Pig (2021; d. Michael Sarnoski)
I wish I could write at length about some of these. I just don’t have the time these days. I absolutely loved Pig, about an isolated woodsman-truffle-hunter (Nicolas Cage) whose beloved truffle pig is stolen. He goes on a quest to get her back. A surprisingly deep film, very emotional, and Cage shows why he is one of the best actors working today. Loved it. Out now.
Pray Away (2021; d. Kristine Stolakis)
Such an upsetting film about gay conversion therapy. Anchored around many of the “stars” of the “I prayed away the gay” movement – who have since – after much trauma – realized the error of their ways, either that they were brainwashed, or so damaged by their evangelical upbringing they would do ANYthing to be other than what they really are. Many of the leaders of places like Love in Action have since come out as gay – shocker – and a couple of them are interviewed too. The damage done by these groups is astronomical. But the doc also follows a trans man who is now proselytizing on his own “conversion”, how he was lost in the “trans” community, how he has now found the light. So the struggle continues.
Bo Burnham: Inside (2021; d. Bo Burnham)
I finally am getting around to this. My nephew Cashel talked to me about Bo Burnham’s importance to his generation (Gen Z … or, older Gen Z). They grew up with him, watching his specials and his YouTube channel. He is a standup, who turned 30 during the pandemic, an event which he immortalizes in this “comedy special”, filmed entirely in one room during lockdown. Since I’m old, Bo Burnham was totally not on my radar, until I was assigned to review Eighth Grade, his directorial debut (he also wrote the script). I am so in love with that movie. Some critics expressed surprise that a 20something man could so sensitively write about a pre-teen girl. These are CRITICS, mind you. Do they not understand ART? That the whole point of art is to explore imaginative possibilities? It’s so frustrating, this current “discourse”. Of COURSE I can empathize with what it’s like being a teenage boy. Or an elderly woman. Or a middle-aged guy having a life crisis. I am NOT them, but part of art is creating circumstances where you can put yourself in their shoes. This is not a rare thing. This is what art is all about. ANYWAY, Eighth Grade is incredible and made me a Bo Burnham fan. Better late than never. Inside is a masterpiece, in my opinion, and completely unlike anything else. Created in unique circumstances, and commenting ON that moment in time, as well as lampooning so many of the sacred cows of today, all done through monologues and catchy songs. He filmed himself. Nobody else was in that room with him. In love with it. I want to watch it again.
Misha and the Wolves (2021; d. Sam Hobkinson)
A strange documentary about a wild hoax, perpetrated by a very strange woman who made up a story that she was a Holocaust survivor who lived among wolves. Her story is bizarre but what is even more bizarre is that people bought it.I reviewed for Ebert.
Heat Lightning (1934; d. Mervyn LeRoy)
My recent conversation about Ann Dvorak led me onto a path of discovery. I have seen the major ones (Scarface, Three on a Match, Housewife) but this was new to me. I have Kim Morgan to thank. I can’t say enough good things about this rough and dirty Pre-Code, about two sisters – the great Aline MacMahon, who normally played wisecracking sidekicks and here steps into the center role – and Dvorak, who run an isolated garage/diner out in the middle of a desert (very Petrified Forest). Into this isolation enters a host of eccentric characters, including two jumpy bank robbers on the run. It’s really about the relationship of these sisters, and how they survive. It’s streaming on Amazon, if you can believe it. SEE it.
My Forbidden Past (1951; d. Robert Stevenson)
Robert Mitchum and Ava Gardner in a romantic melodrama about a woman who cannot let go – CANNOT – of the man she loved and lost. Taking place in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, among a family fallen from their position of status (although they still live in a mansion), and this young woman’s desire – burning desire – to re-capture her man, by any means necessary, even if it means her sordid past (not really, but whatever, different times, etc.) is revealed. Mitchum strolls through it like he has nowhere else to go – so sexy – and Gardner is wonderful as a manipulative and yet achingly lonely young woman, taunted by her brother (Melvin Douglas) who clearly has incestuous feelings for his sister. Like, he will not leave her alone. He wants her all to himself.
Annette (2021; d. Leos Carax)
I saw it again. I had to! It was too much to absorb the first time even though I reviewed for Ebert.
The Crowd Roars (1932; d. Howard Hawks)
James Cagney, Ann Dvorak and Joan Blondell in a movie about race car drivers and the women unfortunate enough to love them. Cagney is so good here, hiding away the woman he loves – she’s basically treated like a side bitch not valid enough to be a girlfriend – and how he drives her absolutely crazy with his hurtful (and sometimes frightening behavior). Some really great racing sequences too!
Housewife (1934; d. Alfred E. Green)
It’s wild to see Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis go toe to toe. Davis has come a long way from her uninteresting role in Three on a Match, just a year before. Here she is a sassy copyeditor (cue Peggy Olsen), determined to live by men’s rules, even when it comes to sex. She basically steals Dvorak’s emasculated husband right out from under her. Some interesting commentary here in re: domestic work being degrading as well as office work being also degrading. The husband doesn’t like it at ALL when he’s treated dismissively at work, and yet he treats his wife (Dvorak) the same way. It’s really good.
Dangerous (1935; d. Alfred E. Green)
A year after Of Human Bondage, when Bette Davis got everyone’s attention with how far she was willing to go. Bette Davis is SUPERB as a once-famous actress now descended into a never-ending bender. (Phone call for Laurette Taylor?) Franchot Tone is the guy with a savior complex who determines to help her dry out and get back on the stage. In the meantime, he falls in love with her even though he’s engaged. Not sure what is to love about her! Davis’ character is rumored to be a “jinx” – bad shit happens to people who get involved with her, men lose it, go crazy, act reckless. She has come to believe this herself and drinks to drown out that self-knowledge. Davis is amazing in those moments when she’s being denied alcohol and she needs – needs – to get herself a drink.
A Star is Born (1954; d. George Cukor)
A classic. Watched with Luisa and Mitchell, i.e. heaven on earth. Luisa pointed out a great moment of Judy doing some “back-ting”, which I now wish I had included in my piece on back-ting, because it’s one the best examples I have seen.
