for reels: February - March 2021
A monthly look back at my movie diary on Letterboxd.
Welcome to for reels, a monthly look back at my movie diary on Letterboxd // Today, I’m looking back at February - March 2021 //
Hey hey folks, been awhile. 2021 ain’t exactly been a “high-energy” year for Nic and I so we’ve been tryin’ to recharge the ole batteries or whatever. But don’t worry we haven’t stopped watching movies lol which is why I figured I’d pop things off again with another look back at my Letterboxd diary.
Wild to think these may be the last months I report on before I start going back to theaters. God I can’t wait, probs gonna hit Sprial, that new Saw joint with Chris Rock first, should be fun as hell to get back to it with an “event” horror movie amirite?
Also, suuuuuper bummed about the Arclight closing in Hollywood. Seriously what the fuck. Film Twitter has already called on Quentin Tarantino to buy it up and save the Cinerama Dome, so maybe that’s some last-minute bullshit that’ll work out.
Anyway as far as pandemic home-viewing-only months go, February and March were pretty good ones. Some pretty lit stupid franchise movies came out on HBOMax (one of which we’ll get to later) and some titles I paid extra to rent turned out really great. I also just revisited a lot of good shit from week to week. So here are some fake awards for a smattering of notable joints from my Letterboxd diary from February to March.
February
Best New Movie: Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)
Is it even possible for a Hollywood movie to be radical anymore? I honestly don’t know, but I’m mad impressed that Judas and the Black Messiah didn’t fuck around when it came to incorporating the politics of the Black Panthers into an actual movie about the Black Panthers (thank god they didn’t let Aaron “trust the system” Sorkin near this one). Not that this film doesn’t take creative liberties with its source material, as all good historical biopics do, but the way director Shaka King incorporates Michael Mann heist shit with shades of old-Hollywood Bible epics and Spike Lee’s Malcom X is a phenomenal achievement in 2021. And, of course, Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield give the performances of the year. Kinda shit that makes you feel like you can almost believe in the power of movies again.
Best New-to-Me Movie: The Player (1992)
The incendiary mirror Hollywood deserves. Finally watched Robert Altman’s The Player and I gotta say I’m glad I waited until I could fully appreciate it. Tim Robbins plays a Hollywood studio executive who gets a death threat from a disgruntled screenwriter and embarks on an odyssey through the grotesque ins and outs of the Hollywood system. Always a vocal outsider pounding at the gates, even during the height of the salad days of the New Hollywood, Altman clearly had a lot of material built up for this biting satire about studio execs doing everything they can to remove the need for artists in making movies. Not evergreen at all :(
Instant Fucking Batshit Cult Classic: Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021)
Hey, do you like laughing? Well Barb and Star is the joint for you. Srsly tho I can’t believe they made this. I love it!! Kristin Wiig and Annie Mumolo bring us a silly, absurd SNL/Austin Powers-style romp when we needed it most. Bless ‘em.
Dankest Rewatch: Aquaman (2018)
Yo this movie still rulez! James Wan has such good taste in bad taste, ya know? Also it’s got maybe the best blockbuster-fantasy CGI... ever?? For real tho the Star Wars-prequel/James Cameron/Power Rangers/Ray Harryhausen/WWE/Harley Davidson/Sammy Hagar/Lisa Frank aesthetic is to fucking die for. Plus there’s Julie Andrews as a big ole omniscient sea monster *chefs kiss*
Most Worthwhile Rental: Freaky (2020)
Forked out the extra six bucks or whatever to rent this new slasher from the director of the Happy Death Day films (check those out for sure if you’re into this sort of thing). Money well spent. Ever since I saw Brawl in Cell Block 99 I’ve been waiting for someone to fully unlock Vince Vaughn’s physically-imposing-slasher-villain potential. This movie does that while also utilizing Vaughn’s comic chops in a Freaky Friday scenario. Would be remiss if I didn’t also call out co-star Kathryn Newton, the Final Girl who swaps bodies with Vaughn’s masked killer. A “Freaky Friday the 13th,” as this movie was originally pitched by writer Michael Kennedy, is one of those so obviously great I can’t believe no one’s tried it before ideas, and it really cooks thanks to Vaughn, Newton, and the rest of the killer cast. This one’s currently $6 to rent on all the places you can rent shit, well worth the extra few bucks I promise.
March
Best New Movie: Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021)
Yo the Snyder Cut is my joint lmao. Nah but listen, my buddy Conor said it best in his Letterboxd review:
give me more mythic epic slow wild visions of superheroes plz
I don’t necessarily want all superhero movies to look and feel like this but I do want them all to have the sort of singular vision that’s on display in spades here
Hollywood is clearly just gonna keep putting all its resources toward the dumbest IP shit ‘cause that’s the only card they have left, which is to say, all things considered, I’m glad they used all that money and superhero juice and stuff to produce something that, whatever else you think about it, felt like a cohesive vision of a comic-booky experience. When you’re watching Clash of the Titans or Sinbad or some shit, the best case scenario is that it plays out like some absurd WWE-esque opera or silent militant-Roman-Gods fantasy cartoon. Justice League delivers all o’ that.
