Welcome to Infinite To-Be-Watched (TBW)!
I recently set up a spreadsheet with a randomizer and all the movies I want to watch. I’ve made a pact with myself to watch whatever movie is chosen if I have the ability to do so. Plus, other films that I decide to watch.
Apollo 11
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 33m
Rated: G
Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Stars: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin
Double Feature Fodder:
The Right Stuff (1983)
Initial: I don’t remember adding Apollo 11 to my TBW, but I’m a sucker for space stuff, so it’s not that surprising.
Production Notes: This documentary uses only archival footage, uses only archival recordings for dialog, and features a score composed on instruments contemporary to 1969. Since some of the footage was shot by Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin, they earned honorary membership to the American Society of Cinematographers, which makes them just that much cooler in my book.
What Did I Think:
The footage is downright amazing—and not just the moon stuff. This is “history” on film being presented clearly and colorfully. I stopped the doc about twenty minutes in and wondered how much recreation was being used and was surprised that the answer is none. I was also impressed that Miller could keep the tension up even though I *know* how this bit of history ends. This would have been great to see in IMAX when it came out.
Dredd
Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 35m
Rated: R
Director: Pete Travis
Writers: John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Alex Garland
Stars: Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey
Double Feature Fodder:
Annihilation (2018)
Initial: Ended up on my TBW because I’d heard many assurances that Dredd is actually pretty good.
Production Notes: While credited as screenwriter, Alex Garland and Pete Travis co-directed/collaborated on the film.
What Did I Think:
Enjoyment of Dredd depends on giving yourself over to the aesthetic of the movie. The setting is wonderfully grungy semi-cyber-punk. The music is spot-on. The Slo-Mo scenes are beautiful and remind me of Garland’s Annihilation (2018). Lena Headey knows how to command a balcony (though I occasionally found her teeth distracting). Karl Urban is almost too frowny, but Olivia Thirlby and Domhnall Gleeson give the plot some heart and eccentricity, respectively.
I’ve heard that the plot is very much like The Raid: Redeption (2011). I would have watched The Raid (an Indonesian film directed by Gareth Evens), but the only streaming version available is dubbed. I couldn’t do it, reader.
The Loveless
Year: 1981
Runtime: 1h 25m
Rated: R
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery
Writers: Kathryn Bigelow, Monty Montgomery
Stars: Willem Dafoe, J. Don Ferguson, Robert Gordon, Marin Kanter
Double Feature Fodder:
Wild at Heart (1990)
Initial: Inspired by previously watching Sam Raimi’s Crimewave, I decided to watch Kathryn Bigelow’s first film (and maybe the rest of her filmography as well).
Production Notes: The Loveless is the feature debut of Willem Dafoe.
What Did I Think:
The Loveless is a slow movie. There is a lot of set up of characters and situations, but very little action occurs until the last twenty-ish minutes of the film. Bigelow’s next film, Near Dark (1987), has this problem too, but the early part of the film has more hi-jinks. While the bikers in The Loveless are obviously not good people (early in the movie, Dafoe’s character robs and assaults a woman after changing a tire for her), their fairly rudimentary methods of wrong-doing are juxtaposed with the institutional corruption of the town. The dialogue is clunky, but Bigelow is going for the feel of 50’s biker films. In any case, I’m very much in favor of bring back the phrase, “everything’s jake.”