Category: Site Index

Friday July 15 – Thursday July 21

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

David Lynch and Cary Grant at the Seattle Art Museum

I suppose Fire Walk with Me and The Philadelphia Story go together too well for it to be entirely a coincidence that they’re playing on consecutive nights this week at the Art Museum. One is a nightmarish vision of an insular, thoroughly misogynistic  community, packed with quirky, lunatic performances, featuring a healthy amount of substance abuse and a deeply self-deluded father’s seriously messed-up relationship with his daughter. The other is the big screen prequel to a celebrated television series. Hearthfires and holocausts indeed. We talked about Fire Walk with Me earlier this year on the first episode of The Frances Farmer Show.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer) Fri-Thurs
The Iron Giant (Brad Bird, 1999) Weds Only

Central Cinema:

The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987) Fri-Tues
Conan the Barbarian (John Milius, 1982) Fri-Tues

SIFF Egyptian:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs

Century Federal Way:

Fight Club (David Fincher 1999) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Therapy for a Vampire (David Ruhm) Fri-Thurs
Older than Ireland (Alex Fegan) Fri-Thurs
Genius (Michael Grandage) Fri-Thurs
Our Kind of Traitor (Susanna White) Fri-Thurs
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985) Sat Only
Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Tues Only
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones, 1975) Weds Only Quote-Along

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Lucha Mexico (Alex Hammond & Ian Markiewicz) Fri-Thurs
Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (Lucio Fulci, 1971) Fri & Sat Only
Eric Ostrowski: Avenue of the Dead Tues Only 16mm, Video, Live Sounds
Industrial Musicals Thurs Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) Fri-Thurs
Our Kind of Traitor (Susanna White) Fri-Thurs
Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (Hemanth Rao) Fri-Thurs
Fight Club (David Fincher 1999) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Cold War 2 (Longman Leung & Sunny Luk) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sangsoo) Fri-Sun Our Review 
Sixty Six (Lewis Klahr) Fri Only Filmmaker in Attendance
#Comments Sat Only Filmmaker in Attendance
B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West Berlin 1979-1989 (Jörg A. Hoppe, Klaus Maeck & Heiko Lange) Weds Only
White Star (Roland Klick, 1983) Weds & Thurs Only
Decoder (Muscha, 1984) Thurs Only
Actress (Robert Greene, 2014) Thurs Only Director in Attendance Our Review

AMC Loews Oak Tree:

Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs

AMC Pacific Place:

Captain Fantastic (Matt Ross) Fri-Thurs
So Young 2: Never Gone (Zhou Tuo Ru) Fri-Thurs
When Larry Met Larry (Wen Zhang) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller) Fri-Thurs
Our Kind of Traitor (Susanna White) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992) Weds Only Our Podcast
The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) Thurs Only

Landmark Seven Gables:

Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

NUTS! (Penny Lane) Fri-Sun

Sundance Cinemas:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller) Fri-Thurs
Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Fri-Thurs
Seoul Searching (Benson Lee) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Zero Days (Alex Gibney) Fri-Thurs
Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt (Ada Ushpiz) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

Life, Animated (Roger Ross Williams) Fri-Thurs
The Kind Words (Hamilim Hatovot Fri-Thurs
NUTS! (Penny Lane) Mon-Thurs

Varsity Theatre:

Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Jake Szymanski) Our Review 
Swiss Army Man (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) Our Review

Friday July 8 – Thursday July 14

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Singin’ in the Rain at the Lincoln Square and the Cinemark Federal Way

There’s other good stuff out there this week: Ponyo, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Love & Friendship, Jaws, A Cat in the Brain, The Wailing, Messiah of Evil and the premiere of Right Now, Wrong Then on Thursday. But Singin’ in the Rain is the only movie out this week that has a legitimate claim to being the Best Movie of All-Time. It’s playing as part of Cinemark’s Classics series, which means digital presentation, Sunday and Wednesday only. But it doesn’t matter. It’s the most watchable movie ever made, regardless of how many times you’ve seen it or what format it’s presented in. If you haven’t seen it (what!), you have no excuse. I’ve seen it dozens of times, including a mere two weeks ago, on the couch with a sick four-year old. And we’ll probably go to see it again this weekend.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Fantastic Mr. Fox (Wes Anderson, 2009) Weds Only

The Big Picture:

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Weds
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Weds Our Review

Central Cinema:

Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975) Fri-Tues
Ponyo (Hayao Miyazaki, 2008) Fri-Tues Original Language Tues Only
Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995) Weds Only
Harry and the Hendersons (William Dear, 1987) Thurs Only

SIFF Egyptian:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs

Century Federal Way:

Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952) Sun & Weds Only

Grand Cinema:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Dark Horse (Louise Osmond) Fri-Thurs
Older than Ireland (Alex Fegan) Fri-Thurs
Chasing Niagara (Rush Sturges) Mon Only
Viva (Paddy Breathnach) Tues Only
First Girl I Loved (Kerem Sanga) Weds Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

A Cat in the Brain (Lucio Fulci, 1990) Fri & Sat Only
Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously (Patrick Meaney) Fri-Thurs

Landmark Guild 45th:

Les Cowboys (Thomas Bidegain) Fri-Thurs
Tickled (David Farrier & Dylan Reeve) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (Hemanth Rao) Fri-Thurs
Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, 1952) Sun & Weds Only

Regal Meridian:

Cold War 2 (Longman Leung & Sunny Luk) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
Foolish Plans (Jiang Tao) Fri-Thurs
Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Three Wise Cousins (Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

PALMS Fri & Sat Only
Above & Below (Nicolas Steiner) Weds Only Director in Attendance
Messiah of Evil (William Huyck, 1973) Weds & Thurs Only 35mm
Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sangsoo) Starts Thurs Our Review

AMC Loews Oak Tree:

Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs
Cell (Tod Williams) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
Sultan (Ali Abbas Zafar) Fri-Thurs

Seattle Art Museum:

My Favorite Wife (Garson Kanin, 1940) Thurs Only

Landmark Seven Gables:

Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Fri-Tues, Thurs
Czech That Film Festival 2016 Fri-Sun Full Program 
Farewell My Queen (Benoît Jacquot) Weds Only

Sundance Cinemas:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (Taika Waititi) Fri-Thurs
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller) Fri-Thurs
Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Fri-Thurs
From Afar (Lorenzo Vigas) Fri-Thurs
Zero Days (Alex Gibney) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer) Fri-Thurs
Unlocking the Cage (Chris Hegedus &  DA Pennebaker) Fri-Thurs
The Wailing (Na Hong-Jin) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Jake Szymanski) Our Review 
Swiss Army Man (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) Our Review

Right Now, Wrong Then (Hong Sangsoo, 2015)

~ Sean Gilman

rightnow1

The following is a slightly modified reprint of my review from last fall’s Vancouver International Film Festival.

The Hong Sangsoo film is a perennial highlight of every VIFF (I’ve seen Like You Know it All, Oki’s Movie, Hahaha, In Another Country, Our Sunhi and Hill of Freedomhere over the years) and Right Now, Wrong Then is no disappointment. It’s a very good film, while lacking the formal experimentation that distinguishes his best work (Oki’s Movie, The Day He Arrives) or the sheer giddy pleasure of his funniest movies (Hill of Freedom, In Another Country), it has a precision and focus that assures that, despite a certain conventionality, it will become one of his more popular features (note: This has turned out to be accurate, the film has garnered Hong some of the best reviews and one of the widest releases of his career so far). Split evenly in two halves, it follows a film director, in town for a festival showing and Q & A, as he wanders about a tourist site where he meets a young woman. They talk, drink soju, make awkward approaches at romance and ultimately split when the director is proven to be a dishonest, womanizing lout. Then the film resets, complete with a new title card (the first half is “Right Then, Wrong Now”, the second “Right Now, Wrong Then”) and we replay the same day but with significant differences. The director in this version is honest and open (perhaps to a fault, as when a drunken overheating compels him to strip naked in front of his companions). Hong significantly varies his camera setups in the second section, creating more balanced compositions where in the first half the setups tended to privilege the director’s perspective (including a Hong rarity: an actual POV shot). It’s a mature film, relaxed and confident with a simple truth to tell. But underlying it all is a palpable loneliness. It’s played as sadness, as tragedy in the first half, where the director’s faults lead to failure and angry isolation. In the second half, it’s a wistful melancholy, where people can find happiness in connecting with an other, with the full knowledge that any such connection is necessarily temporary. It’s a quiet and sweet film, a warm room on a cold night, and vice versa.