Marriage Story (2019; d. Noah Baumbach)
I felt the need to re-visit Adam Driver’s career, after the Annette frenzy of the last month. He is just so interesting to me. I’ll make my way through, not in chronological order or anything, just as the wind takes me. I wrote about Noah Baumbach’s career for the September-October 2019 issue of Film Comment (print only). I think this is a very good movie but I have to say that the first time I saw it, I was blown away by the scene where he sings “Being Alive” at the little piano bar. This second time, the scene not only left me cold it left me thinking that it was a poor choice. Driver performs it beautifully but the scene itself felt like a cop-out, and therefore unearned, which was weird. Baumbach needed to find a way to provide a catharsis, and so he had Driver sing that song in its entirety, so that Sondheim could do the heavy lifting. I don’t know. It just didn’t work at all for me the second time, even though it REALLY worked for me the first time. Am I, as a critic, not supposed to admit that? Oh well. There are no rules.
Ma Belle Ma Beauty (2021; d. Marion Hill)
A movie about a polyamorous relationship on the rocks. It has its pleasures but it felt pretty low stakes. Turns out, polyamorous people’s love problems are just as boring as everyone else’s love problems. Like, who cares. I reviewed for Ebert.
Habit (2021; d. Janell Shirtcliff)
This is just not good. I reviewed for Ebert.
Picture Snatcher (1933; d. Lloyd Bacon)
I had never seen this and I LOVED it! It’s fantastic! I flashed on Nightcrawler as I was watching it – the two films share the same premise – Jessie noticed this too – so I wonder if the influence was explicit and direct? It’d be interesting to find out. Cagney is great (what a shock) and he has an AMAZING mirror moment, one that is new to me, and you know how I love mirror scenes.
Supernatural, Season 15, episode 20 “Carry On” (2020; d. Andrew Dabb)
Deep breath. I hadn’t watched this since it aired, believe it or not. I was a WRECK. The two of them in that scene in the barn … they are both such emotional men, and by this point they’ve been playing these characters almost half their lives … so there’s no strain to “act” anything. Sam and Dean were saying goodbye to each other, and Jared and Jensen were saying goodbye to the show, and to their characters. And the emotion FLOWED, without being self-indulgent. It all fit. I’ve had my issues with Dabb – major issues – he fucked up my show, frankly – but he did drive this thing home in a way that I found satisfying. (I am well aware that others do not feel the same way, and are still very angry, and sending death threats to writers and to anyone who disagrees. Because fandom is so much fun, right?) Anyway, it’s a good ending, worthy of the show, even though the last three seasons, in general, were a mess. I miss Supernatural.
Summer Days Summer Nights (2021; d. Edward Burns)
Ed Burns’ latest. It’s not perfect but very few things are and I enjoyed it. I reviewed for Ebert.
Paterson (2016; d. Jim Jarmusch)
I find this movie overwhelming in a very quiet stealth way. It is “about” everything I care about, but HOW it’s “about” these things is unexpected and mysterious. It makes me very emotional. There’s almost a Jeanne Dillman thing going on here, a similar-ish structure, in that every day is the same … everything done the same way and in the same order (well, the wife, played beautifully by Golshifteh Farahani, is NOT a creature of routine – putting it mildly) … but he does everything the same way and in the same order … and the variations accumulate, and eventually topple the routine. The routine doesn’t have the same undercurrents as Jeanne Dillman – there’s not the same sense of peril. But there is danger here, and foreshadowing, and symbolic “signs” that things are not what they seem. All those twins! The movie is so contemplative, so slow and unrushed, and yet compelling too – it draws you in – that I felt I had the space to just think about all those twins, and all of the different things the twins meant. It’s not just one thing. The whole movie shows multiple doubling, a tripling … of routines, of conversations … things repeat, things return. This last time watching it though I found myself thinking: I bet she’s pregnant. I bet she’s pregnant with twins (and doesn’t know it yet). Twins are saying to him, subconsciously, “Hi. We’re on our way.” And the 7-day arc of the film could be seen as him getting ready for their arrival. The wife, too! She’s redecorating, and baking, and ordering guitars … she’s open to life, she’s open to change in a way he is not. I love this movie so much. Lydia Marks, who did the superb set decoration, is a member of the O’Malley family (married to my cousin). She did incredible work. I wrote about it for Ebert’s Top Ten of 16.
Shane (1953; d. George Stevens)
A re-watch with specific things in mind for a piece I’m working on. Well, it’s done. But I needed to prep. I watched Shane so many times as a kid – it was one of the staples on our local TV station, which played old movies in random rotation – and so I practically know it by heart. I absorbed it through osmosis. So it was fun to come to it with a fresh eye.
Everybody Wants Some (2016; d. Richard Linklater)
I can’t get enough. I watched it twice this past month, once by myself, and once with Allison (she had never seen it). I reviewed it very favorably for Ebert. If you don’t find these guys sexy and appealing then nothing I can say will convince you, because personal taste is personal taste. But if you DISMISS these guys as stereotypes, or if you see this as Animal House part 2, or The Hangover: The Prequel, then I feel comfortable saying you ARE missing something, you are missing what Linklater is doing. If you call these guys “bros” or “dudebros”, you’re missing it. Maybe you don’t know guys like this. Maybe you think the movie is being “soft” on a type you find destructive and gross. This is your right, but as someone who DOES know guys like this, and very well, whose family is riddled with guys like this, who has dated guys like this and LOVED it … then maybe you should listen to what I’m saying and just consider you might be missing something. The hostility towards “guys like this” is so strong, and if you don’t share it then it’s really clear that … there’s actually brainwashing going on, a cultural assumption as solid as Mount Rushmore. Listen, I’ve faced more misogynistic hostility from so-called “nerds” than from guys like this. Guys like this actually LIKE women. And yes, they want to get laid, but … so do I, so do many women … and so they play the game like it’s FUN, not like they’re desperate. This is attractive. Oh, never mind. Y’all just have closed minds. Allison and I paused it once to discuss and this was the moment frozen on the screen: Poor Coma feeling out of place at the punk rock club, with a “punk” on the stairs behind him, and “EAT SHIT” on the wall next to his head. On their way in to the club, everyone decked out in “punk” clothing, or whatever they could pull together, one guy said to Coma – who hadn’t changed his clothes, “At least take off the sunglasses, Coma, you look like a fucking narc.”
