"Accomplishments"
In theaters: At the crossroads between Silence of the Lambs and The X-Files, Longlegs is much less opaque than (though perhaps as weird as) Osgood Perkins' past work. It takes the tack many horror films have been taking of late and that's the "throwback", setting stories in certain eras where its brand of horror was in vogue. So there's a Satanic vibe in his one, and therefore crimes going back to the 70s, but we're following a female FBI agent who is tracking a serial killer in the 90s. She appears to be psychic, there's an occult element to the murders, and the film is shot in Canada-playing-the-U.S. (the rural architecture alone is a giveaway for Canucks), so you're kind of wondering where Mulder and Scully are during all this, but it's definitely one of those serial killer thriller-horror flicks from the latter decade. I might soon get tired of throwbacks, but not yet. Longlegs has a strong mystery, a good anxious performance by Maika Monroe, a weird one from Nicolas Cage, and a solution you don't see coming, but makes perfect sense given the information we're given. Where the 70s-90s mix may set uneasy is the lack of full resolution, which is a horror trope, where the police thriller would include a more definitive epilogue. But it's not like I'll ever need another scene with someone sitting on the back bumper of an ambulance...
At home: A high-octane adaptation of a WWII mission recently declassified, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is Guy Ritchie's take on Inglourious Basterds, but it doesn't attempt to reach for that film's greatness. It's just a fun action film where the Dirty Dozen-style heroes are cool and near unbeatable, but are caught in a heist movie's mechanics of planning and adapting to twists of furtune. Personally, I'm there for it, especially if we're just going to mow down Nazis remorselessly in the process. Henry Cavill (just a step away from his character in Ritchie's Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Alan "Reacher" Ritchson are the superhero highlights here, but there's a lot of fun to be had with the spy crew made up of Babs "Dr. M'Benga" Olusanmokun and Eiza González (who's popping up in everything lately and I can't say I mind). These people did exist and became legends even with this op remaining secret, so I find it perfectly appropriate that they would be given legendary action star treatment in Ministry. As with many Ritchie projects, I'd love to see a whole series.
When Marx wrote about the workers throwing themselves on the gears, I don't think he ever imagined them being this tiny. Unrest takes place in a small 19th-Century town teetering on the edge of socialist anarchy - the true political definition of that last word, not chaos, but completely decentralized government - a contrast to the precision work they all seem to get up to, whether clockmaking, cartography, or whatnot. We have socialist workshops where earthy people stop to listen to messages from fellow enclaves, and then antiseptic factory floors run for maximum production. Guess which one has no principles and abuses workers? Capitalism is also present in the form of photographers who raise prices on portraits based on demand. I like the play on these themes, and its meandering from citizen to citizen seems a proper mirror of "decentralization", but the subject matter is really very dry. Most audiences will think this very dull. Me? Not VERY dull, but dull enough.
Ridley Scott's (and cinematographer Jan De Bont's) interest in visuals is present in Black Rain, but it's a film unfortunately in search of a better plot. Its Osaka seems a hop and skip away from Blade Runner's Los Angeles, and I'd almost say it's the main reason for revisiting Black Rain (that said, I don't always believe we're in Japan, cuz they're often faking it, but that's probably because I watch more Japanese films than most audiences in 1989, or now even). Like Blade Runner, it dips into the Noir inkwell, but Michael Douglas' macho cop on the edge, racing for motorcycle pink slips in a "fish out of water", partner-killing, buddy cop movie feels dated even by the standards of its year of release. I was often resentful of the maverick/corrupt cop interfering with Japan's investigations, and if he hadn't decided that "America knows best", the tragedy that unfolds wouldn't have. The film is critical of this American interference (in its title, if nowhere else), but not enough. And hey, was Cate Capshaw somehow typecast as the white woman working in an Asian club? What a weird thing.
In his first feature film, Ridley Scott's attraction to exploring chivalric codes and so-called "honor" is quite evident. The Duellists adapts Joseph Conrad's Napoleonic-era story "The Duel", bringing to life the author's own themes, turning this one years-long need to duel for reasons only known to the "injured" party into a mirror of the age. Military conflicts - and this extends beyond Napoleon's - are large-scale duels fought by and large by people who don't really understand why they have to. The two facile answers are patriotism (in this story, Feraud's ego) and righteous self-defense (D'Hubert), but the reasoning is actually existential. It's Ridley so the film looks gorgeous, the use of light making it look like a Vermeer brought to life, and lots of little touches filling scenes with added meaning. The duels are each very different and quite exciting. If I have a criticism to levy it's that Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel, using their American accents, seem out of place among the British-for-French cast. Keitel gets away with it because he's playing a Gascon character who, in French, would have had a very strong accent. But d'Hubert doesn't even sound like his own sister. A minor point as they do a great job otherwise.