Cold War 2 (Longman Leung & Sunny Luk, 2016)

~ Sean Gilman ~ 2 Comments

2012-cold-war-still-2-1

Picking up right where their 2012 hit film, which featured an all-star cast and swept the Hong Kong Film Awards, left off, Longman Leung and Sunny Luk present another suspenseful tale of corruption and double-dealing in the highest echelons of the Hong Kong police department, its two institutional halves at (cold) war with each other. On the operations side is The Other Tony Leung, a tough man of action, of the “break the law to enforce the law” type valorized in Hong Kong cinema since at least the mid-1980s. On the administrative side is Aaron Kwok, emotionless, calculating and fiercely determined to uphold the letter of the law. The two wage a Crimson Tide-esque battle of wills over a tense hostage situation, in which an Emergency Unit van and its five police officers have been captured by unknown criminals. Kwok wins out and assumes command of the force, and the second half of the film follows his investigation of the terrorists, leading to the arrest of Leung’s own son, played by Rise of the Legend‘s Eddie Peng, as the ringleader. But, in a cliffhanger ending, Peng’s accomplices demand his release: they have now kidnapped Kwok’s wife.

Continue reading “Cold War 2 (Longman Leung & Sunny Luk, 2016)” →

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Jake Szymanski, 2016)

~ Sean Gilman ~ 1 Comment

MIKE-DAVE-NEED-WEDDING-DATES-02

The third of a promised six(!) Anna Kendrick movies to hit Seattle Screens in 2016 is an exemplar of the mayfly model of modern American comedy. Based on a true story formerly adapted into a book, it’s about a pair of dim-witted brothers who are tasked with finding acceptable dates to their younger sister’s wedding. An opening montage establishes their vision of the world: slow-motion revelry, drinking, beautiful people, they see themselves as the life of every party. Home videos presented early in the film by their parents cleverly undermine this fantasy conviction. In fact, the two are loud, obnoxious, and clumsy: their antics destroy every gathering and event they attend. Thus their quest: they must find nice, respectable girls to keep them in line at the destination wedding in Hawaii. To this end, naturally enough, they post an ad on Craigslist, become internet famous, and suffer through a series of meet-and-greets with dreadful dames, a Seven Chances for beer-obsessed millennials. This is apparently as far as the book goes, while the film introduces Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza as the boys’ dates. A kind of Romy and Michelle for the Facebook era, Tatiana and Alice, quickly established to be just as dumb and hedonistic as Mike and Dave, pretend to be nice girls in order to get the free vacation. It’s an attempt at short-circuiting the book’s misogyny with a “hey women are gross and terrible too”. The rest of the film consists of episodic gag sequences at the wedding, with unimaginative and indifferently filmed slapstick adding an element of body horror to the vulgar dadaist improv one-liners that have become the dominant idiom of our comedies in the post-Apatow era.

Continue reading “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (Jake Szymanski, 2016)” →

Friday July 1 – Thursday July 7

~ Sean Gilman

Featured Film:

Mountains May Depart at the SIFF Film Center

We didn’t do a poll of our favorite films of 2016 so far, rather just a listing of individual ballots. But if we did, Jia Zhangke’s epic melodrama would have won easily. A story of a love triangle and a family told in three separate sections (1999, 2014, 2025). In the first, Zhao Tao plays the center of a love triangle with a rich man and a poor man. In the second, she’s come to regret her choice as she reconnects with her young son, now living with his father and step-mother in Shanghai. In the third, the boy, now a young man living in Australia, has forgotten both his homeland and his mother, and embarks on a precarious affair with his teacher, Sylvia Chang. We covered it extensively at last year’s Vancouver Film Festival, with reviews by me and Neil Bahadur and discussion of the film on the VIFF Wrap-Up episode of The George Sanders Show.

Playing This Week:

AMC Alderwood:

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Ark Lodge Cinemas:

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs

Central Cinema:

Top Gun (Tony Scott, 1986) Fri-Sun, Tues
Labyrinth (Jim Henson, 1986) Fri-Sun, Tues-Weds
Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973) Weds Only Our Podcast 
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995) Thurs Only

SIFF Egyptian:

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Century Federal Way:

Sardaarji 2 (Rohit Jugraj Chauhan) Fri-Thurs

Grand Cinema:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review
Dark Horse (Louise Osmond) Fri-Thurs
Dough (John Goldschmidt) Tues Only

Grand Illusion Cinema:

Belladonna of Sadness (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973) Sat, Tues & Weds Only Our Review 
Lady Snowblood (Toshiya Fujita, 1973) Fri-Sun, Tues & Thurs Our Review 
Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance (Toshiya Fujita, 1974) Fri-Sun, Weds
SexWorld (Anthony Spinelli, 1977) Thurs Only

