Okay, I haven’t posted anything as of late in regard to my entertainment consumption, so here are Randall’s recent recommendations in regard to the entertainment that he has consumed as of late. We have a four-day weekend this week (which is now almost half-over, and I am sad, but I digress…), so yesterday, I allowed myself to sink into an unprecedented bout of laziness in that I watched not one, not two, not three, but FOUR movies in twenty-four hours.
You see, I have a beanbag from Muji and I have conditioned this beanbag to completely conform to my backside, which means that when I sit in it, not only is it the most comfortable chair I’ve ever had, but it is also virtually impossible to get out of with any of my dignity intact. So, rather than get out of my chair, I chose to sit in front of my gargantuan television with a good speaker system and an infinite amount of movies to choose from and watch TV all day.
Let me again emphasize that I never to this. But it was fun. So, here’s what I watched…
We started off Thursday with Stillwater. Now, I’m all about movies that were filmed in or are about Oklahoma (which for those of you who do not know, is where I’m from). The first thing I will do is show you the trailer:
Hollywood is so incredibly crass and ridiculous, it’s shocking. That trailer is a friggin’ masterclass in presenting a movie in a way that is almost diametrically opposed to what the film actually is. See that thriller that they’re advertising up there? This movie is not a thriller. At all. Not even remotely. Shockingly so.
Stillwater is a quiet character study that is about a father trying to make amends for being absent from his daughter’s life. There are larger-than-life elements to the film (though those “larger-than-life” elements stem from the real-life Amanda Knox story), but the truth is that the film is much smaller than that. It’s a 2.5 hour film about growing as a human being and it has one of the best last lines/ending in a movie that I have ever seen (though it only works if you have the entirety of the movie as context). Matt Damon pretty much nails it as a guy from Oklahoma (although they do a lot more praying in this film than I’ve ever seen in the state, but maybe that’s because I come from the godless part of Oklahoma). The bottom line is that I would recommend the movie. It’s not without its flaws, but those are outweighed by the story itself. Worth a watch.
The second film we watched yesterday was Coherence. Coherence was a little-seen film that came out in, I think, 2014. Here’s the trailer…
I don’t know how I heard about this movie, but for some reason, I had downloaded it. When Tracey and I were deciding to watch movies yesterday, it was there, so I said, “Let’s watch this.” It was rated well on Lettrboxd, so I figured, Why not?
At first I was appalled. This movie has some of the worst cinematography that I have ever seen in a movie. I know that they were trying to achieve a certain aesthetic style with their approach, but seriously, there are times in this film where some of the actors who are delivering their lines are completely out of focus. There’s trying to achieve a certain style and then there’s just flat-out being incompetent. There is no in-between. So the film had that going against it.
But what was lurking underneath was an interesting, philosophical science-fiction film that was kind of unlike anything that I’d ever seen before. Yes, it’s a sci-fi film set at a dinner party. There’s an element of horror to it as well. Once you wrap your head around things and what is actually happening, it’s very well-done. I did a bit of research on it and all of the dialogue was improvised as well. They shot the whole thing in five days.
It just goes to show you how far a good idea will get you. Worth a watch (if you can handle the cinematography).
The last film we watched yesterday was Donnie Darko.
I had never seen this film, even though it has a massive cult following and is widely popular amongst cinephiles. It’s one of my fellow film teachers’ favorite movie. After having watched it, I don’t know how I feel about it. It’s the kind of film that feels like all of the good elements of the film were accidental. It’s weird. It’s disturbing. It’s heavy and it’s dark. This was totally the wrong film to end the evening on, but it wasn’t bad. Come back to me in a few months and I’ll give you a better formed opinion.
Lastly, we also watched an Argentinean film on Wednesday night called Wild Tales.
This was an anthology film, which consisted of five different short stories. It was also very well done. The stories were uneven in their quality, but it was good enough to recommend, so I’m recommending it.
If you choose not to see the film, I can only say that the beginning of the film had to have been one of the best openings to a film that I have ever seen. Stick with it. Once you figure out what’s going on, it’s gold, pure and simple.
We’ve been watching other things as well and finished a few shows. Here’s my commentary.
Reservation Dogs - Spectacular television. Drop everything and watch it right now.
Only Murders in the Building - Light and airy murder mystery starring Steve Martin. Nothing Earth-shattering, but decent. Selena Gomez’s face doesn’t move. It makes me want to live in New York City.
Y: The Last Man - Great comic. Boring television.
Foundation - Hardcore sci-fi. Hardcore boring. There’s a reason lots of sci-fi novels aren’t made as movies.
Scenes from a Marriage - I don’t need to watch affluent couples with marriage problems. It’s boring.
Inside Llewyn Davis - A good film. I don’t understand why the Coen brothers felt the need to make it.
Dune - Boring, but beautiful to look at. Timothy Chalemet has zero charisma.
I’m thinking of engaging with a project for 2022. My goal? To watch a movie a day for a year. I like projects like this. I’m not sure I’ll do it, but it might be an interesting way to approach the year. It also seems like a slog. We shall see.