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6th re-watch...one of my guilty pleasure that has endless re-watch appeal. It's silly and improbable, but endlessly entertaining, thanks primarily to an impressive all-star cast, though Robert Downey Jr. effortlessly steals the film.







Seems to me I once saw this entirely in French, but, whatever. Good movie. A classic.
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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Summer of 84 (2018)

Pretty OK enough Canadian thriller that reminded me a lot of Disturbia. Ending kinda let it down





Icarus, 2017

There's something inherently risky about making a documentary about something in the present.

If you're telling a story about a bombshell from the past (say a political scandal from the 70s or a murder from the 50s), you already know that there's compelling, noteworthy material. You know that you're sitting on grisly details or that a certain photo will elicit gasps.

But when you set out to film something with an unknown endpoint, you just have to hope that something gripping will happen. As Bryan Fogel learns in Icarus, you can have almost too much of a good thing!

Fogel is into competitive distance bike racing. In a post-Armstrong era, Fogel notes that there's just *something* separating him from the best athletes. He comes up with an idea to see if he can use performance-enhancing drugs and escape detection.

The first 20 or so minutes consists of Fogel getting a doctor to sign off on testosterone injections and acquiring other illicit products and then tracking his progress in the racing world.

Then he meets Grigory.

Grigory Rodchenkov was a Russian doctor in charge of testing athletes for doping in Russian for years and years. He's a larger-than-life personality and begins coaching Fogel in how to avoid testing positive. There are hints and implications from other interview subjects about why Grigory might be so good at getting around PED testing, and then the whole thing just blows wide open. Right as Fogel is getting momentum on his own journey, the Russian doping scandal begins to break. Suddenly, Grigory is talking to Fogel in coded language and making allusions to the guards who have been sent to watch him. Fogel becomes something of a lifeline for Grigory as the latter decides to flee Russia.

Then other Russian workers associated with the scandal begin dying and the urgency steps up a notch.

There's something a bit exhilarating about documentaries like this. There's a point where you feel the story leaving control of the director (maybe around the time the KGB and FBI and mysterious men in suits begin circling?), and there's that shift to a filmmaker doing his best to capture and document what is happening.

Through it all, Fogel is wise to keep Grigory as the center of the narrative. If there's a takeaway here, it's the way that people get caught in the middle when the big international dogs fight. Ultimately, this is an issue between Putin/Russia and several international governing bodies. But it's always up to someone lower on the totem pole to step up and take the hit--to resign, to admit guilt, or even to die if needed. As the direct link between the government and the testing process, Grigory is the one who knows all the dirty secrets--we the audience and Fogel himself watch helplessly as Grigory faces pressure from all directions with seemingly no one actually on his side.

I can see why this film won Best Documentary at the Oscars. It's a contemporary, edge-of-your seat story.






Seems to me I once saw this entirely in French, but, whatever. Good movie. A classic.
It’s my favourite of them all. I feel like David Lynch tried to plagiarise it afterwards with Lost Highwayand didn’t quite succeed.



It’s my favourite of them all. I feel like David Lynch tried to plagiarise it afterwards with Lost Highwayand didn’t quite succeed.
Never seen Lost Highway so can’t comment.

Happy End (2017)

Haneke often has fascinating insight into cringeworthy human behaviour but rarely drives it home. This is no exception, but it’s a compelling watch.
Fairly sure I did not finish this though I do like Haneke.





Re-watch. Not the greatest movie I’ve ever seen, but I liked it. James’s novella is better.





I, Tonya, 2017

This was really excellent and fun.

Using a mix of interviews from key figures in Tonya Harding's life (Tonya, husband Jeff, mother LaVona, Hard Copy reporter Martin Maddox, etc), the film takes us through Tonya's lift, from her early years all the way through "The Incident".

Led by an assured, energetic performance from Margot Robbie as Tonya, the film offers up a portrait that is at once unflattering and sympathetic. Tonya is a natural athlete with tremendous strength and nerve, but she faces tremendous pressure from her critical mother and a skating world that admires her technical prowess but considers her inelegant.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the film is just how different Tonya's life could have been. Raised by a mother who is determined to make her daughter tough, Tonya's only source of motivation is being told that she can't. LaVona (played in a blistering performance by Allison Janney) is unsparing with her verbal, emotional, and physical abuse. In one sequence, Tonya's coach walks in on LaVona beating a pre-teen Tonya with a hairbrush in a bathroom.

Seeking an escape from her home life, Tonya ends up marrying boyfriend Jeff. I didn't even recognize Sebastian Stan (the Winter Soldier himself) in the role of Jeff. He oozes a sort of goofball charm, which makes it all the more shocking when a physically abusive side rears its head. The fact that Tonya repeatedly leaves Jeff but goes back to him again and again makes a sort of twisted sense when you see their scenes together. Jeff is as abusive as Tonya's mother, but at least he sometimes tells her that she's pretty and talented.

The third rocky relationship in Tonya's life is the one that she has with the sport itself. Tonya is one of few women to be able to land a triple axle jump. But she is frequently dinged for the subjective "performance" element of the score. Even as she outskates her competition on a technical level, she doesn't have the look or the grace or the style that would please the judges. While the film itself doesn't really go after Nancy Kerrigan, it does make a point about the fact that likability can actually determine whether or not you succeed. How many sports will mark you down for not being ladylike enough? Tonya is penalized for who she is, not what she can do. Yes, it's how the sport works, but you can completely understand Tonya's frustration.

The film fully embraces the subjective nature of its presentation of facts. There is frequent fourth-wall breaking that takes place. In one scene, an angry Tonya chases Jeff and fires a gun at him--then she turns directly to the camera, says "I never actually did this", cocks the gun, and moves off-camera. Characters frequently contradict each other in their version of events, and the film seems to almost relish these moments of disagreement. There will never be proof of things like whether or not a certain conversation took place.

The film also does a great job with the ice skating sequences. I don't know the nature of the CGI/effects involved, but they are just wonderful.

I read one criticism of the film in terms of its bold soundtrack, but I didn't mind it. The storytelling here is larger-than-life, and so I didn't think that it was out of place.

A great little flick with really strong performances.