My Week in Movies -1/09/2021 - 1/15/2021

Taking a break from my more serious writing to let people know what movies I saw this week and what I took away from them. Hoping to do this every Friday. Enjoy!

NOTE: Almost finished this on the 15th but got hit with a two-week writers block. I’ll pump out one for last week ASAP and then I’ll be up to date. Thank god for my Letterboxd. Enjoy!

Roger & Me (1989)

• Director: Michael Moore

• Writer: Michael Moore

• Cinematography: Chris Beaver, John Prusak, Kevin Rafferty, Bruce Schermer

The documentary that spawned the legendary career of infamous truth-teller/muckraker/propagandist/nutcase Michael Moore. How you choose to describe him is a pretty reliable political compass, and I know pretty well where I stand. Despite some dumb stunts and misfires over the years, Moore is for whatever reason one of the only true radicals to get time on mainstream news networks. So I’ll always have his back, whatever that’s worth.

I was gonna type “politics aside,” but with a film like this you really can’t do that, can you? The dismantling of Flint’s automotive industry by Roger Smith, top Flint government officials, and even the UAW, was political as well as corporate. We see city planners trying to turn Flint into an upscale tourist destination, distracting visitors from the rows of abandoned homes with macabre reincarnations of productivity past. The attitude of the rich towards the poor stops just short of spitting in their faces. Celebrities who came up in Flint return to “cheer up” their old friends, telling them that a positive outlook and a little entrepreneurial spirit will fix all their problems.

Listen, I wanted to keep this series a casual one. But this documentary is a deeply affecting one, a demonstration of what happens to people once their source of pride and self-reliance is stripped away. And for what? To paraphrase Moore “I thought businesses only laid off people when they’re losing money, but GM was one of the most profitable corporations on the planet!”

If you watch this and feel anything besides righteous anger towards Roger and his cronies, well, I don’t know what to tell you.

The Exorcist III

• Director: William Peter Blatty

• Writer: William Peter Blatty

• Cinematographer: Gerry Fisher

• Music: Barry De Vorzon

I love it when actors take it to 11 and just really commit. George C. Scott is BIG onscreen no matter what, he’s got a presence like few others. But when he lets loose he puts all other wild man performers to shame. Is his hollering and crying a bit unprofessional? Well, how would you react to the psychotic shit he sees in this film.

Written and directed by William Peter Blatty, who wrote the novel and the screenplay that the first film in the franchise worked off of, this movies goes places. Even if you’re not a horror fan, this is worth watching just to appreciate the impeccable direction and performances. Not without its faults but a fun ride from start to finish.

The Boston Strangler (1968)

• Director: Richard Fleicher

• Writer: Edward Anhalt, Gerold Frank

• Cinematographer: Richard H. Kline

• Music: Lionel Newman

—Spoilers Ahead—

Essentially an exploitation film dressed up in high style, prestige actors, and some sort of a a Public Service Announcement about “identifying the violent”, The Boston Strangler succeeds on pure watch-ability and curiosity. And performances, god damn these performances are good. Henry Fonda facing off against Tony Curtis in the second half is just some first rate film-making.

The split-screen thing transcends gimmick and becomes a highly compelling and effective narrative device. The viewer knows the horror about to be discovered on one half of the screen while unknowing innocents rationalize their roommates uncharacteristic placidity on the other. Then when The Good Lawyer Bottomly pushes poor Albert DeSalvo over the edge at the end, man it may be abuse of power and coercion but damn it if it isn’t entertaining.

So that’s the central issue of the film. It’s compulsively fascinating, undeniably well-made and stimulating. But I’m not sure what the point of it is other than to present a freak show.

The Ninth Configuration (1980)

• Director: William Peter Blatty

• Writer: William Peter Blatty

• Cinematographer: Gerry Fisher

• Music: Barry De Vorzon

The Exorcist III piqued my interest in this oddball writer director who only ever made two movies. I need to watch this one again, I’ll be honest. I found it a bit inscrutable, a bit tiresome. But I was compelled to keep going nonetheless. Stay tuned for more remarks about this film and this director. I just haven’t had enough time to digest it.

Affliction (1997)

• Director: Paul Schrader

• Writer: Paul Schrader

• Cinematographer: Paul Sarossy

• Music: Michael Brook

I’ve got a bad case of Schrader Brain. I see pain in every face, demons wrestling in blackened hearts, and men who try to be good undone by The Sins of the Father. But I’ll tell you, even for a Schrader joint this one is bleak as bleak gets. On Letterboxd I described it simply: “Imagine if Fargo never even made you crack a smile.”

