Oppenheimer might end up being the best movie of my lifetime - Christopher Nolan - 2023

★★★★★-Barbenheimer is fucking here! Initial thoughts after seeing Oppenheimer as early as possible. An easy five star movie. Nolan has gone full nuclear. Couple of reviews had built it up to something between The Social Network and Citizen Kane. It's better than both. We are talking earthshaking cinema. Everyone walked out of the theater silent, mesmerized, and in awe. 

This is a man that knows his place in history. With his expression and gaunt, hollow face, he looks like a man that's cursed. 

Cillian Murphy as Oppie is incredible. No doubt he'll be up for all the awards. Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, and Robert Downey Jr. are all great. Of them, I'm thinking Damon will probably see some recognition at awards season. Florence Pugh is maybe a little underutilized, but is stellar every second she is on-screen. Figure she might see some nominations as well. Also have solid work from Kenneth Branagh, Josh Hartnett, and Rami Malek, among others. Lastly, Casey Affleck has a small but pivotal part. Thought he was still persona non grata. Seeing him breifly took me out of it, but his character is an unbelievable asshole, so that fits. 

Seeing it in IMAX 70mm is an experience. I even found where he said where to sit, “right near the front, middle of the third row,” and sat there. Unreal. Believe the hype.

Two minor complaints. 1.) I thought the movie was a little too long. Feel like it maybe could have trimmed a bit off, and been a little tighter. 2.) Was expecting it to be way trippier. Wish Nolan would have leaned into the abstract maybe a little bit more. But I still loved it. Heard people asking if they really detonated an atomic bomb for the film, which is insane, but that is how good it look. 

Favorite scene is after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Oppenheimer addresses the people on the base, telling them what has happened. Everyone, including him, is completely shell-shocked. Nolan does an incredible job of replicating that feeling on screen. Music and sound are perfectly utilized here (and throughout) as well. 

Stellar film. Having seen it a few times now, I truly believe this overtakes There Will Be Blood as the greatest film released in my lifetime. For me, probably ever. A must-watch. 

Sisu - Jalmari Helander - 2023

★★★★★-It's about as close to an obvious Tarantino-style movie as you can get and still be good. Best Tarantino clone out there. Django-esque, but way more violent and fucked. This movie is fucking bonkers and incredible. Fucking awesome.

Gist is a guy in Finland in 1944 is off the grid finds a shit ton of gold when Nazis show up and try to take it. All hell breaks loose as this dude is really not to be fucked with. Bag of gold always equals death. Should have read Chaucer. That's all you need. 

This is director Jalmari Helander's first movie. What a debut. Stars Jorma Tommila as the Rombo-esque lead. You might recognize him and his son, Onni Tommila, who plays one of the Nazis in this flick, from Rare Exports or Big Game. Also stars Aksel Hennie (The Martian, The Cloverfield Paradox), Jack Doolan (he looks like a Nazi John C. Reilly, he played Horse Tommy in The Boys), and Mimosa Willamo (never seen her) as the most developed female character. 

I'm gonna make a bold statement here. I fucking hate Nazis. Where do I find the courage? What do I hate worse than Nazis? Raping (see the Nazi John C. Reilly), dog (attempted) and horse killing SS Nazis. Can't really get worse than that. These guys are immediately repulsive in the most extreme way. That's my shit. There is no one I'd feel better about dying horribly than someone like that. Revenge at its finest, although unbelievable (but that's the point). Love the overkill of the last guy, by the by. 

Movie is a bunch of healthy catharsis. Crank that shit up. This fucking guy kills more Nazis than Indiana Jones! One-man army, Ason? Also, like that this guy has a cute little dog that is just as tough and hard to kill as he is. 

When they find the dude's dog-tags, they call the Nazi general who says forget it, don't fuck with this guy. The leader of this battalion disregards this and goes at him, thinking this is his way out of getting hanged when the Allies win the war. Then, when the one guy who is like “naw” tries to take off and not die, dude says, “desertion is punishable by death,” the fucking balls on this guy. 

Lastly, spoiler, the guy doing all the killing doesn't talk until the last scene of the movie, in Finish, which isn't translated. Looked it up. After all the shit and killing for his bags of gold. He goes into a bank and dumps it out, saying that he wants to trade all that in for large bills to make it easier to carry. Incredible. This fucking guy. 

Overall take: unbelievable. It's all of the scorched earth, good shit variety. Dude is a legend. Everyone except the Nazi is like, “y'all fucked up.” And they have as this guy is a silent maniac who kills people in John Wickian ways in the style of exploitation films from the 1970s. Did I mention Tarantino? We are talking righteous retribution. If you cross him, you are royally fucked. You cannot kill this guy because he will not fucking give up. He just refuses to die and kills people in incredibly entertaining ways. Give me sequels and prequels of this mother fucker. Remarkable film. Fun as fuck. 

