It's Time Again For Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly, Plus a Bonus Bit About Sean Baker

The Florida Project

The Florida Project (2017) Baker. I think of The Florida Project as the 21st century version of Grapes of Wrath. Forgotten, displaced people trying to scrape by either by seeking greener pastures or hustling for every buck. The Florida Project and The Grapes of Wrath are obviously very different stylistically, but spiritually they share a great deal. Both are deeply American works about people living on the edge of the economic system that is designed to soak them for all their worth while enriching the coffers of the richest. In The Grapes of Wrath, families are displaced by the Depression, their homes, that might go back generations, are gone. In The Florida Project the poor have no homes and no means to buy one or to even lease or rent one. They’re forced to get by as best they can on a month-to-month even week-to-week basis. The Florida Project is another absolute gem from Sean Baker that primarily centers around small children but also looks at the single parents trying to raise them. Scams and hustles and deals are part of living. Both films could have been depressing but both show people with dignity and their refusal to yield to powerful forces that could break them. Like Tom Joad in Grapes, the young girl Moonee in The Florida Project has an indefatigable spirit and a stubborn refusal to accept defeat. Maybe theirs is the true spirit of America. Willem Dafoe shines as the motel manager who struggles with being empathetic while enforcing the rules.

Red Rocket (2021) Baker. Another from Sean Baker and this one pulls of the difficult feat of featuring a perfectly unlikable person as its protagonist.The ex-porn star, Mikey returns to his Texas Gulf Coast roots and is an absolute train wreck. To varying degrees he disrupts the lives of his wife, neighbors and would-be underage girl friend. We sort of root for him because he has a certain charm and his success could elevate the lives of those around him. But there’s also a fatalism to Mikey. It’s impossible to see such a tire fire of a human being doing anything but falling flat. Baker’s genius is in making Mikey someone we can’t dismiss. His story demands a look, maybe because its so outrageous, maybe because there’s a sense that maybe this time… Simon Rex is incredible as Mikey which shouldn’t be a surprise because like a lot of great directors Baker is a master at eliciting brilliant performances from his actors. Red Rocket creates atmosphere through place and texture an environment is captured without romanticizing it, in this case a Texas refinery town. The setting becomes moral atmosphere.

Nothing Sacred (1937) Wellman. A Thirties screwball comedy in color? Strange but true. The queen of the screwball comedy, Carole Lombard stars, so you know it’s good. Her leading man is the reliable Frederic March. I’ve never found him to be a terribly interesting actor yet I’ve always enjoyed his performances. March and Lombard are aided by two of the better supporting players of their time, Walter Connelly and Charles Winninger. Nothing Sacred is about Hazel Flagg (Lombard), a small-town woman mistakenly diagnosed with a fatal illness, and Wally Cook (March), a New York newspaper reporter who brings her to the big city as a human-interest sensation. Hazel becomes a celebrity and loves the attendant attention. Romance develops between her and Wally, but the truth about her perfectly good health threatens to expose them. Connelly plays Wally’s editor and Winniger is the small town doctor who knows the truth about Hazel. Why he goes along with the charade is never explained but who cares, it’s screwball, Jake, and one of the better ones at that. Directed by Wild Bill Wellman who one doesn't usually associate with comedies, screwball or otherwise. 

 

Cold Water (1994) Assays. Like most great films Cold Water deepens on rewatch rather than diminishes. It resonated with me because atmosphere and emotional drift matter as much as plot. It’s a film about youthful rebellion that doesn’t romanticize. We are drawn to watching the two co-stars but can’t let ourselves exactly root for them. They are too morally comprised.The atmosphere is extraordinary. The music and the cinema photography create an unmistakable early seventies vibe. The long party sequence is brilliant. It is less narrative and more experiential. You feel the exhaustion, intoxication, longing, and temporary sense that these kids have escaped the world. Cyprien Fouquet and the stunning Virginie Ledoyen co-star. They’re not generally likable teens but they’re compelling. Ms. Ledoyen, seventeen when the film was made, had one of the most gorgeous young faces ever to grace the scene and this played a part in how enthralling I’ve found Cold Water. This is another film in which plot is secondary to mood and atmosphere, the feeling of being transported in time.

