Strange Thoughts on Films. Turn Off Your Mind, Relax & Float Downstream.
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Films That I Saw: April 2022
I am so glad I don’t live in Florida. I would hate it there. The fact that it is now a Fascist state at this point in banning LGBTQ ideas, certain textbooks, more laws to oppress minorities in election, and then going to war with Disney. Yeah, I’m so glad I live in Georgia no matter how fucked up it is. Plus, the best thing about living in Georgia is that I have sport teams I can root for such as the Atlanta Braves, the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta United FC, and the Georgia Bulldogs football team. Sure, they don’t win everything and I will always vent if the Braves lose to the fucking Marlins. Still, I will root for them. I grew up on the Braves and Hawks as a kid and I will die rooting for them.
Florida used to be a fun place in the 80s and 90s but things changed the last time I went in 2003 in one of the most unpleasant vacation experiences I had in boarding a cruise ship which I hope to never board on ever again. Why would I want to go into that shithole? There are very few things that came out of Florida that is any good such as AEW, orange juice, Burt Reynolds, Kelly Reichardt, Miami Sound Machine, Universal Studios, a Cuban restaurant in Orlando that my parents liked a long time ago, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Disney World, and the Miami Hurricanes. The rest can fuck off.
It’s among the things in the world that is just fucking insane as France almost went into the far-right during their most recent election and had Emmanuel Macron lost. Europe would be in deep shit as the last thing they need is France becoming allies to Vladimir Putin. I know things are still intense in the Ukraine yet I will applaud them for just keep fighting and I do hope this country at least put some effort and money into helping them. Otherwise, we’d look bad if we don’t help them as some European countries such as Denmark, Spain, and Germany are willing to help because they fucking hate Putin. It’s not just these leaders of the world that is willing to stand up for the Ukraine but also the arts as I never thought I would hear something new from Pink Floyd at all as I’m glad that they made a song out of support for the people of Ukraine.
In the month of April 2022, I saw a total of 25 films in 15 first-timers and 10 re-watches with only one film directed by a woman as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge. An improvement over the previous month mainly due to the many first-timers that I saw as the highlight of the month is definitely my Blind Spot film in Army of Shadows. Here are the top 10 first-timers that I saw for April 2022:
One of three shorts by Michelangelo Antonioni that I saw this month as this short is currently available on YouTube for free. This short from 1948 does play into Antonioni’s recurring study of alienation as it play into a group of people who live in river barges and aren’t part of the society of the times. It is a documentary that do play into the world of Italian neorealism as it has Antonioni keep things simple to show a lifestyle that is struggling to keep up with the modern world in post-war Italy.
N.U.
Another documentary short film, like its predecessor, that is available as an extra for the Criterion DVD/Blu-Ray release for Red Desert focuses on street sweepers and garbage men in Rome. It is another neo-realist short that do play into how these individuals do what they can to keep Rome clean yet aren’t appreciated by the modern world at that time as it is something for fans of Antonioni need to see.
Gianna Nannini-Fotoromanza
A music video made in 1984 for the Italian pop artist Gianna Nannini is something of an anomaly from Antonioni as it is probably one of the rare times he would helm something like this. Let alone a music video as very few filmmakers at the time would take part in this. Yet, it manages to have sensibilities that do play into the song while also having some visual touches that are definitely Antonioni as it’s something that Antonioni fans also need to watch.
Tip-Top-Aline
Directed by Wes Anderson, the video for the song that is sung by Jarvis Cocker as Tip-Top is presented in hand-drawn animation similar to The Adventures of Tin-Tin. It is a hilarious video yet the song is incredible as it presented in a style that is definitely Wes Anderson. It is an incredible music video that just works as a nice accompaniment to The French Dispatch.
ASSEMBLED: The Making of Eternals
As part of the MCU documentary series from Disney+ is this documentary about what it took to make Chloe Zhao’s film. It does show a lot of what goes on and Zhao’s desire to have a sense of physicality and realism into the film. Even if it features insight from the cast as well as the art directors and visual effects team who do put in a lot of work into the visuals. It is definitely an amazing documentary even though the final film itself wasn’t that great.
