This movie has a kinda unusual aspect ratio? It’s… 1.68:1? That’s unusual.

I love the oddball lighting in this movie. Every other scene has some strange lighting setup. I guess they’re going for a noise thing? But it’s so uneven — some scenes look absolutely natural, and other scenes we’re suddenly in Fritz Lang territory.

Cool, eh?

Dramatic!

“He’s the perfect barometer of public morality.” That’s a good line. Rolls off the tongue.

This is pretty good… in parts. Then it gets really boring.

Victim. Basil Dearden. 1961. ⚃

This post is part of the Queer Cinema blog series.

This is really cool. Very odd and unexpected structure.

The cinematography here is captivating. It’s a carefully limited set of colours, but it doesn’t feel oppressive, as so many of these colour-graded movies are.

I love these abstract, but luxurious sets.

It’s like it goes over the same scenes, over and over again, and we’re hoping it’ll end in a less fucked up way.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this. I mean, it’s Groundhog Day, but serious. I’m in awe.

Groundhog Day movies are usually played for nerdy laughs, which isn’t really the case here.

But… there’s a few too many iterations that aren’t… that interesting?

Like, this iteration isn’t captivating. The movie had been absolutely riveting up until … it kinda fizzled. It was a ⚅ until the last half hour.

The Obituary of Tunde Johnson. Ali LeRoi. 2019. ⚃

This post is part of the Queer Cinema blog series.

Man, this has some cast. Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest, Hank Azaria, Christine Baranski…

Ben Gazzara! I was thinking “hm, Hank Azaria sure looks young to have been in all those Cassavetes movies in the 70s”, and that’s because… he’s not Ben Gazzara.

Oh, yeah — now I understand why I thought the plot was kinda unreasonable when I saw this in the 90s — the son is supposed to be 20, and the daughter-in-law-to-be is supposed to be 17, so they’re kids, and kids by weird things. But Futterman was 29 and Flockhart was 32 at the time, and that’s what they look like, so I kinda thought they were… weirdos.

It’s a classic for a reason. It’s hilarious and it’s got real nerve.

The Birdcage. Mike Nichols. 1996. ⚄

This post is part of the Queer Cinema blog series.