I Knew Her Well (1965) Pietrangeli. I’ve always loved this movie but initially struggled with the ending (SPOILER ALERT) because the main character, Adriana (Stefania Sandrelli) commits suicide. In the first viewing and even the second it’s not something that is telegraphed and seems barely hinted at. But with repeat viewings it has the feeling of inevitably. She is a beautiful young woman on the outskirts of fame holding down numerous jobs flirting (literally and figuratively) with those who can make or break her. She endures heartbreaks, disappointments and even humiliation. Adrianna is, unsurprisingly given the times, objectified more than respected — if indeed she’s respected at all. There are high times but always with the sense that they are stops along the way and not something that will become a permanent feature of her life. Beyond her beauty she has little to offer the entertainment world. She can’t imagine settling for less so rather than remaining on the treadmill until she ages out, she takes the inevitable ultimate step. Somehow it’s not a sad story, perhaps because it is presented so lightly (while given deeper meaning). It in some ways recalls the great Fellini film, Nights of Cabiria in that it avoids cynicism without denying cruelty. Both feature a female protagonist who suffers the slings and arrows. One ends by offering us a sad smile, the other opts out of life. Both are poignant and important films.

 

Martin Short

Marty, Life is Short (2026) Kasdan. Among other things Martin Short is the greatest talk show guest of all time. He also ranks among the funniest people of all time in any setting as has been made evident by his role in Only Murders in the Building. His career extends back nearly fifty years and has seen him star in SCTV and, for a brief time, on SNL. He’s also been in a series of films, frankly most bad but never because of him. He’s created innumerable fun characters such as the interviewer, Jimminy Glick. Comic genius is the simplest and best way to describe him. However his life has been struck by its fair share of tragedy and then some. The death of a beloved older brother when he was young and both parents before he’d turned twenty and the passing of the love of his life, his wife Nancy Dolman from cancer at 58. Add to that the recent suicide of his daughter and it’s a wonder that he can smile let alone make us laugh. But Marty Short is made of tough stuff and is living proof that laughter is the best medicine. This documentary by Lawrence Kasdan gives us some insight into the man and not surprisingly it is one rich with friends, love and laughter. It really is a wonderful life.

Point of Order! (1964) de Antonio.No narration, no later-day analysts, just raw footage from the infamous Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954. One hundred and eighty-eight hours of footage was reduced to ninety-seven captivating minutes. You don’t feel the lack of those other eight days worth of film, there’s plenty here. One thing you’ve got is the slow descent of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the red-baiting Commie hunter who wreaked so much havoc on the the public and its psyche in the early fifties. By the end of the film when he is continuing a tirade as the hearing room empties and everyone is going home, you can clearly see that this once mighty figure has been exposed. Joseph Welch, the aw shucks but brilliant attorney for the army played a very large part in bringing the monster down. It’s all compelling stuff.

Il Grido (1957) Antonioni. I loved this film. The pacing was interesting, not as languid as Antonioni's later films, but leisurely yet purposeful. It was more about mood than plot with the weather and settings playing a key role in establishing the feeling. It was melancholy but never depressing, never melodramatic. As if it were purposeful. You can see how it portends some of his later work but also how it stands alone as unique to his oeuvre. But unlike the later Antonioni films, Il Grido still has traces of postwar Italian realism in it. The workers, gas stations, river towns, economic hardship, transient labor — it’s grounded in a recognizable social world. Later Antonioni becomes more abstract, more modernist, more existentially rarefied.Il Grido is a romantic, heart-breaking road film. That preceding sentence will make sense if you see the film which I recommend you do.

Platoon (1986) Stone. Platoon is one of the greatest war films ever made. As a Vietnam veteran once said of it: it has everything but the smell of war. Indeed it can at times feel like you're watching a documentary made by filmmakers embedded in the unit. There is an immediacy to the story but at the same time it has a mythic quality. It has the sweat, confusion, fear, exhaustion, and moral randomness of war — particularly the one in Vietnam — but is at its core a moral tragedy. Private Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a soldier and our guide being transformed by war. Like the war itself, Platoon leaves residue rather than clean resolution. The cast is wonderful as is everything about the production. It was a personal film for director Oliver Stone, based in large part on his own experiences. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture which shows you that the Oscars do sometimes award excellence.

