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the road home (zhang yimou, 1999)

This is the third bonus film I have watched in "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2024-25", a "33-week-long community challenge" where "you must watch one previously unseen film that fits the criteria of the theme for the week." This is the 10th annual challenge, and my sixth time participating (previous years can be found at "2019-20", "2020-21", "2021-22", "2022-23", and 2023-24). Bonus Week 3 is called "Best Movies You've Never Seen Week":

One of the main goals of the Letterboxd Season Challenge from the very beginning has been to encourage film-lovers to watch movies that would have never appeared on their radar otherwise. The film critics, Leonard Maltin and Richard Crouse, as well as LSC's first host Monsieur Flynn, have published lists of the best movies they think are underseen by the general movie-going public. This theme, centered on helping film-lovers discover hidden gems, appeared on the first five LSCs and is back as a special bonus theme for LSC's 10th anniversary!

This bonus challenge is to watch one of the Best Movies Never Seen from Leonard MatlinRichard Crouse, or one of Monsieur Flynn's two lists here and here.

It's not hard to see why The Road Home has its champions. Zhang Yimou is a highly regarded Chinese director, and the film introduces Zhang Ziyi, the beautiful, award-winning actress who has gone to appear in everything from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Rush Hour 2 to the 2019 Godzilla movie. But the story is no more than unobjectionable ... if it was made in the U.S. it could make a nice Hallmark movie. An elderly woman's husband dies, and in flashbacks we see how the couple met. It's not a meet-cute rom-com ... it's not a comedy at all. But while Zhang works hard to complicate things with the flashbacks and the switches between color and B&W, the tale is ultimately simple. The Road Home is an easy watch, and it's over in 89 minutes. But when I see a new-to-me hidden gem, I'm hoping for more than a pleasant time waster.


host (rob savage, 2020)

This is the ninth film I have watched in "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2024-25", a "33-week-long community challenge" where "you must watch one previously unseen film that fits the criteria of the theme for the week." This is the 10th annual challenge, and my sixth time participating (previous years can be found at "2019-20", "2020-21", "2021-22", "2022-23", and 2023-24). Week 9 is called "Found Footage Week":

Popularized at the turn of the century with The Blair Witch Project, found footage is a genre/style with much older roots than you might expect. In literature we have a "found letters" or "found diary" form in the epistolary novel, which dates back to at least 1684 with Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, and horror novels have used the technique from Frankenstein to Dracula to Carrie. The first found footage movie was Shirley Clarke's The Connection from 1961, and Cannibal Holocaust brought the style to horror films in 1980. With low production costs, the potential profit margins are huge, as evidenced by the explosion that followed Blair Witch, most notably the Paranormal Activity franchise. The oft-maligned style spans all genres, from superhero sci-fi to comedy to more recent "screenlife" thrillers where the footage is on computer screens. What will we find this week? This is a fairly exhaustive list.

This week's challenge is to watch a previously unseen found footage film.

Whoa!

Host is an example of a movie where the less you know going in, the better, so stop reading if you haven't seen it. Hell, I'd never even heard of it, much less knew what it was about. I figured at best it would be OK-not-awful, like Smile, which was better than I expected. Well, Host was better than I expected. If The Babadook is the standard bearer for recent horror, Host is its equal, albeit in a different way.

Both films are more than simply scary. The Babadook is a crucial film about grief (and is scary as shit), Host is about the impact of social media (and is scary as shit). I'd say The Babadook has more depth, but Host has a lot to say without drawing attention to its arguments.

Host was made during the pandemic quarantine, and Rob Savage used the opportunity in a smart fashion. The entire movie takes place on Zoom ... all of the actors were in different places during filming, shooting their own footage with iPhones taped to their laptops, Savage himself directed from another location. The scenario is that a group of friends decide to have a seance via Zoom.

There is a reason this feature film is only 57 minutes long, and I'll avoid at least one spoiler by letting you figure out how the plot makes this necessary. Essentially, Host is just a scary movie, effective, a good scary movie, but even with the novel production, I don't know if I'd go further than that. Except Savage is really effective, and the setting invites post-mortem thinking about social media that is a little bit deeper than what you usually get after a good horror movie.

So consider this a big thumbs up. But if you are easily scared, avoid Host.


the spy who loved me (lewis gilbert, 1977)

Here it is, the pinnacle of the Roger Moore Era of James Bond movies. It's a good movie, and I don't mean that in a disparaging way. But at this point, it's hard not to think about how Bond was of his time, and how each generation had to come up with its own version. Moore seems like the worst Bond (except for those who grew up on him ... to them, Roger Moore is 007), but that wasn't how he was seen in 1977. He wasn't Sean Connery, but we didn't know how Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or Daniel Craig would turn out. For that matter, we didn't know how the next four Moore Bonds would turn out. In fact, things went downhill after The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moore's reputation in the end is of a guy who got old and stuck around too long. Here, Moore was a fit 50, believable in the part. A View to a Kill was 8 years later, and it showed on Moore.

