Gunga Din - George Stevens - 1939

★★★★-One of the movies I intended for my greatest years in film project. This from 1939. 

If you've seen Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, you'll recognize this movie as an obvious inspiration. Same regrettable racial undertones, scene on a bridge, the Thuggees worshiping Kali, so forth. A lot of scenes are straight up lifted from this flick. Not the easiest film to revisit in 2023, but it's a hell of an adventure flick. 

Gist is three British soldiers in India played by Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and Victor McLaglen go on a a dangerous telegraph-repair mission. With their water carrier Gunga Din, played by white dude in body paint Sam Jaffe, they come across the mythic Thugge cult. At some point Gunga tells Cary Grant about a temple made of gold. While trying to claim it or whatever, Grant is captured, forcing the other soldiers to come rescue him. 

The performances are pretty great. This is the kind of Cary Grant character that I love. Studly with comedic elements. Not outright comedic. 

Solid action with huge set pieces and explosions. Throwing sticks of dynamite is not recommended but happens a lot in this movie. One Thuggee tries his luck but hilariously explodes. There is also a pit of the fakest snakes ever. You can see the strings wriggling them around. 

Overall, though it doesn't feel like a cohesive movie, it was great entertainment. Solid action sequences, outstanding performances, decent amount of humor: it's a highly enjoyable watch.

There Will Be Blood - Paul Thomas Anderson - 2007

★★★★★- I think about this movie almost daily. Can interpret the film in about five different ways: Daniel never loved anyone and what he says to HW is a revelation, that he really loves HW chose his fake brother because HW seemed dangerous and this is his big life mistake (which is why he kills his fake brother [also why he’s obsessed with Eli being a false prophet]), that he loved HW but his drinking and rage made him crazy, that he deals with pain by throwing himself into his work which just makes him angrier over time, or that he has always been miserable and wants others to be miserable because of his success. This is all Daniel Day-Lewis, who is in another league. Everyone else suffers from this performance. This is the best performance ever. No shit. 

This Jordan-esque Interpretation was how I saw it this time. “I have a competition in me. I want no one
else to succeed… I look at people and I see nothing worth liking.” Once his son becomes his competitor, he takes that shit personally. Never has there been a more complicated father-son relationship on screen. So good. 

We get glimpses of Plainview losing control several times up to the end when he completely fucking loses it in the greatest meltdown of all time. I have a little of that competition in me on my worst days. This isn’t comforting. 

Maybe my favorite scene is when Plainview runs HW in his arms after the accident. Then he runs to the well. “ What are you looking so miserable about,” he asks rhetorically. “There is a whole ocean of oil underneath our feet and I’m the only one that can get at it.” HW OK? “No he isn’t.” 

Less complicated is what’s going on with Daniel and Eli. These absolutely hate each other. Daniel treats Eli like an idiot who he has no respect for the beginning. Then he goes to that sermon, immediately realizes he’s full of shit, but also that he’s the one he’s gonna have to deal with. “And if I have no teeth I will gum you!”

If you don’t watch this masterpiece at least three times, you can’t even have a discussion about it. There is so much to take in through every second of the film. I love it. Truly. It is my favorite movie of all time maybe. 

Phenomenal soundtrack. When the music plays, it is on. It’s chilling. I listen to it often. The cinematography is crazy too. We are mostly distant and when we get closeups, it’s uncomfortable and ambiguous. 

Jesus fucking Christ. I rewatch it whenever I hear anyone mention it. Plainview goes through hell and he ends up a reflection of that. Absolutely profound. A goddamned masterpiece.

Knife + Heart - Yann Gonzalez - 2018

★★★★★ - Wow. Brilliant movie. A contemporary queer giallo-inspired movie. Follows this group making gay pornography in 1979 Paris. They are lead by this director chick, played by one Vanessa Paradis, who is the star of the movie. This masked killer shows up and starts killing them one by one. 