Finally a word on the director Sean Baker. I’ve now seen all of his films at least twice. The missus and I just enjoyed a retrospective of his work. For me Baker's films are about people, their relationships and their dignity regardless of their status. They're about people struggling and succeeding in small ways. A Baker film is not a grand gesture, it's a nod, a quiet affirmation. Like Aki Kaurismäki, Baker respects his audience and trusts them to appreciate small moments. Baker's world is not for Pollyanna's, there is struggle, there is shouting, there is anger and there is not always resolution, as in life. I find his films life-affirming. I don't recall ever yawning during a Baker film. His films are not heavy-handed or preachy. The stories and the people speak for themselves without him underlining or emphasizing to make a point. He trusts the audience to understand or better still to find their own answers and meaning

A Half Dozen Not Your Usual Christmas Films, Christmas Films are Here Recommended

There are more than enough Christmas films to get one through three or four Decembers. Many of them are of the Hallmark and Netflix original variety which is to say that they are unoriginal, uninteresting and predictable. They feature D list actors (with an occasional washed up star slumming) and mediocre production values. The actors are all too pretty and the stories teeter tend toward the saccharine.

There are also Christmas classics that are indispensable parts of the holidays. These include such films as It’s A Wonderful Life, Christmas in Connecticut, Home Alone and it’s immediate sequel, Elf, the original Miracle on 34 Street, The Bishop’s Wife and a few of the versions of A Christmas Carol, particularly the Alastair Sim edition from 1951.

A few newer Christmas films are wedging their way into the conversation such as The Holdovers, The Happiest Season and A Boy Called Christmas.

But I’d like to focus on a half dozen very unconventional Christmas adjacent pictures. These are stories that are set at Christmas and in which the fact of Christmas is very much part of the story. However they are not the least bit sappy or sentimental, indeed they have some rough edges. A few likely get a lot of play around this time of year but none are Christmas season staples. Five of the six are from this century. One last thing about them, they’re all damn good movies. True, not your traditional Christmas fare but we've got plenty of those.

Tangerine (2015) Baker. One could certainly argue that this is more of a signature Sean Baker film than a Christmas one. It’s the first of his pictures I ever saw and I couldn’t wait to see more. It’s as un-Christmasy a Christmas film as you’ll ever find. It’s set on December 24 but in the mean streets of Los Angeles. Not only is there a total absence of snow (in a Christmas movie!) but as evidenced by everyone’s attire, it’s a very warm day. The focus here is on a transgender sex worker named Sin-Dee Rella who’s just been released from the hoosegow. Our heroine (?) discovers that her (?) pimp/boyfriend has been cheating on her. With a fellow tranny sex worker in tow she goes in search of the cheater. Many adventures ensue. We also follow an Armenian-American cab driver and his adventures which ultimately collide with Sin-Dee. Remember, it’s set on Christmas Eve! It’s also another example of Baker’s excellence as a director/writer/editor.

A Christmas Tale (2008) Desplechin. First of all it’s French which might be disqualifying for some people but good Christmas films are not exclusive to the U.S.It features what should be a standard of holiday fare: the dysfunctional family. This unhappy brood is gathering for Christmas at their matriarch’s home having just discovered that said mother has cancer. What could go wrong? It’s a surprisingly accessible film as heavy issues are treated with a light touch. The cast is stellar led by Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric. It’s an award-winning film that was all over 2008 top ten movie lists. Deservedly so.

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) Helander. Us Finns claim Santa Claus as our own — actually that would be Joulu Pukki. So it’s natural that we should have a produced an outstanding Christmas film and being made by Finns it’s a bit odd. I’ve seen it described as an action/horror/comedy. I might quibble a bit with the horror label but there’s no arguing that it’s got action and comedy and it’s most definitely a Christmas movie. It should be noted that this film’s version of Santa is no jolly fat man and the elves depicted are not full of holiday cheer. It is a very dark version of the Santa Claus mythology that’s not for the little kiddies. It’s highly original and great fun and worth a look.

