With respect to howlin’ wolf Frances McDormand in Nomadland (itself a deserving Best Picture winner) and all the other Oscar acting honorees this year, none of them gave as fierce and harrowing a performance as Jasna Đuričić in Quo Vadis, Aida? I would’ve also picked it for Best International Film over the affable if gimmicky Another Round—as a depiction of an interpreter desperately navigating the 1995 Bosnian genocide, it’s a nail biting, feel-bad movie that’s really good.
A few other significant discoveries this month: Sean Baker’s Starlet, which preceded Tangerine and affirmed his finesse with unknown actresses (including Ernest Hemingway’s great-granddaughter!) to be already fully intact; En El Septimo Día, a return-to-form (and feature-making) from Jim McKay, another director who excels with non and semi-professionals; The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, a classic I’d been meaning to see for years and well worth the wait (not least for Bogart at his most depraved); and The Watchmaker of St. Paul, my first Bertrand Tavernier (RIP) film and certainly not the last.
Re-watches offered few surprises except renewed confirmation that The Lady Eve might be my favorite Preston Sturges film (and the best screwball comedy ever next to Bringing Up Baby) and that Drugstore Cowboy (which I barely remembered from my last viewing decades ago) has Matt Dillon’s best, most sympathetic performance. Thrilled to see Shiva Baby receiving such a robust reception in its theatrical/VOD release—it was one of my faves at virtual TIFF last September, and I look forward to people discovering fellow newly released festival alums Limbo and The Disciple as well.
Somewhat let down by Sunset Song (the closest Davies has ever come to seeming banal) and a trio of inessential shorts that brought Maddin Mondays dribbling to a close (save for one Criterion is finally adding in May.) Really let down by The Staggering Girl, a high-pedigree pseudo-art-commercial with so much talent and so little substance. On the other hand, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar delightfully turned out more acid trip-y than expected and underground queer classic Pink Narcissus, while dutifully rough around the edges, answered a question that had previously never occurred to me: “What if Kenneth Anger had an ass fetish?”
Films viewed in April in chronological order, with director, year of release and my rating (out of 10); starred titles are re-watches:
The Treasure of The Sierra Madre (John Huston, 1948) 9
En El Septimo Día (Jim McKay, 2017) 8
Cowboys (Anna Kerrigan, 2020) 6
The Hall Runner (Guy Maddin, 2014) 6
Sunset Song (Terence Davies, 2015) 6
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood, 1971) 8
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers, 2012) 7
To Live (Zhang Yimou, 1994)* 10
The Fever (Maya Da-Rin, 2019) 7
Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar (Josh Greenbaum, 2021) 7
Starlet (Sean Baker, 2012) 9
Lines of the Hand (Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, 2015) 5
Family Romance LLC (Werner Herzog, 2019) 6
Ashes (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2012) 7
Always Shine (Sophia Takal, 2016) 6
No Fear, No Die (Claire Denis, 1990) 7
Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Robert Altman, 1982)* 8
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic, 2020) 10
Pepi, Luci, Bom (Pedro Almodovar, 1980) 6
Spanky: To The Pier and Back (Maddin, 2008) 6
In The Soup (Alexandre Rockwell, 1992)* 7
Shanghai Express (Josef von Sternberg, 1932) 6
Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)* 8
The Watchmaker of St. Paul (Bertrand Tavernier, 1974) 8
Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, 2020)* 9
The More You Ignore Me (Keith English, 2018) 5
Nenette and Boni (Claire Denis, 1996) 7
Drugstore Cowboy (Gus Van Sant, 1989)* 8
Blonde Venus (von Sternberg, 1932) 7
The Staggering Girl (Luca Guadagnino, 2019) 4
The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)* 10
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Kaouther Ben Hania, 2020) 6
Haunted Jukebox 