Bearing Up

Films: Prophecy
Format: Streaming video from Hulu Plus on Fire!

Where do I start with the eco-nonsense that is Prophecy? Not to be confused with the demon-and-angel-soaked The Prophecy of the mid-‘90s, this weird little horror movie from the late ‘70s is all about the ecological disaster waiting in the logging camps of northern Maine. Look, I’m all for environmental responsibility; I’m the Chair of my city’s environmental commission, after all. There is responsible environmental policy, there is legitimate concern over many things, and then there is the ridiculousness that John Frankenheimer foisted on us.

The funny thing is that I’ve seen this before, and there are parts of it I remember really well. I was 11 when this was out in theaters, and for some reason I managed to go see it. It is rated PG, so I guess that covers it. Regardless, while I had forgotten a great deal of it, there’s a scene or two that are just so ridiculous they’ve stayed burned into my brain across more than four decades.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actress 2020

The Contenders:

Viola Davis: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Frances McDormand: Nomadland (winner)
Vanessa Kirby: Pieces of a Woman
Carey Mulligan: Promising Young Woman
Andra Day: The United States vs. Billie Holiday

Baby Blues

Films: Pieces of a Woman
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on Fire!

When I found out what Pieces of a Woman was about, I figured it was going to end up being one of the last movies I watched for the 2020 crop of Oscar nominations. There’s a great deal I will put up with when it comes to a movie, but I’ve never been a fan of a movie that features the deaths of children. This is not a spoiler, by the way. All of this happens before the title of the film drops, although admittedly that happens a good distance into the film.

That is, in fact, what this film is about. Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and partner Sean (Shia LeBeouf) are preparing for the arrival of their daughter. Everything seems to be fine, so when Martha starts into labor, both are prepared. The problem is that Martha’s midwife is in the middle of a difficult labor and sends a backup, Eva (Molly Parker). There are complications in the delivery, and Sean is instructed to call for an ambulance. The baby is born and everything seems fine, but the baby goes into cardiac arrest and dies.

I Taut I Taw a Puddy Tat

Films: The Cat and the Canary (1927)
Format: Internet video on Fire!

For as much as I purport myself to be a cinematic snob, I can really struggle with silent movies. While silent comedies are often still funny (a guy falling on his ass is a guy falling on his ass, after all), dramas are a lot less accessible. Horror movies tend to fall somewhere between. There’s a lot of possibility for some interesting visuals at the very least. Horror movies are where a lot of the early cinematic language was created. Superimposing one piece of film over another, camera tricks, odd angles, and more came in part from horror movies because there was a need to keep the audience in suspense and fright. That makes a film like 1927’s The Cat and the Canary an interesting one.

This is a haunted house story and a murder mystery as well as a mildly comic film, although not all of the humor really translates to a modern audience. The plot is one that isn’t going to be that shocking. Variations of this have existed for as long as there have been contested wills and continue today in movies like Knives Out. This should give you a solid idea of the direction we’re going and at least the general tenor of the story.

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor, 2020

The Contenders:

Anthony Hopkins: The Father (winner)
Min Chadwick Boseman: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Gary Oldman: Mank
Steven Yuen: Minari
Riz Ahmed: Sound of Metal

Wolf Tales

Films: Wolfwalkers
Format: Streaming video from AppleTV on rockin’ flatscreen

We just got a three-month free trial of AppleTV. I convinced my wife that we should watch Ted Lasso, but I admit to some ulterior motives as well. There are a number of things I want to watch on the service (and I’ll be posting them soon), but I’ve been working on getting her to go for the free trial in no small part because I wanted to watch Wolfwalkers. That seems like a stretch aside from wanting to complete my Oscar list, but even without my Oscars project I would have wanted to watch this movie. Tomm Moore is one of those rare directors where I will actively seek out all of his work until one of us dies.

I’ll talk about the movie in a minute, but I want to talk about the style of Moore’s work because it is this that is so much of the appeal of films like The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and Wolfwalkers. The goal of modern animation seems to be to make things as realistic-looking as possible, to present an animated world that looks at least in some respects like the actual world. Moore doesn’t do that. His worlds are clearly animated, specifically 2-D, and clearly hand-drawn. There’s no attempt to make it look real, but instead to make it look appropriate for the story being told. It probably prevents his work from being taken seriously by a lot of people because it does look retro, or antique, or even amateurish compared with the high-tech animation studios. But it’s the art that sells the fantasy, and Moore always sells the fantasy.

Video Nasty

Films: Censor
Format: Streaming video from Hulu Plus on Fire!

I got a lot of suggestions of 2021 movies to watch since I am constantly 18 months or so behind on new stuff. I figured that now, pre-Oscar nominations, I would get through some of them just for fun. A movie like Censor isn’t going to raise a lot of eyebrows or get a lot of votes come Oscar time, but it looked interesting, so I figured I’d give it a shot. While I won’t be watching 2021 movies exclusively, a couple a week seems like a pretty good goal.

Censor is a horror movie about horror movies, kind of. Specifically, it concerns Enid (Niamh Algar), who works as a censor. To really understand this, you need to know about the Video Nasties. Essentially, during the 1980s, the UK had censor who would restrict or ban movies that were particularly nasty or violent. Enid is one of the censors. She spends her days watching the worst and most horrifying of mid-80s movies, suggesting cuts or simply deciding that something needs to be banned.