Watched: Doubt

This was pretty great. I think by this point Meryl Streep is can be counted on to give a reliably strong performance, and her austerity and moral certainty here ring absolutely true. I didn't go to Catholic school and I wasn't raised in the 60's, but I know plenty of people who hold tightly to the kind of absolutism that she uses to judge Hoffman's kind, relaxed priest. Hoffman is also great, I loved his two sermon scenes. I'd forgotten how charismatic of an actor he is, even moreso when his character's own morality has some ambiguity. I would say the weak link is Amy Adams, but it's not really. She's very convincing, it's just that her character is the weak-willed nun stuck in the middle of a philosophical debate she can't entirely get a hold on. She gets the least amount to do, although I liked seeing Streep's influence on her through her interactions with her students.

Anyway, interesting film. It's a little claustrophobic, which I think is how it's supposed to feel (also because it was a play first), and that works to its advantage to heighten the drama happening within the school. Good performances, good dialogue, occasionally interesting film work.

Watched: The General

I think I liked this as much as I can like any silent cinema. Maybe there's just too much of a generational gap. Maybe entertainment has evolved (or, arguably, devolved) too far since The General was made for me to ever really connect. Or maybe it's just not the kind of film that would interest me anyway, even if I had been in the first seat on the first viewing. I don't know. But despite my marginal interest in the goings-on, even I can see the Buster Keaton was a brilliant comedic performer. He's weirdly charismatic. And this movie has a couple of great stunts in it.

Watched: Snow Walker

I liked this a lot more than I thought it would. It's got the dull, muted dramatic beats of a Sunday matinee showing on TNT but it's an enjoyable, simple story of a former WWII pilot who works in Canada, crashes, and along with his sole passenger, a dying Inuit girl, must learn to survive.

There were five commas in that sentence. TOP THAT!

Anyway it stars Barry Pepper who, despite always playing an asshole, I like. And the girl is pretty good too considering she was not an actor before she was hired for this film. Plus James Cromwell shows up as the father figure and Michael Buble (?) despite being in the movie for about three minutes, manages not to ruin any of his scenes.

There's also some great cinematography and survivalist shenanigans which are always nice.

So well done there, Canada.

Watched: The Ballad of Cable Hogue

This was... pretty good. It had some fun editing and Jason Robards is impossibly likeable as the titular Hogue. Also David Warner does a great lecherous creeper, which he definitely doing here. So good work all around, I think. It's not my favorite Western of all time but it does have a lot of wry humor, which is always appreciated around these parts.

Ahem...

I GOT A JOB!

That is all. Carry on.

Watched: Caligula

WTF.

Watched: Fort Apache

Two things this movie has a lot of: "Hey it's that guy!" moments, and Monument Valley. The film is full of actors who populated "that guy" roles through the 30's and 40's. So there's that.
Hey, it's Guy Kibbee! Yes, I had to look this one up, but I knew I recognized him from somewhere. Turns out he played the Governor in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Boom. Recognized.


Yes. There is a cowboys vs. Indians scene. This does happen.
Henry Fonda and John Wayne are obviously the best part of this. Although some of the supporting characters are kind of fun they're the only two who seem to keep the plot moving and they're both very dynamic and interesting here. Even if John Wayne is playing the exact same character he has always played. Has anyone else noticed that John Wayne stayed middle-aged for like, an exceptionally long time? In The Big Trail he practically looks like a fetus then by Stagecoach, a decade later, he's kind of weathered. By Searchers he's looking stockier but basically still like a weathered John Wayne; same with North to Alaska. Even in True Grit and Rooster Cogburn he looks like he's settled in to the older part of middle-aged. If I were to describe the way John Wayne looks through his filmography in book-selling terms I would say he goes from New to Slightly Used to Some Wear and then just kind of hovers there. I dunno. This took much longer to write than it did to think up and it may even be unfounded. Maybe if you watched every single movie of his since for a while there he was doing at least 3 or 4 a year you could see him age. I guess it doesn't really matter. Ahem.

That guy: Victor McLaglen! The jerk squire and Maureen O'Hara's older brother in The Quiet Man!
Shirley Temple, playing a charisma vacuum.

That guy: yeah, the guy on the left is another fun sucker. But the guy on the right is Bert from It's a Wonderful Life!

I thought it did a pretty interesting job looking at the old ways versus new. John Wayne's character knows that they need to work with and respect the Apaches and he takes his promises to them seriously (compromise = new), while Henry Fonda uses that trust to set a trap for them (antagonism = old). The movie is kind of good once you get to that place, which doesn't happen until the second hour and takes a lot more exposition and set-up (during which we have to endure Shirley Temple and whatshisface's bland romantic sub-plot) than seems necessary.

I mean, I kind of got the idea that Henry Fonda is a total dick who is set in his ways in the first 20 minutes, when he's whining about being sent there and criticizing basically everything in sight. But no, we have to sit through him being a dick to his daughter, to John Wayne, to Bert and Governor Hubert and Red Will. Seriously, there are about a dozen scenes of someone saying, "Hey maybe we shouldn't trick the Apaches since they're really blood-thirsty/maybe that boring kid can take care of your daughter if they want to go for a horseback ride/maybe you should stop assuming you already know everything about this post since it's nothing like your position back East" and Fonda just sort of priggishly telling them to shut up and respect his authority, dammit.

