The Florida Project (2017)

When Allison Anders was looking for a cinematographer to lens her film Mi Vida Loca, lots of candidates tried to impress her by talking about the “gritty” looks they were capable of getting. Anders opted for Rodrigo Garcia instead, because he recognized that the whole point of the movie was to be from the POV of Echo Park residents who see their neighborhood as the most beautiful place on earth. A quarter century later, Sean Baker and his team appear to have taken the same approach to their film - The Florida Project.

Just because the budget is small, the actors are non-professional, and the locations are functional, doesn’t mean the film has to look like garbage. From frame one, The Florida Project has more style than 90% of the crap out there. Cinematographer Alexis Zabe and Production Designer Stephonik Youth are able to turn a couple motels and a few restaurants into a child’s wonderland that is on-par with the amusement park around the corner. This movie can seriously stand toe to toe with Killer of Sheep and Pather Panchali as a romantically subjective depiction of impoverished living, featuring non-actors, that still bluntly acknowledges the brutality that can encroach from any and all directions. And then there’s that ending!

How was this not a Best Picture nominee and Three Billboards was? This world is a cruel place. But it’s also beautiful.

Call Me By Your Name (2017)

I’ve seen lots of Italian Films in my day. From Neorealism to Giallo, I’ve taken in some of the best Cinema that boot-shaped country has to offer. Yet, as "sensual" as that country truly is, that is not the word I would use to describe their films. Luca Guadagnino is the exception.

Unlike his countryman Paolo Sorrentino, I don’t feel a slavishly self-conscious debt to the operatic camera movements and emotions of Fellini, Visconti, or Leone. From the enveloping soundtrack of insects and wind through trees, to the sun-soaked photography that is so bright it warms you with refracted light off the screen, every artistic decision here is intended to make you feel as though you are actually in the north of Italy, in the early 80’s, during summer. There is no need to beat us over the head with heighten emotions in desperate hope of making us feel something/anything. We are already/immediately right there. We are taking everything in with all five senses simultaneously. We can smell the sweat, taste the food and feel the caresses. We are living it. We are living the good times...and the sad times, too.

Desert Hearts (1985)

I’m pretty sure that the idea of "love at first sight" was invented by a writer. As someone who has attempted screenwriting, I can tell you definitively that it takes a lot of pages to make characters believably fall in love. Love at first sight is a shortcut that allows the filmmakers to get to what they were really trying to make a film about. But what if your film is entirely and exclusively about the slow dance of falling in love? That is what Desert Hearts is. It’s a short movie, but it takes its time building that love story. Like Cay, it is single-minded in its pursuit. Everything else just falls away. The whole world falls away. All that is left is the beauty of the desert, and these two women, falling in love. You really have to admire the simplicity.

Princess Cyd (2016)

While it isn’t about gay cowboys eating pudding, this is very much what people think of when they think of an indie movie. It has female protagonists, it deals with trauma, it features bisexual and gender non-conformist characters, it’s multicultural and there are prolonged discussions about fascinating/important issues. This could have felt like a bunch of topics or issues being checked off of a list. Instead it is one of the best films of last year. The characters are so well-drawn that you cannot help but care for them, and the whole thing is directed with the perfect balance of beauty and unobtrusiveness. I’m so glad to have finally caught up with it.

Black Panther (2018)

While other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have dealt with issues of treaties and succession, I would never consider them to be political films. Though the Guardians of the Galaxy films make it more apparent than some of the others, in the end they’re all about family dynamics. Even Captain America and Iron Man’s conflict is little more than a heightened version of most dinner tables at The Holidays.

When MCU movies are topical it is either in a vague sense (ie: platitudes about sticking up for the little guy) or simply by refuting the carnage of DC’s cinematic output. Black Panther, on the other hand, is very specifically topical and political. It talks specifically about refugees and barriers that keep people out. It also talks about disadvantaged communities and how helping them is more involved than just saving the planet from annihilation every other week. And of course there is the fact that this cast is predominantly black and overwhelmingly female in the era of #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo.

