Some things never change.
Craig Good
- 19 Followers
- 15 Following
- 291 Posts
Assistant Professor, CCA. Ex-Pixar. Science communicator and author of "Relax and Enjoy Your Food".
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"There is an endless supply of white men. There has always been a limited number of human beings."
#movies #film
https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/little-big-man/
A ★★½ review of Little Big Man (1970)
This film has been on my shame list my entire adult life, given that it was released while I was in junior high and unlikely to go see it in first release. I remember reading about it, and somehow it grew to mythic stature in my mind. So. It's definitely from 1970. I know to make allowances and recognize that it was very ahead of its time in many respects (including a queer Cheyenne), but a lot of it doesn't age well. Like casting only part of the Indians with real first-nations people. What surely does age well is Dick
As the sound of the playgrounds faded, the despair set in.
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https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/children-of-men/
A ★★★★ review of Children of Men (2006)
I show a sequence shot from this every semester, so it's another film that I feel like I've seen recently but, in fact, I haven't seen in so many years that I couldn't remember what happens. Alfonso Cuarón brings us a tense look at a bleak future where humans have mysteriously all become infertile. He's got a great cast to take us on a real odyssey. The action is so relentless that the movie almost plays like one long set piece. There are moments of stillness, but danger is omnipresent so we never really get to relax. The stakes are
I'm a liberated man. I know that crying isn't weak.
A ★★★★★ review of Barbie (2023)
Greta Gerwig really got my hopes up. I thought that both Lady Bird and Little Women were terrific. When I heard that she was making Barbie I said that she was exactly the woman for the job. When I sat down in the theater this evening I had high expectations. They were all exceeded. And by a healthy margin. The laughs start immediately. You've seen the trailers, which wisely draw mostly from the beginning. It's at least that funny, and you can count on laughing out loud several times unless someone has darted you with an elephant tranq. There are
"Graba todo, Pablo."
A ★★★½ review of [REC] (2007)
Now here's something you don't see every day: A contained zombie flick. Plus it's a found footage film from back when those ruled the cinema. The hardest thing for most found footage films to do is justify every shot. This only breaks the rules once, briefly, and maybe pushes what news camera tech can actually do, but for the most part it plays fair, and very effectively. The setup is pretty simple and straightforward, featuring a very appealing Manuela Velasco as a TV reporter (which she actually was) with the simple assignment of following some firemen on a night shift.
"Bring in the sheets."
#movies #film
https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/oppenheimer-2023/
A ★★★★½ review of Oppenheimer (2023)
Seeing a movie at an Academy screening is a real treat, and I'm grateful that Jeff invited me. You sit in an excellent screening room (ILM in this case) with an audience that knows how to watch movies. No ads, no trailers. No phone screens. No interruptions at the end. And when you're extra lucky the movie is good, too. Oppenheimer represents Christopher Nolan at his best. He weaves timelines and shoots beautifully. This time out he has a strong central protagonist to build the film around, so even though there's a large (and impressive) cast it has a focus
A ★★★★½ review of John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
I wrapped up my rewatch of the series with what is still my favorite of the bunch, though they're all good. You can read my first review for thoughts on the film. I'll add a few thoughts on this chapter here and talk about the whole series. While Stahelski does still get a little confused on left and right in some dialogue scenes, he's still always clear. These movies should be studied for how to do action, both technically and in story sense. The real fun here is both the ballet and the obvious sense that Stahelski knows his movies
Mongo love candy.
#movies #film
https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/blazing-saddles/
A ★★★ review of Blazing Saddles (1974)
The film that killed the western is certainly a product of its time. Wildly popular, and uproariously funny back in the day, it hasn't aged particularly well. I'm not referring to the language that almost nobody gets away with anymore. That, of course, was all well and good in 1974 and since that's the year I graduated high school I know how ahead of its time the movie was on racism and prejudice. Brooks understood the power of transgressive humor and used it to skewer not just a genre but a whole country. The movie certainly makes racism look stupid.
In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...
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https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/this-is-spinal-tap/1/
A ★★★★ review of This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
I remember seeing this in 1983 and cracking up right off the bat when Rob Reiner awkwardly tries to fold his arms and is blocked by the director's viewfinder around his neck. It still works. This film is funny forwards, backwards, and sideways. Few movies with such a small budget have had such an impressive cast and outsized impact on the culture. I mean, is there anybody who hasn't at least heard "this one goes to eleven"? (Guess what the volume control on my Tesla goes up to.) It's simultaneously a masterpiece of story structure and improvised moments, with songs
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
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https://letterboxd.com/clgood/film/john-wick-chapter-3-parabellum/1/
A ★★★★ review of John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)
A lot of the fun of rewatching this series in rapid succession is realizing that not only does each chapter pick up right where the previous left off (I think that by the end of this third film we've seen maybe a week or so go by) but you could probably splice them together into a single, 8-hour movie. Except that there is progress to be found both in Keanu Reeves' fighting skills and Chad Stahelski's production chops. Here we see the look embracing the saturated colors that really end up singing in the fourth film. Something else Stahelski is