I'm not exactly the target audience, but I have seen more giallo than anyone I've ever met. This is contemporary, subversive giallo.

Several great scenes. One is where all the actors have a wrap party picnic when it starts storming. One person gets caught out in the woods. As she (a trans actor) yells for her mates, the camera pans in fast circles giving the viewer a sense of being lost. A few times around we see the killer in the distance. Every time it goes around after that, the killer gets closer and closer, before you know. 

I thought it was a great, beautiful, captivating flick with a killer score by M83. However… let’s say this is not a family film. Not one you’re gonna wanna watch for your kids. You’ll know pretty quick what you’re in for when you fire it up.

My favorite thing about the movie is that the porn director gets questioned by the police about an actor in her stable who is murdered by getting repeatedly stabbed in his rectum. She immediately turns the experience into gay porn. I am crazy about films within films. This is an interesting, unique take on that. There is also a sacrilege porn, which was indeed something. 

The premiere for this movie based on the killings of the actors looked fun despite everything. JK, it was depressing and crazy as shit. Then after it is over you hear all the dudes in there buckling their pants. A lovely touch. Then there is more murder. 

This might sound sort of funny, but it ends up being a pretty moving scene where the fluffer cries and talks about how fucked up it is that they are filming a scene based on this dude's extremely violent and disturbing death. But then, with tears in his eyes, he's called in for duty. A professional, this guy. Turns out he's not even getting paid. Yeesh.

I like that about the flick, that they make the porn star lifestyle way less glamorous than say Boogie Nights. I'm not against it or anything, but it seems like a pretty sad grind, and this is definitely of that mentality, with all the stars on heroin or traumatized or what have you. 

One of my favorite things about the movie is that when the Killer is revealed and dealt with, they give him a really sweet and touching sendoff by showing a story and having this pretty profound voice over that tells a really powerful story. We see he is a victim too. The backstory of a slasher like Jason Voorhees for example it’s probably super sad and fucked up. Makes you think about me that. Then again, the deaths are so fucked up that maybe that lessens the impact a bit.

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is the worst film of all time

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (French: Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie). "I really don't like Jesus Christ. Even as a little girl I hated him." All I can say is, "what the fuck was that?"

This was a movie night pick, the first fully vaccinated one I've had with guests. Good food. Good wine and bourbon. It was bougie as fuck. The way we do movie night is I pick ten films. We watch the ten trailers. Everyone picks two. A couple usually get left out. Of the remaining, everyone vetos one. Then we vote on the remaining. This was the movie we chose. My bougie professional and artist friends and I didn't get very far. Light on plot that makes sense, the film is mostly just a shitload of allusions and weird class things. But I came back and rewatched it on my own. No points in heaven for finishing this shit though.

Gist is a group of bourgeoisie frienemies keep trying and failing to have a dinner party while some sort of unexplained war is going down. Woven in there are dream sequences of minor characters and from the bourgeoisie themselves. Directed by the surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel, the film won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Watched this on the Criterion Channel. 

The film is a lot of rich people trivial outrage with some shots at organized religion's place among the elite. A lot of not getting what they expect as their right. They end up shitting on each other and being terrible. Once or twice they get really close to eating, but then something happens and then bring on the outrage as they don't really have anything else to talk about, queue a scene of the group dressed to the nines, walking down a country road that goes nowhere, and repeat multiple times. Reminded me of Beckett some change of scenery. But I like Beckett infinitely more. 

Really disliked this movie. I know Buñuel is considered a master of French cinema. Maybe this wasn't a good introduction to his work. Also probably not the best movie to host a group of well-to-does after a pandemic. It was the movie we chose though.  

There were a couple of funny moments, funny in that, "oh, that was sort of funny" way. Like the diplomat's standard-issue diplomat bag that he uses to smuggle cocaine or the dream where everyone gets shot down by the military and the sole survivor gives himself away by grabbing for meat from under the table. But yeah, wouldn't say it was worth it. Didn't enjoy spending time with these people that are indeed the worst. Rich people. Am I right?