The Second World War: The Gathering Storm - Winston Churchill - 1948

Winston mother fucking Churchill. Deserved that Nobel Prize in Literature, let me tell ya. 

Took a lot of political science in college. I was two classes and a big test/paper shy of a degree in the subject, but I decided to coast second semester senior year, taking art, epic poetry, Anglo-Saxon, and Romanticism instead of busting my ass. Never read anything by Churchill though, which seems like a travesty. 

"The Gathering Storm" is the first book of his six part memoir written about World War II (The Second World War). This volume focuses on the events leading up to the war, providing context for the political climate in Europe during the 1930s. It was fucked, obviously. 

The stuff I was most familiar with is Churchill begins. He basically puts us in the aftermath of World War I with all the economic and political turmoil that ensued. “When Marshal Foch (the French general/military theorist who served as the Supreme Allied Commander during WWI) heard of the signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles,” Churchill writes, “he observed with singular accuracy: 'This is not Peace. It is an Armistice for twenty years.'” We then get into the rise of the Nazis and the Furer, Adolf Hitler, and the long, slow rearmament of the German military and their incrementally aggressive foreign policies. 

The book is written from the ultimate insider's perspective, Churchill was the guy sounding the alarm bells on Hitler's intentions, firing shots at dudes who didn't see Nazis as the potential threat they obviously were to global peace/security. Especially scathing is his criticism of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain whose policy of appeasement sought to avoid conflict with Hitler through diplomatic negotiations. Look at how that worked out! Loser. 

Alternatively, Churchill emphasized the need for strong leadership and military preparedness to counter the growing Nazi threat. Churchill believed had Britain and its allies taken a more assertive stance against Hitler's aggression at an early stage, the whole thing might have been avoided. 

“It is my purpose, as one who lived and acted in these days, first to show how easily the tragedy of the Second World War could have been prevented; how the malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous,” he wrote. 

Also, “If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Above all, this first book is a reminder of the consequences of failing to confront tyrannical regimes and the importance of vigilance in the face of growing international threats. It's dope. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes, some of which I apply in my daily when I ask “what would Churchill do?”

“Stalin and the Russian nation and its scores of millions were to pay a frightful forfeit. If a government has no moral scruples it often seems to gain great advantages and liberties of action, but ‘All comes out even at the end of the day, and all will come out yet more even when all the days are ended.’”

“It is always more easy to discover and proclaim general principles than to apply them.” 

“It is where the balance quivers, and the proportions are veiled in mist, that the opportunity for world-saving decisions presents itself.”

“One thing is absolutely certain, namely, that victory will never be found by taking the line of least resistance.”

“The worst quarrels only arise when both sides are equally in the right and in the wrong.”

“There is no merit in putting off a war for a year if, when it comes, it is a far worse war or one much harder to win.”

“Virtuous motives, tramelled by inertia and timidity, are no match for armed and resolute wickedness.”

“We shall see how the counsels of prudence and restraint may become the prime agents of mortal danger; how the middle course adopted from desires for safety and a quiet life may be found to lead direct to the bull’s-eye of disaster.”

Lifeboat - Alfred Hitchcock - 1944

★★★★★ - Not the usual Hitchcock fair. I still absolutely loved it. Overall, it has a parable or allegory feel. Hitchcock obviously hates himself some Nazis. The only good ones are dead ones. This is a lesson that plays out throughout the film and is still applicable today.

Made during WWII. Written by John Steinbeck. The film follows a group of Merchant Marines on a lifeboat after their ship is sunk by a Nazi U-boat. One of the survivors pulled out of the water, however, ends up being a Nazi that they struggle to keep in check. This guy is a gaslighting mother fucker you want to see get his almost immediately.

The best stretch of the film comes early when the group has to deal with a survivor suffering from gangrene. They realize that they are going to have to amputate his injured leg. He's a real trooper, but it's obvious that this is really going to suck. They use the little bit of rum they have to get him drunk and knock him out so they can perform the procedure. The nurse among them, who has never done anything like this, has to rely on the German who claims to have been a surgeon in civilian life. No one likes this but it has to be done. The scene goes on forever, building up over minutes. It's excruciating.

Some real trigger warning in this film, though there isn't any cannibalism. Just a dead baby, some suicide, and beating a guy to death.

