Based on the novel Froth on the Daydream by Boris Vian, L’ecume des jours (The Froth of Days or Mood Indigo) is the story of a man who meets and falls for a woman who is dealing with an unusual illness caused by a flower growing in her lungs. Directed by Michel Gondry and screenplay by Gondry and Luc Bossi, the film is a genre-bending romantic-comedy that explores a man who falls for this woman as he tries to make her happy despite her illness. Starring Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh, Omar Sy, Aissa Maiga, and Charlotte Le Bon. Mood Indigo is a whimsical and heartfelt film from Michel Gondry.
The film follows a rich young man who meets and falls for a woman at a party as he would marry her only to deal with an illness she gained in their honeymoon caused by a flower in one of her lungs. It is a film with a simple premise as screenwriters Michel Gondry and Luc Bossi play into the whimsical world of this rich young man in Colin (Romain Duris) who lives with his cook Nicolas (Omar Sy) and a mouse (Sacha Bourdo) in a home that is unique. Attending a party hosted by Isis (Charlotte Le Bon) where he meets his friend Chick (Gad Elmaleh) and his new girlfriend in Nicolas’ niece Alise (Aissa Maiga). It is at the party where Colin meets Chloe (Audrey Tautou) as they take part in a dance craze and then meet again where he takes her to an underground forest as they fall in love and get married. Yet, things start to take a dark turn following their honeymoon when a flower flew into her lungs as it would cause this unusual illness.
Gondry’s direction can definitely be described as style over substance in terms of its overall presentation yet there is something charming to the way Gondry depicts the life of this rich man who lives in a home where a lot of objects have a life onto their own while the doorbell often acts like a bug that gets killed over and over again. Shot on location in Belgium with areas around Paris, France, Gondry creates a world that is offbeat where it’s not just Colin’s house that has moving objects but also the world around him that includes a ride he and Chloe ride on with the help of a construction crane. There are some unique wide shots that Gondry uses to get a scope into the world these characters are in while it is also full of eccentricities such as the way people dance to Duke Ellington (August Darnell) where they’re sitting but with bigger legs that are moving for the dance. The medium shots and close-ups do help play into the interaction between characters as well as the emphasis on the latter when it comes to moving objects created by stop-motion animation.
Gondry’s direction also play into the visual vibrancy as the first half of the film has this element of joy and whimsy though it does tend to overwhelm the story at times. The film’s second half when Chloe becomes ill is where the mood changes as it slowly play into this sense of decline. The look of the film becomes less colorful while the whimsy tone of it would also darken as Colin’s home starts to become smaller and unrecognizable. Even as there is this subplot in which Chick’s obsession towards this intellectual in Jean-Sol Parte (Philippe Torreton) would be his own downfall as well as cost his relationship with Alise as it adds to the declining presentation of the film in which the cinematography becomes more desaturated and colorless. Yet, Gondry does find a way to use the visuals to tell the story despite being overwhelmed by it add to this sense of odd yet entrancing tone of a man coping with the fact that he’s about to lose the love of his life. Overall, Gondry crafts an enchanting and heartfelt film about a man who falls in love only to later deal with the love of his life dying of a mysterious illness.
Cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne does incredible work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of colors and lights to play up the sense of vibrancy to eventually going into a desaturated look and later black-and-white. Editor Marie-Charlotte Moreau does excellent work with the editing as its usage of jump-cuts and stylish cuts to help play into the humor and surreal presentation of the film. Production designer Stephane Rozenbaum and art director Pierre Renson do phenomenal work with the look of the home that Colin has as well as the rooms and some of the places the characters go to as it is a highlight of the film. Costume designer Florence Fontaine does fantastic work with the costumes as it has elements of style in the clothes the characters wear as it play into the world that the characters live in.
The special makeup effects work of Olivier Afonso, Guillaume Castagne, Nicolas Herin, Frederic Laine, and Emmanuel Pitois do terrific work with the look of the characters such as Parte in his offbeat look as well as some of the prosthetics the main characters wear in some bits. Special effects supervisor Julien Poncet de la Grave, along with visual effects supervisors Benjamin Ageorges, Stephane Bidault, Jean Louis Dousson, and Arnaud Fouquet, does amazing work with the effects from the usage of stop-motion as well as prosthetics as it is a highlight of the film. Sound editor Damien Aubry does superb work with the sound in the way objects sound as well as how music is presented on location. The film’s music by Etienne Charry is wonderful for its jazz-based score with some playful piano pieces but also some somber themes to play into the drama while music supervisor Thomas Jamois creates a music soundtrack that features an array of music from artists/acts like Boz Scaggs, Duke Ellington, Ray Shanklin, Mia Doi Todd, Loane, and Ariel Ramirez.
The casting by Marie-France Michel is marvelous as it feature some notable small roles and appearances from Michel Gondry as a doctor, August Darnell aka Kid Creole as Duke Ellington, Zinedine Soualem as a factory plant owner that rules over Colin late in the film, Alain Chabat as a cook that Nicolas watches, Natacha Regnier as a pharmacist, Sacha Bourdo as the mouse who lives in Colin’s home as he wears a mouse costume, and Philippe Torreton as the writer Jean-Sol Parte as a writer/intellectual whom Chick worships as he ends up giving his followers some awful advice on life. Charlotte Le Bon is fantastic as Isis as a friend of Colin and Chick who hosts a party and eventually has a relationship with Nicolas as she also a friend of Chloe where she expresses concern for Chloe’s health. Aissa Maiga is excellent as Alise as Nicolas’ niece who falls for Chick over their love of Parte only to feel neglected by Chick’s growing obsession as it lead her to become angry and obsessed towards stopping Parte. Gad Elmaleh is brilliant as Chick as a friend of Colin who is a fervent follower of Parte as he hopes to have a life with Alise only to become more obsessed by Parte’s ideals as he loses sight of reality.
