My attempt to watch 300 movies in theaters in 2018
Hey, you guys, welcome back toThe 300, a recurring feature on my silly attempt to watch 300 movies in theaters in the year 2018. I’ll be watching new releases, classics, and hidden gems to experience the wide world of cinema in all its forms. With so much being watched, there should be something each week that you can also enjoy.
As always, there are three rules for The 300:
A slightly slower week than usual because of friends coming in from out of town and some other obligations, but a pretty sound group of movies this week. And, somehow, MoviePass has not yet gone under. Still having occasional issues with ticket verification, which seems to be affecting a lot of other MoviePass users. Eventually this will get worked out. Maybe.
By the next installment of The 300, I will hit the midway point of this endeavor. A lot of this is thanks to the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival (The 300 Week 16andThe 300 Week 17), while the rest is all moxie. If MoviePass remains viable for the rest of the year, I might be hitting the goal way ahead of schedule. (I’ve just jinxed myself.)
142 of 300: All About Ah-Long (1989)(aka 阿郎的故事; Ah Long dik goo si)
Director: Johnnie ToStarring: Chow Yun-fat, Sylvia Chang, Wong Kwan-yuenCountry: China (Hong Kong)Seen at Metrograph (New York, NY)Friday, May 18th
An apparent staple of Hong Kong television,All About Ah-Longis a tearjerker about former lovers reunited and the child they have between them. I’d always thought of Chow Yun-fat as a dashing Cary Grant sort of actor, so seeing him play such a low-class lowlife was well against type. He also has such an awful haircut for most of the film. Chang is a measured and reassuring presence in the film, able to carry much of the drama in her conflicted expressions. She helped write the screenplay for the movie during production, which was nonexistent on the first day of shooting. The melodrama culminates in an over-the-top flourish of classic Hong Kong violence that’s absurd but also perfectly expressionistic.
143 of 300: Brewster McCloud (1970)
Director: Robert AltmanStarring: Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, Shelley DuvallCountry: USASeen at Metrograph (New York, NY)Saturday, May 19th
I don’t know that I likeBrewster McCloud, but I’m sure I will never forget it. Cort (portrayed as part modern Icarus and part sex god) is a quirky outcast living in the Astrodome trying to make wings so he can fly. Those who get in his way are killed via bird s**t. The plot ofBrewster McClouddoesn’t matter so much as the mood and the penchant for weirdness. Some of the moments that evoke flight are transcendent. This is a work of lunacy. According toMetrograph’s Twitter account, a young fan once told Altman thatBrewster McCloudwas his favorite film. Altman replied, “You have excellent taste. And terrible judgement.”
144 of 300: The King and the Mockingbird (1980)(aka Le roi et l’oiseau)
Director: Paul GrimaultStarring (English dub cast): Je ne sais pasCountry: FranceSeen at Metrograph (New York, NY)Sunday, May 20th
The King and the Mockingbirdbegan its life in 1940s, though it was released as an incomplete work in 1948. Grimault was able to obtain the rights to the film, and eventually completed it as he originally envisioned in 1980. This 30-plus-year gap explains why some of the animation varies in style and the pacing is occasionally glacial. Yet taken as a whole,The King and the Mockingbirdis such a beautiful, imaginative work of animation. The endless elevator sequence is hilarious, as is the anarchic storytelling, and the architecture of the impossible castle. It feels like a fairy tale evolving over the course of decades. As the film moves along, the latent revolutionary politics come to prominence, which leads to some lyrical images of class revolt in the wind down.
145 of 300: Deadpool 2 (2018)
Director: David LeitchStarring: Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, Julian Dennison, Zazie BeetzCountry: USASeen at Regal Union Square (New York, NY)Monday, May 21st
I likedDeadpoolwell enough, and I also likedDeadpool 2. The meta schtick grates in the opening 10 minutes, and it sometimes feels like the movie is trying too hard to land its jokes when it doesn’t need to. WhenDeadpool 2finally settles in, it’s a rollicking good time with solid action sequences and a gruff meathead foil in Brolin’s Cable. Some of the overarching plot reminded me a bit ofHunt for Wilderpeople. Dennison’s in both films, and each movie is about the unlikely friendship of a child with a broken adult male who might serve as a father figure. I was also tickled by the Milligan/Allred-styleX-Force/X-Statixmoment.
IfDeadpool 2has a glaring issue, it would be with the fridging of one of its female characters. (The trope of fridging/women in refrigerators involves a woman being killed, harmed, or depowered in order for a male character to progress in his story arc.) It happens early, and while it sets the plot into motion, the fridging probably wasn’t necessary to tell this story. What’s odd is that for a film so self-aware of comic book tropes, the screenplay never directly mentions WiR or fridging. Hell, Deadpool makes an overt Rob Liefeld joke as an aside, and yet no acknowledgement of a well known comics cliche.
