Back Catalog Review: The Exterminating Angel

The Back Catalog is a series following my quest to watch all of the films I own. Check out the index, or follow the Back Catalog tag to see what I’ve watched and what I’ve thought of the films.

Like a less-overt episode of The Twilight Zone, The Exterminating Angel puts people in a weird situation and then sees what happens before putting a final twist of the knife at the very end. It’s unlike most other movies in that it isn’t super concerned with characters or even a story as such. And for all of its surrealism and absurdity, the events of the film mostly follow logically from one to the next. Everything, that is, except for the first few minutes, which feature the servants in a baroque Spanish mansion trying to leave before the start of a dinner party that will prove to last quite a long time. We see two maids hide in a closet as the group of rich revelers enter the house and go upstairs to the banquet hall. Here the maids see their escape route open, only to have the same set of guests enter and perform the same actions a second time around. It’s your first hint that something is up here and it’s delightful and off-putting at the same time.

Back Catalog Review: Full Metal Jacket

The Back Catalog is a series following my quest to watch all of the films I own. Check out the index, or follow the Back Catalog tag to see what I’ve watched and what I’ve thought of the films.

About 2/3rds of the way through Full Metal Jacket I started to think about Paths of Glory. It’s not surprising, both are war films that are critical of war in some ways, and both are directed by Stanley Kubrick. Pretty obvious. I was struck, however, at how differently the two movies see war. This isn’t a case of a director making the same point in a different era. In fact, Kubrick conceptualizes the two wars (WWI for Paths, Vietnam for Full) almost completely differently. In Paths of Glory, his ire is aimed at the higher ups, the generals who rigidly stick to antiquated notions of what a war is and put the footsoldiers into harms way without a care for their humanity. In Full Metal Jacket, that inhumanity infects everybody. Sure, the generals are idiots for getting America into the mire and not doing anything to get us out or change anything, but now the grunts aren’t noble sacrifices to the gods of war, they see themselves as those gods personified. They willingly absolve themselves of their morals in order to fuck and kill their way through a foreign country and its people. Kubrick doesn’t have his characters call Vietnam and the warzones within it “the shit” for verisimilitude, he does it because he sees the US military as covered in the stuff, full of it, or even composed of it.

Movie Review: Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is not the movie I thought it would be. From the posters it seemed like it would be a straight up war film, albeit a straight up war film directed by Stanley Kubrick, which would likely be something special. And the first third is a standard war film. It’s all trenches and explosions, this being WWI. Kubrick gives us the set-up: Kirk Douglas is told that he must take a German stronghold. He tells his superior officer, played by George Macready as an evil and power hungry man looking for his next star, that his forces are not big enough nor will they have enough support to accomplish their goal. This, of course, doesn’t matter and although Douglas tries his damnedest to take the hill he barely makes it halfway through no-mans-land and a third of his forces won’t even dare to leave the trenches. This sequence is just as intense as the opening section of Saving Private Ryan, though it is shot completely differently. Where Spielberg’s movie is all shaky cam and tinnitus, Paths of Glory scrolls along, not shying away from the terror, but giving a continuous forward push. Is the camera following the soldiers or are they following it? It’s amazing, actually, in such an action packed frame that we can pick out Douglas as he blows his whistle and climbs over dead bodies and artillery holes. At one point the camera zooms in to spot him and his glorious chin only to zoom back out and show how crazy this attack is. It is grimy to the extreme, at the same time as it is emblematic of Kubrick’s complete control over his films.

After the failed maneuver, the evil General must cover his tracks. He sets up a court marshal in his ridiculously opulent base, a mansion with room sized paintings and marble floors. One soldier from each of the three sections of the troop will be tried for cowardice and shot if found guilty. Luckily, Douglas also happens to be the best lawyer in France, and he jumps to defend his men from the silly trial. To go any further into the film’s plot would do a disservice to it. It is a Kubrick film and as such isn’t exactly a rip-roaring good time. He films his characters with the standard detachment, though he allows them to be real people. You can sense the Douglas is pained and wants to do right by his men, not only from what he says but from how he acts. It’s him against the world, Germans and French alike. The film is as much about the failings of military thinking as it is about the French vs. the Germans. Douglas rages against the machine but to little avail. It is only the final scene that changes how he views the world. It’s a marvelous scene, at first terrifying, then strangely comforting.

As the second film in my 1957 marathon, Paths of Glory continues the year’s excellence. Along with Throne of Blood, it shows that filmmaking was just as vibrant then as it is now. There’re plenty of explosions and gunfire and later plenty of explosive dialogue and fiery speeches. It is at least as good as that other courtroom drama from the same year, 12 Angry Men. And you can imagine the entirety of War Horse happening alongside it! Both films rely on American and British actors playing foreign characters. Where are the cries of crass commercialism for Kubrick’s film? Lost in the fog of war, I guess.

Top 100 Films: The _1’s

Here we are. The end of the list. Tomorrow I will be posting the entire list in order for your personal files along with some fun statistics. But today check out the final entry in the list proper. Horror, action, western, comedy, drama, canonical, crazy. This list has it all. More than any other segment I think this group is categorized by the ambition of the films. Each is going for something more than your typical movie, and they all get there.