So let's remember him at his best.


the lord of the rings: the two towers (peter jackson, 2002)

I revisit this trilogy on occasion ... I think this is my third time, but it's been a dozen years since I watched The Fellowship of the Ring, so I'm not exactly in a hurry. I came to the films as a fan of Peter Jackson, and have still never read any of the books. I can't say I was surprised by how much I love that movie ... I always liked it a lot, but the last time I saw it, I recognized it for the classic it is:

The Fellowship of the Ring is grand entertainment, made on a large scale but with time and room for real characters of depth that we come to care about deeply. In most ways, I am not the audience for these films. I never read Tolkien, and am not a fan of the genre. On the other hand, I’ve been a fan of Peter Jackson since his splatter-core beginnings with Bad Taste and Dead Alive.... It holds up marvelously; it’s better than I had remembered.

Jackson brings a loving understanding to the material, so that I imagine fans of the books also became fans of the movies. But he also reaches out to people like myself, clueless about the books and wary of twee fantasies about lovable munchkins. Yes, when we meet the hobbits, they are twee and innocent and lovable. But the story carries some of them (Frodo, most obviously) far beyond the shire, literally and figuratively, and it is then that Jackson begins to make a believer out of me. (Again noting that Tolkien might have pulled off this feat with the originals, but I don’t know them.) The evil forces are truly frightening … you never get the feeling you’re just watching a big-scale version of Dungeons and Dragons. Jackson is willing to pile on the gore … if he is several levels below his splatter movies in this regard, he nonetheless pushes the limit of the PG-13 rating. This matter not because Gore Is Good, but because the violence is part of what makes the evil terrifying and shows the dangers the Fellowship will face.

There is also a perfect blend of the human and the mystical.... This blend is reflected in the entire film, which easily moves from small moments to large ones, from the simple effect of an actor like Ian McKellen enjoying his role to the magical CGI that makes the more miraculous parts of the journey believable.

I quote myself at some length because the above is also true for The Two Towers, which I previously thought was the lesser of the trilogy. It makes sense that my reaction to the two films is the same, because Jackson made all of the movies as, in essence, one movie. So I have nothing new to say here, but once again, this movie is better than I ever remembered it. #179 on the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They list of the top 1000 films of the 21st century.

It's been more than 20 years, and it's worth remembering that these films made Viggo Mortensen an international star. He is my favorite in the Rings movies, which is partly because I like the character. But Mortensen had been in movies for more than 15 years prior to the trilogy, and he's had some remarkable performances in the ensuing years, including the David Cronenberg films Eastern Promises and especially A History of Violence. Plus he was William S. Burroughs in On the Road, which probably matters more to me than most people.

The Battle of Helm's Deep is one of the more praised battle scenes in movie history. Here is the beginning:

One last addendum. I sometimes waste YouTube time checking out multi-lingual actors who surprise me with their skills. Mortensen is one of the true kings of this "genre" ... there are videos of him speaking 6, 7, 9 languages. Far as I can tell, none tops this one:


music friday: matthew sweet

A couple of songs from early in Sweet's career. First, "Girlfriend", with Robert Quine on guitar:

My favorite Matthew Sweet song, "Sick of Myself", with Richard Lloyd on guitar:

From 2006-2013, he made three covers albums with Susanna Hoffs.

The following appeared on a Gofundme page a couple of days ago:

Matthew Sweet, our longtime inspiration and dear friend, suffered a debilitating stroke this past week in Toronto while in the early days of a national tour. He has been unexpectedly and tragically forced off the road and onto a long, uncertain path to recovery. We are asking for financial help in this difficult time from his family, friends, and fans. Without insurance or touring income, Matthew faces an enormous financial burden.
 
The doctors and hospital care in Toronto were instrumental in saving Matthew's life, but health care is not free for Americans in Canada. He must now be flown back to the States on an ambulance transport plane with medical staff on board, to a specialized rehabilitation center, where he will receive around-the-clock care and therapy for six weeks. He will then require months of treatment and rehabilitation that we hope will lead to a full recovery. Needless to say, the costs for all of this treatment will be overwhelming. We anticipate a total close to a quarter of a million dollars. Your thoughts, love, and support will mean the world to him. But please donate financially if you possibly can. Matthew will be forever grateful to you.
 
For those who do not know Matthew personally, you are probably familiar with his music. Matthew Sweet emerged from the 80's Athens, Georgia music scene and became a leading figure of the power pop revival in the 90's with the release of his album “Girlfriend” in 1991. The songs "Girlfriend" and "I've Been Waiting" became fan favorites. His next two records, “Altered Beast” (1993) and “100% Fun” (1995) included the popular songs, "Time Capsule" and "Sick of Myself."
 
