Here are some two sentence reviews of the movies I watched in August.
Stats
- Movies watched – 7
- Movies that were new to me – 3
- Percent fewer movies than last month – 71%
- Monthly Masterpieces – Casablanca, Boyhood
August 28
- Play Dirty (1969) – Obviously an attempt to cash in on The Dirty Dozen‘s success, with Michael Caine’s stiff upper lip replacing Lee Marvin. Still, no fair claiming a WW2 genre flick is derivative–besides, this one has more than enough excellent North African front based set pieces to satisfy even the pickiest WW2 buff.
August 27
- One, Two, Three (1961) – Really great, madcap comedy about the fast talking (and, typically for Wilder, quite cynical) shenanigans at a West German Coca-Cola plant. Cagney is in top form in one of his last roles, and Wilder keeps the whole production moving right along at a pace that almost matches the machine-gun dialog.
August 25
- Casablanca (1942) – Deserving every bit of its reputation as one of the all time greats, everything from the iconic performances to the sparkling dialog absolutely sings in this film. My only complaint is that I still don’t agree with the ending.
August 23
- Killing Them Softly (2012) – Well done modern gangster film about C level gangster shenanigans and the fallout from their fuckups. The whole 2008 economy tie-in stuff is maybe hit a little hard, but overall the strong performances and script keeps things on track.
August 19
- Boyhood (2014) – What could have been a simple gimmick movie in any other director’s hands, becomes something far more under Linklatter’s capable guidance. Like Dazed and Confused, this is a master class in showing, rather than telling, and is so much richer because of that.
August 2
- Cannonball Run (1981) – You’d think the premise of a bunch of wackos competing in a car race across the United States would have been more fun than this incoherent and mostly boring mess turns out to be. You’d also think it would be less rapey.
August 1
- Gunga Din (1939) – A boy’s own adventure story of a couple of arrested development case studies romping through Hollywood’s version of colonial India. Incredibly offensive and in poor taste…but a good deal of fun is to be had in this one if you can get past the more offensive moments.
3 Comments
I watched Boyhood last night. I thought it was wonderful. I have a proclivity for sentimentality, especially as it pertains to the seemingly increasingly speedy passage of time as I age. It’s all the more poignant since I’ve become a parent. So, the compression of time in the movie came across as all too real. Needless to say, this one hit me like a freight train.
I don’t even think I would call this sentimental. I know we are just using the word differently, but Linklater is really brilliant at doing movies like this or Dazed and Confused and never making them feel like they are trying to appeal to the emotions in any kind of mawkish way.
No, not at all. I just meant to say that I’m really sentimental, and his movies always bring out those feelings in me. He doesn’t rely on pathos; he earns whatever he gets because his characters and dialogue are genuine. It feels like he’s just sort of holding up a mirror.