February 2021 Movie Roundup
Here’s my Letterboxd diary, tracking what I’ve watched this past month.
Most Enjoyable Rewatch: The Sound of Music (1965) (dir. Robert Wise)
In the wake of Christopher Plummer’s death, I revisited perhaps Plummer’s most iconic role, and one of my childhood favourites. The Sound of Music feels different than many of the epics of its era, with a slowly ascending plot that subverts enough trope to feel unique. As Julie Andrews effortlessly wins over the hearts of Baron Von Trapp’s (played by Plummer) children, as well as the audience, the story almost feels secondary to the mood of the entire film. Even still, the final sequence, though arguably falling flat in its close, leave you as tense as any Western of the time.
Where the movie makes its bones, as you might expect, is in the wonderfully light and catchy songs. The numbers within The Sound of Music remain more diegetic than most musicals. Their intertwining leads to an imbuement of the characters that I feel can lack within certain musicals. Von Trapp’s reawakening to the sound of music remains heightened by the music it lends a attention to.
The Most Weirdly Important Movie I had Absolutely No Clue About — Love and Basketball (2000) (dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood)
With Baader-Meinhof staying true to form, this movie seems to have followed me around the past month. After watching it, I’m fairly surprised how little it gets mentioned among the list of great sports movies. I could easily speculate on why, probably due to a combination of it barely qualifying as a sports movie, and deffinitely qualifying as a ‘black movie.’ Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan costar as childhood friends trying to make it in their respective professional basketball worlds. The classic “will-they-wont-they” trope is played out well within their shared passion for basketball. More importantly, from articles and podcasts I have read in the follow up of my watch, cite it as a critical movie for girls interested in sports. Lathan’s character Monica remains a driven competitor whose intensity heightens her ability, yet she simultaneously remains a proud, strong, feminine women. A strong father-son C-plot between Epps and his Dad (played by Dennis Haysbert), display the quality of an extremely well thought, important black sports movie.
Film I’m the Most Conflicted By — War of the Worlds (2005) (dir. Steven Spielberg)
An epic Spielberg marvel with plenty of post 9/11 human terror realism imbued into it, War of the Worlds has a lot to grasp onto in the first hour or so. 11 year old Dakota Fanning is unbelievably good. Tom Cruise playing against type provides for fun misdrection throughout the film. A molasses side plot, puzzling ties to loose ends, and horrific performance from Justin Chatwin culminate in a movie that feels saturated yet incomplete.
Movie I’m the Least Conflicted by — Spanglish (dir. James Albert Brooks)
I’m begging you to battle through this just so I can talk to someone about how insane literally every choice in the movie is.
A Rare “Movie I’d Recommend to Absolutely Anybody “ — Married to the Mob (1988) (dir. Jonathan Demme)
An “Alec Baldwin movie” that is quickly flipped into a Michelle Pfeifer movie, Married to the Mob leaves you certain of your uncertainty as to where the movie is headed early on. It’s dark premise is flipped upside down by its cool temperature, punctuated by an unbelievably fun cast of actors buying in to the duplicity of the film. Vastly different than the film he’d follow this with (Silence of the Lambs) director Jonathan Demme creates an equally unique atmosphere to Gina Prince-Bythewood of Love and Basketball, in order to let the feminist undertones speak for themselves amongst the buffoonish men furnishing the scenes across from Pfeifer.
Favourite Animated: Treasure Planet (2002) (dir. John Musker and Ron Clements)
I can readily admit that it’s hard to parse my nostalgia for this film with it’s actual merit. Treasure Planet has always been a low-key favourite Disney movie of mine, and I am not the only among it’s cult followers. Where to start? The world the movie inhabits is one I’ve never seen — a nautical pirate movie in space with a dash of steampunk, the first 20 minutes set up everything you need to know about the journey you’re undertaking with protagonist Jim Hawkins (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The animation style boasts a unique blend of traditional hand drawings and CGI, as computer technology developed further in the early aughts. The score is excellent, the comedic sidekicks don’t sabotage critical moments, and there are stakes beyond “villain” wins. That is in large part because there is no true “villain”. There are only bad people functioning as hurdles, not finish lines.
I’ve heard derision regarding Martin Short’s B.E.N. character, a robot who plays as a comedic narrator of exposition in the back half of the film. I have trouble understanding, as his jokes are almost entirely adult, while the physicality plays as laughs for kids. I find myself enjoying him now more than I did when I was a child.
What makes Treasure Planet an obvious gem, though, is it’s examination on fatherhood, or lack thereof, something essentially unexplored in the Disney Universe. Jim Hawkins’ father left when he was just a boy, and is the cause of many of his problems as a teenager, leading up just prior to meeting him. The relationship that develops between Jim and Long John Silver — a wonderfully warm, yet dastardly old cyborg with excellently creative animation — is what draws you in. Without any real spoilers, it’s not the typical storybook ending you expect, mostly allowing for the growth of the characters to speak for itself.
Best Movie I watched for the First Time — Ed Wood (1994) (dir. Tim Burton)
Considered by many to be Tim Burton’s best movie, Ed Wood has clearly influenced David Fincher’s recent film Mank, in it’s obvious sense of being about eccentric filmmakers shot in black and white.
One of Depp’s best performances amidst his legendary nineties run, he plays the titular Ed Wood with perfect balance. Eccentric but not too egotistical, innocent yet somehow self aware. A movie about a character who likes dressing in drag is something you might not expect to be done well in 1994, but Depp and Burton play it straight. The vignette-like nature of the movie and the fittingly bizarre cast of characters make for a world that feels at home next to the types of B-movies the real Ed Wood made himself.