Omar Sy is amazing as Nicolas as Colin’s cook/caretaker who runs the house as he makes great feasts and often provides a lot of help for both Colin and Chloe as he is sort of the film’s conscience where he watches Chloe in her ailing health. Audrey Tautou is incredible as Chloe as a woman who falls for Colin as she is into the world of whimsy and Duke Ellington while also becoming someone who deals with this illness as she is unable to cope with Colin struggling. Finally, there’s Romain Duris in a remarkable performance as Colin as a rich man who has it all and marrying Chloe seems to give him fulfillment until Chloe becomes ill where he struggles with his finances and the people in his life as well as the idea of losing Chloe.
Mood Indigo is a remarkable film from Michel Gondry that feature great performances from Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, and Omar Sy. Along with its ensemble cast, dazzling visual effects, incredible art direction, and its offbeat music soundtrack. It is a film, in its 126-minute cut, that explore love though its whimsical presentation can overwhelm the story at times. In the end, Mood Indigo is a marvelous film from Michel Gondry.
Written and directed by Wes Anderson from a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, and Hugo Guinness, The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun is the story of a French foreign bureau newspaper filled with American writers as they tell three stories that would be part of their final issue. The film is an anthology film that feature three different stories teach each tell something unique as well as the newspaper struggling to keep things going as the film is a love-letter to journalism. Starring Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Lea Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothee Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Almaric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray, Saoirse Ronan, Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Cecile de France, Christoph Waltz, Tony Revolori, Lois Smith, Henry Winkler, Owen Wilson, and narration by Angelica Huston. The French Dispatch is a rapturous and evocative film from Wes Anderson.
Set in 1975 in the small town of Ennui, France, the film revolves a French foreign bureau newspaper whose editor had just died prompting its staff of American writers to finish its final issue that consists of three different stories. It is a film that explore the world of this magazine and the stories they tell as it all takes place in this small town in France that include three different stories plus a prologue, a small story about the town from a cycling reporter named Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), and an epilogue. Wes Anderson’s screenplay is definitely inspired by the stories and the works of writers from The New Yorker as he play into this world of culture, politics, and adventure through the recollection of these writers. Sazerac’s story is just about the town this magazine is based on as it explore the many changes the town went through though its editor in Arthur Howitzer Jr. (Bill Murray) wonders why Sazerac also talks about some of the seedier aspects of the town as it sets the tone for the entire film.
The first story entitled The Concrete Masterpiece from the writer J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton) who hosts a lecture about the works of the artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro) and his own views on art including his relationship with his muse/prison guard in Simone (Lea Seydoux). It is a story that explore a man whose art is strange and abstract as a fellow prisoner in the art dealer Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody) wants to show it to the world including Berensen’s old boss Upshur “Maw” Clampette (Lois Smith) while hoping Rosenthaler would make a grand masterpiece. The second story entitled Revisions to a Manifesto by Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) explore a student protest revolution lead by Zeffirelli (Timothee Chalamet) whom Krementz gets close with yet finds herself having to deal with its complexities as well as vying for Zeffirelli’s affections with another student in Juliette (Lyna Khoudri). The third and final story entitled The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner by Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) was supposed to be about a dinner with Ennui’s police commissioner (Mathieu Almaric), that includes a revered chef/detective in Nescaffier (Stephen Park), where the commissioner’s son Gigi (Winston Ait Hellal) is kidnapped by a criminal syndicate over the arrest of an underworld accountant known as the Abacus (Willem Dafoe).
Anderson’s direction definitely bear a lot of the trademarks that he’s known for in his attention to detail in his framing, dolly-tracking shot camera movements, and other aspects that do play into his visual style. Shot largely on studios and locations in Angoulme in southwestern France, Anderson creates a world that is unique as the town of Ennui is this character where so much had happened as the first story by Sazerac as he’s riding on a bike revealed the town’s evolution as it is filled with these grand compare/contrast of what it looked like back in the first half of the 20th Century and what it would like in 1975. Shot largely on the 1:37:1 aspect ratio with some shots on different widescreen formats as well as some split-screens, Anderson uses the ratio to play into this world that is unique for this small town while much of the presentation is also shot in black-and-white except for much of the scenes at the magazine period and other bits in the three stories.
Anderson also draws upon some of the visual elements of the French New Wave in some of the compositions he creates in the medium and wide shots as he often captures so much detail into a room or in an entire setting. There are also some close-ups that Anderson uses to play into some of the drama and humor throughout the film as there is a lot of detail he brings that include moments of fantasy or reality. One of the stories also involve some comic-style animation supervised by Gwenn Germain in the style of The Adventures of Tintin for a key scene late in the film. The magazine itself that is illustrated by Javi Aznarez definitely owe a lot to the visuals of The New Yorker as it play into this idea of how a magazine can present stories for people to read with these interesting stories. While the narrative is straightforward though it is messy in some parts of the stories that are told as there’s small subplots and such in these stories. Anderson does play into the world of journalism in how they see things while the film is dedicated to many of those writers who did write for The New Yorker which some of the characters are based on. Overall, Anderson crafts a whimsical and exhilarating film about a French magazine run by Americans and the stories they tell in a small French town.
Cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman does incredible work with the film’s cinematography with its stylish usage of black-and-white film stock and its approach to lighting for some scenes as well as some of the colorful and vibrant lighting for the scenes in color including the scenes at night. Editor Andrew Weisblum does excellent work with the editing as its usage of jump-cuts help play into the humor and action as well as straightforward cuts to help play into the drama. Production designer Adam Stockhausen, with set decorator Rene DeAngelo and supervising art director Stephanne Cressend, does phenomenal work with the sets from the home of Zeffirelli and the place he hung out to the prison asylum that Rosenthaler does his work as well as the office at the magazine. Costume designer Milena Canonero does amazing work with the costumes from the look of the journalists as well as the many characters they encounter as it play into a lot of style with so much detail that include the motorcycle helmet that Juliette wears.
