Iro's One Movie a Day Thread

I'm a big fan of Frenzy nice review

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Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

Well, to be fair I don't often think of films in such narrowly superlative terms such as "worst acted major movies" (in which case, you should see what film I'm going to post next). As I've noted before, directing performances doesn't seem to be one of Blomkamp's strong suits in the first place and hiring non-actors like Die Antwoord was probably a major misstep considering how the characters they played were already difficult ones to play.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

#474 - Jupiter Ascending
Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski, 2015



A young woman learns that not only are aliens real but that, according to their complicated systems of laws and genetics, she is the rightful owner of the planet Earth.

Part of the reason why I have a tendency to watch a lot of obviously awful movies is because, despite my highly critical approach that sometimes renders the most highly-acclaimed films on par with the most disposable cinematic dreck, there's almost always a part of me that expects to find something of worth in even the most disastrous-looking pieces of work. Jupiter Ascending is one such film with its extremely vibrant visual aesthetic covering for a rather stock-standard narrative about a seemingly ordinary protagonist (Mila Kunis) learning about her destiny that results in her being whisked away from the dreariness of her everyday existence. Of course, this all amounts to the Wachowskis tweaking the specifics of their break-out blockbuster The Matrix and its existing chosen-one narrative, which already used a mishmash of science-fiction influences in order to create something that seemed fresh and innovative enough for people to copy for years afterwards. Jupiter Ascending also uses a mishmash of influences that draw from the space-opera playbook. It involves human-alien hybrids, radically advanced weapons and technology, an expansive interplanetary conflict that lends light shades of moral ambiguity to its otherwise straightforward good-versus-evil conflict...all of which revolve around Kunis' unremarkable cleaning woman as she is targeted for elimination by some power-hungry siblings looking to lay claim to the resource-heavy Earth.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Jupiter Ascending is just as much of a mess as its flashy yet hollow advertisements made it out to be. I guess I can't complain too much in that regard considering how those advertisements do a very good job of letting you know just what kind of experience you're in for. When the plot isn't being extremely derivative and familiar even of previous Wachowski films, it's getting into the sort of convoluted political dialogues that tarnished the reputation of a certain other space opera film. The characterisation and acting varies in terms of any kind of quality - Kunis and her wolf-man guardian (Channing Tatum) both prove to be extremely wooden excuses for leads, while the supporting cast don't get much more to do as they play everything from no-nonsense soldiers to artificially affable nobles. Of particular note, however, is recent Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as the film's nominal villain-in-chief, whose performance alone was one of the major deciding factors in convincing me to watch the whole film. Redmayne alternates between airy, stilted whispers and face-scrunching howls of anger as he lounges around on screen with slicked-back hair and shiny black robes, giving what is probably the best performance in the film for all the wrong reasons (the least of which have to do with him personally). It's a shame more people don't seem to either commit as much effort or have as much fun as he seems to do, especially since he doesn't have as much screen-time as I'd have hoped.

Though there's something to be said for the polish of the visuals, they are put to questionable use. The widespread use of orange-and-blue contrast as a method of creating captivating visuals has never seemed so flagrant as it does in this movie's scenes, many of which do take place on or around the semi-eponymous planet. Flashy visuals are nothing new to the Wachowskis, but there's nothing about the fantastic world they've created here that truly engages. Even the attempts at sci-fi pastiche go nowhere in some sequences, most memorably the extended montage of obstructive bureaucrats that drives home its intention to pay homage to Brazil by having Terry Gilliam himself cameo as the last official they visit. Regardless of their intentions, the fact that the Wachowskis were able to make a movie like this with a budget that could have easily financed several Gilliam projects makes their casting him feel less like the sincerest form of flattery and more like rubbing salt into a wound. Even so, I think Jupiter Ascending isn't exactly worthy of hatred despite its searingly colourful yet fundamentally bland dedication to fantastic excess. It's goofy, sure, but I'm pretty sure that that was at least partly the intent so it can be appreciated to an extent. Unfortunately, it'd have to work its way up to being something that I genuinely liked.

#475 - It Follows
David Robert Mitchell, 2014



After a seemingly ordinary sexual encounter, a young woman becomes the latest target of a malevolent spirit.

