The 914 Filmed Entertainment Guide
The region's most irregular guide to passive screen-based entertainments.
Anora
Directed by Sean Baker
Compelling story of an erotic dancer who gets involved with the dissolute scion of a rich foreign family and is then abducted by the world’s most polite bodyguards as they try to clean up the mess. Beautifully shot and acted, and the coolest thing is almost nobody will leave the theater realizing it should, by rights, be categorized as a thriller.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Directed by Jeffrey Walker
Two wellness influencers square off in this inspired-by-a-true-story miniseries. The one had cancer, the other faked it, both ended up killing people and exploiting societal distrust of the conceited medical establishment. Ridiculous for its portrayal of the refulgent boardrooms of book publishers, reporters and doctors, it’s nevertheless watchable and a decent meditation about the pressures of reputation-based entrepreneurship.
Åre Murders, The
Directed by Joakim Eliasson and Alain Darborg
A solid copaganda series set in a Swedish ski town. A big-city detective gets involved with a local murder investigation and ends up staying on. Lots of good red herrings and plenty of pace. Most interesting are the differences between here and there. The cops are much more social worker, lawyers are far more recessive, and the police can do things like—without warning or warrant—confiscate an entire high school classroom’s cell phones to look for video evidence they might contain. The program may also contain traces of anticonsumerist sentiment.
Belfast
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
A protestant Belfast family with movie-star good looks figures out whether to stay or go. Emotionally compelling as a politician’s memoir.
Chrystal
Directed by Ray McKinnon
A terrific indie film. Essentially a tribute to the Rural South by somebody who, at least so far as we can tell from here in the north county, seems to know whatof they speak.
Eyes Wide Shut
Directed (somewhat from beyond the grave) by Stanley Kubrick
I refused to watch this one for years but people keep speaking of it as a Culturally Important Takedown of Elite Society, and I foolishly broke down.
We know he didn’t finish it himself and I now, more than ever, suspect this project was fatally disappointing to him.
Probably the crafty Bronx native meant to spotlight how commonplace and non-mysterious adult society is. Like pointing out that there are no massive secret plots by the eternal forces of evil. Just naïve people being used by less-naïve people to entirely venal ends. And that we shouldn’t equate less-naïve with sophistication. Or even with smarts.
Why else would he have cast Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? It was almost funny how out of place they were, like a prom king and queen dressing up in their parents’ clothes after the big dance.
We so hoped and prayed Slim Pickens and his mighty steed would descend on them from the autumn sky.
But the film ends up sticking by Tom & Nicki and suggesting that Elite Conspiracy Is Rampant in cloying Hollywood fashion.
You don’t quite need to roll over, Stanley. You’re still 1,000 times better off having exited when you did than Scorsese and his ongoing quest to make the longest feature film in cinematic history.
But you should twitch or at least moan a bit. The studio did wrong your legacy with this one.
Parade’s End
Directed by Susanna White
A five-part miniseries about the consequences of social insulation—particularly with regard to sex education—among the early 20th century U.K. aristocracy. Bathos to the max.
Perfect Days
Directed by Wim Wenders
A 50-something drop-out from Elite Society makes a living cleaning the aesthetically pleasing public restrooms of Tokyo’s parks. He grows plants. He drinks milk. He trims his whiskers. He is kind to the characters that drift past the lens. A beautifully shot and perfectly acted celebration of the everyday. But a little long. And has all the plot and pacing of a dentist’s fishtank.
Primal (Genndy Tartovsky’s—seasons 1 & 2)
Directed by Genndy Tartovsky
A fresh take on the widow-meets-widower trope featuring a tyrannosaur and a spear-wielding caveman. Equal parts silence, violence, and poignance.
Ravenous
Directed by Antonia Bird
Beautifully shot cannibalism film featuring an eclectic (Guy Pierce, David Arquette, Robert Carlyle, and the principal from Ferris Bueller, to identify a few) cast, and a genius soundtrack by Michael Nyman. Set at a Sierra Nevada fort at the far end of a wagon-train spur, the film is plenty tense and nibbles amusingly at organized religion, westward expansion, and the predatory fever of capitalism.
Sexy Beast
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Starring Ben Kingsley, the magnficent Ray Winstone, and Ian McShane (the boss dude from Deadwood). A retired masterthief is living the good life with his wife and best friend when an old colleague comes to re-enlist his services. Chaos ensues. Gets a little talky a third of the way through, but pretty damn fun. Other than for a young pool boy, the movie is entirely peopled by 50-somethings. Which is, if not sexy, at least refreshing.
28 DAYS LATER
Directed by Danny Boyle
Rage virus infects Britain. A new slant on the zombie premise—not shuffling brain-eaters but hyperkinetic cannibals. Thus tapping not our fear of becoming working stiffs (thank you, Capitalism) but rage-filled zealots (thank you, Social Media). Good stuff, though. Memorable.