Malcolm1980's 2018 Movie Review Thread

[malcolm1980]

2/11

Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) **** - It's the 1950's and Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned fashion designer. He gets smitten by a beautiful young waitress and makes him his lover and his muse. This is quite simply one of the best films of the year. I have to say that the ending, I couldn't really call it a "twist" but let's say it is, made the film for me and took what's already an excellent film into a whole new level. But beyond that, it's an exquisitely acted and beautifully mounted film. The main acting trio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville and newcomer (at least to me) Vicky Krieps all give superb performances. As a filmmaker, I have to say, I'm truly impressed with writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. He's been making a string of very different films that are distinctly his. Is it a masterpiece? I hate to use the word too often but it looks like it.

The Warriors (Walter Hill) **1/2 - A youth gang, the titular Warriors, gets falsely accused of assassinating a prominent gang leader so they go on the lam evading both rival gangs and cops. I've been checking out a lot of these much-talked about cult classics lately. Some of them are pretty good, a few are great even. The others are not quite as good as their reputation suggests. This belongs to the latter. Don't get me wrong. It's still a well-made film on that bizarre violent subculture of street gangs. But I won't be part of this particular cult even though I still kind of get its appeal.

[malcolm1980]

2/13

Guest in the House (John Brahms) **1/2 - A man takes home his fiancee to his family. The woman is sickly with a bird phobia. She gets infatuated with her fiancé's older brother and starts to sow discord among all the other family members. Watching this, I can't decide whether or not Anne Baxter, who plays the titular role, is awful or great. Yes, it's that type of performance that tows that fine line since it's that type of role. Either way, I thought she was fun to watch and she made the film interesting at least. As far as 1940's film noirs go, I would say this is but a minor entry at best, essential only to Anne Baxter completists (if those even exist).

[malcolm1980]

2/15

Whistle Stop (Léonide Moguy) ** - A woman returns to her hometown, re-igniting a rivalry between two men leading to robbery and murder. It's an interesting premise and it does feature quite a few interesting performances particularly Victor McLaglen (who has given some great performances in the past). It starts out promisingly enough. But the eventual pay off and the ending is lame as hell. I wouldn't be surprised if the ending was studio-imposed. I would only recommend this to Ava Gardner completists but with massive reservations.

[malcolm1980]

2/16


Black Panther (Ryan Coogler) ***1/2 - The hype is real. This is indeed one of, if not THE best, Marvel film to date. The film takes us to the fictional African country of Wakanda the home of the superhero known as Black Panther as he struggles with new responsibilities of taking over for his father, the king particularly when a challenger to the throne shows up to cause some trouble. Director Ryan Coogler manages to infuse what made his previous two films special into the Marvel formula, giving us a superhero movie that thought hitting the familiar buttons and giving us some rousing action popcorn sequences expected from these films adds an unexpected layer of humanity all throughout which fits comfortably into his oeuvre. The cast is terrific but Michael B. Jordan, as the villain Killmonger, probably steals the entire picture. As the villain, he is given a genuinely heartbreaking arc which pretty much takes the film into new heights. This is definitely a high mark for the superhero genre for sure.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh) *** - Frustrated by the lack of arrests, a mother whose daughter was raped and murdered put up the titular three billboards demanding justice much to the consternation of the town and the police department. Another Best Picture nominee down. Oh, this one. Where to start? The one element I will praise is the acting. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell are faultless. I can see why they've been sweeping the awards so far (even though I probably wouldn't have voted for them in their respective categories). In fact, the entire cast is really excellent. My problem is with what the script and by extension writer-director Martin McDonagh is trying to say. The racial element is there but I find that to be just one of many problem. There seems to be a lot of wanting to have its cake and eat it too. It lost me during one key scene which I won't spoil here. All in all, I didn't come away outright hating it (it would be far from the worst Best Picture winner if it does win) but I'm not jumping up and down in raves either.

[malcolm1980]

2/17

Darkest Hour (Joe Wright) **1/2 - It's World War II. Hitler is wrecking havoc all across Europe and Winston Churchill is elected Prime Minister. I'm working my way through the Best Picture nominees and this is another one of them. Yes, Gary Oldman is very good the way Gary Oldman is good in most of his roles. His makeup is superb and he gets to give very long speeches and he yells at people. Most of the film is practically one long Oscar clip. Despite all that and the fact that it's pretty well-made, the film is a long and kind of dull and it almost feels like it borders into parody on what an "Oscar bait" movie is. It's for people who saw Dunkirk and thought, "I wanna see the political yelling behind this." Eh, my least favorite of the Best Picture nominees so far.

The Strange Woman (Edgar G. Ulmer) **1/2 - A woman marries a much older man for his money, then seduces her stepson to kill him. After this, she meets and falls in love for real. This film feels like two movies in one (the fact that Douglas Sirk is an uncredited co-director might have something to do with it) and in the end, it feels a bit rushed. I think a longer film would've allowed a bit more of the twists and turns of the plot to breathe. However, the film benefits and is held together from a great performance by Hedy Lamarr, who also produced. She makes it quite watchable even though I wouldn't say this is a top-tier classic film noir.

