What to Watch Tonight

I have about half of a thoughtful meta entry written, but it just didn’t happen. New review this Thursday though – I can promise that.  In the meanwhile, three more recommendations! All available to stream on Netflix, but worth hunting down for those of you without.

Yes, I know I just did one of these.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) –
The original, and still one of the best science fiction films ever made. Its plot is simple, almost fable-like, but like a lot of good alien stories, allows us the illusion of looking at humanity from the outside. The effects hold up decently well, considering the production year, and you get all kinds of nerd cred once you know what “Klaatu barada nikto” means.

The real interest, though in The Day the Earth Stood Still, is the way in which it takes all sorts of tropes and devices that fill the crappy, MST3K-fodder films of the period, and weaves them into a solid, thoughtful story. The moralizing may seem a bit heavy-handed to a modern viewer, but it serves as a nice bookend to 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers as a Cold War-era cautionary tale.

Blazing Saddles (1974) –
With True Grit poised to nab several Oscar nominations, following the success of a variety of Westerns and neo-Westerns in the past few years, it’s safe to say there’s a renewed interest in the genre. Which is great, as it means more people can appreciate the brilliance that is Blazing Saddles. For my money, it’s one of the funniest movies ever, with the bonus of actually functioning (for 2/3 of the movie, at least) as an example of the genre. (Good parody is funny because it’s true.)

Gene Wilder is brilliant as ever, and Cleavon Little is amazing in the starring role. Madeline Kahn is always worth watching, and the writing is some of Mel Brooks’ very best. If you haven’t seen it, treat yourself, and if you have… treat yourself again. It’s the rare comedy that rewards close re-viewings, but this is one of them.

Star Trek (2009) –
The most recent installment in the Star Trek franchise shows what a good reboot can do. You do enough homage to the original to keep most of your existing fanbase, but you make the huge mythology re-accessable to newbies who might be scared off normally. J.J. Abrams crafts a beautiful popcorn movie, gleefully using and reusing the conventions of space opera while at the same time keeping the film grounded in its franchise.

All the casting is very good – Zachary Quinto is a standout as Spock, but I love Karl Urban’s McCoy. The cinematography gets a little lens-flare happy, as you might have heard, but also isn’t afraid to show off its big-budget effects in ways that actually move the plot forward. Michael Giacchino’s score is also a thing of beauty. Much fun.

What To Watch Tonight

Brief ones tonight, but no less recommended than usual. All available to stream.

The 39 Steps (1935) –
Early Hitchcock is still awesome Hitchcock. Reminiscent of North By Northwest (among others) in the way a normal man is drawn into a situation that’s anything but. The atmosphere is creepy, the mystery is intriguing, and the cast (none of whom you’re likely to recognize) do an excellent job. (Even if all I can think of is the Sesame Street sketch.) It’s also only 86 minutes, for those looking for something a bit on the shorter side.

Enemy Mine (1985) –
This is one of my very favorite sci fi movies; it deserves much more attention than it gets. Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset Jr. are spot on as stranded soldiers from opposing sides forced to survive together. Sure, it’s filed with tropes, but it does them thoughtfully and to good effect. The effects are a little dated, but it’s a movie that isn’t about effects so much as concepts. The differences in Draconian and human cultures (and biologies), while glossed, are still intriguingly handled, and even where the movie doesn’t succeed, it tries in interesting ways.

The Fall (2006) –
Please, please watch The Fall. Every rewatch has been incredibly rewarding, but even the first one was enjoyable. The Fall tells the story of an injured stuntman (Lee Pace) and his relationship with a little girl (the astoundingly good Catinca Untaru) as they both heal in a California hospital in the 1920s. The visuals are unbelievably lush, the storytelling (both meta and not) is engrossing, and it marries a sense of fable to a very grounded emotional core. Also, effective use of Beethoven. Gorgeous.

What to Watch This Weekend

Due to a convergence of social, technological and mental failures, there is no review this Thursday. So, instead, I offer you the next installment of What to Watch – a very special Halloween edition. Three recommendations that, for the moment, are all available to stream on Netflix.

Vampyr (1932) – (sometimes, oddly, called Not Against the Flesh)

This silent, while not as fantastic as Nosferatu, is still well worth seeing.  It’s atmospheric to the nth degree, and the film has a dreamy, almost drugged quality underscored by both its pace and the cinematography.  A young man takes a room at a sleepy little inn somewhere in Europe and then, almost like a sleepwalker, ends up far from where he began.  You have to be in the right mood for its slow pace, which almost seems to weigh you down by the end, but if you’re in the mood to be creeped out, it’s a solid choice.

Tales of Terror (1962) –

I was so thrilled to see that this was available to stream; it’s one of my absolute favorite movies to watch around Halloween. It’s actually a collection of three short films, all adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe. Vincent Price is in all three; Peter Lorre appears in “The Black Cat” and Basil Rathbone turns up in “The Case of M. Valdemar.” It’s a bit campy, perhaps, to a modern viewer, but I love watching the theatrical flair while which they tackle Poe’s tendency to write high (terrible) emotion. And you can never have enough of either Poe or Price around the end of October.