It's tough trying to provide a unique experience in horror today. This is an era where the found-footage gimmick is frequently used as a shortcut for creating a frightening atmosphere while also allowing for easy thrills thanks to the in-universe vulnerability of the camera operator as well as their on-screen companions. This has led to filmmakers trying their best to do throwbacks to previous generations of horror that recapture the same sense of dread using more deliberately immersive techniques. Right from the opening scene's sleepy suburban street strewn with autumn leaves and synthesised keyboard blaring into a viewer's ears, one can easily identify horror veteran John Carpenter as a major influence of the sensibilities of It Follows. It (the film) starts off with the tried-and-true trope of having a random victim fall prey to the monster off-screen so as to let us know just what lies in wait for our cast of main characters. The main character is Jay, a woman whose casual relationship with a man eventually results in the two of them having sex one night. He then chloroforms her and ties her to a wheelchair in order to explain the film's premise - that he has inflicted a sexually transmitted curse upon her where a mysterious creature (the "it" of the title) will relentlessly pursue the person who most recently joined the chain in order to murder them, then murder the person who originally had sex with them, and so on and so forth. As Jay starts to notice "it" appearing in the forms of haggard-looking individuals stumbling slowly but surely in her direction, her paranoia grows and she soon becomes desperate to stop "it" by any means necessary...

Even for such a clever take on the "sex equals death" horror trope, there are holes in the central premise that you could drive a truck through. The most prominent one ends up being how, despite the earlier claim that "it" can take on the appearance of an intended victim's loved ones in order to trap said victim, "it" almost always appears in the form of a mute, shambling, dead-eyed, gaunt-faced stranger that would probably prompt even non-cursed people to run away. Slow-moving monsters are nothing new to the genre (the many mundane-looking incarnations of "it" can easily remind a viewer of zombies), but here the execution is botched somewhat judging by the number of times that the protagonist is able to evade a grisly demise at the hands of "it" even in the least logical of circumstances. Then there's some of the characters' more ridiculous plot-driving decisions, including trying to form a plan to kill "it"...yeah, even for a film that's supposedly earning a cult reputation it still doesn't lack for blatant shortcomings. Even after taking these specific flaws into account, the core idea is still strong enough to justify a film that runs on dread right from the moment that Jay gets chloroformed. Though "it" may have some very impractical methods of attacking its victims, the paranoia involved with scanning a crowd or the horizon for any sign of "it" is solid enough to make up for it. The film then manages to maintain a perpetually tense atmosphere where even scenes dedicated primarily to character development might still result in an apperance by "it". There's also the weight of the moral dilemma weighing down on Jay as she has to decide whether or not she can go through with passing on the curse to anyone else, even if her only two male friends are (perhaps unsurprisingly) willing to make that sacrifice.

Given the low budget on display here, It Follows seems more naturally dependent on doing more with less. The actors are little more than serviceable while the handful of central characters get relatively little in the way of development between scenes where they are being menaced by "it". I've already noted the Carpenter influence, but that only goes some way towards describing the rather decent visual aesthetic on display here. I have to give the film some credit for camerawork that occasionally seems like it's setting up a jump-scare, but does so only to emphasise the tension involved with long-shots that implore audiences to be on the lookout for any sign of "it" (and that's without mentioning how well the camerawork is done in the wheelchair scene). The score is an unapologetic homage to the tinny keyboard squeals from Halloween, which do suit the film and its ambiguously anachronistic setting rather well. Though It Follows does a reasonably good job at generating suspense on the basis of its simple yet inventive premise, it still opens itself up to the same criticisms that affected many of the films from which it draws inspiration. The messy nature of its monster and the less-than-positive effect that it has on the narrative are significant flaws that will probably lessen my view of the film as time goes on, but as far as a single viewing goes it's a sufficiently tense little film.

#476 - Kingsman: The Secret Service
Matthew Vaughn, 2014



A working-class youth is invited to join a top-secret organisation of spies just as a philanthropic billionaire is launching his own sinister plan.

Original review found here.

