Popcorn, Etc. | No. 38
Happy holidays! From my café vantage point, I can see slushy weather but I’m appropriately decked out in layers of wool (I’m talking long underwear, overalls, sweater, hat, the whole nine) so the I’m striving for coziness over chill. It’s working! Not sure how I’ll fare on the way home, but for now: hot cup o’ joe, nice views of a wet, refracting Chicago Avenue, and a long list of movies to talk to you about. Let’s dive in!
Alli and I saw film buff Dennis and requested a Christmas movie recommendation to pair with our newly decked out tree. Without hesitating, he said BATMAN RETURNS (1992). We got take-out sushi and tucked in for the horny, campy Tim Burton masterpiece. Starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, Danny DeVito as the Penguin, and Michael Keaton as Batman, the movie is a delicious slow-drip of mystery and outsized character. At the 30-minute mark, we’ve only met our Batman once. Bruce Wayne might be the hero, but Burton rightfully focuses on the all-time best performances from Pfeiffer and DeVito, relishing their wickedness for our benefit.
WATCH IF YOU LIKE: villains, rubber, latex
Streaming on HBO Max, playing at the Music Box Dec. 14-15
Hannah, Jenelle, and I saw AFTERSUN, the gauzy, grief-ridden feature debut from Charlotte Wells. I caught her short BLUE CHRISTMAS in 2018 at a Chicago festival and it was remarkably self-assured, a deeply emotional movie that stopped just short of sentimentality. Here, again, Wells deals in feelings, and lots of them. The film follows a young father (Paul Mescal) and his 11-year-old daughter (Frankie Corio) on a holiday in Turkey. In between languid poolside lounging, karaoke nights, and games of pool, neither can hide the threads of depression and angst, which lay plain both the ties that bind, and those that fray. Patient, affecting, beautifully shot and acted. Many a sob in the theater, and for hours afterward, according to one of my close sources (Hannah).
WATCH IF YOU LIKE: shoegaze, Sally Rooney, “luminous debuts”
Now playing in theaters
NOW WE’RE TALKIN’!!! On a dreary evening of a bad week, we needed a Great Long Movie and settled on MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER, the 1971 Western from Robert Altman. I loved it, a lot. Warren Beatty and Julie Christie star as the titular hustler and madame. New to the town of Presbyterian Church, the pair sets about to make their coin by joining forces and building the best brothel in town. Hygienic, friendly, and fun. The men in town love the business, the women seem happy and cared for, McCabe is happy just to be near beautiful Mrs. Miller, what could go wrong? Well, quite a bit, if some crafty oil barons decide they want your land. Set against a snowy, mountainous backdrop, the film is a perfect winter fable, packed with Altman signatures like overlapping dialogue, a memorable ensemble cast, and Shelley Duvall. Immerse yourself in winter and get warmed by Vilmos Zsigmond’s glowing, tintype cinematography. Did I mention Leonard Cohen did the music?
WATCH IF YOU LIKE: hearts of gold, the Wild West, fur coats, daguerrotypes
Streaming on the Criterion Channel
I read the recent New Yorker profile on Sarah Polley and was reminded to watch her 2012 documentary STORIES WE TELL, which had been recommended to me years ago by my dear friend Anna. Through interviews with family and friends, home video clips, fictionalized recreations, and other forms of subjectivity, Polley investigates the origin of a family joke turned true: that she is not her father’s daughter, but is in fact the product of an affair of her now-gone mother’s. The film narrativizes, dramatizes, twists, and questions the truth, resulting in an ouroboros of a story. A former Disney child star, and now a director primarily working in narrative features, Polley is a dogged and qualified detective of acting and storytelling. I recommend reading the afore-linked profile before or after the screening for additional context on her process and her incredible life story. Her new film, WOMEN TALKING, comes out later this month.
WATCH IF YOU LIKE: Ancestry.com, half-truths, family secrets
Streaming on YouTube and Amazon
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