365 Films- Post 10
Venture Bros: All this and Gargantua-2 (2015)
Post ten! Can you believe it? This one takes us into the 60's. I was unable to hit my mini goal of watching 60 films before February, but I am still well on my way to completing the larger goal of 365 movies by the end of the year. My next mini goal is 85 films before March 1st.
Todays films:
55. Venture Bros: All This and Gargantua-2
56. Black Mama, White Mama
57. L'Avventura
58. The Ladykillers
59. Children of the Corn
60. Z
61. The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975
The Venture Bros: All This and Gargantua-2
The Venture Bros began as a great spoof of Johnny Quest style adventure cartoons and has somehow evolved into one of the most touching shows with one of the densest mythologies on television. This TV movie basically wraps up the 5th season and launches the characters (pun intended) into a new environment for the sixth. The movie does not act like a good introduction to the characters, so do not start with this, but it is a very satisfying conclusion to quite a few of the shows ongoing storylines. I love this show, and this movie is a great chapter in the show's mythos.
Standout Moment: Hank Venture's fake mustache saga definitely got the most laughs from me.
Black Mama, White Mama (1975)
Despite knowing this was going to be an exploitation film, I expected a little better from it. The best parts of the film all occur when the two main characters on the screen together. I was disappointed to see them less and less as the story wore on. Instead of watching a cross-country flight for their lives, the film decided to focus on a bunch of dudes that were connected in the loosest possible way.
Standout Moment: Pam Grier is a national treasure.
L'Avventura (1960)
What is there to say about L'Avventura that hasn't been said or written already? For me, the film gets better every time I see it. This time through, I really noticed the way that Antonioni treats men and the male gaze. Suffering under that much scrutiny would make anyone want to disappear. There is also a lot about the nature of the artist and the sacrifices the artist must make to do anything worth their own pride.
Standout Moment: Knocking over a vial of ink has never felt more important.
The Ladykillers (2004)
This movie was exceptionally bland. It wasn't terrible, but it never reached a point where I was truly intrigued by the characters or plot. The first scene is really good, and then the film just kind of meanders around for a while. There are a lot things that happen that don't make sense for the characters or for the world of the film. When we get to the IBS stuff, it seems tacked on instead of a true character trait. The ending is also ridiculous and lazy. The titular "lady" was also horribly underused. The Coen Brothers have made some of my favorite movies, but this is definitely one of their lesser outputs. It feels more like a ripoff of a Coen Brothers film than one of their actual films. This is what happens when artists start aping their own formula.
Standout Moment: Tom Hanks' hammy character is the only real good thing about this movie.
Children of the Corn (1984)
Children of the Corn is another entry in my list of horror films that I knew I should watch, but just never got around to viewing. This is a strange movie, but any minor knowledge of what it's about would reveal that. I did love the cult aspects of the film, and the assumed mythology of the dark presence that is controlling the situation. Also, the film does a great job of making the situation confusing and tense. I wish that Bert wasn't such an idiot, though. His assumed control over the situation may be realistic, but it wasn't very interesting.
Standout Moment: The two kids who play Isaac and Malachi are amazing. Isaac really steals the show.
Z (1969)
I watched Z without really knowing what it was about. A friend suggested it as inspiration for a scene I will be shooting in a few weeks, and I didn't bother looking up anything else about it. As the plot unraveled, I found myself on the edge of my seat. This is a shockingly relevant political thriller. The film was made as a response to the fascist overthrow of Greece, and many of the themes have a terrifying parallel to the way business is run in America and around the world. This was the best film I've seen a while.
Standout Moment: The night of the demonstration expertly heightens the intensity for what feels like an eternity.
The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 (2011)
This film looks at a period of American history in a perspective that is rarely explored. The Black Power movement and Black life in the 60's and 70's is criminally underrepresented in history books and in historical retrospectives. There are people in this documentary that fundamentally changed the shape of American culture and society, yet you never hear their names outside of certain circles. The power of this film is that it explores the Black Power movement from the perspective of someone outside of America. The filmmaker takes footage from Swedish television storage and creates an underground history of the lives of people on American margins. This is one of the best docs I have ever seen, and should be required viewing in school.
Standout Moment: The interview with Angela Davis in prison gives her a chance to show how powerful and intelligent she really is. It's no wonder that the powers-that-be wanted to keep her silent.