Rob Christopher's Blog, page 25

3 things about Josh Greenbaum’s WILL & HARPER

Will & Harper [2024]

1. “Can we call this a blizzard now?”
2. Jazzy but also country. Upbeat but it should also make you shed a tear.
3. A former manager for Bette Midler and Air Supply.

3 things about Julio Torres’s PROBLEMISTA

Problemista [2023]

1. Take off the pants, take off the backpack.
2. Uncooperative Slinky.
3. She accurately points out his own insistence on complication.

3 things about Frank Perry’s LAST SUMMER

Last Summer [1969]

1. Truth serum.
2. Swedish movie.
3. Hotter in the forest.

Devastating. The ways in which it constantly flips between being “dated” and chillingly timely are enough to give you whiplash.

(Until this lost masterpiece gets a proper release, you’ll have to watch a cruddy VHS rip: archive.org/details/last-summer-69)

3 things about Disney’s THE BLACK CAULDRON

The Black Cauldron [1985]

1. Busty serving wench.
2. He preemptively chokes himself.
3. Skeleton army sinking back to death.

3 things about Coralie Fargeat’s THE SUBSTANCE

The Substance [2024]

1. Multiple pupils.
2. Chicken leg.
3. Music from Vertigo.

3 things about Alex Garland’s CIVIL WAR

Civil War [2024]

1. “What’s Joel doing?”
“Processing.”
2. Literally, rose-colored glasses.
3. She clarifies: three hundred dollars Canadian.

3 things about Marianna Milhorat’s JUST ABOVE THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH

Just Above the Surface of the Earth (For a Coming Extinction) [2024]

1. Five uninterrupted minutes of listening for frogs.
2. A tidepool is a microenvironment.
3. Sitting in a chair amidst the tallgrass.

A haunting, exquisitely made documentary centered on an assortment of citizen scientists performing their own documentation–of various creatures (such as starfish, frogs and bats) under environmental stress as the climate rapidly changes. Rather than hew to a singular narrative “voice,” Milhorat has chosen a “chorus” of observers and narrators to provide a sort of poetic commentary on what we see.

It’s a shame that most viewers will probably not be able to see this under ideal conditions, i.e. in a theatre on a big screen, where the stunning visuals and 5.1 surround sound mix create a truly immersive experience.

This is a wistful film that deftly avoids the anthropomorphizing so common to nature documentaries.

3 things about Roy Andersson’s SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR

Songs from the Second Floor [2000]

1. Passing around a crystal ball.
2. A vast hall at the edge of which multitudes of teams struggle to move overloaded luggage carts forward.
3. Singing subway car.

3 things about John Boorman’s HELL IN THE PACIFIC

Hell in the Pacific [1968]

1. Devouring a raw fish.
2. Sand garden.
3. A discarded photograph of a young Japanese woman.

Be sure to watch the “alternate ending,” which was the director’s preferred one.

3 things about Lew Landers’ MAN IN THE DARK

Man in the Dark [1953]

1. Surgical implements coming right at you.
2. Carnival ride shootout.
3. A slip of paper with 1133 written on it.