Whilst out on a date, two kids (Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut) see something fall from the sky. Upon investigating they find an old man with a strange amorphous substance covering his right hand. They rush him to the local doctor, but things get worse when the substance appears to grow and digest the arm’s owner, and no-one in a position of authority with believe the kids’ story.
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So this whole “Posting My Week in Movies posts on a Friday” thing isn’t really working out so well, is it? Turns out in the past I could always use the weekend as prep time for the post, and fine tune it on a Monday, but now my weeks are so jammed with all the other nonsense in my life (y’know, superfluous stuff like the dog, cooking dinner, going to work, all that garbage) I don’t seem to find the time during the week. Then Friday night rolls around and all I want to do is collapse face down into a pile of the nearest thing that won’t impale me when I fall on it, until Sunday rolls around and I’ve still not written this damn thing. And I still want to write it! I love writing these posts, I’d just love to have one hour a week where the only thing I can possible do is write about the films I’ve seen and the random bullshit I’ve done with my time.
Also, it’s the end of the month tomorrow, which means the end of a set of targets. As it stands I’ve watched everything necessary to tick off everything in February, I just don’t have the reviews to back that statement up. I’ve got seven films still to review, and 28 hours in which to review them to meet the deadline. If that happens, and that’s a very unlikely “if”, then it’d be almost unfair on the films I’m reviewing to have them all squashed up and sharing a day, so instead I’ll face up to not meeting this month’s writing challenges on time, and will instead dole out the reviews daily until I’m caught up that way. Hey, it’s my blog, they’re my deadlines, I can change them as I choose.
Oh, and the Oscars? You know, the ones that are starting in a few hours? Yeah, I’m not watching them. I’ve got a meeting in the morning and am choosing to sleep rather than watch a bunch of films I haven’t seen winning awards I don’t ultimately care about. I’ve got very few horses in this race, and the ones I truly want to win (The Martian, Matt Damon, Mark Rylance, Jennifer Jason Leigh, George Miller) probably wont, so I’ll catch up on Chris Rock’s best bits online tomorrow and move on with my life. Speaking of my life, here’s what I’ve watched in this past week-and-a-bit:
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Whilst guiding a team of fur trappers in the snowy North American wilderness of the 1820s, Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) finds himself in a pretty poor state after being mauled by a bear whilst the group is fleeing a surprise attack from a Native American tribe they refer to as the Ree. Being unable to carry Glass back safely without endangering the rest of the team, captain of the party Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson) requests Glass remain behind but be cared for and properly buried when the time comes. He leaves Glass under the protection of bitter, greedy trapper John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy), naive and inexperienced Jim Bridger (Will Poulter) and Glass’ own half-Native American son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck). Circumstances arise that see Glass being abandoned with life still, barely, coursing through his veins, and he finds himself driven by vengeance against those responsible for abandoning him.
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When wealthy businessman Phillip Colbert is found dead by a patrolling policeman in Sparta, Mississippi, Officer Sam Wood (Warren Oates) immediately assumes that the African American found loitering at the train station with excess cash in his wallet is the prime suspect, and his chief, Gillespie (Rod Steiger) is inclined to agree. That is until they discover the man, Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), is an acclaimed and learned homicide detective from Philadelphia, who had been waiting for a connecting train after visiting his mother. After being prejudiced against and treated poorly, Tibbs wants nothing more than to catch his train and head home, but his own captain insists he stay and, when Colbert’s widow (Lee Grant) makes the same demand after Tibbs shows more detective skills than the Sparta force, Tibbs and Gillespie have no choice but to work together until the case is solved.
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In France during World War 2, SS Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) is known as the “Jew Hunter” for his propensity for catching Jewish fugitives hiding from the Nazi party. Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) has been tasked with building a team of his “Basterds,” predominantly Jewish-American soldiers sent in to kill as many Nazis as possible. Finally, Jewish cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) has caught the eye of war hero Private Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl), whose exploits have been made into a film, Nation’s Pride, which Zoller aims to have premier at Shosanna’s theatre, only for her to hatch a plan to take out as many Nazi officers as possible.
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It’s been another spectacularly lacklustre week in terms of movies for me, in that I only watched one and wrote a grand total of zero reviews. I barely even got a podcast out, though I have guested on some others. So what have I been doing instead? Well, most of this week has been spent making origami lampshades whilst singing along to the Beauty and the Beast soundtrack because, y’know, I’m just like all the other 28-year-old men I know.
I did finish both the book I was reading (The Maltese Falcon, excellent) and all four seasons of The IT Crowd. I’ve yet to see the final double-length special from a couple of years ago, but I plan to see it soon. Season 4 is definitely my favourite, and the one I remembered most clearly. In particular episode 2, The Final Countdown, is a particular highlight. Anyway, here’s the only movie I watched this week:
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Not much to report this week. I’ve been pretty busy so haven’t watched a lot and have written even less, but I’m working on it. I’ve started reading Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon though, and that’s pretty damn amazing. I’m watching the film later this year, and am now significantly anticipating it. Here’s what I’ve watched this week:
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Normally around this time of year I’d be desperately attempting to hoover up as many unseen Oscar nominees as possible in anticipation of the forthcoming Academy Awards ceremony that, more likely than not, I won’t actually watch given it finishes here at roughly 5am on a Monday morning (would it kill them to move it to Saturday night, really?). However this year I find myself somewhat unmotivated to do so, given how little interest I have in many of the films in contention. Of the 8 nominees for Best Picture I’ve so far seen just three (The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road and Bridge of Spies). I’d quite happily see the likes of The Big Short, Room and Spotlight, but none of them strike me as films that are only suited to the big screen, so I feel almost obliged to simply wait them out until I can see them much more inexpensively within the comfort of my own home, especially given my recent reading of the novel Room upon which the film is based, which is very good and comes highly recommended from me, but with the story so fresh in my mind I just don’t think the film would have the required effect. The only film nominated for much that I’ve any real interest in seeing is The Revenant, as I’m certain that won’t be quite as effective back home, but thus far my attempts to seek it out have resulted in a faulty projector, a refunded ticket and a wasted half day’s holiday taken from work.
So as late February approaches I find myself caring increasingly less about what films and film-makers will be awarded much of anything come the big night. Amongst the other major categories the likes of Carol, Brooklyn, Trumbo and The Danish Girl all look very worthy but ultimately dull, and with the over-rated Inside Out seeming to lead the chase for Best Animated Feature (the only other contender being Anomalisa, which isn’t released here for another month) I can’t even get excited about that. But hey, in spite of all that I (just about) caught up on all my goals for January, but predictably that last minute dash burned me out a little so I’m now behind again just a few days later. When will I learn?
Also this week I finally got around to seeing the 12 Angry Men episode of Inside Amy Schumer. I’m pretty sure this show never made it to the UK which, having seen a few of the sketches on YouTube, I wasn’t all that upset about, but when I saw an online trailer for this particular episode I knew I had to watch it, because a) 12 Angry Men is one of my favourite films, and b) it features the likes of Paul Giamatti, John Hawkes, Vincent Kartheiser (Pete from Mad Men), Kumail Nanjiani, a bunch of other know-the-face guys and the almighty Jeff Freakin’ Goldblum. Having watched it I was not disappointed. For fans of the film there are a lot of references that pretty much all work, but the bit that had me dying was Juror #2 (Chris Gethard) saying “Oh bother” during an intense situation, because Juror #2 from the original movie (John Fiedler) voiced Piglet.
Here’s what I watched this week:
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Seeing as how all my aims this year are monthly, it feels right to keep you updated with a monthly update of them all. So here we go with January:
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Life Vs Film 