Hair/makeup designer Frances Hannon and hair/makeup supervisor Fabienne Robineau do brilliant work with the look of the characters as they each have a distinctive personality as it adds to the film’s whimsical charm. Special effects supervisor Jean-Christophe Magnaud and visual effects supervisor Keith Devlin do terrific work with some of the film’s practical effects in some of the action as well as the design for some set pieces involving miniatures. Sound editor Christopher Scarabosio does superb work with the sound in the sound effects used for some of the objects and such including the sparse atmosphere for some scenes inside a room. The film’s music by Alexandre Desplat is tremendous for its rich and intricate music score filled with unique brass and string arrangements with elements of melodic string pieces and usage of harmoniums as well as piano solos performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet while music supervisor Randall Poster cultivates a soundtrack that features score pieces by Georges Delerue and Ennio Morricone as well as music from Grace Jones, Charles Aznavour, the Swingle Sisters, Chantal Goya, Gene Austin with Candy and Coco, Gus Viseur, and Jarvis Cocker as a French singer named Tip-Top.
The casting by Douglas Aibel, Antoinette Boulat, and Jina Jay is marvelous as it feature some notable small roles and appearances in the different sections of the film. In the roles of the film’s magazine staff, there’s Anjelica Bette Fellini as a proofreader for the magazine, Wally Wolodarsky as a writer for the magazine who has finished an article, Pablo Pauly as a waiter at a café in the same building as the magazine is at, Griffin Dunne as the magazine’s legal advisor, Fisher Stevens as the magazine story editor, Jason Schwartzman as the magazine cartoonist Hermes Jones, and Elisabeth Moss as the magazine’s copy editor Alumna. From The Concrete Masterpiece, the small performances from Morgane Polanski as a girlfriend of the young Rosenthaler, Felix Moati as the head caterer at the big event, Denis Menochet as a prison guard, Henry Winkler and Bob Balaban in their respective roles as Cadazio’s uncles in Joe and Nick, and Tony Revolori as the young Rosenthaler are a joy to watch.
From Revisions to a Manifesto, the performances of Rupert Friend, Alex Lawther, Toheeb Jimoh, and Tom Hudson as stage actors in a play, Guillaume Gallienne and Cecile de France as Zeffirelli’s parents, Mohamed Belhadjine as a student named Mitch-Mitch, and Christoph Waltz as a family friend of Zeffirelli in Paul Duval are fun to watch with Waltz being the stand-out. From The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner, the performances from Mauricette Coudivat as Gigi’s mother, Hippolyte Girardot as the commissioner’s friend who used to work for the police, Saoirse Ronan as a drug-addicted showgirl who befriends Gigi, and Edward Norton as a kidnapper who is also a chauffeur for the underworld. In the roles of the journalists who tell these respective stories, Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and Jeffrey Wright are brilliant in their respective roles as Herbsaint Sazerac, J.K.L. Berensen, Lucinda Kremetz, and Roebuck Wright as they’re all based on real writers from The New Yorker with Wilson providing a calm persona to his character while Swinton and McDormand both provide low-key humor to their roles and Wright brings a charisma a gay writer.
Bill Murray is fantastic as the magazine editor-in-chief Arthur Howitzer Jr. who is based on The New Yorker co-founder Harold Ross as a man who doesn’t like anyone crying in his office while is also wondering about all of the things his writers does but is also someone that knows talent. The quartet of Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, and Lois Smith are amazing in their respective roles as the artist Moses Rosenthaler, the art dealer Julien Cadazio, the prison guard/muse Simone, and the art collector Upshur “Maw” Clampette with del Toro providing a gruff persona to his role while Brody is this comical man determined to get rich. Seydoux’s performance is definitely the best in the segment as someone who is the embodiment of discipline including the way she poses nude in certain ways as well as being Rosenthaler’s greatest motivator. Smith’s small performance as Clampette is full of humor but also someone who understands great art.
Timothee Chalamet and Lyna Khoudri are excellent in their respective roles as student activists Zeffirelli and Juliette with the former being the leader of a revolutionary who would befriend Kremetz who gives him ideas while the latter is a woman who is suspicious over Kremetz yet has feelings for Zeffirelli. The incredible performances of Liev Schreiber, Mathieu Almaric, Stephen Park, Willem Dafoe and Winston Ait Hellal in their respective roles as the TV talk show host, the police commissioner, the chef Nescaffier, the underworld accountant Abacus, and the commissioner’s son Gigi with Schreiber providing some wit in a role inspired by Dick Cavett while Almaric and Park both provide some humor in their respective roles with Park being the most restrained as a cook who makes great recipes. Dafoe provides humor as this accountant who is aware he’s in deep shit but is also hungry for food while Hellal brings a restraint to a kid who is quite intelligent but also knows Morse code.
The French Dispatch is a marvelous film from Wes Anderson. Featuring a great ensemble cast, dazzling visuals, incredible art direction, and an exhilarating music soundtrack. It is a film that explores the world of journalism as a magazine publishes its final issues that is filled with wonderful stories set in a small town in France. In the end, The French Dispatch is a remarkable film from Wes Anderson.
For the 14th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the subject of mediums/psychics as it play into people who can communicate with the dead. It play into people trying to talk to the dead in the hope for some answers or guidance. Here are my three picks:
Akira Kurosawa’s international breakthrough film about a rape/murder where various accounts over what happened come into play. One of which is told through a medium as someone who was killed as it adds confusion but also intrigue into what is true and also perspective from those who were involved in the incident. It is a film that still holds up since its 1950 release as it play into ideas over an incident but also this air of cynicism over what really did happen with those being shaken by their own thoughts.
2. Ghost
From Jerry Zucker of the Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker filmmaking team is a film that is quite popular about a man who gets killed and becomes a ghost where he hopes to talk to his beloved with the help of a psychic. Whoopi Goldberg’s performance as this psychic adds a lot of wit as she and Patrick Swayze had great chemistry as a woman that is gifted in what she does but she’s also someone who is also a person that is flawed but is reluctant to help Swayze’s character.
3. Hereafter
From Clint Eastwood is a hyperlink film that is about people’s encounter with death or near-death experiences as it also feature a storyline involving Matt Damon’s character as a clairvoyant who is reluctant to communicate with the dead. Yet, Damon’s character would somehow connect with the other two storylines as one of them involved a young boy whose twin brother had been killed while a French journalist had just survived a near-death experience in a tsunami.
