Movies: Last Movie You Watched and Rate it | {Insert Appropriate Seasonal Greeting Here}

[Pink Mist]

Never heard of him. What movie / character was he in?

Usually, the greatest villain in film history is either Anthony Hopkins or James Earl Jones.

My list:

HM: Amy Eliotte-Dunne (Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl)
10. Scorpio (Andy Robinson, Dirty Harry)
9. Captain Vidal (Sergi Lopez, Pan's Labyrinth)
8. SS Commander Goeth (Ralph Fieness, The Schindler's List)
7. Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)
6. T1000 (Robert Patrick, Terminator 2)
5. Darth Vader (James Earl Jones, Star Wars)
4. Dr. Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs)
3. Mitch Leary (John Malkovich, In the Line of Fire)
2. John Doe (Kevin Spacey, Seven)
1. Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine, Silence of the Lambs)

Don't know that I personally would call Antoine Doinel the "greatest villain in film history", I wouldn't even call him a villain. Unless you find horny and moody teens/young adults villainous.

Antoine Doinel is from the series of coming of age films starring the character directed by François Truffaut (400 Blows, Antoine and Colette, Stolen Kisses, Bed and Board, and Love on the Run)

 

[ItsFineImFine]

He's a villain to me if you consider him the biggest mood killing downer in film history in every scene he's in and making things unbearable to everyone around him.

Of course his actual character in that Godard film is not the same character in name to the Truffaut films but it's really the same character.

The Search (1948) - 7.5/10

A young boy gets separated from his mother in a WWII concentration camp and his mother later tries to find him. Solidly directed by Zimmermann like usual and fairly succinct with a good non-flat performance from Montgomery Clift. Did think the ending and final scene could have been milked more, in fact it would have been had this been remade.

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997) - 7/10

Japanese film with a decent start but gets a bit too screwball and zany without the charming way which classic films did it. It would however make really interesting viewing for people into the workings of a radio station as almost the entire film is set inside a studio as they write and re-write and enact a radio play to exhaustion.

Deep Cover (1992) - 7/10

Stylish 90s crime thriller with Laurence Fishbourne and the usual coked out Jeff Goldblum. It's frantic and silly but has a Soderbergh-like comic pace so it generally works minus the moral highstanding being a bit much. Also loved 90s films with an aspect ratio close to 16:9 so it fills almost the entire screen with no bars.

The Passionate Friends (1949) - 7.5/10

David Lean film which doesn't quite capture the magic of Brief Encounter despite featuring one of the same protagonists but it does convey a really tastefully told story about a woman in love with a man outside of her marriage. I do think that the aristocratic nature of these characters compared to the more grounded middle class setting from Brief Encounter makes this less interesting but Lean directs everyone well. I should just watch British films give up on the rest at this point I've seen the good ones anyways.

 

[Chili]

The Search (1948) - 7.5/10

A young boy gets separated from his mother in a WWII concentration camp and his mother later tries to find him. Solidly directed by Zimmermann like usual and fairly succinct with a good non-flat performance from Montgomery Clift. Did think the ending and final scene could have been milked more, in fact it would have been had this been remade.

The displaced and orphaned children from a war zone. Montgomery Clift was an interesting choice for the lead, he had only made one film (Red River) and hadn't been in the military. The children are convincing, especially Ivan Jandl, one of the main characters. That's a powerful film shot on location in the ruins of Munich & Nuremberg during the winter of 1946/47.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Anatomy of a Fall (2023) - A man blasts an instrumental of 50 cent's P.I.M.P., disrupting his novelist wife's interview with an attractive young woman. Shortly after, he falls to his death from the highest window of his cottage. The wife is immediately suspected and is taken to court where the viewer follows various potential clues, physical, emotion and literary.

