The Stuff I Watched 7.3
Indiana Jones, Wes Anderson and country. I think that's a great two weeks for the newsletter.
Hello!
Boy oh boy do I have a newsletter for you! Following the Wes Anderson ranked post, I figured I would hold off on having multiple posts while I am in Scotland. I’ll be writing a post recapping the films I watched on vacation, so expect a little time off from the newsletter. After the vacation post, we’ll have a lot of major releases coming like Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer and Barbie.
I’m splitting the 11 movies I have watched in the past two weeks into two posts that will go out this week. This is the first and the second one will go out on Friday. We got highly anticipated blockbusters and classic films from the 1970s and 1980s.
Here are the six of the 111 films that I watched over the last two weeks (Also SPOILER ALERT for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny):
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Director: James Mangold
C
I’ll start by saying that this was much better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That may not be saying much depending on if you feel the same way about the fourth film as me — i.e. it sucks. But that’s not to say I was completely wowed by the fifth and final installment of this once high quality franchise.
Harrison Ford returns for one final time as Indiana Jones, who looks to find a magical dial that can change the course of history before the evil former Nazi Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) can retrieve it. Indy and his friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) collected the first half of the dial during World War II. Shaw’s daughter and Indy’s goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), accompanies the archaeologist on a globe trotting quest for the second half of the dial that takes the viewer from New York to Morocco to Sicily.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny can sometimes be overwhelming. With a franchise-high runtime of two and a half hours, the film drags along occasionally despite the face paced action sequences so brilliantly brought together by director James Mangold. There are a lot of background people to keep track of and I kinda started to lose interest with the introduction of each new supporting character. For example, there’s this kid named Teddy (Ethann Isidore) who is Helena’s sidekick and takes on a similar role that Short Round took in Temple of Doom. But we only meet him until near the end of the movie’s first hour.
I can’t say I was impressed by the chemistry between Indy and Helena. Ford really tries to play up the fact that he is now an old man, while Waller-Bridge does her typical shtick that made her famous on Fleabag. The acting and storytelling decisions make sense, but the two actors don’t really mesh in my eyes.
One final criticism I have is Voller as I find him to be the weakest antagonist in the franchise’s history. While Mikkelsen’s casting is a stroke of genius, the stakes never feel that high to me when it comes to Voller. Maybe it’s because this is the fifth movie and each of them has ended the same for the antagonist. But what made the villains in this series work so well is how the power of the object they search for eventually destroys them. Like in Last Crusade where the villain drinks the wrong cup and ages rapidly to death. In Dial of Destiny, the dial sends Voller to the wrong time before dying in a quite anti-climactic plane crash. Maybe it’s just that the dial is a weird MacGuffin or that I was heavily dissatisfied by the third act, but
And yet, I can’t deny the fact that I did enjoy the film. The film’s prologue, where Indy and Basil find the first half of the dial, is thrilling and the scenes in New York offer us a great blend of nostalgia and action. While there was an overreliance on CGI, that never bothered me. Even though I have pretty detailed critiques, at a base level, I had fun watching the movie. The film took itself seriously and never was boring. It may not be the greatest conclusion to this franchise, but Dial of Destiny reminds me of the legendary adventures of days past. And for many, that’ll probably be enough.
Asteroid City (2023)
Director: Wes Anderson
A-
Thank you all for reading my ranking on Wes Anderson. After watching Asteroid City, I felt that it would fit in nicely at No. 6. Three days later, I feel the same way. Anderson leans into his quirkiness (something I heard audience members talk about before the film started) even more. The movie starts a black-and-white TV special about the making of the fictional Asteroid City play before its events are depicted in widescreen and stylized color. The TV special also includes dramatic reenactments of the making of the play.
The Asteroid City play that is depicted in color follows numerous storylines including widowed photojournalist Augie (Jason Schwartzman) taking his children to the Junior Stargazer convention in the desert and falling in love with an actress named Midge (Scarlett Johansson). Also, Augie encounters his disapproving father in law Stanley (Tom Hanks). We also get a ton of amazing supporting actors like Liev Schreiber, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Rupert Friend and Maya Hawke (whose characters take on a romantic affair), Steve Carrell and Matt Dillon1. At the convention, they all encounter a delightful alien, which causes the government to quarantine the town. The performances and fun storylines all contribute to a quintessential Wes Anderson experience.
