February 5 – February 11
Cinema movies: 1
Home movies: 3
TV series: 1
This week yet another set back and didn’t manage to hit my target of two cinema movies. BUT! I did catch The Post after wanting to see that way back in December when it first hit theatres.
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What’s not to dig about a movie that stars Gene Hackman as a bastard president, and Clint Eastwood as a slinky, sneaky thief? Absolute Power is reflective of its era; it’s slow and not particularly flashy. It’s hard to imagine a thriller like this getting made today, even though it’s only 20 years old.
We are hooked on This is Us. Watching a dramatic series is quite an emotional commitment; there’s nary an episode that doesn’t have me in tears. This week’s big episode featured the long-teased demise of a much-loved character, and it was draining to get through it. I’m happy that the show is on hiatus for the Winter Olympics.
We’d both wanted to rewatch Inception for a while and it continues to intrigue and perplex me in equal measures.
The Post is exactly what I expected; a solid, character-driven drama with a sprinkle or two of suspense.
It’s remarkable that Spielberg leverages in genuine thrills as this is, when you boil it down, a film featuring A-list actors delivering dialogue in dark, gloomy rooms. That’s where you’ve got to hand it to the blockbuster auteur; he knows how to make a dry topic dynamic.
Cameras swoop into newsrooms, snake behind desks before resting on the face of another veteran actor. There’s not a lot of action you can pack into a true-life tale that takes place mostly indoors, but Spielberg makes it watchable. Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks are both, as expected, excellent.
Speaking of, Suburbicon should be excellent.
Written by the Coen brothers and left in a drawer for a couple of decades, the script made its way into George Clooney’s hands. After falling in love with the story, he gave it a fresh spin with his writing partner Grant Heslov, and decided to direct it.
Historically speaking, Coen and Clooney collaborations often result in superb cinema. Suburbicon? Misses the mark by a mile. Clooney, whose previous stints in the director’s chair have received well-earned acclaim, mimics the Coens’ style without any of the nuance.
The Coens manage to intwine brutal violence, everyday people doing hideous things, and absurd black humour, in a way that’s utterly bespoke. It’s their style. Their mode, if you will. Take the scene in Fargo, for example, when Marge Gunderson appears at the house to confront the kidnappers only to find Gaear shoving Carl’s dismembered foot into a wood chipper. It’s violent, shocking, and funny. The siblings manage to gently walk that line between realistic human experience and the inane without any disconnect. It blends seamlessly.
Clooney’s attempt to do the same is commendable, as he squeezes in a few laughs, but the tone sways wildly from scene-to-scene that you start to feel seasick. What does this film want to be?
Is it a social satire, telling of an intolerant American suburb in the ‘50s?
Is it film noir, borrowing from Welles to tell of domestic bliss gone sour?
Or is it a grimy black comedy that veers into hyperviolence?
It tries to be all of these but the result is an uneven mess that leaves you feeling all icky. Yes. Icky.
Until next week!