Sound is the first thing that throws the story for a loop, causing immediate doubt as to what the sole witness (their son Daniel) could have heard, which isn't helped by the fact that he's partially blind, a condition that the father had felt an immense of guilt in the years before his death. Sound reappears intermittently throughout the film, playing with perception and memory. The latter, while touched upon, felt like a missed opportunity, something that could have been delved into further as opposed to aspects that didn't feel as satisfying or important, like the novelist's infidelity. Its used at convenient intervals, especially during the resolution but the bulk of the film seems to concentrate on casting ambiguity on morality and emotional responsibility (even the physical aspect of it seems to be pretty clearly in the wife's favor, IMO). I wouldn't call this The Stranger-like in terms of judging the person instead of the facts but I thought the prosecutor going with the accused's fictional tales as a late point to be fairly inconsistent with the themes of the film, something that could (and is) easily dismissed. Still, all in all, my gripes are really minor.

I thought it was superbly shot and acted. In fact, don't think there's a single bad performance in there, all are great, save for Daniel's haircut. The variety of the shot composition is a pleasure to follow along and the film's plot and devices are engrossing that it doesn't feel like a 150-minute film at all. Highly accessible and smart, the sort of thing that stays its own thing while having a big general appeal. I'm not surprised it's had the success its had and it deserves it.

 

[Ceremony]

The Shining (1980) I had a funny idea where I would do one of these posts and list the three separate times I watched this and what I thought about it each time. After I watched it the first time I wasn't sure. I read about it and watched it again and still wasn't sure about it so I watched it again. It started to sink in by that point. Some things work for me and some don't. I don't really buy Jack as going crazy. He seems to resent his family even before they go to the hotel. He doesn't do much with them when they're there. Despite it being several years since I last saw it I just picture various scenes as the Simpsons Halloween special, so it's hard to say how seriously I can take it.

I think this is why I ended up watching it a few times. I wanted to watch it and see if I could see anything else. I think I did. Looking around the internet the focus is the three characters and what they do. There's a fourth. The most successful character here is the hotel itself. It's so bright, it's so clean, it's so imposing, it's not... threatening in any way. It's too clean, it's too nice. So you wonder why. Then you watch Danny ride around on his tricycle and you realise every single corridor, wall, room, whatever, look like completely different buildings. It's horrible. So when the actually unsettling bits happen - Wendy confronting Jack after finding his writing, Jack chopping through the door, it ends up landing in a way I didn't think it would after repeated viewings and increased familiarity.

Is that the point? Is the cabin fever experienced by the caretakers rubbing off on me because I watched this a bunch of times? Maybe. That said, I don't think a lot of the music works well and I don't know what the guy in the bear costume is supposed to be.

Midsommar (2019) Have you ever seen The Wicker Man? Did you think The Wicker Man would be improved by copious amounts of psychedelics, a bunch of annoying American millennials who don't or can't communicate and being a solid half hour longer than it ought to be? Well, here's a film for you.

The most unsettling scene in this is in the first five minutes when we see a murder suicide and the sole remaining family member's reaction. The rest is various things, according to the internet - a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, a break-up movie, a religious exploration. And I'm sure it is, but it's too long and only has one character who seems vaguely human. Any chance I had of taking this seriously evaporated during the, uh, fertilisation scene, where the guy who looked like a cross between Chris Pratt and Dougal from Father Ted experienced an encouraging choir during his fertilisation. I get the whole thing is supposed to be surreal, but this was just silly.

Titane (2021) A young French girl is in a car accident and ends up with a metal plate in her skull. She grows up to be covered in awful tattoos, be a serial killer, have sex with and be impregnated by cars, and steal the identity of a missing child to go and live with an aging fireman who regularly injects himself with testosterone to keep up with all his young, fit cadets.

After having to read about the previous two films to understand them it was nice to watch something with subtitles. I actually had to pay attention and I understood this. It's obviously very weird, but it's an interesting depiction of various things - grief, identity, isolation, fear, and how much people are willing to lie to themselves to be happy. Enjoyable.