The film certainly feels like a litmus test to see whether or not you enjoy Anderson’s work. You probably won’t get most of the literary and theatrical references he makes in the movie and the humor is undoubtedly an acquired taste. But for me, I enjoy that taste a lot. I also gave up trying to give the film notes halfway through. Trying to write notes on Anderson’s style feels kind of pointless. You should just sit back and let the film take you wherever it goes.
But I also believe that Asteroid City rises above just being a film that you will love or hate depending on your feelings about Anderson. There is a lot of heart and emotion that I feel has been kind of absent from the director’s more recent pictures. The film prominently features Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the playwright of Asteroid City, as he brings the play to fruition. He takes on a relationship with the actor of Augie (also played by Schwartzman) and starts to create the story with the play’s director Schubert Green (Adrien Brody) and a legendary acting teacher (Willem Dafoe). But Earp tragically passes away, and it truly felt jarring and his loss profoundly affects the characters. We see what goes into making art and how it can truly change people and Anderson does better than most people working in the industry today.
Past Lives (2023)
Director: Celine Song
A
In the words of my Letterboxd review, move over Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, there's a new top movie this year. This film wrecked me beyond belief and was one of the most powerful films I have seen in quite a while.
The film’s title sets up for the 24 year trip we take with our main characters Nora (Greta Lee) and Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). The two met as classmates and seemingly dated even though they were probably too young to comprehend what dating truly is. But Nora and her family move to North America and she and Hae Sung stop talking. Twelve years later, we check in with them again where they are both in college where they start talking to each other again, before that fizzles out as they are more focused on their careers. Another 12 years later, we find Nora married to an American named Arthur (John Magaro) and she hangs out with Hae Sung one more time for a day.
Celine Song’s directorial debut may initially seem like a pretty standard film about lovers reuniting. But Past Lives goes far deeper than just that. Instead of actually having Nora and Hae Sung dating, they just talk. And once Hae Sung comes back while Nora and Arthur are married, there are meta conversations about how Arthur represents the person holding the two characters back from true love.
But Song complicates this by adding the Korean concept of in-yeon which means where if you meet someone, even briefly, it means you also met in a past life, and lovers are people who have met over and over again in their past lives. We see Hae Sung and Nora meet multiple times, much more than Arthur. Song uses long takes and blissful music from Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen to further a budding romance between the two old friends. But because of forces both in and out of their control, Nora and Hae Sung only remain friends. The film makes it look they will kiss or even fall in love as Nora’s subconscious points to this.
Nora remains with Arthur because they truly love each other. But in another life, Nora and Hae Sung could’ve easily been together. It’s why Hae Sung’s final departure causes her to cry. Past Lives challenges the audience to think their own past life and what decisions, especially in a romantic sense, led to where they are now. The film doesn’t demonize anyone for thinking about how things could’ve been different and the way it subtly turns the tables on the viewer is something every movie should strive for.
My only wish is as many people as possible can see the movie in theaters. Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner shots this beautiful piece of work on 35mm and the final product looks magnificent. Past Lives really displays the best of cinema in 2023 so far and I’ll be hard pressed to find another another film this year that surpasses it. Though Martin Scorsese might have a word in October.
Nashville (1975)
Director: Robert Altman
A-
Considered to be Robert Altman’s masterpiece, Nashville offers a scathing look at 1970s America in terms of music, popular culture and politics. What makes the film even better is how Altman shows that all of these aspects of American life are chaotically interconnected.
The film features a massive ensemble cast (24 main characters) that includes country singers like Haven Hamilton (Henry Gibson) and Barabra Jean (Ronee Blakley), politicians and their assistants, journalists, real life celebrities, chauffeurs and random people who appear and disappear throughout the movie. Basically like life. There are various storylines to keep track of and I honestly started to get confused but the film’s message remains powerful.
We still see the ideas of Nashville present today. In Nashville, celebrities like Haven have great power in the titular city and always think about running for political office. Altman and screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury identified that most people probably know pop culture figures more than politicians. That’s why presidential candidate Hal Philip Walker and his staff look to Haven and Barbara to convince people to vote for him. In the present day, we see celebrities like Donald Trump and Arnold Schwarzenegger use their star power to reach the halls of power and celebrity endorsements always get covered by the news.