Before you see the rest of the list, please consider subscribing to my blog. There’s a button on the side under “Subscribe here!” and you’ll be updated as soon as I post something new. I’ve changed the feed link, too, so if you’re already subscribed you should make sure you have the up-to-date feed.

91. Scream (1996)

Directed by Wes Craven. Starring Neve Campbell and Courtney Cox

Now Sid, don’t you blame the movies. Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative!

The slasher movie about slasher movies has a billion layers going on. The amazing thing is that they all work. It’s a great slasher, a great meta-movie, and a great meta-slasher-movie. The script by Kevin Williamson is the real star of this movie, with great laughs and screams all over the place.

81. Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Directed by Banksy. Starring Banksy and Thierry Guetta

I think the joke is on… I don’t know who the joke’s on – really. I don’t even know if there is a joke.

This maybe-documentary is not clear about its verisimilitude. What is clear is that it’s a fun movie to watch. Whether Thierry is a real guy or a Bansky creation almost doesn’t matter, because he’s such a compelling weirdo that you can’t look away. As a movie about art it can be a tiny bit preachy, but that’s subverted by the silliness that’s going on throughout.

71. The Proposition (2005)

Directed by John Hillcoat. Starring Ray Winstone and Guy Pearce

I was, in days gone by, a believer. But alas, I came to this beleaguered land, and the God in me just… evaporated. Let us change our toast, sir. To the God who has forgotten us.

Unlike the previous two films, The Proposition is a deadly serious film. One of those new westerns that shows just how horrible the west, or in this case, Australia, would be to live in. Written and scored by Nick Cave, it’s bleak and unpleasant, but masterfully so. And, as you can see by the screenshot, it is a beautiful film to look at.

61. Synecdoche, New York (2008)

Directed by Charlie Kaufman. Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Samantha Morton

I will be dying and so will you, and so will everyone here. That’s what I want to explore. We’re all hurtling towards death, yet here we are for the moment, alive. Each of us knowing we’re going to die, each of us secretly believing we won’t.

Some say that Kaufman’s first directorial project suffers from a lack of focus. There’s nobody to tell him no, and the film spirals out of control as it gets bigger and bigger. I don’t disagree. I think that’s what makes it such a great movie. Synecdoche, New York is a messterpiece of the highest order.

51. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood

I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.

I did not like this movie when I first watched it. It was too slow and the ending made no sense. When I got a Blu-ray player it was one of the first movies I got for it because I heard that it really benefits from being presented in the best possible format. And while I haven’t seen it projected yet, the Blu-ray really made me appreciate everything that was going on. It deserves a place in the canon of sci-fi movies and movies in general.

41. Chinatown (1974)

Directed by Roman Polanski. Starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway

But, Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think you’re hiding something.

Polanski is the king of paranoia. Nicholson is always a step behind everybody else and we as an audience feel the same growing paranoia that he does as he tries to uncover the truth. The stakes get bigger and bigger and we get more and more uncomfortable. It’s great.

31. Princess Mononoke (1997)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Starring Yôji Matsuda and Yuriko Ishida

Look, everyone! This is what hatred looks like! This is what it does when it catches hold of you! It’s eating me alive, and very soon now it will kill me! Fear and anger only make it grow faster!

Based on Japanese folklore and the idea of industrialization and the way it destroys nature, Princess Mononoke is a profound and beautiful film. There’s a lot of melodrama but everything feels earned and true.

21. The Lady Eve (1941)

Directed by Preston Sturges. Starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda

You see Hopsi, you don’t know very much about girls. The best ones aren’t as good as you think they are and the bad ones aren’t as bad. Not nearly as bad.

Henry Fonda plays against type here as a hapless snake scientist who falls for a con-woman on a boat back to America. He never has the upper hand in the first half of the movie. The second half turns the tables a bit, and it works most because of the acting because the script asks a lot of the audience. Also, it is hilarious.

11. City of God (2002)

Directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Starring Alexandre Rodrigues and Matheus Nachtergaele

A kid? I smoke, I snort. I’ve killed and robbed. I’m a man.

City of God is a movie about how much it sucks to grow up in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. It’s a gangster movie of sorts, but the exotic locale and the juxtaposition of people just trying to survive against the people wringing all the power they can out of a crappy situation is an interesting enough dynamic for me to overlook my problems with the genre. It also helps that it is kinetically shot and the main character is a photographer. Hey, I’m easy.

1. Magnolia (1999)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore

I’ll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through all the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.

While the overwhelming feeling that one associates with Magnolia is probably sadness, I think the ending does a lot to prove that there is room for happiness in a world that is mostly screwed up. Anderson handles ensembles with grace and care, giving each person their due attention. Check this out for more on Magnolia.