Under the Skin (2013) Scarlett Johansson drives around Govan in a van picking up men. I watched this a few years ago and couldn't take any of it seriously because it was Scarlett Johansson driving around Govan in a van picking up men. Oh there's my granny's house. Oh now she's up the town and she's driving around my university. I could genuinely be in one of these shots and never have realised. There she is walking up the Gallowgate. There she is on Sauchiehall Street on a Friday night. There she is being accosted by the local young team. There she is trying to drive through a crowd coming out of Parkhead. If you don't live in Glasgow substitute these place and street names for ones local to you and you'll understand my trouble.

Once the shock of this wore of I realised how good this is. An alien takes the form of a woman and through her interactions with men exposes what it's like being a woman. Most of them are led by their penis. Some of them end up being nice so she runs away. It's hard to see a thing this film does wrong. It's very involved. It doesn't look like it was filmed on handheld cameras but there's still a real closeness to so many of the shots that you feel as much of an observer as she is. Maybe I'm just attuned to that because so much of the landscape and people are so familiar to me, but I don't think so. The setting feels real, the people in it feel so real the line between actor and genuinely unwilling participant is often unclear (except the obviously Glaswegian accented guy in a Hibs top, rookie mistake) and the genuinely unpleasant (in a good way) soundtrack makes the most familiar setting in the world to me feel like something alien.

It's not often I'll watch two films back to back about not really human women trying to survive in an unfamiliar world, but this was a nice back to back.

 

[NyQuil]

The Shining (1980) I had a funny idea where I would do one of these posts and list the three separate times I watched this and what I thought about it each time. After I watched it the first time I wasn't sure. I read about it and watched it again and still wasn't sure about it so I watched it again. It started to sink in by that point. Some things work for me and some don't. I don't really buy Jack as going crazy. He seems to resent his family even before they go to the hotel. He doesn't do much with them when they're there. Despite it being several years since I last saw it I just picture various scenes as the Simpsons Halloween special, so it's hard to say how seriously I can take it.

I think this is why I ended up watching it a few times. I wanted to watch it and see if I could see anything else. I think I did. Looking around the internet the focus is the three characters and what they do. There's a fourth. The most successful character here is the hotel itself. It's so bright, it's so clean, it's so imposing, it's not... threatening in any way. It's too clean, it's too nice. So you wonder why. Then you watch Danny ride around on his tricycle and you realise every single corridor, wall, room, whatever, look like completely different buildings. It's horrible. So when the actually unsettling bits happen - Wendy confronting Jack after finding his writing, Jack chopping through the door, it ends up landing in a way I didn't think it would after repeated viewings and increased familiarity.

Is that the point? Is the cabin fever experienced by the caretakers rubbing off on me because I watched this a bunch of times? Maybe. That said, I don't think a lot of the music works well and I don't know what the guy in the bear costume is supposed to be.

When I was in university, back in 1997 or so, a bunch of us decided to pile into cars and leave at 4 AM to drive to Jay Peak for some skiing.

We ended up staying in a large hotel that was largely shut down. We were the only guests in the place, the caretakers were in a sectioned off part of the hotel that was basically inaccessible to us, and the heat was largely absent so we spent a lot of time reading old magazines near a fire stove.

Aside from that, we went exploring, and I got that eerie "Shining" feeling of seeing a large, ostensibly cheerful venue completely shut down, with all the chairs on tables. Dance floor, disco ball, bar, everything was there, but empty. Old photographs of events long-past.

I think the emptiness of vast open spaces, the lack of heat, the fact that we were basically all on our own, isolated, with the outside cold and unwelcoming, it contributed to a feeling of dread accompanied by the odd thrill of trespassing in a forbidden place.

Violent past notwithstanding, there remained that melancholy of the recognition of the entropic, inevitable slow march of time and the fact that this place was probably once a very happening place but was long past its prime and on its last legs.

I get that the Shining took place in a still active hotel that was closed for the season, but you still got the vague impression based on the photographs that it was once a much grander place.

It was impossible to shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen - all because of fictional films and storylines that seem to happen in these places.

Our raging party started with drinks but we ended up passing out after a day of driving and skiing at around 7:45 PM.