The White Lotus (2021; d. Mike White)
Holed up in Allison’s apartment for the last four days. Well, we did go out once, to City Winery, to see Mike Birbiglia, whom we love. Vaccination cards had to be presented at the door, and I approve of this. We had so much fun at the Birbiglia show, and we shared a table with two people – both of whom had come by themselves and did not know each other – and we all befriended each other and went out after to a loud bar (vaccination cards required there too), and screamed in each others’ faces, and did shots. I haven’t been to a bar in years. It was so out of character for me. Allison and I got home at 2 in the morning. It was so fun. But besides THAT, we just hung out in her air-conditioned apartment (it was a soupy 90 degrees outside for three days in a row) and watched shit. We watched the entirety of White Lotus – she had seen it but said she really wanted to “show it” to me. This is what we do as friends. I showed her Everybody Wants Some!! and she showed me White Lotus. Everyone’s very good in it. Connie Britton is just a wonder – I love her – and Jake Lacy! I’ve been “in” with him ever since I saw Obvious Child. He’s just so good. But everyone’s good. It’s a crazy story, with a crazy environment – the music is particularly effective.
Nine Perfect Strangers, 4 episodes, (2021; d. Jonathan Levine)
I haven’t read the book. Allison showed me this too. Or, at least, all of the episodes available. Bobby Cannavale and Melissa McCarthy, so far, have my favorite arc, although I am loving Michael Shannon’s scruffy doing-his-best character as well. I like how nothing is what it seems and I like how characters “present” a certain way and then you get to peel the layers of the onion. Nicole Kidman is intense and ethereal but … there’s something missing there for me. It’s kind of one note. As of now, she seems like a total sociopath, wrapped in New Age garb, but we shall see how it all pans out.
100 Foot Wave (2021; d. Chris Smith)
I’ve been obsessed with Nazare, Portugal – and its terrifying waves – for some time. I follow all the Nazare feeds on Instagram! I have no desire to surf, have no desire to do ANY of this shit, and I think they are all fucking crazy, but I love hearing about it and learning about it, and “spending time” with people who are turned on at the thought of skiing down the slope of one of those heaving MONSTERS. 80 foot waves. Rearing up below this lighthouse that’s been there for hundreds of years. So I was so excited that HBO was doing a docu-series about Nazare, focusing on Garrett McNamara – an adrenaline junkie, really – who was the first (or second? can’t remember) guy to surf one of those monsters – you can find the clip on YouTube. For a while the surfing community ignored it. But then … they realized what they were missing and now everyone flocks to Nazare in the winter months to try their hand at surfing these … THINGS. I liked, though, how the docuseries used Garrett McNamara as its center, because he is a fascinating man. Tormented, really. Not “fit” for normal life. He needs those waves. He’s getting to be too old. He suffered two horrific injuries in the last two years and is still recovering. He has kids. But he can’t let it go. People die at Nazare. Many surfers say they suffer from PTSD from their experiences wiping out there. It’s that bad. I highly recommend the series – it’s really interesting (with STUNNING surfing photography).
OK. Where do I start? I love your diaries. And I love some of what you watch. I am older than you but have been a Bo Burnham fan for years. Found him falling down a rabbit hole. Ditto Mike Birbiglia. Oh, my. So I’m reading along, and got to your last entry. I went to Nazare every fall when we lived in Lisbon (1954-1958). I was a kid and never forgot. Now I watch everything I can find on YouTube about that place. Love Richard Linklater. Love Ann Dvorak. Bette Davis not (always) so much. Adam Driver yes. Never saw Girls, but have have caught up with him. Have to re-watch Annette. Am still a bit on the fence about that one. I know you loved it. I will let you know. With your Viewing, Listening, and Reading Diaries, I feel I am well informed. Or trying to be.
// I went to Nazare every fall when we lived in Lisbon //
Wow!! so you saw those huge monsters rolling in! I’m envious!
After watching Gaia I decided to learn more about fungi, so I’ve been reading Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change our Minds & Shape Our Futures. There’s a section about truffle hunters – though with dogs in Italy rather than a pig in Oregon. I love Nick Cage – so I had to watch Pig .
Nick is always compelling, with his own particular inner light. I really enjoyed the movie and the oddness of the chef/baker/Fight Club/truffle hunter world it created. I like that little pieces of Cage’s character were revealed in things like his encounter with the boy in the backyard of his old home. His explanation for the unappealing taste of pre-ripened persimmons was informative (for me, at least) and done at a level that the little boy could understand (and me too). The entire scene in the fancy restaurant was this great building of tension and then release in disappointment. Nick had some real professionals around him. The actor playing the chef really sold Rob’s truth-telling with his face slowly collapsing as Rob recounted their brief history. The actor playing Amir was also excellent. The writing for the characters was really well-done.
Scout Tafoya’s recent interview with Ethan Hawke had a lot of provocative ideas and observations in it. Hawke talked about having an obligation to the film community and how he thinks it’s important to help people get a film made if he can. I wonder if Nick has similar thoughts. This is Michael Sarnoski’s first film as director. Mandy was Cosmatos’ second film. I also wonder if Cage looks at a script and says “there are some problems here, but I can make this watchable?” He seems to operate right on the edge of plausibility. As a choice. Nouveau Shamanic.
Hawke also made an interesting description of actors who “only play themselves.” He called them “first person actors” versus “third person actors.” Of course, he was not in the least dismissive of that and said he was a first person actor earlier in his career but has become more of a third person actor. He said that first person actors always find a way to bring something of themselves to their characters. You’ve written about this a lot. Would you say “first person/third person” is a good way to describe the distinction here? I want to mull this over a while, but it’s appealing at present. In the limited/useful way of “there are two kinds of X.”