(Additional comments: Ah, screw it, I'm bumping it up to a this time. There's too much wrong with it for it to be truly great but considering what other films I've been giving and to lately, I think the fact that I thought this was worthy of a second chance has to mean something. I could still pick the hell out of many of the things I brought up in the original review. Also, while Firth definitely delivers a good performance I think Mark Strong is a bit underrated - his delivery of the line "oh, that is ****ing spectacular" is glorious.)

#477 - Mission: Impossible III
J.J. Abrams, 2006



When a secret agent becomes part of an operation to rescue a colleague, he soon gets embroiled in a plot involving a vicious arms dealer and a mysterious device.

I never got around to seeing Mission: Impossible III in theatres because it came out around the same time that Tom Cruise's public antics worked to lower the movie-going public's opinion of him, myself included. With TV airing all the previous four Mission: Impossible films in the lead-up to the release of Rogue Nation, I figured now was as good a time as any to watch it. Unfortunately, right from the cold open flash-forward that seems to exist only to establish its otherwise unassuming-looking villain (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) as a force to be reckoned with, it becomes clear that M:I-3 doesn't really have enough confidence in itself to actually be a good film. It feels like an attempt to play things safe after the apparent misfire of the franchise's heavily stylised second film - this much is reflected in the fact that this film is co-written and directed by TV hit-maker J.J. Abrams, whose experience with spies and convoluted narratives makes him seem like an ideal fit for the series. Of course, "ideal" only goes so far and I'm honestly inclined to think of M:I-3 as my least favourite in the series (to the point that I wish I could retroactively bump up the rating I gave the first film earlier this year).

At least this time around, M:I-3 tries to change things up by having Hunt be engaged to a civilian nurse (Michelle Monaghan) who is unaware of his true occupation; even if the whole "love interest unaware of hero's double life" trope is a bit overdone, I guess people would prefer their clichés to be plausible ones. Even so, I could easily debate its execution and inevitable progression in relevance to the main narrative. Of course, he then ends up being called in on a mission that eventually leads to him going up against Hoffman's notorious arms dealer, who naturally swears revenge when Hunt and his team interfere with his plans. A lot of what makes this movie good is versatile character actor Hoffman's turn as the villain, who overcomes his unimposing physical appearance to make for a genuinely menacing antagonist whose matter-of-fact delivery and cold-hearted demeanour easily overshadows every other performance in the film and becomes of one of its greatest strengths.

On the action side, it is somewhat interesting to see the franchise start to break away from having auteurs like Brian de Palma or John Woo direct the films and instead allow for relative newcomers like Abrams to hone their own styles amidst the demands of a studio-driven action blockbuster - unfortunately, between this and the Star Trek films I'm not all that sold on Abrams as a director. When the action sequences here aren't being call-backs to the previous films (another one where Hunt dangles from a cable?), they're still given some less-than-spectacular treatment (such as a heist to steal the film's MacGuffin not being shown in favour of some rather pointless development between two other members of Hunt's crew, or an early gun-fight in a darkened building that is somewhat disorienting). Though the bridge sequence from halfway through is a high point, it does make the finale seem a little underwhelming, if appropriate enough for the narrative. In the end, M:I-3 is caught between the rough but stylish first two films and the smooth yet utilitarian last two films, leaving it in a sort of no-man's-land with little to appreciate about it save for Hoffman, a couple of good scenes here and there, and the ultimate "Tom Cruise runs" sequence.

#478 - Death Race 2000
Paul Bartel, 1975



In the year 2000, America has become a theocratic dystopia where the biggest event of the year is a coast-to-coast race where competitors win points for running over pedestrians.

Given how I've reviewed at least a couple of other '70s dystopia films of a considerable pedigree and found them wanting, you probably wouldn't have expected me to like this Roger Corman-produced blends of carsploitation and death-sports. Well, expect again, people, because Death Race 2000 is good old-fashioned exploitation fun of the kind that I'm always on the lookout for but seldom seem to find in any of the films I watch. In this particular dystopia, the bread and circuses take the form of the Trans-Continental Road Race, where a grand total of five cars (each one commandeered by a team that contains driver and a navigator, all of which just happen to be man-woman teams to boot) as they not only have to race from coast to coast but also try to rack up as many points as possible by running over pedestrians in the process. The closest thing this film has to a hero is Frankenstein (David Carradine), the battle-scarred living legend who dresses like the Gimp in a superhero cape, who definitely has more depth than his position as a champion would indicate. His rival is the incredibly violent and ill-tempered "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone), but of greater concern is the comically incompetent resistance that launches frequent attempts to sabotage the race by any means necessary, even up to planting one of their members as Frankenstein's navigator.