The dynamic of trying to separate entertainment and politics can be felt as well. Barbara Jean gets scheduled to sing at a rally for Walker despite her manager’s (Allen Garfield) insistence on trying to stay away from politics. Whether it be in sports or pop culture, we hear all the time about trying to not make things political. But Nashville never shies away from it.
Altman also uses his directorial qualities to add to the chaos. He uses sound editing where the viewer doesn’t know who to listen to. Some of the long takes also imbue the movie with a sense of country pazazz so to speak, making the musical numbers very entertaining to listen to. And with phenomenal performances from Ned Beatty, Jeff Goldblum, Lily Tomlin, Shelley Duvall and Geraldine Chaplin, Nashville certainly becomes of the more iconic movies of the 1970s.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
A-
For my previous thoughts on the film, click here.
It might be silly to say, but Top Gun: Maverick was probably one of the most important movies of 2022. It proved that a Hollywood blockbuster could not only be good and successful but also insanely well made and not reliant on superheroes. This film grossed more than any Marvel or DC film from the previous year and came at a time when many movie fans were basically accepting the death of cinema.
Tom Cruise then said, “Not on my watch.” Sure, the movie is still super cheesy and the story isn’t all that deep. But the way the movie serves as a metaphor for Cruise pushing back against the inevitable. Both Cruise and his character Maverick know their way of life (for Cruise, making blockbusters with insane real life stunts, and for Maverick pushing the barriers of what a pilot can do) is coming to an end. The disapproving general (Ed Harris) that shows up early in the film acknowledges this and Cruise responds by saying, “Maybe so Sir, but not today.”
The dog fighting scenes still look amazing a year later on TV, but they were meant to be watched in a theater. But what really got me emotional somehow was the opening scene where Maverick reaches Mach 9 and 10. Maverick and his crew know they’re probably going to get fired and won’t be able to do the thing they love. But they do it anyway to show a collective can do together. I honestly felt inspired.
And as the movie progresses to the dynamic between Rooster (Miles Teller) and Maverick, the movie captivated me the entire time. Top Gun: Maverick won’t end up on a top 10 list any time soon, but I have an insane amount of respect for the movie.
Body Heat (1981)
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
A-
Lawrence Kasdan is one of the most important names in popular culture that you’ve probably never heard of. He is the man who wrote the screenplays for some of the biggest films of all time including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Not too shabby. Sandwiched in between all of these movies is Kasdan’s directorial debut and one of the best erotic thrillers of all time. Body Heat also comes at a time of great erotic thrillers like Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill in 1980.
Inspired by classic noirs like Double Indemnity and The Postman Always Rings Twice, the film follows inept and horny lawyer Ned Racine (William Hurt) as he falls for a married woman named Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner). The two then plot to murder her husband (Richard Crenna) so they can run away together, only for Ned to realize he’s getting into a situation he does not understand.
You would think Hurt and Turner would be experienced actors in order to perform as well as they did in this movie. But in fact, both were very new to the silver screen and the film was actually Turner’s cinematic debut. She marks her place among Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity and Jane Greer in Out of the Past as one of the best femme fatales ever. Her sexuality and mysterious nature make it clear why Ned would want to kill for her character. Meanwhile, Hurt’s character kind of becomes a horny idiot halfway through. For being a guy who wants to kill a married woman’s husband, Ned is weirdly likable. And that’s a testament to Hurt’s distinct performance.
But Body Heat’s true strength comes from its atmosphere. Kasdan’s direction creates a hypersexual world where intense love always seems like it's in the air. The consistent mentions of the South Florida heat make the film feel steamier, almost as if the sexual tension between Ned and Matty could burst at any moment. To make it much more of a mysterious noir, Kasdan uses great camerawork by Richard Kline and sharp editing. The long takes create a sense that there’s always something more to reveal and the distorted camera angles never give us the full story.
With a climactic ending, Kasdan’s directorial debut shines among the best thrillers of the 1980s and the best erotic thriller of all time. The film leaves you guessing to the very last minute and does not disappoint.
Also I can’t help but mention Bryan Cranston, Stephen Park, Jeff Goldblum, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Bob Balaban and Fisher Stevens. This cast is fucking stacked.