Back to Pig, I think we heard Rob’s earthquake-and-tidal-wave prediction early in the movie – before we learned about his phenomenal memory and his ability to connect with a person in a meaningful way. His truth-telling. So hearing it then made him sound like the cliche of a backwoods weirdo. By the end of the movie, when the prediction was referred to again, it seemed far more serious considering our new knowledge of the character. But he’s just an extraordinary guy, not a prophet. I like the writing of that, building him up but at the end keeping him “just” extraordinary. “See you Thursday.”
I so love that you’re reading about fungi because of GAIA!
In general, Nicolas Cage’s whole career has been about taking chances – maybe because of his famous last name, which he ditched early on to distance himself. There was that weird period where he was in these gigantic action blockbusters – alternating with small films made for next to nothing – so he had the best of both worlds (although I don’t know if blockbusters are the best of anything. Financially, though, they are invaluable – they can help finance an actor working for scale or even nothing if they want to). Like Leaving Las Vegas. Or, yes, Mandy. At this point, I think all Cage wants to do is enjoy himself and challenge himself. Oh, and JOE, how could I forget Joe. That was one of the best performances that year – nobody else came close – and yet … nobody really talked about it. In the 1970s, it would have won all the Oscars.
and yes, I was very pleasantly surprised by Alex Wolff as Amir – I’ve been less than thrilled by Wolff’s work – it’s been very one-note as far as I’m concerned up until now. Amir is really his first real part and he was terrific and I’m happy for him. If you notice, what he’s doing – and why I think he’s so good – the main thing he is doing is NOT thinking about himself and his performance. He is paying attention to Nicolas Cage. Like so many great actors, Cage is basically making everyone around him better!
I don’t know about first person/third person – that’s a little bit too analytical for me! I think definitely once young actors – who generally are cast to play themselves – unless they’re obviously a character actor already (like Philip Seymour Hoffman, for example) – but I think once young actors (particularly good-looking ones, like Hawke) pass a certain point, and get a certain level of respect and cache – they can afford to start experimenting. I mean, Hawke was so extraordinary in Dead Poets Society he was clearly the “real deal” and not just a cute face. His handsomeness was a mixed blessing – because he also could play … cocky, or even cruel. So he was an interesting type. Richard Linklater saw the essence though – I’m not sure his career would be what it was without those Before Sunrise movies – which really just allowed him to be as open and as accessible as he actually is.
and I’ve always admired him because of Malaparte – which was a huge deal right before I moved to New York – that was my cousin Mike’s crowd. Hawke was very inspiring to a generation of actors – like my cousin – because he was devoted to the theatre, even with a movie career, AND that he had created an ensemble repertory company. I mean … very few movie stars do that. They’ll go back and do a play on Broadway but not that.
Coming up on the 20th year of 9/11 – the week after 9/11, I went to a memorial service in the little garden next to the fire station in Hell’s Kitchen. The fire station lost so many people. The entire company was decimated. There’s a little garden on that corner, so a handful of people gathered there – I didn’t even know it was happening – I happened to be walking by – traumatized, grieving, like everybody was – the fire station priest hosted a service, and the 30-4o people who were there, all held hands during one of the long prayers. I was crying. Everyone was crying. It was only after I let go of the hand of the guy next to me that I saw it was Ethan Hawke. He looked like shit. He lit a cigarette DURING the service. Nobody judged. I think he lived in Hell’s Kitchen – I’d seen him around there before – the theatre district hangout.
Anyway, I’ve never forgotten that.
//I think definitely once young actors – who generally are cast to play themselves//
Is this something that young actors generally know, or a realization that comes with age? I saw a conversation between David Harbour and Kyle McLachlan where KM asked DH what was the worst direction he had ever received. DH said that Ang Lee once asked if he could act “more handsome” or words to that effect. DH wryly commented that the problem was with Lee’s casting and not his acting. You get the instrument you hire. We all need thick skins when interviewing for jobs, but for actors…
Your Ethan Hawke story, wow.
As for fungi, they are mysterious and pervasive. I’m adding mycologist to my list of things I’d like to be if we are really living in a simulation and we get multiple lives.
// Is this something that young actors generally know, or a realization that comes with age? //
IMO and through my observation – you have to learn it. You see it a lot – young actors who don’t have the skill yet try to “play against type” – and I get it, you want to stretch, you don’t want to be a cliche, you want to stand out. But it takes real skill. The actors who DON’T do that – who seem to just know who they are already at a young age – and don’t push or try to “act” (ahem Kristen Stewart) often have a leg up on the competition. I’d say someone like Greta Gerwig too. She probably doesn’t have a ton of range and that’s perfectly fine – she doesn’t have to!
// You get the instrument you hire. //
Absolutely!!
// DH said that Ang Lee once asked if he could act “more handsome” or words to that effect. //
God that is awful!! Jesus! Yeah, don’t cast someone and then be bummed that they are who they are. Cast people who are right for the role.
IMO – and this is a minority view – I think Jessica Chastain is trying to be a character actress – and she just isn’t. she is fine when she just has to listen and talk and be involved in the moment – but when she has to play a “character” – she’s at a loss. She even looks amateurish. Which … God, I don’t want to see that. Not when there are so many great character actresses out there. Like, back to back (or it felt like it) – were Miss Sloane, Molly’s Game and Zookeeper’s Wife. She was bad in all of them. And yet her career is untouchable for some reason – like, three bad performances in a row? She’s not a master of transformation. She doesn’t have the skill. Something like Molly’s Game was MADE for Julia Roberts – she would have strolled away with it – it’s for a movie star – and JC isn’t a movie star, not like Julia, not like that. I loved JC in Tree of Life – Take Shelter – Zero Dark Thirty – where she wasn’t playing broad characters. She’s quite good. I am dreading the Tammy Faye movie. Now, Amy Poehler – or Kristen Wiig – THEY would KILL at playing Tammy Faye!
