Good June

Why do I get so behind in my blogging? And really, does anyone actually give a shit and read these any more?

Anyway, existential doubt aside, here's the good stuff I saw in June. A rather small list, because it is, after all, blockbuster season.

Zodiac
Watching this thoroughly engrossing procedural, I had a sense of almost unbearable tension from the opening scene that never really let up until the end credits rolled. I was sitting up straight, with my hands gripping the armrest or my knees all the way through, and it seemed as though all the muscles in my body were in a state of "fight or flight" readiness. Needless to say, I was fucking exhausted by the end of it. Credit has to go to director David Fincher for making me feel this way for the first time in my life, as well as to the uniformly excellent cast. Showing far more restraint than usual, Fincher's assured handling of the dense material makes this perhaps my favorite movie thus far this year.

Ocean's Thirteen
We all need mindless escapism sometimes, and the Ocean's movies have always done a good job of providing that, at least for me. What's not to like? The smooth, easy banter between the cast, the big marquee names who all look like they're having a ball of a time, the clever situations and execution of The Plan, the double-crosses - they're all just great fun. Thank you, Steven Soderbergh, for giving us a sequel in this season of crap that not only doesn't suck, it's a bloody good time at the movies. This is fluff, to be sure, but quality fluff.

時をかける少女
(The Girl Who Leapt Through Time)
This is a fantastic anime that slowly draws you in and fleshes out all the main characters, until you forget that they're just lines and colors, but actual living, breathing people - and then they start piling on the emotional beats, and your heart breaks right along with them. It's no mean feat when a movie balances slapstick comedy and emotional resonance so well, all the more so when it's an animation (or does that actually make it easier to do so?).

Hot Fuzz
True confession: I still haven't seen Shaun of the Dead. But after this absolute gem of a movie, I'm going to do so real soon (as soon as I can find it in my mountain of DVDs). It's an irrefutable fact that the best parodies are done by people with a genuine fondness for what they're parodying, and who know it inside out, upside down, and all the way around. As such, the laughs here are those that will resonate far longer than the stupid spoofs that are manufactured by the Scary Movie bunch, because they don't play on any single movie, they play on the conventions of an entire genre. To top off an already fantastic achievement, they also have genuinely cool action setpieces, and provided work for probably all the veteran actors in the UK while shooting this. I never laughed so hard at someone drop-kicking an old hag in my life. By the way, I think this poster's the funniest because it's the only one that plays on the homoerotic undertones of buddy cop flicks.

Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof
As anyone vaguely interested in Tarantino knows, the Grindhouse doublebill was chopped up for foreign distribution, which means we'll never get to experience the full glory of the original experience. That being said, we actually get a longer cut of Tarantino's segment, but will have to wait a couple of months more to see Rodriguez's (as well as all the fake trailers). I do hope the entire shebang eventually gets released on DVD so I can see it the way it's meant to be.

The best thing about Death Proof is that, for the most part, it feels exactly like one of the exploitation flicks it's paying homage to. Ample shots of nubile young women, pointless dialogue, scenes that don't really go anywhere at all, lots of padding to disguise the fact that there's not really much story (but which kill the pacing) - all these are traits of the genre, and Tarantino celebrates them with gusto, along with scratches on the physical film and intentional editing glitches galore. Yet, ironically, this is also the worst thing about it, because the first hour or so really drags by painfully. Yes, I'm contradicting myself, but then again, this is a film that's inherently contradictory.

All is forgiven in the second half, though, as he introduces us to a new group of chicks in a great long take with his trademark rambling yet ridiculously entertaining dialogue, delivered with impeccable timing. From this point on, it starts to feel like a Tarantino flick. It all leads up to one of the most thrilling extended car chases ever captured on film, some great girl-on-guy ass-kickery, and a simply beautiful ending that gave me one of the biggest laughs of the movie. It's a perfect ending - loving homage, gorgeous freeze frame and fucking funny.

So I suppose this could be an improvement upon the typical exploitation flick then, which lures and entices by promising more than it could possibly deliver, then proceeds to confirm your doubts by delivering precisely nothing except dissatisfaction. At least Tarantino's kind enough to give us a thoroughly entertaining second half which more than makes up for the tedious journey we had to undertake to get there.