by Oscar O’Sullivan

Apologies for the late update, it’s a very busy couple of weeks at the minute. This weekly update is going to be as quick and painless as I can make it, just a quick thought on each film.

Monday – Affliction

Schrader always wallows in guilt and shame, getting dangerously into the headspace of his lead characters and laying their thought processes bare with diaristic voiceover. Affliction stands out for having it’s voiceover delivered by an outside observer, the brother of the protagonist trying to contextualise the events of the film after the fact. That extra layer of distance between audience and protagonist almost makes the story more harrowing than his usual approach, centring the perspective of the people harmed by Nick Nolte’s descent into depravity. Schrader’s career is a constant retelling of the same fundamental story, but it’s details like this that make each telling feel like it’s own experience. A 10/10, available on MUBI.

Wednesday – Stagecoach

Wide shot of a cowboy standing in front of a wide-open plain, rifle in hand, legs apart, he twirls the gun, the camera pushes in, the focus adjusted mid-movement, settling in a close-up of John Wayne, the very image of the old Western hero. This is how you introduce not only a character, but an actor. When was the last time someone appeared on screen in such a moment of calculated impact? Boseman’s entrance as the Black Panther in Civil War comes to mind, the opening reveal of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Jack Sparrow sailing into port aboard a sinking ship, and the eternal gold standard, Indiana Jones. Stagecoach is so much more than just this scene, a pioneering action film and well-tuned ensemble drama, but John Wayne’s triumphant entrance into the story and into stardom stands out as one of the great moments of cinema history. 9/10, available on YouTube for free.

Thursday – Field of Dreams

A truly bonkers experience. Building layers of confusion and mystery, inexplicable events piling up with a comedic banality, Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones just as confused as the audience before accepting their fate with a comedic magnanimity. The ultimate moral may be somewhat shallow and sappy, a sermon on the unifying power of sports and good old fashioned values in a changing society, but the insane journey to reach it and beautifully artificial construction makes it a trip well worth taking. An 8/10 surrealist classic.

Friday – Game Night

The type of comedy film we should be getting five of every year, an unfortunate rarity in today’s blockbuster-focused climate. An impressive balancing act of grounded character comedy, Naked Gun-style absurdism and surprisingly solid action. It doesn’t excel at any of it’s aspirations, but it succeeds as a full package. 8/10.

Saturday – Big Fish

Steven Spielberg was originally meant to make this movie, and that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Nostalgia, the power of storytelling, a difficult relationship with an absent father, it’s all here. Burton’s approach to the material takes full advantage of his strengths as a visual storyteller to create a tactile separation between the real world and the tall-tale reality of the stories-within-the-story. Ewan McGregor, especially as a young man, was an actor who could play overly sweet and naive characters to perfection (see Moulin Rogue), and the context of this film, a son’s too-good-to-be-true imaginings of his dying father, makes McGregor’s brand of unbelievable perfectness absolutely suited to this role, his uncanny resemblance to a young Albert Finney being the cherry on top. 9/10, my favourite of the Burton films I’ve seen so far.

Sunday – Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping and Duplex

As a teenager who grew up watching Lonely Island YouTube videos, this film is a guaranteed home run. I’m not sure how it would play to an audience without that context, a lot of the humour is referential in a way that could be lost on a younger crowd, but this is my review and I find this very, very funny. 8/10, a poor man’s Walk Hard is still a very high bar.

Drew Barrymore is responsible for three of the most heart-wrenching Adam Sandler romcoms, so it feels a little disappointing that this film is more of a straight comedy, with her and Ben Stiller as an already established couple. I don’t necessarily believe in pigeon-holing actors, but I don’t think this film plays to Barrymore’s strengths as a romantic lead. Aside from that, it’s a delightfully off-beat black comedy, almost agonising to watch as our leads are tormented by the tenant from hell, a little old Irish lady whose antics defy all logic. Danny DeVito directs with a healthy layer of whimsy, milking the scenario for all it’s comedic worth. It would be unbearable to watch if it wasn’t so consistently funny, battering you with it’s comedy and creating a scenario so nightmarish you can’t help but root for it’s, let’s face it, underwritten leads. Another 8/10, it’s been a good week for movies.