I haven’t been able to bring myself to rewatch the SPN finale, in spite of finding it beautiful and satisfying, both surprising and inevitable. I’m still astounded and grateful that it managed to be so brothers-centric after all the plotty nonsense with Michael and Lucifer and Chuck gumming up the works of the episode that came before. It was an ending I never would have envisioned, but it centered grief and hope and sacrifice in the way that the best Supernatural episodes always have. I’m sure I will make my way back to rewatch eventually. I miss the show too.
I’m so glad you watched “Inside”! My brothers are Gen Z, and they have been following Bo Burnham since he was on Youtube and Vine. They showed me White Woman’s Instagram (that hook will stay in your head forever), and I thought it was funny and clever. But the part that stuck with me was the interlude in the middle, where the camera lens expands out of the standard square Instagram proportion and he narrates the woman’s heartfelt message to her mom. You think he’s going to go back and undercut that earnestness with a joke or a jab, but he just…doesn’t. It’s those kinds of choices that made me keep thinking about it for days after I watched it.
I was hesitant about watching the special in its entirety, because my own mental landscapes haven’t been the healthiest over the past couple years…but the blinding accuracy with which he was able to give voice to those anxieties ended up being cathartic (if a little terrifying). The second half reminded me of how I felt after watching a merciless production of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days”…my brain trying to make sense of the images, while all these visceral emotions rise to the surface. I was just mesmerized by the whole thing. It’s smarter and darker and more devastating than anything I’ve seen him do before.
Bo Burnham did a round table interview with the Hollywood Reporter, and when they asked him if any film had particularly influenced him, he said “Woman Under the Influence” and talked about how great Gena Rowlands is. It made me think of you – I had just read your piece on her for Ebert that you linked to for her birthday.
Bethany – thanks for your comment!!
// I’m still astounded and grateful that it managed to be so brothers-centric after all the plotty nonsense with Michael and Lucifer and Chuck gumming up the works of the episode that came before. //
Totally. I never really accepted the ensemble nature of the show – at least not in its final seasons manifesation. The “ensemble” that developed over Season 2 to Season 6 or 7 – was fine with me. Characters came in and out, characters were essential – Jo and Ellen – Bobby – and then, later, people like Garth or Charlie. and CROWLEY. I liked it when they showed up. But they never had whole entire plot lines where we’d follow them and lose track of Sam and Dean. That would have been so WEIRD back then. The closest we got was the Castiel “man who would be king” episode – and honestly, I was starting to care less about heaven by that point. And Castiel just never grabbed me – beyond Season 4, that is, where I loved what he brought.
anyway – the Rowena-Ketch bullshit was BAFFLING to me. Honestly, I think they were kept around because the powers that be needed actors to attend the conventions, because Jared and Jensen would appear only once and then they needed all that filler. Built-in conventions. KETCH? are you freakin KIDDING me? God, he was such a bore. And Rowena … I’ve said before that I think her continued presence broke the show.
so I had the same fears you did. I don’t want all those people mucking up the finale. once they “got rid” of Castiel in the episode before – or 2 episodes before? I can’t remember – I had the sense that they were clearing the deck.
// It was an ending I never would have envisioned, but it centered grief and hope and sacrifice in the way that the best Supernatural episodes always have. //
Yes. and I loved that Dean’s ending was what it was. Just a random pole thing in a random barn. and him saying “that’s it. I’m done. Enough.”
I thought that was perfect.
// But the part that stuck with me was the interlude in the middle, where the camera lens expands out of the standard square Instagram proportion and he narrates the woman’s heartfelt message to her mom. //
YES. Thank you so much for reminding me. The song was so bitchy (and honestly it wasn’t my favorite) – and his inclusion of that heartfelt message undercut the bitchiness in a way I realized afterwards was necessary. If you’re too general, then you’re just a bitch and you may get some cheap laughs but … who’s to say these women are “doing Instagram wrong”? It’s stupid social media and it’s free. You do you. I’ll do me. There are no rules. But I loved how he included that. It says a lot about who he is!
// my brain trying to make sense of the images, while all these visceral emotions rise to the surface. I was just mesmerized by the whole thing. It’s smarter and darker and more devastating than anything I’ve seen him do before. //
I agree. He really lets it get dark! and there is something totally cathartic about that. I’ve been doing okay but those first months of the pandemic were spooky. He really captured that. Or … he just spoke from within that spooky place where your whole life becomes a hallway of mirrors or a hall of echoes or whatever the phrase is. I’m a huge fan! Have you seen Eighth Grade?
// he said “Woman Under the Influence” and talked about how great Gena Rowlands is. //
!!!!!! Oh my gosh that is incredible!
I loved Eighth Grade! As a middle school teacher, I find it incredibly rare that writers are able to get the “voice” right for that age group. He clearly did his homework (on youtube, no doubt!) and listened to his young actress. She was excellent, too.
I loved that actress. I loved how he cast real 12 year olds, 13 year olds. So often 14, 15 year olds are given roles like this – but it’s such a VAST difference, being 12 and being 15.
I loved Gabe – the boy she met at the pool party – who then has her over for chicken nuggets and they talk about Rick & Morty. that is so RIGHT ON. what a wonderful “date” for a 13 year old kid. Loved it.
Sheila I have been trying to find a direct Nightcrawler/Picture Snatcher connex! But there’s not much out there besides a spurious imdb trivia thing and our own conversation haha. Interestingly, Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) cites the most notorious early photojournalist Weegee as direct inspo for Nightcrawler (interesting article here), bringing the fellow into a 70s anti-hero character study. But Weegee seems to have really gotten started in the year or two after Picture Snatcher was released, and I can’t find a contemporaneous link between the movie and Weegee (maybe if I was Anne Helen Petersen I could track this down but sadly…). I think it must be just one of those things….and, as we said, speaks to a remarkable consistency in exploitative photojournalism across the 20thC, and also how it was an intimate feature of developments in technology and mass media, instead of being an aberration.
