Recent Viewings, Part 2

[Rev. Powell]

UP THE CATALOGUE (2024): An aging actress is trapped as hostess of the purgatorial 4Q shopping network. Boasts a few nice surreal gags (the owl) and an all-in performance from Lyndsey Marshal, but struggles to gain traction on addressing the deeper existential issues it toys with. 2.5/5.

[M.10rda]

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (2026):
I saw the original once in the theater 20 years and remembering thinking it was surprisingly fine (mostly due to the acting) though as it turns out I remember very little about it beyond the general impressions of the main characters and their relationships. I was in no hurry to see this one but watched it with Madame nonetheless and - I'd say it must be just about what someone who wanted a sequel would want from a sequel.

Meryl Streep is about the same as she was in the first one, giving something close to a real performance in spite of long since joining the ranks of Canonical Great Actors like Robert DeNiro who aren't actually expected to give real performances anymore. Stanley Tucci overdelivers (as he did in the first one), which isn't a criticism, just an acknowledgement of the wonder that is peak Tucci. (More to his credit, he could steal the spotlight more ruthlessly than he does but actually underplays tastefully in his biggest scene.) I was more impressed w/ Emily Blunt in 2006 when she was fresh but she's essentially still Emily Blunt. But then there's Anne Hathaway. I liked Anne Hathaway in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, was really taken w/ her performance in RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, and then settled in to a more or less passive appreciation of her in everything since. Here Hathaway demonstrates why she is a credible Movie Star as opposed to just an actress. She carries the movie on the strength of her likeability, charisma, humor, and - well, to employ the film's own cosmetic standards - her size 6 figure and her eyebrows (...both of which the other characters tell us are outre and undesireable)........ all in lieu of actually having a convincing character of depth provided by the screenplay. Anyway, I prefer Hathaway's Movie Stardom to that of Julia Roberts or Nicole Kidman.

Since I've written recently about a couple of early 30s flicks with seemingly unconscious or only semi-conscious politics (and generally can't help but read politics into most of what I watch), I'll mention another small way in which DWP2 surprised me pleasantly. Although the film remains semi-agnostic about corporatism, oligarchy, and Artificial Intelligence, it at least acknowledges (and dedicates several scenes to) the fact that some reasonable people think all three things are incredibly destructive to human life as we know it and will know it in the future. That's not quite activism or enlightenment, but it constitutes more awareness than I tend to expect from major studio IP.   

3.5/5    There is at least one scene though where a character texts a lengthy inquiry to another character and receives a comprehensive reply within five seconds of screentime, so, not a perfect film.

[Dr. Whom]

Belphégor (1927)

This is actually a four part movie serial, adapted by the author himself, to coincide with the publication of the novel. I had picked up the book a couple of months ago on a whim.

It is written by the highly prolific Arthur Bernède and can be described as Arsène Lupin meets the Phantom of the Opera. The book is a fine example of the roman-feuilleton that were serialised every day in the newspapers, with secret passages, hidden treasure, disguises all around, a plucky investigative journalist and boneheaded police intent on arresting the wrong persons. As Bernède did the movie tie in himself, it closely follows the book. The movie does lack the frantic pace of the novel. Each chapter had to convince the reader to buy another newspaper next day, so they tend to end if not on a cliffhanger, then at least on some element of mystery. Still, it is pretty watchable (although I must admit I only watched the first two episodes)

There is a version with English subtitles on Youtube.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Scenesters: Music, Mayhem and Melrose Ave. 1985-1990" (2017)
Awkwardly titled, low budget doc focusing on the mid/late 80s "scene" on L A.'s Melrose Ave., a slightly sketchier, artsier, and more organic location than the fabled Sunset Strip across town. While the Strip was all about glam/hair metal, Melrose was a melting pot of hard rock, punk, Goth, and other styles, giving birth to such bands as Jane's Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Lots of cool vintage live clips and photos and commentary by members of Kix, Faster p***ycat, the Nymphs, Junkyard, and more.

[FatFreddysCat]

"Terminal Island" (1973)
In a dystopian near future, California has outlawed the death penalty. Instead, they deliver death row offenders to an island 40 miles off the coast to live out the rest of their lives "Lord of the Flies" style. When a new female inmate arrives, she finds herself smack in the midst of an ongoing war between two factions of prisoners, and must choose her side.
An action packed exploitation flick that's best known for having two future stars of "Magnum P.I." in its cast (Tom Selleck and Roger "T C." Mosely. Cheap, sleazy fun.

[M.10rda]

THE DRAMA (2026):
The web ads kind of made this look like a lite rom-com cash-in for Robert Pattinson and Zendaya, and indeed it made a lot of money against its low budget. But it's produced by Ari Aster for A24, so it's anything but romantic - at best a daaark satire, more like a psychological drama, or frankly even a horror film. There's no supernatural element or onscreen violence, but anyone who's planned and then survived a wedding will likely experience SOMETHING VERY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN-level PTSD while watching THE DRAMA. Also, it turns out this might be the best project either of its stars has participated in.

Imminently betrothed Charlie (Pattinson) and Emma (Zendaya) get suckered into playing a game with nominal best friends Mike (affably passive Mamoudou Athie) and Rachel (Alana Haim, giving a highly convincing performance which is unlikely to win her any friends or job offers). Each ends up volunteering a story about the "worst thing" they've "ever done", and Emma's revelation sends Charlie into a weeklong spiral into deep neurosis.

The rest of the film is a series of arguments and compounding microaggressions, prompted by the inciting incident. Unlike Ruben Ostland's FORCE MAJEURE, however - in which the inciting incident is inescapably emblematic (and condemnatory) of the main character - the thing that Emma confesses to ends up saying a little bit about her but a lot more about all of the characters surrounding her. For example, we only get a little exposition about Charlie's assistant Misha (Hayley Benton Gates, a brunette Emma Stone) yet the small ways in which she reacts to Charlie and Emma's actions speak volumes about her own unseen personal Drama. THE DRAMA is often unpleasant and nerve-wracking, but the longer I stuck with it, the more I appreciated its careful construction. There's also a denouement that is either imaginary/sub-conscious (as are other small moments previously), or real and life-affirming and kinda' happy, or real and deeply cynical, depending on one's interpretation and individual frames of reference.

Writer/director Kristoffer Borgli has created a heck of a foundation for audience debate - throughout the film, not just at the end - and also something of a Rorschach test. The conversations that Madame 10rda and I were having during the film evolved over 105 minutes and we were having entirely different conversations at the end, and for a few days after. Inevitably those conversations were pretty deep and compelled us to talk about some things we don't often talk about. I also think, in the spirit of the impetus for THE DRAMA's Drama, that discussing this film and its themes might potentially jeopardize or even end some less stable relationships, or at least illuminate fractures therein. I suspected that one of my colleagues (who is also one of the most ideologically compromised people I know) might not enjoy THE DRAMA, and upon bringing it up she confirmed that she "hated it" because "Zendaya ends up being the good guy at the end". I take some issue w/ that reading of the text - I don't think the film renders Emma as an uncomplicated and wholly sympathetic figure at all - but moreover, hating THE DRAMA for that reason says a lot about my colleague.

Excellent film.    4.5/5    #dontbearachel