Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Aki Kaurismäki. 1989. ⚃

I’ve seen this one before, in the 90s sometime. At the Cinematheque. I remember nothing about it, except… that I didn’t think it was that interesting?

I guess Kaurismäki has always had really, really bad music in his movies, and this time around, he’s just shifting that front and centre?

I think it was a huge commercial success (as these things go).

[eighteen minutes pass]

I was just thinking “this is very Jarmusch”… and the Jarmusch appears on the screen!

*gasp*

Anyway, this is a lot of fun, in a Jarmusch kinda distracted kind of way. The entire movie is obvs just a goof and an excuse to go to the US and film something, but there’s a bunch of good gags in here, and all these funny little details (like that guy in the coffin, and the dog with the coiffure)… This is like superior pot-head fantasy.

[thirty minutes pass]

OK, I’m getting kinda bored now. I think they ran out of jokes? I mean, there’s still jokes, but they just aren’t as good.

[the end]

I do understand why this movie is a phenomenon: It’s a good-natured, goofy movie with a bunch of music. It’s an ideal movie to watch with a group of rowdy, drunk, stoned friends.

But right here, right now, I was bored silly by the last half of this movie. There were occasionally fun bits, but too many scenes that didn’t really connect.

Boomerang. Elia Kazan. 1947. ⚄

The thing with watching Kazan’s movies… knowing that he’d snitch on everybody at HUAC gives you a certain perspective: “How does this scene reveal that Kazan is a horrible person? How about this one? This one, then?”

Which is an exhausting pose to watch a movie in, which explains that I haven’t gotten very far in this lavish box set I bought… what… a couple years ago?

But let’s try to reset! I know nothing! Kazan who? I don’t know from no Kazan!

[rolls movie]

[one minute passes]

Hah! He paints small town USA as idyllic! That snitch! So evil!

Uh-oh.

Let’s try again.

[fifty minutes pass]

I’m kinda digging this. It’s a classic one-good-man-against-the-machine kinda thing, but unusually this time, that one good man is a prosecutor, risking everything because he has doubts about the case he’s prosecuting.

The cinematography is… there? It’s very traditional: Over shoulder shot / over shoulder shot / over shoulder shot / over shoulder shot. But the lighting is properly pretty, and the performances are very… 1947? But in a good way.

It’s totally without humour, but I guess that’s just Kazan being Kazan.

[the end]

Well, that was most enjoyable. It’s such an optimistic movie. Very… liberal: It just takes one good man; there’s nothing wrong with the system that a long courtroom presentation can’t fix.

Ender’s Game. Gavin Hood. 2013. ⚃

[an hour passes]

This is an odd movie. I mean, it’s supposedly about fighting an alien invasion, but so far, it’s all been about training these children in… er… playing games?

I kinda like it? The actors are good, and the effects are, well, 2013, but pretty good 2013, and there’s no overt Mormonism in here?

It’s kinda boring, but that’s how sci-fi is supposed to be.

[the end]

It’s really, really moronic (I used the word “stupid” originally, but that doesn’t quite capture the essence), and I guess that’s because the book is way beyond idiotic. But. It’s fun to watch, and doesn’t quite go where you expect it to go.

So… I guess you have to give the director a lot of credit: Managing to make this thing into something that’s watchable?

I guess people are kinda conflicted about this movie, which I can understand.