Here's what I've been watching in January 2021:
Elliot’s Watching 2021
Murder on Middle Beach. HBO. Documentary. Debut for young director, examining the murder of his mother - who dunnit? But this quest becomes his examination into his family history, and first real knowledge that his father was/is a con man, that his mother and all of her siblings was/are severe alcoholics, that his mother was deeply involved in a ponzi scheme (Gifting parties) - and that the police of his small Conn. town, Madison (strangely, his first name) were/are reluctant to pursue various leads and are letting the case die after 10 years - until his intervention, which prompted a renewed investigation. Totally engaging series of 4 episodes, and we await a 5th as the filmmaker presents new evidence to the Madison police Many possibly guilty, including father (via a hit man?), even his only sister, who has relocated to Argentina. 1/2
Saw David Fincher’s 2:30+ Zodiac, from I think about 2010 and looking back on the pursuit of the eponymous, pseudonymous madman who terrorized the Bay Area in 1969 and beyond. I defy anyone on first viewing to keep straight the myriad leads, clues, and red herrings that waylay us along the way toward identifying and arresting the allusive killer, who tantalize police, press, and public with taunting, threatening messages. But following the nuances isn’t the point; mainly the film is about 2 obsessions - the killer’s and that of a young newspaper cartoonist at the SF chron, played well by Jake Gillenhall (sp?), who lets his personal pursuit of the killer turn into his own obsession and overturn his life. The tension at times is almost unbearable, but it’s leavened with some moments of laugh-out-loud humor, particularly the children of the protagonist (who wrote the book on which this screenplay, mostly factual apparently, is based). I do have two quibbles: hating the role of the nagging wife played well enough by Close Sevigny but such an ignoble stereotype, and of course the dynamics and politics of the news room are completely off base on a # of matters - for ex., the crime reporter and the cartoonist would never be part of the daily meeting of the editors (unless there were a specific reason for them to be present). 1/3
The HBO series I May Destroy You, a tour-de-force by writer/lead actor Michaela Coel, who plays the lead character, a young Ghanian-descent woman in present-day London and trying to break out as a published novelist (Arabella). She’s totally on the cutting edge of art, culture, and social issues (and way beyond where I stand in life - out of dozens of background songs that pulse throughout, I recognized the name of only 2 artists). This series has been described as a lesson and warning for young people, especially young women, who get deeply involved in recreational Rx, risky sex with strangers, heavy bouts of drinking, and obsessive on-line presence. And the series should stand as a warning for most viewers, one would hope - though first 4 of so of the (12) episodes seemed to be to be overly glamorizing the fast and loose life. But the series gets in gear by episode 4 of so, when Arabella gets knocked out when a guy “spikes” her drink and rapes her, an event she can only a moments recollect; froths point, the series becomes, at least in part, a search for the perp - and in the process a dissection of the life of Arabella and her closest friend, most of them Black; particularly notable are sections about her inability to get on w/ he writing and her mistreatment by her agents and publisher, as well as the sad and frightening depiction of rape among male homosexual pickups and long-term effect on one of the victims. I won’t divulge the conclusion, but will note only that many viewers will be puzzled or upset by the final episode - but that’s your call. 1/9
Netflix series I Hate Suze, about a child-star actor/singer now in mid-career and looking for a break gets a major gig in a Disney movie but, just as that happens, finds herself in an unDisney-like predicament as he files have been hacked and nude photos of her are appearing online. Based on first half of first episode - unfunny, unpleasant, not for us. 1/11
Kurosawa’s 1949 film, Stray Dog, starring a young T Mufone, is a great social document and an exciting movie as well. In essence, the story, quite simple in outline, has TM, a rookie Tokyo police detective has his gun stolen by a pickpocket while he’s riding a bus home after a double-shift day. Honor would lead him to resign from the force, but sympathetic older officers cut him a real and send him on an odyssey as he pursues his stolen phone through a series of underground and otherwise shady Tokyo settings. The how-and-why details of the pursuit, complex at times, aren’t the reason to watch the film. The strength comes from the many excellent scenes and even moments: The chorus girls at a shady club collapsing in exhaustion back stage after completing their routine, the scenes on the ubiquitous buses and esp trains (de rigueur for any Japanese film of the era), and even a scene filmed at a Japanese major league baseball game (Giants v Hawks). We see and sense throughout many of the traumas and forces shaping life on postwar Japan, notably the poverty and ruin of many cities, the PSTD suffered by many Japanese soldiers, the burgeoning new economy, emulating Western styles and values (baseball league for one example) - a picture of a society under stress and duress. 1/17
