Sayles really does a great job with the history of mining in Appalachia. He shows us how the people are fucked over by the coal operators. Effectively they're serfs trapped on the land they once possessed. We meet miners, their wives, we meet town folk and railroad folk, we meet gun thugs and union organizers. Who we don't meet are the Mine Owners, cause why the hell would they be there. They're living in mansions in Charleston, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh. These people are like matches to them, something they burn and throw away.

A note on music. Hazel Dickens sings some gorgeous, eerie High Lonesome bluegrassy songs. All the music is just natural and fits the whole, like the sound of a creek through the woods or thunder across the hills. Something is happening, or something is coming. 

Anytime someone gets a little out of line The Owners send down some gun thugs to convince the folks they need to step back in line. Enter Kevin Tighe as Hickey. I used to watch him on Emergency in the 70s as Johnny Gage's even tempered Paramedic buddy Roy. Hell, I really didn't know he had Hickey in him. Hickey is one evil son of a bitch. The writing and Tighe's performance are downright terrifying. This asshole knows he's got Carte Blanche to do whatever he wants and can terrorize this whole place cause he and his little pal Griggsy have guns and political backing from the mine operators. David Strathairn plays Chief of Police Sid Hatfield. Yup, those Hatfields. Really interesting role. I've always loved that guy, just a marvelous actor. He was in a lot of good stuff before this, but Matewan is where he made his bones. The story is so well written. Love, loss, betrayal, revenge, more betrayal, coming together, laughter, being chopped apart, tragedy. Sayles and the actors make this all real, as much truth as you can squeeze onto a little rectangle of celluloid. Photography by the great Haskell Wexler. That guy doesn't need me to read his credits off. Google him, he's a legend. He gets right down in the muck here. It's so spot on, so unflashy. It's just the right thing. In a year that saw Three Men and a Baby, Beverly Hills Cop 2, Fatal Attraction, and Dirty Dancing this is a profound and meaningful movie. I don't need profound everyday, but when I saw it in 1987 while going to school in the mountains of Virginia just a few hours away from this scene it was something I knew would stay with me forever. Highest Recommendation. There's a reason it's in The Criterion Collection. ps: while you're at Criterion check Harlan County USA, Barbara Kopple's masterpiece documentary about a coal war in Kentucky in the 70's.

If it shows up in your town SEE IT. I saw it at the SFMOMA. It's gone. It's co-owned by SFMOMA and The MOMA in NYC, so NYC friends expect to see it there soon.

I wanted to see this as soon as I saw the poster! I love this movie. So simple, so good. You know what you're getting here, and it gives it to you with panache. In the 80s, an airplane full of cocaine goes down in the woods near Blood Mountain Georgia. A black bear eats some coke. The bear really likes coke. Mayhem/hilarity/terror ensue. Director Elizabeth Banks and her peeps know what they're about, this movie isn't looking to open The New York Film Fest. If you like movies like Tremors, Return of the Living Dead, and other schlocky genius flicks from the 80s you'll dig this. The tone is pitch perfect. Great cast. Margo Martindale kills it( as always) as a weirdo Park Ranger. Ray Lotta as a scumbag dope dealer(in his last role).  Keri Russell is great as a single mom nurse who is an awesome momma bear. Kristofer Hivju ( Tormund from GOT) is great as a Scandinavian fiance hiking with his lady. Dude really leans into his comic side here. Matthew Rhys pops in for a minute of hilarity and some solidarity with his The Americans and IRL wife Keri Russell. Isiah Whitlock Jr. does some Clay Davis (The Wire) as a cop shit, it's  just perfect. Alden Ehrenriech is superb as Ray Liotta's kid. He's got that earnest, cute charm that worked for him in Solo and made that whole film work. Other geniuses that I'm unfamiliar with. Such a great cast that really gets the feel of the whole movie and fucking delivers. Again I'm reminded of Tremors, hell, there's even a character named Reba. I've got to mention Christian Convery as Henry, an adorable  blond munchkin that's Keri Russell's kid's pal/ crush that clearly has a bunch of problems at home and looks up to Keri as a surrogate mom. He steals every damn scene he's in, every single one. Great writing, directing, CGI, everything. Another movie that sets its rules and sticks to them. Highly recommend. I watched it at home on Plex.

