News You Can Bruise for 2024 April

Wed Apr 03 2024 12:47 March Film Roundup:

• Mimang (2023): I went into this knowing it was inspired by the Before series, and would have been a little bit disappointed were it not for the discussion afterwards with the director, where he explained that for him it's less about the changes in the characters over time, and more about the changes in the streets they're walking on.

  There's some of what I call "Cornetto trilogy foreshadowing" at the beginning, but it foreshadows the way the film is shot and edited, rather than the plot. (The director brought this up in the discussion afterwards, so for once it's not just me spouting off on something I think I noticed.)

• The Hot Rock (1972): I've been reading 20th-century heist novels as research for a novel idea, and here's a movie based on such a novel (by Donald Westlake), which I read right after finishing the novel. I think it does a great job of taking the exciting cinematic set pieces from the novel, while not even trying to capture the more cerebral humor the novel gets from its wry omniscient narrator. Great fun, big recommendation. Another novel in the same heist-comedy series was made into a movie (What's the Worst That Could Happen?), but not until 2001. That one doesn't seem very good or faithful to the book at all; the common fate of novel adaptations in the blockbuster era when not every movie was based on a novel.

  Other 20th-century crime authors I've been trying out, BTW: Kyril Bonfiglioli (hilarious!), Dick Francis (meh).

• Assignment K (1968): Amazing European location shots and some fun spycraft liven up a by-the-numbers espionage thriller. The agent's cover story (buyer for a toy company) is more interesting than his secret missions. I really wanted to see more about the challenges of onshoring manufacturing!
• Raiders of San Joaquin (1943): A forgettable Western that I've already forgotten most of. I chose it out of some idea that it might take place in the San Joaquin Valley, but it's actually San Joaquin County, up by Stockton. Of course it's actually whatever random place in California Universal filmed their westerns, pretending to be Stockton.
• Something Wild (1986): A PSA for middle-aged guys on not getting mixed up with Manic Pixie Dream Girls. Not quite like any other movie I've seen, which is its own kind of recommendation: until the last bit, I really had no idea what was going to happen next. This movie also effectively pulls one of my favorite dramatic tricks: A is trying to hide something really horrible/bizarre from B and you think there's going to be tense moments; but then it turns out B already knows and is cool with it, or at least resigned.

  Overall a real comedic surprise from a director I associate with Philadelphia and Silence of the Lambs.

  This movie has more arcade games than any movie I can think of that doesn't actually feature a video arcade. It's 1986, the peak year for arcade games being in (and outside!) every random convenience store and gas station. A period piece set in 1986 would make sure to feature classics like Ms. Pac-Man and Defender, but only a movie shot in real 1986 convenience stores would showcase Yie Ar Kung-Fu.

  (In case you weren't there, as I recall the outdoor arcade games were usually chained to something; you couldn't just pull up with a pickup truck after hours and steal them.)