(kanopy/Mubi/VOD) THE TURIN HORSE is the last film from Béla Tarr (probably best known for WERCKMEISTER HARMONIES or, if you run in my circles, for the approximately seven hour long SATANTANGO). I tend to doubt it’s the last, as he’s still directing documentaries and producing shorts, but the film — which was co-directed by his wife Ágnes Hranitzky — certainly has a sense of finality to it.
It’s a gorgeous black-and-white piece, told over the span of roughly two-and-a-half hours, totals 30 shots and it moves at a glacial pace. It’s about a father and daughter, and the father happens to own the horse that was whipped so many times it made Nietzsche have a breakdown.
It’s an existential marvel, but, well, that’s not exactly what I remember it for. What I really remember are the boiled potatoes and, when I see a boiled potato, I think of this film.
If you don’t have the time for this masterpiece, may I suggest this 1m44s edit?
(YouTube) A pointed documentary on the gangs of the South Bronx in the 70s by Gary Weis (who at the time was working with Albert Brooks on filmed SNL bits), inspired by the Esquire feature SAVAGE SKULLS.
While Weis often uncomfortably inserts his privileged white, outsider self into the interview room with his subjects, he doesn’t edit out the folks that call him out on his motives, and he does make an effort to dig into the personalities of those embroiled in gang life. The end result is a number of strange profile pieces and re-enactments that feel like an ill-fitting but important portrait of 70s New York City.
Sadly, the doc has only had the barest of releases — it was shot to fill time during a SNL summer hiatus only to be scrapped by NBC execs, then used as an educational film for a bit, then had a limited DVD print run over ten years ago — but you can view it (albeit with abrupt commercial interruptions) here:
(N/A) Unfortunately, TIMER is difficult to watch via traditional means: you can’t stream it, it’s been out-of-print for a while, and copies sell for far more than I would expect. Consequently, I haven’t seen it in a number of years. However, I’m recommending it because, not only do I recall it being very charming, but Jac Schaeffer wrote and directed it, and she just happens to be the head writer of WANDAVISION.
TIMER (explicitly spelled as TiMER) is a high-concept romantic drama that would be an immediate Netflix success today, but barely found an audience when it was released. The trailer does a perfect job of succinctly summarizing matters, but I’ll still try: in the future, you can get a visible wrist implant that ticks down the moment to when you meet your soulmate. The lead, Oona (Emma Caulfield Ford, who also appears in WANDAVISION, but is best known as Anya from BUFFY) gets her implant and it’s blank, and the film is about her coping and navigating her love life with that uncertainty.
It’s winsome and smart, without completely leaning on a lot of traditional romantic drama tropes. Folks have their own agency and expectations and insecurities!
Again, I haven’t seen it in a number of years, but it makes sense that the writer/director of this film would do something interesting with a Marvel Cinematic Universe series.
(Criterion/DVD/BR) Unfortunately it’s currently not available to stream, but Criterion recently released a newly restored edition of SMOOTH TALK, a very dark coming-of-age tale from documentarian/director Joyce Chopra based on Joyce Carol Oates’ short story WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? It’s vintage 80s, very sun-kissed, featuring Laura Dern in one of first roles, plenty of mall shopping, bangles, and teen girl sexuality.
It’s also worth noting that the new Criterion release also contains a copy of Oates’ short, well-worth reading after watching the film, if you haven’t read it already. (Or you can read it here.) I simply love it when Criterion does this sort of thing. For instance, my Criterion copy of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK has a bundled copy of the source material.
(Prime) Tayarisha Poe’s debut SELAH AND THE SPADES can be described as DEAR WHITE PEOPLE meets BRICK and, while I can’t argue with that — it’s full of teens scheming in a neo-noir underworld of their very own making — it’s more than a mashup of those two, partially because it focuses predominantly on girls and power. Also, while it’s Jomo Fray’s first feature as a cinematographer, his experience with short films is wisely executed, providing a strikingly visual film while still keeping a steady hand on SELAH’s framing.