The current HBO series The Flight Attendant is by no means a deep and introspective movie, but it’s fun to watch throughout and that’s largely thanks to the 2 leads, the eponymous attending (Kaley Cuoco) and her bestie, young lawyer played by Zosia Mamet, with hilarious staccato brevity, and even the secondary characters are well-cast, sometimes against type (though I had trouble accepting the excellent Rosie Perez as a “Meagan” who speaks fluent Korean). The show in short entails the attendant, Cassy, meeting a guy on one of her flights and spending the night w/ him in Bangkok, waking in the morning to find herself in bed next to his corpse. From there the film become a genre pic - invoking many genres: police procedural, spy adventure, buddy movie, all lifted above the genre cliches, though, by 2 elements: Cassy’s struggle w/ alcoholism (not done in a maudlin nor judgmental manner) and her many interactions w/ the ghost of her murdered friend - handled very well, especially as we quickly understand that he’s not exactly a ghost from the supernatural realm but are her way of coping with her current predicament and other trauma in her life. In short, a much deeper and more inventive series that it seemed off the bat, and about as high in entertainment value as a B-movie can get. 1/17
Glenda Jackson deserves all the praise she’s been receiving for taking on the lead role (Maud) in the (PBS) film Elizabeth Is Missing (2021). Maud is a highly largely unsympathetic and even for a +70 hardly attractive woman, not at all a glam role, not at all a glorification women (or men) in late life. Maud is suffering from what appears to be an advanced case of Alzheimer’s; as we first see her, alone in her flat (in a small city/village, unnamed, somewhere in the northern UK it seems) with typed notes placed everywhere reminding her to lock the door, turn off the kettle, etc. Someone’s watching out for her, although maybe not thoroughly enough. The story line has it the Maud believes that her best friend (Eliz.) has gone missing, and she fears the worst - but her intuition about Eliz may well be a delusion - certainly, everyone in her fam and of her acquaintance thinks so, in particular because Maud can be a nudge and a pest -multiple visits to the PD, posting a notice in the paper seeking info from possible witnesses, e.g. If left to that - a woman troubled about her best friend’s fate who cannot get her concerns through to anyone because of her mental deterioration - the show would have been fine. Unfortunately, the story line - adapted from a novel - includes several confusing subplots that at the least will raise eyebrows and that ultimately lead to a ridiculous resolution. Too bad; a less ambitious project would have been far better. 1/19
The Netflix series Lupin, Season 1 (2021), starring the excellent Omar Sy, is thoroughly entertaining as long as you accept that this is one of those crime dramas that is so far out of the edge of improbability as to be comical in itself. Sy plays Arsene Diop, a middle-aged man on a mission to avenge his father’s death, caused by the evil industrial magnate Pellegrini who frame Arsene’s father and had him accused of stealing a valuable necklace. The beauty of the series is Arsene’s audacity - posing as a potential buyer of the necklace, now being auctioned at the Louvre of all places, as just one example, in which every facet of the complex robbery goes perfectly as planned. The general conceit is that people like Arsene - a black man of African descent - are overlooked and ignored, so they can get away with all kinds of criminality - which I think is an inversion of the truth, that someone like A would have been looked on as immediately suspicious as the only black man at the auction, for example - but never mind. The series is fun and exciting and a good diversion. Beware that it ends abruptly at an episode 5 cliffhanger - though they say season 2 is not for behind. 1/27
Noting here that I also watched, for the 2nd or 3rd time, Bresson’s great film Pickpocket (1959) and, if you can put aside the unlikely love story that motivates the main character, Michel, and see this as almost a documentary about street crime - great to see all the little tricks and tics through which the thieves pile their trade - and most of all as a close-up portrait of an alienated young man living in deep poverty and persona despair who turns to crime, even though it’s against his better nature. Martin La Salle, an amateur actor, brings so much to the story line, esp through his long face, deepest eyes, searching expression - and of course Bresson had his unique method of cinema narration - spare sets, long takes, focus closely on characters, each scene taking a beat more than needed, not afraid to focus on a door after it’s closed, for ex. 1/27/21
And I also watched, probably for the 4th time spread out over probably 40 years … Truffaut’s great movie The 400 Blows (1959) and it has not only aged well but if that’s possible improved with age. The simplicity and power of the narrative remain as ever, filling us with empathy for the troubled young protagonist - Jean-Pierre Leaud as Antoine Doinel, a young boy in a very strict school - probably an early h.s. grade, age about 14(?), where he is rambunctious and energetic and consequently the subject of harsh discipline, even as his family - jovial father and cold, distant mother - is in the midst of upheaval, as one day Antoine sees his mother passionately kissing a mag not his father (her boss, probably); he bears this family secret with some grace, but he is tortured inside, and it’s almost painful to watch the struggles and isolation he endures. Alongside the sorrowful coming-of-age story we have some scenes of laugh-out-loud humor and gasps of style, most notably the phys-ed teacher leading the 30 or so boys in the class on a job through Paris streets (the kids desert the group one after another) and the famous closing sequence of the escape to freedom from the school for delinquents. The scenes of Paris in the ‘50s are reason enough alone to watch this great film; Truffaut teasingly includes panoramic view of the Eiffel Tower in the long opening sequences, only to turn away at least from the monument and the classic Gallic architecture of the “hotels” - and we are in a crowded urban district (and in the Doinels’ tiny run-down apartment) where the tourists do not ever venture - a place not at all romanic and scenic, which in fact reminds me of Newark from the same era. 1/30/21