I so miss Supernatural too! I miss the FEVER. Of course there is plenty of amazing stuff to watch out there but little of it, even my most favourite and thoroughly enjoyed tv/movies, makes me feel FERVID, sitting in a fever ward with a bunch of other wild-eyed women in white nightgowns talking about flocking and cheekbones. I got brave enough to rewatch Carry On a couple of months ago and still had to fasten a bucket under my chin. It’s funny timing to read your and Bethany’s very accurate comments about how truly astonishing and precious the episode is because I just heard this morning that KETCH, of all people, was included in Dabb’s original plan of a big cheesy party to greet Dean on his arrival to Heaven. I would say at this point it’s kind of funny, because it is, legitimately, truly, absurdly preposterous; but it still gets to me! lol. Will I ever let go?! Not on your nelly.
I’ve been thinking about Paterson too — will have to rewatch looking for twins and doubling. Such a beautifully generous and gentle film.
// Interestingly, Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) cites the most notorious early photojournalist Weegee as direct inspo for Nightcrawler (interesting article here), bringing the fellow into a 70s anti-hero character study. //
I went to a Weegee exhibit here in New York maybe about 10 years ago at the center for photography here and it was so intense. Some of those photos are still so upsetting – even though the murdered people or car crash victims or whatever – have been dead for 80 years or whatever. His eye was so brutal!
But that’s really interesting, all these connections. and … the early 30s, with organized crime going next level what with Prohibition and bootlegging – Prohibition really creating organized crime – that’s what so many of these Pre-Code films are about, either explicitly or not. Picture Snatcher is definitely part of this – it’s also like the newspaper people (Ralph Bellamy is one of the editors!) are hand in hand with the underworld. Like, this is not Woodward and Bernstein. They’re all pretty sleazy, and they work at a sleazy rag – not the NY Times – so journalism is a different animal there. Ratings ratings ratings, whatever the cost!
All of this talk has made me want to watch Night Crawler again. (Even the titles of the two films are similar!!)
// makes me feel FERVID, sitting in a fever ward with a bunch of other wild-eyed women in white nightgowns talking about flocking and cheekbones. //
LOL!!!!
// I just heard this morning that KETCH, of all people, was included in Dabb’s original plan of a big cheesy party to greet Dean on his arrival to Heaven. I would say at this point it’s kind of funny, because it is, legitimately, truly, absurdly preposterous; but it still gets to me! //
I just don’t GET it.
I GET the Castiel thing, even though I don’t agree with it. I understand the choices made and why. But KETCH? I just don’t understand. I know there are theories that people like Ketch and others were prized because they made the show LESS brothers-centric – and as long as Destiel wasn’t happening, the Destiel fan base loved that the brothers were no longer “codependent” (eyeroll).
But beyond that, the appeal of Ketch is just totally foreign to me. i have ZERO feelings about him. I forget he exists in between episodes. It’s just so so absurd.
//flocking and cheekbones//
In shocking news, flock wallpaper does not seem to exist as a tag on Ao3, which when you consider what does exist as a tag …
that’s funny I was sure I tagged it Jerry Wanek/Flock Wallpaper
This may be why they are recruiting for Tag Wranglers. How’s your Chinese?
He’s fine, but that’s not important right now.
LOL
Anything involving any kind of wallpaper needs a proper tag. Wallpaper is ESSENTIAL. which is why I so love that coffee-table book weighing 40 pounds. It’s allllllll about the wallpaper.
I have a confession to make which is that I received the book back in July, but opened it to a grainy series of poor-quality screenshots of Rowena and her house, and closed it again, disheartened. Only in the last few days have I really started going through it! I am grateful to see that on the whole the images are high-quality and range from production reference photos to stills and screenshots. It’s overwhelming how much beautiful work is in there. I couldn’t possibly begin to understand the choices behind recompiling it out of chronological order; while it’s nice to have some pages with eg a neon sign theme, other times the juxtaposition is bewildering and honestly offputting, especially when it’s some lesser work from later seasons against something really top-notch.
In amongst all the other delicate/outraged feelings a first-time pore generated, it certainly drove relentlessly home for me though how thoroughly, fundamentally mid-century a ‘classic’ Supernatural set is, be it diner or petrol station or motel. Gorgeous stuff.
// honestly offputting, especially when it’s some lesser work from later seasons against something really top-notch. //
Yes, I agree. Like .. the futuristic bunker that Ketch (bleh) set up shop in – who cares about that set? the real skill was in making those motels – or Bobby’s house – or the roadhouse – feel sooooo rumply and lived-in.
and I’m still irritated at the bunker and how long it hung around. I get it. They were all in love with it, but … you have to kill your darlings sometimes – and they just didn’t have the guts that Kripke did when he burned down the roadhouse. lol
//Jerry Wanek/Flock Wallpaper//
Forget Destiel, that is the realest and truest love affair in SPN.
though it’s hard to make a catchy ship name out of it.
Cassie/teapots …
I definitely have an ongoing love affair with a couple of those motel rooms. The huge ramshackle place in Tall Tales – but I really love the on in the Amazon ep too – the production design of that hotel room is better than the episode itself.
that one shot in the Amazons ep where Dean walks across the hotel room, gun drawn, after he hears a knock at the door. It’s one of the most glamorously lit and designed shots in the whole series. He goes through like 3 different lighting schemes on his way to the door.
Like, this level of gorgeousness has no PURPOSE other than to be gorgeous.
That’s what was so HURTFUL about how ugly and generic the show was in the last four seasons. What I loved about that Amazons apartment is that – a lot of the episode takes place there – it’s not just a pit stop – they do a lot of thinking and talking there – and then that confrontation with Dean’s daughter – so they put a lot of thought and care into the layout – but beyond that, they just had fun turning it into this murky musty space with a CRAZY lighting scheme. Go watch that shot where he walks to the door. It’s one of my favorite shots, aesthetically, in the whole damn series!!
favorite motel rooms, everyone?
though it’s hard to make a catchy ship name out of it.
Mate! Wancking is right there.
Cassie/Teapots is a true against-all-odds affair and I hope those crazy kids can make it.
