Crash. Paul Haggis. 2004.

According to Lindsay, this is supposed to be on of the worst movies ever. That’s what I assumed, anyway, since it won all the Oscars.

I tried to buy Cronenberg’s Crash, of course, but I got this instead.

*sigh*

It’s not… that bad? I mean, it’s got an unusual ensemble thing going on. I like the structure. Everything kinda slides from one thing to the next as if by association.

The problem is what’s in the scenes: People shouting at each other. Every single scene is about people shouting lines at each other. And the things they shout are things real people would ever utter. And the plot is a kinda-metaphorical “everything connects” kinda thing, which would probably work better in a smaller town than LA? I mean, it doesn’t go for believeability, so that’s fine. But some of the plot points (like the nice car thief being the one getting killed) is eye-rollingly signalled so far in advance that when it finally happens it’s *sigh*.

Moral of the story: Older Iranian men are really, really, really annoying.

The Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody Allen. 1985.

Oh, I had forgotten that Mia Farrow was in this one. I thought this was one of the later Woodies.

She’s perfect here… kinda playing the Woody role, except for getting involved with Jeff Daniels. Who is, I think, not perfect for his role at all. He’s supposed to have 30s movie charm, but instead he’s just… Midwestern and corn fed.

It’s a charming movie. It’s a movie that shows a huge affection for silly 30s movies, which is kinda irresistible.

But it’s a bit… chatty. I know that saying that about a Woody Allen movie is about as insightful as claiming that water is wet (it is!). But this one really, really leans into it, and not all the chatter is as funny as it should be.

High Life. Claire Denis. 2018.

Hey! Claire Denis! Science Fiction! Space! New!

OK, I’m slightly drunk and hoping this movie won’t be too gruesome. I mean, I love Denis, but ever since Trouble Every Day (which is a vampire/cannibal movie with way too much cannibalism) I’m a bit wary.

Those French directors, you know.

Unusually for Denis, the cinematography isn’t by Agnès Godard. As much as I love her, Yorick Le Saux manages to do very, very Denis-like shots,

This movie has the sort of structure that I usually love: We’re dropped into the middle of it all, and things don’t make sense really, but we trust that it’s going to make sense.

But.

This shot, a few minutes into the movie, just made me go… “wha”…

I mean, it’s established immediately that we’re on a space ship that has a constant acceleration of about 1G. But then there’s this shot of a floating glove. What? How. When? What?

And losing faith in the narrative at this point isn’t a good thing. And while every scene is fab, my mind is just buzzing with “er… sending criminals into space… that’s not a good idea; there’s a gazillion of people who would volunteer”… “er… why can’t they just fuck…” “er… why don’t they just rebel…”

I mean, if trust was established at the start, then I’d just go along and see what happens, expecting things to resolve. And some of the things did, because Denis, but.

But that floating glove. That fucking glove.