Let's Talk About Things I Like
Enough with Emilia Perez. Here are some good movies.
Reader, I’d like to apologize to you. Over the last few weeks, I’ve subjected you to too many takes, rants and tangents regarding Emilia Pérez and Oscar predictions. We’ll get back into the Academy Awards at some point—the ceremony is March 2nd—but until then, let’s discuss some other fun (non-Emilia Pérez) movies. It’s been a long year month and a half. I think we all deserve that.
Anyway, despite the first few months of any given year usually bringing us retreads, remakes and ridiculous studio garbage, I’ve seen a lot of great stuff so far. Some new, some are old, but all of the following are first-time watches.
For example, on Sunday, I picked up a bagel, walked around a snowy SoHo and went to the Film Forum to see a Bugs Bunny cartoon followed by the delightful It Happened One Night. What else could one want?
So, here are five movies (in no particular order) I’d strongly recommend. That’s what we’ve got this week. Have fun.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat by Johan Grimonprez
This is easily one of the best things I’ve watched in a long time. I’m not always great at keeping up with documentaries, but I found myself riveted by this Oscar-nominated historical deep dive into the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba and its connection with mid-20th century jazz. That may sound like a haughty topic and yet the 150-minute doc is immensely watchable, while also being unbelievably infuriating. It’s kind of a miracle to watch as director Johan Grimonprez miraculously seems to spin a dozen plates all at once without anything ever falling. The music is beautiful and haunting, and the storytelling is phenomenal. Great thing to watch if you want to get angrier at the U.S., the Western Bloc and how high-school history is taught in America.
Notting Hill
I think a lot about the Jim Gaffigan stand-up bit on the first time he watched the movie Heat. The gist is that he just watched the Michael Mann movie for the first time way too late and now wants to talk about it, even though everyone else moved past it years ago.
“Hey, I just saw Heat!”
“Heat? I saw that six years ago.”
“I... wanna talk about it now!”
“No, loser.”
In other news, I just saw Notting Hill for the first time. And it was great?! You guys hear about this Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant movie from *mumbles* 1999? Great chemistry, some dark humo(u)r, some bits about travel books. What else could one want?
I knew the iconic scene, of course, but the rest of this was all brand new for yours truly. I’m pretty hit or miss on mainstream rom-coms … not this one.
Manhunter
Well, we were just talking about Michael Mann and *bam* here’s a Michael Mann movie. I watched this one while back in New Jersey and immediately loved it. Mann’s so good at finding the minutiae that goes into a person hard at work and keeps it going with FBI Agent Will Graham working with(?) Hannibal Lecter to capture a new serial killer. This one’s from the mid-80s, so just be prepared that there will be a young Brian Cox and many Chicago character actors—this is a Michael Mann movie after all. Deranged mystery thriller with a bizarre killer focused on a man losing his mind. That’s the good stuff.
No Other Land
I feel like this critical documentary speaks for itself, so I want to say that you should see No Other Land, in theaters if possible. The on-the-ground reporting covering the West Bank’s Masafer Yatta occupied by Israeli soldiers is both hard to watch and important to witness—that feels like a cliché but it is what it is. We walked out of the theater feeling beaten down and exhausted by the necessary survival tactics of the Palestinians just trying to make it another day. “Land you have to die for is yours, not land you have to kill for.”
Hellraiser
This might be the first piece of writing ever to attempt to transition from No Other Land to Hellraiser, and I’m sure I’m not doing it well. Nevertheless, Hellraiser is a tremendous late-’80s gross-out horror film about a deviant who comes across a puzzle box to the underworld and brings his entire family along for the ride. Truly gross, despicable stuff. Loved it. Great for the entire family.