Bad Santa (2003) Zwigoff. As the title suggests this is a dark comedy. You’re also prepared for that knowing that Billy Bob Thornton is in the lead. Add to that the fact that the Coen Brothers were executive producers. It was both a critical and commercial success but doesn’t seem to resonate with audiences today. More’s the pity. Bad Santa is the story of a thief who, with the aid of a diminutive elf-like partner conspire to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. All does not go as planned. Not exactly a feel good story but a good story for sure.

Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) Jutra. It’s set on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there’s snow a plenty and the residents of the small mining town that provides the setting are all enthused about the holiday. There’s also a dead body, that of a young teen and his bereaved family not the usual stuff of a Yuletide film. This is a French Canadian picture and it’s not only highly suitable for the holiday season it’s an excellent movie that comes highly recommended by me and others. This touching story is told through the eyes of a fifteen-year old lad named Benoit. It is social and political history from its time (set in 1949) but it’s also perfectly charming.

Carol (2015) Haynes. A lesbian affair for your holiday season. This is a brilliant film from Todd Haynes. It’s set in 1952-53 and you immediately feel transported to that time and that place which is mostly New York. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara co-star and are both excellent as is the rest of the cast. Ms. Blanchett plays the title character a married woman of means who falls for a shopgirl (Mara). She is going through a separation from her husband and the custody of their young daughter is in question. The affair will be a black mark against her. What’s all this got to do with Christmas? Not a whole lot but it begins as Carol is Christmas shopping and is waited on by her future lover. It continues through the holiday and later New Year’s Eve. A New York Christmas in the ‘50s looks lovely.

A Look at Ten of My Favorite Directors, Why I Revere Them and A Film that Sums them Up

Bergman with the great cinema photographer Sven Nykvist

In this post, I’m highlighting ten directors whose work I deeply admire. For each, I’ve chosen a single film that I believe best captures their unique voice, style, and impact on cinema. 

Ingmar Bergman. My favorite. An incredible body of work. The thinking man’s director. Cerebral stories that challenge us to contemplate but are beautiful to look at. Masterpieces like The Seventh Seal, Persona and the kaleidoscopic Fanny and Alexander. Bergman told extremely human stories about how people think, celebrate, suffer and make sense of the world. Bergman explored not just minds but souls. There were eccentrics, there were the mad but there were also the classic everyman/woman looking for love, looking for meaning looking for solace. He’s oeuvre is best summed up by Winter Light which, like other of his films, explores the frustration of God’s silence.

Woody Allen. Fifty films that range from classic comedies like Bananas, to serious meditations such as Match Point with many films like Manhattan straddling both worlds. Allen is a master of comedy but he can also tell Bergman-like stories of personal angst and self exploration. Also like Bergman, many of his movies center around relationships. Allen the director’s best friend is Allen the writer. He has given himself fantastic scripts to work with. He gets great performances from his casts -- especially women --ranging from Diane Keaton to Cate Blanchett to Penelope Cruz. His work is best summed up by Midnight in Paris. Beautifully shot, rich with great performance, an original premise, much humor and much to think about.

John Ford. I could be perfectly happy watching Ford films with no sound or subtitles. They are exquisitely shot whether you’re seeing the colorful Vista Vision of The Searchers or the glorious black and white of Young Mr. Lincoln. No one was better at framing a shot. He made the wide open spaces of Monument Valley even bigger by making the interiors so claustrophobic. His pacing was always perfect. You’d be hard-pressed to find a yawn in one his films. The wordless opening shot of The Long Voyage Home is one of the best in cinema as his poignant closing shot in The Searchers. Though not a Western, his work can be summed up by the brilliance of The Grapes of Wrath, a visual masterpiece that makes the oh-so human stories being told all the more memorable.

