Greg

I love Wes Anderson, if Grand Budapest being in my top 4 was any indication. His films feel nostalgic and earnest and gorgeous and sweet in a way that very few films feel to me. Even some of his work that I've enjoyed less, I've still ultimately walked away very satisfied. Which is why I'm a little sad The Phoenician Scheme really didn't wow me. It's still a really good movie! It's very funny, it looks incredible, the story is good, it's got a lot of heart, but unfortunately it's also in conversation with all of Wes's other movies that have those exact qualities and more. Especially in the modern zeitgeist, where many people feel Wes has gotten samey over his career. I personally don't agreee with that, he undoubtably has an aesthetic/vibe/whatever you wanna call it, his movies feel of a same mind but they explore their individual themes, characters, worlds, and stories in very different ways, same as Phoenician Scheme. I just felt it in my soul way more in his other work.

Just the coolest. Most of my experience with ol' Marty has been with his newer stuff, with a few classics here and there, but man After Hours feels like something else entirely. I feel like this is a side of him I've never seen in the best way. One of my favorite aspects of this is that Paul is just some guy. Not some machiavellian schemer, not part of a crime empire, not a famous boxer, or anyone really of note, just a city slicker office worker who enjoys a good book and a night out that gets caught in this never-ending tirade of misfortune that feels like a nightmare you simply can't wake up from. It's almost Safdie-esque in that regard, as the tension builds and builds with each passing false accusation or horrible coincidence. It's absurd and darkly funny, and also weirdly feels almost like a parable of some sort with Paul's ability to attract all these strange women that make things ultimately worse for him. On a technical level it's of course fantastic, with beautiful shots of rain-drenched New York and its many weird side communities and archetypes of people adding a lot to the absurdist nature of the whole affair, performances are great, there's so many fantastic minor and bit parts here, I just really enjoyed this.

I really just have to do a spike lee marathon sometime soon cause every time I sit down for a spike lee joint I'm just smiling ear to ear. He's too damn good, man. sensual, charming, confident, and gorgeous, not unlike its protagonist, She's Gotta Have It is an examine of sexuality and dating culture that its just a great time from start to finish. It's rare to see a directorial debut come together so effortlessly, and to so clearly establish an artists signature. the use of archival photographs, cultural deconstructions, particularly of masculinity and black culture, high contrast imagery, it's all here and its all done at a level you would expect of a veteran. some people just have that it factor I suppose. The "She" that has to have it is Nora Darling, caught in a whirlwind of casual flings that culminates in every one of her lovers wanting to be the special boy that wins in the end. They've gotta have it, as in her, just as much as she has to have some good ol fashioned lovemaking and the result is a film that deconstructs many aspects of patriarchal male entitlement through the use of some classic male archetypes. The film is pretty scathing of these caricatures, which is fair, as funny and charming as they can be they do all kind of suck in their own special way, and its refreshing to see something refreshingly feminist from a psychological lens (to a point, we'll get there) from the era instead of feminist in that a girl shoots a gun instead of a boy. Nora is psychoanalyzed from men and women alike as everyone tries to spin some sort of narrative behind her inability to not go to pound town on the regular, creating these myths of who the "real" Nora darling is ah la The Virgin Suicides, only for the real answer to be far less grandiose: she's just a young person who likes to have some raunchy fun, and there's nothing conniving or wrong about that. She's Gotta Have It looks great, the dialogue flows incredibly, it's nearly perfect...up until that 3rd act. the film kind of falters near the end in a myriad of ways, from the tacked on near rape that comes out of nowhere to just not really doing much to explore Nora's perspective of the whole love quadrilateral, it's abnormally sloppy for a movie that up until that point felt fine-tuned to the last frame. Now, in real life, I've had friends like Nora Darling, and their answer to what their endgame was in these scenarios was that yes, it was just fun, and it's not that deep, and that's great for real people, but this is a movie. I don't care about what's realistic, I car about what's engaging and artful and thematically rich. The truth falls flat here. I'm curious to check out the She's Gotta Have it series to see how it handles these dynamics, because I was left unfortunately whelmed by the end after the high of the first hour or so. All that being said, a Spike Lee minor misstep is still better than a lot of directors putting everything they have into a work, and even with some hiccups, She's Gotta Have It is a great film, and a real "canon" moment as the first entries of one of the industry's great auteurs and legacies of the medium.

One thing about me, I love to drink. smoking never really did it for me because I just have no interest in being chill, coke is just too much work, but a good bev? that’s my jam. especially in college, I was drinking a lot, and I have a high tolerance it, so I could get away going pretty far without a lot of negative side effects. I’ve only had to be babysat once ever, no blackouts, less than 5 hangovers to this day. Even though I really enjoy it, and how I feel on it, I never feel controlled by it. I’ve gone months without a sip multiple times and never felt like I just “had” to have it. I say all this because the central conflict of Another Round is the idea that one can “tame” alcohol. Some sort of very precise technique, amount or circumstance, even repeated daily, can net you no consequences. certainly it sounds reasonable. hell, who hasn’t thought they could have “just one more” and be perfectly fine? I’ve made a lot of claims about my drinking ability, half-jokingly, because I’ve never really had any serious issues with the stuff. But I’ve had moments where I say or do something weird or uncouth and had to stop and reevaluate myself. I’ve had moments where the alcohol supercharged negative feelings about myself, which only made me want another one to skip that feeling. Sure, you can probably be ok at a beer a day…but ultimately you’ll lose. It should seem obvious, hell the theory that drives the narrative sounds like a pseudoscience that would make flat earthers blush. But hubris is stronger than fact. Watching this slow motion car crash go from funny, to strangely uplifting, to tragic is a hell of a journey.  man this was a long time coming. I’ve wanted to watch Another Round for YEARS, and I’ve finally checked it off the list. What a fucking movie. Absolutely riveting from start to finish. Another round mixes a variety of tones effortlessly, I was laughing one second and choked up the next. Performances are great, cinematography is wonderful, I just absolutely vibed with this. It’s rare you know exactly where a film is going from the revelation of its main story, and still find yourself completely engrossed in every aspect of it. Great watch.