Month of Movies: September 2017

Every month I will be posting a summary of all the movies I watched. September is the first month and it provides a pretty wide variety of films. There's almost an entire century of films here, including one rewatch and eight new films. Some of these were for the podcast and some were for a film class, but the majority were just things I wanted to check out.

Total films watched: 9. Anomalisa. Suspiria. Deadpool. Blonde Venus. Paris, Texas. Ugetsu. Sherlock Jr. Men with Brooms. Coraline.

Top Two Movies This Month: Sherlock Jr. and Paris, Texas. Interestingly, both of these are mostly showcases for a great deadpan actor to show all their abilities. Sherlock Jr. is a tour de force for Buster Keaton's stuntwork and creativity, and Paris, Texas is carried wonderfully by the late Harry Dean Stanton.

Movie Death Match: Contemporary stop-motion battle- Coraline or Anomalisa? I liked both of these movies. Coraline exceeded my expectations by being a lot more nuanced and varied that I would have expected. It's easy to forget that the movie is mostly stop-motion when the animation is this dazzling and complex. But I think I prefer Anomalisa, at the other end of the animation scale. The stop-motion designs have a metaphorical purpose for existing, which is a very different idea. Couple that with a trio of stellar performances and this one takes the win.

Longer Thoughts About: Men with Brooms. I randomly selected which title was going to get the deep dive. Believe me, I was not expecting to have to write extensively about Men with Brooms. This is a 2002 comedy about a curling team who reunites after their coach's death to compete in a tournament. The movie gets a surprising amount of mileage out of the comedic potential of curling. I knew a little about curling coming in, and the movie takes just enough to explain the rules and show some varied matches. The coach's ashes are enshrined in a curling stone, which becomes a major prop in the film and gets some creative use. There are pretty great turns by Leslie Nielsen in a great old-man beard and Peter Outerbridge. There are some very creative directing choices, including some editing for comedy that works well and a few well-done background gags.

Unfortunately, the movie is not just a relaxed sports comedy. There's also a romantic subplot involving the coach's daughters and the protagonist. Paul Gross is the writer, director, and star of the movie. He's a pretty good director but a terribly boring actor. So of course he put himself at the center of a love triangle between the two main female characters. This leads to nothing and barely matters for the overall plot. I liked the movie overall, but it's tough to fully recommend because there just isn't much there.