Yeah, New Jack City is crap, as is Ricochet, another "cool" nineties crime film featuring Ice-T that I watched often as a kid. Revisited Ricochet for the first time in almost 30 years several weeks ago and was almost shocked at how damn trashy it was. I remembered it being more amusing, with its share of one-liners, as Lithgow plays quite the deranged villain (something he's skilled at). And it does have several, as well as more than a few narrative curveballs/high-wire set pieces, but after a while its coke-addled script just became too much, absurd and corrosive to the point of being a bummer.

Am not exactly an expert on these things, but if you're looking for a genuinely cool nineties crime film, with hip-hop elements, check out the new transfer of Bill Duke's Deep Cover when it comes out on Criterion this summer. https://www.criterion.com/films/31499-deep-cover Saw this in the theater when it came out, and have always liked it, but most importantly, it still holds up. Like Carlito's Way, another great crime film from then (considerably better than Scarface) it's not "realistic" per se, but it's colorful, well orchestrated, and full of personality, which is how a mainstream crime movie probably should be. You might also want to check out Abel Ferrara's films from that era, or maybe just in general.

Last summer, during the lockdown, we put together a semi-formal history of film project for our kids (aged 11 and 13 at the time). The curriculum included silents (A Trip to the Moon, Un Chien Andalou, Nosferatu, The General, Passion of Joan of Arc, City Lights), noirs and near-noirs (Riffifi, Night of the Hunter), Hitchcock, Kurosawa, screwballs (Roman Holiday, His Girl Friday), Sunset Boulevard, and a host of other classics and influential pictures. My son has said on many occasions that The Conversation, which was part of the “class,” is his favorite movie.

The kids kinda hit their limit after around 25 movies, so my wife and I put together a list of silent movies we hadn’t seen yet and worked our way through those. Lots of Murnau, gobs and gobs of Chaplin, a couple early ones by Ozu, and a smattering of Von Sternberg, Sjostrom, Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and others. On my own, I watched dozens and dozens of shorts, including all of Buster Keaton’s solo shorts and a decent sampling of Fatty Arbuckle’s.

We’ve also been filling some blind spots via Criterion. It turns out that I really, really love Alain Resnais and Lubitsch, who I’d somehow never seen before. (I also watched some Preston Sturges to see if my early opinion of his work had changed. Nope. Still don’t care for it. I’ve also determined that Sam Fuller is the High on Fire of cinema: even though all the parts are perfect, I just can’t seem to really connect with it.)

DaveA wrote: Thu Jun 03, 2021 11:09 amAm not exactly an expert on these things, but if you're looking for a genuinely cool nineties crime film, with hip-hop elements, check out the new transfer of Bill Duke's Deep Cover when it comes out on Criterion this summer. https://www.criterion.com/films/31499-deep-cover Saw this in the theater when it came out, and have always liked it, but most importantly, it still holds up. Like Carlito's Way, another great crime film from then (considerably better than Scarface) it's not "realistic" per se, but it's colorful, well orchestrated, and full of personality, which is how a mainstream crime movie probably should be. You might also want to check out Abel Ferrara's films from that era, or maybe just in general.

Thanks for the recommendations. I wouldn't mind jumping into this rabbit hole of 90s "hood"/crime films (Boyz n the Hood, Menace II Society, Judgment Night and whatnot). Deep Cover would be a nice addition. The title song slays.

In this genre, Juice (1992) used to be a favourite of mine, and it's still great. Totally awesome soundtrack. Tupac was a much better actor than rapper. He is phenomenal in Bullet (1996) as well, as is Rourke and Ted Levine.

In a slightly different style, Ronin (1998), starring Jean Reno, Robert DeNiro & Sean Bean, is well worth watching.

Out in a Western suburb of Chicago, some movie theaters have reopened, initially with limited capacity and masks required. The first couple times we went, we were either the only people watching a particular movie, or one of a handful of people coming to see films in a (multiplex) movie theater complex.