Preston Sturges. They all came out in one great rush in the first half of the 1940s. Several of the greatest screwball comedies ever made. From The Great McGinty to Hail the Conquering Hero Sturges made pictures that mixed highbrow wit with slapstick that never quite went over the top. He was another director who benefitted from his own screenplays. He was a master of telling unique stories: a comedy director who wants to make socially relevant films, a faux war hero being promoted by real heroes, a pregnant teen who doesn’t know who the father is, a nobody who goes from being political muscle to corrupt governor. They’re all fast-paced, fun and memorable. Sturges work is epitomized by The Lady Eve where a smart and sexy con artist (Barbara Stanwyck) seduces an ale scion (Henry Fonda). Hilarious complications ensue.

Aki Kaurismäki. He tells stories of resilience, people overcoming misfortunes (accidents, beatings, amnesia, poverty). His characters are not especially beautiful, far from glamorous. They are often stoic, outwardly placid, but always relatable. The great Finn’s films are a visual treat with beautiful color palettes and spot on framing. The stories are rich with irony but there’s nothing broad, no gratuitous violence no slapstick. The stories are simple yet compelling. Kaurismäki the director’s greatest asset is Kaurismäki the writer. His work is summed up in his most recent film, Fallen Leaves. Awkward love, hurdles for both main characters to clear, a Chaplinesque ending.

Martin Scorsese. You think of the gangster films or the gritty urban dramas like Taxi Driver. But the man also made Age of Innocence a sumptuous period piece with delicate and devastating performances from the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer. At his best in his early days Scorsese was a grand master of using the camera to better tell his stories. The freeze frames, the slow motion, the odd angles, were all used in service of enhancing the story-telling. Raging Bull is a great example. His films were always raw and honest. The best of the lot was Goodfellas which is for me the best directed film of all time. Scorsese brought all his talents to creating this indelible story so rich with memorable scenes and characters.

The Coen Brothers. The Big Lebowski, No Country For Old Men and A Serious Man. Three completely different films from the same creative minds. It’s as if they refuse to in anyway repeat themselves so they go out of their way to make something different every time. (Imagine the range of going from Blood Simple to Barton Fink.) The commonality in their pictures is that they’re all damn good and many are masterclasses in cinema. They avoid cliches like the plague. The originality in dialogue and the avoidance of standard cinematic tropes sets them apart. They’ve never been “Hollywood” directors which means they’ve always had the truth of their stories guide their story telling. Inside Llewyn Davis sums up their brilliance. It’s an unconventional story. A rising star who doesn’t rise, who indeed is hard to root for. They perfectly capture a moment in time which is revealed to us through a cadre of highly original characters.

Andrei Tarkovsky. In some respects the ultimate European art house director but one who never looked amateurish nor tried our patience. Films like Mirror and The Sacrifice invited us to think, challenged us to wonder but never left us confused. He could tell big stories like the epic Andrei Rublev or starker, simpler ones like Ivan’s Childhood. He had the brains of Bergman and the vision of Kurosawa. Tarkovsky mastered the simple shot that told so much. He let some scenes linger so we could catch our breath and he picked his spots well. I think Stalker is the ultimate Tarkovsky film. Smart, mysterious, asking us questions while giving us so much to soak in.

Federico Fellini. Where to start? Where to finish? What to include? Fellini’s film are so rich, so full of life, energy, people. Oh goodness the people.The glitterati, the intellectual, the talented, the precocious the interesting the grotesque, the bizarre. Sitting down to a Fellini movie is the cinematic equivalent of a royal banquet. See 8 1/2, La Dolce Vita, Amarcod. Even the simpler stripped down stories like La Strada contain so much. Laughter, pathos and the intellectually inspiring. To me his work is best summed up by Nights of Cabiria. A by turns heart-warming and tragic story told with both verve and empathy. The smile at the end says it all.

Sean Baker. Here’s another director who shows great respect for the human race. He does this in part by having characters who seem real, believable and are interesting. They are not all “good” people but for all their deficiencies there is humanity. Baker is a humanist director telling stories of people who have had a few breaks go against them but struggle on. Tangerine is about a transgender sex worker, Take Out follows a Chinese immigrant in New York making food deliveries, Starlet is about the friendship between two women, one is 21 and the other 85. He has films set in New York, Texas, Florida and Los Angeles.  He goes where the stories are. Earlier this year he won a well-deserved Best Picture Oscar for Anora a film that captures all that is great about Baker’s work. It is the story of an exotic dancer who finds love with a Russian oligarch’s son. Until that love becomes inconvenient for his family. It is a rich blend of comedy, drama, romance and maintaining one’s dignity.