The Sixth Sense (1999) –

I doubt there are many of my readers who haven’t heard of, yet seen, The Sixth Sense. For my cohort, it was one of those movies that everyone saw when it was out (sometimes more than once). But, before M. Night Shamaylan had made himself a joke – I have still not forgiven him for the travesty of film that was The Last Airbender – he gave us this chilling little ghost story. Rewatching it, you remember why, for a short time, there was talk of him being the next Hitchcock. The fact that it hasn’t happened, though, shouldn’t detract from how well done this movie was (does anyone even remember it was a Best Picture Oscar nominee?).  Eleven years later, definitely worth a rewatch.

 

Bonus pick:   Though I don’t recommend it as strongly as these other three, it’s also worth noting that those of you more in the mood for fluff and blood (or comedy) can pick up Zombieland (2009). I’m not Jesse Eisenberg’s biggest fan, and the screenplay is middling, but Woody Harrelson is astoundingly good, Emma Stone is enjoyable, Bill Murray’s cameo is amazing and the funny bits are really quite funny.  Not Shaun of the Dead, but a good movie to throw in while a few likeminded horror/comedy fusion fans are around.

What To Watch Tonight

Three more movie recommendations. All available for instant view on Netflix.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) –
Your silent recommendation for this round is a classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Yes, it’s maybe the seminal early Expressionist film, and yes, it’s an important milestone in film history. But more importantly, it’s just so interesting. The twisted, asymmetrical visuals are sort of proto-Burtonesque, and some shots are haunting in how long they stick with you.

The plot has to do with a carnival and a somnambulist, insanity and murder. But really, if you’re into films like, say, Inception, you really need to check out the story in this film and shiver at how prescient it was. I may rewatch this one myself. Also, it’s only 72 minutes, so if you’ve got other things to do, it’s less than 2 episodes of most television dramas – without commercials.

The Third Man (1949) –
Literally one of my very favorite movies. The Third Man never gets old for me. I love its cinematography, and its screenplay, and its kicky little zither theme. I love Joseph Cotton as the protagonist who doesn’t know to quit, and I love the post-war Vienna setting.

It’s based on a Graham Greene novel, and follows Cotton as an unemployed novelist who finds out his friend Harry Lime died under mysterious circumstances. In grand movie tradition, the novelist just has to know what really happened, despite people telling him he might be better off not knowing. Enjoy your first viewing; it’s a movie I’d dearly love to be able to see again for the first time.

Excalibur (1981) –
Though I saw Camelot first, this remains my seminal childhood version of the Arthurian legend. (Funny, because it’s a fairly hard R in both sex and violence, but… whatever.) It’s full of 80s bling and Wagner and very hammy performances from actors great and small.

Highlights include: Gabriel Byre’s Uther, who takes Ygraine while wearing his full plate, and in front of tiny!Morgan. Liam Neeson as a very blustery Gawain. Patrick Stewart. Helen Mirren. And more fog than you can shake a stick at. It may not be a very good movie, but a fun riff on the Camelot legend.

What to Watch Tonight

Three movies available to stream instantly on Netflix.

The Cat and the Canary (1927) –
This is a silent film, so be warned if silents aren’t your thing. But really do consider checking this out. I saw it almost by chance on Turner Classic Movies a few years ago, and loved it. The heirs to a fortune have to spend the night in their dead benefactor’s house; the woman first in line to inherit must be declared of sound mind or she won’t get the money. This is all well and good and just mildly creepy until the family’s lawyer turns up dead and a lunatic escapes from a nearby asylum. (As they do.)

This movie has all kinds of things going for it. It mixes German Expressionism with humor – no, really, it does – and it plays into several solid tropes. The people locked in a mansion together, the maniac on the loose, men trying to manipulate a woman into believing (or having others believe) that she’s crazy… it’s kind of fabulous. The filming is also really impressive for ’27. Very enjoyable.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974) –
The most high-profile film adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel is star-studded in the most classic sense. Everyone is either a high profile movie star (Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins) or at the very least someone who looks dead familiar (Martin Balsam, Richard Widmark). Albert Finney plays Poirot, and while he will always be Tom Jones in my head, Finney does a great job with the part.

Though the pacing could be better, the film captures the fun who-dunnit feeling of the classic locked room mystery that, for me, is what Christie does best. It is a bit over-acted and broad, but that suits the piece, and it’s a very fun use of a couple hours. It’s self-aware enough not to be pompous, with a solid enough story to keep you hooked.

Ugetsu (1953) –
This Japanese film is perhaps one of the most atmospheric movies I’ve ever seen. My strongest memories of seeing it the first time are of fog and mist weaving in and out of scenes; things dissolve in front of you, and then the scene dissolves in the cinematic sense as well. It’s considered a classic of Japanese cinema, and Kenji Mizoguchi’s direction is masterful.

The movie is based on several short stories, but are framed by two peasants from a farming village. They flee their homes in the late 16th century, as an army sweeps through and subsequently find themselves caught up in all sorts of intrigue and… well, I hesitate to say adventures, but perhaps “events.” The film moves relatively slowly, but takes its time with both the viewer’s gaze and character developments. There’s also a nice supernatural overtone that makes it feel like a story told at a campfire, or late at night. A beautiful film.