Author’s Note: Sorry this came a bit late! I was incredibly busy all day yesterday.
This is going to be the final Friday’s Five Films before TIFF. I’m not publishing one of these during the festival, because I’m primarily going to be focused on seeing everything that I can left and right. So of course, I’ll still be updating Clouds of Gaia during the festival with my coverage - but be sure to keep in line with what’s being posted over on Cinema from the Spectrum and beyond for my coverage. I’ll be keeping you up to date as much as I can, and I look forward to sharing this love of film further beyond.
Without further ado, these are Friday’s Five Films. If you like what you’re seeing here, remember to subscribe for a whole lot more.
#1: Black Coal, Thin Ice (2012, Diao Yinan)
This Chinese crime thriller was one on my watchlist for quite some time, owing to the fact that it was a Golden Bear winner that I’d been missing at that point. But I think finally getting around to Black Coal, Thin Ice was a wholly enlightening experience at that, because it’s a movie that builds itself almost entirely on the evident failures of law enforcement and how they end up affecting the people who supposedly work in that field. It’s a very grim movie in all its beauty, perhaps one can only find themselves watching such alongside movies like Memories of Murder or Zodiac.
#2: The Celebration (1998, Thomas Vinterberg)
I might as well admit that I’m not exactly the biggest Dogme 95 fan. But I also find the movement on the whole to be so deeply fascinating, because the filmmakers and storytellers who build up that wave in cinema all work in protest of Hollywood’s heightened drama to the point of taking away from the individual artists themselves - to the point of deliberately giving the storytellers such restrictions to impose upon themselves. But Thomas Vinterberg, being the first filmmaker to work within those boundaries is one of a handful of examples of people who make them work in their favour, because The Celebration is like watching a family video being made during the worst possible time. Not only does it make it so gripping, but it’s also very lived-in.
#3: Love on Delivery (1994, Lee Lik-chi)
Stephen Chow has always been one of the most fun personalities to watch after in Hong Kong cinema. This movie emphasizes all of that and then some more, especially because you have Stephen Chow wandering around while wearing a Garfield mask spontaneously after seeing him imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2. This whole movie shows itself to be a whole lot funnier even from there onward, and it just goes places where one wouldn’t expect. And that just might as well be one among a few reasons why it rules.
#4: Real Life (1979, Albert Brooks)
This is maybe one of the greatest comedies ever made. I think every list of the greatest mockumentaries wouldn’t be complete without Real Life, because this one, in fact, precedes This is Spinal Tap by five years. It’s also one of the most incisive satires ever made about the nature of reality television, in which everything that we’re seeing on the screen can in fact be so manufactured in order to make sure everything appeals to our own sensibilities. But even that process gets intrusive in some manner, especially when you’re seeing how twisted Albert Brooks can get in the span of an hour and a half.
#5: There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson)
What else can I say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? It’s just perfect - perhaps it’s one of those movies that I think of when I think back about why I love movies in the first place. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that just simply explodes right at you in the same way that There Will Be Blood does so, all of which can only come forth by nature of Daniel Day-Lewis’s screen presence as Daniel Plainview. Simply put, it’s just about one of the finest performances of the 21st century, an incisive portrait of America’s foundations upon capitalism and the desire for power.
The Complete Day-by-Day Log
First time watches are denoted with bold text. Scores are on an out of five star basis.
Friday
Alien (1979, Ridley Scott) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Rumours (2023, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson) - ✯✯✯
Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Oasis (2002, Lee Chang-dong) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Saturday
Repo Man (1984, Alex Cox) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Fados (2007, Carlos Saura) - ✯✯✯, watched on 35mm
Oculus (2013, Mike Flanagan) - ✯✯✯✯
Sunday
The Warriors (1979, Walter Hill) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Love on Delivery (1994, Lee Lik-chi) - ✯✯✯✯✯
There Will Be Blood (2007, Paul Thomas Anderson) - ✯✯✯✯✯
El Norte (1988, Gregory Nava) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Monday
Nightmare at Noon (1988, Nico Mastorakis) - ✯✯✯
Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995, Albert Pyun) - ✯✯✯½
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005, Albert Brooks) - ✯✯✯
The Last Emperor (1987, Bernardo Bertolucci) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Night Swim (2024, Bryce McGuire) - ✯
Tuesday
It Lives Inside (2023, Bishal Dutta) - ✯✯½
Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014, Diao Yinan) - ✯✯✯✯
Anora (2024, Sean Baker) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Real Life (1979, Albert Brooks) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Wednesday
Sick of Myself (2022, Kristoffer Borgli) - ✯✯✯✯
Paying For It (2024, Sook-Yin Lee) - embargoed
The Hunt (1966, Carlos Saura) - ✯✯✯✯
The Celebration (1998, Thomas Vinterberg) - ✯✯✯✯✯
Thursday
Presence (2024, Steven Soderbergh) - ✯✯✯
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024, Mohammad Rasoulof) - ✯✯✯✯✯
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Kim Jee-woon) - ✯✯✯✯✯
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