by Oscar O’Sullivan

Man this is late huh. College got me like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH anyway check out this video I made instead of doing my documentary project.

Monday – Punch-Drunk Love and She’s Gotta Have It

Monday wound up featuring two movies about love, if very different forms of it. Punch-Drunk Love follows a lonely man overwhelmed by a singular, all-encompassing love connection that he doesn’t know what to do with, while She’s Gotta Have It is about a woman who is so comfortable and confident in her love that she shares it with three men at the same time, much to their frustration. While Punch-Drunk Love is an all-time favourite of mine, a 10/10 achievement in filmmaking, I was pleasantly surprised by She’s Gotta Have It. In spite of it’s obvious shoestring budget and rushed production, it feels complete and ambitious, a compelling rhythm of narrative scenes with fourth-wall breaking interludes, and excellent performances from it’s limited cast. 8/10, this is the year I finally get into Spike Lee.

Tuesday – Ricochet

Like the great Michael Bay, director Russell Mulcahy has a background in music videos, and this really shows in his eye for big, spectacular images. Even for a low-key crime thriller like Ricochet, Mulcahy packs it with distinctive set-pieces. Vans going over cliffs, Denzel kneeling in a shot-up alleyway, John Lithgow duelling neo-nazis in a luminescent prison cafeteria or watching in awe as Denzel leaps through the roof of an exploding building, it transforms a psychological thriller into a preposterous epic. A transcendent 9/10.

Thursday – Reservoir Dogs

In light of the news around Tarantino’s final film struggling to get off the ground, I felt it would be a good time to revisit his first effort. One of those wonderful debuts where a director’s style is practically fully-formed on their first go round, and stands alongside their later work not in spite of, but because of the limited conditions of its production. When I was a child we listened to the soundtrack for this all the time in the car and when I first saw the film it was a moment of revelation. 9/10.

Friday – Bottoms

I feel like when we talk about comedy films today we get bogged down in analysis of broader contexts and cultural attitudes as barometers for success, the validity of filmmaking technique in a “throwaway” genre, star power versus performance, and all of that is very well and good and stuff I have spent too much brainpower on, but at the end of the day we only need to ask one question; is the movie funny? Bottoms is funny. 9/10.

Sunday – Zatoichi and the Doomed Man

A middle-of-the-road instalment in the series, unambitious in both story and form. Highlights include yet another comedy actor impersonating Zatoichi, a striking setting for the obligatory final battle, and a genuine attempt by Zatoichi to ignore the plot for once, only to coincidentally save the day anyway. 6/10.