PS. I know Tremors came out in 1990 not The 80s, close enough!

Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane. Those two put in some fantastic acting. Weird semi paradise.

What mythology is this? The Odyssey and The Green Knight? Play within the Play. Wow! That gets crazy. His sons?

Ankle monitor? Explain please

So much underwater. Bathtubs. Womb right off the top. Pools.Always the rumpling, grumbling soundtrack. Unsettling is the byword for this film Oh hi Parker Posey. Upped your game. Great role. That was wild.The static frames are off putting to audiences grown up of constant camera movement and crazy fast cutting.

I've never been in the Joaquin Phoenix fan club, that said, I'm Still Here was brilliant. I thought Joker was dumb. He deserves an Oscar for this role, he's amazing. Ari Aster is an fantastic filmmaker. I've never seen anything like this. Kind of like looking into Francis Bacon's brain. I took a 1/4 Xanax 15 minutes in cause as I said, unsettling. Truly brave cinema. Highly recommend.

Interesting VO. Annie Oakley jobs. Haha. A little Fight Clubby in it's intro to character. I like the explanation of craft a bit. It's a little indulgent, but I'm always a sucker for this kinda thing.

Travel documents as Felix Unger, Archibald Bunker is hilarious.

Does he listen to The Smiths because Smith is a commonly accepted alias?

Oscar Madison credit card. Howard Cunningham ticket. Sitcom crazy. Rueben Kinkaid, from the Partridge Family. Lou Grant. Sam Malone. George Jefferson. Robert Hartley is Bob Newhart. I could go with this gag forever, it's classic Fincher.

 Very Cold film. Killers are cold, psychotic people.

Anticipate don't improvise is a mantra you should try and stick to, but only if you can improvise.

Tilda Swinton rolls up into this and does a great job.  Go figure, she's really good at this. One of the greatest actors of her generation. 

SubPop T-shirt on client. Chuckle.

So much of this is in our hero's head. So much just him being little recognizable as he passes through the world. It's a small, cool film from the best director of his generation. Right on David Fincher. Enjoyed this. Recommend. Streaming on Netflix. 

As others have said, Napoleon would never have deliberately fired cannon onto the Pyramids. Unsuccessful comedy and lying about verifiable history are strange choices.

Phoenix's line readings are so flat and wooden with a self perceived stern face that's like a constipated Donald Trump on qualudes. At least Napoleon can walk down a ramp, I guess that's something.

Ice in the desert is cute detail they got right. Points for that.

This whole farce thing doesn't work.

Him fucking Josephine is goofy, not funny. Tone matters. 

Austerlitz is just a celebration of not understanding tactics or screen direction. Wtf Ridley. Read a book on the actual battle rather rolling a bunch of shots of guys freezing in water. This is MEG 2 level dumb shit, but it's pretending to be serious. Again the tone shifts? Are you making an epic now? Oh. Really. It lumbers back and forth from trying to be a historical epic, to having wannabe Terry Southern comedic stylings. Just a weird characterization of a complex person. No mention of what made him successful: unprecedented staff work and logistics, with the zeal to get that work out of his staff. Cult of personality shit. He took that shit seriously and that's how he beat the odds in battle. Napoleon changed how War was fought. He showed that the monarchies of Europe were old outmoded institutions and these Kings and Princes were just rich people, not smart people, not divinely ordained Masters of the Universe. None of that here. Just a man strangely uncharismatic, unfunny, boring and with a style of fucking that seems at best unenjoyable. Joaquin Phoenix can be very effective as an actor. Here he is just empty: of character, of emotion, of empathy. Just lost, which Napoleon certainly never was.

One good joke. When Josephine is divorced she goes to live at Chateau Malmaison. Translated roughly: Palace Wrong House.  Not even a joke though, true place.

There's some good scenes. Sometimes they're actually turned and strung together. But no great scenes at all.

At least they get Wellington's use of squares in the battle of Waterloo; beautiful choreography, but even here we aren't given a reason to care.

It seems it requires the audience to actually know a good deal about Napoleon because we're just driving headlong through a pretty jam packed history of European upheaval and a Revolution in Military Affairs on a very compressed time frame; yet if you do know a bit then you know how much bullshit is being tossed about here. Again, strange.

