A Complete Unkown (2024)

 

Like the previous film, I have yet to have a chance to provide complete thoughts on this film. I liked it quite well, and I will share those thoughts later this week. I am simply trying to keep my 2024 time line complete with this post. 

Nosferatu (2024)

 

I have been traveling, so I have not had a chance to write a complete summary of my opinion on this film. I do want it on my 2024 time line so here is an abbreviated comment. Come back later this week for more details.

I was surprised at how much I liked this film. It is the subject of the LAMBcast this week, and when that episode is done, I will post it here for you.  

Update

Now having a little more time to write, I thought some more complete thoughts on "Nosferatu" would be useful. I have made no secret in the past for my indifference to some Robert Eggers films and my loathing for one in particular (The Lighthouse). It was with some trepidation that I included the new version of "Nosferatu" on my list of films to see on Christmas. Having already watched the dreadful "Babygirl", a second disappointment would surely have been a downer on my holiday spirit. As it was, this did the trick of brightening my day in spite of the gloomy subject matter. 

This is a vampire film with a mostly unhappy ending, that succeeds in enveloping us in a time and place that is in our heads from so many older films. The original version of this movie was a silent film from the 1920s which was nearly lost to us because it was made by violating the copywrites of the original source material, the novel "Dracula". A court had ordered that the film be destroyed but a few copies remained hidden and this gem of filmmaking from the early days survived. When it was remade in 1979, it was done in color and it has a very solid reputation.  Director Eggers has had a version of this film in his head for a long time, and now that he has brought it to the screen, there are a couple of obvious insights that I have had. First of all, because he follows the story so closely, he avoids the preposterous plot turns that marred his other films in my opinion. A template for the story has grounded his narrative.

Second, Eggers is both a visual artist but also a linguistic one as well. His dialogue feels of the time, with colloquial expressions and period authentic pronunciation, despite English being spoken in the German setting. The traditional status of men and women is reflected in the formality of some interchanges and the politeness of the social class is emphasized by some of the word choices. Even Orlock, the evil vampire has an elegant way of expressing himself with his brutal voice. The design of the dialogue does as much to transport us into the world as the physical production design does.  

The towns, castles and streets of the film are solid reproductions of the era or they are well chosen locations to reflect pre-Victorian Europe. When the streets fill with rats and bodies, you would certainly dread being in those times in that place. The film is in color, but so many scenes are shot in low light with a blue filter that much of the story seems to take place in black and white. In addition, there are sequences that are in fact drained of any color. I found that the camera acrobatics that bothered me in some of his other films, worked effectively in this old fashioned sort of story.

All of the actors are doing their jobs well. Bill Skarsgård has to act behind a face full of appliances, but his vocal expressions are top notch creepy. Lily-Rose Depp is convincing as a bride of the 1820s, dutiful and devoted to her husband, but with a mysterious inclination toward dark thoughts and sexuality.  When her lustful possession stirs her husband, the influence that Orlock has on her personality becomes clear. He is a monster, turning the husbands love into sexual rejection on a massive scale. The devotion that Nicolas Hoult's character continues after those moments reveals the way that masculine love ideals of the time are far superior to the self centered transactions of today.

Willem DaFoe is getting all the nutjob roles that Nic Cage used to get. Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz is as weird a character as the one he played earlier this year in the Beetlejuice sequel. DaFoe clearly relishes these parts and he is having a great time, overdoing the histrionics of his character. There are some very grim moments in the film, including child deaths and animal mutilations, so the gruesome aura of the story cannot be overemphasized. Kids should not be seeing this movie. 

I will be including this film in my favorite films of the year post coming soon. You should take advantage of any opportunity to see this in a theater. Home video will require a lot of fine tuning of your screen to be able to see some of the things on the screen.  

Babygirl (2024)

 

This film irritated me as much as any movie I saw in 2024. It is basically "50 Shades of Grey" inverted so that the role relationship is gender altered, and then there is a family dynamic layered on top like gravy, trying to cover for a poor dish with some extra sauce. Unfortunately, the patina of dramatic heft is wasted because the demeaning sexual relationship depicted in the film is the only thing that is interesting, and you will feel dirty for being interested in it. 

Nicole Kidman is convincing as a middle aged woman seeking sexual satisfaction outside of her marriage, but it is an incomplete story. She apparently cannot achieve orgasm with her husband, and this is after they have been married for nearly twenty years. The sex play she suggests to him at one point, hints at her needs, but she is not capable of expressing her frustration about their sex life and resorts to masturbating to on-line porn immediately after a clinch with him. What she needs is a real man to tell her how to feel and what to do during sex. Does that sound like feminist empowerment to you? It felt demeaning to me and even if she is a submissive, the manner in which she tries to exert some agency is very destructive.

Her intern at work, for whom she is supposed to be a mentor, seems to have the gift of reading her needs. It is not exactly clear why, but Harris Dickinson as her lover is appropriately creepy. The near Rasputin like influence that he exercises over her, feels unearned, but she seems to accept it as a condition of having her needs fulfilled. For the first part of the movie, those are mostly petty humiliations that seem to arouse her and that he choses capriciously. In the second half of the film, they become more explicit and although the nudity is slightly muted, the sexuality is not.  The prurient interest that writer/director Halina Reijn is attempting works, but so would ten minutes on a porn site. 

