carsondlx Reviews

Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980)

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[9/10 · 26 November 2023]

Perhaps the most self-referential film ever made. Remember that the director and pretty much everyone involved lives in a world of acting. Of impersonation. It is what they do. A craft like no other. And now Kurosawa has made a film that is so deeply about the art and craft of acting. It's many, many layers. It's impossibly difficulty. To be another. The shadow of the self cannot be completely banished but the great actors come close. So the lead actor here. What is he doing? Where is the reality? Shifting like sand. Or revealing itself only to find another deeper doll in the nested collection of dolls.

But this movie is also about honor and battle and incredibly gorgeous cinematography. And at another level entirely it is about horses. The absolutely innocent victims of the idiot games men play with each other.

Barbie (I) (2023)

BlackPink in your area

[9/10 · 8 August 2023]

Wow. Double and Triple Wow. Has there ever been a movie that a] was talky and intellectual that was the most popular movie in all the world? And b] Had no sex, no violence, no romance, no wisecracking flirty dialogs and was the most popular movie in all the world? I truly think there never has been. In the entire history of cinema. This movie is a shoo in for an academy award best picture. And is far, far, far more talky and intellectual than any prior best movie winner.

Sure. It isn't Simone de Beauvoir. Of course it couldn't possibly be. No one would go see it. But you can feel Greta Gerwig wanting to go there and restraining herself. And yes it slips into dumb middle brow nonsense on more than one occasion, simplifying an absurdly complicated set of issues. But not to the extent that pretty much every other Hollywood movie simplifies. There is meat here. Intelligence. Not to mention tremendous performances. And fantastic set design and a totally gonzo over the top plot. And it is fun. Wild wonderful fun.

You know, if you want to influence the world you first have to be popular. Like Blackpink and their powerful girl power message sent out to their tens of millions of tween followers. This long meditation on sexual politics and feminism is the god damn most popular movie in all the world. I am in total and complete awe.

Knives Out (2019)

Great acting, funny, reasonable plot

[8/10 · 11 February 2023]

No it isn't a French accent Mr. Craig sports. Perhaps a Louisiana Bayou accent? Whatever it is hilarious coming out of James Bond's mouth. Is this a satire of a masterpiece theatre Agatha Christie thing? Seems so at first but no. It is a seriously intended complex murder mystery. This baby is much, much better than you first think. Beautifully acted. Beautifully shot. Terrific dialog. Humor everywhere. A majorly complicated plot. A little too much politics for my taste and the plot lacks the elegant 'of course' moments of the best older whodunnit's but it has its own elegance and the ending is too die for.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Being Michele Yeoh

[8/10 · 17 May 2022]

Not like anything you've ever seen. Imagine Being John Malkovich made by a mad and warring combination of Monty Python and Disney. And it's even more gonzo and weird and wild and original than that.

Unfortunately, just as you feel drawn into the existential complexities that one half of the creators are trying to explore, the other half interrupts with this godawful family values sugary nonsense. A touch of the Disney idiocy that infects and ruins an awful lot of modern cinema.

And yes it tries too hard and tries to push too many things into a too small container and goes on too long. But unlike almost all modern cinema it actually tries to push the boundaries . And succeeds in many places and many different ways.

And you simply cannot miss it. Miss Yeoh is truly spectacular. A depressed and anxious middle aged owner of a failing laundromat with a husband who wants a divorce and a daughter who seems to hate her, harried by the IRS in the person of Jamie Lee Curtis (worth the price of admission all alone), she finds that she exists in a parallel universe where she is the glamorous, rich, uber successful Kung Foo goddess Michele Yeoh. And exists also, somehow, in many, many other universes as many of the paths not taken in her life.

And it is hysterical in parts. In fact it is so good so often that one is forced to think the family values jam larded over much of it was forced upon the directors by the studio or the backers.

Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

Woody's masterpiece

[10/10 · 26 December 2021]

For sure Woody Allen's masterpiece. 1984. The character Woody has tried so hard in a long and amazingly productive career to play, to be, to explain, is fully realized here. Fully human. It cuts absurdly deep and, at the same time, is funny and strongly and beautifully plotted. The framing device in the Carnegie deli is absolutely perfect as are the real life stand up comics who tell the story. The lounge club singer who Danny resurrects, who then leaves him for a more connected manager as he is about to make it to the bigtime, is beyond perfect. One of the great performances by anyone, ever. And Mia Farrow. His ex-wife who now hates him because, among other things, he divorced her and married their adopted daughter. Mia Farrow is simply spectacular as a busty, brassy, mafia connected blonde, and holds her terse own with the doesn't shut up for a second Danny in an ongoing debate about morality and the meaning of life. This debate is never pushed into your face (as Woody characteristically does in many other movies), but is developed naturally as part of the budding romance. The perfect ambiguous ending. Pretty much a perfect movie. But unlike, say, Rear Window or Pulp Fiction or even Some Like it Hot - perfect movies which are about nothing much other than themselves - Danny Rose cuts very, very deep. Touches a whole range of issues about what it means to be human with a deftness that Woody has never, before or after this movie, come close to achieving elsewhere.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)

Dare I?

