What Did You Watch in September 2024?
Mexican noir, Nicolas Cage, and a good TV show I fear will go bad
You won’t find many movies on my September list, mostly due to watching two seasons of a TV series and going out of town for a stretch. Although my viewing was limited, I hope you’ll find something here to check out. And let me know what you enjoyed (or didn’t) last month.
First-time Watches
Victims of Sin (Víctimas del pecado, 1951) Emilio Fernández - Criterion Channel
Victims of Sin is a film noir, musical, dance picture, and social commentary all rolled into one amazing visual feast, thanks largely to the amazing combination of director Emilio Fernández and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa. I recently reviewed the film here.
Female on the Beach (1955) Joseph Pevney - Criterion Channel
For several years, each time the title Female on the Beach crossed my radar, I got it mixed up with The Woman on the Beach (1947): two different women, two different beaches. I think I’m finally straightened out now. Joan Crawford stars as Lynn Markham, who moves into her late husband’s beach house one morning, unaware that the previous tenant died there the night before under mysterious circumstances. Before learning any of this, Lynn discovers nosy neighbors (Cecil Kellaway and Natalie Schafer), a problematic real estate agent (Jan Sterling), a snooping police detective (Charles Drake), and a beachcomber (Jeff Chandler) who acts as if the beach house is his second home. Female on the Beach is part soap opera, part melodrama, and part film noir. The film noir elements win out.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) Tom Gormican - My friend Kevin’s house
I generally avoid recent Nicolas Cage movies like some people avoid dental surgery and high school graduations. If I want them, I know where to find them. Yet when my friend Kevin described the movie and invited me over to watch it, I caved. I’m glad I did. The film stars Nick Cage as… well, Nick Cage, who acts in schlocky movies for the money. Cage also has a guardian angel (devil?) who is also Nick Cage, a younger (wiser?) version of himself who gives real-time Cage career advice. Yet when Cage (the modern one) accepts an invitation to Majorca to talk with billionaire Javi Gutiérrez (Pedro Pascal) about a possible film project, “crazy” doesn’t even begin to describe what happens next. If you roll with it and let it happen, this movie can be a lot of fun.
The Town is Quiet (2000) Robert Guédiguian - DVD from the $1 bin at Fuzzy Dog Books & Music in Charles Town, WV
This French film continues the lead of other anthology/omnibus/portmanteau movies like Short Cuts (1993) and Magnolia (1999), following an ensemble of characters around as they eventually cross paths. Focusing on working-class Marseilles, The Town is Quiet is grittier than the Altman and Anderson films, containing almost no light/comedic moments but rather harrowing portraits of people trapped in heartbreaking situations and pitch-dark lives. Not an easy watch with no easy answers.
Bad Turn Worse (2013) Simon Hawkins, Zeke Hawkins - Amazon Prime
Recommended by my friend Kieran, Bad Turn Worse features three Texas teenagers who are (1) clever and resourceful, (2) smart but indecisive, and (3) fearless but dumb. I won’t point out which is which. You’ll have to watch the movie for that, but the upshot is this: B.J. (Logan Huffman) steals from his slimy employer’s private safe to treat his girl Sue (Mackenzie Davis) and his best bud Bobby (Jeremy Allen White) to an out-of-town celebration of their upcoming high school graduation, making them all complicit in his crime. B.J.’s boss Giff (Mark Pellegrino) finds out about the theft and can either kill them all or provide a way out that’s almost guaranteed to end in death. Bad Turn Worse contains good performances by the young trio and avoids standard cliches, but believability begins to fade as the picture approaches the finale. Not for kids.
From, Season One (TV 2022) and Season Two - Amazon Prime
Most people over 40 remember the TV series Lost (2005-2010), a show that began with a compelling premise, then, making good on the title, literally lost its way until the disappointing “let’s wrap this up somehow” finale, which we will not discuss. (If you didn’t see the show and want to know more about Lost, be my guest.) Yet some consider it one of the greatest shows in television history. Some of Lost’s creative team are also responsible for From.
I’m not sure I trust them.
There’s no good way to talk about a show with a one-word title that’s also a preposition, yet let’s move on to From:
Groups of people traveling on an undisclosed American road find themselves taking a detour that leads to a small town where the residents don’t welcome you but rather demand you go inside one of several houses in the community before dark. “Staying outside at night will kill you,” the locals tell you. “Oh, and by the way, you can’t leave the town. We’ve tried.” (You can read more here, but don’t read too far. Spoilers crop up quickly.)
From is certainly compelling, especially for horror fans. The show is TV-MA, so there’s a fair amount of gore and far too much profanity, which becomes somewhat laughable after just a few episodes. The first season is thrilling, exploring the characters as we slowly navigate this community that has become our characters’ world, picking up some clues that make sense and others that remain cryptic. Yet the second season follows Lost’s second season in throwing too many new characters into the mix too quickly, trying to keep too many plates spinning in the air. (Yet I must admit, the cliffhanger to Season Two is pretty good, but again, Lost did something similar.) Maybe part of Lost’s problem was having three 24-episode seasons with probably 15 episodes worth of story. (From’s two seasons contain ten episodes of approximately 45 minutes each.) I’ll keep watching as long as I can access the show, but I’m dubious.
Rewatches
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) W. D. Richter - Shout Factory Blu-ray (2x)
I plan to watch this a third time (my first was in 2016) to try and learn how this crazy flick ever got made. If you’ve never heard of the film, I’ll go with the Letterboxd description: “Beings from another dimension have invaded your world. Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller) and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.” That’s all you really need to know. I didn’t like it as much the second time, but the film has a definite charm. The cast has that intangible “something” that works, and even when it doesn’t quite work, they believe in it. If you liked Big Trouble in Little China (1986), you’ll probably dig this one too.
Since we’re now in October, I plan to have a post on horror movies in general soon, so stay tuned.
Okay, tell me what you watched. The comments are open, so let’s go…