So yes, when the movie finally gets to the actual story it wants to tell, about the soldier's losing their lives due to the increasingly poor decisions of Owen Thursday (a terrible name, by the way) it works. But really, I had him pegged for an asshole the minute I realized he named his daughter Philadelphia Thursday. There's this weird scene where she's explaining that she's named that because like, her great-grandmother was born there or something? I don't know I seriously hated the Shirley Temple parts of this movie and I'm going to blame the terrible name on Henry Fonda's character because he's already getting the blame for being a douche and pointlessly leading his soldiers to death so why not?

But otherwise it was pretty good. I did like the post-script that has John Wayne being very diplomatic about Thursday, calling him brave or something and basically not telling this crowd of reporters what a raging jerk the guy was when they tell him about how Thursday is considered a hero. That was a nice touch, and a pretty good shot at a lot of the old Western heroes. (See also: Little Big Man). Obviously I was affected in the way Ford was hoping because I hated Fonda's stupid face. Oh and Wayne's character was named Kirby York? Because apparently no one was allowed to go though childhood unscathed back then.

Watched: The Shop Around the Corner

Charming. Relatable. Witty. There's not much else to say about this, except that I alway love Jimmy Stewart and this is like a less maudlin, cliche-ridden It's a Wonderful Life. Watch this movie, if you haven't already. And if you have, maybe you should watch it again.

Watched: The Young Victoria

It's not that the The Young Victoria is bad, per se. It's well-paced, beautifully shot, excellently costumed, and has some solid performances. Maybe it's because I have watched so many of these period films- if there isn't some kind of powerhouse, aim-for-the-fences performance a la Kiera Knightley practically breaking her jaw in Pride and Prejudice or restrained, slow-burn like Colin Firth (in the mini-series. You know.) or Emma Watson or SOMETHING to set it aside from the other ye olde time movies, it kind of turns into background noise for me. Though I liked parts of Bright Star and of The Other Boleyn Girl, I felt that way about both of them. And I kind of feel that way about this too.

So yeah, the principals are convincing as a young, loving couple and Mark Strong is predictably good at playing a Mark Strong-esque villian type and oh! the sister-in-law from Sense and Sensibility shows up as the former queen. Nice to see her not play a mean hobag. Michiel Huisman is charming too, in the 4 minutes he's onscreen as Albert's brother. But if ever there was a case of Hollywood SERIOUSLY sexing up the movie version of real people, it was here. Victoria never looked like Emily Blunt. Seriously. I'm not just being cynical. And while Emily Blunt is lovely and I would much rather watch two hours of her and Mr. Wickham/OrlandoBloom Lite be lovey dovey than read about her royal frumpiness, they're kind of taking some wicked liberties.

But whatevs. I'm just in it for the costumes/cinematography anyway.

Watched: Scanners

There is a great line in an MST3K episode where they watch a movie called The Final Sacrifice, extremely low-budget, synth-heavy, pseudo-apocalyptic fare that looks like it was filmed in the backwoods of someone's Canadian log cabin. One of the guys says something along the lines of, this movie has the bacony stench of Canada all over it! Which is true, because everyone's vowels sound funny and their diction's off and not to mention the whole thing is so cheap and holly hobby and CANADIAN. I'm not knocking this. I'm a big fan of Canada. Very pro-Canada. My mom more or less lives in Canada, and I'm very big on the people up there. But there is something about low-budget Canadian movies....

Anyway, David Cronenberg, despite utilizing actors who are wafting that faint bacony stench, manages to rise above both the Candianness of the picture and its low budget and makes some really memorable, gory, interesting stuff here. There's kind of a social commentary going on, about people living on the outskirts of society, but mostly there is just anticipation in-between scanner fights and head 'splosions, which is fine by me.

Also, Michael Ironside's villianous uber-scanner is named Darryl Revok, which is basically my new favorite villian name ever. And they say Revok approximately 6.8 million times during the course of this movie, so that was a good time all around.

Watched: Mysterious Skin

I know these pictures are poor-ish quality, but such is life when you watch movies on Google video. Anyway, Mysterious Skin. I sort of remember this as one of the earliest breakaway performances for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, where he finally stopped being that kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun and started being the actor/entity JGL. And for good reason, since he gives a great performance here. He manages a balance of cavalier and wounded that really makes for an interesting character. The movie is kind of challenging to watch, even though they obviously take great pains to make sure the child actors aren't involved in anything sexual, the subject matter is still right there. It's in your face. You're watching an adult actor pretend to abuse these kids, and even with the distance that cinema and fiction give, it's uncomfortable to watch. Worthwhile, but definitely uncomfortable.

On a lighter note, Gail the Snail shows up! As one of those alien abduction nuts. And if you don't know who Gail the Snail is, you haven't watched enough It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. You should probably stop reading immediately and go tend to that. Also, Elizabeth Shue. Always a welcome sight.

P.S. Is there anything worse than riding the F while feeling like shit?

P.P.S. Oh yeah, Michelle Trachtenblergh. She's in it too. She tries to do a Southern accent. It goes about as well as should be expected.