Directed by Todd Haynes, The Velvet Underground is a documentary film about titular avant-garde rock n’ roll band of the 1960s whose music was never commercially successful yet would lay the ground work for a lot of music in the years to come. The film explores the music and art scene they were in as they were the house band for Andy Warhol and his world where they would create four influential studio albums from 1967 to 1970 that never sold a lot of records but influenced so many. The result is a ravishing and exhilarating film about one of the greatest bands of the 20th Century.
Formed in 1964 by Lou Reed and the Welsh musician John Cale that would later include Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker, the Velvet Underground was a band that were part of Andy Warhol’s art scene known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable as the band would also include the German model/actress Nico. Through four studio albums from 1967 to 1970, the band would make music that was considered dangerous, avant-garde, and extreme in comparison to the music in the American west coast as they were never commercial successful initially. Yet, the music they made as well as some of the solo recordings from Reed, Cale, and Nico would prove to be influential to many as it laid the ground work for punk, post-punk, alternative music, indie, noise-pop, and all kinds of music.
The film chronicles not just the band’s formation but also the art culture they were in that also included forms of art, cinema, and music as if it was a scene onto its own. Featuring interviews with surviving members John Cale and Maureen Tucker as well as Lou Reed’s sister Merrill Reed Weiner and Sterling Morrison’s widow Martha plus several of Reed’s childhood friends, actress Mary Woronov, musicians Jackson Browne and Jonathan Richman, music industry figure Danny Fields, film historian Amy Taubin, avant-garde artist La Monte Young, filmmaker John Waters, and experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas in one of his final interviews before his passing in January 2019. The film doesn’t showcase the art world as well as the emergence of avant-garde music in the 1960s that was prevalent in New York City. It also showed the background of its four core members with Reed and Cale being the two dominant forces as the former lived in suburbia following a move from the city as Merrill said it affected him emotionally. Cale was from a small town in Wales where he had a grandmother that hated the English and hated the fact that her daughter married an Englishman and Cale didn’t learn English until he was 7.
The film also talked about Reed’s struggle to succeed as he did have bits of minor success where, through audio archives, he claimed that the one royalty check he had for less than $3 was more than everything he made when he was with the Velvet Underground. Cale talked about how he met Reed and they were part of a band called the Primitives where they had local success in Long Island with a song called The Ostrich though it was clear that Reed wanted to do more as the songs he was writing were much darker such as Heroin. Cale would play a role in helping those songs develop even though he barely knew how to play bass and guitar as he was more accomplished in piano and viola with his classical background. The two would bring in Sterling Morrison whom Reed knew back in Syracuse while Morrison brought in Maureen Tucker after original drummer Angus MacLise left the group. Much of the film’s first half is about their formation and how they became part of Andy Warhol’s social circle where they were the house band at his home base known as the Factory.
The first half talked about how Nico came into the group as she was known largely as a model/actress that was part of Warhol’s circle as she was used mainly as someone the band could bring in to help give them visibility. Yet, Nico proved to be a vital contributor to the band despite only being in the band for nearly a year as she left wanting to do her own music and other things as her departure is what had the Velvets break up with Warhol though Cale admitted that he didn’t know about it and didn’t want to break from Warhol. Cale and Tucker revealed that the second album White Light/White Heat was made mainly from their experience on the road where they had some horrendous shows in California as the band admitted they hated the hippies and they hated Frank Zappa. Jonathan Richman saw the band during the shows promoting the second album as he met the band and was given guitar lessons from Morrison while also being aware of the tension that was happening in the band that lead to Cale’s departure in September of 1968.
The second half does cover the second album but also brief insight into the third and fourth album with Cale’s replacement Doug Yule who is only heard through audio interviews along with Morrison before his death in 1995. Notably as it play into Reed’s desire to be successful as well as the fact that the band did have a loyal following in the American east coast despite their lack of commercial success. The frustration over the lack of success as well as tension in the band eventually led to Reed’s departure while they wisely talk about the fact that the band lead by Yule and other musicians made one more album that many say isn’t a Velvets album and never should be considered to be a Velvets album.
Haynes’ direction is stylized in not just using a lot of the experimental films from that scene into some stylish montages with the help of editors Affonso Goncalves and Adam Kurnitz but also in showcasing rare footage from those shows the band played during the time. Some of the editing montages is played in the style of the avant-garde films from Mekas, Stan Brakhage, and Warhol where Haynes also showcase that world where the Velvets were part of this world that included whip dances with Mary Woronov and Gerard Malanga while there’s a bunch of films playing around them. The interviews are straightforward as they’re shot from 2017 to 2019 as Haynes and cinematographer Edward Lachman have the people in a room as they’re relaxed with Merrill doing a dance to The Ostrich as it adds to Reed’s genius as a songwriter as it made his sister dance.
Sound designer Leslie Shatz help cultivate many of the audio interviews as some came from other documentaries and such as it help tell the story but also in some of the sound collages including the demos of those songs by the Velvets. Music supervisor Randall Poster compile not just a lot of the music of the Velvets including the individual work of Reed, Cale, and Nico but also some of the avant-garde music that came before them from John Cage and La Monte Young as well as some of the rock n’ roll and classical music that Reed and Cale were into as well as some of the music in the Mamas & the Papas that the Velvets didn’t like. It all play into the world that the Velvets and Warhol came from and what Bill Graham was trying to present in San Francisco as the latter definitely seem to envy what Warhol did where Tucker stated that Graham just tried to ruin them.
The film also play into the impact the group had in the world of music but also through art following Reed’s departure as there were brief reunions in the early 70s such as a legendary show at the Bataclan in Paris with Reed, Cale, and Nico as the members kept in touch. Even though Andy Warhol died in 1987 with Nico following a year later, the band minus Yule reunited in 1993 for a successful reunion tour that was supposed to go to the U.S. only for tension between Reed and Cale ended things. Following Sterling Morrison’s death in 1995, Reed, Cale, and Tucker reunited for 1996 Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame as well as performing a tribute to Morrison. Reed would die in October 2013 leaving Cale and Tucker as the surviving original members along with Doug Yule.
