Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) | Directed by Don Siegel

 4.5/5

Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a surprise in the vein of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead or Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla – films that transcend their b-movie, sci-fi/horror origins and have something far richer and more substantial to say about the human condition that has lasted far longer than the cultural moment that gave birth to the fears they originally articulated. Siegel’s direction is sharp and effective, cold and unsparing. You’re glued to the edge of your seat from the beginning, right up to the hollow victory at the end. I find it absolutely fascinating that a film that was originally made to warn against the threat of encroaching communism could end up – 60 years later – playing today as a warning against the dangers of mass conformity and a cry of despair at the thought that the country we thought we knew was replaced overnight by cold and callous, unfeeling pod people from another planet.

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Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) | Directed by Albert Lewin

 2.5/5

Albert Lewin’s Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is filled with one missed opportunity after another, one wasted moment followed by the next. While Jack Cardiff’s Technicolor cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, what should have been a haunting and lyrical, lush supernatural romance is instead a tepid and lifeless, boring and ultimately ordinary melodrama that feels as predictable and monotonous as the Flying Dutchman claims immortality has been. Scenes that should be filled with tension and dread are undercut by a flat voiceover narration that sucks the vibrancy out of the film – even as it tries to add a bit of false drama to the mix. And the gender dynamics are even more hopelessly regressive and aggravating then other films of the time. It’s a boring slog, only made bearable by Cardiff’s beautiful photography.

For Me and My Gal (1942) | Directed by Busby Berkeley

 4/5

Busby Berkeley’s For Me and My Gal continues to solidify my absolute admiration for Judy Garland as a performer. Another show-biz musical, Gene Kelly plays another pushy and obnoxiously entitled suitor, but it’s refreshing to have these character traits portrayed as flaws rather than features. The musical numbers are all stunning – it’s lovely to see Berkeley working with scaled back production numbers and focused on the genuine human relationships and complicated feelings between Garland and Kelly. A wartime drama, it manages to send several characters off into battle without it feeling patriotic or heroic – up until the propagandistic jingoism of the film’s final moments. Still, I’m impressed by the subtlety and nuance woven throughout the film. It was a lovely surprise.

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2020 Golden Globe Award Nominations

This morning, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) has announced the nominees for the 2020 Golden Globe Awards. Leading the nominees is Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story with six nominations (Motion Picture – Drama, Actress – Drama, Actor – Drama, Screenplay, Score, Actress in a Supporting Role), followed closely by Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, each with five nominations.

The Golden Globes are voted on by members of the HFPA, an organization comprised of journalists who cover the film industry for publications around the world. With the ceremony broadcast on network television and combining awards for the Motion Picture and Television industries, it’s one of the highest profile awards ceremonies in the lead-up to the Academy Awards and has a hand in shaping the end-of-year awards conversation – even if their own winners are rather pedestrian and outright baffling at times.

Among the larger controversies arising from this year’s crop of nominees is the lack of representation from female and African American filmmakers in the top awards categories (Motion Picture, Screenplay, Director). It’s nice to see some actors of color nominated across several categories, and it is refreshing to see Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite secure nominations for Foreign Language Film, Director, and Screenplay – especially considering the fact that South Korean films have traditionally been shut out of many Western awards ceremonies. And the Foreign Language category itself is more inclusive – with two female filmmakers receiving nominations (The Farewell and Portrait of a Lady on Fire), as well as a filmmaker of color (Les Misérables).

At the end of the day, while most of us in the online film community may not like the Golden Globes and may want to turn up our noses at the nominees and winners, the truth is that these nominations do influence the films that Academy Award voters will prioritize. And the added prestige of these awards seasons films means that your average moviegoer is more likely to seek out some of these films that are slightly more adventurous and risky than their usual Friday night blockbuster.

And as far as I’m concerned, that’s all for the better.

Here is the complete list of Golden Globe Nominees in the Motion Picture Categories:

Best Motion Picture – Drama

- 1917
- The Irishman
- Joker
- Marriage Story
- The Two Popes

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

- Dolemite Is My Name
- Jojo Rabbit
- Knives Out
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- Rocketman

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

- Cynthia Erivo – Harriet
- Scarlett Johannson – Marriage Story
- Saoirse Ronan – Little Woman
- Charlize Theron – Bombshell
- Renée Zellweger – Judy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

- Christian Bale – Ford v Ferrari
- Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory
- Adam Driver – Marriage Story
- Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
- Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

- Awkwafina – The Farewell
- Cate Blanchett – Where’d You Go Bernadette?
- Ana de Armas – Knives Out
- Beanie Feldstein – Booksmart
- Emma Thompson – Late Night

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

- Daniel Craig – Knives Out
- Roman Griffin Davis – Jojo Rabbit
- Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- Taron Egerton – Rocketman
- Eddie Murphy – Dolemite Is My Name

Best Director – Motion Picture

- Bong Joon-Ho – Parasite
- Sam Mendes – 1917
- Todd Phillips – Joker
- Martin Scorsese – The Irishman
- Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

- Noah Baumbach – Marriage Story
- Bong Joon-Ho and Jin Won-Han – Parasite
- Anthony McCarten – The Two Popes
- Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- Steven Zaillian – The Irishman

Best Foreign Language Film

- The Farewell
- Les Misérables
- Pain and Glory
- Parasite
- Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Best Animated Feature