[9/10 · 2 August 2019]

Well. In my opinion QT is back. It's been a long time. More than twenty years since QT made a serious movie -- one with character and style -- that movie would be Jackie Brown, a little seen classic.

But here is an uber ambitious, complex, beautiful character driven feast. Yes there is a violent ending. But that is like 2:20 into the film and is totally telegraphed for the squeamish to miss. Most importantly this film feels close to QT's bone. Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown are, in my opinion two of the very best English language films of the past twenty-eight years. They are both perfect. Visually. Aurally. Character wise. Plot wise. But they are basically simple and rather juvenile stories from the ether, not from the director's heart. Here We get oodles about the craft of acting. Done, perhaps, more intelligently than anyone has ever done it. We get a kaleidoscope pastiche of old Hollywood from a million angles in glorious fifties/sixties colors like the automobiles of the time. It is not note perfect like pulp fiction. QT doesn't get the counterculture nor the music that defined the counterculture the way he has a seemingly perfect ear for the Motown and Soul music that was made during the same era. Some things feel wrong. Sometimes the plot wanders. But we see the craft and intelligence of the director. The wisdom and, yes, maturity. It could have been better, maybe, but hopefully it is a harbinger of things to come from one of the most talented directors of our time.

Yesterday (III) (2019)

wonderful fun

[9/10 · 30 June 2019]

Well. How can you not love a movie that ends with Obla di, and Hey Jude. Asks many complex questions that go unanswered and often unexamined and sort of slides into the easy groove of a love story. Reminded me of 'Love, Actually' (same writer) in a lot of way though Yesterday is both more complex and less tight than that earlier film. Suppose no one had ever heard of the Beatles and a marginally decent singer came along and performed their songs. Would they go over? Probably. Would everyone in the modern world think they were the greatest songs ever? Maybe. Though probably not the earliest ones. Does this mean that our culture has totally degraded -- that no music of the last fifty or so years is anywhere near as good as the Beatles? That's a scary question because, obviously, the Beatles, good as they might have been, are certainly not remotely in the same league as, say, Mozart or Bach. The really scary questions about our culture are avoided but that's OK because Patel and James are wonderful. In fact acting all around is pretty good. The story holds together and love conquers all, even greed. The best moment is when Patel is confronted by the only two folks in the alternate universe who remember the Beatles. Rather than confronting Patel for claiming the songs were his own they are grateful to hear a reasonable facsimile of such wonderful.

Jackie Brown (1997)

Brilliant. Unique. Ultimately very sad.

[10/10 · 17 June 2019]

Haven't seen this since it first came out. Loved it then. Loved it even more now. But it was so, so sad watching it. Little violence. Little action. But unbelievably good acting and powerful characters like in no other QT movie. I mean it was like the acting olympics. Pam Grier. From blaxploitation films? Who knew this woman was such a phenomenal actress. Sam Jackson? Always good. Sometimes very good. But here? He IS Ordell. About as real a portrayal as ever put on film. How bout DeNiro? Playing totally and utterly against type in one of the great actors greatest performances. And Robert Forster? Who the hell is this dude? Just sublime here as the quintessential competent man. QT is unworldly awesome drawing out these performances, weaving them together into an entirely character driven, utterly believable drama.

But why oh why has QT never made another good film? Why did he not build on this great movie. Why has he steeped every future film in blood and gore and stupid plots with pathetically cardboard characters, weak cartoonish scripts. . Lazy. The man simply rested on his laurels and never used his world class talent again. It is so sad as there have been none like him. No one, in the past twenty years, who really was as good. Yet we were never allowed to see anything but tiny little glimpses of the genius director ever again.

The Souvenir (2019)

Slow and boring.

[1/10 · 16 June 2019]

First I'm an Indie guy. I usually love this sort of movie. Second am pretty good at sussing out interesting films, or at least films I might like from the variety of reviews available.

And have now seen two of the slowest, most pointless, pretentious and boring movies back to back. If "long day's journey into night' was like a fifties European existentialist art film on quasudes, the Souvenir was like Long day's journey slowed down to 1/4speed. Nothing happened but it happened very slowly. I think the script writer hit it perfectly in the beginning of the movie in some advice to the young film student protagonist. No, don't make it like real life. Real life is far too slow and without event. You have to cut and paste and choose which pieces to leave in and which pieces to not bother with or you end up with something totally boring. Yet they all went on to make this film which had realistic characters who basically did nothing interesting at any point.

How both this and Long Day's Journey earned such effusive praise from critics of all stripes is beyond me. Maybe existentialism is making a comeback as a response to the age of Trump. Who knows.

Long Day's Journey Into Night (2018)

Michelangelo Antonioni at about 1/4th speed

[1/10 · 26 May 2019]

It's been done. Over and over and over in the European art cinema of the fifties and sixties. Existentialism. The meaninglessness of existence. Movies with little plot and clever devices that distance the viewer from the characters Done far, far better in films like Goddard's Breathless.