Through the records they made, the Velvet Underground would prove to have a lasting influence in popular music as their debut album was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2006. Musician/producer Brian Eno stated that when the album only sold 30,000 five years into its existence upon its release, those people who bought those 30,000 copies started a band as it proved the influence they would have on popular music. In 1991, the album was certified gold in the U.S. having then sold 560,000 copies proving that the band did indeed have an impact.
The Velvet Underground is a tremendous film from Todd Haynes. It is a documentary film that doesn’t just cover one of the greatest and influential bands of the 20th Century but also the art culture they were from as well as the individuals who made the band so special. It’s a film that does sort of play by conventions in terms of its narrative yet the presentation is anything but conventional as it play into the spirit of what made the Velvet Underground so unique in their time. In the end, The Velvet Underground is a spectacular film from Todd Haynes.
Springtime… shit… another fucking springtime for me to deal with as pollen has once again arrived as it is why I hate this season more than anything else. I get sick during that time unless it’s raining and raining fucking hard. Still, this is small potatoes compared to what is happening as war still rages on with Russians invading Ukraine as I hope someone kicks Vladimir Putin right in his ass along with all of his cronies including that fat bitch Steven Seagal and all of those assholes at FAUX News. It’s bad enough we have people supporting this bullshit Russian propaganda but in this country of ours no matter how fucked up it is? We’re in some bad times right now as there is this growing sense of Fascism happening. While I am living in a state that does have a dumbass governor along with a shit-for-brains cunt of a senator and an Uncle Tom who doesn’t believe in evolution and science while is running a senate campaign here in Georgia even though he lives in Texas. At least I don’t live in Florida, with apologizes to those in Florida, as that state continues to be the embarrassment of this country not because of its governor who is trying to suppress certain teachings but also to discredit those who oppose him including the LGBTQ community.
Given all of the chaos that is happening around the world and here in the U.S. This past Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony was just as bad in not just its presentation in trying to appeal to a fickle generation of idiots who don’t know a good film if it came out of their ass. It was also in trying to make things exciting which was the opposite while the decision to announce winners in several technical categories on Twitter was an awful decision. Having flavor-of-the-month celebrity guests in the show to appeal to that fickle crowd didn’t help matters as the attention should be on the people who contributed to their part in cinema. Just as things were already bad enough, one bad joke from Chris Rock that brought a horrible reaction from Will Smith just destroyed everything and ended up overshadowing everything else. Even though Smith apologized for what he did, it wasn’t enough as it just exposed him as not just a fucking asshole but also someone who basically outed himself as a cuckold since there’s rumors that he and his wife have an open marriage while they’re also part of a narcissistic family with two of their kids being a bunch of spoiled, no-talent assholes and the idea that they might be Scientologists which is bad news.
With so much that is happening as I just got the news a couple of days ago that one of my longtime family friend’s dog just died as I loved that dog. His name was Jack and was such a good dog. He will be missed as is Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters who died abruptly during the band’s South American tour as it is just devastating for not just the band but for so many who knew him and played with him as I don’t think the Foo Fighters will be the same. It may be a started by Dave Grohl after Nirvana’s dissolution but Hawkins was the rock n’ roll spirit that made that band so great and the only drummer who was an equal to Grohl in the instrument in terms of feel and passion. I wouldn’t know where to rank among the greatest drummers ever but he definitely belongs in that list because he was damn good in that instrument. We will miss you Taylor. Thank you for loving life and music as much as we do.
Another major loss this year in the world of professional wrestling is Scott Hall though his death shouldn’t have been surprising if it had happened years ago considering that he and another wrestler in Jake “the Snake” Roberts were both in the running of a death pool for wrestler deaths a decade ago as they were becoming known more for their drug and alcohol abuse. That all changed in 2014 as both men became sober and were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as Roberts has so far maintained his sobriety despite recent health issues in his attempts to quit smoking but is still alive and well. For Hall sadly, the pandemic disrupted his sobriety as he fell off the wagon on-and-off as he struggled to be sober and then earlier this month. He broke his hip and was sent to a hospital here in Marietta, GA near my home where a blood clot did him in as his passing is still devastating. He was one of the guys that made me love pro wrestling ever since the early 1990s when he left WCW to join WWE as “the Bad Guy” Razor Ramon as I thought he was Cuban unaware that he had a career in the AWA in the 80s tagging with Curt Henning.
Though he began his WWE run as a heel, there was something about Razor Ramon that I found appealing in not just the fact that he can work with so many different wrestlers including Sean Waltman as the 1-2-3 Kid whom he put over in early 1993 on an episode of RAW. It was the fact that he just had this charisma about him from the way walked to the ring as if he owned the building while wearing these gold chains and having a toothpick in his mouth and would flick it at you if you disrespect him. He was winning the fans over and it was in the fall of 1993 is where I started becoming a fan of his as it was during this battle royal where the last 2 men would face each other the next week on RAW for the vacant Intercontinental title due to the fact that Shawn Michaels was suspended at the time. The amount of talent in that ring was a showcase for this post-Hogan period known as the New Generation which did focus more on in-ring work, work rate, and making good matches.
Hall was among the pillars of that period along with Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Sean Waltman, pre-babyface Diesel, the Undertaker, Owen Hart, the British Bulldog, and Yokozuna (before his severe weight gain in 1996). That battle royal which featured a lot of that talent in that time showcased this transition of the old guard vs. the new guard where the last six men in the battle royal were Hall and Randy Savage as the babyfaces going against the heels in Rick Martel, Adam Bomb, and the Quebecers. It was down to Hall, Martel, and the Quebecers where Hall would eliminate the Quebecers and the match was over and pandemonium happened. As a 12-year old kid watching that match, I was over the moon when Razor was one of the last two and to see him and Martel ready to just kill each other despite all of these referees and agents trying to stop them. I was like “let them go! Fuck next week! Let’s do it now!” A week later, the match for the IC title happened and it’s one these gems in WWE’s history that often gets overlooked as it’s a classic match that told a story as there’s a lot of holds and power moves. The ending had Razor win the match and the moment he put on that IC belt on his waist. I was like “damn! That looks good on him”.
