In so many of the Westerns he appeared in, Gary Cooper feels like he’s playing the same character and that’s the case here as well. Even though here he is a former outlaw who is forced to confront his old gang, the inner conflict and moral quandary are much the same as if he were the sheriff. This isn’t to say that it isn’t good because it is in fact a very solid Western. But it’s also a completely straight and stereotypical Western and its finale is a little underwhelming. I can see why it’s a classic of the genre but it’s not for me.
My wife has been raving about this one film since forever and it’s only just now that I’ve gotten around to watching it. Though this predates Studio Ghibli, it’s commonly considered their first film as its success was what made the studio possible. It was also based on a manga written and illustrated by Hayao Miyazaki himself so it’s a hundred percent his work. I found this to be far different from the later Ghibli films in so many ways: it’s explicitly violent with the heroine herself killing multiple people on screen, it depicts warfare and death on a grand scale and it’s straight out science-fiction. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Vesper was directly inspired by its imagery. As such, yeah, I’m pretty sure this is my favorite of the Ghibli films as well.
I’ve been a fan of Alexander Wales for ages since his fanfiction days. He dropped off my radar for a bit but since I finished the grimdark epic Worth the Candle I’ve been catching up on his other works. From what I understand he set out to write this less serious piece to decompress. There are adventurers and dungeon delving in it but as he puts it, this is mostly meant to be slice-of-life. It’s set in a pleasant, near utopia of a world and one of the main themes is that some characters feel that their world is so safe and so well understood that there are no mysteries and places to discover left. Anyway, Wales delivers exactly what he promised here. It’s not really about the worldbuilding or grand plots but about getting to know and fall in love with the cast of characters. It’s great comfort food and I really enjoyed it.
This was the directorial debut of Panah Panahi, the son of Jafar Panahi. Appropriately enough it’s a road trip film set largely within the confines of a car and about a family smuggling their son across the border, both elements that we’ve seen in his father’s films. It’s a rather grim scenario yet the film makes heavy use of dance and song to emphasize the humor in the situation. The use of music in particular and copious references to popular American movies ensure that Panah has difficulty establishing a style distinct from that of his father. I think the film lets the child actor steal the show too much but it is a fine film that surely presages an illustrious career to come.
I have no great love for the mobster films of Martin Scorsese, yet not having watched Goodfellas feels like an increasingly blatant hole in my cinematic education. It’s weird to see this now as so many of the shots from it are now memes in popular culture and the character archetypes Scorsese establishes here recurs so often in later films. There is no absolutely doubt that Scorsese is at the height of his powers here as he brings so much rich detail and life to the stories of the gangsters. Yet it’s also pure glorification of a lifestyle that revolves entirely around being unrepentant murderers and robbers. Sure they get their comeuppance at the end as is traditional but you can tell that Scorsese has no enthusiasm for that part of the film at all.
While I’m waiting for a new PC before I get around to playing Elden Ring, I’ve decided to give this old game a go, known for being a Souls-like game that much harder than Dark Souls itself. Personally I did find this to be more complex and more difficult, enough so that finishing it was a real chore to me and I’m not sure that I had much fun doing it. I didn’t much care for the story crafted from a fictionalized version of Japan’s real Sengoku period nor for its lack of a cohesive world either. I can understand why this series has its fans but it’s not for me.
Here’s yet another European film about the Holocaust, especially poignant given current events in Israel. It stars Alain Delon in the title role and more interestingly was directed by an American Joseph Losey after being effectively exiled to Europe after being denounced by the House Un-American Activities Committee. We’ve watched many films that show the concentration camps. This one however is about the bureaucracy that identifies and detains Jews to be sent to the camps and how this warps the entirety of society in Vichy France. Between doubts as to whether or not this Mr. Klein that we see really is a Jew after all and the steadily ratcheting tension as the walls close around the main character, it’s a fantastic film both in its conception and its execution.
