Paix sur les Champs (1970)

I started off liking Paix sur les Champs very much, but then as it went on, I think it became more and more conventional.

Jacques Boigelot's film was ok, but not great. It starts off as a portrait of a town, the young people who move around in it, and the influence of the older generation, but it sort of devolves from there as it gets overwhelmed with plot.

This film has been out of print in the United States for a long time, as far as I can tell, but I was able to see it finally here.

El Amor Brujo (1967)

Not to be confused with Carlos Saura's El Amor Brujo, Rovira Beleta's film is sort of bananas, honestly, and the acting is out of control in its theatricality. But El Amor Brujo is an enjoyable curiosity, even if it doesn't have the level of amazing flamenco that Los Tarantos does. For me, the highlight of this film – in which a man fakes his death so that he can haunt his girlfriend and gaslight her into coming back to him – is when the woman's new boyfriend realizes (and is relieved) that this man is alive and not a ghost. Real men you can fight, he says, ghosts are another matter.

The Sunshine Boys (1975)

I really disliked The Sunshine Boys, and if I'm honest, I'm not quite sure why I watched it. I generally like Neil Simon – I at least think his shtick is funny, but that is not true of The Sunshine Boys. Where are the jokes? This film is just grumpy old men crabbing at one another as an exasperated (but always cute) Richard Benjamin tries to wrangle them. Walter Matthau was nominated for Best Actor for this and George Burns (and this is insane) won a Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in this. His performance is almost nonexistent. I tell you I am baffled.

Bizalom (1980)

István Szabó's Bizalom (Confidence) is excellent. How it is out of print is beyond me! What a great movie. This was my most recent selection for the unseen movie club. No one had seen it, but we all absolutely loved it.

Duet for Cannibals (1969)

Did you know that Susan Sontag directed four feature films? I sure didn't.  

Duet for Cannibals (Duett för Kannibaler), however, was... not enjoyable. I watched this with my friends in my unseen movie club.

It's like watching an absurdist play - something from Václav Havel or Sławomir Mrożek or Eugène Ionesco but without any jokes.

It is possible, of course, that this was supposed to be funny and that my companions and I simply missed the humor – the Swedish humor that I found so funny in films like The Square and Force Majeure – but I don't think any of us enjoyed it.

King of the Fumble

Insanely, horribly cynical. This Lion King exists only to make money. What's worse is that it is so nearly exactly like the original film that (like Beauty and the Beast before it), one can't help comparing this 2019 version to the 1994 version almost frame by frame. What a total waste of time.

Twentynine Palms (2003)

Twentynine Palms is a fairly typical Dumont film for the first hour and thirty-five minutes. I wasn't really into this one, since the central couple just fights, and the woman is actually a crazy person and insanely jealous. There is a horrific act of violence at the 1:45 mark that then precipitates a much, much worse act of violence. I can't say I totally understood what happened here.

The rape in the film is interesting for two reasons. One is that it is perpetrated by the usual band of white hillbillies with which we are familiar from Deliverance and Midnight Cowboy. The other is that the soundscape of the rape is identical to the soundscape of the fairly explicit sex scenes in the rest of the film. Twentynine Palms leads me to ask, though, why is the rape of a man always the end of the world? I find this narrative formulation exhausting. The only solution most people can imagine for surviving a rape is to kill oneself or to kill someone else. I do wish filmmakers would try to imagine otherwise.

Harriet (2019)

The elements of Harriet just didn't work together. The dream sequences are treated weirdly and without imagination, and so Harriet's encounters with her god don't feel spiritual or powerful. The tone, throughout, is strange, too. As if the film is not sure if it is a comedy or a very serious drama. This is largely the fault of the score, but also, obviously, the direction.

I would place this in the same vein as 2017's Marshall, which sort of reimagines the famous attorney as a kind of superhero. Harriet does the same. 

The costumes are great (Leslie Odom Jr. is suited beautifully) and I loved Vondie Curtis Hall.

In truth, Harriet is more unfortunate than objectionable. It doesn't work, but it's not without its pleasures.

Strangers in Good Company (1990)

The Company of Strangers, which was released in the U.S. as Strangers in Good Company, is a gorgeous Canadian semi-documentary film. And it is amazing. This movie deserves to be legendary, and I'm not quite sure why it's not. Cynthia Scott's feminist exploration of growing old is really, really wonderful. I saw this as a bit of a fluke with my unseen movie club, and every one of us adored it.

I loved this movie so much that I started reading a memoir by one of the cast members, the painter Mary Meigs – she was a lesbian and (in 1990!) she appeared in this movie as herself.

How to Train Your Dragon 3

How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World is gorgeous. It is no wonder everyone is saying it's the best animated movie of the year. It really is an incredible achievement. It isn't my favorite animated film this year, but it is way up there. I really liked this. I suppose here is the place where it is worth saying, also, that Toy Story 4 winning the Oscar is a true travesty. Toy Story 4 was unimaginative, stupid, and boringly sentimental. How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World is the correct way to do a sequel. What a beautiful film!

Klaus

I loved the animation in Klaus, and this is a heartwarming Christmas movie with a lovely plot and lots of good jokes. The little Sámi character who speaks only Sámi and is played by a Sámi actress is an interesting kick in the teeth to anyone who defended Frozen II's colonialist fantasy. This film might be a little scary for kids. There are lots of knives and axes.

Toy Story 4

I was not able to resist the tears that Toy Story 4 wanted me to cry. But I am impervious to enjoying this kind of sentimental stuff. There are jokes in this movie; I just didn't they were very funny. Keanu Reeves is a bright spot in Toy Story 4, but mostly I was not into this.

In addition, the fact that this won Best Animated Feature of 2019 over I Lost My Body and How to Train Your Dragon: the Hidden World and Klaus is legitimately insane.

Antarctic Journal (2005)

I watched Antarctic Journal (남극일기) for my unseen movie club. We watched it because Bong Joon-ho wrote it (though he did not direct) and because Song Kang-ho was its star. This is a strange far-end-of-the-word men-losing-their-minds movie, and I really liked it.There is this totally bizarre eye imagery throughout that really is never resolved, but I was sort of into that. Park Hee-soon is excellent.

Love Those Two Popes

I am surprised at how much I enjoyed this. Paradoxically, I was disappointed at how little the film felt the need to investigate or explore Benedict's misdeeds, while at the same time I loved Anthony Hopkins in this. The film itself is much more about Frances and his actions during the Guerra Sucia. I was moved by all of that stuff, and Juan Minujín is wonderful in the film. I gotta say, though, when grown men are, like, super into gods, I find it a little hard to believe.

Dolemite Is My Name

Dolemite Is My Name is so funny. Craig Brewer's best film yet! The acting is great, and there are so many great references to the original. I was cackling. There are also some amazing cameos – from Snoop Dogg and Chris Rock. I have no idea what Wesley Snipes is doing with his character in this movie, but he is the only problem with it. I expected Ruth Carter to get another Oscar nomination for the incredible costumes. She didn't and that's absolutely a travesty. In fact, this film didn't get any Oscar nominations. This is crazy because Eddie Murphy is excellent and Da'Vine Joy Randolph is absolutely wonderful! The Academy is full of fools who don't like good jokes, clearly.