Here, every time there is some hint of plot line, or some chance to connect emotionally with characters and feel sympathy, the action abruptly shifts to sometime in the past or the future with absolutely no logic. Who is who? Very hard to say.

I guess there is some attempt to follow what might be called dream logic, but you know, other people's dreams are generally boring and this is about as boring (and ponderously long) as could possibly be.

Mostly it feels like some film student's first attempt at a feature length with no adults in the editing room.

If you liked this film try Antonioni or Goddard. Existence is meaningless but at least with those guys, it is often rather fun.

The Favourite (2018)

Interesting but simply bad writing

[5/10 · 14 March 2019]

OK. I get it. Over the top historical costume drama. Supposed to be funny (not one bit). Add lots of sex and 'realistic' language Add some strong performances. Stir. Great movie. Not. Not even close. If you don't have car chases and superhero and kung-fu fighting what you have left is character and plot. The three main characters in this movie simply rang false. More than false. Absurd. Neither historically true nor dramatically true. Queen Anne? Competent ruler of England for I think fourteen years. Had seventeen miscarriages. What do you think? A total wimp who lets herself be dominated by a woman? Then by another woman? Are we kidding. And Lady Churchill. Wife of a general. In 1800 or so in a society completely dominated by men. Sure. She gets to act like wonder woman on steroids. And somehow gets away with it? It seemed so wrong it was obviously some kind of joke. I guess. Or incompetence more likely. It's like this movie was anachronistic at the stupidest level possible -- like the director was simply too dense to understand that society was different in 1800, that even Hollywood 'interpersonal' melodrama has to be modified to fit the world of the times. If you make a movie that is entirely character driven, you damn well better ensure that your characters make some kind of human sense. In this movie they made almost no human sense. But it was still kind of fun and the acting, given the god awful script, was interesting to watch so it wasn't a total loss.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Great tragicomedy

[10/10 · 18 December 2018]

Can you really make a comedy about mass murder, torture, child rape among other not inherently funny things? Apparently the answer is a thrilling yes. This movie nails it coming and going. From the delicious musical prelude to the never tiring running joke about the accents to the evil Beria whose evil is only highlighted by the absurdities surrounding his attempt to seize power. Monty Python would have been proud but even the great python never dug this deep into human absurdity.

Yes. It can't help but be topical. Can't help but demonstrate the difference between an extremely ruthless tough rather power-mad, but ultimately competent leader (Khrushchev played brilliantly by Steve Buscemi) and the idiots running certain large powerful countries today.

But if you like black humor and dark comedies, this may be one of the best ever put on screen.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Degraded culture

[3/10 · 10 December 2018]

Talent free, cannot really sing a note, Gaga isn't half bad as an actress. First time she is coaxed to perform on big stage is pretty intense and thrilling but totally downhill from there. American pop and its present practitioners are simply not interesting enough to fill a film. I mean really. Anyone remember Judy Garland -- someone who had serious pipes? Or even Barbara. But Gaga is pretty pathetic as a superstar. Demonstrates over and over just how pitiful the most popular of our music truly is. I think Cooper peaked in "Silver Lining Playbook" and has little to offer as an actor here. Just another example of the marching morons taking over society

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Becket with a camera

[10/10 · 5 December 2018]

The anthology short story format of this film apparently freed the Coen brothers from the distractions inherent in the more traditional novelistic format of their previous films and allowed their blazing intelligence and jet black comedic wit to shine forth with laser like clarity. Bleak and bold in it's ability to look the truth of the human condition square in the eye, but not despairing. Reminded me of "Waiting For Godot" by the incomparable Samuel Beckett. In fact the Coen's connection in spirit and outlook to the great playwrite was never more obvious than in this film. With simply gorgeous cinematography, an amazingly great score and first-rate performances from pretty much everyone in the lartge cast "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" is a major league tour de force, as light as a feather, as deep as the ocean.

The Longest Day (1962)

Thank God for the atom bomb

[8/10 · 23 November 2018]

Biggest takeaway from this mammoth all-star war movie about d-day is that the boys playing with their toys were just having so much fun. The absolute scale and seriousness of the game they were playing only emphasized the complete, male testosterone driven idiocy of the whole thing. I thought, when it was over, thank god for Einstein, thank god for Fermi and the Manhattan project, thank god for nuclear weapons which bring the masters of war directly into the line of fire. Hopefully no one is so crazy as to commit suicide (and racial suicide) by starting another world war. Because there can never be a WWIV -- WWIII will, if it happens, be the very last world war.

Actually 'The Longest Day' is a terrific flick. The Germans, other than hitler, are treated with respect. As honorable, worthy adversaries. No one is inherently evil or good. The multiple storylines flow smoothly. The action is intense and realistic without being unnecessarily drenched in blood and exploding body parts like a more modern movie would feel compelled to be.