#2,099: Birdman

The Godfather - ★★★★★
So great. So much detail. So much that appears to be window dressing that, to the careful or repeat viewer is actually expertly laid groundwork for later use. Even the little things utterly incidental to the plot are perfect, like some of most realistic children I've seen on film. The construction of a consistent world is amazing, and ten times moreso given the conditions under which Coppola was making it.

I think this movie's famous scenes and lines do it a disservice. It's too easy to fall into the lazy pattern of knowing how it all turns out and watching for the famous bits, instead of taking in the suspense that should grip the first-time viewer or the depth available to the returning viewer.

Please Subscribe - ★★☆☆☆
I think these filmmakers made the wrong thing. This isn't a movie, it's a YouTube playlist. A dozen or so profiles of YouTubers that have nothing in common except that each subject was asked the same list of questions. No themes are explored or connections made. The best of the characters get just enough time to hint at larger, more interesting stories that go unexplained, and the worst soak up the screen time that could have been used to tell them.

The One I Love - ★★★½☆
I think I liked that everyone's lying to each other. If anything, I wish they'd been more direct and immediate in going behind each other's backs, but I was happy they strayed from the completely safe into something that challenged the premise. The characters promise to keep their behavior dialed down to a 5, proceed at an 8, and I would have liked it even more at a 10. But maybe that would have tipped us from a kind of light dramatic horror to horror-comedy? I've begun to suspect that every movie is a horror movie.

Birdman - ★★½☆☆
I like a real time or continuous shot gimmick in a movie. Or, at least I think I do. Part of what makes it impressive is the sense that a feat is being undertaken by the performers to make it happen, but this is so openly jammed full of tricks that I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is. Sometimes I think filmmakers might not always be using their powers for good...

I'm in favor of making a weird movie, but I think it might be bad form to include scenes expounding on why you can't criticize a weird movie.

The floating camera, the view of what's going on in Rigand's head vs. reality (which I did like), the repetitive sequencing of scenes, the tendency of people and things to appear and disappear, an occasional flying sequence, it all adds up to one impressionistic, dreamlike couple of hours. But, that doesn't mean it's much fun.

#2,096: The Imitation Game

You Only Live Twice - ★★½☆☆
I'm sure I've got a few 007 movies I haven't checked off on my list because I can't really tell them apart. I watched this one because I wanted to see one with Blofeld, who doesn't turn out to spend much time on screen here. What I took away from You Only Live Twice is that it is a ridiculous movie. Large plotless expanses based on shiny things the filmmakers heard about somewhere. Atrocious spying. And a case study in why Bond was originally described as someone who does not use disguises. On the other hand, at least 007 does stuff in this one, so it's still a cut above Goldfinger.

Rampage: Capital Punishment - ★☆☆☆☆
The original was sensationalist, but kind of interesting and had a fun turn at the end. The sequel is smaller in every way. Early on I wondered if the director imagined he was making a real point or was just hiding behind one in order to have some fun with casual violence. Luckily, he included 45 minutes of preachy filler to put an answer to that one.
     
Big Eyes - ★★★☆☆
If not for the famous actors, this would have been made-for-TV. It's basically fine, but you'd never guess Tim Burton was behind it. Come for the scenes of Christoph Waltz as he Christoph Waltzes around with his deliberate diction and slightly unbelievable angry faces, stay for Amy Adams' collection of crazy wigs!
     
The Imitation Game - ★★★½☆
I liked this better than Big Eyes, and had to think about why. It's probably less authentic to its source material, but it certainly has grander ambitions, with the intertwined time periods. It might just be that I prefer espionage to paintings of sad children. (Although, this movie -does- have sad children...) I understand that folks are upset with what this movie gets wrong about Turing's life, and the 'present day' bits do feel like they're lacking something, but I guess I got by on this one by enjoying the abstraction of code-breaking and problem solving and the doing of secret things. Abstraction, of course, because taken literally, the mechanics of what they're doing don't make a lot of sense.

San Diego!

This Saturday, 5pm, the San Diego Comedy Festival, where I will be telling 8 minutes of jokes!

Also Sunday, mid-day, the San Diego Zoo, where I will be looking at various animals!

This is Rad!

I was an emergency guest this week on the hit podcast THIS IS RAD. I was there to help talk about The Land Before Time, which I have not seen. However, I have seen a lot of other movies, and it probably shows in our conversation. Have a listen, won't you? And then book me on YOUR podcast.

Conversely, If you're visiting because of the show, then hello to you. It seems I was wrong about the Die Hard sandwich board (it was blank) but right about the British billion (it used to be a million millions), and I don't have a theory about photographs of Stanley Kubrick. I am a standup comedian, video editor, occasional animator (which might explain one reference I made on the show), and I thought Guardians of the Galaxy was not at all rad.

Rock-a-Doodle.

#2,093: Witness for the Prosecution

The Last Stand - ★½☆☆☆ 
I watched this because I thought it was Sabotage, which I'd heard was better than people think. But it wasn't. This would be made-for-TV if someone hadn't hoodwinked Arnold into a role.
      
The Ghost Army - ★★½☆☆
I knew these guys existed, so I jumped on this movie as soon as I saw it in the endless netflix scroll. There's interesting stuff in it, but I kind of blundered right into a doc that feels like every WWII doc. The best part is seeing the art the troops made during their service.
     
TINY: A Story About Living Small - ★★½☆☆
This is a fun topic for a movie, even if the movie might not be very good. Everything about the main characters is kind of confusing, which sort of makes sense when the credits come up and you see that they made the movie too. Seeing the range of tiny homes other people have made is neat. I think I might be a little too tall for one of these myself.

Murder by Decree - ★★½☆☆
It was a shrewd move, writing "the best Sherlock Holmes movie ever made" on the poster of this movie, but it is not true today, if it ever was. The opening, which checks off items on a laundry list of Holmes references, felt as forced and silly to me as every direct Lovecraft adaptation that tries to work in every Arkham-related proper noun the writers can think of. The interesting part was seeing Sherlock statted up very differently than we usually see him today – contrast this version, who is just awful at fighting of any kind, with Guy Ritchie's version, a master of hand-to-hand combat. Even if the plot wasn't especially original, the characterizations of this version seem to be their own.

Witness for the Prosecution - ★★★★½
This one's a lot of fun. Of course, because the announcer asked me not to, I won't discuss the ending with you, but just knowing it was an Agatha Christie adaptation meant I was going in with my eyes open extra wide, suspicious and looking for clues.