Landmark Guild 45th:

Dheepan (Jacques Audiard) Fri-Thurs
Weiner (Josh Kriegman) Fri-Thurs
Tickled (David Farrier & Dylan Reeve) Fri-Thurs

Cinemark Lincoln Square:

Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller) Fri-Thurs
Rojulu Marayi (Murali Krishna Mudidani) Fri-Thurs
Gentleman (Mohan Krishna Indraganti) Fri-Thurs

Regal Meridian:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Three Wise Cousins (Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa) Fri-Thurs

Northwest Film Forum:

And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead (Billy Woodberry) Fri & Sat Only
PALMS Starts Thurs

AMC Loews Oak Tree:

The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn) Fri-Thurs Our Review

AMC Pacific Place:

No One’s Life is Easy (Kim Jae-yung) Fri-Thurs

Regal Parkway Plaza:

Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman) Fri-Thurs Our Review

Seattle Art Museum:

Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938) Thurs Only

Landmark Seven Gables:

Wiener-Dog (Todd Solondz) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Film Center:

Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) Fri-Thurs Our Review 
An Evening with Steve De Jarnatt: Miracle Mile and Cherry 2000 Weds Only

Sundance Cinemas:

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller) Fri-Thurs
Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Fri-Thurs
Buddymoon (Alex Simmons) Fri-Thurs

SIFF Cinema Uptown:

The Lobster (Yorgos Lanthimos) Fri-Thurs
Music of Strangers (Morgan Neville) Fri-Thurs

In Wide Release:

Swiss Army Man (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) Our Review 

The Best Movies on Seattle Screens in 2016 (So Far)

~ Sean Gilman

Since it is the halfway point of the year, I ran a quick poll of the primary contributors to Seattle Screens Scene to find out their picks for the best movies to play theatrically (or at SIFF) for the first time in the city this year. These are the results:

Mountains-May-Depart-4

Mike Strenski:

  1. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
  2. My Golden Days (Arnold Desplechin)
  3. Cameraperson (Kirsten Johnson)
  4. Three (Johnnie To)
  5. Green Room (Jeremy Saulnier)
  6. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  7. Kaili Blues (Bi Gan)
  8. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick)

homepage_Sunset-Song-2016

Melissa Tamminga:

  1. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
  2. Sunset Song (Terence Davies)
  3. Love and Friendship (Whit Stillman)
  4. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang)
  5. Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Koreeda)
  6. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick)
  7. Hail, Caesar! (Joel and Ethan Coen)
  8. Long Way North (Remi Chaye)
  9. I Am Belfast (Mark Cousins)
  10. Under the Sun (Vitaliy Manskiy)

SPL 2 Simon Yam and Wu Jing

Jhon Hernandez:

  1. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang)
  2. Everybody Wants Some!!! (Richard Linklater)
  3. Fan (Maneesh Sharma)
  4. Three (Johnnie To)
  5. Knight of Cups (Terrence Malick)

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Sean Gilman:

  1. Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman)
  2. Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke)
  3. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang)
  4. Sunset Song (Terence Davies)
  5. Kaili Blues (Bi Gan)
  6. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  7. Three (Johnnie To)
  8. Everybody Wants Some!!! (Richard Linklater)
  9. Hail, Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen)
  10. The Mermaid (Stephen Chow)

Out 1

Seema Pai:

  1. Out 1: Noli me tangere (Jacques Rivette)
  2. No Home Movie (Chantal Ackerman)
  3. Cemetery of Splendor (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
  4. The Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
  5. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences (Soi Cheang)
  6. Sunset Song (Terence Davies)
  7. Three (Johnnie To)
  8. Fan (Mannish Sharma)
  9. Chevalier (Athina Rachel Tsangari)
  10. My Golden Days (Arnaud Desplechin)

Swiss Army Man (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2016)

~ Melissa Tamminga ~ 2 Comments

hank and manny on beach

(NOTE: I also reviewed this film with Adam Kempenaar on the Filmspotting podcast, when I was a guest host for the show. You can take a listen here.) 

It isn’t a new idea, the idea that mental health and happiness are related to accepting yourself as you are. We could reference Free To Be You and Me, that album of the 70’s that challenged gender norms and promoted a celebration of individuality –

Come with me, take my hand, and we’ll run
To a land where the river runs free
To a land through the green country
 . . .
 To a land where the children are free
 And you and me are free to be

Don’t be afraid, the song encourages children. There’s no shame in anything that you are. Just be yourself. Celebrate that.