(peacock/VOD) AWAY FROM HER is Sarah Polley’s (THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)) directorial debut, based Alice Munro’s short story THE BEAR COMES OVER THE MOUNTAIN. It’s a heartbreaking piece about a married couple, Grant (Gordon Pinsent) and Fiona Anderson (Julie Christie, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO) dealing with Fiona’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. Fiona moves to a nursing home where she starts to find herself attracted to another man in the home, and Grant has to cope with the repercussions of this new stage of their lives.
Polley keeps a light touch with the melodrama, letting the story breath and sit with you as opposed to amping up the tone. The end result is a marvelously confident first effort, marking the beginning of a new career.
(Criterion/VOD) A character profile of a man suffering from schizophrenia by writer/director Lodge Kerrigan (also the co-creator of Starz’s adaptation of Soderbergh’s THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE). Immaculate sound design, a strained, soulful performance from Peter Greene (PULP FICTION’s Zed) and a dearth of dialogue really make this film shine but, despite all of that, I’ll never forget it because of one scene featuring fingernails.
(AMC+/fubo/VOD) RECTIFY is leaving Netflix on March 3rd, when I imagine it’ll pop up on AMC+, so you have less than a week to watch this heartfelt exploration of a man — Daniel Holden (Aden Young) — found guilty of killing a girl, sentenced to death, acquitted of murder, and his re-entry into society.
Rather than RECTIFY being about society re-embracing him, it darts the other way. This is not about whether Daniel Holden is guilty, but is about him trying to find peace with his community, family (including TIMELESS’ Abigail Spencer), and himself. It’s a singularly human drama from DEADWOOD’s Ray McKinnon that had a surprisingly long life thanks to the Sundance Channel, and is well-worth making time for before it leaves Netflix.
(HBO MAX/VOD) Holy hell, I finally finished watching this franchise! For whatever reason, it took me years to finally get around to watching the last film but I’m glad I did. I should have seen that end coming but, delightfully, I did not. FINAL DESTINATION 5 is a fine return to form after the lackluster FINAL DESTINATION 3 and the abysmal THE FINAL DESTINATION, featuring some fantastic set pieces and adds some nuance to the characters that’s often lacking with the franchise.
Allegedly, a new film — not a reboot — is in development, which is a bit of a shame considering how explosive FINAL DESTINATION 5 ends, but then again it didn’t seem like a fifth film was necessary either.
(Blu-Ray) (A quick caveat: skip over any public domain copies of this film.)
THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is notable for several reasons: Michael Curtiz (GONE WITH THE WIND) directed it; it features Fay Wray’s scream just a bit before she’d appear in KING KONG; it was one of the rare Warner Bros. horror films of the 30s (including DOCTOR X, which Curtiz also directed, and also starred Wray); it influenced a number of films (obviously it was remade into HOUSE OF WAX, but I speculate it also trickled down to DARKMAN); it was also the last Technicolor two-color process film, and it looks -gorgeous-.
What’s interesting about color and film is that, while we have THE JAZZ SINGER as (unfortunately) the bellringer for talkies, films have been projected in color practically since their inception, either through reel-tinting or even hand-tinting, or early Technicolor processes.* THE MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM’s use of the two-color Technicolor process** is an astounding marvel, leaning into the gauzy, muted nature of the development procedure, utilizing it to create a far more expressionistic film that it’d be without color. The closing scene in the basement is especially striking, not just because of the set design and acute angles, but the use of light and shadow and command of tint.
Again, there are a lot of reasons to watch this — it’s a fun popcorn film, Wray is fantastic in it, although she’s supporting character and not the lead, and Glenda Farrell makes a meal out of her screwball crime reporter character — but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you watch an older or public domain print. It was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation in 2019, then released commercially in 2020, and that’s what you want to see.***
“Images of wax that throbbed with human passion! Almost woman! What did they lack?!”