[malcolm1980]

2/18

The China Syndrome (James Bridges) ***1/2 - A TV news reporter, stuck doing fluff pieces for her local station, stumbles upon a conspiracy to cover up an accident at a nuclear power plant. This film is very a 1970's film. It can only have been made and set in this period of time. Yet at the same time, it still feels contemporary and many of the issues tackled still feel oddly relevant. Yes, this is kind of an anti-nuclear power film but it's also a pretty effective paranoia thriller in the same vein as, say, All The President's Men (though this film is fictional, but by strange coincidence, a similar-ish incident happened AFTER the film's release). The performances of the three leads especially Jack Lemmon are all superb.

Where Are My Children? (Lois Weber) *** - It just occurred to me that I haven't gotten back to my #52FilmsByWomen project in a while. So I decided to go back in time for my next one. This is from Lois Weber, the pioneering female director of early cinema. It tackles a lawyer who wants to have children but his wife remains blissfully childless but secretly got abortions. Yes, this film tackled birth control and abortion head on. And although its ultimate message may be deemed troubling to both modern day pro-life and pro-choice advocates (and for my taste, it does often get too preachy), the filmmaking is impeccable. It's still highly recommended viewing in my book.

[malcolm1980]

2/20

Cuba and the Cameraman (Jon Alpert) ***1/2 - This is a Netflix documentary. It follows freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker Jon Alpert, one of the few Americans to interview Fidel Castro, in his various trips to Cuba throughout the past forty or so years, interviewing and getting to know the people and the places of Cuba. The film despite being about Cuba is largely apolitical. The film goes for a matter-of-fact approach. Yes, there are bad things but there are good things too. You get to see Cubans as people, human beings first and foremost, even Fidel Castro. Super right-wingers will be resistant but I think most people will appreciate this film showing a side of Cuba we seldom get to see.

[malcolm1980]

2/22

Detroit (Kathryn Bigelow) ***1/2 - Set during the Detroit riots on 1967, this revolves around a specific incident involving police, some army men and the National Guard, interrogating a possible sniper in a motel which resulted in the deaths of three young black men. Though somewhat flawed, this is still quite a compelling and sadly, still relevant drama. I didn't know about this specific incident so the affair was fairly suspenseful. The acting of the ensemble is faultless. It's very clear that director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal had very good intentions in making this story. Though it's not a perfect film by any means and I would like to see this story told by a black filmmaker, the backlash this film got in some quarters is a bit unfair. It is overall a solid, thought provoking, sadly timely drama. This is part of my #52FilmsByWomen viewing, obviously.

[malcolm1980]

2/24

The Shape of Water (Guillermo Del Toro) ***1/2 - A mute cleaning lady at a top secret government facility that houses an amphibious humanoid creature with whom she falls in love with. This film is clearly the work of a filmmaker who's also a dedicated cinephile. Every frame of this film is lovingly designed and shot and just bursting with passion. It emanates and shines through even the performances. It's basically an adult fairy tale which turns both the Little Mermaid trope and the monster falls in love with lady trope on its head and you totally buy into a it. I actually didn't love it as much as I expected it to. I still think Pan's Labyrinth is still Guillermo Del Toro's best work but this one is close.

The Post (Steven Spielberg) *** - This is the true story about Katharine Graham who is trying to get used to her leadership duties as publisher of the Washington Post and editor Ben Bradlee, just as Pentagon Papers are being leaked into the public. This is of course an Important Issue film. It doesn't take a genius to see how relevant this film is to the current state of affairs in the world in both the United States and even in my home country of the Philippines where freedom of the press is currently being attacked. That said, this film is strictly mid-tier Spielberg at best. There's a lot of great things here, the performances are pretty great (not only Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks but also the fun supporting cast) but I often feel like this could've used a bit more editing in order to get rid of some major pacing issues. It's still a must-see though.

[malcolm1980]

2/25

The Bride Wore Black (Francois Truffaut) ***1/2 - After her husband is accidentally killed by a stray bullet just after their wedding, a woman hunts down and kills the men responsible one by one (sounds familiar? Well, Quentin Tarantino claims he never saw this movie). This is pretty darn great revenge film which is very much anchored by a great performance from Jeanne Moreau as the titular Bride and the one and only Bernard Hermann's superb score. Suspense thrillers and revenge movie isn't what I normally associate director Francois Truffaut with but he acquits himself well enough here. It's definitely worth the watch.

Mute (Duncan Jones) ** - A mute Amish-raised man's girlfriend mysteriously disappears and he has to navigate high-tech futuristic Berlin (which looks straight out of Blade Runner) to try and find her. This is a Netflix movie that got a bunch of bad reviews. Since I've already paid for it, so I thought, what the hell. Anyway, the first act and the set-up are all pretty good and fairly intriguing. The mystery sucked me right in. The production is also handsomely mounted. But once the revelations and the twists start to happen, the film gradually unravels itself. It shoots itself in the foot too many times in terms of how to handle delicate subject matters as well as the darker, more sinister content. Ultimately, it all doesn't work despite the efforts of its cast.