Still Need to Watch: Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (if you have access to this film in any way, please let me know! mcthomas216@gmail.com)
Charles Burnett is one of the greatest American directors ever. It is a crime that he has not received funding to make whatever films he wants as often as he wants. You owe it to yourself to watch his films if you have not already.
Still Need to Watch: The Pleasure of Being Robbed
The Safdie Brothers have split up, and your boyfriends are very upset about it. Anyway, this living, breathing column will track all the nonsense they get up to as best as possible in the years to come. There appears to be a lot of mystery behind their split and speculation runs rampant. I am not entirely sure of what to make of the split, but I hope there is plenty of work from both of them to explore in the years to come.
Todd Haynes is one of the great living American directors. Few people out there have as consistently captured the tragedy of the United States of America as well as he has done on the big screen.
Still to Watch: The Moon Is…the Sun’s Dream, Trio, I’m a Cyborg But That’s Ok, Stoker, The Little Drummer Girl.
Park Chan-wook mostly makes protest novels that vary in effectiveness and quality. His works explicitly take down the the systems that control the world by showing the impact it has on the people. While I rarely love his work, I am never bored by it.
Continue reading Ranking the Park Chan-wook Films & Projects
I am fascinated by James Cameron in many ways even if I do not care for his films all that much. Because he does not release films constantly, it is easy enough to drop in on what he is up to. His Avatar films are fascinating if nothing else even if they are distinctly Not For Me ultimately. Or as I have previously written, “I find Cameron a fascinating part of film history, and I am glad he exists. But he continuously makes impressive spectacles that I simply do not give a fuck about.” Here is what I think of them.
Films Still Need to Watch (But will I bother? Unlikely): Piranha II: The Spawning
James Cameron mostly makes big spectacle films that I find compelling if not wholly satisfying. Here is how I rank them. Continue reading Ranking the James Cameron Films
Films Still to Rewatch: Jungle Fever
With Spike Lee, there is the style and there is the politics. That is not to say these things should (or even can) be not discussed together because they are interwoven. You need to discuss the what of Lee films along with the how. The what of Spike’s films are often what draw me to him. The politics cannot be separated, ignored, or coddled because in many ways Spike Lee films feel like essay films. They have a very specific point they are making – regardless of whether or not that this is the point Lee is trying to make.
Films to Rewatch: Intolerable Cruelty
I have gone on a journey with the Coen Brothers throughout almost my entire life. I was introduced to (some of) their films at a very early (probably too early) age, and I have been watching them ever since. At one point though, I grew rather cold on them. I am not sure exactly, but I consistently found myself feeling “over” them when I attempted to watch anything by them. Then Adam Nayman’s book rekindled my interest in them, and I realized what elements of them I adore and which don’t hit.
Noah Baumbach has evolved over the last three decades into one of the best modern writer/directors in the United States. He knows his voice. He knows his lane. He knows what he knows. And he does it all very well.
In my head, I had seen a lot of Pedro Almodóvar films. When I actually went and tried to figure out which ones I had seen, I realized I had only watched 1-2 in college and then went to the theater a few years back to watch the very good Pain & Glory. The lasting impressions of my apparently brief dive into his work over the years were mostly that Carmen Maura was very good, Antonio Banderas was very good, and lots and lots of colors. Little did I know what I was getting myself into by diving deep into his work with the knowledge that HBOMax was removing all of his stuff after October 31, 2021. [This list will be updated as more films get watched over the years.]
Films to Watch Still: Labyrinth of Passion, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Law of Desire, High Heels, Kika, The Flower of My Secret, Live Flesh, Talk to Her, Julieta
The Reel World 