*gasp*

I don’t really enjoy documentaries that are like one line from one guy, and then half a line from another guy, and then some zoomed-in stills… but this looks like it’s that kind of docu. And I’m not a Stooges fan — I like them fine, but it’s not my thing.

But I do like Jim Jarmusch, so I got this movie, and it looks like it’s Jarmusch’ first (and only) bad movie.

Oh, Amazon.

This isn’t just bad — it’s embarrassing. So of course:

Everybody loves it.

Uhm:

It’s a letdown that a singular director like Jarmusch has produced such a conventional film. In its totality, though, it’s still better than most movies of its kind because he never forgets to foreground the unique individuality of his subjects…

He does?

What:

With this punchy documentary

I’ll say:

Anyone expecting anything formally inventive from this usually boldly iconoclastic filmmaker will be disappointed

OK, I’m getting less annoyed with this now. I mean, I still annoyed, but with no expectations that it’s going to be, you know, “good”, there’s some anecdotes they’re telling that are pretty amusing.

Huh! Well I never!

OK, it’s a traditional talking head music documentary. But even as tiresome as that is, it didn’t really work well on that level, either — I still don’t quite know how many guitarists (or bassists) they had. And the old concert footage looked really badly upscaled; as if Jarmusch had just punched “4x” on the player and filmed the screen. And it feels really dishonest — I mean, I don’t know much about the Stooges, but even I know that there’s stuff of drama and interest that was left out.

So it’s disappointing on any scale. But there’s some OK anecdotes, so:

Gimme Danger. Jim Jarmusch. 2016. ⚁

This is the final movie on this Bob Hope box set, which covers about the first decade of his career.

And it’s been really fun — from this time period, I’ve mostly watched “classics” (i.e., big name actor/director movies) or B movies from studios that have gone out of business (and are therefore in the public domain). You know — “50 Screwball Comedies for $11” box sets.

But it’s been an eye opener watching so many “jobber” films from a major studio (Paramount, in this case). All these films feature veteran directors who’ve worked in Hollywood since the 20s, and most of them have careers that look like this:

I.e., churning out a handful of movies per year. We’re not talking precious auteurs, but people working for the studios on the films they’re assigned — given reasonable budgets and a really, really professional crew from the cinematographers on down.

So we’re talking, er, like, “standard Hollywood fare”… and these films don’t show up on anybody’s radar (unless they happen to feature an actor that would later become a star).

And… I’m just surprised at how good these Studio movies are. Well made and professional, but also (mostly) done with intelligence, zip and vigour (which is quite different from today’s churned-out popular movies). And probably done with a lot of coke (some things don’t change).

What I’m saying is that the Hollywood Machinery is something to behold, and I want to watch more of these films.

Anyway, back to this movie…

That’s Calamity Jane, see?

EEEEEK!!!

That was the most brutal dentistry scene ever film. Makes the Marathon Man scene look like Teletubbies, so no screenshots!

Oh, it’s that “buttons and bows” song… Which was written for this movie. Oh, and won an Oscar for best song.

This movie really leans into the silly, and I love that. (I mean, the mass slaughter of Native Americans for yucks is… a thing, but still.)

Lots and lots of good gags in here, even if most of them seem really obvious, like? I would have absolutely loved these bits when I was like 11, and I still quite like them.

But the movie does seem to drag slightly in the last third.

Jane Russell is amazing in this, and I laughed out loud several times while watching this, so I guess I have to go with:

The Paleface. Norman Z. McLeod. 1948. ⚄

Well, this is very different from all other Rivette movies I’ve seen. It’s a costume drama? And the dialogue seems very un-improvised.

OK, I take back what I said about this seeming non-improvised.

Oh, that’s where the scary music was coming from!

The choice to have a band apparently improvising music while the shoot is going on is a bold one. Must make editing scenes after the fact virtually impossible.

It’s nice music, though. Very AMM.

The Pirates of Brittany.

This is good, but… there’s so many characters (and many of them look quite similar) that I’m having some problems understanding quite what’s going on. I mean, the plot probably isn’t the point of the movie anyway, but it’s still slightly frustrating.

That is, it’s partially riveting and partially frustrating.

The audio on this movie is really important — the use of music and natural sounds is so interesting. It’s a rather hypnotic movie… but only in the second half. The first half is rather a jumble of stuff and is hard to get into. But the last half! Geez. Fantastic.

I guess a reasonable rating would be ⚃, but I’ll go with:

Noroît. Jacques Rivette. 1976. ⚄