You’ve got your desolate snow-covered location, a small-town cop looking into a suspicious(?) death, plenty of family drama and a tough old patriarch. But Affliction’s snow looks like it’s coated with ash, making it a lot bleaker than the clean white powder in Fargo. The small town cop, Wade, is played here by Nick Nolte as a man so weighed down by regret and shame that he can’t hardly seem to stand up straight. The death he investigates is of a union big-shot from Boston who seems to have accidentally shot himself dead in a hunting accident. Seems like an open and shut case but Wade, desperate to complete at least one noble act in his life, begins to question the official story. And then there’s that tough old patriarch (coincidentally named Wade in Fargo), who raised Wade and his brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) as a drunken, abusive, sadistic tyrant. Glen Whitehouse (James Coburn) is an animal in flashback sequences, a terrifying man whose eyes mock, laugh, and dare you to “do something about it”. He pounds whiskey, his wife, and Wade.

Now he’s an old man, decrepit and useless, the house a total mess. But he looms large over his victims and still spits at the world just because it’s there. The inferiority and worthlessness he instilled in Wade is why he is so frenzied in his search for “the truth” about the hunting accident gone wrong. To reveal a covered up murder and a conspiracy spanning Boston, MA up to little Lawford, NH. That’s the kind of thing a real man would do, a big man, just like his father. So, no matter what, he needs to be right.

—Spoilers Ahead—

If he could just put his bastard father in his place and earn his respect, maybe Wade could be free of his childhood trauma. But as his girlfriend Margie (Sissy Spacek), the last person who held him close and could see the decent man under that hunched-over deep-creased body, rushes away from his childhood home like a tornado is on the horizon, he’s broken entirely. So, instead of trying to free himself from his childhood he destroys it. First beating his father to death with a rifle then burning the body on a workshop table in the barn. He disappears, Rolfe informs us, and takes his crippling afflictions with him.

Hardcore (1979)

• Director: Paul Schrader

• Writer: Paul Schrader

• Cinematographer: Michael Chapman

• Music: Jack Nitzsche

I really like the films of Director-Schrader. Some of them, in fact, I believe sit among the greatest films of all time. Certainly a number of Writer-Schrader films are in the “canon,” Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, you know the ones. But Schrader as a director is so fascinating, he’s gone in so many directions, so many genres and styles, but they all somehow fit in his repertoire. Light Sleeper, American Gigolo, Auto Focus, and Mishima are all such seemingly disparate works and yet they all carry this heavy burden of the tortured mind trying to do what they imagine to be “right.”

Following his outstanding debut Blue Collar, Schrader brought the cameras back home. George C. Scott is fantastically frantic and desperately threatening as family patriarch Jake VanDorn, the upright straight-as-an-arrow Calvinist and rivet factory owner in his Midwest hometown. His daughter goes on a church trip to California and never comes back. Jake heads to the West Coast, hires PI Andy Mast (Peter Boyle in one of his slimiest roles), and proclaims that he will find his daughter. Eventually, Andy leads Jake to a porno house and plays an 8mm reel featuring his daughter and two young men.

A series of events that ensues includes Jake visiting dozens of sex shops in search of the film, a fake casting for male actors in an attempt to draw out one of the “stars”, an unlikely pairing up with working-girl Niki (Season Hubley), and Jake smashing walls and screaming and threatening people as if sheer force of will would deliver his daughter to his arms. The relationship between Jake and Niki is one of the films finest touches. They speak simply about complex topics, with one exchange regarding their views on sex sticking out the most. Niki has sex for a living, therefore in Jake’s eyes it must be of great importance to her. “That’s all you do!” he says, then Niki asks “How important do you think sex is?” Jake: “Not very.” Niki: “Well then we’re just… alike. I mean you think it’s so unimportant that you don’t even do it, I think it’s so unimportant that I don’t even care who I do it with!” Jake: “You could never understand a person like me, I’m a mystery to you.” That exchange has stuck with me since he first time I saw Hardcore four years ago. There’s so many moments of genius and great character work and pure chemistry in this film.

—Spoilers Ahead—

And yet it feels oddly amateurish, like Schrader wanted Taxi Driver but just didn’t know how to shoot it. Which is funny considering Cinematographer Michael Chapman also shot Taxi Driver. The sets seem a little undressed at times, the walls look like painted poster-board. And the ending is just… off. I said before that sheer force of will would deliver his daughter to Jake’s arms, and that’s… pretty much what happens. They end up at the right place at the right time, the bad guy gets blown away by Peter Boyle, Jake finds his daughter who is very angry at him and very vague about why exactly that is. The movie needed a couple million dollars more, some directorial education for Schrader, and a script revision in which Jake either doesn’t find his daughter or Paul gives her some kind of backstory. So what. You take the good with the bad and the good wins out in this case. Still, considering the total competence of Blue Collar, one would guess that Hardcore was Schrader’s directorial debut.

First Reformed (2018)

For my “Best of the 21st Century” series I’ve been trying to re-watch the films on my list to make sure they hold up. And as you can read here, Paul Schrader’s latest masterpiece did a whole lot more than that. I’ve already said my piece on this one so I’ll just leave you with the link.

Children Of Men (2006)

And here’s another movie I’ve watched this week and written about at length. Watch it, it’s incredible.