This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Mar 24-30 2024
Written by Cameron Geiser
Welcome to This Week in Cinema, a yearlong film criticism project wherein I will be watching a new film that I haven't seen every single day.
The last week of March continued the flow of a highly unorthodox collection of films sitting side by side. This week’s filmmakers are indeed strange bedfellows, for they include Mel Brooks, Ridley Scott, Shane Carruth, Wong Kar Wai, Akira Toriyama, Zhang Yimou (He made Hero and The House of Flying Daggers), and some guy from Wisconsin named Mark Borchardt. I'm not sure if I learned a specific lesson this week from this group of films, but a few things that I already knew resurfaced. 1) Editing can make or break your film. 2) Visual comedy in film is worth your weight in gold. And 3) Passion is contagious. Whether in the making of films or in the subjects of any film- passion isn't just necessary for filmmaking, it's abundantly evident when it's absent from the writing or the production of any given film. Next week will begin April, and the theme of the month is “Pure Genre” as each week I will devote every film to one genre. The first week in April is Horror Week, so look forward to me being jumpscared and spooked for a week straight. Enjoy!
March 24th
Upstream Color (2013)
2/5
There are some approaches to filmmaking that I find admittedly incredibly abrasive, and this is one of those films. I'm willing to put my own personal displeasure aside when a movie has skill or obvious merit within it, a good example of this is Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream. That film has excellent editing on display and that alone is worth a watch- however, the movie itself is a miserable experience. The same holds true for me with Upstream Color. The story at hand involves two people who bond over similar past experiences being controlled by different people involving plant extracts, maggots, and auditory cues. Abusive characters, obnoxious sound design, and erratic editing combine to form an exhausting film experience that I cannot recommend. Apologies to Shane Carruth fans, but this film is being added to the sub-genre of films that I deem “misery porn”- ironically most of Darren Aronofsky's filmography is similarly classified in my mind.
March 25th
The Great Wall (2016)
2.5/5
I remember seeing the trailers for this film back in theaters and even then I thought it looked like a very silly Chinese historical fantasy starring Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, and Willem Dafoe. That assumption was correct, but boy did I underestimate the level of nonsense this film would escalate to. Granted, it's entertaining nonsense, real turn-your-brain-off stuff if I'm being honest. Westerners Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal (Their character names really don't matter) end up travelling to the East to find the coveted black powder that China holds secret. As it turns out, The Great Wall was built to hold back an enemy that attacks once every sixty years and the Westerners arrive just in time to see the first wave of attack by the Tao Tie, a horde of thousands of large dog-like green aliens that pour out of the meteorite that spawned them. The Nameless Order, the militia patrolling The Great Wall, perform a heavily choreographed strategy of attack with one of the dumbest ideas of war with monsters I've ever seen put to screen. An all-female fighting force of gymnasts attached by ropes, jump into the fray with spears. Occasionally killing some of the Tao Tie, but more often than not they are actively jumping to their deaths, sometimes straight into the mouths of the Tao Tie. Add a heavy dash of nationalistic propaganda and that's the movie. It's definitely stupid but somewhat entertaining.
March 26th
High Anxiety (1977)
4/5
Mel Brooks wanted to do right by Alfred Hitchcock, and with High Anxiety, I'd say he did just that. Spoofing all of Hitch’s hits from the 1950s Brooks stars as Dr. Richard Harpo Thorndyke, a medical expert who has a nervous disorder that the film calls High Anxiety- or a general fear of heights. Dr. Thorndyke begins the film by arriving at his new place of work, the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous. As he's replacing the late Dr. Ashley who died under mysterious circumstances the script gets to replicate the paranoia and suspicion that lies at the heart of every good Hitchcock film. Brooks plays with all of the most iconic scenes and beats from classics like Vertigo (The visual gag of Brooks spinning wildly while falling against an animated spiral background was comedy gold), Psycho, and The Birds to name a few. But the callbacks and visual references go on to name several other films or use the same, or similar locations prominent in some of Hitchcock's best work. I particularly loved the gags focusing on meta jokes involving the camera shooting the film itself, crashing into the window of the dining hall where the characters are having a dialogue scene or near the end when camera operators whisper miscalculations and decide to keep shooting even though they were about to crash through a wall. Brooks brings his familiar cartoon antics to some of the most well-known films of the twentieth century, and we're all better for it.
