I can't believe I committed to watching four of these and not just the first one but thank god it's over. Not a huge fan of the gimmick western/faux western/novelty western but this at least dropped the SyFy channel-tier CGI from the third movie
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The Rules of the Game 1939
Conveys its point adeptly enough but makes for a bit of an overwhelming first watch considering its esteem and place in cinematic history and how chaotic it eventually becomes with people talking over people talking over people. It certainly delivers on the promise of the poster, but takes a while to get there. Definitely going to have to revisit this at some point down the road
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The King of Marvin Gardens 1972
In all honesty, the prospect of watching yet another Jack Nicholson performance in a Bob Rafelson film wasn't particularly exciting for me after I'd seen a number of films that fit that description already and I didn't entirely give this movie the fair shake it deserved. I only paid attention to every other word that came out of Bruce Dern's mouth and will definitely need to rewatch this at a more seasonally appropriate time. The dreary, pre-casino Atlantic City cinematography…
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Drive, He Said 1971
A pretty average, yet underseen, new Hollywood sports drama film that's mostly notable for being Jack Nicholson's directorial debut following the success of Easy Rider. I feel like neither the human drama nor the sports film aspects of this delivered fully and they felt disjointed, like they should be two separate shorts and not one feature. Other than that, Michael Margotta as the revolutionary collegiate draft dodger Gabriel delivers some of the frenetic and unpredictable energy Jack Nicholson would later…
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The Parallax View 1974
Dread, mistrust, malaise, paranoia, disillusionment. The bad days after the good days have all gone away. It's strange to see a movie so obviously of its time in many ways but also surprisingly prescient, relevant, and somehow simultaneously ahead of its time 48 years later. This didn't immediately click for me until that scene, when it picked up steam and built up some more tension. I'd say this most delivers on the promise of Pakula's paranoia trilogy, despite the subsequent and final entry, All the President's Men, being the most grounded in reality. Would make a great double bill with Frankenheimer's Seconds.
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Roger & Me 1989
Shows how an individual can, whether by sheer indifference, greed, or malice, immiserate an entire people without batting an eye, facing any consequences, or being any worse off for it and how this happens all the time and doing it is good business.
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Barton Fink 1991
Not quite sure how I feel about this, actually. I went into this having heard it was the Coens' more comedic take on Eraserhead (not hard to see why; I only learned later that the visual inspiration for Barton was playwright George S. Kaufman and not Jack Nance) so throughout I was thinking to myself "I guess that's sorta like Eraserhead" but the pieces never fully clicked because the Coens never actually cited Eraserhead as a reference on this. I…
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Beau Travail 1999
The absolute most gorgeous desert cinematography I've ever seen, I think. Completely makes up for the languid narrative, which I don't particularly object to anyway. Denis' commentary on western, specifically French, colonialism and its legacy in Africa is also salient and remains so slightly over two decades later. The implication that the most gruelling work can be beautiful if done with and for love, and conversely, that the most liberatory acts can be exhausting is something I also appreciated
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