This Week in Cinema, I Learned…Jul 21-27 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.
This Week in Cinema I learned that anything is possible if you put everything into your passion! There's really only one movie this week that truly gave me that level of hope and optimism in creative expression, and that film was Hundreds of Beavers. Who knew that a black and white, silent comedy (fully released this year!) from indie filmmakers could be one of the funniest films I've seen in years? Amazing! This was a thoroughly great list of films, with only one real disappointment. Giant, Roman Holiday, True Lies, and Deadpool and Wolverine were all either incredibly impeccable or just downright highly rewatchable entertainment. Idiocracy was fairly good and incredibly relevant to American politics as of the recent Republican National Convention. However the dud of the week was the recently released film, Twisters. Apologies to Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones, the performances were not the problem, I believe the worst issues lie with the screenwriters. After a couple of mid-quality weeks this was a refreshing change of pace and I look forward to more of that sort of quality once we get to August, which is the month devoted to the “Masters of Cinema”. You know the ones; Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Wilder, Welles, it's going to be great! Come back next week to see the first filmmakers selected as the best of the best.
July 21st
Twisters (2024)
2.5/5
I'm glad that Twisters ended up doing well at the Box Office, mostly for the overall health of the film exhibition industry, because purely as a film I found it to be overall rather lacking. There are good things about the film. The performances, cinematography, and earnest nature of the characters instead of the fourth wall breaking jokey snark that we've become accustomed to from Hollywood was a refreshing change of pace. However… Twisters treats Tornados in the film as if they were rampaging Kaiju that kill with menace and intent. It was just *so* cheesy in execution. When one random person screamed “Don't let it kill me!” as he flew away into the sky, I cackled and then realized what kind of movie I was watching. A monster movie. A monster movie with a terrible script and bad pacing on top of extremely questionable movie science. It all just felt simultaneously too polished yet not entirely thought out. Feels somewhat bad to dunk on a movie that is doing well and that people seem to enjoy, but this one just wasn't for me folks.
July 22nd
Hundred of Beavers (2024)
4.5/5
This may be the biggest surprise of the year, at least, so far. Who could have guessed that a Black and White, Silent Comedy released this year could not only be good, but somehow one of the funniest films I’ve seen in years? Taking place sometime in the 1800s in Wisconsin the story follows Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews), a Frontiersman bent on revenge after some local Beavers destroy his Applejack Distillery. Though there are some deviations to the main man versus nature plot, including multiple visits to the local merchant for supplies and to talk up the Merchant's daughter who dutifully debones and skins the carcasses brought in by hunters and travelers alike. She puts up a demure act for her father but she's more scandalous than you'd expect. The comedic antics are slow at first, but once they get rolling, it's nonstop creative comedy firing on all cylinders.
The cartoon logic employed here is ruthlessly adhered to and becomes increasingly absurdist and surreal as it goes on. The sound design, visuals, and even logic of the humor itself is all heavily informed by old video game logic as well. The Merchant’s shop has a jovial theme music that plays while Jean chooses which items to buy, the film employs animated emotive expressions like questions marks or exclamation points appearing with an appropriate sound bite, and even the visuals used broadly give the world of Hundreds of Beavers some believability. And while the Beavers themselves are just people in well-made, but clearly fake, Beaver suits with giant zippers, the film maintains a level of consistency that allows for the suspension of disbelief to better suit the film's needs. I highly recommend giving this one a shot, it’s comedy genius!
July 23rd
Giant (1956)
5/5
Continuing my quest to better know Rock Hudson as an Actor has brought me to the three and half hour Texas epic that is, Giant. I was very impressed with this one. It begins with Rock Hudson’s Jordan 'Bick' Benedict traveling to Maryland on a horse buying business trip. There he meets Leslie Lynnton (Elizabeth Taylor), a well-to-do socialite from the family he’s buying the prized horse from, and they marry rather quickly. I thought that was a bit quick until I realized the length and scope of the film overall and that it’s legitimately an epic that transcends multiple decades. Bick and Leslie arrive at Reata, better known as the Benedict ranch, where Bick’s older sister Luz (Mercedes McCambridge) runs the house and oversees everything that happens on Reata. Luz can come off as a bit stubborn, but she does try to adjust to the new situation, even though she doesn’t love what she perceives as Leslie’s intrusion into the family business. That family business by the way happens to be cattle ranching on the open plains and fields of Reata.