It’s a message that you can find everywhere now.  Children’s movies, in particular, often contain some version of this idea. If you have short term memory loss like Dory in Finding Dory, if you’re a bunny like Judy Hopps in Zootopia, you are still just as important, just as valuable as anybody else.

In Swiss Army Man, the debut feature film from Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, we have a return to this essential kind of story and these themes. It centers on a man called Hank (Paul Dano), who can’t live with himself anymore. He’s alone, literally and figuratively. He feels bad about life, he feels bad about himself. He feels like “broken,” “dirty,” “trash.” He lacks the courage to seek out a relationship with the woman he admires. He’s ashamed of his desires and his own corporeal reality. And that’s his basic problem. He can’t stand himself and his disgusting body and “weird,” disgusting self.  The film’s journey is, then, about the way he struggles with coming to terms with himself and all of the weird, gross, socially unacceptable bits.

So far, so good.  And so far, a lot like something we’ve seen or heard before.

The film has received attention though for the conceit it employs to tell its story. You’ve probably heard about it already: it’s the farting corpse movie.  The story isolates Hank in the wilderness and gives him a dead body for a companion (Daniel Radcliffe), a companion whose most socially uncomfortable bodily functions take center stage. It is through his interactions with this embarrassing corpse, whose name is Manny, and a very literal dealing with bodily functions, that Hank has to face himself. In Manny, he sees his corporeal, death-fated human reality, and ultimately, must decide, whether or not he will reject it or embrace it. Continue reading “Swiss Army Man (Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, 2016)” →

Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)

~ Melissa Tamminga

 women in underwear

“You ever have a girl screw you out of a job?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I ate her.”

Early in Nicholas Winding Refn’s new film, Neon Demon, Jesse (Elle Fanning), a pretty young hopeful from the Midwest and a new arrival to L.A, walks back to her room, down the long balcony corridor of the seedy Pasadena motel where she’s staying. The lighting is lurid, the corridor horribly dark, and when Jesse arrives at her door and the grungy looking lock sticks, an initial feeling of unease rises to panic. Finally force opening the door, she feels for the light, switches it on. Only it doesn’t switch on, and we sense Something is waiting for her in her room. It thuds and moves, and Jesse screams and flees, back down the dark passage. She arrives at a hotel manager’s metal-mesh screen door and cries out for help. A dark, indiscernible figure appears behind the screen, and instead of the relief of the presence of another human being, here, it seems, is another threat. Even when the manager’s figure shifts into the light and we see his face, the menace does not lessen. Hank (Keanu Reeves) leers at Jesse, and when he finally yells for a friend, and the two men escort Jesse back to her room, we fear for her. The men hem her in as they walk, one going before her, one behind. The one in front casually rips away what looks like “Police Do Not Cross” tape. There’s a creeping horror, as we think, Jesse, this naïve innocent, must get out, must get away – and yet she walks on.

Jesse’s room, the three discover when they arrive, has been ransacked by a mountain lion; as the men beat the door open, breaking that sticking lock, the cat looms out of the darkness, a prowling lithe presence. Hank, infuriated, blames Jesse for the destruction of her room. She, he insists, brought the thing into the room. It’s a charge that is horribly unfair; Jesse, surely obviously, didn’t bring the cat into her room. She’s simply an unsophisticated Midwest girl who didn’t realize wild animals roam the hills around L.A., sometimes eating house cats or small pets left outside for the night. Maybe they even enter one’s home at times if a screen door is left open.  Poor Jesse. She doesn’t get it. Continue reading “Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016)” →

Three (Johnnie To, 2016)

~ Sean Gilman

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This guest review comes courtesy of critic Jaime Grijalba.

I’m not an expert on Johnnie To, nor do I pretend to be one. Not because I don’t find him interesting, and I will end up watching his entire filmography before too long. I’m wary of clogging the feed of the many people who are unaware of his talents with my half-assed thoughts, especially when there are so many critics and fans that have spent way more time than I’d ever spend examining and studying the style and everything that surrounds the films of To and his Milkyway Image studio. So, with all that I’ve said, what lead me to write about the latest film from one of the most well-regarded Asian directors of the past two decades?

Continue reading “Three (Johnnie To, 2016)” →