2016 Movie Challenge – Page 18

Challenge Week 9: Mauvais Sang

On March 5, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

The Roku description of this movie goes like this: “In the near future, Paris is devastated by a new AIDS-like disease that infects people who have sex without being in love. Aging thieves Marc and Hans develop a plan to steal a newly devised serum that combats the disease.” So I’m like, okay, so it’s a sci-fi type thing with these thief guys as futuristic Robin Hoods who go on a crusade to help the little people. Thankfully I knew enough about Leos Carax to know it probably wasn’t QUITE like that. Turns out it’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like that.

Marc (Michel Piccoli) and Hans are aging thieves whose partner gets killed before they can finish a job and pay off a scary aggressive American lady. She gives them one more chance to pay her back, so they decide to recruit their old partner’s son Alex (Carax regular Denis Lavant) to heist this valuable serum. He’s a disaffected 20ish-year-old who breaks up with his girlfriend (Julie Delpy) to go with the guys, but he isn’t planning to actually do their heist until he falls for Anna (Juliette Binoche), except she’s in a relationship with Marc.

Challenge Week 9: Whiplash

By Jandy

On March 4, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

I’ve been meaning to see Whiplash since it came out a couple of years ago, so this recommendation was more like a “get on it already!” kick in the pants than getting me to see something I otherwise wouldn’t have – still, I gotta thank Alex for the kick in the pants, because this was just as great as I’d been hoping, if not more.

Miles Teller plays Andrew, a drum student at the prestigious (and fictional) Shaffer Conservatory in New York, who wants nothing more than to make it into Studio Band, the most elite and respected jazz ensemble at the school – making a mark in Studio Band could lead to positions with the best professional ensembles in the country. The director of Studio Band is a notorious perfectionist, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) who brooks no mistakes and no challenges to his authority.

Challenge Week 8: Capricorn One

By Jandy

On March 1, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

Is it weird that I actually found this movie to be MORE bizarre than Derek’s other choice Mr. Nobody? In theory, this seems like a fairly straightforward 1970s-style paranoid thriller, but it gets pretty goofy, in ways that I didn’t expect but enjoyed.

The first manned mission to Mars is all set to blast off when the trio of astronauts is pulled from the ship and taken to a secret warehouse with a studio set up where they’re supposed to pretend they landed on Mars, since NASA wasn’t really ready for a manned mission to Mars but needs a major success to inspire Washington to keep funding them. All goes well with the faked Mars landing until the shuttle is on the way back to earth and, well, loses its heat shield and disintegrates, making the very much non-disintegrated astronauts a bit of an untidy loose end. Meanwhile, journalist Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould) smells a rat and investigates what’s going on from the outside.

Challenge Week 8: Mr. Nobody

By Jandy

On February 25, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

So far in this challenge I’ve been assigned films that I loved, that delighted me, that I thought were okay, that surprised me, and that impressed me. This was the first one that blew me away. On Facebook I’ve been asking people involved in the challenge to guess which of the week’s films I’ll like better (upcoming: Capricorn One, which I have not watched yet). Derek, who assigned this week’s films, said I’d like Mr. Nobody better “because it is more directly in your wheelhouse.” Boy, is it ever.

Mr. Nobody is the last mortal in the world at 112 – everyone else is now immortal thanks to a process that endlessly renews their cells. No one knows who he is, where he came from, and his memories are unclear and confused. But that’s not stopping a curious journalist from sneaking in to try to get his story. That’s what we get in flashbacks, alongside “current” sections with Mr. Nobody and the journalist. But hold on, Mr. Nobody seems to be recalling two or three different lives, branching narratives based on a choice he may or may not have made at age 8.

Challenge Week 7: Come and Get It

By Jandy

On February 21, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

My knowledge of this one going in was limited to the fact that Walter Brennan won the very first Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it – thank you, high school-era Oscar obsession! When I realized it was based on an Edna Ferber novel, I had a bit more idea what to expect, as I’m familiar with several other Ferber books and their film adaptations, and they generally have a few things in common: sprawling, multi-generational stories featuring self-made Americans in some particular 19th century-specific profession. Cimarron is about pioneers entering the Oklahoma territory, Show Boat is about performers and gamblers on Mississippi River show boats, So Big about a teacher/farmer in an Illinois Dutch community, and Come and Get It is about a logger/paper mill magnate.

Multi-generational stories tend not to be my favorite thing, but I can be persuaded. Generally I prefer the earlier parts of these stories the best, before they move on to the second generation, and that’s the case here. In the first half of the story, Barney Glasgow (Edward Arnold) is a go-getter young businessman who gets his hands dirty with his logging crew, pushing for more productivity, but also right there pushing the timber into the river for transport, hanging out in the saloon after the work is done, etc. He meets and quickly falls for the saloon singer Lotta (Frances Farmer), but opts to marry his intended back east and continue his rise to the top of the business. All of these scenes have a lot of vitality and humor, capturing the scope of the frontier and the kind of men (and women) who made their way in it. I’m a big fan of westerns in general, so I loved that stuff, even if the attempt to point out how devastating over-logging is to the land kind of fell flat against the epic visuals of logs being transported and processed.

Category: 2016 Movie Challenge Page 18 of 21

Challenge Week 9: Mauvais Sang

Challenge Week 9: Whiplash

Challenge Week 8: Capricorn One

Challenge Week 8: Mr. Nobody

Challenge Week 7: Come and Get It