{"id":143599,"date":"2019-03-07T16:56:07","date_gmt":"2019-03-07T21:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=143599"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T15:29:11","slug":"february-2019-viewing-diary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=143599","title":{"rendered":"February 2019 Viewing Diary"},"content":{"rendered":"

St. Agatha<\/em><\/strong> (2019; d. Darren Lynn Bousman)
\nI reviewed this nunsploitation horror film which I resisted at first for some reason, but then I got into the spirit of it. It’s fun. It’s what it needs to be. It also looks gorgeous. I reviewed for Ebert<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Cold War<\/em><\/strong> (2018; d. Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski)
\nThe Oscar-nominated Cold War<\/i> is Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski’s follow-up to Ida<\/i> (which I wrote about here<\/a>). Cold War<\/i> feels like a continuation of Ida<\/i>, and together they make this chilly tapestry – if a tapestry can have a temperature – of Cold War Poland. Music is present in Ida<\/i> but it takes center stage in Cold War<\/i>. I wrote about it here<\/a>. Ted and I went to go see it during the run at Film Forum. <\/p>\n

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Supernatural<\/em><\/strong>, Season 14, episode 13 “Lebanon” (2019; d. Robert Singer)
\nLet’s hear it for Jared Padalecki’s amazing emotional work in the 300th episode. I haven’t re-watched since it aired, but I remember his work, in particular, vividly. It was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

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Mad Men<\/em><\/strong>, Season 4, 5, 6, 7 (2010-2014)
\nFell into a re-watch. This has been a weird couple of months. Surreal, almost. There’s been a lot of comfort food round these here parts, drawn to the familiar. Like this. <\/p>\n

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Ruben Brandt, Collector<\/em><\/strong> (2019; d. Milorad Krsti\u0107)
\nI absolutely loved this animated film. I reviewed for Ebert<\/a>. I just got a note from the PR company asking if they could blurb my review in upcoming marketing. This is the quote they want to use: “‘Ruben Brandt, Collector’ is like ‘To Catch a Thief’ as filtered through the multi-eyeballed gaze of Joan Mir\u00f3, or ‘The Pink Panther’ as imagined by Pablo Picasso.” It’s not exactly “Fun for the whole family”, is it? <\/p>\n

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A Face in the Crowd<\/em><\/strong> (1957; d. Elia Kazan)
\nI reviewed the upcoming Criterion release<\/a> of this classic film for the current issue of Film Comment<\/i><\/a>. I hadn’t seen it in a long time. Certainly not since the 2016 Presidential election. I watched it with a sickened queasy feeling. It’s all there. <\/p>\n

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Russian Doll<\/em><\/strong> (2019; d. Leslye Headland, Jamie Babbit, Natasha Lyonne)
\nI need to write about this extraordinary series eventually. I took it very personally. It was eerie, actually. My life in New York has felt like that. And I’m sure I’m not alone in this. <\/p>\n

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Badlands<\/em><\/strong> (1973; d. Terrence Malick)
\nOne of my most engrossing projects during this weird last two months was a long piece on Badlands<\/i> – a film I love, have loved, go to again and again, and YET I have never written about it. Until now, that is. The piece isn’t live yet, whenever it’s live I’ll put up a link.<\/p>\n

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Man of Aran<\/em><\/strong> (1934; d. Robert Flaherty)
\nI reviewed Robert Flaherty’s 1934 “documentary” Man of Aran<\/i> for Film Comment<\/a>. He made his name, really, with his 1922 film Nanook of the North<\/i>. Supposedly the “father of documentary film” – even though so much of what we see onscreen is fabricated. But the nature photography (for lack of a better word) is awe-inspiring (especially when you consider how huge the cameras were then). This footage is incredible. <\/p>\n

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\nA Boatload of Wild Irishmen<\/em><\/strong> (2010; d. Mac Dara \u00d3’Curraidh\u00edn)
\nI watched this documentary in preparation for Man of Aran<\/i> – I mention it in the review. It’s about Flaherty’s career, and it was helpful. <\/p>\n

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Climax<\/em><\/strong> (2019; d. Gaspar No\u00e9)
\nGod, I loved this film. The dance sequence at the beginning is so exhilarating I wanted to cheer. I reviewed for Ebert<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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I Am Cuba<\/em><\/strong> (1995; d. Mikhail Kalatozov)
\nCharlie and I went to go see this at the Film Forum. It felt like I was watching low-rent poorly-written Clifford Odets, or agitprop “literature” from 1936. The propaganda is STIFLING. It’s such BULL. SHIT. and you wonder: who on earth would be fooled by this? You literally can’t breathe the propaganda is so … bossy. Afterwards, Charlie said to me, “I kept wanting to go back to the hotel with the hookers” and I burst out laughing. Me too! Those opening scenes were supposed to show the decadence of Western corruption but … sitting in a nightclub listening to live music and having a cocktail … To quote my dad, “I see no problem.” I mean, I GET it, I get the critique, don’t explain it to me, but the rest of it was so dreary and didactic and noble peasants and dead doves, etc. Meanwhile: the people in Cuba – the REAL people – suffered, beneath this STIFLING propaganda. It’s infuriating. (The backstory of this film is interesting. Look it up!) <\/p>\n

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Hidden Figures<\/em><\/strong> (2016; d. Theodore Melfi)
\nMember what I said about comfort food? This is comfort food. It makes me laugh, cry, swells my heart, and etc. It works every time. Here’s what I wrote about it<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Love<\/em><\/strong> (2015; d. Gaspar No\u00e9)
\nI’m an Enter the Void<\/i> girl. (The opening credits sequence is one of my favorite opening credits ever<\/a>). I missed Love<\/i> when it came out, even though I was excited to see it the second I heard about it: Gaspar No\u00e9 was directing a sex movie … in 3D. WHAT? So I watched Love<\/i>, getting ready for Climax<\/i>, and I found it less than exciting. Even the sex got boring. Of course there are moments, visually, where it grabbed me, but other than that … Still: I’d rather watch Gaspar No\u00e9’s less-than-thrilling 3D sex movie than some other conventional movie playing it safe with no distinction whatsoever. <\/p>\n

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The Master<\/em><\/strong> (2012; d. Paul Thomas Anderson)
\nIt says a lot about me that this movie counts as “comfort food.” But it’s true. <\/p>\n

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The Post<\/em><\/strong> (2017; d. Steven Spielberg)
\n“Comfort Food” again. It works every time. <\/p>\n

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The Nice Guys<\/em><\/strong> (2016; d. Shane Black)
\nComfort Food. The most comforting. I love this movie so much, and love Shane Black’s movies. “The porno …. young lady …” Why didn’t people go see this? I so want a sequel. I want to watch more movies where these two guys fight crimes.<\/p>\n

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St. Agatha (2019; d. Darren Lynn Bousman) I reviewed this nunsploitation horror film which I resisted at first for some reason, but then I got into the spirit of it. It’s fun. It’s what it needs to be. It also … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2627,4,31],"tags":[1208,2207,2493,116,2536,2211,35,2757,2356,335,749,2143,449,2205,328,442,484,2263,1209,483,2637],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=143599"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158401,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143599\/revisions\/158401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=143599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=143599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=143599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}