Decades of Cinema - 10 Best of the 1920's

In high school I took a film studies class and it opened my mind up to the idea that cinema was an art form rather than just an entertaining distraction. At one point during the class, our teacher announced that we would be watching the Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece Vertigo soon and one of the other students made their lack of excitement abundantly clear to the whole room. The teacher asked her to share her frustrations and she said "Isn't that movie old? Is it even in color?"

I never shared such concerns with that young lady, as I have always had an open mind for the history of film and even (gasp!) movies that were filmed in black and white. That being said, it wasn't until relatively recently, the past few years to be exact, that I really started to explore eras of cinema like the silent pictures of the 1920's. I now know what a shame it would be to ignore such a decade and write it off as "too old", as even 90 years later, so many movies from that era truly are treasures.

Thus I have decided to do a decades project, counting down the ten best films from each starting with the 20's.

10. Seven Chances

The silent era of film featured three comedic stars, all of which will be making appearances in this list of ten. One of those men was Buster Keaton and his film Seven Chances is a delight. The story revolves around a man named Jimmy Shannon (played by Keaton) who discovers that he stands to inherit seven million dollars from his grandfather as long as he is married by 7 P.M. on his 27th birthday, which just so happens to be the very day he discovers this news. 

The plot is absurd of course, but one shouldn't look to the silent era comedies for realism. What matters here is how funny Seven Chances is, because the slapstick material is executed wonderfully by Keaton and some of the set pieces are remarkably memorable.

9. Steamboat Bill Jr.

Two films down, two Buster Keaton entries, and much of what I said about Seven Chances would apply here because the style of comedy is the same and the execution is still top notch. If you are a fan of films from this era or Keaton in general and have not seen either of the two listed thus far, I do suggest you check both out. A lot of laughs to be had here.

8. Sherlock Jr.

That's right, make it three for three. Same as above only even funnier this time around, and the beauty of these Keaton films is their ability to fit into practically any schedule. Very short running times packed to the brim with fun.

7. Man With a Movie Camera

An experimental and groundbreaking film, Man With a Movie Camera is a non-narrative silent documentary and in order to truly appreciate it, you have to recognize the way it changed cinema forever. Featuring some breathtaking and exciting shots, this is a film that was way ahead of its time.

6. The Gold Rush

Obviously you knew this wouldn't be a list simply loaded up with Buster Keaton yet totally void of any Chaplin, right? One of the greatest entertainers of all time, Charlie Chaplin had a brilliant mind for comedic timing and delivery and also how to form a meaningful, emotional narrative around it. The Gold Rush is a wonderful example of all of this.

5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

The work of F.W. Murnau is still for the most part unfortunately unseen by me, but one of the few efforts of his I have had the pleasure to witness is the silent classic Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. Featuring a surprisingly dark and twisted premise about a man who plans to kill his wife so that he can run off with his mistress, what comes out of it is a powerful story of true, profound love, painful regrets and forgiveness. A film that can be described as beautiful in more ways than one.

4. Safety Last

I recall a discussion I heard about the two stars of the silent era, Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. I have learned that it truly was a three horse race because Harold Lloyd was a gifted entertainer as well. I have seen a handful of his work now and without a doubt Safety Last is his finest achievement, so funny and some amazingly memorable moments (like the image above).

3. The General

Buster Keaton clearly wins the 1920's for me when it comes to most appearances in my top 10 of the decade, and The General is the finest of them all. As fast paced and exciting as the runaway train depicted in the movie, anyone who thinks silent film equals boring film needs to check this one out and honestly tell me they still feel the same when after it ends.

2. Metropolis

I recently made some adjustments to my 100 favorite films of all time list and I bumped the silent science fiction masterpiece Metropolis into my top ten...yet it is not #1 of its own decade, so you know something special is coming up next. Metropolis is a haunting, brilliantly strange film and it feels far more advanced than something that was released nearly 90 years ago. Directed by Fritz Lang, this remains a landmark piece of cinema to this day, and it only took roughly 5 minutes the first time I saw it to understand why.

1. The Passion of Joan of Arc

You don't merely watch The Passion of Joan of Arc, you experience it. Ranked as my #3 favorite film of all time, this silent wonder shows the trial and eventual execution of Joan of Arc and the lead performance from Renee Jeanne Falconetti is quite possibly the greatest and most emotionally arresting I have ever witnessed.

If and when you do decide to experience The Passion of Joan of Arc (and you should), make sure you watch the version that includes the Voice of Light musical composition by Richard Einhorn. I know I sound hyperbolic, but these words apply here: it is probably my favorite usage of music in a film ever. Absolutely perfect, and the film as a whole is the best of the 1920's. 

The next list will cover my ten favorite films from the 1930's. The image above is from one that will make the cut.

