What I Watched This Week #120 (April 15-21)
Of Time and the City
dir. Terence Davies/2008/1h18m
Of Time and the City is a documentary collage film made up of newsreel and archive footage that builds up a picture of the director's childhood in Liverpool during the 50's and 60's. This is like film as a memory, fragmented and broken into unrelated segments as if it were edited by stream of consciousness all scored to a majestic classical soundtrack. The narration, by Davies himself, is just like the rest of the film, at times he snarls about religion and the royal family, at others he rhapsodises about his working class upbringing, his s*xual awakening. Both incredibly personal and universal – he could be talking about a thousand cities, a thousand lives – the juxtaposition of dirt poor children playing in the streets set to highbrow classical music does become a little laboured over the length of the film, but that is my only small negative I have for this very moving picture of time and place. 9/10
Joint Security Area
dir. Park Chan-wook/2000/1h48m
On the border of North and South Korea two Northern soldiers are killed by a soldier from the South with the investigation uncovering what seems to be a very strange mystery – too many bullets fired, stories not matching up – but the truth is much simpler and much more tragic. Director Park Chan-wook is a master of unravelling mysteries in interesting ways – Oldboy and the recent Decision to Leave being two prime examples – and this is no different, with the investigation uncovering more information relayed through flashbacks. Saying anything more about the plot would be to spoil it, but the tension never lets up, even during moments of levity, because one wrong move would be disastrous for both sides. The two lead performances of South Korean Sgt. Lee (Lee Byung-hun) and the North's Sgt. Oh (Song Kang-ho, probably the biggest star in Korean film right now thanks to his work with b*ng Joon-ho) are excellent. The film also ends with a brilliant still image from a scene in the middle of the film that is given a whole new meaning thanks to the context we subsequently get. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!
Dead of Night
dir. Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer, Alberto Cavalcanti/1945/1h43m
Dead of Night is an anthology horror film that stars Mervyn Johns as Walter Craig, an architect invited to a cosy little country inn to see about renovations, but when he arrives he realises that all of the people there, total strangers, are people he has seen in a dream, a dream where something terrible happens at the end, but he can't remember what. We then get four of the guests telling spooky stories of their own, which makes up the majority of the film. While the first three stories are good, especially the more comedic one about a dead golfer haunting his friend, it's the last one that really sticks with you. It stars Michael Redgrave as ventriloquist Maxwell Frere who goes mad with jealousy thinking that his d*mmy Hugo wants to leave him for another ventriloquist. It felt very much like an inspiration for the brilliant Anthony Hopkins film Magic (and every other creepy ventriloquist's d*mmy in media.) Chilling and charming in equal measure, this is a fun watch with some genuine thrills sprinkled throughout. 9/10
The Guard
dir. John Michael McDonagh/2011/1h36m
Mean, miserable, drug addled and prostitute loving small town Irish cop Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is less than pleased when he's teamed up with FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) to bust an international drug smuggling ring. This is a black comedy with a real mean streak that you can't help but to compare to the works of the director's brother Martin McDonagh, particularly In Bruges. It's a testament to this film that it's not a totally unflattering comparison. Gleeson is always a joy to watch, even when he's playing someone so aggressively unlikeable. Cheadle doesn't really have a lot to do other than be amazed that Boyle is saying/doing the things that he's saying/doing, but he does it well. It does fell a little too mean spirited at points, but that is softened by a few scenes where Boyle meets with his equally foul-mouthed mother (Fionnula Flanagan), and I really liked Mark Strong's character of a drug dealer who feels like he's above it all. 7/10
The Party
dir. Sally Potter/2017/1h11m
Janet (Kristin Scott Thomas) is throwing a party to celebrate getting a shadow ministerial position but her husband Bill (Timothy Spall) seems distant and distracted, her best friend April (Patricia Clarkson) is splitting up with her partner, the very zen Godfried (Bruno Ganz), and Tom (Cillian Murphy) has turned up upset with a load of cocaine and a gun. A blackly comic social satire, this gets a little too verbose at times and feels like the characters are just spouting ideologies rather than having conversations for a lot of the very short runtime, but when it is as well written as this is you can forgive that for the most part. The performances are all solid. Clarkson's withering insults had me cackling every time, and I couldn't get enough of Ganz's Godfried, especially when he starts a therapy session for Bill and Tom. This film also has a really strong ending which I didn't see coming but that the script had seeded subtly throughout in a very smart way. 8.5/10
The Cure
dir. Charlie Chaplin/1917/24m
In this mid tier Chaplin short he plays an alcoholic who checks in to a health spa in order to sober up, but it's going to be a hard job when he brings a case full of booze with him. In the end the spa's well of curative water is spiked with alcohol and everyone enjoys getting blasted. During the film he makes classic slapstick out of revolving doors, the changing rooms and has a wrestling match with a burly masseuse. For me, whenever Chaplin strays from the character of the little tr*mp his films lose a bit of their heart and humanity. Rather than actually having anything to say this film is more like his earlier works in that it's just a succession of gags. They're really good ones performed by the best to ever do it, but when you know he's capable of more then you can't help but feel a little disappointed. That said, this is still better than the majority of films from the time and we're lucky to still have them. 6.5/10
Dilating for Maximum Results
dir. Nyala Moon/2023/14m
Trans woman Dreya (writer/director Nyala Moon) is going to hook up with her online boyfriend for the first time, but she has never been with a man and hasn't dilated in years, with this comedy following her as she tries to get ready. You learn something new every day, and the day I watched this film I learned that trans women need to dilate to stop from closing up, and that is what we get here in what I can only call a zany way. My main problem with this film is that the comedy is very TikTok if that makes sense. It's just not my taste, but that's me being an old man not hip with the kids. I do like how much of Moon's personality shines through here, she's very engaging and likeable. I also appreciate seeing a film about a trans woman that's not depressing and only focuses on negative experiences. 6/10
TRAY TRAY KO
dir. Seba Calfuqueo/2022/6m
(no trailer so here's the artist performing another piece in a gallery)
This avant-garde piece of indigenous art see filmmaker Calfuqueo drag a long train of shimmering blue material through the Chilean rainforest to a sacred spot at the base of a waterfall. The only sounds are that of the forest and the water. The material is like a stream of man's making, leaving its mark on the landscape but only for a second, only until Calfuqueo hass passed by. There's a gorgeous overhead shot of the synthetic stream running next to a real one, man in harmony with nature. Hypnotic and meditative. 7/10
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