Education. Film #5 in Steve McQueen's Small Axe series. It's not the best of the bunch but in it's way it might be the most infuriating and heartbreaking of the series. Twice in it's scant 62 minute run time it nearly brought me to tears. It's one thing to see adults failed by a corrupt system, but to see a child almost never really get a chance because of that system ... it's a deeply affecting and fitting caper to a massive achievement by McQueen. The first two films in the series (Mangrove and Lover's Rock) are two of the best movies I've seen this year. The third and fourth movies (Red White & Blue and Alex Wheatle) are both perfectly fine and centered on good performances but weren't quite to the level of the others. I'd put this one smack in the middle. What I'm really kicking myself about is that I hadn't drawn the parallel between McQueen's street-level view here and one of the most classic of British genres -- the kitchen sink drama. These are realistic, character-driven, hardscrabble narratives and a fitting successor to the likes of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and This Sporting Life (among others) but with the focus on a population left behind not just socially but in a film sense as well.
Mother. I've been a Bong Joon-Ho fan for years but had been oddly resistant to this one. The core kernel of the story — protective mother tries to defend/free her mentally deficient from jail — just never resonated with me. So it remained unwatched by me until yesterday. HOOOOOOLLLLLY crap was this riveting. What a meticulously, perfectly crafted thriller. So many small touches and details and not a one is wasted. Each clicks every portion of the story into place driving toward its tragic but always inevitable conclusion.
The Great Escape. A nice piece of fun, classic big Hollywood movie making and worth clearing out for its three hour run time. Oddly light for much of its run time despite the heaviness of the circumstances. That jaunty score certainly carries a lot of that weight. A lot of things seem to come a little too easy in the build up for our heroes, though I suppose James Garner's "scrounger's" instance that it's better no one asks where he gets all the stuff is a very intentional reason to laugh. Of course ... the stakes increase exponentially in the final third. Peak cool Steve McQueen (the OTHER one). Peak fastidious Richard Attenborough. A memorably glass-half-full ending. (With one of the characters getting a pretty fantastic closing moment). James Coburn as an Australian though? Ooof that's a tough one.
The Big Boss. Completed my trek through Bruce Lee's five Hong Kong flicks. A bit of a slow build in this one, but once it's going (i.e. Bruce starts kicking and punching) it's undeniably fun. The climactic death generated one of the purest laughs I've had in some time.
Once Upon a Time in the West. Another lengthy classic I'd never seen. Fonda, of course, is fantastic in one of the great against-type casting decisions ever. All that wonderful Leone verve is there, but my big take away was actually the script. There isn't a whole lot that's said despite the near three-hour run time but man it feels like every line of dialogue that is said is a wonderfully hard-edged, cynical, snappy bit of wisdom or badassery.
The Best Man. A Gore Vidal-scripted political yarn. It's nicely cynical and sharp-elbowed for the first hour or so as two flawed men vie to be the next (unnamed party but clearly Democratic) candidate (the Presidency seems to be a foregone conclusion here). A more classic honorable Henry Fonda here vs. an almost mustache-twirling Cliff Robertson. Falls apart in the last 20 minutes or so with one melodramatic twist and frankly, a pretty improbable resolution.