And the extra millions spent on this thing once they decided to let Snyder finish it actually pays off on screen. Visually (and otherwise), it’s Lord of the Rings meets Heavy Metal with a slice of the ole Frank Miller/reactionary a e s t h e t i c for good measure. Like I know I just said that Aquaman has maybe the best fantasy CGI ever, but like so does this movie. In fact right now I’m kinda feelin’ like Snyder is one of the few Hollywood directors around to expand on the type of crystalline sheen-CGI that George Lucas pioneered with the Star Wars prequels.
And that’s the deal with these movies; I just earnestly dig trashy art with a strong sense of style and taste, even “bad taste.” Most MCU films have no sense of either so I’m always just gonna gravitate toward the DC movies more.
Also I had just watched Rambo III when the Snyder Cut dropped so this meme got me good lolol (if you know you know):
Best New … Movie? Can’t Get You Out of My Head (2021)
The lines between film, TV, and just about every other form of digital media are blurry as fuck these days. I’m pretty cool with that, no sense gatekeeping mediums when the Internet exists the way it does, ya know? I say this because up until now I’ve kept my “TV” and “film” worlds pretty separate in terms of categorizing them in my head, but when something comes along that challenges even ones own personal media categorization habits, you gotta just let it happen.
Is Adam Curtis’s BBC docuseries Can’t Get You Out of My Head a TV show? A “series of films” a la Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series? Depends on who you ask. In any case, it’s for sure the best “thing” I’ve seen this year, movie or otherwise. Over the course of 6 parts, Curtis applies a brain-melting cut-up analysis of, well, pretty much everything as it relates to capital-p Power and the modern world.
The doc weaves in and out of the lives of individuals who tried and failed to challenge power structures from the mid-20th Century onward as it also covers the different seismic shifts in world powers (mainly, the American, Chinese, and British empires) and how the cultural back-and-forth between collectivism and individualism has, historically, been just another way for power to manage radicalism. I know this sounds like a big downer but trust me, experiencing it through the lens of this doc is really something else. Don’t know what else to say about this one without starting to sound like that Lady Gaga meme:
The whole thing is available online here.
Most Rewarding Rewatch: Body Double (1984)
I’ve had this one only on VHS for years now. It’s a great VHS movie so I went a long time without feeling the need to get it on any other format. Finally picked up the blu-ray from Indicator this week and well ... goddamn … is this my favorite movie???
I mean, why the hell wouldn’t it be? It’s like … Vertigo + Rear Window but better. A rich meta-text on cinema, an underrated LA movie, and just a banger from start to finish. Can’t think of a more satisfying exercise in visual style and suspense. It’s a sleazy Hollywood illusion, but like Altman’s The Player, it’s about the illusion of Hollywood itself. In Body Double, Hollywood is, as Hunter S. Thompson put it, "a cruel and shallow money trench where pimps run free and good men die like dogs” … a gorgeous, titillating nightmare-labyrinth where, to quote the film’s tagline, “you can’t believe everything you see.”
Whackest Rewatch: Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
The shit we came up with in the ‘90s man. Like, seriously what the fuck lmao. Another movie that now feels like a document of an alien civilization, Mrs. Doubtfire is literally a movie about a really irresponsible father who gets divorced, then starts disguising himself as an old lady so he can be his wife’s housekeeper and spend more time with his kids. Just, like, Dateline-level socially disturbing behavior lol. Fact remains, though, that it’s a weirdly apt premise for Robin Williams to go hogwild doin’ his thing. And the movie does cook when Williams goes so ham that everything around him fades and you just float on what he’s doin’ for a bit. Guess that was the point to begin with, huh? Still, smh
Trashterpiece of the Month: The Devils (1971)
Ken Russell’s The Devils is an elusive X-rated cult classic that I can’t believe is now 50 years old, given it might be the most effective and just plain relentless cinematic nightmare I’ve ever exposed myself to. A victim of censorship ever since its initial release, The Devils is a singularly wild, hallucinatory historical narrative of 17th-century Roman Catholic priest Urbain Grandier and the accusations of witchcraft he faced while governing the town of Loudun, France. It’s the most literally Bosch-like movie you’ll ever see, and it’s fully restored and currently available on Shudder.
Well cool guys I guess that’s what’s up for now. Expect the next for reels soon (seein’ how we’re already halfway through April) as well as a new plug or two and more rad new shit in the weeks to come. Later
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Awesome! Love these takes! Haven’t seen all of these but of the ones I have seen, I agree 100%!