Nothing else to say
What makes a movie “too slow”?
If you have not asked yourself this question, you most certainly will while watching First Cow. Indeed, you will be doing so in the first minute or so of the film, where director Kelly Reichardt gives us a one take shot of a massive cargo ship making its way across the water. She lets you know off the bat the pacing of the movie.
In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (the 7th one, which, considering this review, is rather ironic), there is a story entitled “The Tale of the Three brothers”.
Basically, the story shows how three brothers respond to death. Each gets three items from death: the elder wand (which wins ever battle), a stone to talk to the deceased, and a cloak to become invisible (the invisibility cloak). In the end, each brother meets death (albeit in different ways).
Two men stand alone on a pier. One of them hooks a big slab of meat and throws it into the open water. Soon enough, something underneath takes the bait, along with half the pier, dragging one of the men into the depths. Then he swims for his life as the unknown entity chases after him. He gets out in time, but what was chasing him?
That was what I asked my 6 or 7 year old self one day when my dad and older brother were watching Jaws, when I walked into the room. At that time in my life, I had basically no idea what a shark was, much less what it looked like. Naturally, I had to wait and see what it looked like, but we had other things to get done that day and we stopped just before the trip out to kill the shark started. I don’t know how long I had to wait before I saw the beast, but it was on my mind for a long time.
In the 1938 film biographical drama Boys Town, we learned how Father Flanagan (Spencer Tracy) set up an orphanage for young boys, living by the code that there was “no such thing as a bad boy”.
If only he had met young Antoine Doinel, the subject of The 400 Blows.
Let me set the scene:
In the second week or so of returning from winter break in January of 2002, my middle school was having auditions for the upcoming musical, Bugsy Malone Jr. As each of my peers got up and nearly all individually sang “God Bless America” (as it had only been a few months since the 9/11 attacks), I sat in my chair, aware I had a different song planned.
Here in Illinois, today marks the day of Phase 4. For me, that means the opening of (some) of the movie theaters in the state. Since new releases won’t start until mid to late July (at the earliest), these theaters are simply showing 2020’s pre-pandemic releases as well as some old classics (I plan on going next week to see me some Indiana Jones on the big screen).
Most of the movies of the first half of 2020 have been on streaming services, and have easily been missed by cinephiles such as myself. That said, I wanted to do a small recap of the films I have seen so far.
Well, Fiddle-dee-dee.
In light of the current events happening in our country, HBO Max (whose library truly is one I need to consider) has chosen to pull the 1939 classic Gone with the Wind from its service. This will be temporary, since they wish to add a disclaimer at the start of the film ensuring viewers what to expect.
The first time I discovered Remember the Titans was not until a year after its release, but it was just at the perfect time.
I was in 8th grade, so I would always be sure to hang out at the Friday night high school (DGS Mustangs!) football games with my friends. As a senior who played center, my older brother Adam would normally have some of the players over on weekends . It also helped that it was the year the school won it’s first (and so far only) State Championship in football. The second to last game of that season is still the best football game I ever saw, professional or otherwise. It was also when a player on the team had died the previous summer in a road accident. There are a lot of parallels between that time and this film (other parallels to be mentioned later).
In a perfect world, Do the Right Thing is a movie that should not exist.
The ideal world would be without the things demonstrated in the film: anger, prejudice, racism. Yet that is the world we live in, and have before the late 80s and still to this day. The list of names belonging to lives lost due to racial injustice is far to the point of many of them being forgotten by all who did not know them. This is why Spike Lee’s uncanny piece of art will almost always be a film that will resonate with any generation.
Within the last few weeks, there have been at least two instances at the dinner table where my siblings and I were at each others throats. The ultimate discussion (with varying amounts of volume) were taking place over a subject of vital importance: Which was the best film of the Star Wars saga (not including spinoffs)? Despite my best efforts to ensure Connor and Jackson how great the original trilogy was, they stayed defiant that Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3) is the best.
More than likely, you have become part of a “fandom” at one point in your life. It may not be as vast as those of Star Wars or Star Trek, but it is there. You invest in characters and they become more than just entertainment: They become like an extra family member you feel you did not need at first.
Nothing else to say