Lost In Translation

Killing Eve

There was a lot of buzz about the BBC's new TV series Killing Eve based on a series of spy novels. Sandra Oh stars as a Eve Polastri a M5 agent who becomes obsessed with the assassin known as Villanelle (Jodie Comer). I suppose it is innovative in some ways by having women in roles that usually would be given to men and the tone of the show is comedic and serious at intervals. However, the comedy didn't work well for me and I don't think I'll bother with season two-just not my cup of tea, but it seemed to have been a hit with most other people.

Scarlet Street

Scarlet Street (1945) is another well-directed film noir from master Fritz Lang. As in the earlier Lang noir, The Woman in the Window, Edward G. Robinson plays the dupe, Chris Cross, who has the bad luck to fall in love with the femme fatale "Kitty" (Joan Bennett). The henpecked cashier and weekend painter was living a quiet life of desperation before coming across the damsel in distress-she's being roughed up by her hoodlum boyfriend Johnny (Dan Duryea). Cross steps in and knocks him out and escorts the lady home and once hooked on Kitty, things are going to get worse. Lang does his usual impressive job with the black and white and getting the story across artfully visually.

Everything Goes Wrong

In a review about Samuel Fuller's The Naked Kiss I drew a comparison with Seijun Suzuki pointing out that both directors were stylish masters of genre films that often smuggled in subversive ideas about society. Everything Goes Wrong (1960) is case in point. In this youth film Suzuki manages to criticize Japanese armament manufacturers and the previous generation for the war and chaos and struggle that followed. Furthermore, he addresses juvenile delinquency and pretty crime, prostitution, abortion, sexual assault-particularly gang rape as well as slip in an anti-nuke demonstration in the background of a scene. The film is about an angry youth, Jiro (Tamio Kawajima), who has a Madonna-whore complex with women-his own mother included-he resents that she has had an affair with a married man who has stayed by her over 10 years while helping support her and the family. Her lover is an executive at an armaments manufacturer-it was a Japanese tank that killed Jiro father in the war. Jiro's simple-minded reckoning makes him the enemy-he is of a generation that did not have to suffer due to the war. A reporter remarks that society has changed and there is no longer any trust or good will among people. Suzuki's film is essentially a reflection of moral decay in the postwar society. The film also stands out for the documentary-like on location settings in Tokyo and Kamakura as much as for the stylish jazz clubs with live American-inspired music. This is an impressive early Suzuki film that gives a glimpse of his future potential..

Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham's Eighth Grade (2018) has been generating a lot of buzz this year. He has crafted a poignant ode to adolescence that is timely, nuanced, realistic, and ultimately hopeful. An introverted female teenager, an impressive Elsie Fisher, struggles for social acceptance in the waning days of the eighth grade, the future promises more.

Along The Coast

Along The Coast (1958) is a 25 minute documentary from French director Agnes Varda that is both serious and tongue-in-cheek. On the surface it has the conventions of a typical tourist documentary with beautiful shots of the French Riviera, but some sharp comments about tourists, kitsch, crowds, and stereotypes of the locals can be heard in the commentary. That being said, it is also a very specific portrait of a time and place that I have not been and I could enjoy it on that level as well.

The Naked Kiss

Samuel Fuller has a cult following for his films that I think is on par with Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. Both directors were known for their stylish takes on "B" genre film material. Both directors were innovative iconoclasts who strove to make art from their second tier scripts and assignments. The Naked Kiss (1964) is remarkable in particular for a number of reasons. In the opening scene a prostitute, Kelly (Constance Towers) with a shaved head beats her pimp with a shoe and takes the $75 that is owed to her before going on the lam. She lands in a small town and after one last job with the town cop, Griff (Anthony Eisely), she decides to go straight and gets a job at a Children's Hospital. Fullers doesn't pull any punches as pedophilia, prostitution, and abortion get major screen time in the story. It must have been shocking for the striaght laced audiences of the time and could only be smuggled into a "B" film-I suspect these themes would never make the final cut in a major Hollywood production in 1964.

Yellow Crow

It would seem that Yellow Crow (1957) was one of Heinosuke Gosho's most well-received films overseas as it won a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film for the year it was released. I suspect the original color print was striking, but I saw a flawed version-perhaps there will be a restoration some day. That being said this story of a young boy and his mother (Chikage Awashima in another strong performance) restarting their family life with the repatriated father (Yunosuke Ito), which disrupts the boy's family life was a story that I did not connect with. That's not to say that there isn't any artistry to the film, I just felt that the boy was spoiled and overly sensitive about his relationship with his mother-thus could not really sympathize with the boy's position and point of view. Every film I see by Gosho increases my respect for him and makes we wonder why he seems to be so overlooked. Then again there were so many great movies made by Japanese directors in the years he was active (1930s-1950s) that there was plenty of competition in the theaters.

Dark Alliances

I originally saw the film version, Kill the Messenger (2012), on a plane before I read the original source material, Dark Alliance (2011) by Gary Webb-the film made me want to know more about the true story. The book is essentially two stories-the first is the reporting that led Webb to make connections between Nicaraguan drug smugglers who were aided and abetted by the CIA to unloads massive amounts of cocaine in the Los Angles in order to support the anti-communist Contras in the Nicaraguan civil war. The second story is about how the CIA tried to discredit him and refute the revelations he made in order to avoid looking bad-and it was very bad-causing a generation of destruction among poor, mostly black communities in order to destroy another country due to the administration's dislike of freely elected communist countries. Oliver North was the fall guy, but it was clear high ranking Reagan officials and most likely Reagan, himself, were aware of what was going on and supported the ludicrous idea. It's not forgotten, bu those who were at fault never paid the price they should have for that fiasco-it's pretty upsetting, but there was Clinton and that damned semen stained dress to deal with.

Nocturnal Animals

I had heard some positive murmurs about Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals (2016), but I have to admit I was drawn in from the get go-obese women gyrating naked in slow motion to the music...what am I getting into... It has a very slick art production quality combined with a film noir-story line with a fine ensemble cast-Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Isala Fisher, Laura Linney, etc... I was caught up in the drama, wondering what would happen next. This film may not be an all-out art film, but it succeeds as a compelling thriller.

Vagabond

90 year old New Wave director Angnes Vargas' most recent film, a documentary, Faces, Places has been nominated for an Academy Award-I have yet to see any of the director's films. I recently joined MUBI, the streaming film service, and it was showing Vagabond (1985)-so it was my first Vargas film. There is a lot to admire in this film-it begins with the death of a young female vagabond-Mona (Sandrine Bonnaire). The story is told in flashbacks from different character's views that she came in contact with before her untimely death. The film has the feeling of a documentary, which I have read is a common feature of the films of Vargas that often combine fact and fiction. It was beautifully filmed and quite engrossing-I look forward to seeing more of her films.