Hall may be one of these great wrestlers to never win a world title but holding the IC belt from 1993-1996 in four different reigns I think is more than enough as he helped make that championship feel important back then. It was the workhorse championship but it was more about who made that championship as guys like him, Curt Henning, Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat, Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho from the late 80s to the early 2000s was a title that everyone needed to have to feel important. Hall’s time in WWE is something many shouldn’t overlook as the matches he had with Martel, Bret Hart, Sean Waltman, Diesel, Jeff Jarrett, Goldust, and most of all, Shawn Michaels are among some of the best work during a period where WWE was trying to find itself in the post-Hogan era.
Hall should also be noted as an influential figure for what he did in WCW in forming the nWo and had a good run during that time as part of the Outsiders with Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman although it would be his own personal issues that would cause his career to slow down. During this period where everyone was given tribute to Hall, there were things about him that I didn’t know including a brief stint working in Japan in late 2001 where he put over an unknown young talent whom Hall would tell everyone this guy would be the next big superstar. That young man that Hall put over was none other than Hiroshi Tanahashi who would become a massive superstar and paid tribute to Hall by doing the Razor walk to the ring while also acknowledging Hall’s influence in the business and stated that one of his all-time favorite matches is the WrestleMania X ladder match for the undisputed Intercontinental Championship between Hall and Shawn Michaels which is a fucking classic as is their 1995 rematch in SummerSlam. It is sad that he is gone as friends, families, and those he influenced are going to miss but he did leave a parting word in his Hall of Fame speech that says a lot about who he is.
In the month of March 2022, I saw a total of 21 films in 9 first-timers and 12 re-watches with 3 first-timers being films directed by women as part of the 52 Films by Women pledge. Down from last month but mainly due to the fact that I have to help my mother watch my niece and nephew for much of the day on the week days and barely have time to watch films but still, not a bad month. One of the highlights this month has been my Blind Spot film in The Bigamist. Here are the top 5 first-timers that I saw for March 2022:
One of two short films that I watched from my MUBI subscription is this experimental short film from Peter Tscherkassky that is a tribute to the filmmaker Kurt Kren. It is mainly a short that consists of many films featuring trains as if it plays into the history of cinema through these gorgeous and dazzling images of trains all shot in black-and-white. It’s only 20 minutes long but it is worth watching for anyone that is interested in the history of cinema.
Private Imaginings and Narrative Facts
The second short I watched from my MUBI subscription is a six-minute silent short film by Edward Owens about life in the ghetto as it is just something simple and to the point. It is a film that explores how people lived and how they had to endure the many day-to-day things as it is something worth seeking.
Moon Knight (pilot)
The new series from Marvel that is part of the Phase 4 TV series marks the introduction of a new hero that comic fans are familiar with but not on live action. Created by Jeremy Slater and its first episode directed by Mohamed Diab, it is a show that has humor but it is really a character study of this man in Steven Grant who wakes up every day not knowing what happened to him yesterday or a few days ago as he finds himself in dangerous situations. It is a show filled with horror and suspense with Oscar Isaac bringing a lot of wit into his role as Steven Grant/Marc Spector as there’s a great physicality to his performance while Ethan Hawke’s performance as Arthur Harrow is really unlike anything he does. It’s a good start to the show so far as it’s definitely something different from Marvel.
Wrestling Match of the Month: CM Punk vs. MJF in a dog-collar match at AEW Revolution
Since his return to the world of professional wrestling in late August 2021, CM Punk has taken things slow to get back into ring shape though the matches he had with Darby Allin, Powerhouse Will Hobbs, Eddie Kingston, and last week, Dax Harwood of FTR have been solid as it showed that Punk still has what it takes. This feud he’s had with MJF for the past few months have been awesome as it all dates to a picture of Punk meeting a young MJF at an autograph signing and MJF wanting to be like Punk only to be betrayed when he walked out on WWE in 2014. The match was violent, bloody, intense, and also extremely personal with Punk using his old Ring of Honor music in AFI’s Miseria Cantare – The Beginning which made things so much better. Adding to the drama was Wardlow who would make his babyface turn by giving MJF’s diamond ring to Punk to help Punk win the match.
This has been a hell of a month in professional wrestling with some shocking events in New Japan Pro Wrestling with Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa of the Guerillas of Destiny being kicked out of the Bullet Club as it’s a decision that I am not happy with. Especially since Tama is a founding member leaving the Bullet Club under the leadership of Jay White who brought back Doc Gallows and co-founder Karl Anderson back to the fold with Bad Luck Fale also turning on G.O.D. The other big shock is Gedo turning on his longtime friend Jado who had been voicing his own issues with White as he and G.O.D. have been fortunate to find some allies in Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. The New Japan Cup also happened with Zack Sabre Jr. winning his second cup as he is someone that deserves a title shot as he is one of the best technical wrestlers working today.
The NWA is also starting to get interesting as the championship month back in February between Trevor Murdoch against Matt Cardona was an amazing match with Cardona becoming the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion as it’s only added to his now growing reputation as he’s also been winning titles in other companies and has become the most hated wrestler in the independents in the death match scene. Now he’s taking part in a feud with former NWA world champion Nick Aldis that now involve their respective spouses in Chelsea Greene and Mickie James that is also happening on Impact. It is proof that there’s so much happening right now in professional wrestling that showed that you don’t need flavor-of-the-month celebrities or stupendous buzz-words to sell an event. You just need talent, buzz, and doing the work to make things happen. AEW, New Japan, Impact, GCW, NWA, AAA, and anywhere else that loves professional wrestling. Plus, fuck sports entertainment as that shit is for pussies.
Well, that is all for March. Next month, I’m not really sure what I’ll do other than a few films available on streaming as I hope to catch up on a few Oscar winners but also films by Todd Haynes, the Safdie Brothers, and several others while I’m not sure what will be next in my Blind Spot series. There’s a lot of options in my watch lists as I could also do something unexpected. Until then, this is thevoid99 signing off…
For the 13th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the world of television in the form of family comedies. Shows that showcase families dealing with their lives and often put themselves into some funny situations and also some serious moments. Here are my three picks:
1. Married… with Children
If anyone here doesn’t think this is one of the greatest shows ever made. I will fucking the shit out of all of you. It’s one thing for a Bundy to insult another Bundy but when someone else outside of the family or their circle of friends insult them. No one will survive. It is a show about a man who sells women’s shoes as he is married to a lazy slob of a wife who does nothing but watch TV with a dumbass but gorgeous daughter and an intelligent yet socially-awkward son. He lives next door to a feminist with has chicken legs and was married to a banker who leaves her and the yuppie world as she later married an aging pretty-boy who often joins Al Bundy in a series of shenanigans. What a great fucking show.
