers is not always positive ... the cinema is filled with Tarantino wannabes who aren't as skilled as he in writing screenplays and end up copying his worst habits (and they definitely exist). Tarantino is not flawless, and in fact it's hard to imagine what a flawless Tarantino movie would look like. He is a master of excess, so even the things he does well are often done too much.

I don't think he has ever made a completely excellent movie. But he comes close more often than most other directors. For me, his two best pictures are Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction. If I had to pick one I'd go with Jackie Brown, thanks to the way he allows Pam Grier to shine. But Pulp Fiction is the more dazzling of the two, and if I was to use just one movie that personifies Tarantino's qualities, this would be my choice.

The intricate timeline shifting is so well integrated that we aren't confused. The casting is nearly perfect (Tarantino himself is usually the weak link in his films). I imagine most actors would love to wrap their talents around his dialogue. The violence, when it appears, doesn't feel as gleeful as it did in Reservoir Dogs.

But it comes down to the dialogue in the end. Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have conversations so loopy that it's almost a disappointment when they stop to actually perform some action.

Ultimately, I think Pulp Fiction is a triumph of style over substance, a movie that like so much of Tarantino's work feels more knowing about movies and pop culture than it does about actual life. More than any other film, though, I forgive him here.

the lady from shanghai (orson welles, 1947)

It can't be said that Orson Welles is the greatest movie director of all time, although the evidence in his favor is there. Citizen Kane is his towering achievement, and that's not his only great film ... I'm partial to Touch of Evil, and The Magnificent Ambersons deserves our attention. But too many of his films suffer from studio interference and the impatience of Welles (the two are not unconnected), leaving a career that is equal parts brilliance and what-if.

Some people think The Lady from Shanghai is one of Welles' classics. Scene by scene, it is fascinating, and I can imagine a course on film spending weeks on this movie, examining each shot in detail to ascertain the touch of the master. And the ending in the house of mirrors fun house is iconic.

But taken as a whole, I think The Lady from Shanghai is a what-if. Blame it on the studio if you want, but this movie is a mess, with a plot that might have been clear in Orson's mind at some point, but which falls apart the minute you think about it. It is an exemplar of The Sum Is Less Than the Whole. It's great fun to watch, to be sure. But it's no Touch of Evil.

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