Return Of The Film Corner Thread

[ejp626]

Friday I saw Drive-Away Dolls.  It was entertaining but not a great movie.  But it was apparently intended from the first to be a B Movie with a lesbian slant.  Despite it being set in 1999, you never see a single person in a car with a seat belt. 

 

Then today I saw Kurosawa's High and Low at a 2nd run house.  This was the first time seeing it.  This is a great movie, though I personally preferred the second half, which is more of a police procedural.

[gmonahan]

Went to see "One Life" with Anthony Hopkins. It's a weeper, but well made, I thought.

 

[ejp626]

Saw two new movies over at TIFF on subsequent days. 

The first is Wim Wenders's Perfect Days.  It is a very deliberate, essentially plotless film about a man who has found a level of contentment in his work as an outdoor toilet cleaner in Tokyo.  In a sense, it is a homage to Ozu.  It was ok but did feel a bit long.  Not for everyone for sure.  

The next day I saw Problemista by Julio Torres at TIFF.  I don't know if it's going to get a wider release, but it is a very entertaining fantasy about an immigrant from El Salvador living in New York trying to get sponsored for a work visa to become a toy maker!  In many ways it feels like a movie by Michel Gondry.  Tilda Swinton is this out of control, high-strung art critic, who says she'll sponsor him but only after he helps her curate an art exhibit.  (However, you may cringe with flashbacks of some of the bad bosses you had, or at least I did.) 

Speaking of Gondry, I only just learned that he did a series of micro ads or super short films for Park MGM about 5 years back: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL29PD1z9x4FvSRNHp6el297kPP3AvyFBj

There are six of them, all 31 seconds long, though that includes titles and credits, so each of these is basically one scene of roughly 15 seconds in length.  I'd say 2 or 3 stand out, but they simply are too short to evoke much interest on my part.

[jlhoots]

Fancy Dance - Apple+ - Lily Gladstone (June 2024, was previously shown at Sundance)

Edited April 18 by jlhoots

[T.D.]

This is pretty good, though the subject matter will thin out the potential audience. Per Wiki:

The Zone of Interest is a 2023 historical drama film written and directed by Jonathan Glazer, co-produced among the United Kingdom, the United States, and Poland. Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, the film focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the "Zone of Interest" next to the concentration camp. Christian Friedel stars as Rudolf Höss alongside Sandra Hüller as Hedwig Höss.

[ejp626]

Went and saw Being John Malkovich for the first time in ages.  I took my son along.  He thought it was indeed about the weirdest movie he'd ever seen.  I remembered a fair bit about it, except for the very ending.  This time around I thought just how implausible it was that the John Cusack character could get from Manhattan to the NJ Turnpike in 15 minutes, which supposedly happens several times during the film!

Edited 4 hours ago by ejp626