Thanks to the old-school low-budget aesthetic of the film, Death Race 2000 definitely feels authentic with its use of practical effects in every regard. Cars smash into things, dummies get crushed, explosions light up the screen, and so forth. The performances are appropriately pulpy as they range from gruff badasses to outrageously smarmy television personalities. Characters are outsized to all hell - the leader of the resistance is named Thomasina Paine, other drivers include Matilda the Hun and Calamity Jane, the president is only ever referred to as Mr. President as if that is his real name, etc. The satire doesn't try to take itself seriously, as evidenced by one scene where a hospital wheels out elderly patients to be "euthanised" by racers (only for Frankenstein to take a detour and run over a bunch of hospital staff instead), and is all the better for it. It's on the short side of 90 minutes and packs them all out with great moments. The sheer goofiness of the whole thing is what elevates it above more ostensibly serious attempts at dystopia, plus I'm grateful that this is the kind of exploitation film where I don't have to side-eye it for any inherently problematic aspects that have put me off similar films. It does what it sets out to do quite well and, though I don't quite love it, I think it's a generally good example that has room to grow on me.

#479 - Mission: Impossible II
John Woo, 2000



A secret agent must go up against a rogue agent who is planning to acquire a genetically engineered virus by any means necessary.

Another Mission: Impossible sequel that kind of makes me regret rating the first one so low when I reviewed it a few months ago, Mission: Impossible II is generally considered the weakest film in the franchise. In order to follow up the high-tension balancing act that Brian de Palma did in combining complex plotting with dangerous action sequences worthy of the source series' title and theme music, the powers that be decided to enrol acclaimed Hong Kong action director John Woo. While Face/Off definitely demonstrated that Woo was able to handle a Hollywood picture full of implausible action set-pieces and complex plots involving treachery and face-swapping, that didn't exactly translate all that well when it came to actually making M:I-2. Much like the first film, I was young enough when I first saw it that even now I can't help but look at it through a nostalgia filter, but I don't deny that it's still a very lacklustre film.

Plot-wise, the film treads into Bond territory as it sets up Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) against a former colleague (Dougray Scott) who plans to steal a genetically engineered virus for his own gain. This amounts to recruiting a thief (Thandie Newton) who also happens to be Scott's ex-girlfriend, which is naturally part of the plan to gain information. This makes for one especially contrived romantic love-triangle between these characters that only serves to drag things down a bit rather than generate much in the way of genuine intrigue. All the fun parts are generated by the action more so than any genuine attempts at building suspense or tension. Woo's theatrical sensibilities bleed through into a lot of the scenes, even in scenes that emphasise stuntwork more so than his trademark affinity for gunplay. The opening sequence where Hunt free-climbs a mountain without any gear is still decent enough, though the attempt to do a fancier variation on the cable-drop from the previous film leaves a lot to be desired. The same goes for the film's attempts to emulate Bond with chases involving cars and motorcycles. When the film does occasionally resort to a gunfight, the results are still rather underwhelming even without comparing them against Woo's best work.

Woo's capacity for composing elaborate action scenes that are organically tied together by sufficiently complex stories and characters is part of why several of the films he's directed have ended up becoming favourites of mine. That fondness for his best work extends to me giving M:I-2 something of a pass - at least enough so that I was willing to re-watch it even though I had no reason to expect it had gotten better in the decade or so since I last watched it. Learning that Woo's original rough cut was three-and-a-half hours in length goes some way towards explaining the haphazard development of the plot, with its emphasis on some rather weak characterisation that can't quite be saved by the actors no matter how good they may be. The film also has a tendency to overextend itself, most notably through the franchise's notoriously realistic rubber masks (I'm pretty sure none of the other films relied on masks as much as this one did). Hans Zimmer delivers a rather by-the-numbers early-2000s action film score that mixes his usual fondness for orchestras with elements of nu-metal and flamenco (not at the same time, fortunately). While I can see how people do consider it the worst of the series, I still sort of like it in spite of its many flaws. Not nearly enough for it to even qualify as a guilty pleasure, of course, but it's strangely tolerable for a film that has as many popcorn boxes as it does.

