Stranger than Paradise (1984)

What I absolutely love about Jarmusch films is the fact that he shows bored people doing nothing and it looks so fucking appealing. Way before the Richard Linklater/Kurt Cobain/Grunge slacker fad of the 1990s, Jarmusch was filling the screen with slacker icons. Only in way cooler threads.

I watched Down By Law for the first time the other day and, reviewing the storyline on here, used seven words. This film takes nine: three people drift together, drift around then drift apart. The narrative idea- to take a staple dramatic device (chancing upon a stash of criminals' cash and taking it) and place it at the climax rather than the outset- is interesting but downplayed. Plot is not important here.

There are lots of still, silent shots of people sat doing nothing. It is a beautiful film of dull subjects. The mundanity of the protaganists' lives, their lack of direction or aspiration is writ large. If I could have anyone make the film of my ridiculous, nondescript life I'd want a Jim Jarmusch film. His style and vision would make the rundown, grime of West Bromwich look like the place it still is in my head.

The main character of the three Bela/Willie is played beautifully by John Lurie. He looks great, like Belmondo in 'À Bout de Souffle', but his hipster style is betrayed by his bemoaning the repeated airings of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' 'I Put A Spell On You'. The style is superficial, it doesn't matter to him. Nothing does. This is reinforced by the aping of his style by Eddie (Richard Edson) he wants the look to be like Willie, but he's not like Willie. The third main player is Eva, a recently arrived Hungarian emigree, played by Eszter Balint. She is the coolest of the three, but that's no great praise really. She looks square but is a bit more self-assured (though this is only once acknowledged, by Willie when she's- presumably- shoplifted some groceries) while the other two protagonists look cool but lack any verve or drive.

Stylistically, thematically, visually this is a classic. The character arc I'd have hoped for doesn't happen though, dragging this back to a still impressive 7/10.

An interesting note: the music of Screamin' Jay Hawkins plays a big part in this film and, entirely by chance, he had a cameo in the film I watched immediately prior to this 'Perdita Durango'. I'd have got good odds on that coincidence.

Perdita Durango (1997)

Javier Bardem does a solid job, James Gandolfini provides comical support and the action scenes are well staged. Right, there's three marks. But, that's it. This is such a very disappointing film.

The source material has enough to sustain two films but even so, this struggled to hold my attention. I'm not saying that nothing happened, plenty happens. Just not very well. It all seems so contrived. This is like compilation of outtakes from 'From Dusk Till Dawn' with music by a Bernard Herrmann impersonator. The film is stuffed with support actors grasping their moment in the sun overplaying a series of wacky characters. The small fortunes spent on a series of four-second flashback scenes would've been better employed replacing Álex de la Iglesia. He was simply overambitious with this film and tried to do too much. Too many quirky little incidents, too many humorous shots, too many amusing storyline cul-de-sacs and not enough control of the narrative of the film. I think that he definitely has a great film in him, but this isn't it. Not by a long way.

One thing I want to note down before I forget is the overwhelming impression I had that I was watching Bernard Bresslaw in a Mötley Crüe wig. Anton Chigurh's hair was salon-fresh compared to this horror show:



Anyway, I've been kind to Perdita Durango and not mentioned David Lynch, Isabella Rosselini or Wild At Heart and it still only gets 3/10. An overpriced B-movie, a Tarantino rip-off, a mess.

The Cincinatti Kid (1965)

Any film where the premise is that Steve McQueen faces off against Edward G. Robinson doesn't have to try very hard to be gripping, but this one does. It's a sports movie and so the usual love interest/bad kid made good stuff is included, but it is peripheral.

The direction and cinematography of the movie (both excellent for me) are focused solely on the poker game conclusion. All else is background. Just as the players push everything else out of their mind, during the game so does the director. And what a finale- McQueen's ice-cube cool and Robinson's world-weary confidence are staged against a Greek chorus of watchers "he has the jack!", "no way does he have the jack".

The only way you can be the man is to beat the man, and beat him fair and square. The support players (Malden, Rip Torn and Ann-Margret) are all pushing for the kid to cheat, but he takes the only honourable path and faces him fairly.

This is a superior level of sports drama between two absolute masters. Great stuff 8/10.

All About My Mother / Todo sobre mi madre (1999)

One of the things I've noticed as I've begun recording these thoughts for myself is that it is far easier to criticise than praise. For 'All About My Mother' I could simply write "Astonishing. 9/10". This is a film that looks at women on the margins of 'normal' life and speaks with depth and interest about motherhood and pretence and expectations and forgiveness and stoicism and compassion and gender and love and sin and theatricality and human frailty and the arts and inspiration and mortality and sexuality and sensuality.

