Yesterday’s installment brought films available via Amazon Prime. Today we move on to five gems on Netflix. While I tried to incorporate a little something for everyone, today’s does focus a bit on various kinds of action movies. All are meant to be escapist but two have become, I believe, more poignant, given our current realities, in ways I cannot believe the filmmakers could have seen when making these. As always, these are available on Netflix at time of posting. And also as always, all selections guaranteed to please or your monies back. And now, without further ado, here are today’s five selections.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Stephen Chow’s 2004 follow up to his international hit Shaolin Soccer is a stylish martial arts period piece action-comedy epic. Yes, as a co-production from studios in Beijing and Hong Kong, it is in Chinese, so you’re going to have to read subtitles. Stop your whining! The combination of jaw dropping martial arts, cartoonishly awesome CGI enhanced special effects and intense combination of whimsy and crazy action makes it more than worth it. After the first 5 - 10 minutes you hardly notice you are reading anymore.
Wuxia is a specific type of chinese action adventure film that has some things in common with the kung fu flicks popularized by Bruce Lee in the 70s, but generally involve more story, lots of breaking the rules of physics (people can jump and leap really far for example), and sometimes includes bits of chinese lore. 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was Ang Lee’s tribute to these films of his youth. Kung Fu Hustle is a bit of a tribute (many Hong Kong wuxia action stars have prominent roles here) as well as being an modernization of the genre. The basic story is one that is familiar to action film fans - an organized crime gang - the Axe Gang - ends up in a battle with residents of a neighborhood they consider their territory. Certain neighborhood residents are revealed to be Kung Fu masters and the gang’s attempts to rule the territory are not nearly as easy as Axe Gang thought it would be. The slapstick humor mixed in with the ultra violent action make for an interesting tone, one not common in American films. But Kung Fu Hustle is well worth it for fans of action movies and fans of the common folk beating back the criminal element trying to keep them down
The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs (2018)
The latest from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen is yet another return to territory they’ve been very fond of exploring the last dozen or more years - the western (see True Grit, No Country For Old Men). Originally conceived as a limited series for Netflix, this film weaves together 6 tales in just under 2 hours and 15 minutes. All of them are dark. All of them infused with that trademark Coen dark humour and quirk. It opens with the story of the title character, Buster Scruggs, a singing cowboy whose upbeat persona and Gene Autry-like crooning belie his cold, murderous ways. What follows are tales that include a rather unsuccessful outlaw wannabe (James Franco), an old west side show proprietor (Liam Neeson) and his side show talent, a prospector (Tom Waits) looking to finally hit that big score, a wagon train heading west with a hopeful young woman looking for a new beginning, and finally a stagecoach ride with some rather unpleasant travel companions.
This film is the first by the Coens to be released directly to Netflix in November 2018 and, though well thought of and reviewed, it seemed to disappear from consciousness so quickly that even many hard core Coen brothers fans (cough cough) missed it’s release. Though the stories in Buster Scruggs are harsh and grim, there is still some redemption and hope running through its core, as well as that dark dark humor.
Her (2013)
This Spike Jonez near future sci fi film sees Joaquin Phoenix playing a far far different character than the one he just won an oscar for. I would argue that he was more deserving of an oscar for his work here than for Joker. In the film Theodore (Phoenix) is a lonely man who gets a new type of smartphone - one who’s advanced operating system has an artificial intelligence designed to have a personality that will learn and become a companion for the phone’s owner. When the film came out many joked “oh that’s the film about the guy who falls in love with his phone.” But dammit does it work.
Theodore himself, much like many potential audience members when this was released, finds the whole idea of having a phone as a companion - a mate really - really weird as he starts up his phone for the first time. But very quickly he, and we along with him, become very engaged with Samantha (aka the phone A.I., played by Scarlett Johansson). Their conversations are so naturalistic and interesting that the conceit becomes less weird and more interesting the longer they continue. Theodore has been looking for a connection to anybody, and he finds it very quickly in their conversations.
Johansson’s performance is contained completely just within her voice - we never see any representation of her, so there are no facial expressions, no body language, it’s all verbal. And intellectual. Given those parameters, her performance is remarkable. And it’s naturalistic and believable. And for a film that is mostly conversation, it a very beautiful looking film. Jonez has created a consistent color palette with a sleek, gentle slight neon glow permeating throughout the film, which makes the world look very recognizable yet subtly futuristic.