The fact that there was a concerted effort to diminish this film by lowering its rating on Rotten Tomatoes or claiming that white attendees were subjected to physical violence at screenings, let’s you know that the “other side” was aware of this film’s power. And the fact that this film smashed so many records let’s you know that audiences the world over are thirsty for what it is selling.

This is not a one-off. This is a repeatable model. Hire non-white actors and crews. Hire and cast women. People are sick of having to identify with a token either in front of or behind the camera. May the one-two punch of Wonder Woman and Black Panther be the blast that finally opens the floodgates!

Columbus (2017)

Can filmmaking be taught/learned? Being able to notice and appreciate the inspired techniques and motifs of a great filmmaker doesn’t mean that you will be able to execute them yourself.

These were my thoughts going into the debut feature of visual essayist kogonada. And while he certainly didn’t produce a masterpiece like Tokyo Story on his first at-bat, he did succeed at internalizing the techniques of Ozu et al and personalizing them. That Columbus doesn’t feel like a Tarantino-esque stream of citations is a small miracle. He makes the experience seamless. You are not distracted by the style. He is not teaching. He is being.

Perhaps the next one will be Tokyo Story.

Monster (2003)

This film is much more than Charlize Theron’s excellent performance. If this movie had been directed by a man, that director’s filmography would absolutely be longer than two feature films in fourteen years. Patty Jenkins gets so much out of such a short runtime. AND SHE WROTE IT TOO! Meanwhile, people like Josh Trank and Colin Trevorrow are just handed millions of dollars after debuts with nowhere near the same tonal complexity as Monster. How Patty Jenkins didn’t go on her own rampage during the past fourteen years is completely beyond me. Well at least Trank and Trevorrow got fired from huge gigs while she is gonna make a huge payday for the second Wonder Woman. Now if only we could get Hollywood to consider Ms. Jenkins as something other than a fluke...

Phantom Thread (2017)

Though it was the Scorsese-like, visual gymnastics of Boogie Nights and Magnolia that caught the eye of the Film School Kids, we must remember that the principle influence on Paul Thomas Anderson’s debut film Sydney (aka Hard Eight) was Melvin and Howard. Instead of opening with a whole lot of whiz-bang, both films begin with protracted conversations between two characters. At his core, this is who Paul Thomas Anderson is as a filmmaker.

Of course he played around with all the fancy toys on his next couple of films (who wouldn’t?), but as early as Punch-Drunk Love you can sense a filmmaker casting aside all of the bravura in favor of a simpler, more character based cinema.

For all its fire and fury, There Will Be Blood is the story of three people in the desert. The Master is a love story between Freddie and Lancaster. Even with all the Pynchonian intrigue, Inherent Vice is really just the story of Doc, Bigfoot and Shasta Fey. Phantom Thread is Anderson’s minimalism taken to its logical end-point.

It’s not shot on antique, large-format cameras and most of it takes place in small rooms. It’s not about Capitalism or Religion or any other “important” issue. The only maximalist element in the whole thing is Johnny Greenwood’s wonderful score.

It’s taken him many years and films to get to this point, but Anderson has successfully pruned away that which is not essential, held on to a few handy tricks, and returned to where he started. But this is no ending. This is a new beginning. And I cannot wait to see what comes next.