- Frozen 2
- How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
- The Lion King
- The Missing Link
- Toy Story 4

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

- Alexandre Desplat – Little Women
- Hildur Gudnadóttir – Joker
- Randy Newman – Marriage Story
- Thomas Newman – 1917
- Daniel Pemberton – Motherless Brooklyn

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

- Cats – “Beautiful Ghosts”
- Frozen 2 – “Into the Unknown”
- Harriet – “Stand Up”
- The Lion King – “Spirit”
- Rocketman – “I’m Gonna Love Me Again”

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

- Kathy Bates – Richard Jewell
- Annette Bening – The Report
- Laura Dern – Marriage Story
- Jennifer Lopez – Hustlers
- Margot Robbie – Bombshell

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture

- Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
- Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes
- Al Pacino – The Irishman
- Joe Pesci – The Irishman
- Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Booksmart (2019) | Directed by Olivia Wilde

 4/5

Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart is a refreshing and delightful high school comedy that centers the plot revolving around its female protagonists – not on their romantic escapades, though that does play a part – but on their enduring friendship and their long repressed desires. The episodic structure gives the film and almost Odyssean flavor as our heroes journey from party to party – accompanied by their very own version of the Oracle at Delphi – and run-ins with monsters, both literal, and made of their own selfishness and pride. The performances are joyous, and Olivia Wilde proves herself to have a knack for comic timing and the use of music to undercut our characters’ perceptions of themselves. I’m a sucker for high school comedies that end up challenging our assumptions and stereotypes, and Booksmart does that quite nicely.

Where to Watch

I Walk Alone (1947) | Directed by Byron Haskin

 4/5

Byron Haskin’s I Walk Alone is an incredibly solid, elegantly constructed noir with three stunning performances at its core. It works off the framework of a revenge thriller, but uses that as a springboard to explore much more interesting ideas about the rapid ways in which society changes and leaves some people behind. I especially appreciated the ways it explores the transition many criminals make from illegal to legal enterprises – how the tactics employed in capitalism are very similar to the tactics employed by the underworld, and yet how difficult the transition to white collar crime is for some who is used to things being so cut and dried. Haskin finds moments of pure visual poetry, images etched in the shadows and the subtle camera movements that have continued to linger in my thoughts.

Where to Watch

Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) | Directed by Norman Taurog

 4/5

Norman Taurog’s Broadway Melody of 1940 is so much better than a film with such a generic title has any right to be. Sure, the plot is thin and the characters only sketches of real people, but when you have Fred Astaire singing, dancing, and playing the piano (at the same time no less!), who need a plot or characters? It continues to be refreshing to find classic musicals in which the plot doesn’t revolve around a pushy or stalker-y romantic pursuit. Here, the plot revolves around a misunderstanding and everyone’s genuinely good-natured attempts to do the right thing. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but it’s charming, delightful, and incredibly winsome.

Where to Watch

The Ghost Ship (1943) | Directed by Mark Robson

 3.5/5

Mark Robson’s The Ghost Ship is a moody and atmospheric little nautical thriller that I enjoyed so much more than I expected. The film presents us with two competing views of humanity – people are terrible and need to be governed by a stern authority, contrasted with the belief that people are essentially good and just need to be reminded of their basic goodness. It’s a simple dialectic, but one that is made terrifyingly concrete in the personage of Captain Stone, a man who believes that he and he alone has the authority of life and death over the souls on his ship. This tyrannical belief in a privileged elite’s “boundless wisdom” and superior standing feels all-too-relevant in today’s corporate and political oligarchy. While it’s still a b-movie, the black-and-white cinematography is rich and textured, the depth of shadow and play of light lending a visual poetry to the film that makes it even more compelling.

Profound Desires of the Gods (1968) | Directed by Shohei Imamura

 3.5/5

Shohei Imamura’s Profound Desires of the Gods is a confounding, mysterious, and utterly captivating film that explores the tensions between modernity and tradition, the individual and the community, and the past and present. With its nearly three-hour running time and sprawling narrative, I had hoped that the multiple story threads would have come together more seamlessly, but there’s a messy chaos to characters’ appearances and disappearances that prevents the film from ever feeling as rich or satisfying as it could have been. Still, the ways in which Imamura transposes ancient myth into a modern setting is deeply compelling, as is the tragic portrait of a deeply flawed family shackled to tradition. Imamura’s haunting images and eerie soundscape will remain with me for a long while – this is definitely a film to which I will return as I explore more of Imamura’s filmography.

This review was generously supported by Patreon Supporter Michael Hutchins.

T-Men (1947) | Directed by Anthony Mann

 3/5

If it wasn’t for the heavy-handed narration that permeates Anthony Mann’s T-Men, we’d have a taut little police procedural on our hands. As it is, the voice-over keeps us at a distance and prevents us from ever fully engaging with the characters or the story. Otherwise, the story of Treasury Agents on the trail of counterfeiters is a fairly compelling bit of b-movie action. Most impressive is the film’s willingness to wind through some dark corners into a surprising moment of tragedy that significantly ups the stakes and finally gets us onto the edge of our seats for the finale. The cinematography is gorgeous – deep shadows fill the frame and the steam in scenes set within a bathhouse feel rich and textured. It isn’t perfect, but it’s a very fun, light film that’s perfect to throw on at the end of a long day.