And now that we are all experiencing the physical distancing of ourselves from one another and are looking to use social media, facetime, duo, zoom and any ways we can to keep social connectivity going, I suspect this film is far more relevant today than any of its creators ever imagined it being. The future, it seems, can still appear rather quickly.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
While Netflix has a startling amount of good and fairly recent movies on it right now (there is an amazing amount of things I’ve been wanting to check out that, in researching current Netflix availabilities, I’ve just discovered are now there), one criticism that has been leveled at them for years - and one that remains true - is their lack of films from before the 1990s. This 1968 musical based on the novel by Ian Flemming (most famous for inventing James Bond in a series of novels) with a screenplay by Roald Dahl (legendary children’s novelist responsible not only for stories like James & the Giant Peach and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, but also for screenplays for several James Bond films) is a notable exception. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stars Dick Van Dyke as crackpot inventor, er, Caracatus Potts. A scatterbrained dreamer, Potts lives as a single father with his two children and his own father. He can never quite seem to make ends meet or get his inventions to work as planned. But then he fixes up an old race car (an early prototype for those gadget laden Aston Martins and Ferraris James Bond was always driving?) and along the way meets the beautiful daughter of the local candy magnate he’s trying to sell sweets to, named Truly Scrumptious (that’s very Bond femme fatale name, innit?).
Along the way a very nefarious vaguely German/Eastern European King gets word of the car and sends his spies to steal it, and then the adventure truly begins. Off they go with this flying, surfing car, to this Eastern European land that seems to resemble pre-WWI period Austro-Hungary, with a King who is a grown man who acts like a petulant child (hmmm, sounds vaguely familiar, don’t you think?).
I’m generally not a musicals person, but I am a fan of some of the classics, like Singin’ In The Rain and Mary Poppins. And while Chitty isn’t quite up to that level, it’s still pretty fun and in it’s own way, similar to that Disney classic, if a little long. It’s a good one for the family. And if you haven’t seen it in a long time, it’s worth another view.
I do remember as a child being completely freaked out by the child catcher (did I mention the European nation has a strict no children law?) but then am always delighted to see Benny Hill as the toy maker. A toy maker in a kingdom with no children? Ahh, remember my comment about the King who acts like a petulant child? Well, I suppose at least he doesn’t brag about his facebook ratings.
Killing Them Softly (2012)
New Zealander Andrew Dominik made a splash in Australia with his debut, Chopper, about a crazed career criminal there (not dissimilar to Nicolas Winding-Refn’s Bronson w Tom Hardy). The film made both Eric Bana, in the lead role and Dominik hot commodities in Hollywood for a bit. Bana got plumb roles in Spielberg’s Munich and Ang Lee’s much maligned and moody Hulk. Dominik’s first Hollywood film was 2007’s The Assasination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford.” It is a slow moving, menacing western that is one of the most beautiful films made in the 21st century and perhaps one of the more understood westerns ever made, as few people saw it. That film, built on tension and menace, not action, starred Brad Pitt as Jesse James.
In 2012 Pitt rejoined Dominik in Killing Them Soflty as a slick hitman called in to track down and eliminate two low level criminals who ill advisedly robbed a mob sponsored poker game. The stellar cast includes Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins and James Gandolfini (in one of his final roles). Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn (most recently scene in HBO’s The Outsiders) star as the poker game bandits. While not nearly as slow as Jesse James, this is a mob movie that often zigs when one expects it to zag. And while not quite as beautiful a Jesse James, it is still a very gorgeous film to look at. It seems to take a cue from Michael Mann’s 1980 debut, Thief, with lots of night time shots of wet streets, streaky lights and beautiful lens flares. Even as the brutally efficient hit man does his work, the scenes of violence are eerily poetic in their compositions and use of slow motion as much as they are brutal.
Based on the novel “Cogan’s Trade” by George V. Higgins, the story here is updated to take place in the fall of 2008, as America was in the midst of the banking crisis bailout and the Obama Presidential campaign was in its final lap on its way to victory. This setting, portrayed by numerous speeches and newscasts in the background on the TVs of the various bars and restaurants the characters visit, gives the film a spooky relevance underlining our current situation in ways neither the films makers or viewers could have imagined before 2020. Higgins, who had a previous novel turned into the famous 70s Boston crime film The Friends Of Eddie Coyle, passed away in 1999. In fact Pitt’s final scene and final lines eerily sum up the times we are currently living in, or at least how many of our leaders are handling these times. This is rare escapist fare transformed into vital viewing for the current day.
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