Watching Movies Sep 8

A very funny documentary about birdwatching that's a little too long unless you're into birdwatching, which is pretty much everyone watching this movie. 

Billed as a skateboarding documentary but it's barely that. It's about an aspiring filmmaker making a doc about his friends over several years as they transition into adulthood; making all the mistakes young people make, dealing with their personal traumas, and growing in the process. It's a testament to the democratization of digital media and proof that anyone can make a great movie with few resources, even if it's about their own lives.

The least funny Knives Out movie. This felt like Fincher was just doing one for the big studio. Between the grisly serial killer storyline and many of scenes of library research and the mismatched investigative duo, it's easy to see a studio going "get the guy that made Seven." It's well crafted but doesn't have much heart or passion, and the highlight is the Nine Inch Nails music video in the incongruent Bond-esque credits. I saw the Swedish original ten years ago so I can't really compare, but my reaction seems about the same: a convoluted mystery that I didn't much care about, seriously underdeveloped suspects, a boring detective character, and a stand out emo/gothy character that didn't need Daniel Craig's help at all.

Heat really was a throwback to Michael Mann's early days. Thief is basically the criminal side of Heat without the great action scenes. James Caan does what he can to make the character interesting without making him likable, but the story can only go so far when it's about a brutish calculating criminal, and all the tough guy slang gets a bit silly. The best part of Thief is the expertise and network involved in safecracking, but the story is boilerplate and you can see where it's going the whole way. It's also easy to see where Miami Vice came from and all those scenes of driving around at night to synth music.

I read a book by Kurosawa's screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto where he talked about how with Seven Samurai, Kursosawa got everything right, and spent the rest of his career trying and failing to match that perfection - how one film sets the standard for who you are as an artist. Later in the book he goes to see Jaws and talks about how Spielberg got everything right. He thought didn't need to see anything Spielberg made after that because nothing he made would be as perfect. I'm not sure I entirely agree with that idea, but Jaws is definitely the benchmark against which you judge not only Spielberg's other films, but the entire Hollywood industry at the time. That's a lot for one film and what's great about Jaws is how unassuming, unpretentious, and unambitious it is. It's just a well-made monster movie that puts its focus on the characters and does what any movie should try to do: entertain in the best way possible.

Gainsborough Studios was famous for their costume dramas, and here we have a mystery thriller set during the Paris World's Fair in 1889 that lushly recreates the period, but it isn't paced the way a thriller needs to be. It's paced like a period drama. The story is similar to The Lady Vanishes or Bunny Lake is Missing or Frantic, but the tension never really builds and the ending is a let down. Jean Simmons is good and Dirk Bogarde is eager to play detective. If only the movie brought them together earlier and gave their relationship more time, it might have been more worthwhile.