Reaction Shots

After a rewatch after too many years of Election , it occurred to me that I was very much overdue for doing the same with Citizen Ruth . Then I started ticking off other films helmed by Alexander Payne and I was reminded me of the embarrassment of riches in his filmography. Sideways , About Schmidt , and Nebraska are, without putting too fine a point on it, classics pure and simple. The Descendants and Downsizing are often viewed as lesser works ( Downsizing , particularly, but I quite liked the The Descendants ) and with his latest, Payne delivers a lapidarian cinematic work, intimate and layered, if not particularly deep. It's a lovely small work, perfectly crafted and as with most of his films, it neither panders nor manipulates. Paul Giamatti rejoins Payne for the first time since Sideways and as usual, delivers a remarkable performance. His characterizations just feel "complete"; these are fully realized people. Some might argue that it's all in the writing, ...

"The Band has been together 16 years. Together, on the road. We did 8 years in bars, dives, dance halls, 8 years of concerts and stadiums, arenas. We gave our final concert, The Band's final concert, and we called it The Last Waltz." Robbie Robertson, The Last Waltz It's fitting that the new 4K restoration of Scorse's seminal documentary concert film The Last Waltz has found limited release from Fathom Events. It's glorious. That's really all anyone needs to say; Scorsese captured the indefinable joy of some of the greatest musicians who have ever lived, embodying the love of music and the mastery of expressing that love in a way that I don't think anyone else has since.  For sure, Stop Making Sense comes to mind as another great, innovative concert film, but the nature of Talking Heads is quite a good deal different from that of The Band, not to mention Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, et al. It isn't that one set of musician...

This is a Halloween recap. I couldn't decide which of the zillions zombie flicks I'd not seen I wanted to watch. I did know that I wanted one as far toward the opposite end of the spectrum as I could find.  Fortunately, one of my favorite Japanese auteurs came to the rescue. Takashi Miike is likely best known for Audition , a riveting, genuinely horrifying and unsettling film that I've not revisited in years because I found it so disturbing. At the same time, Miike has also penned and/or directed westerns, samurai, yakuza, and family friendly fare. With over a hundred films alone (let alone theater works, TV shows, shorts, etc.), he is the Robert Pollard of movies; even his worst is fascinating (that I've seen), but frequently, he's extremely accomplished and not infrequently, very close to great. For the record, Audition is great and I'd argue that Ichi the Killer is pretty close, and 13 Ronin . You can imagine my pleasure and surprise when I found out Miike-...