Writer Gail Simone, who helped coin and popularize the phrase “Women in Refrigerators” and also had a brief run on theDeadpoolcomic in the early 2000s,weighed in on the matter via Twitter. Simone said that she didn’t thinkDeadpool 2was technically a case of fridging, though did not elaborate to avoid spoilers.
Regardless, I thinkthis Carmen Maria Machado evergreen tweetis applicable:
Everyone should read Machado’s short story collectionHer Body and Other Parties, by the way. It was one of the best books of 2017.
And on that note, let us now fill some space below with…
The 300: By the Numbers Breakdown
Now that we have hit the 20-week mark, it’s time to look at some numbers for this kooky endeavor. Have fun and compare it to the breakdown fromThe 300 Week 10.
Movies by Decade
2010s– 782000s– 91990s– 111980s– 111970s– 151960s– 61950s– 51940s– 51930s– 31920s– 2
Movies by Country
USA– 74US co-productions– 1Argentina– 2Argentine co-productions– 4Australia– 3Belarus– 1Belgian co-productions– 1Chile– 1China– 2Chinese co-productions– 1Denmark– 1France– 7French co-productions– 2Georgian co-productions– 1Germany– 2German co-productions– 1Hong Kong– 3Iran– 2Iranian co-productions– 1Israeli co-productions– 1Italy– 1Italian co-productions– 2Jamaica– 1Japan– 7Japanese co-productions– 1Mali– 1Netherlands– 2Philippines– 1Polish co-productions– 1Russia– 1South Korea– 1Sweden– 1UK– 3UK co-productions– 10Yugoslavian co-productions– 1
Multiple Films by the Same Director(s)
Susana Aiken and Carlos Aparicio(The Salt Mines;The Transformation)Robert Altman(Nashville;Brewster McCloud)Wes Anderson(Fantastic Mr. Fox;Isle of Dogs)Sebastián Lelio(A Fantastic Woman;Disobedience)Lucrecia Martel(The Holy Girl;The Headless Woman;La Cienaga,Zama)F.W. Murnau(Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans;Faust)Lynne Ramsay(We Need to Talk About Kevin;Ratcatcher;Morvern Callar;You Were Never Really Here)Steven Spielberg(The Post;Ready Player One)Masaaki Yuasa(Lu Over the Wall;Mind Game)
Films by Women Directors
So in addition to The 300, I’m also doing52 Films By Women, in which I try to see 52 feature films in theaters directed by women.
Currently I have seen 38 of 52.
Daughters of the Dust(1991), dir. Julie DashLoving Vincent(2017), dir. Dorota Kobiela and Hugh WelchmanSoft Fiction(1979), dir. Chick StrandDis-moi(1980), dir. Chantal AkermanThe Ties That Bind(1985), dir. Su FriedrichThe Salt Mines(1990), dir. Susana Aiken and Carlos AparicioThe Transformation(1995), dir. Susana Aiken and Carlos AparicioStrange Days(1995), dir. Kathryn BigelowThe Party(2017), dir. Sally PotterOh Lucy!(2017), dir. Atsuko HirayanagiScary Mother(2017), dir. Ana UrushadzeAva(2017), dir. Sadaf ForoughiWe Need to Talk About Kevin(2011), dir. Lynne RamsayRatcatcher(1999), dir. Lynne RamsayMorvern Callar(2002), dir. Lynne RamsayYou Were Never Really Here(2017), dir. Lynne RamsayThe Holy Girl(2004), dir. Lucrecia MartelThe Headless Woman(2008), dir. Lucrecia MartelLa Cienaga(2001), dir. Lucrecia MartelZama(2017), dir. Lucrecia MartelLove, Gilda(2018), dir. Lisa D’ApolitoNico, 1988(2017), dir. Susanna NicchiarelliIsland of the Hungry Ghosts(2018), dir. Gabrielle BradyCargo(2017), dir. Ben Howling and Yolanda RamkeO.G. (2018), dir. Madeleine SacklerState Like Sleep(2018), dir. Meredith DanluckAll About Nina(2018), dir. Eva VivesGeneral Magic(2018), dir. Matt Maude and Sarah KerruishThe Miseducation of Cameron Post(2018), dir. Desiree AkhavanRoll Red Roll(2018), dir. Nancy SchwartzmanTime for Ilhan(2018), dir. Norah ShapiroThe Feeling of Being Watched(2018), dir. Assia BoundaouiSay Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland(2018), dir. Kate Davis and David HeilbronerBlockers(2018), dir. Kay CannonAngels Wear White(2017), dir. Vivian QuLet the Sunshine In(2017), dir. Claire DenisSleepless Nights(1978), dir. Becky JohnstonRBG(2018), dir. Betsy West and Julie Cohen
Top 5 Theaters for The 300
Metrograph– 33Quad Cinema– 17BAM Rose Cinemas– 15The Film Society of Lincoln Center– 10Angelika Film Center/IFC Center– 6