March 27th
Happy Together (1997)
3/5
Wong Kar Wai is a fascinating voice in cinema history. I've only seen a few of his films, but my favorite so far has been In The Mood For Love. I went into this one with absolutely no knowledge of what the story was about, knowing it was Wong Kar Wai directing was enough. So, I did not expect a gay international road trip romance that intermittently switched between black and white and color photography. There are some interesting cinematography and color grading choices throughout the film and some solid performances from the two central characters played by Tony Leung and Leslie Cheung. While this may be my least invested film of Wong Kar Wai’s, there are certainly interesting things about the two principal characters, but ironically the moments when they do seem Happy Together are fleeting at best. There is some realism in their relationship, in that they aren't exactly good for each other. This has the film swinging from cynical to sensual, to melancholic, to fraught with anger at various interactions while the two are stuck in Argentina without money to return home. There's enough artistic thought on display to merit a watch, but there are better Wong Kar Wai movies out there.
March 28th
American Movie (1999)
3/5
This is a documentary that follows the making of Northwestern, the first feature directed by Wisconsin-based filmmaker Mark Borchardt. Well, at least that's how the film starts. After some very relatable financial restrictions force the film fan to switch gears to finishing a short horror film called Coven that he’d begun years earlier, the film kicks into gear as production resumes and new problems arise. If you know anything about film production, this will likely result in a few good laughs and a shared frustration with Mark as he tries to get friends and family to help him make the indie horror. American Movie is a charming documentary about the aspirations of someone who has neither money nor connections and yet strives to make some art. It was an endearing little story about the trials of living in the American Midwest and trying to create a short film by hook or by crook, and that's something I can very much relate to. However it did remind me of another documentary of the same spirit I saw years ago at the Traverse City Film Festival called Journey to Planet X where two scientists from Florida make a string of cheesy sci-fi and horror B-movies eventually getting the muster to go for a bigger film than all their previous efforts. While both are enjoyable, I'd recommend Journey to Planet X over American Movie.
March 29th
Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2018)
3.5/5
With the recent passing of Akira Toriyama, a friend suggested checking out one of the Dragon Ball Super animated films I hadn't gotten around to seeing yet. Dragon Ball Super: Broly takes the character of Broly who was only showcased in standalone Dragon Ball Z movies years ago, and makes his story not only intrinsically linked to Goku's origin story but also makes the character canon in the main series. This version also uses the fan-favorite villain Frieza as a major motivator of the plot which is a bit more narratively sound than past versions. Frieza exists here solely to be an instigator of pain for Goku and Vegeta as he manipulates Broly into fighting the two, and that's essentially the story. However, anyone who knows Dragon Ball knows that this series exists for the glory of the fights. Oh, and boy do they fight. The animation is really stepped up for this film, with backgrounds and fluidity of movement receiving the lion's share of beautification. If you enjoy anime, but specifically Dragon Ball, you'll likely have a good time with this one. If you know nothing of the series or when the story takes place, you will be lost, but hey at least it's pretty!
March 30th
Thelma & Louise (1991)
4/5
I've seen a lot of Ridley Scott's movies but besides a few particularly clever camera movements and solid cinematography choices, his direction of the film doesn't reveal himself through style or blocking. Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) are two friends who decide to take a weekend vacation to escape their dull lives as an abused housewife and silver-tongued waitress respectively. After a stop at a roadside bar turns ugly and disgusting, Louise shoots a pig and the two go on the run for their lives. At every turn, things go as bad as possible for the duo with some aspects being a case of bad luck, but a lot of the mistakes are due to Thelma being a talkative, accepting, walking embodiment of naivete. The cast as a whole was great. Christopher McDonald (Shooter McGavin) and Michael Madsen star as the two partners of Thelma and Louise in which they play up delightful generalizations of male partners as stupid, bombastic, full of bravado and anger issues, and being generally manipulative and controlling. In fact, with the exception of Harvey Keitel as the FBI agent following the trail of crime, except that his misogyny isn't as forthright, it's more casual- all of the male characters are pretty awful morally speaking. If you don't know the ending (I couldn't avoid that due to cultural osmosis), avoid it at all costs and give the film a watch, it's pretty good!
Cameron Geiser is an avid consumer of films and books about filmmakers. He'll watch any film at least once, and can usually be spotted at the annual Traverse City Film Festival in Northern Michigan. He also writes about film over at www.spacecortezwrites.com.