Glad you liked Deathrace 2000.

I didn't agree with your criticisms of It Follows. I don't think those things constitute "plot holes." But at least you liked it and made an effort to appreciate it's other strengths.

#480 - Tomorrow, When the War Began
Stuart Beattie, 2010



A group of teenagers living in rural Australia go camping one weekend and come back to find that their hometown has been invaded by a foreign military.

Back in 1993, John Marsden published Tomorrow, When the War Began, a novel where the premise could be quite easily summed up as an Australian version of Red Dawn in that it involved several teenagers banding together to fight back against the foreign powers that had managed to occupy their home country. This proved the basis for the Tomorrow series, which lasted for seven books (all of which I read) and was followed by a further three books called The Ellie Chronicles (none of which I read). I somehow managed to read the books I did without being aware of Red Dawn, so I thought it was a sufficiently interesting story in its own right at the time - then again, I was twelve. I remember hoping to see a live-action version of the series, but that hope had all but faded by the time that a film version finally arrived in 2010. I have only just gotten around to watching it (after having finally watched Red Dawn to boot), so it would have to work hard to get around this particular set of expectations.

Unfortunately, what little there is to distinguish Tomorrow, When the War Began only serves to undermine it. The attempt to create a fictional enemy with a made-up language falls apart a bit when every soldier that is seen in detail is clearly Asian, which I can't decide is better or worse than the actual Red Dawn remake straight-up using North Korean soldiers as the enemy. Playing up the coming-of-age teen movie vibe through some clunky angst-ridden dialogue and poppy acoustic-driven songs on the soundtrack doesn't make for the best first impression and makes the film's first half drag really hard. Even the film's more action-packed second half isn't especially spectacular despite the odd explosion or chase. The characters never really evolve past their broad archetypes - the fish-out-of-water prep, the quiet religious one, the lovable rogue, etc. - and the performances are too mediocre to carry them anyway. The film even thinks it can get away with a sly exchange between two characters as one reads a book during a lull in the action and comments that it's "better than the movie". That may be inherently true with Tomorrow, When the War Began, but the film shouldn't try to use that as an excuse.

#481 - Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
Christopher McQuarrie, 2015



A secret agent discovers that there is a clandestine organisation of former spies carrying out acts of worldwide terrorism and works to stop them.

It's one thing for a long-running franchise to admit that it's getting old, but the best examples at least try to incorporate that into the plot in an interesting way (case in point - the second and sixth Star Trek films). After the cold-open that features the infamous plane stunt that manages to not lose all its impact despite being constantly featured in every possible advertisement for the film, Rogue Nation then dives into a tribunal where Alec Baldwin's gruff bureaucrat seeks to hold the IMF responsible for the carnage they've perpetrated over the course of the past two decades (notably skipping over the events of the second and third films for obvious reasons) and have it be shut down completely, which of course draws some comments about how it's outdated and obsolete. Of course, it is around this time that daredevil superspy Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) discovers that the shadowy terrorist "Syndicate" he's been obsessively tracking has turned out to be real all along and he is soon captured by them. After escaping with the help of one of the Syndicate's members (Rebecca Ferguson), he not only has to stop the Syndicate but also avoid being captured by Baldwin and his cohorts, who are not convinced of the Syndicate's existence.