The Shape of Water (2017)

A director’s job is more than just coming up with wild shots. It is also more than developing a very deliberate color palette. A director’s main job is to answer questions. This hat or that hat? Happy or sad? Faster or slower? The correct answer to any of these questions depends on the director’s taste. Guillermo Del Toro is a director of exquisite taste. Like a master chef, he knows just how much of each ingredient to include in the dish. Just the right amount of comedy. Just the right amount of gore. Just the right amount of sex. On paper, The Shape Of Water should not work. In other hands, the story of a mute woman falling in love with a gill-man would induce ridicule and laughter. But under the guidance of a master like Del Toro, it is a front-runner for numerous awards. This is all thanks to Guillermo’s excellent taste.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Black Holes are not visible. They are so dense that even light cannot escape their gravitational pull. We know that they are there because we can see all the stars and such that orbit them. Black Holes are the void at the center of intense cosmic beauty. Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevigne are the void at the center of this film’s cosmic beauty. Their relationship drama is DOA, but all the set pieces, alien creatures, and space diplomacy swirling around them is truly something to behold. And fortunately, that’s what most of the film consists of. It’s pretty easy to check out for their Soap Opera and check back in for some universe-spanning wiz-bang. I can only imagine what it looks like on a giant screen.

Step (2017)

As Roger Ebert famously stated, "Movies are the most powerful empathy machine in all the arts." When I watch movies from foreign countries like Iran, I often think about how beneficial it would be for all Americans to watch them. They would be shocked at how much they share in common with people a world away who are supposedly our, "enemy". The same could be said about a documentary like Step. It's sad to think that it would require a film to make people realize how much they have in common with someone they share a country with, but that's the world we live in today. There are so many outlets for information and entertainment that people are able to live in a carefully curated bubble just for them where they only see/hear things that reinforce what they already believe. That's why art like this documentary is important. It bursts the bubble and helps us recognize our shared humanity.

Seven Beauties (1975)

I finally watched a Lina Wertmüller film! And now I want to watch ALL of the Lina Wertmüller films! Why did I wait so long? I really want to give The Academy credit for nominating this film for four awards including Best Director. I get that it thoroughly checks off that "holocaust" box that Oscar Voters love so much, but it does it in such an audacious and radical way. Or maybe I'm just observing things from the perspective of today. In the 70's, you could simply say that Nazis and Fascism were bad because they are bad. Today, saying such things will get you branded as Anti-Fa. Funny how a film can become MORE radical with age! And that's not even taking into account all of the gender issues at play here. Brava, Lina!

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Much like James Franco, this film wants to be taken seriously. It’s about a silly movie and centered around a silly (real life) character, but it wants to treat it all seriously. The Disaster Artist wants to be about friendship, relationships, art, insanity, etc. This is what Tommy was striving for too. If you ask him what The Room is about, he will tell you that it is about everything.

While Franco’s endeavor was much more successful than Tommy's, it is also similarly hamstrung by its ambition. It's about so many things that it ends up being about very little. It has thoughts and ideas and things to say, but they don’t add up to anything too profound. They are all truisms that we have heard before. I know Franco has a mind for meta, but I don't think even he was aware of this subtextual level. Like Tommy, he just stumbled into success.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

Thematic spoilers follow, no specifics. You have been warned.

I know this movie was conceived and shot before the 2016 Election, but it really feels like a film for right this instant. When watching it the first time, the stream of setbacks that befall The Resistance felt structurally off. But when contrasted with The Trump Era where Healthcare, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, LGBTQ Rights, etc. are all under continuous and simultaneous attack - the pace felt kind of leisurely. Having this come out the same week as Doug Jones’ victory in Alabama seems almost too perfect. Too bad the title A New Hope was already taken. Or maybe they’re preparing us for the gut-punch at the start of Episode IX where the First Order gives a tax cut to all the arms manufacturers on Canto Bight.

Pina (2011)

There are very few films that deserve to be filmed in 3D. I can probably count them on one hand. This one absolutely belongs on that list. I’m so glad I didn’t settle for watching it in 2D. In other films, dance is merely about motion. Here I kept thinking about sculpture. You see every muscle and really understand what it physically takes to perform these pieces. And it’s not just filmed theater either. As trite as it might sound, Wenders’ angles make you part of the dance. Hopefully one day I can see this projected on a big screen.