Lost River Review

It isn't every night. I can't really say how often it happens, but occasionally while attempting to succumb to the serenity of the silence and the comfort of my bed I think about how jealous I am of the younger version of me. There was a time when instead of my mind racing due to stress, it was reaping the benefits of a blossoming imagination. Instead of seeing society through a cynical set of eyes and fearing the unknown, I was off somewhere building worlds from the ground up. I was hopeful of discovering the impossible and finding a way to make it possible. 

I used to dream of literally flying above the earth majestically and I would wake up feeling relaxed and free. I once swam down into my subconscious through an underwater world and I can still recall the vivid detail my mind created out of nothingness. While I still feel young as I approach my 31st birthday, I close my eyes each night only to open them soon after with nothing to analyze in between. Sleep is mandatory and a welcome escape from a hectic and frustrating day but I miss the transition from real to surreal. Lost River made me feel like I was dreaming again.

Premiering last year at the Cannes film festival, I remember eagerly anticipating the first wave of reactions after the debut screening of Lost River and when they came, they hit hard. Reports of aggressive boos came flooding out and they garnered a special level of attention due to the director, the handsome slice of sexy that is an absolute star in front of the camera yet completely unproven behind it known as Ryan Gosling. Some may hear about such angry reactions and then notice the low approval ratings on an aggregate site like Rotten Tomatoes and instantly write a film like this off, but I have learned my lesson in this regard. Two years ago, Nicolas Winding Refn unleashed Only God Forgives at Cannes and it was met with a similar, unfortunate response from critics and audiences alike, and yet I consider that work a masterpiece after three viewings. Therefore, I approached Lost River with a feeling of cautious optimism.

Once again I am left puzzled by the overwhelming negative response of a Cannes failure because I quickly fell victim to the dreamy, magical spell cast over me by Lost River. One of the main complaints I have noticed from the films detractors is that it doesn't really have an original idea of its own, that Gosling borrows heavily from previous auteurs such as David Lynch or the aforementioned Refn and it is impossible for me to argue this point, yet it didn't trouble me in the slightest. While his influences are apparent, Gosling directs the hell out of this film and clearly has a confident, gifted eye behind the camera. Constantly throughout the movie I was picking up on the true detail in a frame, the usage of color and light going on in the background and to say I was impressed is a major understatement. 

I wasn't so much swept away by the narrative of Lost River, although I also don't think it is a flaw like many have made it out to be. It was without a doubt the technical achievements of this film that sprinkled their fairy dust over me early and often. Director of Photography Benoit Debie brings such vibrancy and life to the picture with the neon hues that make even the most normal set piece feel a bit surreal, and the musical score by Johnny Jewel perfectly suits the material, as its enigmatic and haunting tones pulled me in a little deeper and danced through my ears long after the film was over. 

Inside the setting of this film lies a misogynistic underworld that is without a doubt haunting, but the authenticity of these characters normal lives was the aspect of Lost River that I truly can't shake. I often see the world solely through my own eyes, selfishly ignoring that there are real places just like the location presented where real people live. Homes torn down, a displaced community that is treated like a lesser form of life and talked down to by far more fortunate people. It's a difficult pill to swallow. They casually discuss the possibility that losing their way of life might be a blessing in disguise as if the American dream awaits elsewhere, as if a drive south down a highway will lead to more aesthetically pleasing circumstances. Lost River tells the story of those people who aren't pursuing the American dream, but rather prefer the normalcy and familiarity or their surroundings. These aren't the people that lost their way because of a recession but rather those that never truly found their way in the first place. 

The people in Lost River are real and they are out there, struggling to survive because at any moment their lives will literally be torn down in front of them. Ryan Gosling takes their sympathetic tale and delivers it as a fantasy neo-noir, and his vision should be celebrated rather than admonished. I can only hope the negativity that surrounds his debut effort doesn't dissuade him from continuing to explore his potential even further. 

Later tonight before I close my eyes I will hope to drift off down Lost River as I sleep. If Gosling is available to direct what resides in my subconscious, sign me up.

4.5/5

Thor Review

Some films grab you early on with a killer first act that instantly promises something special. Thor doesn't.

Some films don't kick it into high gear until the final act, with a stunning conclusion that elevates the entire work to a new level. Something I like to refer to as The Phantom Menace effect, you walk out of the theater buzzing about the end and you forget entirely that almost everything before it wasn't very impressive. Thor isn't one of those films.

My biggest problem with Thor, a fun slice of cinema that I like but certainly do not love, is that the middle portion of the movie is by far its strongest section. The way we first meet these characters is lackluster at best and the way we say goodbye to them is a major disappointment. In the end I couldn't shake a feeling of being entertained but let down, reflecting on the many scenes that were done so right and yet the complete vision just didn't rise up to expectations.

