となりのトトロ (1988) aka My Neighbour Totoro - Rewatch
Satsuki and Mei move the the countryside to help their sick mother recuperate. This is wonderful. What starts as a simple tale of a young family dealing with a difficult move and encountering benign and comedic woodland spirits becomes something much greater when Mei tries to take some health-giving corn to her mother. The underlying fears of the two girls come to the fore in a respectful and tear-inducing manner while never losing it’s whimsy and gentleness. The scene at the bus-stop in the rain is iconic.
Black Narcissus (1947) - Rewatch
Several unsuitable nuns are sent to form a convent in the Himalayas, but fail to deal with the local winds. The subtext is a regretful and confused British view of the loss of India from Empire. The foreground is a tale of several women who only begin to discover themselves when placed in an alien and potentially hostile environment. Even more foreground is colour. Reds, pinks and greens bursting from the screen almost supernaturally, especially in the final visage of Kathleen Byron’s demonic mania.
Amadeus (1984)Salieri confesses and attests to the divine genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Brilliant performances, especially from the two leads. Amazing production design centred around the set piece productions of Mozart’s operas in the Tyl Theatre in Plzen. The story itself is operatically large. Salieri’s mediocrity and madness in challenging God vs Mozart’s baser but divine impulses. Over all of it Milos Forman conducting in supreme control. The most perfectly constructed spectacle.
BlacKkKlansman (2018)Ron Stallworth does intelligence. Spike Lee has made something that twists and turns from thriller to hard-nosed political commentary to blaxploitation. Following a black cop in Colorado Springs infiltrating the Klan, John David Washington and Adam Driver turn in great performances. The contrast in mood between the scenes set within the Klan amongst racist, violent, hateful men and women, and those in the outspoken, outraged but ultimately relaxed black community could not show Spike Lee’s message any clearer.
Kitbull (2019)More tear-inducing than any onion, a fierce kitty survives in a hostile world with only a pink elephant to comfort her. This could be a short promotion for any animal shelter. Rosana Sullivan knows cats and dogs. Their behaviour is characterised perfectly here, and all those who’ve known a pet will recognise all the signs of affection and play on display. Ultimately a short tale of friendship in a mostly uncaring world, it unashamedly thrashes our heartstrings into submission.
Die Austernprinzessin (1919) aka The Oyster PrincessOssi Oswalda wants a husband. Immediately. This is utter nuts. It’s a satire of obscene affluence and those afflicted by it. It’s absurd in the same sense as The Marx Brothers, The Goons and Monty Python. There’s isn’t a scene in this that isn’t pushing the boundaries of sanity and alcoholic consumption. Why have 20 waiters serve a table when you can have 200? The star of this is Victor Jansen, his facial hair and his lugubrious ennui. There is only one comment necessary - “Now I’m Impressed!”
The Furies (1934)All the way from 1934, three-minutes of montage made by Slavko Vorkapich from the beginning of the film “Crime Without Passion”. It says much that this is seen a stand-alone short film. It is astonishing. Three female victims of male violence rise from death in an orgy of anger and fury, soaring forth from their own blood to become angels of vengeance roaring over the city. The scoring and editing is mesmerising. The agency of wronged womanhood has rarely been this viscerally manifested on the screen. Watch it and your jaw will hit the floor.
Get Out (2017)Someone wants to give Chris Washington a piece of their mind. A fantastic mix of race politics, modern witchcraft, and the lust for young, healthy, strong bodies. It’s about time someone made a film that uses the concept of ‘white liberal elite’ and turns them into something to directly fear, following the Wicker Man in taking a weird but ultimately anodyne and effete group and making them dreadful. The silent auction is the centrepiece mixing the history of slavery with a newly terrifying suburban middle-class whimsy.
Murder by Death (1976)Holmes and Watson are relieved to be left on the cutting room floor. A parody of the country house murder mystery, and it’s terrible. A highly starry cast stumble through the ridiculous, pointlessly convoluted, and unfunny script. It’s not even silly, it’s plain knuckle-bitingly awful. Neil Simon’s writing and plotting is juvenile. Peter Sellers turns up in yellow-face, not for the first time. Things may have been different in the 1970s, but I don’t hear them laughing back then either.
Willow (1988)A prophecy, an evil queen, and a quest. It’s a by-the-numbers fantasy, but this has a little bit of charm about and between its set pieces. The obvious chemistry between Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley helps as well. It never seeks to stray outside its genre-mandated norms or the Lucas-structured script of action set pieces mortared together with plot, exposition and romantic development. Together with a family audience in mind, it's a slightly tame roller-coaster ride to the final confrontation.