May 2018 in Films

So May was very different from April in that I didn’t watch nearly as many films directed by women as I had intended. Mostly this was because there were a bunch of films expiring from FilmStruck that I had to watch. Like, so many films. You’ll see. As always, the whole list of everything I watched in May plus my favorites can be found after the cut.

Disobedience
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train
Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon)
Speed Racer
Marvel mon amour
Petticoat Fever
Fast Workers
Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers)
Petulia
Lo scopone scientifico (The Scopone Game)
Série noire
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)
Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Beastly
Beautiful Creatures (2013)
…One Third of a Nation…
The Wagons Roll at Night
Beast (2018)
Prêt-à-Porter
Unzipped
Kinky Boots
L’amour fou (2010)
The Clay Pigeon
The Password Is Courage
The Film of Her
City Walk
Ghost Trip
Decasia
The Mesmerist
Light is Calling
Outerborough
Porch
The Highwater Trilogy
Who By Water
Spark of Being
Release
The Miners’ Hymns
Just Ancient Loops
The Great Flood
Re: Awakenings
Beyond Zero: 1914-1918
Visages villages (Faces Places)

1880s: 0
1890s: 0
1900s: 0
1910s: 0
1920s: 0
1930s: 3
1940s: 3
1950s: 0
1960s: 3
1970s: 2
1980s: 0
1990s: 4
2000s: 10
2010s: 17

All I have to say about this mixture of favorites for the month is that I contain multitudes.

Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon), 2017 (dir. Nicole Garcia)

This bonkers French romance received terrible reviews, but I loved every damn minute of it. Marion Cotillard, as always, is luminous and fierce. Louis Garrel was good, but for me it was Alex Brendemühl’s complex, understated performance that made this movie sing.

Speed Racer, 2008 (dir. Lana & Lilly Wachowski)

I can’t believe I’d never seen this before! I like a good candy coated anti-capitalist fairytale.

Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), 1961 (dir. Luchino Visconti)

Holy wow Alain Delon’s face. That is all.

Série noire, 1979 (dir. Alain Corneau)

Sometimes you watch a movie at just the right time and boy did I need this movie the day I watched it. This is an adaptation of Jim Thompson’s A Hell of a Woman, with a strong, intense, and slightly deranged lead performance by Patrick Dewaere. Dewaere’s life ended a few years after this film was released (at his own hand), but now having seen this I think he may well have been the best French actor of his generation. I also think this is the best Jim Thompson adaptation I’ve seen to date.

Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, 2018 (dir. Sara Driver)

More a portrait of New York City’s underground art scene at the time than a straight forward bio-doc about Basquiat. I loved every minute of it. It really captured that intensity that comes with creation and the hope that comes with youth.

Beast, 2018 (dir. Michael Pearce)

A gothic romance noir a la Rebecca or Suspicion, but with a modern twist. I already loved Johnny Flynn (go watch Song One!), but now I can’t wait to see more from lead actress Jessie Buckley. She was ferocious in this film.

Spark of Being, 2010 (dir. Bill Morrison)

Bill Morrison makes new films from orphan films, decaying films, and fragments. Using this technique, this film retells the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s astonishing.

Visages villages (Faces Places), 2017 (dir. JR & Agnès Varda)

This was a ray of sunshine. I’m still mad it didn’t play in a theater here in Atlanta. Had I seen it last year it definitely would have been on my end of the year favorites list. Seeing the friendship and artistic partnership blossom between JR and Varda was delightful, as was seeing several callbacks to films deep in Varda’s oeuvre. How dare you make Agnès cry JLG!

So that was May. In June I plan to mostly watch Pride Month related films, though I’m sure a few non-queer films will sneak their way into my viewing. Happy June!