June 2024 Reading, Viewing

Can anyone remember what happened back in June 2024? Biden, right? We were so worried. And Hit Man — we were so excited about this.

Greatest hits: Erasure, by Percival Everett, and maybe the Baztán trilogy?

6/1
— Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson; starring Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson.
Had seen Anderson’s previous film Rushmore (1998) in the theaters. Was wholly charmed by the film, from the faux curtains opening until the end. And I love that song “Making Time” by the Seeds.
— NYRB on Mexican politics, The Triumph of Christendom

6/2
— Code Inconnu (2000)
Directed and written by Michael Haneke; starring Juliette Binoche, Thierry Neuvic, Hélène Diarra, and Josef Bierbichler.
The fourth installment in the Michael Haneke Film Festival. Had I seen this film before?
A woman from Romania has been smuggled into the country and into Paris, but is caught up within a skirmish between boys, one an immigrant and the other a hayseed in town for a short while.

6/3-5
— Drive to Survive, 6.1-3
— Dead Souls, 15 pp.
— Mary Queen of Scots, 5 pp.

6/8
— Stargate (1993)
Directed by Roland Emmerich, and co-written with Joel B. Michaels, Oliver Eberle, and Dean Devlin; starring Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Viveca Lindfors.
Watching this film is a short of shout out to the mysterious 1990s, that moment of confusion between the Cold War and the War on Terror. The interregnum? The vertigo of James Spader in a leading, sympathetic role, and Kurt Russell in one of his most boring roles.
— NYRB on Jill Biden and Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho
— The Longest Day (1962), 1 hour
Directed by Darryl F. Zanuck, written by Cornelius Ryan, with additional material written by Romain Gary, James Jones, David Pursall and Jack Seddon; starring John Wayne, Kenneth More, Richard Todd, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Steve Forrest, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Hunter, Stuart Whitman, Tom Tryon, Rod Steiger, Leo Genn, Gert Fröbe, Irina Demick, Bourvil, Curd Jürgens, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka and Arletty.

6/9
— NYRB on The 272
— Finished Dead Souls
— Drive to Survive, 6.4
Okay, I’m bored.

6/10
— Hit Man (2024)
Directed by Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay with Glen Powell; starring Powell, Adria Arjona, Austin Amelio, and Retta.
A lot of people really like this film. I didn’t not like it. But I didn’t believe that Powell’s character could accept the murder of his police counterpart, no matter how scuzzy he was.

6/11
— Ibsen, The Wild Duck, Act 1
— Godzilla Minus One (2023)
Directed, written, and with visual effects by Takashi Yamazaki; starring Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Yuki Yamada, Munetaka Aoki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Sakura Ando and Kuranosuke Sasaki.
Japanese shame.

6/12-/14
— Finished The Wild Duck

6/15
— Spirit of St. Louis (1951)
Directed by Billy Wilder, written by Charles Lederer, Wendell Mayes, and Billy Wilder; starring James Stewart as Charles Lindbergh.
Trying to forget everything else about Charles Lindbergh … and appreciate the real dangers of early long-distance flight.

6/16
— Call Northside 777 (1948)
directed by Henry Hathaway, written by Jerome Cady, Jay Dratler, Leonard Hoffman, and Quentin Reynolds; starring James Stewart, Richard Conte, and Lee J. Cobb.
A post-war film for Stewart, which is pretty important if you known anything about the trajectory of his career. You see this in the early scenes where his character’s unable to evince sympathy for Frank Wiecek. He has that saltiness that is what made him great.
— The Last Jedi (2017)
Directed and written by Rian Johnson; starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Gwendoline Christie, Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dern, and Benicio del Toro.
Some scenes with Hamill and Ridley are funny, finally recapturing some of the humor of the original Star Wars films, lost through the prequel period. Similarly, Snope’s ridicule of Kylo Ren’s helmet. But other portions are unbearably dumb, such as the subplot adventure in Canto Bight. Honestly, is there any character that we like as much when the episode began? I don’t think so. Rey neither becomes more interesting or less.
— Mary Queen of Scots, 5 pp.

6/17
— Mary Queen of Scots, 10 pp.

6/18
— Captains Courageous (1937), last 30 minutes
Directed by Victor Fleming, and written by John Lee Mahin, Marc Connelly, and Dale Van Every, based on the 1897 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling; starring Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas.
Had seen earlier portions of this film another time, and during this saw the last parts of the film. Not sure what to say of Spencer Tracy’s performance, which was evocative to be sure.
— Mary Queen of Scots, 40 pp.

6/19
— On Dangerous Ground (1951)
Directed by Nicholas Ray, written by A. I. Bezzerides; starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino.
This is a strange film, I think. I suppose the point is, what can melt the heart of a cop whose lost his way? The answer, a blind woman from who-knows-where. Ryan is undoubtedly that cop. And Lupino can do a role like this with as much aplomb as she did her role in The Bigamist.

6/20
— Mary Queen of Scots, 10 pp.

6/21
— S.W.AT. (2003)
Directed by Clark Johnson and written by David Ayer and David McKenna; starring Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Josh Charles, Jeremy Renner, Brian Van Holt and Olivier Martinez.
Just so, so bad. But surely there is some redeeming moment within this movie?
Let me know when you find it.
I mean, I knew this was nothing much. It was background watching, I think.

6/22
— The Invisible Guardian (2017)
Directed by Fernando González Molina, written by Luiso Berdejo and Dolores Redondo; starring Marta Etura, Elvira Mínguez, Carlos Librado “Nene”, and Benn Northover.
The first of three films made from the Baztán trilogy by Redondo.

6/23
— Legacy of the Bones (2019)
Directed by Fernando González Molina, written by Luiso Berdejo and Dolores Redondo; starring Marta Etura, Carlos Librado “Nene”, and Francesc Orella.
— Offering to the Storm (2020)
Directed by Fernando González Molina, written by Luiso Berdejo and Dolores Redondo; starring Marta Etura, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Paco Tous.

6/24
— Mary Queen of Scots, 20 p

6/25
— The Watchmen (2009)
Directed by Zack Snyder, written by David Hayter and Alex Tse based on David Gibbons’ and Alan Moore’s graphic novel; starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson.
I contend this is the only film that I’ve yet to see that some captures the kinetic energy of the comic book. And I think I’ve seen enough of them. Most are tripe, and their inevitable translation into cinema has been a tragedy. Most strikingly, I’d say, are any and all of the X-Men films.

6/26
— Mary Queen of Scots, 25 pp.
Mary marries Bothwell, because she was pregnant with his child?

6/29
— Percival Everett, Erasure, 20 pp.
Started reading this back in April, when I visited Amherst. But then I had to recall it from the library. And only recently did it become available from the Free Library of Philadelphia.

6/30
— Finished Erasure