 

[OzzyFan]

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) Directed by Martin Scorsese 5B

It is praiseworthy that Martin Scorsese has chosen to make a movie about an abomination that has been virtually whitewashed (right verb) from American history. At the turn of the century in Oklahoma, the Osage tribe found themselves millionaires over night when the land that they had been forced to settle on erupted with oil. It wasn't long, though, before unscrupulous white men found unconventional ways to take over the money. This included marrying into Native American families and if that didn't work quickly enough, murdering the aboriginal men and mostly women who stood in the way of the perpetrators' inheritance. Oklahoma law simply looked the other way. Killers of the Flower Moon focuses on Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCapriio) who comes home after the war in Europe and is immediately offered a job by his uncle William Hale (Robert Di Nero). Hale, who claims to be a great friend of the Osage, is actually the brains behind the operation of stealing their money. He has no scruples whatsoever, and Ernest is just the sort of useful moron that he needs to carry out his orders. . While Hale wants Ernest to target Molly (Lily Gladstone), Ernest genuinely falls in love with her and they eventually marry. But that doesn't mean he won't remain deeply complicit in his uncle's schemes, which include setting up murders and stupidly assisting in the harm that may be done to his wife. So this is an important story and one that needs to be told. In its favour, Killers of the Flower Moon contains some great performance and scenes of real power.

However, the film possesses some structural weaknesses that are hard to overlook. This three-hour, 26 minute movie only really becomes gripping in its last hour or so, about the time Jesse Plemons' FBI agent arrives in town. Until that point we get more story than we need to make the point about how cruel and hateful the attempted cash grab is. It's not just a problem of excessive length, though. Scorsese is noted for his expertly edited and perfectly paced movies (Mean Streets; Taxi Driver: Goodfellas; Raging Bull, et al)--Killers of the Flower Moon is anything but well paced. Indeed the editing seems haphazard, almost arbitrary some of the time, lacking the tight rhythm that would supercharge this story about racist greed. And, unfortunately, the more exciting the movie eventually becomes, the more it drifts away from the plight of the Osage and focuses instead on our two loathsome scumbag protagonists, both white guys, one a heartless snake and the other a moronic weasel. I kept thinking, why am I watching these two schmucks? It is Molly, not Hale or Ernest, who the audience cares about, and Gladstone gives a magnificent performance that outshines everyone else in the film. If Scorsese had made her the centrepiece of the story, Killers of the Flower Moon would have been much more powerful and much more revealing about what took place in Oklahoma. Instead, he made another gangster movie.

Although I am higher on it's numerical rating than you, I agree heavily with your review on Killers of the Flower Moon. I don't like criticizing films too much, but I was disappointed given the hype train this film had. Too slow, especially early on, too much fat that could have been dealt with better or skipped, it's 2 main main characters were bad people that are very unlikeable(even if well acted) including 1 literally complete idiot who is the main character, it's a bit redundant...especially within Scorsese's own filmography, and it's all quite depressing. The vast majority of the film is quite the opposite of prime Scorsese, where he glorified corrupt and murderous white men a bit even if all reaped their sowing. There are no frills here tied to those actions or lifestyle. Almost reflective of him at this age as a filmmaker, as it appears his last few films sort of fit this perspective. The film overall works though, and the last 1/3 of the film pulls it all together very well. Scorsese strongly gets his message across about the 20th century atrocities of white men in this time towards Natives here, as it hits you squarely in the gut and is felt fairly deeply. I think among best picture nominee comparables, Oppenheimer was a better and much more engrossing film. This is still a great film, but not close to peak Scorsese, and in no way threatening to be on his top tier of films.

