for reels: if man is five then the devil is six
What I watched in the first two weeks of March
Welcome to for reels, highlights from my movie diary. Here’s what I watched in the first two weeks of March.
Men (2022) - rewarding rewatch
Really dug Alex Garland’s (Ex Machina, Annihilation, Devs) latest when it came out, but it seemed to have rubbed a lot of folks the wrong way so I’ve been itching to revisit it just to make sure I’m not a dumbass. Upon rewatch I reckon I’m not a dumbass, not in the case of this movie at least. Garland applies his bag of tricks from previous projects (with which he creates an uncanny valley where the primal sting of trauma collides with the fractal mutations of our modern world), only this time he trades out the sci-fi elements for an equally surreal and slightly more abstract mix of fairy-fable and horror.
Most of the film's detractors, in my feeds at least, accused Men of being not only painfully obvious in its metaphors but disingenuous in its perspective. I think the click-baity title had a lot to do with that. And I don't think there's much in the actual film to suggest that Alex Garland's approach to "feminist horror" is disingenuous or half-baked or coming from a place of "I'm one of the good guys I swear" or whatever. It's a visceral, visually unique piece exploring modern beta-male aggression's primordial fabric. And, despite what you may have heard, it doesn't attempt any definitive statements that superficially placate the fashion of the times.
You can rent Men on Prime.
Never Say Never Again (1983) - alt universe Bond
Felt like a Bond movie the other night and this one caught my eye first. Made outside the official, Eon Productions-owned franchise due to behind-the-scenes legal battles over story rights' n such (and released the same year as the Roger Moore-led Octopussy), Never Say Never Again is absent of the James Bond theme, opening gunbarrel graphic, and a host of other hallmark accouterments of the "official" Bond films. The real secret sauce of this joint, though, is Sean Connery, who returns to the role with style, grace, and a rekindled, contagious enthusiasm. Watching it today feels like catching a Bond movie from a parallel universe on interdimensional cable or some shit.
You can stream Never Say Never Again on Paramount+.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023) - bad title, fun movie
Speaking of goofy spy shit, caught the latest Guy Ritchie/Jason Statham collab at the theater, had a great time. Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre is a delightful Mission: Impossible knockoff comedy thing with a title so whack it only adds to the charm of the thing. Since 2019's The Gentlemen, Ritchie has hit a real stylistic groove as an old-school popcorn cinema workman, muting some of his earlier films' flashier kinetic visual signatures for something more economical. Mostly that means more breathing room for the scattered-POV non-linear sequencing, energetic cutting through exposition, and humor-tinged action that puts Ritchie a cut above his non-superhero popcorn b-cinema peers. Statham leads an excellent ensemble cast, most memorable among them Aubrey Plaza as our sexy spy team's wild card, landing somewhere tonally between April Ludgate and Emily the Criminal and crushing every second.
Operation Fortune: Ruse De Guerre is still in theaters.
Quintet (1979) - “the game is the only thing of value”
So I spend a lot of time on Robert Altman around here, for a couple reasons. One because I'm investigating the stoney visual grammar and mosaic sense of storytelling he carved out for American independent cinema. Two 'cause I just go through cycles of craving the Altman vibe, man. Conventional wisdom or whatever says Altman's dense filmography, despite including some indelible modern classics, is riddled with minor dalliances and failed experiments (this old clip of John Carpenter calling Altman a straight-up bad filmmaker whose works are "slightly masturbatory" is one of my favorite things ever btw lol). Hell, Altman's my guy and I've only seen 15 of the 40 or so feature films he directed. So I've been trying to clock new (to me) Altman films at a steady clip for a couple years now (one of which I featured here, and several I've written about in other for reels), and all of 'em have been dope as hell, even the ones that're supposed to be total duds.
Top 'o the month I rented Quintet, Altman's much-maligned hazy chillwave retro-futuristic dystopian sci-fi starring Paul Newman (also a guy I've been watching a lot of since catching The Last Movie Stars on HBO Max). Set in a future ice age that's sure to please the Ursula LeGuin heads (Left Hand of Darkness type shit amirite??), the film follows Essex (Newman) through the remaining vestiges of human civilization where folks fill their time playing a board game called "Quintet." Essex hasn't played the game in years, and he's only interested in finding honest work or whatever's left of it. But a random act of violence leads him to an exclusive "Quintet" tournament where the players are actually killing each other for losing in the game.
Altman and crew shot the film on the abandoned site of Montreal's Expo 67 world's fair (in the middle of an actual Montreal winter, eesh), giving the whole thing an immersive "frozen-over Tomorrowland" feel. And they smeared vaseline or some shit on the edges of the lens so every shot is encased in a hazy soft-focus, like looking at a bad dream through an icy window. They also created a complete set of working rules for the game "Quintet," though you never really understand them when watching the movie. Sounds like an error, I know, and it's something people have faulted the movie for ever since it came out. "Confusing" and "boring" are the last two words you want said about your movie, and they seem to be the two most common words used to describe Quintet. But when you lock into its rhythm and focus, the film becomes a potent, melancholy sci-fi prophecy of our gamified way of life in this late-stage capitalist-into-techno-feudal era. No matter how advanced or rudimentary the technology, we eventually lose our humanity to our amusements. To paraphrase St. Christopher, a power player in the film who's started his own "Quintet" religion, the number five is the break in the void, and "the game" is what we make of life when there's none left to be had. The inoculation for the non-future.
If the ground's not cold,
everything is gonna burn
We'll all take turns,
I'll get mine too
If man is five,
Then the Devil is six,
And if the Devil is six
Then God is seven
This monkey’s gone to heaven
-Pixies
Most of Altman's films, in some way or another, are playful yet mournful meditations on the fractured American dream, the nagging Hollywood archetypes we all desperately cling to, and the inevitable moments of weakness that shape our futures. In its Ballard-esque, surreal sci-fi proceedings, Quintet takes these ideas to their ultimate apocalyptic ends — revealing a pattern of abstracting life so we can game it for ourselves and forget the humanity we've lost. For creatures who crave power as much as the human race, it seems survival, or even peace, will never be enough. You have to win, and someone else has to lose. Don't wanna play? Too bad. The game will find you.
So how will you play? And what will you make of the other players?
You can rent Quintet on Prime.
Scream VI (2023) - we’re in a franchise and I feel fine
You know what's dope about Scream VI? It feels like Scream VI, you dig? Like it's more concerned with being a late slasher sequel than it is with frantically hitting the "meta" button the whole time. Like this is Scream, so you gotta hit the meta button, just not so hard you know? And, like, give it a minute. Point is I liked Scream VI a lot more than Scream '22, which somehow went both overboard and limp with its meta-"requel" stuff and just sorta came off as weak late-stage IP bait. Funnily enough, Scream VI turns it's meta attention to the IP mega-franchise conundrum and somehow it works much better. Also, the new cast, whom I really dug in the last movie, gets full rain of the "Ghostface takes Manhattan" setting. On the whole a welcome addition to one of our dopest slasher properties.
Scream VI is now in theaters.
The Three Caballeros (1944) - Donald Duck’s ayahuasca trip
Donald Duck gets a bag of ayahuasca in the mail and it goes from there. Dope that a WWII South American relations propaganda piece turned out to be one of the Mouse's most psychedelic concoctions. Next time you get stoned and watch Fantasia or Alice in Wonderland, do yourself a favor and double-bill it with this joint.
You can stream The Three Caballeros on Disney+.
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