//Mate!//
Oh man, I walked right into that one, didn’t I?
Cassie/Teapots 4Eva.
“favorite motel rooms, everyone?”
Got to be the Tiki Motel from Plucky Pennywhistle, I start to say, thinking of the six-foot Polynesian statue backlit in neon red and the built-in tiki bar that Dean never gets around to using…but then I remember the enormous tiger painting (and tiger wallpaper…??) from the motel in Lazarus Rising, and I have to rethink my answer.
For me one of the top motels has to be the verdant avian psychedelia of the Dream a Little Dream motel. It’s a beautiful side-step from any specific theme, but it has this oppressive lush insanity that’s perfect for the episode. Like moss growing on the inside of your brain.
But there are so so so so many! Tall Tales! That’s not a hotel anymore, Sheila, that’s Darwinism. Incredible set. Also I recently rewatched Hunted and was enchanted anew by the Blue Rose Motel. A display cabinet of blue and white china in the room?! It’s a shame we never really got to meet any of the wildly peculiar class of motel-owner-operators.
Another one I think about all the time is the one from 13.02, which was memorable precisely because it was plain. Just jewel-toned walls, low lighting, and romantic close-ups.
Love the Dream a Little Dream wallpaper, and the Blue Rose motel blue concentric dream circles.
A favourite is S5 Ep 3 – Sam has left Dean and has, with unerring Winchester radar for dramatic motel rooms, pitched up in a vast chamber hung with blood red damascene wallpaper and an iron work bedstead like the gates to a ruined Gothic mansion. And the bedcovers. You’ll remember the bedcovers because they are very very crimson and Sam, whose vast pink chest has just been freshly waxed by the look of things, does not wear pyjamas, which is unfortunate since Lucifer has turned up in an outfit identical to Sam’s deceased girlfriend, all the better to seduce him.
another favourite is from Season 1 Grim Reaper episode, where Dean comes to find Sam after absconding from hospital. there’s nothing memorable about the room itself, apart from the metal wall sculpture that hangs on one the walls, but the room itself is plain and worn and utterly non-descript, and Dean, washed out and engulfed in that hoodie, fits right in. the walls are dirty. You can smell the damp. There’s a drinks machine right outside the door. It’s perfect.
// pitched up in a vast chamber hung with blood red damascene wallpaper and an iron work bedstead like the gates to a ruined Gothic mansion. //
Helena – LOL. that space is SO wild and weird. and there are all these different “sections” in the room, right? it’s basically an apartment. or a SUITE.
// but the room itself is plain and worn and utterly non-descript, and Dean, washed out and engulfed in that hoodie, fits right in. the walls are dirty. You can smell the damp. //
I LOVE that one. and yeah, the lit-up soda machine right outside the door – the whole place is skeezy and all they can afford, especially with those medical bills.
// verdant avian psychedelia of the Dream a Little Dream motel. // Jessie – yes! it was soooo well conceived, because when they went into the dream, that motel was already so weird they could do all these different things with it – all the doors, the hallway, those impenetrable vines. So cool and creative.
// Blue Rose Motel. A display cabinet of blue and white china in the room?! It’s a shame we never really got to meet any of the wildly peculiar class of motel-owner-operators. //
hahahaha I really love that one too. It’s so bizarre.
Now I need to remind myself of 13.02. Those later seasons blur together.
Oh my gosh, yes the Tiki one!! Ha! so random!
Is the Lazarus Rising motel where Ruby and Sam are holed up? I’m trying to remember.
I have been trying to watch Everybody Wants Some!! since it came out but it’s been tough to find. Finally saw it this past weekend and OH MY GOD do I love this movie!
Some movies are just made for me, and this is one. I understand that everyone has different college memories, but this felt like I was watching home movies. I imagine many others felt the same way.
Rapping with a bunch of friends to Rappers Delight? Check. Smoking weed to Pink Floyd, spewing deep insights mixed with drivel? Check. They had a guy called “Coma”. We had a guy called “luggage”.
But the scene where I lost it was the nerf basketball 2 on 2. We HAD that in our freshmen dorm. Since you can’t dribble a nerf ball, you were allowed 2 “dribbles” by throwing the ball off the wall to yourself. We had a 3 point line. We had tournaments. We skipped class to play.
This movie captures that magical time that hopefully everyone has briefly experienced, that small window when you’re at school but classes haven’t started yet, and you’re only obligation is to party and “experience”.
It’s a brief moment, and won’t last. Like the guys and gals in Dazed and Confused, (“If I ever call these the best days of my life, remind me to kill myself”) these guys don’t realize that it will NEVER get better then these 3 days. The pressure of games is coming. The coach will crack down on the house rules. Classes will sap some time from the non-stop party.
And the relationship won’t last. The WORST thing Jake can do is tell his friends he “likes” this girl. The movie gets male “cock-blocking” so cold. It’s not just the “in the moment” block like the guys do late in the movie with Finn, it’s the long term block. If your friends in college don’t approve of a girlfriend, that relationship has a huge uphill battle.
So things will change, and college will never seem as fun, just like high school never seemed as fun as it was in Dazed. BUT, for ONE BRIEF MOMENT, everything is perfect. Linklater can capture that is a way that nobody else can, and I thank GOD he exists, because this script would normally not get made.
I need some perspective, but I feel safe in saying that this will endure as one of my all-time favorite movies. With apologies to Dazed, Big Lebowski, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this is the best “Hang Out” movie I have ever seen. I think.
Todd – yay! I’m so glad you saw it and responded to it this way!
I’ve written before – and this is not at all an original observation – but Linklater’s main subject (imo) is TIME. How fleeting it is, how the moments that matter are the small ones, the breaths – like Willoughby says in the room where they’re all getting stoned and listening to music – he talks about the “tangents between the notes” or something like that. That’s Linklater, telling you what he is about.