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

 

[shadow1]

Although I am higher on it's numerical rating than you, I agree heavily with your review on Killers of the Flower Moon. I don't like criticizing films too much, but I was disappointed given the hype train this film had. Too slow, especially early on, too much fat that could have been dealt with better or skipped, it's 2 main main characters were bad people that are very unlikeable(even if well acted) including 1 literally complete idiot who is the main character, it's a bit redundant...especially within Scorsese's own filmography, and it's all quite depressing. The vast majority of the film is quite the opposite of prime Scorsese, where he glorified corrupt and murderous white men a bit even if all reaped their sowing. There are no frills here tied to those actions or lifestyle. Almost reflective of him at this age as a filmmaker, as it appears his last few films sort of fit this perspective. The film overall works though, and the last 1/3 of the film pulls it all together very well. Scorsese strongly gets his message across about the 20th century atrocities of white men in this time towards Natives here, as it hits you squarely in the gut and is felt fairly deeply. I think among best picture nominee comparables, Oppenheimer was a better and much more engrossing film. This is still a great film, but not close to peak Scorsese, and in no way threatening to be on his top tier of films.

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

Take care Ozzy.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Although I am higher on it's numerical rating than you, I agree heavily with your review on Killers of the Flower Moon. I don't like criticizing films too much, but I was disappointed given the hype train this film had. Too slow, especially early on, too much fat that could have been dealt with better or skipped, it's 2 main main characters were bad people that are very unlikeable(even if well acted) including 1 literally complete idiot who is the main character, it's a bit redundant...especially within Scorsese's own filmography, and it's all quite depressing. The vast majority of the film is quite the opposite of prime Scorsese, where he glorified corrupt and murderous white men a bit even if all reaped their sowing. There are no frills here tied to those actions or lifestyle. Almost reflective of him at this age as a filmmaker, as it appears his last few films sort of fit this perspective. The film overall works though, and the last 1/3 of the film pulls it all together very well. Scorsese strongly gets his message across about the 20th century atrocities of white men in this time towards Natives here, as it hits you squarely in the gut and is felt fairly deeply. I think among best picture nominee comparables, Oppenheimer was a better and much more engrossing film. This is still a great film, but not close to peak Scorsese, and in no way threatening to be on his top tier of films.

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

Take care, man. I hope it all works out.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

I'll echo with the previous two gentlemen in sending some positive vibes, thoughts and karma your way.

 

[kihei]

I'll echo with the previous two gentlemen in sending some positive vibes, thoughts and karma your way.

Me, too. Hope you are back with us soon.

 

[OzzyFan]

Thank you everyone. I truly appreciate it.

 

[Rodgerwilco]

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

Best wishes, Ozzy. I hope that everything pans out the best possible. I'll take a little extra time to review some of my recent watches in your honor.

 

[Ben Grimm]

I'd like to know what you guys think of the 1995 Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man. @kihei

 

[flyersnorth]

Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within - 9/10 (Portuguese)

Wagner Moura (Pablo Escobar in Narcos) plays the lead role as a security officer caught in a multi-faceted conflict between military, paramilitary, and drug gangs in the favelas.

One of my favourite movies. You don't need to watch the first one to watch this one - I originally watched them out of order and it didn't hamper my enjoyment.

Mirage - 7.5/10 (Spanish)

A wonderful suspense / sci-fi / drama movie about a murder that is linked across 25 years and the lives that are affected by it. Beautifully acted and meaningful scenes.

Five Nights At Freddy's - 2/10 (English)

I was expecting horror or suspense or a thriller kind of movie. It was none of those things. I lost interest about halfway through because nothing happens and it doesn't get better.

American Made - 5/10 (English)

Based on a true story of a pilot-turned-CIA-asset-turned-drug-runner from the late 70s and 80s. It's an interesting story, decent execution. Light and surface-level movie with good pacing and action that covers a pretty long time period.

