January 2020

The year got off to a good start, with an enjoyable birthday dinner at Santa Monica Benihana (Cindy, Robert and Emma were in attendance). As usual, they inundated me with gifts and delicious food. I acquired a new desktop iMac, which experienced weird sound issue that appears to have been resolved some weeks after I picked up the unit. My left arm and knee started having some weird pain problems, but I’m hoping they’ll go away soon. I wrote a couple of cool songs (“Riding the Merry-G0-Round” and “Find Your Way Back Home,” the first of which is still lacking lyrics.) TV: I binge-watched the first season of Servant. MUSIC: Listened to many songs by Gary Lewis & the Playboys and the Four Seasons. BOOKS: I finished listening to The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (very good) and am now listening to the audiobook of Close to Home by Cara Hunter. Also, the antepenultimate Complete Dick Tracy collection was released—the one I was most looking forward to. Here are the movies I enjoyed in January:

1917 (2019)—Here’s the first of several 2019 movies I failed to see during the year itself. 1917 has been critically lauded and will likely be up for several awards. It’s a WWI picture in which a couple of young British soldiers stationed in northern France are given orders to deliver a message to a General not to attack German forces because they’re walking into a trap. Of course, the route is rife with danger and peril. There is not a lot of story here, but technically the movie is a stroke of genius, made to look like one continuous two-hour shot—it isn’t, of course, but it’s very convincing. Bombs explode, planes crash, people are shot to death. There, now you don’t have to see the movie. Visually stunning, but I tend to gravitate toward richer storytelling. (8)

JUST MERCY (2019)—Based on true events, this entertaining courtroom drama is about real-life attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who fought to win justice for black men unfairly put on death row. Much of the movie is about Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx), who was wrongly convicted of murder. His conviction was sealed by the testimony of lowlife Ralph Myers, played to perfection by Tim Blake Nelson, who talks out of the side of his mouth. I couldn’t remember where the hell I’d seen this amazing performer before, but a trip to IMDB revealed that he was the runtish singing cowboy namesake of 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, where he was similarly mesmerizing. (9)

UNDERWATER (2020)—Amid a growing catastrophe, a team must trek from “point A to point B” on a mission to minimize casualties. You might think I just described the plot of 1917, but it also happens to be the exact same scenario as Underwater, a disaster movie about how some researchers stationed on the ocean floor must battle unseen forces in order to survive. As it happens, these forces turn out to be sea monsters ranging in size from three feet to a mile-long creature that basically defies credulity. Somehow Kristen Stewart got involved in this confusing undersea adventure, which is often impossible to follow because it’s too hard to see anything clearly. More than anything, it resembles the movie Alien, but it doesn’t have that film’s finesse. OK as a time waster, and the ending was pretty cool. (7)

GIANT LITTLE ONES (2019)—This low-budget Canadian picture earned a 93% on the Tomatometer. It explores the relationship of longtime friends Franky (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas (Darren Mann), high school kids with girlfriends. But when Ballas makes a drunken sexual advance on Franky, everything changes. The movie explores the theme of bullying and closeted homosexuality; it’s pretty good up to a point—quite suspenseful and gripping at times—but I felt a little let down by the wishy-washy resolution. (8)

MIDSOMMAR (2019)—Another movie from last year that got a lot of buzz, but that I’d missed. The reason was really the bloated length: 140 minutes. Perhaps too long to sit through at the theater, but at home I viewed the 171-minute director’s cut. Written and directed by Ari Aster, I knew this was going to be an unsettling cinematic experience, and there are indeed some sinister moments of shock and horror. I’m not sure what was cut for the original release, but the director’s cut is way too long. I think there’s a very good movie in here, in edited form. Florence Pugh and four of her friends (including her dickhead of a boyfriend) travel to Sweden to visit an unusual commune celebrating a special ceremony, only to discover that it’s more of a pagan cult where Very Bad Things are about to happen. Extremely disturbing in parts, but it’s just too long. It did bring to mind another frightening cult movie I’d seen, 2013’s The Sacrament. (8)

A RAINY DAY IN NEW YORK (2019)—Depressingly middle-of-the-road Woody Allen feature is only worth watching for the gorgeousness of co-stars Elle Fanning and Selena Gomez. Allen has become so out of touch with the world—to watch him writing for young characters played by people like Timothée Chalamet is a colossal embarrassment. Totally unfunny “romantic” “comedy.” (4)

THE HOLE IN THE GROUND (2019)—A young mother slowly starts to become concerned that her cute son has been replaced by a duplicate, Invasion of the Body Snatchers style. Despite a couple of effectively creepy scenes, this critically lauded horror movie becomes totally farfetched. (5)

COLOR OUT OF SPACE (2020)—Throwback to B-movie horror flicks is reminiscent of John Carpenter’s remake of The Thing, with creepy, gross and disgusting special effects, slimy monsters and bizarre sci-fi plot twists. It’s also got a lot of laughably inane dialogue, much of it delivered by Nicolas Cage, but I was never sure if was put in intentionally or not. Not boring by any stretch, but the filmmakers definitely overdose on the “psychedelic” trappings of this surreal horror movie, as well as a perverse penchant for overacting. It’s got enough weirdness for several movies. (8)

FORD VS. FERRARI (2019)—True story of how Henry Ford II hired race-car wizards Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) and Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to compete in the famous Le Mans competition against the Ferrari racing team in 1966. The movie is 151 minutes long, but never slows down for a minute; full of exciting action, humor and yes, even some tragedy. Tracy Letts, always a dependable performer, really shines as Ford. The movie is a true stunner! (10)