The rest of the list:

The _0’s section

The _9’s section

The _8’s section

The _7’s section

The _6’s section

The _5’s section

The _4’s section

The _3’s section

The _2’s section

The _1’s section

Top 100 Films: The _5’s

I guess it makes sense that as we go along the movies will get better and better overall. I think this might be my favorite of the bunch so far. We have 6 horror films (well, at least semi-horror for two of them), 5 movies from before I was born, 3 movies that reference a location in their titles, 2 movies in black and white, 2 shots of girls with blood on them, and 1 movie where it was hard to find a shot that wasn’t full of naked people.

95. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Directed by Tobe Hooper. Starring Marilyn Burns and Edwin Neal

My family’s always been in meat.

As a kid I saw a few shots from this movie and they scared me so much that I vowed never to see it. Then I grew up and realized that I liked horror films. When I watched it a few Halloweens ago I was terrified. It’s one of the most visceral and immediate films I’ve ever seen. And the scene at the dinner table is truly horrifying.

85. The Fly (1986)

Directed by David Cronenberg. Starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis

How does Brundlefly eat? Well, he found out the hard and painful way that he eats very much the way a fly eats. His teeth are now useless, because although he can chew up solid food, he can’t digest them. Solid food hurts. So like a fly, Brundlefly breaks down solids with a corrosive enzyme, playfully called “vomit drop”. He regurgitates on his food, it liquefies, and then he sucks it back up. Ready for a demonstration, kids? Here goes…

The Brundlefly is one of the more tragic characters in movie history. A simple accident melds his DNA with a fly’s and then he begins to lose his humanness as bits of his body turn into a fly. It’s body horror of the truest and grossest sense. Goldblum manages to keep the humanity of the situation in the forefront for as long as he can, which is why the movie is on this list.

75. Manhattan (1979)

Directed by Woody Allen. Starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton

I had a mad impulse to throw you down on the lunar surface and commit interstellar perversion.

I only started to watch Woody Allen movies this year, starting with Midnight in Paris and ending, so far, with Manhattan, with nothing else in the middle. Manhattan is funny and smart and all that jazz, but nobody warned me how good it looked. Allen has a way with the frame, and working with Gordon Willis certainly helps.

65. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick. Starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman

I have seen one or two things in my life but never, never anything like this.

A dream of a movie. A surreal comedy about Tom Cruise’s inability to get laid. It’s unfortunate that this movie got caught up in the real life story between the two main actors and Kubrick’s death because it’s a really great film in its own right. Give it a chance.

55. Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Starring Ron Pearlman and Doug Jones

Now, see, I love this song. And I can’t smile, or cry. I think I have no tear ducts.

A mix of del Toro’s two modes, Hellboy II is an artsy superhero film and an action filled art film. Clever and thoughtful, tragic and swashbuckling, this movie has everything going for it. And it’s better than that other superhero sequel from the same year.

45. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

Directed by John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell

Well, maybe it’s like Casy says. A fellow ain’t got a soul of his own, just a little piece of a big soul, the one big soul that belongs to everybody.

I’m not a huge fan of the book this film is based on, but the humanity brought by Fonda and Darwell in particular make this such a great film. As usual, John Ford directs an excellent film, but it’s these two performances that raise it above the rest.

35. Zodiac (2007)

Directed by David Fincher. Starring Jake Jyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr.

I… I need to know who he is. I… I need to stand there, I need to look him in the eye and I need to know that it’s him.

The first in the second stage of Fincher’s career, Zodiac is much more understated than Fight Club or Panic Room. It follows the obsession of three men as they try to find the real identity of the Zodiac killer, though their quest is ultimately unsuccessful. It says a lot about Fincher that he can make such an unsatisfying conclusion seem like the only way the story could end.

25. Halloween (1978)

Directed by John Carpenter. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence

It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.

By today’s standards this is barely a horror movie. There’s only a tiny bit of blood at the beginning of the film and the rest is mostly tension building. But it does that mood so well you can’t help but be scared. When you have an audience jumping in their seats because your bad guy steps out from behind the bushes for a moment you’ve got a truly great film on your hands.

15. Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Starring Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney

All in all not a bad guy – if looks, brains, and personality don’t count.

One of the few mob-based films that doesn’t annoy the crap outta me, Miller’s Crossing is a genius movie. Gabriel Byrne’s central performance is so strong and he’s surrounded by such a great supporting cast and a great story told wonderfully. Truly the best gangster movie of all time.

5. There Will Be Blood (2007)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano

I see the worst in people. I don’t need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I’ve built my hatreds up over the years, little by little, Henry… to have you here gives me a second breath. I can’t keep doing this on my own with these… people.

What I like to call a character epic, TWBB is half a grandiose tale of oil and religion and half a character study. With an all-time-great performance by Daniel Day-Lewis and a better-than-he-gets-credit-for performance by Paul Dano, this movie needed only to be shot reasonably well to be great. But Paul Thomas Anderson brought all of his tricks with him and we got an amazing movie out of the deal. I have no hesitations calling this a masterpiece.

The other parts of the list:

The _0’s section

The _9’s section

The _8’s section

The _7’s section

The _6’s section

The _5’s section

The _4’s section

The _3’s section

The _2’s section

The _1’s section