There is no story of redemption, or emotional breakthrough here. The power dynamic is offensive on both lead characters, and the distasteful reduction of Kidman's character will be embarrassing for everyone.  I saw this on Christmas Day, and the story takes place originally at Christmas Time, but this may have been nearly as bad a choice for a film to see on the holiday as "Babylon" was two years ago. I'm not sure why Hollywood is interested in crapping all over the audiences for the holiday, but I wish I had found a lump of coal in my stocking instead of this turd.

The Nightmare Before Christmas In Concert Live to Film (2024)

 

The above promo is for a different venue with a different orchestra, but the idea is the same. The Austin Symphony Orchestra just did not post their own version of the promo.

We saw the original "Nightmare Before Christmas" at a special screening at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood in 1993.  Many of the technicians and artists who worked on the project were in attendance that night. It was a nice way to get introduced to the movie. For some reason, my wife could never make it through the film without falling asleep, but she loved it well enough to order a series of Christmas ornaments and displays that have their own place in our collection.

The songs are tuneful, but like many contemporary musicals, they are more woven into the narrative than a stand alone song, which makes them less likely to be something to sing along with. There is clearly a great deal of attention paid to them in the orchestra's presentation, and there is nearly continuous music during the film.

As always, live music is worth the extra effort and our local Symphony are no slouches when it comes to performance. I did have trouble trying to spot a couple of the instrumentalists who did an especially noteworthy job in particular sections of the film. I should have brought some binoculars. 

 The program included a list of donors to the symphony, and even my meager contribution was noted, that was a complete surprise to me. 

Moana 2 (2024)

 

I'm going to be honest with you. I slept thru 80 % of this movie. After the opening, of which I have no memory, I dozed off repeatedly. I have a vague recollection of a scene where a priestess is lecturing Moana, and there is a song. That's about it. It looked pretty but was not compelling enough for me to care about. I may watch it on streaming, but I don't think I missed a particularly great film. 

Kraven the Hunter

 

This movie is not good. There is something cringy about most of the Sony films that have tried to spin off Spider-Man characters into their own films. They just feel inauthentic entirely. The "Venom" films work in part because the film makers lean into the stupidity of the premise and they get that the films are commercial junk. "Kraven" is commercial junk that takes itself seriously an is laughable as a result. The opening sequences are really good, but then we get an origin story that is so preposterous, I was laughing at it as it was being played out. 

Aaron Taylor-Johnson looks great in the part, it's just that the part is ridiculous. The child of a Russian mob figure acquires supernatural powers from a dead animal at a safari hunt with the assistance of a voodoo elixir that comes to him through a civilized girl who is visiting her grandmother's primitive culture. If chiseled abs were enough to make a movie work, then Taylor -Johnson would have this sewn up. You also need dialogue and story for a movie to work, this film has some very stupid dialogue and some equally stupid story telling.

By the time we get to the CGI climax, I just did not care anymore. The only person who gets out of this unscathed is Russell Crowe, who plays the mob boss father with a heavy accent and a sociopath personality. It's as if he doesn't give a crap and just leans into the dumb mess of a film he is in. The film is set up for a sequel, but with the box office returns, I don't expect anyone is jumping abord for another film in this series. 

I have fallen behind on films that I have seen in the theater here in December, so I am going to keep this short. There was not much to talk about anyway. I will probably turn my derision toward another film that came out more recently. Aaron, wipe your feet thoroughly before you try on James Bond's shoes. I think you might be great for that series, but you stepped in some pooh here.

 

White Christmas (2024 Revisit)

 

I suggested a year ago that it might only be appropriate to see this movie every other year. I think I was fearful that the sugary content might spoil the experience or lead to diabetes. I was wrong. This can safely be enjoyed on an annual basis. I have heard it described as the best, bad Christmas movie, but I think that overstates the weaknesses of the film. As a drama, it is certainly not strong, but the drama is really there to hold the entertainment segments together. 

There is a defense of the themes in this article www.dailywire.com/news/white-christmas-is-the-festive-film-for-our-time, and after thinking about it, there is something to the film that can be defended on a thematic level. The context is what makes it hard for most critics to see that point. We live in a different time than when the film was made.

As far as the rest of it, I never tire of Danny Kaye. Bing Crosby can sing kike no one else. Rosemary Clooney is pretty good herself and Vera Ellen is a dynamo that nearly steals the whole picture. I get warm and glow just looking at the color palate of the film and the way it is played off the background seasonal effects of Hollywood. The minstrel show number is a lot more innocent than in the film "Holiday Inn" which is the movie that inspired this film. There is no Blackface, but there seems to be an appreciation of the arts that the genre used rather than the attitude the minstrel show took toward the black population of the times they originated in.

"Choreography" is an hysterical number, and "The Best Tings Happen When You're Dancing" is just magical. For more, check out last years comments here.