Marjorie Prime (2017)

So apparently this was a play before it was a film. I wonder if it had music when it was performed? I feel like the music is such a part of the whole and really made the movie for me. While it deals with big issues like technology and memory in a thoughtful manner, Marjorie Prime is very much a melodrama - in the Victorian sense. Mica Levi’s beautiful score (and the few source songs) inform, overwhelm, envelope, and enhance the images. It feels almost like a silent film where a modern score was placed overtop. The music expresses that which is being withheld. It speaks for those who choose not to, and gives emotion to what we are told is just a series of 1's and 0's. Days later I’m still thinking about it all. Can’t wait to revisit and dig deeper.

Landline (2017)

On a plot level, I don’t exactly get why this film was set in the 90’s. The title makes you think that perhaps a shared phone line will play a cruicial role, but it doesn’t. This film could have easily been set now with no problems whatsoever. Our world is so obsessed with the past that all the 90’s fashion and music could be used as well. So why set it in the 90’s?

My theory is that director Gillian Robespierre made this film as a Tarantino-level genre homage. Only instead of homaging exploitation flicks from the 70’s, Robespierre was paying homage to New York movies of the 90’s. Dana is living in a Nicole Holofcener film a la Walking and Talking, Ali is living through Kids, and their parents are a Woody Allen film incarnate. And just like in Pulp Fiction, the supporting character of one story gets to be the star of another story.

It’s a cool idea that never beats you over the head with showy visuals or title cards spelling everything out for you. It also doesn’t attempt to elevate the material. This film is right on par with the films it is paying tribute to. This is an warm and funny film that is content to be adequate, and that is wonderful.

Logan Lucky (2017)

If one were trying to describe the Cinema of Steven Soderbergh in a single word, “political” probably wouldn’t be the first adjective to spring to mind. But if you look at his filmography, the overwhelming majority of his output has dealt with issues of class. Even his “sexy” movies (Magic Mike and The Girlfriend Experience) are first and foremost about commodification and wealth. So, while Logan Lucky appears to have sprung from the same mold as The Cannonball Run, it is first and foremost about Middle America. But unlike the first Magic Mike, it isn’t cold and clinical. In fact, If I had to sum this film up in a single word, that word would be, “compassionate”. And we could all certainly use a lot more of that in this day and age.

Coco (2017)

The other night ‘Becca’lise was telling me about a coworker who was trying to guess why Coco is making everyone cry. Seeing as the movie is about Dia de Muertos, the coworker justifiably guessed that the big, tear-jerking scene centered around the death of a prominent character. If this was any other film, they would have been right. But this is a Pixar film. They never take the easy route. Yes a beloved character dies in this film, but at least in our theater, that passing was only greeted with a brief, audible sigh from the entire audience. No tears. Because in Coco, death is not an end. As long as someone is remembered, they are never truly gone.

A Baseline of Weird

Since Lola came into our lives, I’ve gone out of my way to play weird music for her. ‘Becca’lise has begun showing her dance videos on YouTube. As a result, Lola will now make beautiful, balletic movements to some of the weirdest jazz you’ve ever heard.

Recently, a bunch of Jim Henson shorts were added to FilmStruck. We haven’t really dove into the longer-form stuff yet, but the experimental live-action and animated shorts like Ripples and Drums West have been invaluable towards developing Lola’s comprehension of what motion pictures can be. A lifetime of four-chord songs and three-act structure is just around the corner, why not use these precious, early years to focus on the weird stuff?

The fact that right now Lola doesn’t even know the word, “art” is a beautiful thing. She can express herself in infinite ways and can find enjoyment in things that would put off most adults. Right now my daughter’s horizons are endless and I want to do everything in my power to keep it that way.

If you don't have FilmStruck to check out the Jim Henson films, here's a few shorts to check out on YouTube from Stan Brakhage, Manoel de Oliveira, and Kenneth Anger! Do you have any other experimental shorts that you would recommend for kids?