In the beginning of the film James Dean stars as Jett Rink, a lowly ranch hand that Bick never liked but allowed to stick around as Luz, it’s implied, may have had her eye on him then. From this act, compared to the final scenes in the third act, the audience has seen huge sweeping changes to Reata and the Benedict clan. We watch as Jett Rink, ousted after Luz’s untimely death (by the horse that brought Bick to Leslie no less), builds up an empire of Oil all around them. The whole ensemble cast does fine work but really the two performers to watch are Rock Hudson as Bick and James Dean as Jett, in what I would say are the best performances I've seen from each! Their rivalry and character arcs are well composed performances with fascinating evolutions over the course of their lives. On the filmmaking side of things I was in awe of some of the blocking and framing at times, but most impressive was the use of lighting and shadows, especially going into the final act. The single most impactful aspect of the film for me however was the emphasis on the brutality of time and how life never unfolds as you might expect it to. Giant is as if you put Fiddler on The Roof and King Lear in a blender and set that outcome in Texas starting in the 1920’s. This one is highly recommended.
July 24th
Roman Holiday (1953)
4.5/5
This was a delightful surprise. I knew it was a classic that I should see, and a summertime trip to Italy felt like just the right kind of movie to watch at the end of a long hot day. Crown Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) is on her tightly managed multi-capitol tour of European cities and while in Rome she becomes completely overwhelmed by her royal duties. Her doctor tells her to sneak out and take a day off, do what she wants and to relax. After she passes out on the street due to an anxiety drug wearing off, American Journalist Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) assumes she's inebriated and brings her to his apartment to sleep it off. The following morning Joe was supposed to interview Princess Ann, but having overslept he rushed off to tell his editor that “of course he interviewed the Princess!”.
His boss passes the newspaper with the headline indicating that “Princess Ann bedridden with mysterious illness!” with her picture alongside the article revealing to Joe that the stranger sleeping in his bed is the Princess herself! Thus later on he convinces her to spend the day with him. They ride vespas, tour the Colosseum, visit the Mouth of Truth, and dispel a few of Ann's government agents at a party as they attempt to return the princess to her duties by force. Between the charming chemistry from Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck and the steady hand behind the camera with William Wyler at the helm, Roman Holiday was far more impressive and immersive than expected.
July 25th
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)
3.5/5
Well folks, they did it. Ryan Reynolds’ coveted ‘Merc with a Mouth’, Deadpool has made the leap into the MCU, just as the legends foretold. This third movie in the series brings the Red Wonder to prominence through the T.V.A. (The Time Variance Authority) as established in the Loki tv show. Think of the T.V.A. as the bureaucrats that keep the various timelines and universes in line, therefore the time travel shenanigans that Deadpool enacted at the end of Deadpool 2 triggered some interest from the agency. Though truthfully we discover that a rogue TVA agent has brought Deadpool into the fold because his universe’s “Anchor Being” has died. That of course was The Wolverine we all knew from Logan. So instead of going along with the pencil-pusher’s plans Deadpool steals a world hopping device and blips through various Marvel Comics worlds to find a replacement Wolverine to save his universe. When he brings back a particularly grumpy and depressed Wolverine to the T.V.A. they make a point to tell Deadpool he brought the worst Wolverine back, and when they get a bit testy about it both Wolverine and Deadpool are sent to the veritable Limbo from Loki where they run into a few other long lost characters. So the movie is fun, but is it any good?