Revenge is the greatest movie of all time

Revenge. Do you like rape revenge movies? Of course not. Usually too into the rape, if you know what I mean, or turn the victim into a psychopath. Examples of the former would be I Spit on Your Grave or Last House on the Left or Eye for an Eye, while examples of the latter would be Ms. 45 or Teeth. This movie, however, is one of those rare flicks that does it right, movies that are becoming more common as we become more woke to such things. Some examples of these movies would be American Mary and Bound to Vengeance. This one does it perfectly. We get enough of the shit to not only hate the rapist, but also get a glimpse at the dude's bros, the worst of whom isn't even the rapist, who enable rapists, the culture, and are violent against women. All that stuff goes down pretty quickly (the rape happens, it's terrible, it's effects are lasting but we don't have to sit there and watch it for half an hour) and we get right into her fighting for her survival in an extremely satisfying way in this gem of a revenge movie. Greatest movie of all time.

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Revenge slices and dices genre tropes, working within an exploitation framework while adding a timely -- yet never less than viscerally thrilling -- feminist spin.

Pros: Sick cinematography. Great use of landscape and color. So. Much. Blood. Like an unreal amount.

Cons: While it's not Funny Games or anything, it still features a lot of uncomfortable violence against a woman.

Gist of the movie is trio of rich as fuck friends convene on a remote island somewhere for their annual hunting trip. One of them, Richard played by Kevin Janssens (good time to point out that all of these actors are pretty much unknowns), brings his young mistress along, one Jen played by Matilda Lutz (she was the lead in the film Rings which is still on my to watch list). They get along for a day, drinking, flirting, dancing, and doing drugs, but Richard's buddy Stan (Vincent Colombe) thinks that Jen was coming on to him and tries to have sex with her. When she refuses, he brutally rapes her. She cries for help within earshot of the third friend on the trip, Dimitri (Guillaume Bouchède), turns up the volume on the TV before going outside for a dip in the pool. When Richard comes back, Jen tells him. When he barely gives a shit, saying she wants to leave and what not, and that if she can't, she will tell his wife, he beats her. Next thing everyone knows, she is out the door, sprinting for her life. Once she gets to the edge of a cliff, they push her off. Through grit, she survives and the dudes set out to find her and finish the job, only Jen is tough as fuck and hell bent on getting her mother fucking revenge!

Hard to call a movie with a brutal rape and so much violence beautiful but this is. Vividly colorful, the movie is a feast of natural beauty. It is also a very satisfying movie as these three are some of the most easily hateable characters of all time. Spoiler, there are three kills total and all of them are fucking great. She gets hers.

This Kevin Janssens guy wins the movie. Dude was a pretty convincing psychopath. Sort of reminded me of Aaron Eckhart. Totally an alpha male type who treats everyone, including his mates, like complete shit. Spoiler, there is this super intense scene when they are back at the house and it is just him and Jen left alive at this point. He is naked running around the house hunting her like a mad man. Think American Psycho except more deranged. Making it even fucking crazier is when she shoots him and then she is hunting him. But he seran wraps his guts in and the two of them are chasing each other around in circles for a crazy long time, each with the intent of killing the other. When she slips and falls and he finally catches her and knocks her out. He begins to choke her out and you think she is done but reaches in through the plastic wrap and pulls some of his guts out at which point she shoots him point blank in the chest with a hunting shotgun. There is so much blood in this house it is fucking unbelievable. And so ends this amazingly beautiful rape/revenge fantasy (or whatever you want to call it).

The debut film of one Coralie Fargeat. This lady is going places. The movie is one of my favorite horror, since it's on Shudder I'mma call it that, movies of last year. Get a lot of use out of that subscription. That and Mandy were Shudder exclusives. Two great, trippy films. Shudder has so much good content. This was one of the best. Can't wait for Fargeat to make more flicks. Check this one out. Loved it.