Here is a link, if you can donate:
 

gaza: worse and worse

I give up on my Facebook friends. Every day my timeline is filled with anti-Trump and pro-Harris/Walz posts, along with messages about how democracy is on the line. These posts are often accompanied by multiple "likes" and positive comments. I regularly post videos about Gaza, which are usually ignored. One rare comment said, "Rescue the Republic first, and we will have the opportunity to adjust policies." As I replied at the time, "I see no evidence that the ruling Dems want to adjust policies, now or later.... If they lose Michigan, centrists will blame the left like they always do, instead of looking in the mirror." Meanwhile, the people of Gaza can be forgiven if they think their plight should be on the backburner for a year while the Republic is rescued. It's pointless to say more at this point on FB, so I'll take up space on this little blog.


star trek IV: the voyage home (leonard nimoy, 1986)

This is the eighth film I have watched in "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2024-25", a "33-week-long community challenge" where "you must watch one previously unseen film that fits the criteria of the theme for the week." This is the 10th annual challenge, and my sixth time participating (previous years can be found at "2019-20", "2020-21", "2021-22", "2022-23", and 2023-24). Week 8 is called "Alien Encounters Week":

Are we alone in the universe?

Stories about aliens allow us to consider our place in the universe, as humans, with the literal context that there might be beings out there that rival our supremacy. So aliens not only confront us with the humbling idea that humans might not be as big a deal as we like to think of ourselves, but could also offer the hopeful, mysterious, and either comforting or scary idea that there is something more out there to chase after than what our limited experience of life can usually fathom. Thus, alien encounters can serve as the perfect metaphor for a religious or transcendent experience.

So, whether you want to watch people kick some alien butt, chase after their awe-inspiring otherness, or somewhere in between, consider what it would mean to you if there was an entity in the universe that could challenge our notion of superiority by watching a movie featuring aliens. Here is a large helpful list from RJ.

There's not much left I can say about the Star Trek franchise. I never watched any of the television series, and The Voyage Home is only the fifth Star Trek movie I have seen. I saw The Wrath of Khan a long time ago, and remember little about it except that I liked it OK. I also saw three of the reboot films with Chris Pine, liked them OK. Basically, I have no real opinion about the series. I don't hate them, and I admire fans of the franchise ... I'm even a bit jealous, for it must be nice to like something that has so many options, between the many TV shows and the many movies. But nothing about what I have seen has ever inspired me to delve any further, and The Voyage Home is no different. The main characters are still endearingly formulaic, the acting is variable but iconic, and while the special effects look a bit lame in 2024, I imagine they were impressive in 1986, especially considering how far the films had come since the clunky original series in the 60s. The interactions between the crew and the humans in the 1980s in the time-travel narrative are cute enough, and the plot, while somewhat incoherent, does have a nice pro-whale environmental angle to it.


the long day closes (terence davies, 1992)

The only other Terence Davies film I'd seen was Distant Voices, Still Lives, which I thought enough of to suggest it would warrant a second viewing (necessary since I didn't much like it but felt I was missing something ... on the other hand, that was more than a decade ago, and I still haven't gotten around to a revisit). The Long Day Closes has an autobiographical feel, even though I knew nothing about the actual life of Davies. As I described Distant Voices, The Long Day Closes is "an intriguing combination of English kitchen-sink realism and near avant-garde stylings." It benefits from a concise, 85-minute running time ... more and I would have found it pretentious, less and I would have found it lacking.

What I called an intriguing combination comes in part from the way Davies offers up a realistic remembrance of a young boy growing up in mid-50s Liverpool, but the film is clearly bound to studio sets. Davies effectively recreates the Liverpool of his childhood, but he doesn't hide the fact of the recreation ... we applaud the way he nails Liverpool, not the way he uses actual locations. This makes sense ... the young protagonist is infatuated with movies, he may see his own life as a movie, and so of course we get a faux Liverpool that is better than the real thing. Except Davies doesn't pretty things up, which is why it seems of a piece with kitchen-sink realism.

I hadn't heard of anyone in the cast ... they are universally good, but their unknown-to-me status made them seem "real". As far as I can tell, this was the only appearance of Leigh McCormack, who has the lead role. (Apparently, he found acting boring and instead became a fireman.) The Long Day Closes rests on its gentle qualities, and I don't need to see it again to say that it's a worthy picture. #603 on the They Shoot Pictures, Don't They list of the top 1000 films of all time.


the man with the golden gun (guy hamilton, 1974)

Roger Moore's first go-around as James Bond was a reasonably pleasing effort, Live and Let Die. By the follow-up, ennui was setting in again. The Man with the Golden Gun is about as good as Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery's last shot, which is to say it isn't very good at all. Moore wasn't the problem yet, and his best outing was still to come. But outside of Christopher Lee as the Bond Villain, there's not much to see here. At least there's this: