Headhunter: The Assessment Weekend (2010) Five business students and their corporate handler are going on an assessment course in the woods - two days of light hiking and camping to see how they cope with slight discomfort to determine if they have a future in the high-pressure Takahashi consulting company. The handler fills then with stories about rogue poachers stalking the forest, but maybe the greater danger is someone they brought with them. I'm unnaturally drawn to these corporate testing room (even if Headhunter is outdoors) movies, where the contrived setting gets us right to the core cleverness of the interviewees and the morality of competition... or right to the garbage (I'm looking at you The Employer). This does a little different take on the subject, and I really think there is a core of a good movie here. The problem is that a film based on questioning what is and what isn't real strongly depends on an absolutely refined script and top level directing and acting, and we don't have any of those here. Headhunter's major failing was characters that were whiny, one dimensional, and worst of all unnatural. Not behaving like humans means we don't believe their motivations. These kind of movies usually leave you guessing a little at the end, but we are left with multiple fully conflicting bits of evidence so I'm not so much guessing as confused. Not garbage but less than middling. Don't know why the Japanese head of a Japanese company kept quoting Chinese philosophers. Miyamoto Musashi would have fit their purposes very well.
Perfect Days ~ W. Wenders An aging man cleans public toilets in Tokyo while creating a seemingly lonely, but enjoyable routine for himself outside of his job. He experiences minor inconveniences to his routine throughout the movie, some happy and some painful. That's about it, though. The movie thematically goes nowhere. The second half suggests a deeper backstory that it doesn't investigate while undermining any "nobility of the working class" narrative it had going for it. It's not bad. It's shot well (curiously in 4:3) and Koji Yakusho is quite good in the lead role. Maybe it just bothers me that the main character is like those out of Murakami novels, ascetic, emotionally-withdrawn, revered by women they meet, listening to "cool" music, reading cool books, and having minor quirky hobbies. It reads as interesting, but would be totally insufferable in reality.
I really enjoyed the Japanuary challenge I found on Letterboxd and completed last month as it pushed me to explore new films and genres in a fixed time frame. I wanted to give myself another challenge, so with February being Black History Month, I've set a goal to watch 10 films by 10 black directors. Within Our Gates ~ O. Micheaux Sylvia, travels between the North to the South in an attempt to raise money for a school for impoverished African-Americans. Her story takes multiple turns with the political and socio-economic situation of the time presenting challenges. This is a silent film from 1920. Narratively, it's a bit all-over the place, but it really is more of a political treatise for the time with a final call for African-Americans to embrace their country despite the horrors they've faced.
Actually went to the movies with my partner and a couple of friends to see The Housemaid Sidney Sweeney, plays Millie Calloway, is a paroled convict (they do not say until 2/3rds of the way why she was incarcerated) living out of her car in New York. She answers an ad for a "housemaid" for a rich family on Long Island. The rich couple are Nina and Andrew Winchester, (played by Amanda Seyfried and the insanely hunky Brandon Feakins) and Nina's bratty daughter, Cece. At first it seems idyllic. A place to live, a family to "care for," a bit of stability, and apparently decent money (although not that much, since she apparently cannot cover the cost of two Broadway tickets). At the interview, Nina is the "perfect" host and the house is immaculate. Millie is hired and arrives to see the house in shambles and Nina in hysterics. It rapidly goes downhill from there. It appears that Nina did not bother to tell Andrew and Cece that she hired Millie. As Nina turns every more bitter towards Millie (for no apparent reason), Andrew steps in to "protect" Millie from the ever more erratic and abusive Nina. The first half hour plays out like a medium big budget Lifetime movie. It seemed bizarre how incredibly erratic Nina's behavior is towards Millie. The ladies who come to lunch gossip about Nina when she leaves the room, and then a nanny at Cece's ballet class provides additional details, clueing Millie (and the audience) in a bit about Nina's pathology. I will not got much further into the plot, but it takes a number of twists as almost nobody is who they seem to be. It gets pretty dark, but in an entertaining manner. There is a long, long sequence where Nina is reading a "letter" to Cece explaining essentially her entire history. It is a strange part of the movie but is a convenient enough plot device. The movie is close being very, very good. As it leans into the darker aspects of the family dynamic it picks up, as we see Millie and Nina's somewhat parallel paths. There are a few things that keep it from being very good. There are too many scenes of Nina haranguing Millie and lying about her actions (although that is explained as the movie continues) and not nearly enough about Millie's back story until rather late in the movie. The two leads, Sidney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried are both pretty good in their roles and both are co-executive producers (it's the fourth movie in the past three years where Sweeney has starred and produced or been an executive producer. Good for her!). It is strange that, at first, they appear to be about the same age, even though Seyfried is about 12 years older than Sweeney. Yes, there is an extended scene where viewers are shown Sweeney's, um, "assets," which seems to be a contractual requirement for anything involving Sidney Sweeney. There are a few mildly disturbing scenes and the house (which is basically a character in the movie) is massive and somewhere between beautiful and really stupid. The house does not seem to fit together, as "the attic" bedroom is up a staircase of really crappy looking paneling, completely out of character with the aesthetic of the house. However, that is part of the house being a character onto itself. The movie was filmed at a New Jersey mansion built in 1909. There is an article in "House Beautiful" magazine about the house The Home From The Housemaid Is the REAL Star of the Film—See All the Chilling Details https://www.housebeautiful.com/lifestyle/entertainment/a69797750/the-housemaid-set-design/ Overall, the four of us all enjoyed the movie. The first time in a movie theater in months.
Weapons [2025] I think the only reason I saw this is I've seen all the other United movies at this point. And honestly, I don't know what the heck did I just watch. Perhaps this is not my genre of movies, but I was not at all happy at the end. Perhaps if this is your type of movie, go for it, otherwise, stay away.
The Eyes (2017) Six people wake up to find themselves bound to chairs in the middle of a windowless room. They don't know each other, they don't know why they are there. After a while they discover the reason and the one thing they have in common. And it's not a good thing. This started really well, and contained everything I love about one-room moves (strong emphasis on characters, dialogue, and acting, and limitations requiring inventive camera work and blocking). But then we are introduced to the guy running this little game, and his reason for doing it just isn't believable. That guy being a very miscast Nickolas Turturro (younger brother of John). Events at the end redeem this somewhat, but I'd prefer it more if it was a well reasoned test straight through the movie rather than a not credible motive with a great twist that we got. Not the kind of movie you would expect Vincent Pastore to be in, and good for him.
It's a horror movie used as an allegory for a school shooting. I liked it, though I would agree that the concept was slightly better than its eventual execution. I thought all three of Julia Garner, Josh Brolin and Amy Madigan were great in their respective roles. The main issue was the screenplay kind of being a bit rickety at key junctions in the story.
My Brother's Wedding ~ C. Burnett Pierce lives with and works for his parents in south-central LA. He chafes as his brother prepares to marry into a well-off family while he has little prospects. The film is equally funny and deeply tragic. The portrait of invisible labor that Pierce performs for the community is lovely even if it seems to further frustrate him.
If I had young kids I would make them watch. I guess it is a good thing that I don't have young kids!
Canyon Passage 7/10. Platform: Tubi Summary: A businessman is torn between two women and also has to consider his loyalty to a friend that is also a problem gambler. Set in 1850s Oregon. Thoughts: This was enjoyable. This wasn't a Western so to speak but more a frontier movie. Story is solid and the actors solid. The song Ole Buttermilk Sky has been living in my head to the point that I learned it on guitar for the fun of it.
The Forbidden City (2025) Dir. Gabriele Mainetti After a cold open in which we follow a foursome of trafficked Chinese women as they are brought in front of a madam to determine their 'assignments', we find out that one of them is not what she appears. Mei, a highly trained martial artist, is actually there to find out what happened to her sister. After a brawl in what turns out to be a Chinese restaurant located in Rome, that is a front for a criminal enterprise run by Wang, Mei leaves with a new lead: her missing sister Yun was last seen with Alfredo, the middle-aged owner of a family owned restaurant nearby. Mei violently accosts Marcello, Alfredo's son and the head chef of the eatery. Only Marcello cannot help her find either Yun or his father, as Alfredo is missing as well, assumed by Marcello's mother to have eloped with his mistress. Then Hannibal, a local criminal element who doubles as Alfredo's oldest and best friend and sort of a surrogate uncle to Marcello grows interested himself in the young Chinese woman, who has been causing so much trouble in his neighborhood. I enjoyed this quite a bit. One half martial arts actioner, one half romance. So you go from scenes where Yaxi Liu as Mei is beating up a bunch of goons to a scene where she is going on a romantic Vespa ride around Rome with Enrico Borello's Marcello. If the premise of a Chinese martial artist showing up in Rome to fight criminals, in a restaurant setting no less, might seem familiar, the movie itself is very aware of its similarities to The Way of the Dragon. Bruce Lee even shows up, sort of. One minor false note is the scenes between Hannibal and African immigrants in Rome. The director clearly uses them to make clear that Hannibal is an old bigot, but it doesn't make them any easier to watch. Yaxi Liu is very convincing in the martial arts scenes, explained by the fact that she is actually a stunt woman and martial arts expert, for whom this was just her second acting gig.
Bystanders (2024) It was supposed to be the big blow-out party to end their high school years, but when Abby, Ellie, and Brie got to the lavish cabin in the woods which was the vacation home of one of the frat boy's parents, they found they were the only women there. Thinking they were just early, they decide to take the drinks offered to them. Those were of course drugged, and after the boys had their way with them the situation got even worse. Because the guys liked to finish these kinds of evenings with a hunt. They gather axes and knives and send the girls out into the woods with a 60 second head start, both as sport and because Cody's mother really hates it when they get blood on the expensive imported rug. Abby makes it to a country road and flags down a car. The couple inside get out, but just then the gang shows up and threatens the bystanders as well as Abby. Just two regular bystanders. Nothing special about them. Amateur (for example a producer and the makeup artist had acting roles), but I mean that in the best possible sense where you can see the home-spun craft that went into making this. At its best it was fresh and clever and I enjoyed seeing the Most Dangerous Game formula flipped down and reversed. One aspect of this I really liked was seeing non-standard types doing the acting (and quality acting all around too). Bystanders was of two minds about the gore, some happening off camera and some unfortunately very on. It didn't stick to the hunt very long, and went into torture porn territory which, besides being very much not my thing no matter how much they deserved it, showed the limits of imagination of the script. Also Abby had a noticeable lack of effect from the horrors of earlier that evening. But even late in the movie we had brilliant moments, such as one of the guy's reactions trying to hole up in the cabin.
Daughters of the Dust ~ J. Dash In 1902, an extended family gathers for a send-off as many prepare to migrate north from the coastal Sea Islands off of SC and GA, their home since their descendants were brought their as slaves. This film is a celebration of the unique Gullah culture of the region and a completely relatable family reunion drama. It excels in both aspects. While the cinematography, costuming, and use of the Gullah dialect are all excellent and things I admire in the film, it's the familiarity of the family reunion that I love, with the caring for and sniping at each other that is the hallmark of a bunch of siblings and inlaws coming together.
Ganja and Hess ~ B. Gunn Dr. Hess is turned into a vampire. He suffers noisy migraines only satiated by drinking blood. Ganja shows up looking for her husband, but finds Hess attractive. This is a weird 70's horror film. It's never scary but the uneven narrative is unnerving and disorienting. Kind of like House, which I watched last month, I'm unsure if I should be more forgiving of low budget productions from the 70s or if horror is just not my thing.
The Housemaid (2025) Dir. Paul Feig Millie is a young woman in dire straits, living out of her car and desperately needing employment. She applies for a housemaid job, a live-in position, with the Winchesters. Nina Winchester, the mother and wife of the family seems nice, friendly and compassionate when Millie first meets her, though there are a few cues in her behavior that reveal something might be slightly off. When Millie gets offered the job a few days later though, she is happy to accept, as it is solving both her employment and housing issues. She is given an attic room to live in, in her new employer's large home. She meets husband Andrew, who is handsome and successful professionally as well as young daughter Cece. As the days and weeks of Millie's employment for the Winchesters progresses, she is confronted with ever more erratic behavior from Nina, whose friendly facade from the job interview has been completely eradicated. And on the other extreme of that spectrum, Millie starts to be attracted ever more to her employer Andrew, whom she perceives as overly kind and patient when it comes to dealing with his wife's extreme mood swings and erratic behavior. It is slowly revealed to both Millie and the audience that not all is as it appears on the surface. This was okay. Amanda Seyfried is great as Nina Winchester, Sydney Sweeney mostly solid as Millie. If I were to identify some key issues that does not allow it to raise above a middling level of entertainment, it's two-fold from my perspective. One minor quibble about the runtime, this takes over two hours to tell a pretty basic and simple story, could have easily cut 15 or even 20 minutes without losing much substance. But the primary issue is that for my money, erotic thrillers are the ultimate 'Go Big or Go Home' genre and neither the writing nor Paul Feig's directing swings for the fences. If anything, I thought Feig's directing style was timid, like a guy who was sneaking out of the house in his dad's sports car, but wasn't brave enough to floor the gas pedal and really test drive it. There is no balls to the walls insanity like Joe Esterhaz writing combined with Verhoeven's directing style in Basic Instinct. No Linda Fiorentino tossing Peter Berg against a chain link fence to climb him like a tree. It's all so tame and a tiny bit lame. If the commercial success of this film does mean we might see a revival of the 1990s style erotic thriller, I do hope we get some proper perverts back in to shoot them.
Macross: Do You Remember Love? [超時空要塞マクロス 愛・おぼえていますか] (1984) The massive space battleship slash metropolitan city Macross is near Saturn, only a month away from returning to Earth after being sent far away seven months ago. They are caught between a massive galaxy-spanning everlasting war between the Zentradi and the Meltrandi. Something about the Macross frightens the Zentradi, and touches a part of their deep past. During a battle pretty-boy rookie pilot Hikaru Ichijyo rescues pop idol Lynn Minmay, and the two become something of an item. A feature of culture that really freaks the Zentradi out. They hatch a plan to discover more. In a bit of a Macross mood as I'm working on a couple models from the franchise, and I don't think Macross gets any better than this movie retelling of the original TV series. I love that Do You Remember Love? begins in the middle because the setup wouldn't just slow the movie down, but would muddy the essential thrust of the movie, which is the Hikaru / Minmay / Misa Hayase love triangle which is resolved in an argument about what is important in life and what duty we have to others. Doesn't mean we don't get lots of space combat, and the animation is absolutely amazing, gorgeous with amazing flow. I would only fault the exposition explaining the Zentradi and Meltrandi backstory that comes from nowhere, but it's a minor problem. They somehow fit Lynn Minmay's entire TV catalog of fun pop songs in one movie, and add two more. I can't explain it but there's just something about that climactic song that really really gets to me. I can't bear watching this movie too often because I just break down in tears. But I also don't want repetition to diminish the song's effect on me, you know? Cause I kind of like it. Everyone needs a good cry once in a while.
Loophole (1981) Life's been pretty good for architect Martin Sheen. At least until his firm's bid on a vital contract fails. The firm has to fold, and no one wants to hire someone that used to be partner. Not that his wife's lavish spending is slacking any. Sheen gets an unusual job offer from Albert Finney - Finney needs a desperate architect for his plan to break into a near-impregnable bank vault. Being an honest man he says no. But then he gets a visit from his banker, and faces the frightening prospect of being forced to live like a regular person. The heist is on. We don't really get dynamic characters or action adventure - this is more of a slow roller about planning and the many days process of carrying out the plan to the letter. But I thought it was all captivating. Sometimes you don't want that worry about what misfortune is going to befall the protagonists and just want to watch people doing an interesting and unique job well. Smooth and very 80's.
The look and the poses and the lighting are very similar to Macross DYRL (with a little Leiji Matsumoto thrown in).