Once the material allows the performance to make us give a shit, we do because the characters start to get fleshed out and what we see is endearing. Forget throwing hammers and running down Asgardian Mario Kart Rainbow Road, give me more scenes in which the aesthetically pleasing couple of humans known as Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman are sitting next to a fire and start to connect on a deeper level. These are the type of sequences that are needed in a work of absurdity like a super hero comic book film, the moments in which the characters feel like real human beings and not just actors in ridiculous costumes. Unfortunately they are few and far between in Thor, giving way to more silly humor that isn't very funny and action sequences that don't exactly get my pulse racing.

Thor is a solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not even remotely close to their best achievement but also a whole lot better than its worst. Entertained? Certainly, but it feels like it could have been so much more. 

3/5

Autumn Sonata Review

I'm not gonna pretend I have seen all of his films or have even truly scratched the surface of those I have, but I think it is pretty clear that Ingmar Bergman was a fucking genius.

I apologize for using such vulgarities in the opening sentence, but I needed a word to really drive home my point, and the one I went with was pretty darn appropriate. Merely calling him a genius doesn't feel right. People throw that word around these days without truly considering what it means. I once heard a guy call his buddy a genius for putting french fries on top of his hamburger. No, Bergman was a fucking genius. He is worthy of the word in so many ways that rise far above a greasy potato being stacked on top of a greasy slab of meat.

Autumn Sonata is an intense, powerful, painful film that focuses on a broken relationship between a mother (Ingrid Bergman) and her daughter (Liv Ullmann), and could be used as an instructional video for actors trying to learn how to portray real, honest emotion. This is a flat out masterpiece, the kind of work that leaves you shaken and in awe of what took place. Autumn Sonata thrives because of its minimalism, and that is the true masterstroke from Ingmar Bergman. He doesn't need to throw anything flashy or inherently exciting at you to keep the audience on its toes. It's a flashy film because of the amazing screenplay, seemingly simple yet confidently brilliant direction and performances that will make your jaw drop to the floor. It's exciting because at some point during Autumn Sonata I realized how uncomfortable and devastatingly believable the whole thing is, and it works. It works so damn well.

Stop calling your friend a genius for combining multiple foods into a single bite, or for taking a short cut to get you to a store 3 minutes faster than normal. Genius is a word that should describe something or someone whom created something profoundly smart, at a level that a vast majority of the population could never dream of achieving. Ingmar Bergman is a genius and Autumn Sonata might be the best thing he has ever done.

5/5

Field of Dreams Review

Every Friday afternoon I will glance at the clock near me and do a quick calculation of the minutes remaining in my work day, and thus the countdown begins. Leaving work and heading home to the people I love, the television I watch and the Blu-ray collection I worship is always a terrific moment regardless of the day of the week, but man, nothing beats a Friday on the cusp of a lazy, relaxing weekend. 

This particular Friday, each passing minute felt like a tiny step towards something even more special and I could barely contain my excitement. Sunday is Easter and I get to experience the amazing moment when my daughter discovers what the bunny left her, a reminder that she is still young and innocent enough to believe in magic. One of a few days each year that my wife and I receive no credit for the money we spent or the effort put into organizing the perfect holiday, and we are thrilled to relinquish it to a fictional character because when she smiles, it's all worth it. The amount of time left in which she believes is nearing an end. What remains needs to be cherished.

That isn't everything though. There is more. Once the events of Easter have concluded and my belly is sufficiently stuffed with ham, I will turn on the TV and prepare myself to watch something that I have spent my entire life madly in love with, a game that feels lyrical and beautiful, one that fills me with a nostalgic warmth that can hardly be described with words.

Baseball.

As far back as I can remember, I have loved the game. When winter is at its worst and the cold feels relentless, I will randomly close my eyes and picture that moment when the first pitch is delivered on a beautiful, sunny day. I will practically smell the freshly cut grass as I look out at the majestic glory of Wrigley field. I will hear the crack of the bat as if it was right there in front of me.

I have been thinking about these moments ever since last fall when the final out was recorded, and the magic of the game will return on Sunday night. I knew it was the right time to revisit a classic, a film that both invokes my passion for baseball and also triggers my memories of watching it repeatedly growing up. I knew it was time for Field of Dreams.

It isn't a perfect movie. It is overly sentimental and undeniably manipulative, but I just don't care. What it strives for, it achieves as I connect on a pretty deep emotional level every single time I revisit that striking field in the middle of a farm in Iowa. Field of Dreams is basically impossible for me to watch with an overly judgmental or unbiased, critical eye because sometimes a film transcends the way you would normally put every aspect of a work under a microscope. I choose not to inspect this one too closely. I choose to just sit back, relax and breathe it in.

I will spend these days with my family. I will have fun and watch movies and witness the miracle of a child filled with wonder, and then I will embrace the return of my favorite sport.

Sounds like a pretty great weekend to me. 