2011's Ghost Protocol provided the franchise with a much-needed shot in the arm by choosing to focus on providing the greatest possible examples of stuntwork (especially those involving Cruise himself in precarious positions) to prop up the elaborate scenes of action and suspense that have always been the series' biggest drawcard more so than the convoluted spy-versus-spy plots. Rogue Nation doesn't stray too far from those fundamentals as it peppers in elements of the first film (namely, Hunt and his crew being pursued by both the good guys and the bad guys). Familiar faces are brought back - Simon Pegg once again serves well as the comic relief, while Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames are serviceable enough as the remainder of his team (even though they don't get all that much to do). Ferguson's character is a good addition to the story - her constantly-shifting loyalties to both Hunt and the Syndicate are enough to keep one questioning her for just the right amount of time and she plays the role well. The only real weak link in the casting would be Sean Harris as the film's primary villain - even considering the fact that his indistinguishable appearance and off-beat mannerisms are supposed to reflect his mysterious nature, it's still an underwhelming performance. Though I had my problems with the third film, there's no denying that Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance set a high standard that none of the franchise's other villains seem able to reach.

More importantly, the action scenes on deliver tend to be par for the series. Aside from the opening plane sequence, there is a well-executed piece of work taking place backstage at an Austrian opera house that literally makes good use of music (whether it's weapons disguised as instruments or the ways in which the action is timed to the opera itself). A less plausible but no less thrilling sequence involves Hunt having to spend several straight minutes underwater in a sequence that is all the better because of its lack of music, even if some of the techniques involved feel artificial enough to counteract Cruise's own commitment to doing the stunts himself. It gets to the point that the film loses some momentum when it has to resort to doing more "generic" action set-pieces such as car chases or hand-to-hand fights. Even so, I'm willing to give Rogue Nation the benefit of the doubt for the time being; though I'm obviously not expecting it to hold up all that well, we'll see if it does.

I didn't like this movie much either

#482 - Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Sam Peckinpah, 1973



Based on the true story of the eponymous characters who start off as friends but soon end up on different sides of the law.

Despite the fact that The Wild Bunch has been a long-time Top 100 favourite for me, I generally find the films of Sam Peckinpah to be rather challenging propositions, and not always in the best way. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid marks another revisionist Western, but it is a far different type of deconstruction to that of Peckinpah's most well-renowned film. It (or at least the 2005 special edition DVD that I watched) begins with the shooting death of aged lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) before flashing back a few decades to the days when he wasn't a lawman and was actually friends with notorious outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). However, events transpire that lead to Garrett becoming a sheriff and thus declaring his intentions to bring in Billy by any means necessary. What follows ends up being a lengthy and bloody game of cat-and-mouse as Garrett pursues Billy across the frontier, with a vindictive cattle baron being thrown into the mix as an obstacle for both men.

Much like Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett... once again sees Peckinpah attempting to deliver a new perspective on the Western by examining themes such as loyalty, honour, and morality. The previous movies touched upon the idea of friends on both sides of the law (Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott in the former, William Holden and Robert Ryan in the latter), but here such a story is front and centre. The film spends its whole running time in a moral grey area; Garrett may be a lawman but he has no qualms about meting out his own draconian brand of justice or slapping a woman around for information, while Billy is a charming renegade who generally has no problem killing those who cause him trouble (though he isn't a complete monster and many of the people he kills are far more vicious than he is). However, there's a reason why this sort of story ended up amounting to a sub-plot in both the earlier films instead of providing the crux of the narrative; because it's too thin. As a result, the film has to be padded with a bunch of vignettes that are only connected in any way because they feature one of the film's leads. When a film becomes dependent on individual scenes more so than the strength of its overarching plot, that's quite the gamble where results can vary quite wildly.

Granted, there are some good vignettes here, most of which involve Billy (the sole exception might just be the entire sequence of scenes featuring Slim Pickens as an old sheriff who is recruited by Garrett). The characterisation is rough and it's more or less up to the actors themselves to sell whoever they're playing, which of course has a debatable effect. There is some impressive widescreen cinematography in a lot of scenes, and the fact that the film is scored entirely by Bob Dylan songs in an unusual touch that is generally solid (the most famous song off the soundtrack, "Knocking On Heaven's Door", is put to phenomenal use), though the same can't really be said for Dylan's on-screen appearance as one of Billy's accomplices. Even so, the rather disjointed and anti-climatic nature of the film serves to work against it. How much of that is due to the film's troubled production or on its most recent restoration is up for debate, but I wouldn't put it past Peckinpah to simply be difficult. I can definitely understand why people would treat this as a lost classic - enough so that I can see myself giving this another chance in the future, at least - but after two viewing I definitely feel like it's too uneven to quite make it there.

