Random Acts of Cinema

Directing duo Arie and Chula Esiri tell two separate stories of would-be Nigerian emigrants navigating through a dehumanizing world that uses poverty and debt to perpetuate a cycle of exploitation that cares little for dignity and decency.  Beautifully shot on film on location in Lagos, Mofe and Rosa each strain towards a better life.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls (1962).

Look: if for some reason you DON’T want to watch Richard E. Grant rant about the entrenched conspiracy between the wretchedly corrupt spheres of big business and government in the form of consumer advertising, then I guess this isn’t the movie and podcast episode for you.  And if you still aren’t interested once you learn that it’s a HandMade Films production reuniting Grant with director Bruce Robinson?  What if I were to say that there’s a mustachioed boil growing out of the side of Grant’s neck spouting late-stage capitalist drivel?  No?  Then there’s not hope for you.  Not that there’s any hope for any of us.  But you won’t be able to see a fun movie.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Arie & Chuko Esiri‘s Eyimofe: This Is My Desire (2020).

Balancing on the razor-thin edge between the pedantic “what would REALLY happen if a guy kept slowly shrinking?” with “sure nerd, but let’s still make it a fun story”, Jack Arnold directs a domestic drama, a survivalist story, and everything in between as he questions foundational questions of existing in his classic science fiction tale.  Perceptions of safety, masculinity, and the infinite shift and fade in this allegory of manhood in the modern age.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Bruce Robinson’s How To Get Ahead in Advertising (1988).

In celebration of Fred Olen Ray’s 70th birthday, we’re sharing an bonus episode of Going Over Our Freds (a podcast hosted by our past-guests Kennedy and Meridith) that Mike joined in on a while back.  Enjoy their discussion of Cyberzone (also known as Droid Gunner), starring… Marc Singer!

Kevin Allison (Risk! and The State) joins us to talk about Kyoshi Kurosawa’s hypno-thriller - a term I’ve invented which cheapens the film - and he directs the conversation toward Carl Jung’s concept of the “shadow”, which thankfully re-elevates the film.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Jacks Arnold’s The Incredible Sinking Man (1956).

This week the question is asked: does having had read The Deadly Percheron enhance the viewing experience of this grimy, English, 80s neo-noir about sex work, blackmail, and unrequited love?  It turns out that this doesn’t really matter, because… Bob Hoskins.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Kiyoshi Kurusawa’s Cure (1997).

Coming of age story?  Sexual awakening?  Road trip movie?  These all characterize Alfonso Cuarón’s tale of two young men and  one women whose lives intersect for a brief period one summer… kind of.  While this film displays a keen understanding of convention it constantly subverts expectations and values along and becomes something all the more charming, touching, challenging, and political at heart.  Two future superstars, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna alongside Maribel Verdu, propel this still iconoclastic film to a rare stature alongside the best of Mexican cinema.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa (1986).

Certainly not the arty-ist neo-noir ever made, but it’s certainly the most Jean-Pierre Melville-ian neo-noir ever made.  And that’s more than enough to make this one of the most widely-beloved of all Criterion films.  Alain Delain (who sadly passed away between our record and the release date for this episode) brought Tokyo-cool, Parisian romanticism, and American grime to this epitome of the “cool assassin” film.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (2001).

Can Master Wong navigate China into the 20th-century and past the obstacles of modernity, invasive western culture, and a whole host of outside threats to tradition?  Of course he can.  But even he’s got to admit: he looks pretty good in a boater hat and sunglasses.  Tsui Hark’s epic kung fu period action/comedy pits western powers, local corruption, modern technology, and the stubborn refusal to adapt against a ragtag group centered around a fighting school and its stoic martial arts master played by Jet Li.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing’s Jean-Pierre Melville’s Le Samurai (1967).

When 20 or so upper class reveler’s end up at a post-opera gathering hosted by one of their peers, everything seems perfectly… polite.  But then director Luis Buñuel imparts upon them the one unbreakable rule of the film: no one can ever leave the well-appointed drawing room.  Ever.  What follows is a study in the logistics of human survival, depravity, and an allegory of the lies we tell ourselves as we sink into fascism.

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If you’d like to watch ahead for next week’s film, we will be discussing and reviewing’s Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China (1991).