Stuff I've Been Watching August 2020

 

Vera Drake. Directed by Mike Leigh. 2004. United Kingdom. Vera Drake is a devoted, working-class mother in 1950s London who is both beloved and admired by everyone who surrounds her. Yet she carries a secret that few people know: she induces miscarriages for women who do not wish to bear children. To her, it is a mission of kindness, of charity, of love. But when a miscarriage goes horribly wrong, Vera faces a life-changing reckoning. Mike Leigh’s daringly compassionate drama features a career-high performance from Imelda Staunton, who imbues its heroine with indelible humanity. Via the Criterion Channel app. 3 August.

 

Statecraft: The Bush 41 team. 2020. Examine George H.W. Bush’s foreign policy team’s expertise as they navigated world crises. Via the PBS app. 5 August. With Michal.

 

 

Narcos. Season 1. 2017. Via the Netlix app. 12 August.

 

 

Comic Book Confidential. Directed by Ron Mann. 1988. Canada. Director Ron Mann dives deep into the history of one of the Twentieth Century’s most popular yet least respected art forms: the comic book. Profiling twenty-two of North America’s most significant artists working in the medium, this entertaining documentary traces the evolution of comics from the pulp art of the 1930s and ‘40s to the underground experimentation of the ‘60s and ‘70s to the rise of the graphic novel in the ‘80s. Jack, Kirby, Art Spiegelmen, Francoise Mouly, Will Eisner, Frank Miller, Stan Lee, Robert Crumb, Shary Flenniken, and Harvey Pekar are among the giants of the form who read and speak about their work. Via the Criterion Channel app. 12 August.

 

 

Being John Malkovich. Directed by Spike Jonze. 1999. United States. Starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener. When pupeteer Craig Schwartz discovers a portal into John Malkovich’s brain, he decides to sell 15-minute excursions into the actor’s mind. Via the Netflix app. With Michal. 13 August.

 

The Secret Garden. Directed by Fred M. Wilcox. 1949. United States. Starring Margaret O’Brien, Herbert Marshall, Dean Stockwell. Two of golden-age Hollywood’s greatest and most beloved child stars bring the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett to enchanting life. In her final role at MGM, Margaret O’Brien plays Mary, a young orphan sent to live at the dark and foreboding estate of her embittered uncle (Herbert Marshall) and his temperamental, bedridden son (fellow juvenile virtuoso Dean Stockwell). There, Mary discovers the existence of a walled-off, overgrown garden, a secret little world that, as the children nurture it, brings a glimmer of hope to a broken family. The film’s sense of wonder is enhanced by the expressive cinematography which blossoms from atmospheric monochrome to radiant color in an unforgettable moment of movie magic. Via the Criterion Channel. With Marta and Monika. 15 August.

 

Derry Girls. Season 2. 2018. Via the Netflix app. With Marta and Monika. 17 August.

 

 

The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Directed by Roy Rowland. 1953. United States. One of the most outrageous acts of cinematic surrealism ever to emanate from Hollywood’s dream factory, the only film written by Theodore Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) is a riotous technicolor fantasy in which a young boy dreams himself into an imaginary world ruled by a diabolical piano teacher who forces five hundred children to practice an enormous keyboard for eternity. With its outlandish sets, eccentric musical numbers (with lyrics also penned by Dr. Seuss), and vaguely unsettling tone, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. Was met with incomprehension upon its release, but it has since taken its place as a beloved cult favorite, a one-of-a-kind children’s film that doubles as a triumph of genuine avant-garde imagination. Via the Criterion Channel app. With Monika and Marta. 22 August.

 

 

Schitt’s Creek. Season 1. 2015. Via the Netflix app. With Marta. 23 August.

 

 

The Great Beauty. Directed by Paolo Sorrentino. 2013. Italy. For decades, journalist Jep Gambardella has charmed and seduced his way through the glittering nightlife of Rome. Since the legendary success of his only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and elite social circles. But on his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep unexpectedly finds himself taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the lavish nightclubs, parties, and cafes to find Rome itself, in all its monumental glory: as timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite glory. Featuring sensuous cinematography, a lush score, and an award-winning central performance by the great Toni Servillo, the transporting experience by the brillian Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is a breathtaking Felliniesque tale of decadence and lost love. Via the Criterion Channel app. 25 August. Recommended by Ted Murphy.

 

 

Mon Oncle Antoine. Directed by Claude Jutra. 1971. Canada. Claude Jutra’s evocative portrait of a boy’s coming of age in wintry 1940s rural Quebec has been consistently cited by critics and scholars as the greatest Canadian film of all time. Delicte, naturalist, and tinged with a striking mix of nostalgia and menace, Mon Oncle Antoine follows Benoit as he first encounters the twin terrors of sex and death, and his fellow villagers, who are living under the thumb of the local asbestos mine owner. Set furing one ominous Christmas, Mon Oncle Antoine is a holiday film unlike any other, and an authentically detailed illustration of childhood’s twilight. Via the Criterion Channel app. 27 August.

 

 

John McEnroe: In the realm of perfection. Directed by Julian Faraut. 2018. France.Narrated by Mathie Amalric, this innovative documentary revisits a wealth of 16 mm footage of tennis superstar John McEnroe taken at the height of his career when he competed to defend his status as the world’s top-ranked player at the 1984 French Open. Close-ups and slow-motion sequences of McEnroe playing, as well as flare-ups of his notorious on-court tantrums reveal “a man who played on the edge of his senses.” Far from a traditional sports documentary, John McEnroe: In the realm of perfection expressively reshapes its material to explore both McEnroe’s game and the footage itself, creating a mesmerizing, immersive study of a driven athlete, the human body in motion, and cinema itself. Via the Criterion channel app. With Monika. 27 August.

 

 

Synonyms. Directed by Nadav Lapid. 2019. France, Israel, Germany. Winner of the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, this audacious, delirously unhinged dark comedy from Israeli director Nadav Lapid evokes the whiplash disorientation of the immigrant experience with both ferocious intensity and unexpected poetry. Newcomer Tom Mercier delivers a whirlwind performance of almost feral unpredictability as Yoav, a disaffected young Israeli who flees Tel Aviv for Paris to start a new life. Desperate to integrate into his new society, Yoav sees becoming French as his only hope for salvation. But his former identity soon soon awakens past demons and opens up a bewildering existential abyss. Via the Crietrion Channel app. 31 August.