Almodóvar relates stories of interest that are grounded in reality but have an emotional and intellectual depth which invites repeated viewings. Yes, his films look great, yes they have a warmth and human atmosphere, yes he gets great performances from his performers and yes he tells great stories, but his films go beyond all of that. They are all of those things and they are theses on the human condition in addition. Right now I can't think of anyone else in cinema today who challenges and conspires with me as a viewer to anywhere near the same degree. I think he is amazing.

One other thing I've noticed about writing these notes is that they channel my thinking about what I've seen and as I write them I often adjust my rating as a result. Usually, the score goes down as I focus upon the flaws in what I've seen. All About My Mother - 10/10.

Down By Law (1986)

Entirely by chance, the second film I watched this evening was contemporaneous with the first (Howard the Duck). I'm not sure that I can think of another similarity between the two. And that is the wonder of this film in a nutshell. This film is excellent because there is nothing here that there should be in a conventional movie.

The plot is as follows: three men are imprisoned together and escape. That's it.

You don't even see how they escape, one of the guys says that he has thought up a plan and in the next scene they're free. The most dramatic part of the story happens off-screen. It doesn't matter how they did it, after all, all that matters is that they did. The film is about how they feel- a dramatic Steve McQueen motorcycle jump would have been superfluous.

This film isn't episodic, dramatic, exciting, colourful, full of surprise twists or complex snappy dialogue. The trailer must've been a bitch to cut because for long periods literally nothing happens. Tracking shots or silent footage of characters ignoring one another set to a gruff musical soundtrack take up a huge proportion of the film. There are three lead characters and one barely appears until about halfway in. They are very real and grounded characters in a fearful situation desperately trying to hide their fear. They don't like each other, they don't really learn to get on, they don't especially develop, Jarmusch simply allows the audience to gradually share their deeper emotions. A great director placing his trust in the actors, giving them time and space to deliver: it is a marvel of understatement.

The intelligence that shines through repeatedly (the first example that springs to mind is the shack that the three men find following the jailbreak being a replica of their shared cell) isn't self-indulgent or self-serving, but delivered with warmth.

This is a dark, slow, visually striking, engaging, atmospheric and thought-provoking modern day fairytale. A real feast. 9/10.

The Hunter (1980)

I love Steve McQueen. I think that he's just about my favourite actor ever. McQueen understood the truth of the saying 'less is more' than anyone I've ever seen. And so I've avoided seeing this for years. Knowing that he made it whilst becoming ill, I didn't want to see him diminished.

McQueen himself knew that he was aging fast and needed a new direction, his coveted project 'An Enemy of the People' shows that much (another film I've yet to see, but one that I'm intrigued to) but this film shows the way his career would've gone and it isn't pretty.

'The Hunter' is a poor movie. As with many films based on someone's life story it is episodic and a little too much care is paid to not hurting anyone's feelings. The only real villain is a 2-D psychopath who gets as little screen time as is logistically possible. And so we end up with what seems like a few episodes of 'The Fall Guy' strung together to justify some pretty decent stunt work. It ends in about the most cloying way imaginable. The soundtrack is laughable. It looks like a TV movie- I've never heard of the director, perhaps that's what his day job is. In fact, you could run the film for an hour opening with Eli Wallach and the parents of the kid Bernardo and the only thing you would miss is seeing McQueen fight one of the biggest men you've ever seen and get distracted by a train set (kids toys are a constant presence in the film, they were McQueen's own- as were a couple of the cars). The film is most notable for a great chase with McQueen in a combine harvester chasing a Trans Am through a cornfield and an even better foot chase ending with McQueen hanging off a the side of a subway train.

Aside from those two set-pieces, the production values are pretty poor and no-one seems to care at all how the movie turns out, but that kind of saves it too. McQueen is having such a good time sending himself up (his character 'Papa' Thorson is a terrible driver who freely admits that he's "getting too old for this shit") that the charm of his performance saves the movie. He is out of shape and struggles during the action scenes but doesn't get a corset on like William Shatner, he just shows the character as he would have been.

As I said earlier, this shows the way McQueen's career would have gone. He couldn't get serious dramatic work and would've ended up parodying himself. To do this once shows self-awareness and a lack of bullshit- to keep doing it is to become Sylvester Stallone.

Anyway, a poor movie saved by some decent stunts, solid work from Eli Wallach and LeVar Burton and a charming performance by my all-time favourite actor. 5/10