I think the guys definitely have a sense that the baseball thing won’t last – I liked that aspect of it. None of them seem like they’re thinking of going pro – only that one insane guy who thinks he’s Nolan Ryan. They’re all great athletes (I LOVED that we finally got to see them all play ball) – and they’re excellent on the field – they really are a team. (This also goes to my observation that team sports breeds a kind of togetherness and a “we have to work together’ kind of thing that other movies of this sort don’t have. Plus: baseball players tend to be … weirdos. Or … let’s just say different. It’s not the same thing as football, or basketball, or hockey. All jocks are not interchangeable, and each sport creates its own culture. Linklater knows baseball culture, of course – and he so captures it!!)
Also college romances like that aren’t built to last – BUT what I loved about this one (and I wrote about it in my review) is that it’s not just a “let’s make out and I really like you”. He had that with the first girl he clicked with at the disco. It was a party thing, and that’s all fine and fun! But the next girl – they bond – and Linklater knows enough that there IS a bond between jocks and theatre kids – I mean, I was in a theatre department and SO many of the guys who were in our shows were in a fraternity – there is a huge crossover, and almost no films understand this. So most of our crazy cast parties were at frat houses – and it was a mix of jocks and actor nerds and we all went insane. I mud wrestled, I’m not ashamed to admit it. And we made this huge bit out of it and it was hysterical. Jocks and serious theatre kids have a lot in common – you actually have to make sacrifices young to be good at these things – you have to take care of yourself – AND you have a goal bigger than yourself. These two bond about this – and I really loved that!
It was specific what happened between them, not generic. and Jake has some toughness. He’ll handle himself fine.
Oh and I also loved that he didn’t have a triumphant moment his first time on the mound.
The reality of being a freshman among seniors. The reality of what it is to be a baseball player, and you were great at home, and you are still good, but you’re going to have to really step up to compete and to hold your own.
I loved that!
“Jake has some toughness. He’ll handle himself fine.”
Ha, you have a higher opinion of him than I do! Yes, maybe it will all work out. Jake is actually a very interesting character to me in that he was both trying to fit in and maintain his sense of individualism, which is exactly what going to college is like.
I loved the baseball scene. I actually thought he was going to make an entire movie about a baseball team without ever showing baseball, which would have been funny to me. But it was actually a pleasant shock to see these guys could really play. I think Linklater heard for years that Wiley Wiggins couldn’t pitch well in Dazed so he made amends.
I left Swingers off my list of favorite hang out movies. Movies like this are so rare, and must be hard to make, or get made. I mean movies where people talk, act, and behave like ACTUAL PEOPLE I knew and hung out with. Movies that get male friendship.
Usually “buddy movies” are in service of a plot, like Midnight Run or Lethal Weapon. And I love those movies.
But movies like Swingers, Dazed and Confused, Everybody Wants Some!!, just allow these characters to live and breath and chill out, and there is something so appealing about that, and about them. They are deep by not trying to be deep. Revealing everything effortlessly. Many movies seem like they’re TRYING to be profound, these movies achieve it while seeming to not even try. It’s a really neat trick.
Oh my God Willoughby. These guys will be talking about their 3 days with Willoughby for the rest of their lives. At the 30 year reunion they will smoke a bone in his honor.
// Yes, maybe it will all work out. //
That’s not really what I meant. Just that … it was a good experience – and he was open to it – he didn’t say “no” to it because of the other guys. I’m not really talking about the love story. He handled the razzing well and didn’t blow her off because he feared what the other guys would say. He’ll be fine.
// Jake is actually a very interesting character to me in that he was both trying to fit in and maintain his sense of individualism //
Right! absolutely! and it’s made even better because he’s a PITCHER. being a pitcher is its own weird thing! You’re part of a team but … you are NOT having the experience the rest of the guys are having. It’s a whole different ballgame, so to speak.
// Movies like this are so rare, and must be hard to make, or get made. I mean movies where people talk, act, and behave like ACTUAL PEOPLE I knew and hung out with. //
I know. I love these movies too – I think they are really hard to do. Linklater has “the touch”. It was even there in Slackers. He’s interested in people, in the random, in time … he’s not interested in plot. He doesn’t see people as “types.” I think many many people see other people as “types” AND they think “types” sell – so screenwriters talk in generalities – “she’s the popular girl – he’s the nerd – we’ll have a mean jock” … like … YES that has worked in the past but show me something NEW. and totally cosign in re: male friendship. I just wrote another piece about EWS and I didn’t explicitly address male friendship but I did talk about EWS’ refreshingly individual view of men and men together and what it’s all about. again, I don’t think a lot of people can even SEE that AND if they did would have no idea how to portray it. Linklater’s touch is so LIGHT, he doesn’t seem to push for this vibe at all. I love it.
// They are deep by not trying to be deep. Revealing everything effortlessly. //
totally! EWS is VERY deep. It works by stealth. I think a lot of people just saw the surface – interpreted them all as “dudebros” – which is just as lazy a stereotype as any other (I wrote about this in my Ebert review!)
// These guys will be talking about their 3 days with Willoughby for the rest of their lives. //
Right? That guy is such a hilarious character. Carrying around Cosmos and telling the other guys they need to read it. Pontificating in his room about telepathy. He just loved baseball. so funny.
Thanks for your thoughts Sheila! I need to watch it again soon I already miss these guys…
I found Nine Perfect Strangers to be a letdown, ultimately, but I’m glad I watched it. Michael Shannon was amazing and heartbreaking. And I’ve always doubted that I could fall for a cult, but I would 100% buy into Tranquillum. Give me my daily psilocybin smoothie protocol and let me listen to Tibetan singing bowls and hang out in the hot spring all day. (Also, I would happily watch Luke Evans reading the White Pages for hours on end.)
Michael Shannon was so good!
and you’re right – something like this has its appeal. And you can tell – when they all decide to stay, despite learning they’ve all been drugged … you know there’s going to be no easy way out. It’s that classic situation of having an enormous red flag – a red BANNER – waved in front of your face, and you decide to ignore it.
Did you see Nick Cage’s interview in GQ? Loved it.
https://www.gq.com/story/nicolas-cage-april-cover-profile
Really looking forward to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.