 

[Mr Jiggyfly]

Although I am higher on it's numerical rating than you, I agree heavily with your review on Killers of the Flower Moon. I don't like criticizing films too much, but I was disappointed given the hype train this film had. Too slow, especially early on, too much fat that could have been dealt with better or skipped, it's 2 main main characters were bad people that are very unlikeable(even if well acted) including 1 literally complete idiot who is the main character, it's a bit redundant...especially within Scorsese's own filmography, and it's all quite depressing. The vast majority of the film is quite the opposite of prime Scorsese, where he glorified corrupt and murderous white men a bit even if all reaped their sowing. There are no frills here tied to those actions or lifestyle. Almost reflective of him at this age as a filmmaker, as it appears his last few films sort of fit this perspective. The film overall works though, and the last 1/3 of the film pulls it all together very well. Scorsese strongly gets his message across about the 20th century atrocities of white men in this time towards Natives here, as it hits you squarely in the gut and is felt fairly deeply. I think among best picture nominee comparables, Oppenheimer was a better and much more engrossing film. This is still a great film, but not close to peak Scorsese, and in no way threatening to be on his top tier of films.

Side note, you won't see many reviews from me for the time being. I am dealing with a family health situation that I am devoting the vast majority of my free time to. I'll still be reading and enjoying everyone's reviews though. Keep up the good work and movie watching.

GL Oz, I’ll miss reading your reviews - for now.

 

[shadow1]

A Haunting in Venice (2023) - 7/10

A retired detective investigates a murder during a seance on Halloween Night.

Kenneth Branagh returns as famous retired detective Hercule Poirot, who is attending a Halloween party with novelist friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey). The party is being held at a palazzo in Venice where a suicide has recently occurred. Medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) has been invited to the party to communicate with the deceased, and Oliver wants Poirot to prove she is a fraud. However, things go awry during the channeling, and a partygoer ends up dead. With a storm raging outside, Poirot locks everyone in, determined to reveal the killer before sunrise...

A Haunting In Venice was directed by star Kenneth Branagh, and written by Michael Green. The film is based on the 1969 Agatha Christie novel "Hallowe'en Party", and marks Branagh's third turn portraying the Poirot character. How does this whodunit compare to the book?

A clear upgrade. A Haunting in Venice is only loosely based on the Hallowe'en Party novel, with practically all new characters and significant changes to the few returning characters (Michelle Yeoh's character is a non-spiritual teenager in the book, for example). That is for the best in my opinion, as are the dramatic changes to the plot. I couldn't tell you the last time I read a book, but I have shockingly read all of the Poirot novels. And while Hallowe'en Party is one of the better post-WWII Poirot books, that's not saying much considering how weak the rest of the novels from that era are.

The movie remedies this by going in a more sinister direction than the book, adding in horror elements and a dark atmosphere. The standout of the film is the cinematography, with disorientating camera angles that convey the anguish of the exhausted Poirot, who is frantically trying to solve the murder. I have not seen 2022's Death on Nile, but this was my favorite of Branagh's Poirot performances of the two films I have seen. I'm not sure how many more of these movies he'll make, but he's really starting to settle into the character and create a different spin than David Suchet's iconic 25 year performance.

I can't say the same for Tina Fey, who felt like a person from 2023 trapped in a movie set in a film set in 1947. However, her performance does work in some weird way, as her demeanor is juxtaposed against everyone else's so much that she is possibly the most relatable character. As far as the mystery goes, it's mostly well done. There's one part of the ending I'd like to nitpick, but as I'm purposely sharing almost no plot details about this mystery movie, you'll have to deduce for yourself what part that is should you watch this film.

Overall, A Haunting in Venice is a solid movie. While I do not think it is on the same level as 2022's whodunit Glass Onion, I do think its atmosphere and claustrophobic cinematography will make me return to it sometime in the future. A Haunting in Venice, which is still technically in theaters in my area (I watched it on Hulu), has so far earned $120M against its $60M budget.

 

[kihei]

I'd like to know what you guys think of the 1995 Jim Jarmusch film Dead Man. @kihei

I (very vaguely) remember it as off beat, quirky, with a lot of good bits, a Neil Young soundtrack (I think); some excellent cinematography, but it's strangeness was the most memorable thing about it--the story had at best fitful momentum and I don't think it was one of Depp's better outings. I probably gave it a 4, at a guess. In truth, I need to see it again to be accurate about my perceptions. And I will, because now you've got me curious.

