So I’m trying to get my 2021 Faves piece together this week, but (in the name of completism) I still wanted to do a quick rundown of my November and December viewing. My recent Criterion Channel subscription has been paying off handsomely, as you’ll note from the bumper crop of old noirs and Japanese cult films I watched in Nov/Dec. No time to get into anything too deeply, but here’s quick notes on some highlights and lowlights…
Best of the Bunch:
The Harder They Fall (2021) Director Jeymes Samuel’s wild (almost) all-black revenge western was the best time I had watching a flick the last few months. While some may quibble with taking the names of real-life men and women from the Old West and putting them in a violent tale of frontier vengeance that has no bearing on reality, for me, the resulting flick is too much fun to deny. Idris Elba is fantastic as the twisted visionary despot whose dreams of black independence bleed into madness, but it’s Regina Hall who steals the show. She’s loving every minute of a rare villainous role, and sports the jauntiest hat slant this side of the Beer Baron. Pity that Zazie Beetz’ character turns from independent bad-ass to damsel in distress about halfway through. This is a really fun flick that any western fan will appreciate, filled with memorable character turns from a whole string of fantastic actors. Here’s hoping they make that sequel the final frames allude to.
Johnny O’Clock (1947) A pretty standard noir; I’m only mentioning it because throughout the movie, despite calling him “Mr. O’Clock” about 500 times, no one ever comments on what a crazy name “Johnny O’Clock” is. It’s not a nickname; it’s actually supposed to be his name. In the future, that is all I will remember about this movie.
The Beatles: Get Back (2021) There’s some undeniably great stuff in Peter Jackson’s reclamation project of the 160+ hours of footage shot during the Beatles’ “Get Back” sessions. But maybe his editing could have used an editor. Jackson’s never met a story he couldn’t turn into a three-hour movie, and three of those in a row is a lot of Beatles banter to sit through. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it, but there were definitely points where I agreed with David St. Hubbins. “This is a little too much f-ing perspective.”
Blast of Silence (1961) First-timer Allen Baron wrote, directed, and starred in this gritty, low-budget noir shot (without permits) on the streets of NYC. What he put together for just $18,000 or so is pretty amazing, an existentialist hitman flick with the hardest of hard-boiled narration by an uncredited Lionel Stander. (It would have cost Baron an extra $500 to use his name.) I love a flick with a bleak ending, and they don’t come much bleaker than this. Fantastic.
The Complete List for November (first-time viewings in bold):
The American Friend (Der amerikanische Freund) (1977, Wim Wenders)
Best in Show (2000, Christopher Guest)
Black and Tan (1929, Dudley Murphy)
Classe Tous Risques (Consider All Risks) (1960, Claude Sautet)
Crossfire (1947, Edward Dmytryk)
Five Steps to Danger (1957, Henry S. Kesler)
Hangover Square (1945, John Brahm)
The Harder They Fall (2021, Jeymes Samuel)
The Hateful Eight: Extended Edition (2015, Quentin Tarantino)
His Kind of Woman (1951, John Farrow)
Johnny O’Clock (1947, Robert Rossen)
The Lineup (1958, Don Seigel)
Thief (1981, Michael Mann)
Tight Spot (1955, Phil Karlson)
Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975, Kazuhiko Yamaguchi)
The Young Master (1980, Jackie Chan)
The Vault (2021, Jaume Balaguero)
The Complete List for December (first-time viewings in bold):
The Beatles: Get Back (2021, Peter Jackson)
Blast of Silence (1961, Allen Baron)
City on Fire (1987, Ringo Lam)
A Clusterfunke Christmas (2021, Anna Dokoza)
Crooked House (2017, Gilles Paquet-Brenner)
Cruel Gun Story (1964, Takumi Furukawa)
Elf (2003, Jon Favreau)
Godzilla vs Megalon (1973, Jun Fukuda)
The Hit (1984, Stephen Frears)
Intimidation (1960, Koreyoshi Kurahara)
Nightmare Alley (1947, Edmund Goulding)
Outlander (2008, Howard McCain)
The Punisher (2004, Jonathan Hensleigh)
Rolling Thunder (1977, John Flynn)
Scandal Sheet (1952, Phil Karlson)
Scrooged (1988, Richard Donner)
The Unsuspected (1947, Michael Curtiz)
Previous Entries:
January 2021
February 2021
March 2021
April 2021
May 2021
June/July 2021
August/September 2021
October 2021
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