I can't be sure how the theatrical cut of Kingdom of Heaven plays, but the 45 minutes restored to the director's cut are probably crucial to the film's quality. At a glance, I would bet the exploration of religion and faith took the biggest hit, given that reviews of the day seem to peg it as "shallow". Which it most definitely is not. Orlando Bloom plays one of the few "good men" in the 12th-Century Holy Kingdom of Jerusalem, protecting the piece from ambitious warmongers from within and without, his Christianity contrasting with the false piety of the privileged who give themselves exceptions to better serve their venal ambitions. The film starts on a worm inside an apple as foreshadowing, and our man Balian (who seems pretty disconnected from the historical personage), despite feeling himself out of God's grace for his sins, nevertheless strives to stave off corruption and embrace Knightly virtues. The epic of course has great battle scenes, an impressive cast, huge sets and vistas, etc., but it's in this (still relevant) dissection of religion and religiosity that it shines. It certainly has a lot of beats that feel like they were repurposed from Gladiator, but in the service of something larger and more meaningful.
There were many versions of 2010's Robin Hood, at least in treatment and script form, and none of them were as serious as what Ridley Scott eventually delivered. I can't say they would have been any better - a romantic triangle between the Sheriff, Robin and Marion, the Sheriff as a CSI investigator, etc. - than a gritty, pseudo-historical origin story for the legend of Robin Hood. The easiest criticism to levy against it is that it's just not Robin Hood. You recognize the names, but putting the character before the more famous events of the legend means he's trapped in Ridley Scott sword battles (seemingly in the margins of his Kingdom of Heaven) and generally not being the spirited outlaw we want him to be. The second is that its difficult development sometimes shows with heavy back and forth between versions. In trying to reconcile the Earl of Loxley and Robin Hood identities, it has Robin steal a man's identity, then is TOLD to take that identity, then his true origins are revealed to be more noble than expected... What's happening here. Similarly, in trying to reconcile legend and history, King John has to be both corrupt AND the man who signed the Magna Carta. It's a bit of a jumble, even if I generally enjoyed the re-inventions. This is also the movie on which Russell Crowe became friends with Scott Grimes and Alan Doyle, leading to an appearance on an episode of Republic of Doyle - a bit of Canadian TV history that is rather dear to me because the "how" is amusingly crazy.
My Companion Film of the week features Bonnie "Mel" Langford... Bugsy Malone... What an oddball of a film. A Prohibition-era gangster musical with an all-kid cast! It's a weird experience, especially since the singing voices are usually those of adults semi-convincingly dubbed in. It's got some good songs, and at least the kids get to do their own dancing (and do it on a professional level), but for me, it's the story that was lacking. I understand that it's a spoof - or CAME to understand and do think repeat viewings would have me be more into it - but it just felt like a collection of 1930s plots cobbled together. There's the gang war, of course, and an obligatory romance, but also "A Star Is Born"(TM) and a boxing subplot. It's trying to hit all the beats and I'm left wondering what the target audience is. Were kids in 1976 that interested in 1930s gangster movies? Were adults in 1976 that interesting in seeing a kid version of the films they liked? That's as maybe. There are some amusing bits of business in how the world is kiddified (the cream pie guns, the pedal cars, etc.), but it leads to a lot of tiring slapstick and the joke can get old. And I'm not saying it sexualizes the little girls, but I'm not saying it doesn't either...
RPGs: We played Call of Cthulhu this week, a session that was meant to be an epilogue to the last investigation, a good thing since I was dead tired from the weekend. Had to bail out early even, and I know the other players continued their personal stories beyond that. I'm sure the Keeper'll keep me informed (but the dice rolls on Discord hit at violence, uh-oh!). It started with a fake-out, with our dead team mate waking up in the graveyard... but as a ghost. Just a sad, chilling goodbye (I was wondering if this would be a cop-out or what). Then we were off to find the member of the team who had regressed into a little girl and interned at a hospital that probably wasn't going to let her go easily. Accumulation of evidence has decided that my character is sort of a non-sexual gigolo, so laying down the charm with the nurses to provide a distraction was key. And unfortunately, the de-aging girl is now rather insane and will do anything to procure a supernatural body swap, including stealing someone's life - hopefully, we can find an ethical solution. Not that it's a given we can cast the spell (AND keep our marbles). But I find myself invested in my original crew, so Elsie needs to be saved (just as I'll miss the journo who was recently killed). I often feel caught between "the crazy stuff I would get up to in a more cinematic RPG" (body swaaaaaappppppp!!!!) and respecting the genre (don't touch thaaaaaaat!!!!), so I wonder where this is going. Maybe this Twilight Tea Society that's trying to become our new status quo might be able to help...
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