2. Family Matters
A show about a working class family in the suburbs of Chicago as they deal with many changes where its patriarch is a cop, the mother operates an elevator at a store, and they have three kids but also the patriarch’s mother, the matriarch’s sister and her baby boy. Then came their nerdy neighbor Steve Urkel who brings in a bunch of hilarious moments and the show becomes a massive hit. A staple of shows on ABC known as TGIF that also included the show it spun-off from in Perfect Strangers plus Full House and Step by Step. For anyone who was grew up in the late 80s/early 90s, this was the shit and this show with this nerdy kid who causes mayhem though he didn’t mean to made it a joy to watch until the last few seasons and then was moved to CBS in its final season. Fuck CBS.
3. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
A young man from West Philadelphia is playing basketball and then gets into a little fight and his mom gets scared where she has him moving to Bel-Air where his relatives live. The relatives that featured Uncle Phil, Aunt Viv, Hilary, Ashley, the butler Geoffrey, and the greatest character ever in Carlton. It’s a show where a kid from the hood is brought to the posh world of Bel-Air as he adjust to his new world while making fat jokes at his uncle and short jokes towards Carlton but he loves this family. Even as the family also have to endure things that Will often has to face with the privileged Carlton having to learn about racism but also the meaning of what being black really means. It is a great show that still endures as it’s always fun to watch Carlton dance to Tom Jones and there’s nothing wrong with Tom Jones. Any motherfucker who disses Tom Jones will have to answer to my dead abuela!
Based on the New York Times Magazine article The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Nightmare by Nathaniel Rich, Dark Waters is about an attorney’s battle against the chemical manufacturing company DuPont over their water contamination in a small town. Directed by Todd Haynes and screenplay by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan, the film is about the real-life battle between Robert Bilott and the DuPont Corporation in the mid-2000s over water contamination in a small Ohio town as Mark Ruffalo plays Bilott. Also starring Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman. Dark Waters is a chilling and mesmerizing film from Todd Haynes.
Set largely from 1998 to 2015, the film is about the real-life battle between corporate defense attorney Robert Bilott and the chemical manufacturing company DuPont over water contamination in the small town of Parkersburg, West Virginia as the former’s grandmother lived there where she told a farmer to call Bilott over the deaths of his cows. It is a film that explore this man who is asked by his grandmother to help this farmer who is needing help as he had lost a lot of cows while showing evidence of deformed body parts. The film’s screenplay by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan is largely straightforward yet it follows a long period that play into legal battles and how Bilott kept fighting despite the strain it puts into his family life, his health, and issues involving the firm he works for as it’s a firm known for defending corporations. While the film briefly opens with a few people skinny-dipping onto a lake in 1975 where they’re forced to leave by a couple of men wearing jumpsuits as they spray something in the water. It sets the tone of what Bilott would discover as well as many revelations about what kind of chemicals DuPont has creates where Bilott at first is just doing his grandmother a favor even though his firm works for DuPont.
When the farmer Wilbur Tennant (Bill Camp) reveal some of the locations as Bilott gets a closer look into the graveyard that Tennant had created for his dead cows as well as witnessing a cow being killed after acting crazy. Despite the lack of support he gets from the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm over his case, they do get eventually on board when the firm’s supervising partner Tom Terp (Tim Robbins) realizes what is at stake as well as the chemicals that DuPont had created known as perfluorooctanoic acid, that is used for Teflon non-sticking frying pans and carpet flooring, as the source that’s been contaminating not just the water at a nearby landfill in Parkersburg but at the town’s water where many of its locals are ill. Though the years of litigation, independent testing, and such would be long and arduous as well as reveal so much where Bilott realizes that he must fight despite the fact that it takes away a lot of his time from his family that includes his wife Sarah (Anne Hathaway).
Todd Haynes’ direction definitely has elements of style in his overall presentation but he also knows when to keep things straightforward. Shot on location in Cincinnati, Ohio as well as locations nearby including parts of areas in Ohio as Parkersburg, West Virginia, Haynes makes these locations central to the film as the small town of Parkersburg with several locals including the real Robert and Sarah Bilott as well as other characters do appear in the film in cameos. There are wide shots in some of the locations including shots of the DuPont chemical plant and the buildings in Cincinnati including the one where Bilott worked at. Still, much of Haynes’ direction emphasizes on intimacy in the close-ups and medium shots while also employing some unique dolly and tracking shots for some scenes to play into the atmosphere of a location whether it’s a local church in Parkersburg or a building hallway. Haynes’ direction also play into the dramatic suspense but also this feeling of a moment in time as it mainly from the late 90s to the 2010s as the Bilott home would often change that also feature a humorous bit where one of the sons isn’t happy about having to go to hardwood floors instead of carpet.
Still, Haynes maintains this sense of drama including moments where people representing DuPont want to target Bilott as well as locals from Parkersburg who feel that Bilott is disrupting their livelihood since they depend on DuPont for employment where they take it out on Tennant and another local in Darlene Kiger (Mare Winningham). While the third act does feel overwritten and at times does drag which Haynes definitely aimed for as it play into how long litigation gets where cases take years to do including data research. It does play into the struggles that Bilott went through but also revelations about his own worth and the sacrifices he made despite all of the strain he put on himself and his family all because he became concerned about a farmer. Overall, Haynes crafts an evocative yet haunting film about a corporate defense lawyer who fights for a farmer against a gigantic chemical manufacturing company.