I learned from this exercise that the best directors emphasize people. Making them seem real, relatable and interesting. They show respect for their characters and for their audience. Their stories are not dumbed down and are often challenging but never pretentious. They often elicit great performances from actors. They tell original stories that they often write themselves. They have a visual style, are masters of pacing and editing and are particularly good at picking just the right music or particular song for their soundtracks. Undoubtedly they excel at selecting their crews be they cinema photographers, editors, set designers or make up artists.

What’s next. Probably a part two. Look who I left out: Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Akira Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luis Buñuel, Howard Hawks, Charlie Chaplin, Wong Kar Wai, Billy Wilder, Paul Thomas Anderson, Satyajit Ray, William Wellman, Louis Malle, Jim Jarmusch and Roberto Rossellini.

It's Time for Another Installment of Films I've Watched Lately Some of Which I Loved Greatly

From Starlet directed by Sean Baker

Midnight in Paris (20110 Allen. It’s not easy to make a movie that feels truly “magical.” This is evidenced by how bad most films are that try to delve in the supernatural in any way shape or form. Woody Allen as writer and director pulled it off with Midnight in Paris. There has be to be a dash of believability to the story’s conceit. Normal conventions need to be followed within the fantasy world. The story has to be compelling enough to make its total implausibility forgotten. The actors have to buy into the story and play it straight, not with a wink and a nod to the audience whether literal or figurative. Lastly it needs to move the audience either through its action, love story or message. With Midnight in Paris Allen made one of the best movies ever of any kind. The missus and I watched it Saturday night for the perhaps the fifth, sixth or seventh time. Hard to keep track. I could watch it again tonight. The story of a man who is able to travel from the 21st century to 1920s Paris every night is perfect for someone like me who is fascinated by certain eras of the past — including Paris in the twenties. I’m also fascinated by the notion of time travel which is why all of the books I’ve written have been set in the past. Imagine a film with characters that include F Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, Zelda Fitzgerald, Salvador Dali and TS Eliot, to name a few. You get that in Midnight in Paris. You get a lot and it’s all wonderful….and magical.

Prince of Broadway (2008) Baker. Watching this film and Starlet means I’ve know seen all of Sean Baker’s film. There’s not a lemon in the bunch. It’s a film that feels at times like a documentary. Baker’s films often feel like they’re shot from the real lives of people. In this case we have a West African immigrant in New York making a decent living as a hustler selling knock off clothes and shoes. He’s got a business owner as frontman supporting him. It’s all good until his ex brings by what she says is his son for him to raise for awhile. He is not prepared for this. It’s supposed to be for two weeks but we just now it’s not going to be anywhere near that neat and tidy. It’s a story that draws upon so much of what is challenging about being a father, about making it in the world, about small children, about dancing around the law, about survival in the city and how close we often are to slipping off an edge. Excellent stuff.

Starlet (2012) Baker. I knew nothing about the movie when I pressed play other than it appeared to feature a young, white female in the lead role. An hour and forty minutes I was left to wonder why I hadn’t been directed towards this film before. Brilliant. Bree Hemingway stars as Jane, a young porn actress who discovers wads of cash in a thermos she bought at a yard sale. She befriends the elderly woman who sold it to her, much to the dismay of the elderly woman who’d prefer to be left alone. As in all Baker films there are arguments, fights, emotional outbursts, resolutions and issues left hanging. Much of the trouble has to do with Jane’s housemate who’s also in the porn business, she’s something of a train wreck and her all-over-the-map boyfriend is Ward Cleaver in comparison. There’s a lot to unpack in this story of a bizarre but meaningful friendship and the side issues that complicate matters. The unpacking is well worth it as much as revealed and much is left for us to contemplate. Sean Baker is now one of my favorite directors.

