CON AIR (Simon West, 1997)

in

(*** / *****; ***** / ***** for the bunny scenes) :: First time seeing it since it came out and, between Cage sounding like the lovechild of Foghorn Leghorn and Kilmer's Doc Holiday and slowrunning/jumping from any number of explosions or infernos, Steve Buscemi having a tea party in an empty swimming pool, Malkovich holding a gun to a stuffed bunny, and the titular AIRplane crash-landing into the Las Vegas strip before culminating in a chase involving a fire truck, a skywalk, and heavy machinery, CON AIR remains one of the most gloriously insane blockbusters ever. Also: Colm Meaney and John Cusack should do / should've done more projects together.

CRIMES OF THE FUTURE (David Cronenberg, 2023)

in

First Cronenberg I've watched since A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (or EASTERN PROMISES, whichever one came last) and I'm both underwhelmed and bowled over: CRIMES is a film that's as much of a work of conceptual performance art as Saul's and Caprice's in the (generally lacking) narrative. Pieces - no pun intended - work, sometimes as moments of deep, dark beauty (note: Howard Shore's score is incredible), sometimes as apex bits of Cronenbergian body horror, but it never quite felt like it became, as each new organ in the film, a system of its own. Nonetheless, one that's going to stick with me – for reasons that I've yet to fully comprehend.

PREY (Trachtenberg, 2022)

in

(Directed by Dan Trachtenberg from a script by Patrick Aison; starring Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Julian Black Antelope, and Bennet Taylor. Released 05 August 2022; watched: 2023w19 via Hulu )

Betraying my status as PREDATOR-mythos ignoramus, here's my logline for PREY: It's THE INVISIBLE MAN meets MOST DANGEROUS GAME if the hunter in DANGEROUS GAME wasn't some bored rich guy but was an invisible / cloaking enabled Wolverine in full-feral (yet coldly calculating) berserker mode against one of the best protagonists in the period survival movie / thriller / horror genre (Amber Midthunder's Naru rocks) that is absolutely holy-fucking-shit-brilliant.

Now that I've finally seen this gem (tight, taut 100-minute films FTW – though PREY did take a bit too long to get rolling – not much, just a little bit to find its rhythm), I want to rewatch the original films – think I've only seen the first two, haven't seen any of the newer ones – to see the connections that I've read were there but that I clearly missed (see PREDATOR-mythos ignoramus of paragraph one) even though I didn't need to know any of it to enjoy a damn fine movie.

Listening to fellow Berklee alum Sarah Schachner's soundtrack as I write this: it's that rare soundtrack that can both propel the story along AND stand on its own.

Such a great time: just what I needed.

THAT THING YOU DO! (Hanks, 1996)

in

(Written and directed by Tom Hanks; starring Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hanks. Released 04 October 1996; (re)watched 2023w13 via Hulu)

A diversionary revisit (first time since VHS, I think) from my usual Criterion brain/soul-sustenance and/or action-packed / true crime death show braincarbs, Hanks's first writing/directing foray remains one of the textbook examples of "delightful": it was this film and its earworm soundtrack that taught me how to drum; that cemented my now decades-long crush on Liv Tyler; that made me always enjoy a Steve Zahn appearance (even in the first season of WHITE LOTUS, which I loathed – with the exception of Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME, little turns me off more than stories about bored rich white people on vacation, no matter how incisive its social commentary might be – and never finished); that made me scratch my head but nod when Schaech showed up as Jonah Hex in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW – and wait for his Hex to burst into a refrain of "I quit"; and it was this film that made me pick up the drumsticks again after I picked them up again the last time I picked them up (or something). A boldly earnest film – that first time the Oneders (I wonder what happened to the o-need-ers) hear "That Thing You Do!" on the radio is one of the best expressions of unbridled excitement and happiness ever put to film – in an era of endless cynicism. Always, always recommended.