#483 - Funeral Parade of Roses
Toshio Matsumoto, 1969



Follows the day-to-day misadventures of a teenage drag queen living in Tokyo.

As with last week's Onibaba, I knew next to nothing when going into yet another cult film from Japan's 1960s cinematic new wave. What I got was a very surprising piece of work indeed thanks to its intentions to explore queer Japanese sub-cultures. The film is old enough that the language used to refer to different gender and sexual identities feels quite outmoded to the point that it'll affect how I write about it. Specifically, the film is focused on "queens", which here describes gay men who are more comfortable dressing as women but not enough to undergo gender reassignment (which is described and portrayed ambiguously enough so as to make me wonder if the characters would actually qualify as pre-op/non-op transgender women, especially considering how many of them are referred to with female pronouns). The film plays fast and loose with cinematic convention as it does centre around a fictional narrative but frequently breaks away from that to launch into visual non sequiturs and non-fictional interviews with subjects not unlike the film's protagonist (whose actor is interviewed here as well). The protagonist, a young queen named Eddie, is established as carrying on an affair with a legitimate businessman (to the point where Eddie will help out in the businessman's drug-smuggling racket) while also working as a hostess in a nightclub staffed by queens. A love triangle ensues between Eddie, the businessman, and the club's proprietress, but it's just one plot strand of many that drives the film and its wildly experimental nature.

The anarchic style of the filmmaking makes it an interesting watch as you're never quite ready for what kind of images are going to pop up out of nowhere with all kinds of inventive choices when it comes to cinematography and editing. It does veer into comical territory with the recurring leitmotif of a chintzy music-box tune, but never enough to ruin the film. There are plenty of flash-forwards that are devoid of context but make more sense as the film progresses, making the film make you work to appreciate it without it being too incomprehensible either. This even extends to breaking the fourth wall by having the director yell "Cut!" in the middle of several scenes and even interviewing the film's subjects as if this were actually a documentary. This does undercut the film's most shocking moment slightly (and I do mean "slightly") at one point:



That's a relatively minor flaw in a film that, whether it is genuinely good or not, definitely makes for an interesting visual experience. The looseness of the plot may be a strike against it, as well as the feeling that it does drag (no pun intended) quite a bit at times and that its attempts at metafiction may ultimately prove a bit of a hindrance more so than a benefit. Even so, Funeral Parade of Roses is definitely a requirement for those of you who are looking to get into more old-school foreign-language arthouse fare, as it is definitely a memorable piece of work that will definitely challenge your perceptions at least a little.

#484 - The Fault in our Stars
Josh Boone, 2014



A teenage girl with terminal lung cancer attends a support group and befriends a teenage boy whose own cancer is in remission.

The fact that I not only read The Fault in our Stars but also watched the film version twice would suggest that, deep down, I actually sort of like the story. In fairness, the first viewing was on an airplane and the second viewing was a cable recording that somebody else wanted to watch, but that still doesn't excuse reading the whole book considering how I can barely finish the books I want to read these days. I guess I just had to know what the big deal was considering how large a book about teenage cancer patients loomed so large in the cultural consciousness, and it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that The Fault in our Stars is simply not a "me" movie, but I figure I can at least try to meet the film on its own terms. The main sticking point in this regard can be credited to its two leads, Hazel (Shailene Woodley) and Augustus (Ansel Elgort). The former is the viewpoint character, a teenage girl who definitely has terminal lung cancer that is only kept in check by an experimental drug program. When Hazel is encouraged to attend a cancer support group in a church basement, she meets Augustus, whose sunny disposition and tendency towards clever turns of phrase initially repel but ultimately charm Hazel and soon a bond develops between them.

The two leads develop a rapport built on their incredibly precocious idioms that draw unfavourable comparisons to the contrived diction of the eponymous teenager from Juno, and just because I can understand the reasons why they interact the way that they do doesn't mean it doesn't feel rather dull. Throwing veteran actors like Laura Dern and Willem Dafoe into the mix does help the material out somewhat, but the whole thing is awfully slow-moving and what little there is to distinguish it isn't especially well-done (consider the extremely tone-deaf nature of the scene that happens when the pair visit the Anne Frank museum, though I will concede that a certain church scene towards the end of the film is a good concept). Peppering the soundtrack with all sorts of blandly forgettable bits of modern indie pop doesn't exactly sweeten the deal. The Fault in our Stars is a passable tragicomic indie romance that has some personality but that doesn't necessarily endear it to me. While I've managed to watch twice now, it's only managed to confirm that there's not enough of worth here to make me think I need a third.