Vanessa Kirby is the good thing here. Sure, I have a weakness for her; she's funny, she looks cool, she seems smart. Amazon should have offered her free rides into space and remade the Library of Alexandria to get her to play Galadrial in their messy Rings thing, but I digress. She's one of the only solid things here and yet she's still only allowed to be no deeper than a few inches. She's kinda like Jodie Comer's character in The Last Duel. A woman at the center of the story that the protagonists don't/won't understand. Maybe it's a Ridley Scott thing these days, he can't see the women characters, so he leaves them alone, and that's for the better. So in summation: Script not good. Acting not good. Direction muddled. Nice workman like Cinematography. Nice workman like Production Design. 3 hour runtime is both too long and too short. I'd rate this Avoid. Watch at your peril. Streaming on Apple TV+

For my money my favorite of this genre of Brock Yates' Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash stuff is 1976's The Gumball Rally. When there's a Ferrari 365GTB/4 Sypder flying so fast it's floating through Manhattan it's absolutely gorgeous. I'm gonna have to search that out and watch it again. Recommend. I'm not sure where it's streaming, I'm writing this from notes

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Really good writing. They get right into it. Grace leaves for work a little odd, drives down the street in her car, waves thoughtfully at a neighbor and Smashing Match cut to her hanging on, shaking around the seat, sirens blasting in high speed pursuit thrashing and bouncing down a rural road. Straight up Mad Max style. She's a probationer, Stevie is her tutor. Grace ain't seen nothing, Stevie's seen a lot. Tommy is a probationer being tutored by grizzeled vet Gerry. Gerry is a hoot, played by the wicked Richard Dormer who stole whole episodes of Game of Thrones as Lord Baric Dondarrion. Annie Conlon is a hotheaded black haired Tolkien elf that suffers from not always thinking things through. Watching her grow into the job is majick. The only other person I'm familiar with is monster talented John Lynch who changes gears here to play local crime lord James McIntyre, a man full of conflicts. The chemistry between these folks is top notch, the relationships are very real through the writing acting direction. Being rookies they learn about each other as we learn about them. The way they react to the public and each other, what makes them people, it builds a solid world for us. Right off it's clear that this little police outpost in suburban Belfast is easily wiped out if the hostile neighborhoods get het up. They can feel the distrust, the hatred and the wall of silence from the people they're charged to police. A hangover from The Troubles. They are completely understaffed and over extended. Yet, they treat everyone with respect. Hell, Grace tries to help people who don't even understand her empathy for them. I learned the cops are scornfully called Peelers. It comes from Sir Robert Peel, he started the Metropolitan Police in London and Ireland. From him are also the terms Bobbies, and Coppers from the copper buttons on The Met uniform. But I digress. The cutting plan and rhythm of the edits is always perfect. The camera cars are like modern French Connection, but with smashing bottles and bricks. The Irish locals always have some bricks to throw, like they store them at corners in case they get some cornered Peelers. Great photography all around. Great blocking without being flash.

The balance our local Police Section has to keep between the gangsters, the average locals the gangsters prey on and hide amongst, inter squad relations, and The Bigwigs downtown and in London is reminiscent of The Wire and Hill Street Blues. Frank Furrilo is happy he's not here.

Award for Excellence to magical Joanne Crawford as Sargent Helen McNally. She's the glue that holds this delicate creation together. To throw it back again to Hill Street, she's to this show what Michael Conrad's Sgt Esterhaus was to that. The fucking rock. She can still throw a punch in a scrap too. When they walk out of the briefing room into those mean streets, she looks at them hoping to see them walk back in, her eyes are pure empathy. When they screw up she nails them to the floor cause they have no margin for error. If someone fucks with them she defends them like a mother owl, with wit, smarts and terror. Formidable character, formidable actor. So much emotion in such little movements in her face.

S1 E4 Full Moon Fever. That's how you do episodic television. The story of a hellish night of conflicting priorities, massive under resources, and a tragedy all told through hostile Internal Affairs interviews and flashbacks to the night in question. A fast paced True Detective S1. Charles Bannier directs a coup de maitre. Lot of balls in the air, he has Helen knock it out of the park, or the equivalent in Camogie. The Brits just do this stuff better. Highly Recommend.

Streaming on Britbox and for the moment on HBO

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