Cruella - yes, you can watch it on your TV, but why? It had a couple unexpected plot twists, and the 70's punk rock feel was fun. For a PG-13 movie, it had some nicely dark moments. I may have liked it better than many reviewers, as I haven't ever seen 101 Dalmations and only had a vague impression of what that Cruella was about. The end half of the film was a bit muddled, but overall it was quite fun visually, and the 2 Emmas were a good choice for their roles.

A Quiet Place Part II - As a "jump out of your seat" scary movie, it worked. Never saw the original, so much of the backstory was lost on me. Plenty of plot holes, or stuff that just made me ask a lot of "well, how come they didn't ..." questions. Fun, but didn't all make sense to me.

At home, I watched Croupier, with Clive Owen. Pretty good, but in many scenes Clive reminded me of Bill Murray visually, and that was hard to shake.

There are a few more that I'll get to later.

I rewatched 45 Years last night. It was even better than first time around. Fantastic performances, immaculate plotting. Devastating.

Wood Goblin wrote: Sat Jun 05, 2021 10:05 amIt turns out that I really, really love Alain Resnais and Lubitsch

Ninotchka is really funny. Felt it kind of fumbles itself in places though. Although Ninotchka is portrayed as stern and rigid, she is not lacking humour. Leon thinks she does because she doesn't laugh at his jokes, but as we see immediately after her humour is just different. The movie would have been more interesting and funnier if they had let this simply be a part of her personality, that she places importance on different things than he does. Instead we get the rather predictable story of her finally melting and showing her "true self". Still a good movie.

I never saw Eastern Promises until a couple of days ago - surprising, as I really enjoyed A History of Violence. It had its moments but was ultimately really frustrating. It was a couple of rewrites from being a great thriller, but that lack of finesse really cost it.

The Selfish Giant. Occasionally too mawkish for its own good, but one of the better British indies of recent years. The chemistry between the two lead kids is great.

I watched two Mads Mikkelsen films recently:

Another Round: simplistic non-stance on the impacts of drinking. The director said he purposely didn't want to take a position on the subject and that it's more of a "survey" of drinking. It shows in how uninteresting and underdeveloped the characters and consequences are. Kind of a non-movie. The trailer pretty much shows everything worth seeing in the film.

Riders of Justice: light-hearted vendetta movie about people living with trauma who end up making a sort of makeshift dysfunctional family. Tries to say something muddled about god/probability/the butterfly effect for a brief moment. Another one with not that much to say, but mildly entertaining if you want to kill an evening.

I would not pay to see either one of these films.

However I did catch Eyimofe (This Is My Desire) recently and it was great! It's a Nigerian debut about two people in Lagos struggling to make ends meet while trying to obtain a visa for Europe, ostensibly in search of a better life. Life circumstances cause them to come up short financially and their situations begin to unravel in a kind of kafkaesque account of modern capitalism... The world they're hoping to escape to is evidently already here. The interiors and environments reminded me of Pedro Costa in places. Recommended!

Just watched the new blu-ray of Tarkovsky's Mirror and was moved to tears--twice. Forget whatever new digital pop culture chaff the world's trying to unload on you now--which, I might add, you're not even likely to remember in five years--and get a pure dose of the real stuff, something earthy and literary but not ponderous. Some stellar blocking and camera movement, and the new transfer looks great.

Another film I revisited recently, situated on the opposite side of the spectrum, is The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, which I probably hadn't seen since middle school. It is obnoxious West Coast big budget cheese, a comedy shot like an action movie (Joel Silver produced). Rather childish, and full of itself. But it's also fairly self-aware, pretty entertaining/well plotted, and jam packed with notable supporting actors and jabs at the music industry. Understandable, and probably for the best, that it wasn't a hit, and I don't doubt a feminist could have a field day with it, and yet, it's kind of like de Palma's Snake Eyes in that I can still enjoy it despite it not "objectively" being "a great movie."