The film stars a bunch of familiar faces. Among them Mary Anderson (whom I recognize from Gone with the Wind), Heather Angel, Tallulah Bankhead, who is awesome, William Bendix (whom is basically the same guy he played in The Blue Dahlia), Hume Cronyn (always great, he was married to Jessica Tandy and was introduced to me as one of the old guys in Cocoon), John Hodiak (mostly know him from Somewhere in the Night), Henry Hull (who steals the show), Canada Lee (the black guy on the ship, his character isn't too offensive for the time), and Walter Slezak as the Nazi. This film also has one of my favorite Hitchcock cameos. With so few people in the movie, he shows up in an advertisement in the only newspaper they have on the boat. Pretty slick.

Gonna wrap it up with a little bit on Tallulah Bankhead's awesomeness. Known for her sexual exploits, she is the one who gave the world “dahling”. She was only in around a dozen movies but looms large. Born into a political family, her grandfather and uncle were U.S. Senators and her dad (William B. Bankhead) was Speaker of the House from 1937-1940. While they were considered liberal in their day, Tallulah was way left of the fam. She hung out with Zelda Fitzgerald and was Tennessee Williams inspiration for Blanche DuBois for A Streetcar Named Desire. She employed gay men to care for her when she was in the throws of addiction, calling them her “caddies”. She was a fan of Alfred Kinnsey and found his research to confirm her already advanced views on sexuality. She did interviews in the 1930s where she talked about wanting to get fucked and had many affairs with both men and women. Some of the women included Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Hattie McDaniel, and Billie Holiday. She referred to herself as “ambisextrous”. She was also an extremely heavy drinker and drug user that smoked 120 cigarettes a day (hence the husky voice). Her last words were “codeine... bourbon.” My kind of chick.

Dunkirk - Christopher Nolan - 2017

★★★★★ - Christopher Nolan is an absolute genius. He is in my top five filmmakers of all time. I love all of his films. This might be his best.

Tells of the Dunkirk evacuation through the perspectives of the land, sea, and air. Chronology is all over the place before coming together at the end. Has what he calls a “snowballing effect” where everything connects but is made clear in the third act. This is something he does in most of his movies to great effect.

Stellar cast includes Aneurin Barnard, Kenneth Branagh, James D'Arcy, Tom Glynn-Carney, Tom Hardy, Barry Keoghan, Jack Lowden, Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Harry Styles in his film debut, and Fionn Whitehead. Mostly character actors that you know, but not by name.

The film is the highest-grossing World War II film of all-time, which is nuts, earning $527 million worldwide. Dunkirk received praise for its screenplay, direction, musical score, sound effects and cinematography; some critics called it Nolan's best work, and one of the greatest war films. The film received various accolades, Received eight nominations for the 90th Academy Awards including for Best Picture and Best Director (Nolan's first directing nomination) and won three for editing.

What is crazy is Nolan conceived the film in the 1990s before ever making a feature film when he and his future wife Emma Thomas sailed across the English Channel along the path the small boats took in the evacuation. However, Nolan didn't set out to make it until he had acquired sufficient experience directing large-scale action films, wanting to do it right.

Features an economy of dialogue instead creating suspense from cinematography and music. Historically accurate, apparently, if you care about such things. However, the characters were fictional.

My overall takeaway was the film is truly breathtaking. Wish I would have seen it in IMAX. It might be my favorite WWII movie. I was glued to the screen the entire time.

Foreign Correspondent - Alfred Hitchcock - 1940

★★★★ - Love a journalist thrust in into a spy-thriller or noir flick. Main guy, Joel McCrea, has a Tom Brady look. Plays a great dumb guy who finds himself unwittingly in an international assassination plot. Shares some DNA with North by Northwest in that way.

The paper he works for in New York sends him to Europe in 1939 just before the war broke out. The publisher tells him he doesn’t want him to cover the impending conflict, but really wants him to, I guess. This is the backdrop of the story. Everybody waiting for war, but thinking it’s not going to happen but knowing it will.

The publisher is sending the protagonist because he punched a cop. This is his “punishment” instead of being fired. He’s out of control and loves his job. If this were what being a newsman was like in 2023, I’d for damn sure still be on the job.

Bunch of people I recognize but no one really by name. This guy George Sanders looks just like Jason Segal. Recognize him as the raging asshole convinced Laurence Olivier was up to something in Rebecca. He was also Mister Freeze in the Batman show from the 60s.

Female lead, Laraine Day, was not much else. This was her biggest role. Didn’t really make it. Was a Mormon, too, similar to Scientology. I can’t enjoy someone’s work if I know they are a Mormon. Other groups that ruin it are Jehovah’s Witnesses, fundamentalist, Christians, conservative, rapist, wife, beaters, and racist. If you turn out to be a Trump supporter, I cannot even look at you. There is active rage there.

Pretty great film but has some flaws. Overshadowed by Rebecca, which also came out in 1940 and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. These are his first movies after arriving in Hollywood. This film is mostly forgotten, but shouldn’t be. Plus a heck of a plane smash at the end.