Category: Now Watching

Now Watching: Breaking News (2004)

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Breaking News (2004)
Directed by Johnnie To
Starring: Richie Jen, Kelly Chen, and Nick Cheung
Synopsis: After a disastrous failure to stop a robber gang, the police attempt to redeem themselves through a series of publicity stunts and shootouts.
Rating: 7/10

I’m quite behind on these. They are easy to write and I always mean to write them right after I watch, but then something comes up and I forget. I watched this one five days ago. I’ll try to play catch-up this weekend.

Johnnie is a Hong Kong director whose name gets tossed around quite a bit in my circles, but I’d never seen one of his films until now. The Criterion Channel is running a whole bunch of them, and I chose this one pretty much at random. It was good enough to make me watch another one the very next day and then a third a couple of days later.

It begins with an incredible 7-minute-long one-take shot. It follows a man into a building (the camera cranes to a top floor and into a building, then back out again), followed by a shootout with the cops. This goes poorly for the cops, and they decide they need to put on a “show” for the media. Basically, they start using their own PR department to create videos to send to the news to indicate how awesome they are.

The action scenes (and there are quite a lot of them) are all staged really well. The media stuff feels very dated and has not aged particularly well. But as I said, there is enough to love here that I immediately watched another film from To.

Now Watching: Wallace & Gromit:Vengence Most Fowl (2024)

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Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (2024)
Directed by Merlin Crossingham & Nick Park
Starring: Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith, and Diane Morgan

Synopsis: Top dog Gromit springs into action to save his master when Wallace’s high-tech invention goes rogue and he is framed for a series of suspicious crimes.

Rating: 8/10

We’re big fans of Wallace & Gromit here at The Midnight Cafe. They have this wonderful blend of nostalgic conservatism and modern progress. The claymation is all handmade, which makes it both not quite exactly perfect and absolutely beautiful.

The setting of all these films and short films is intentionally opaque, with much of it feeling like the 1960s but with plenty of modern technology. Wallace seems like an old-fashioned, traditional conservative, while Gromit, his dog, is much more modern. I’m making it sound like these are political films, and they are decidedly not. It’s more like an updating of a British Norman Rockwell, but with anthropomorphic animals, Rube Goldberg machines, and lots of cheese. Anyway, if you’ve never seen a Wallace & Gromit film, I highly recommend them.

This one finds Wallace inventing a robot gnome that can do your household chores. When one of them gets switched to “Evil” mode by a malevolent penguin, things get a little bit crazy.

It is wonderfully funny, boisterous, and filled with loads of action. I have a hard time ranking any of these films because I just lovely them so wholeheartedly.

Now Watching: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

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The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Directed by Wes Anderson
Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover
Synopsis: The eccentric members of a dysfunctional family reluctantly gather under the same roof for various reasons.

Rating: 10/10

I remember watching this movie in the theater, having no idea what to expect. I can’t remember if I’d seen Rushmore more this or not, but if I had, I hadn’t really connected it to Wes Anderson. He’s one of the most famous auteurs these days, but this was just his third film, and he wasn’t so well known outside of cinephile circles.

I was completely knocked out by it. I loved every minute of it. The film is so assured in its style, its rhythms, and its own sense of existence. I never wanted to leave the theatre.

Anderson is now beloved for his signature visual style, but this is the first film that truly perfected it (Rushmore got close, but isn’t quite there). Every inch of the screen is filled with interesting things to look at, and their placement is well thought out and conceived. The music is exquisite and I’d argue this is the best script he’s ever written (it was co-written by Owen Wilson).

The entire cast is brilliant. Every single actor does some of his/her finest work. I’ve seen it half a dozen times since that initial theatrical viewing and it remains a personal favorite.

Now Watching: Captain Blood (1935)

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As I just mentioned, I’m gonna try to do a better job of posting around here. Again, I’ll have more to say about that in a day or two, but as part of that plan, I’m starting a new series I’m calling Now Watching.

Quite a lot of folks do that on social media. They will mention what they are currently watching, or reading, or listening to, and maybe say just a few words about it. So, I thought I’d turn that into a full-on blog post.

The idea won’t be to do full reviews, but to just mention what I’m currently watching (and maybe listening to or reading) and to say a few words about it. Later on, I might do full reviews of some of these things, but maybe not.

Tonight I watched:

Captain Blood (1935)
Directed by Michael Curtis
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Lionel Atwill, and Basil Rathbone

Synopsis: After treating a Monmouth rebel against King James II in 1680s England, a young Irish doctor is exiled as a slave to Jamaica, where he captures a Spanish galleon and becomes the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.

Rating: 7/10

Thoughts: Me and the wife wanted something fun to watch tonight, and she suggested a pirate movie (she was aiming for the Muppet pirate movie, but we landed on this).

It takes an awfully long time to get to the piracy. Captain Blood starts out as an ordinary citizen, minding his own business. But when he applies his physician’s trade to a rebel fighter, he’s arrested and sold into slavery. Yada, yada, yada, an hour later, he finally becomes a pirate. There is a romance subplot with Olivia De Havilland and Basil Rathbone shows up for a couple of scenes as a rival pirate.

All of that is okay, not great, but watchable. It is the last half hour where things pick up, and the final battle is pretty terrific.