Shark: Greg Norman and the Collapse of ‘96
From 30 to 30 is a new documentary from the ESPN doc series as it explore the career of famed Australian golfer Greg Norman. Norman is undoubtedly one of the greatest golfers in the game yet he is among those that never won the Masters and wear that green jacket. The documentary isn’t just about Norman’s career as well as his rivalry with Nick Faldo in the 1990s but also Norman’s own style and how managed to be successful despite lackluster attempts to win the Masters in the 1980s. Then came 1996 as it seemed like Norman was finally going to win it but the final round is where everything crashed as Norman himself observes exactly what went wrong yet it is how he accepted his defeat that makes him the revered player that everyone knows and love as it is a tremendous documentary from ESPN.
Manufraktur
A short film by Peter Tscherkassky that I saw on MUBI is a three-minute experimental short film that largely consists of found footage involving cars. With its dazzling edits, it is a short film that is intriguing to watch as it is one of the reasons why I’m enjoying MUBI right now.
Moon Knight (episodes 2-5)
With one more episode coming, it is clear that this show is definitely something of its own and it manages to be really incredible. Notably for the performance of Oscar Isaac in the roles of Steven Grant/Marc Spector as the most recent episode explore who this person is and why he has dis-associative identity disorder. The show also has Ethan Hawke in a great performance as the show’s antagonist Arthur Harlow while May Calamawy’s performance as Spector’s wife Layla is a real standout as she can kick ass but also be her own woman. The third episode featured a great appearance from Gaspard Ulliel in one of his final acting performances as he was awesome in that episode and I’m glad the show did a dedication to him. This is already becoming a great show as I await for what will happen next.
Wrestling Match of the Month: FTR vs. the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at Supercard of Honor XV
If there’s one tag team right now that is the hottest thing in professional wrestling, it’s FTR. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler are a relic of the old school as they were the guys that were inspired by what Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard did in the NWA in the 1980s but also with a love of technical wrestling. They were one of the teams that were loved when they were in NXT for the late 2010s but when they got promoted into the main roster in WWE. They were treated like a joke as their arrival in AEW in 2020 gave them not just a new home but a place where they can be appreciated. While they arrived mainly as heels, the fact that these are two guys from North Carolina who don’t really do anything flashy nor play to the trends of other tag teams while also admitting to just being guys that wrestle to make money to feed their families somehow connected with the crowd.
This month alone has been FTR’s time as their match at the Supercard of Honor XV against the Briscoe Brothers for the ROH World Tag Team Championship is a match that is tag team wrestling at its most pure. You had a more unconventional and aggressive style the Briscoes are known for but FTR managed to find a way and win while also playing fair. It was a match that fans of tag team wrestling need to see while the match FTR had days later against the Young Bucks in which FTR would defend both the ROH and AAA tag titles showed exactly why they’re considered the best tag team working today. It’s no question that they should be next in line to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship for the 2nd time but why stop there? There’s a big AEW-New Japan Pro Wrestling show coming in June in Chicago at the United Center so why not go for the IWGP Tag Team Championships as well? FTR all the way baby!
Book to Read: Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and the Price of a Vision by Charles Elton
I don’t consider myself an avid book reader as I buy a book every now and then yet I heard about this book from both Indiewire and Criterion as I got it at Amazon since my mother likes to buy a few books at Amazon. It is a book about the controversial filmmaker Michael Cimino as it goes into a lot of details about his life as well as his career as a commercial filmmaker and how he got into Hollywood and being discovered by Clint Eastwood. It also play into the what went wrong during the production of Heaven’s Gate as there are some revelations into not just what Cimino did but also the fact that the executives at United Artists really should’ve taken responsibility for the production to become troubled. It is an incredible book that I think fans of the filmmaker should read as it also play into his struggles to recover from the failure of Heaven’s Gate and why he stopped making films after The Sunchaser.
9. Final Cut: The Making and Unmaking of Heaven’s Gate
10. Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Well, that is it for April. Next month from May 17 to 28, I will be doing the Cannes Festival Marathon but I will not announce any line-up as I decide to improvise instead where I will just watch whatever is available that did play at Cannes including a few DVD/Blu-Rays I have. Other than that, there will be my next Blind Spot as well as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as that’s all I have planned for next month. That is all I have planned including whatever is in my watchlist as I am now counting the final days of my time with cable TV as the most recent cable bill my mother and I received has us really upset and we’re taking serious consideration in getting rid of it for good and go full-on streaming. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off…
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