5/5

It Follows Review

It follows.

No, seriously, it follows.

As soon as the credits hit the screen, I knew I had loved what I had seen. Actually I knew it the entire time I watched it. Horror is a genre that I don't easily warm up to and the trailers before the film were a perfect representation of why. So predictable, so obvious, all the expected tropes of generic cheap cinema scares that have no trouble selling tickets at the box office and yet they do so little to truly inspire. It Follows is different though. It Follows is special, a film released in 2015 and yet it invoked a feeling of nostalgia in me, as if it were released 30 years earlier, the type of movie I would have watched late at night with friends as a teen.

Was I scared though?

I drive home from the theater feeling buzzed, replaying my favorite scenes in my head over and over, pondering some of the subtle nuances of the movie that made It Follows a far richer cinematic experience than what was merely presented on the surface. My car comes to a stop along the way and I glance over at a man on the sidewalk, walking slowly, shrouded in darkness. The chill of the nighttime air flows through the windows and I recognize the goosebumps that covered my arms. In that moment everything was normal, yet it felt anything but.

Was I scared though?

I make the same turn into my driveway that I make every single day and my headlights make shadows dance across the neighboring homes. My heart literally skips a beat and I momentarily am engulfed with a feeling of dread as I see a man standing just off to the side. A closer look reveals there is no man there at all, but what did I see? Were my eyes merely playing a trick on me? Yeah, that's probably it. I remind myself that there is nothing to worry about, yet I have an extra bounce in my step as I head up the stairs and through my front door.

Was I scared though?

I sit here now, writing these words and I can't get the score by Disasterpeace out of my mind. So damn perfect for the material, at times it felt as if it was already iconic, like it was destined to send chills down the spines of viewers for many years to come. I can't stop thinking about the confident, stylish direction by David Robert Mitchell, especially a few specific sequences in which his camera turns slowly and with ease, at a perfect pace and rhythm to make your heart race just a few beats faster, make you wonder what will be waiting for you when it comes full circle. I can't stop thinking about the look of sheer terror in the eyes of star Maika Monroe as she saw something others could not, the way she trembled at the sight of something as seemingly innocent as an open door.

Am I scared though?

Yeah, I kinda am. 

It feels fucking great.

4.5/5

Home Review

I have always paid close attention to the box office results of films whether I enjoyed the movie or not, and honestly I never really put a lot of thought into why until now. In some cases it's obvious, when a film I love is ripe material for a sequel but the only way that will happen is thanks to some extra green in the pockets of studio execs, but even when that isn't possible I have always cared.

After watching the new film from Dreamworks Animation Home, and then learning of its thus far successful financial run, I realized that it isn't that I care for that singular films performance, it's that I care about the big picture of the future of cinema. I see articles discussing the fact that the masterful film How To Train Your Dragon 2 disappointed on the business side of things and yet here is Home, a film mired in mediocrity yet it makes the suits in charge smile with glee when the numbers roll in.

So you might be thinking, Scott, why do you care? I care because when a move that reeks of such desperation like making Rihanna the voice of a main character is rewarded, it could change the business model of the studio going forward. She simply was not the right choice if the goal was to make the best possible picture, as her singing ability didn't translate to a talent of giving an animated character any heart or depth. Oh, and there is a scene in which the little girl she voices turns on the car radio, and a Rihanna song is playing. You could practically hear my eyes roll in the theater.

Meanwhile, you have the underutilized natural and often times actually funny performance from Steve Martin, one of the major reasons why I came very close to giving Home a passing grade and a recommendation. When his character Captain Smek was on screen, the film was better for it, and that is unfortunate because he is relegated to being merely a supporting bit outside of the core of the film, which didn't work nearly as well. 

I can't solely pile on to Rihanna as the problem with Home, that would be unfair because in some respects the team of writers and director Tim Johnson did the actors no favors themselves with a rushed, frenetic film that finally decided to take a moment to breathe when it was already too late. The first half or so of Home is just chaos with absolutely no attempts to develop any characters or allow the plot to soak in, and by the time it takes its foot off the gas and strives towards emotional resonance we are still trying to find our footing from everything before it. 

Home isn't a terrible movie by any means, I did honestly have some fun with it. Go ahead and take your kids because I am sure they will enjoy it, lord knows mine did. Hell, you may have a blast as well, but down the road this won't be on the map the way other, far richer experiences from the same or other animation studios have been over recent years. 

How To Train Your Dragon 2 added the incredible vocal talents of Cate Blanchett to the mix and it was a sublime choice, yet the ticket sales of that franchise made the Dreamworks stock price tick down a bit and is thus regarded as a disappointment. Home miscasts Rihanna and it dominates financially, and I literally saw this headline on CNN this morning: 

"Did Rihanna save Dreamworks Animation?"

This is not good news going forward.

2.5/5