Johnny Guitar
You all know how weird this movie is, right? Because
it’s the cinematic equivalent of walking down a flight of stairs and missing a
dozen steps. It’s a Western where the main source of conflict is the sexual
jealousy one woman feels for another. Sure, Sterling Hayden is the fastest gun
west of the something or other but he spends the entire movie pining after Joan
Crawford who has much more important things on her mind, like wearing pants and
being a self-made woman. It’s all too exciting for words and features loud
garish colours that just make my heart melt.
Drunken Angel
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Kurosawa isn’t a cerebral filmmaker. He’s a visceral one.
His stories aren’t meant to be pondered, they’re meant to be felt. Like a blow
to the gut. Drunken Angel is a perfect example of the kind of full-throated
emotion he was so good at. It’s simple. Sometimes barbarically so. But that is
all to the benefit of its raw, angry humanism.
To Be or Not to Be
Has there ever been a more elegant filmmaker than Ernst
Lubitsch? Maybe not. And it rarely gets better than this fantastic comedy
about a group of Shakespearean performers trying to swindle the Nazis. It’s
witty, seductive and hates Nazis. Because honestly, fuck the Nazis.
White Dog
Few people could elevate exploitation to great art with as
much intelligence, energy and intensity as Sam Fuller. And White Dog is a
vicious piece of exploitation given angry, throbbing life. A young woman finds
a stray dog that attacks black people on sight and tries to rehabilitate it
with the help of a black animal trainer. It’s cruel, trashy stuff. But Fuller
doesn’t sand off the edges, he hones them. White Dog’s allegory is brutal,
nasty and sharp – a merciless flagellation of American racism.
Bambi
It’s The Lion King but better.
The Lady Eve
Barbara
Stanwyck is a money grubbing con artist, Henry Fonda is the dopey heir to a whole
lot of beer money and you can make up the rest of it as you go along. But even
the studio system at its finest could only churn out one of these babies - a well oiled
fizz machine of charm, romance and lascivity. And if you have
a thing for Barbara Stanwyck or ears, well… you’re going to have a fun time.
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart
From the prime romcoms of yesteryear we come to the really
good romcoms of more modern yesteryear. And let’s face it, context has a lot to
do with how much I liked this one. Quality romantic comedies aren’t exactly a
dime a dozen nowadays. But Johnnie To is as solidly reliable as they come and
he delivers with a charmer I like to describe as Manic Pixie Dream World. Cute
girl has chemistry with two cute guys and has to end up with one or the other
(why not both?) It’s a load of pish but it’s a delightfully entertaining one.
And that’s all that matters.
Shivers
Calling this early Cronenberg feature unpolished feels close
to lying outright. It’s a rough mess of stiff acting and low-budget making do.
But even through that haze Shivers comes through fiercely intelligent and
disturbing work of modern horror. The setup is basic: a virus runs rampant through
an apartment complex stirring its hosts to defilement, depravity and murder. If
the opening scene, a TV ad for the complex, doesn’t get you the last half hour
of grotesque, nightmarish imagery will.
Schizopolis
Sometimes, when nearing the end of one’s creative rope, artists
need to just let out steam. And sometimes they do so by fucking right off and putting
every half-formed idea that floats through their head into one silly, stupid
piece of work. But because some people are Steven Soderbergh their dumb brain
puke ends up being one of the most exciting, ridiculous, revitalizing and
ecstatic bits of modern American cinema. Schizopolis!
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary
It’s a Gothic ballet done in the style of a 1920s silent horror
movie. If that doesn’t lead to goosebumps in the deep, dark recesses of your
soul, I don’t think you'll ever truly get me.
Next time on Cinecdoche: Pirates! Geisha! The sharp soullessness of German society!
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