The Flim Flam Man (1967) Kershner. Sometimes the story around the movie or the circumstances of seeing it or what you’ve heard or seen about it can alter the way you watch a film. This is often a problem as it skews the way you perceive it, but other times it adds an element to the viewing experience. With Flim Flam Man I couldn’t help thinking that I hadn’t seen it since it first came to theaters fifty-eight years ago. All I remembered about it was that began with the two main characters by a train track. I also had a strong mental image of a very cute young woman in a nighty which revealed luscious legs. Oh yes, I remembered that it co-starred George C Scott and Michael Sarazin. I really liked Sarazin as a kid, he seemed like a cool guy, the type I’d like to grow up to be. Sure Steve McQueen was my hero, but he existed in another stratosphere. Being a Sarazin seemed possible. So I watched the movie lo these many years later continually wondering what the young teenaged me thought of this, that or the other. I had no memory of whether I liked it at the time but having finally seen it again I’m sure that I did. It’s one of those fun, charming movies with ridiculous chase scenes, two mismatched buddies and a love interest. A story in which are rebellious outside-the-law hucksters continually outwit the cops. It was a pleasure to watch and fun to think about the lens I saw it through during my first viewing. It was also nice to see the young beauty who I'd remembered, she was played by Sue Lyons.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) C. Brown. One of those films that is all the more remarkable given the context of when it was made. A story about racism, Jim Crow and a near lynching set in Oxford, Mississippi is not something you’d expect to have been made way back in 1949 when Jim Crow still reigned in the American South and near lynchings were less frequent than actual ones. A black man is accused of murder and the evidence all points to his guilt. Even the well-meaning white lawyer is sure of the man’s guilt. But mostly through the help of a teenaged boy who was once saved from drowning by the accused, the truth seems that it will out. It’s a good story from any time but coming out when it did is amazing.

Hearts and Minds (1974) P. Davis. My favorite documentary of all time. It’s a searing indictment of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War. It has been criticized for its bias. That’s like criticizing a Holocaust documentary for only showing the Jewish side of the story. Any portrayal of U.S. incursion into Vietnam needs to focus on American arrogance, ignorance, cruelty, barbarity and incompetence. It needs to expose the lies, the hypocrisy and the racism at the core of U.S. policies and actions. As Daniel Ellsberg says during the film: "The question used to be: might it be possible that we were on the wrong side in the Vietnamese War? But, we weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side.” If you’d like to understand the American position in the war here’s a quote from the film by General Westmoreland: “The Oriental doesn't put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient. And that's the philosophy of the Orient. Expresses it - life is not important.” Or how about this from Lt. George Coker a former POW who said this: “What did Vietnam look like? Well, if it wasn't for the people, it was very pretty. The people over there are very backward and very primitive and they just make a mess out of everything.” There’s another side to this story? 

My Top Ten Films of 2024

1. Anora (Baker)

2. All We Imagine as Light (Kapadia)

3. Evil Does Not Exist (Hamaguchi)

4.  La Chimera (Rohrwacher)

5. The Room Next Door (Almodóvar)

6.  A Complete Unknown (Mangold) 

7.  A Real Pain (Eisenberg)  

'8. Green Border (Holland)

9. Didi (Wang) 

10.The Brutalist (Corbet) 

Honorable Mention: September 5; (Fehlbaum) Hit Man (Linklater); Saturday Night (Reitman); The Taste of Things (Tran); Last Summer (Breillat); My Old Ass (Park).

Best actor: Daniel Craig Queer Runners Up — Colman Domingo Sing Sing, Timothee Chalamet A Complete Unknown, Glen Powell Hit Man.

Best actress: Mikey Madison Anora. Runners Up — Anna Kendrick Woman of the Hour, Jessie Buckley Wicked Little Letters, Tilda Swinton The Room Next Door.

Best supporting actress: Carol Kane Between the Temples. Runners Up — Aubrey Plaza My Old Ass, Monica Barbaro A Complete Unknown, Natasha Lyonne His Three Daughters.

Best supporting actor: Kieran Culkin A Real Pain. Runners Up — Thomas Hardy The Bikeriders, Edward Norton A Complete Unknown, Yura Borisov Anora.