I had the good fortune of seeing a stunning 4K restoration of the absolutely incredible 1962 Czech The Fabulous Baron Munchausen at the Telluride Film Festival this September. This glorious piece of cinema combines live-action with animation and stop motion. It is so detailed that it's honestly mind blowing; I have no idea how they accomplished what they did without computers. Some of the scenes lag but all-in-all this is a must see...See it on a big screen if you can. The Fabulous Baron Munchausen is about the fantastic and romantic adventures of the Baron and a modern day cosmonaut, Tonik, as they travel through 18th century Turkey competing to rescue Princess Bianca. This version of Munchausen inspired Terry Gilliam to make his own version of Baron Munchausen in 1988. 5/5 Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the film adaptation of the musical play of the same name written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. This is the story of transperson, Hedwig Schmidt Robinson (internationally ignored song stylist), her escape from Communist East Berlin, her failed marriage to an American GI, her broken heart, and her desire for recognition when it comes to the success for her protege Tommy Gnosis. This is a very fun ride! If you haven't Hedwigged you need to GET ON THAT BANDWAGON!!! 5/5 Dope is Dope. I very much enjoyed this clever little coming-of-age dramedy. It's a breath of fresh air. It's fun! Dope is about a self-proclaimed geek, Malcolm, and his two geeky friends who are high school seniors in Inglewood California. The trio ends up being tricked into moving a package of MDMA for a drug dealer. Hijinks ensue. 5/5 Deadpool. Everyone is raving about Deadpool. Yes, it's fun and funny. Yes, it's dirty and violent. It's cheeky and breaks the fourth wall in all the right ways. It's meta and self aware of itself as a Deadpool movie. It knows that it is specifically a Deadpool movie in the delicious way that 21 and 22 Jump Street fully acknowledge that they are Jump Street movies. I will say this: Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. I can think of no one else who could've pulled it off. Reynolds is a real-life joker, seemingly never serious and always going for a laugh. And so, naturally, Reynolds is the reason to see Deadpool. I'm not saying I loved it to pieces, but it satisfied. It was what I expected and I had some good laughs. At the end of the day, I like something a little grittier...I think I'd prefer to re-watch Watchmen. Deadpool is some how light and fluffy and doesn't quite hit a home run. Reynolds, however, hits a homerun. 4/5 Touched with Fire is the newest entry in one of my favorite niche genres, the Mental Patient movie. Touched with Fire is about two bipolar people who meet and fall in love in the psychiatric hospital. It stars Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby. This is a sort-of romantic drama. It's quite purposely uneven and excessive. The film acts as a metaphor for the addictive manic state and its antithesis, crippling depression. While I appreciated the film, I found the pro-med anti-having kids stance was a bit heavy-handed. Or maybe I'm just a bit sensitive to this kind of preachy feeling statement on mental health. The film form forces the viewers to reckon with the disorienting manic state. At times it works, at other times, as I mentioned, it's a tad excessive...but then, mania is all about excess. 3.5/5 Wild at Heart is a road movie in which Lula and Sailor, two young lovers, take to the road in order to escape Lula's "wicked" mother. Take a young Laura Dern and a young Nicholas Cage and a snake skin jacket. Add Diane Ladd, Harry Dean Stanton, Willem Dafoe. Stir in some Jack Nance, John Lurie and Pruitt Taylor Vince and more than a dash of Twin Peaks with Grace Zabrinski, Sherlyn Fenn, and Sheryl Lee. Let simmer. Wild at Heart is classic Lynch; it's super bizarre and riddled with insanity. This is extremely enjoyable and well worth your time. It will blow your mind. 5/5 The Mother and the Whore is Jean Eustache's 3 1/2 hour unlikely masterpiece about a love triangle during the summer of 1972, in Paris. This film is comprised of a lot of talking. Talking, talking, and more talking, and yet somehow, I was completely rapt at 9am the last day of the Telluride Film Festival this year. Like Cocksucker Blues, it took me many years to see The Mother and The Whore and it was so completely worth every second. This film transcends everything I ever thought about cinema and will remain one of the most profound movie going experiences of my life. Trust me. If you ever have the chance to catch this one, do not pass it up! 5/5 Anomalisa is hands down, the best stop-motion animation film I have ever seen. This is an R-rated Charlie Kaufman film--Kaufman gave us Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Adaptation, so take that in mind and add stop-motion. And then, Anomalisa gets even weirder! I'd love to see an Oscar nod here, it would be the first R animated feature ever nominated. Anomalisa is based one a three person play, and so the film also includes only 3 voices, David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. The film takes place in a hotel in Cincinnati the night before a regional customer service convention. David Thewlis (whom I LOVE!) is Michael Stone, a public speaker and author/expert on customer service; Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Lisa, a conventioneer; and Tom Noonan is the voice of every other character: man, woman, child. This is an absolute must-see, laugh-out-loud hilarious, utterly kooky film. Do it. 5/5 Here's a curious little film. This Must Be the Place is about a Robert Smith style, Goth/Emo, retired American rock star living in Ireland. He's married but pretty depressed and needs a distraction so he sets out on a sprawling mission to find his deceased father's Nazi torturer. This film is very quiet and peculiar. Sean Penn is solid as an almost timid, carefully patient retiree. Penn adopts a very slow cadence, but in the end I think if you can get past the speech and the hair/make up it's worth it. It felt pretty slow to me, so it will undoubtedly crawl for the average viewer. I do like quiet and slow, and this was weird enough to keep my attention. 3/5 |
LindseyHere is where I post new reviews as I see films throughout the year. Archives
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