Month of Movies: November 2017

Total Films Watched: 10. Loving Vincent, Jurassic Park, Tangerine, A Scanner Darkly, Sunset Boulevard, Nocturama, Punch-Drunk Love, Lady Bird, She's Gotta Have It, My Name is Bruce.

Top Two Films: Jurassic Park and Punch-Drunk Love. There's some stiff competition for these top two slots. I'm going with these two movies because one of them is basically perfect and the other is the most gorgeous thing I've seen in a while. This is the second time I've watched Jurassic Park and it moves like clockwork. Every setpiece works perfectly, the effects are amazing, and all the narrative elements bounce off each other. There's just so little to complain about or pick apart here. The kids and Wayne Knight are a little much, but those are minor problems.

That being said, I would not live inside that movie. I would live inside Punch-Drunk Love. Part of that is the quirkiness of the plotting and the world that Anderson establishes. It's a city where harmoniums are dropped off on doorsteps and furniture store managers run interstate phone sex scams. But mostly it's the cinematography and camera movement. Robert Elswit does some unbelievable work with lighting and the intentionally limited palate that Anderson wants to use. Add in some dramatic camera work and the highlights of Jon Brion's quirky score and the look of this film overcomes whatever small issues I have with the movie.

Movie Death Match: Rotoscope animation case studies- Loving Vincent or A Scanner Darkly? I'm currently working on a capstone presentation about rotoscoped films. I've seen four movies that fit into this category and these two are solidly in the middle. I liked both of these movies, especially for their animation and style. The visuals are easily the highlight of Loving Vincent, the world's first fully-painted feature film. The historical film about van Gogh's death is largely done in the style of his paintings and it looks remarkable as a result. It's such a striking way to create a movie. Narratively, it's pretty close to Citizen Kane with some conspiracy theories scattered throughout that don't add anything interesting. The performances are okay, though Jerome Flynn comes in at the end with an excellent job in a key role.

Speaking of conspiracies, A Scanner Darkly uses that animation style to create a paranoid atmosphere. It also brings to life some of the crazier sci-fi aspects from the original Philip K. Dick novel. The style is very striking, especially for the scramble suit that the undercover cops have to wear at work. But I think the performances Linklater gets from these actors are just as crucial. Robert Downey Jr. is the highlight of the supporting cast, although Winona Ryder does some great work towards the end of the film. But i think it lacks the focus and depth that comes with the best of Linklater's films. I'd give the overall edge to Loving Vincent. The visuals are much more striking and the narrative is shorter and more focused.

Longer Thoughts About: Tangerine. This is the indie movie that put Sean Baker on the map. This year, he might get an Oscar nomination for his newest film The Florida Project. This was his breakout film, as well as the debut for Kitana Kiki Rodriguez and Mya Taylor, the two transgender stars. They play prostitutes on the streets of Los Angeles, turning tricks and getting revenge on Christmas Eve. If you can call Die Hard a great Christmas movie, then this should definitely be considered one as well. There are so many references to the holiday, from a major Christmas Eve dinner to a scene with someone posing for Instagram pictures in a Santa hat. The themes about friendship and cooperation are also well-suited to the holiday. Alexandra and Sin-Dee's complex relationship is the emotional key to the film.

Something I really like about this movie is the effortless diversity it has. It never feels like a gimmick that the stars are black transgender actresses playing transgender characters. Almost a quarter of this movie is in Armenian and follows this taxi-driving side character. Everything just feels lived-in and grounded. Since it was actually shot on location in the city, the world of the movie has an automatic depth. It just feels so authentic to this part of Los Angeles in a way that makes sense for the reality of the city but rarely gets shown. I like how much time is spent watching the characters travel across the city, trying to cross the city for as little money as possible and constantly running into other people they know. It might not be realistic, but it emphasizes this community within the city.

I think the main highlight of the film was Rodriguez's leading role. She gets to be a force of nature, crossing the city with a single-minded obsession for revenge and justice. Everything she does is committed to her goals, which gives her character clear motivation and lets her add depth around the edges. Mya gets to be looser and her scenes feel much more like a normal day-in-the-life of a woman living this life. Her two encounters with Johns are effectively contrasted and show off her range as an actor.

As much as I like this movie overall, the writing has some issues. The movie alternates between being seemingly unscripted and overly plotted. The looser scenes tend to be better, though some of them don't add anything to the movie. There are two or three too many early scenes of random passengers in the taxi. There's a major confrontation towards the end of the movie that is very contrived. You can feel the effort being made by the script to get all these characters in the same place so they can drop some bombshells and let the fireworks explode. But because of how contrived that moment it, that moment fails to live up to the dramatic hype. I much prefer the human moments of friendship between Sin-Dee and Alexandra on either side, at the bar and the laundromat. When it feels realistic but still motivated by the story, this film really works.