Cinematographer Edward Lachman does brilliant work with the film’s cinematography with its usage of blueish colors for some of the daytime exteriors as well as the emphasis on sepia-like lighting for some of the interior scenes at night. Editor Affonso Goncalves does excellent work with the editing as it features some jump-cuts, dissolves, and a montage where Bilott explains to his wife in his discovery. Production designer Hannah Beachler, with set decorator Helen Britten and art director Jesse Rosenthal, does amazing work with the evolving look in the interior of the Bilott family home as well as the Tennant farm in its exteriors to play into its decayed look. Costume designer Christopher Peterson does fantastic work with the clothes that play into the evolving style that Sarah would wear throughout the film with everything else from the suits that Bilott wears to the regular and casual clothing of the people at Parkersburg.
Prosthetic makeup effects designer Michael Marino does nice work in some of the film’s minimal effects involving not just the look of a few characters but also in the mutated animal internal organs that Tennant showed Bilott. Special effects supervisor Bob Riggs and visual effects supervisor Ed Chapman do terrific work with some of the film’s visual effects which is mainly bits of set-dressing but also in the video footage that Tennant had filmed in his farm. Sound designer Leslie Shatz does superb work with the sound as it help play into the way characters in locations sound including a few court rooms as well as some of the video that Bilott watched that Tennant film. The film’s music by Marcelo Zarvos is wonderful for its ambient-based score that play into the drama but also the sense of dread that emerges in the film while music supervisor Randall Poster creates a soundtrack that largely feature country music from acts like Willie Nelson, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, Reba McIntyre, and Deana Carter as well as music from Kenny Loggins, Stan Getz, and John Milton Barrett.
The casting by Laura Rosenthal is great as it feature some notable small rules and appearances including real-life people were involved in the case such as Rob and Sarah Bilott as a couple at a posh party, the deformed Bucky Bailey as a man asking Rob for sports scores, Jim Tennant as a diner patron, Darlene and Joe Kiger as church attendees, Elizabeth Marvel as the voice of a doctor talking to Bilott late in the film, the trio of Aidan Brogan, Nathan Slaughter, and Graham Caldwell in their respective roles as the eldest to youngest version of Teddy Bilott, Beau Hartwig and Jacob Bukowski in their respective roles as the oldest and youngest version of Tony Bilott, Keating P. Sharp as the 11-12 year old version of Charlie Bilott, Louisa Krause as the attorney Clara Pfeiffer who is one of the few that supports Bilott in his case, William Jackson Harper as a colleague of Bilott who is baffled by Bilott working on the case, Kevin Crowley as a local West Virginian attorney in Larry Winter who helps Bilott, Denise Dal Vera as Tennant’s wife Sandra, Richard Hagerman as Joe Kiger, Jim Azelvandre as Jim Tennant, and Bill Pullman in a superb performance as Harry Dietzler as an attorney who helps Bilott in the cases as he raises many questions about DuPont.
Mare Winningham is fantastic as Darlene Kiger as a woman who lives in Parkersburg who turns to Bilott over something she received as she realizes something isn’t right while also knowing that the town will go against her in her fight against DuPont. Victor Garber is excellent as an attorney for DuPont who at first helps Bilott out only to become confrontational and denying everything Bilott is asking for. Tim Robbins is brilliant as Tom Terp as a managing partner of the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm who isn’t supportive of Bilott in this case until he realizes the severity of Bilott’s discoveries as he realizes that they must sue DuPont or else they would look even worse by supporting them. Bill Camp is amazing as Wilbur Tennant as a farmer whose cows had died due to the poisoned water from a nearby landfill as a man who just wants justice despite the fact that he would be ill from the water in his land.
Anne Hathaway is incredible as Sarah Bilott as a housewife/former lawyer who is concerned about her husband’s work as well as what he discovered where she tries to deal with all of it but also defend him when people are going after him as it is Hathaway at her strongest and most stern. Finally, there’s Mark Ruffalo in a tremendous performance as Robert Bilott as a corporate defense attorney for the Taft Stettinius & Hollister law firm who is asked by his grandmother to help this farmer only to realize a lot of things went wrong where Ruffalo plays into this man’s own desperation to do what is right even if it brings a strain to his family as it is an engaging and somber performance from Ruffalo.
Dark Waters is an incredible film from Todd Haynes that features great performances from Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Bill Camp. Along with its supporting cast, gorgeous visuals, a chilling music score, and its exploration over a real-life legal war against a giant corporation and the chemicals they created. It is a film that is a haunting drama that explore a man whose job is to protect corporations only to fight against a corporation that has harmed not just a small town but everyone forcing this man to fight for the good of the world. In the end, Dark Waters is a marvelous film from Todd Haynes.
For the 12th week of 2022 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We go into the subject of gaslighting in which people are told certain things believing them to be true when the reality is that they’re being manipulated for someone’s gain. It’s a subject that is becoming prevalent as people are being fed a lot of bullshit and make them believe it is true as it is more common these days for anyone that watches FAUX News. Here are my three picks:
Billy Wilder’s noir-suspense drama about a lowly screenwriter hired to write a film for a fading film star who still believes that her comeback is coming. Yet, the reality is that she is a woman whose time had come and gone while convinced she gets fan mail although it is her butler that is protecting her from this harsh reality of the fickleness that is Hollywood. It is a film that is full of many twists and turns as it is told by the protagonist where the first thing shown in the film is his dead body as it is one of the finest films of the 20th Century.
The second part of a thematic trilogy of films set inside strange apartments, Roman Polanski’s story about a woman who moves into a new apartment in New York City with her actor husband unaware that the apartment is filled with creepy people. People are telling her all sorts of shit as she believes they’re part of a cult devoted to Satan just as she had become pregnant. It is a film that has all of these people lying to this woman who is smart enough to be aware that something is off as it is a pure horror film.
Based on real-life events during the 1930s, Clint Eastwood’s drama about a woman whose son goes missing until the LAPD claims to have found her son only to give her the wrong boy. The LAPD claims they found her son but she knows this boy isn’t her son where she is sent to a mental hospital for going against the police while people who know her including a minister who has been outspoken against the police. Yet, it is the truth over what this woman learned about her son’s whereabouts is even more shocking as it play into not just the corruption of the LAPD but something far more sinister that involves a man killing children. It is one of Eastwood’s great films during a period from starting with Mystic River and into this film where he was pretty much on a roll.