#485 - The Princess Bride
Rob Reiner, 1987



An old man visits his sick grandson in order to read him a fairytale about a princess who loses her true love and is kidnapped by outlaws.

Oddly enough, I find it difficult to write about my all-time favourites. While you'd think that kind of passion would be able to fuel all sorts of lengthy paragraphs elaborating on each and every little thing that I might like about a film, I find that those kinds of reviews can be a little boring to write. Then again, the times where I've expounded on a film's flaws are somewhat undercut by the "but I still love the film!" caveat. This kind of meta-commentary about the nature of film reviewing makes for the ideal introduction to my review of The Princess Bride, a film that I knew would be very special from the instance that I witnessed the sequence in which mysterious man in black take on the trio of mercenaries responsible for kidnapping the titular character, ranging from fighting a master swordsman to the infamous "battle of wits" scene. Aside from being some of my favourite scenes put to celluloid, those are the kind of scenes that are designed to win over even the most reluctant of audiences, much like the framing story's skeptical young boy who grumpily resents his kindly grandfather interrupting a sick day full of videogame-playing in order to read him an old fairytale. It can be difficult to pull off a framing story that is intended to poke holes in its main story, but the interjections are pulled off well and at all the right moments, accurately echoing an audience's likely reactions to the same scenes.

As for the main story, well, there's no doubt that there's a lot of parody at work as the film takes inspiration from all sorts of literary and cinematic fairytales. With legendary screenwriter William Goldman adapting the screenplay from his own novel, the story becomes an appropriately playful combination of all the great elements from swashbuckling fantasy tales. The romance at the core of the film is undeniably trite, but the fact that it's trite by design manages to make it work surprisingly well. Of course, the real fun comes from pretty much every other aspect. The outsized cast of characters that populates the film is excellent - Cary Elwes is great as the dashing hero who has quite the sarcastic streak, while the trio of mercenaries (Wallace Shawn, Mandy Patinkin, and André the Giant) all create some comical yet complex characters, especially Patinkin as a swordsman out for revenge against the man who killed his father. Various cameos also serve to make the film work well - Peter Cook as a clergyman with a bizarre speech impediment is memorable, but Billy Crystal's single scene as a miracle man threatens to overshadow many of the film's already-impressive scenes. Rob Reiner and co. do an excellent job of recreating the same aesthetic of old-school Hollywood adventure films with obvious sets and some very practical special effects, but the technical improvements afforded by the film's '80s production only serve to make the film look a treat rather than neuter the parodic edge. The score by Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler predictably has a lot of guitar-driven melodies but he also commits to the synthetic replication of swashbuckling fantasy soundtracks. In short, The Princess Bride is a definite favourite and it's hard to imagine a day where I don't think so. It's probably my favourite example of a film that's fun for the whole family. Films that promise action, comedy, and romance seldom deliver on those promises as amazingly as this one does.

Good review of The Princess Bride Iro. I give it the exact rating as you did, it's an all-time favorite for me too. I love how a film can be possibly so laid back and clever in it's approach and the amount of pure fun that can be intelligent at the same time, a true rarity. Wish I could give you more rep.

I wanted to like TFIOS, but I couldn't get past the writing. John Green cannot write dialogue. This is a problem in every single one of his books and I'm assuming his other movies. I think that the writing of high school movies makes it or breaks it a lot of times. Something like Project Almanac crafted it's characters, dialogue, and plot like the people were real people, which makes its flaws easier to accept. I've heard people say that John Green writes his teenagers like college grads talking to their coworker at a prestigious job, and that's not wrong, but the big problem is that he writes them like movie characters. It doesn't let me get invested in what's happening.

I finally witness Iro give a perfect rating to something and...

it's for a movie that I don't like.

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