Well, yes and no. It’s a lovingly crafted goodbye to the Marvel Fox films from the early 2000’s and the care those franchises and characters got was a nice touch. However, the structure of the film’s story is a bit wonky and the shtick of fourth wall breaking jokes and meta humor wasn’t overdone so much as it’s nothing new, while still being an integral part of the Deadpool movies generally speaking. Deadpool & Wolverine is also 100% made for Comic-Book fans above all else. I am one of those people. I got *most* of the references and I enjoyed the winks and nods to classic Comic covers and popular storylines, but I also hope Marvel doesn’t try to replicate this film after its huge success. It was a great shot of adrenaline into the MCU but things have to start becoming more cohesive going forward. The main reason this film works as well as it does is because of Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman’s collaborative charisma. Honestly, Jackman did a lot of the heavy lifting in the pathos department for Logan, and that’s the backbone of the story. Deadpool himself has a simple arc, but one that doesn’t nearly have enough good motivation as with this version of Wolverine. Anyways, it’s highly rewatchable and a great time at the theater. My favorite joke was “The Proposal”.
July 26th
True Lies (1994)
4/5
When True Lies began, with Arnold Schwartzenegger in a tuxedo at a fancy gala operating as a slick and over confident Spy, a thought clicked into place. “Oooh, this was James Cameron trying to do James Bond”. However by the time the film was nearing its end I had changed perspectives to a film series that hadn’t been adapted just yet. In truth this was more along the lines of the Mission Impossible film series in scope and attitude than England's greatest spy. The story itself was entertaining enough, though some of Tom Arnold's lines have not aged well. Schwartzenegger was a lot of fun in this role as Harry Trasker, an overconfident Spy with a loving family that he probably should have been paying more attention to. Jamie Lee Curtis was a riot as his wife Helen, who got uncharacteristically involved in the high action when Harry overhears Helen arranging a secret meeting with someone called Simon (Bill Paxton).
This leads Harry to use his agency's resources to spy on Helen and Simon and in doing so he discovers that Simon's just a used car salesman that pretends to be a spy to sleep with women. Harry sees that Helen just wanted some excitement in her life and he arranges for her to perform a simple camera placement act with a supposed terrorist (When its really Harry in the scene) when actual terrorists show up, kidnap them, and force them onto an island in Key West Florida where they intend to set off one of the nuclear warheads they stole to prove they are a legitimate threat to America. That third act action sequence with fighter jets, helicopters, and car chases aplenty was quite the thrill. True Lies was an excellent Summer Blockbuster, and it's definitely worth your time.
July 27th
Idiocracy (2006)
3.5/5
After seeing the meme in which an image of Hulk Hogan ripping his clothes off at the Republican National Convention is placed alongside Terry Crews in full Wrestlemania garb behind a podium with guns firing into the sky with text saying “Idiocracy is now a documentary”- I knew that it was time to finally sit down and give this one a watch. Once I saw that this was co-written by and directed by Mike Judge, I knew I was in good hands. The satire here is an excellent riff on the rise of consumerism, embrace of lowest common denominator comedy, and anti-intellectualism as a point of pride. The quick and dirty version of the plot is that Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) is the most average person in the Military and is therefore selected to take part in an experimental test of their suspended animation chambers.
As the US Military of 2006 couldn't find an applicable female candidate, they hire a local prostitute, Rita (Maya Rudolph) for the new tech. Unfortunately for them the Military Base where the project was being performed got shut down due to scandalous affairs. Five hundred years later an avalanche of trash rouses Joe’s hibernation chamber open after it crashes into Frito Pendejo's (Dax Shepard) apartment. Once out in the world Joe finds the earth run afoul of idiocy and laziness. He’s bounced around hospitals, courtrooms, prisons, and eventually The White House where President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (Terry Crews) appoints Joe as the Secretary of The Interior due to the aptitude test he was made to take in prison. Turns out he's the smartest person in the world. So the president gives Joe a week to solve all of the country's problems or be thrown back into prison. Idiocracy was an entertaining concept with good performances from the core cast and something to keep in mind at the Ballot Box this year? I don’t know, I’m not telling you how to vote, but it's a fun reminder of where things could eventually turn out if we make the dumbest choices constantly, and consistently.
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.