The Films That I Saw: February 2013

The Oscar season is finally over. Honestly, it’s been a relief as I had trouble trying to create Oscar predictions where I eventually decided not to do it and make a fool of myself. Still, the show was decent. I’m glad Anne Hathaway, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Lawrence, Ang Lee, and Adele won though I’m upset that Roger Deakins once again loses. Now that it’s over, it’s time to focus on what is ahead as I’ve already started the 2013 season with a winner in Side Effects.

Though February is the shortest month of the year, I was able to see a damn good number of films this month as I saw a total of 45 films. 30 first-timers and 15 re-watches. Not surprisingly, down from last month except in first-timers though some of those first-timers were short films. The highlight was definitely Mona Lisa. Particularly as I now have that Genesis song In Too Deep stuck in my head. Hey, I’ll take that over that fucking Lumineers song. Plus, it allowed me the chance to explore some of the other films from the famed Handmade Films company that was co-founded by George Harrison. Here is the top 10 list of the best first-timers that I saw this month (excluding Mona Lisa):

1. Walkabout

2. Killer of Sheep

3. Withnail and I

4. The Kid with a Bike

5. Wet Hot American Summer

6. Close-Up

7. The Long Good Friday

8. Summer Hours

9. La Promesse

10. Side Effects

Monthly Mini-Reviews:

The Horse/When It Rains

Since Killer of Sheep was one of the highlights of the month, the only other film of Charles Burnett that I had seen prior to that film was the very underrated cop drama The Glass Shield. In the two short films that I was able to record during a re-airing of Killer of Sheep on Turner Classic Movies. I saw what are undoubtedly two great shorts. The Horse is this rich yet tense film about a boy waiting for his father to kill a dying horse as the boy is comforting that horse in its final moments. When It Rains is a much more hopeful short about a musician who tries to help a friend pay her rent by asking people for some money he was owed to on New Year’s Day. These shorts are must-sees as it emphasizes on how underrated Burnett is as a filmmaker.

That’s My Boy!

I have masochistic tendencies to watch bad movies. Notably as I wanted to know how bad they are and how much I can take the awfulness of that film. This is one I will never watch again as I will be continuing my boycott of Adam Sandler. While this is a major improvement over the abomination that was Jack & Jill, it’s not enough to help the awfulness of this film. It’s bad enough that this film celebrates statutory rape and pedophilia in such crude humor that is brought to you by wine coolers, Yoo-hoo, NBC TV movies of the week, Budweiser, and other stupid product placements. Yet, there’s also a lot of gross moments that will test a viewer. Still, it’s nothing compared to the climax that involves incest that if this film was being shown on a plane. I would be the first to jump off.

Battleship

From the school of bad filmmaking courtesy of Michael Bay, this film is an emphasis on how to not make a summer blockbuster. It’s all over the place in terms of action and drama. Too many fast-cuts that doesn’t make any sense. The talents of people like Liam Neeson and Alexander Skarsgard are totally wasted in favor of people like Rihanna. The villains are lame. Plus, it has some of the worst usage of rock music out there. It’s bad enough that AC/DC is being overplayed to death. The icing on the cake for me is the usage of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son at the end which is an anti-war song. It’s usage in a film that is supposed to spout all pro-military propaganda is just flat out insulting.

Top 10 Re-Watches:

1. The New World

2. Kill Bill Vol. 1

3. The Love Bug

4. Gremlins 2: The New Batch

5. North Country

6. Steamboat Willie

7. Miracle

8. Dr. T & the Women

9. The Great White Hype

10. Sonny

Well, that is it for February. For March, there will be a focus on a few things for the month. Notably the films of Whit Stillman who will be the next subject of my Auteurs piece. There will also be a few reviews of films by Jane Campion in anticipation for her upcoming mini-series Top of the Lake on the Sundance Channel in late March. Also slated for March will be a slew of reviews of Asian films, notably a lot of old-school Japanese films where one of which will be one of my Blind Spot entries. I will finally go into my Epinions.com vault and retrieve and re-write reviews of films by Francois Ozon as I hope to catch up on some of his recent films and some of his shorts. As far as new releases, Stoker is the one film I’m aiming to see though there could be additional possibilities as well.

I will also be starting work on the LiT10 project though I don’t think I will start publishing them since I want to do more than just write about the film. I want some banners and some visual ideas that will accompany some of my ideas as well as new DVD copy. Plus, can anyone teach me on how to make banners and such? Until then, this is thevoid99 signing out.

© thevoid99 2013