 

[kihei]

Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion (2023) Directed by Luis Ara (documentary) 7A

I'm not even sure of the year, but in the very early '90's, I was night-owl channel surfing looking for something, anything, and I landed on a low rent Spanish language channel that was re-running a soccer game from a league competition in Columbia. So I was casually paying attention to that and then I noticed something very odd. One team's goalie kept joining the rush. The first time he did it, I went "Oooh, that's dangerous." Then he did it three or four more times and I went, "What the actual f***?" It was one of those peculiar incidents that kind of stuck in the deep back corners of my memory. Flash forward to now, and to my surprise what do I find on Netflix but a biography of that goalie Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion. I watched a couple of minutes and quickly put two and two together ("Oh, that's the guy"). So, I found this narrative very interesting because of my ultra random bumping into him three decades ago.

Turns out he has quite the story, too. He was a goalie who revolutionized his position by turning himself into a sweeper with his coach's approval, and he scored 43 goals in his career and not all of them came on free kicks and penalties, at which he was excellent. He actually scored three goals while being the goalie for the national team. He is also the creator of the wonderful "Scorpion" save in which he leaps forward from the goal line and stops the incoming ball by scissoring his back legs upward behind him to deflect the ball. He did that for the first time at Wembley. But his story is way more fascinating than that: he became a national icon in a troubled country. was friends with Pablo Escobar (seemingly a genuinely innocent relationship for both of them), intervened in the kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl whose life he probably saved, for which he was falsely imprisoned and as well, if a tad unconventionally, he was an excellent husband and father whose kids have grown into normal, very likeable young people. Turns out he is still a role model in Columbia on merit, revered by his former teammates, and a guy who has pretty much lived life the way you should live it. One thing Netflix does surprisingly well is make good sports docs. Even if viewers have little interest in Columbian soccer, I think there is a good chance people will find Higuita: The Way of the Scorpion very entertaining.

subtitles

 

[Chili]

I (very vaguely) remember it as off beat, quirky, with a lot of good bits, a Neil Young soundtrack (I think); some excellent cinematography, but it's strangeness was the most memorable thing about it--the story had at best fitful momentum and I don't think it was one of Depp's better outings. I probably gave it a 4, at a guess. In truth, I need to see it again to be accurate about my perceptions. And I will, because now you've got me curious.

Do you have any tobacco?

 

[kihei]

Do you have any tobacco?

Now, you see, that's why I have to watch it again--tobacco doesn't ring any bells.

 

[Chili]

Now, you see, that's why I have to watch it again--tobacco doesn't ring any bells.

Thought that might jog a memory. Oh well. I'm definitely a fan of that film. Jim Jarmusch is an acquired taste, he is so far off the hollywood style films. He has this slow, methodical way of telling stories, often in black in white. I think it's Down by Law where the first image is of a hearse, which Neil Young would have appreciated (i.e. Mortimer Hearseburg, Neil's first car). Really liked Neil's score in Dead Man.

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Higuita! What a legend! I love goalkeeping so I've liked him.

 

[Satans Hockey]

The old strike thread is closed but looks like it's over...

 

[kihei]

Now, you see, that's why I have to watch it again--tobacco doesn't ring any bells.

That's a two hour movie (Dead Man) that felt like a four hour movie because of its episodic structure which tends to be delivered in miniatures. Liked it even less this time, as I have a low tolerance for quirkiness for the sake of quirkiness and the movie veritably wallowed in quirk. I remember one of the attractions for me way back when was the Neil Young score because I am a big Neil Young fan. Unfortunately, it was awful--Neil is no Jonny Greenwood that's for sure. I found the music--a shapeless industrial-strength collection of electric guitar doodles--to be intrusive and rather tone deaf. Different and abstract, for sure, but doing absolutely nothing to complement the action of the movie. I'd write Dead Man off as a failed attempt at a hipster Western.