#261 - PRISONERS
2013; dir. Denis Villeneuve; starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano
This is one of my favorite feel-good feel-bad movies of recent years. See Hugh Jackman on the cover, here? That’s actually the happiest he looks in the entire movie.
It’s a relentlessly grim ride, full of shouting and frowning and violence and trauma. It’s inherently a pulpy tale, especially in its final act, and it’s fascinating to watch the best craftspeople and actors prestige it up, collapsing any borders between high and low art.
Every time I watch it, I love it more. It’s so engrossing, a quiet spectacle of carnage and cloudiness. It also, as do many of my favorite feel-bad movies, makes me feel better about whatever issues I’m going through at the moment. “At least I’m not Paul Dano in a torture house!” I scream at the TV, laughing to no one.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#262 - PROFONDO ROSSO
1975; dir. Dario Argento; starring David Hemmings, Daria Nicolodi, Gabriele Lavia
Collector’s Note: This is primarily known in English-speaking countries as “Deep Red”; since the blu-ray’s cover calls it solely “Profondo Rosso,” that’s how I filed it and how I’ll refer to it.
Dario Argento is probably the chief architect of the giallo genre, an Italian murder-mystery-horror-thriller where, usually, a character who is not a detective tries to find a killer, sometimes aided by lightly supernatural abilities, always interrupted by ginormous, stylized murder set pieces where the camera and colors go nutso mode. It’s a highly influential genre in the contemporary film spaces I love to work in, and one I often love - or at least admire - or at least respect?
What I’m getting at is, Profondo Rosso is a bumpy, uneven ride. It feels episodic and like not much care was given to the transitions between episodes. The filmmaking, especially when everything’s going nutso mode, can be delirious and stupendous (and a special shoutout to the music from prog-funk freaks Goblin; this soundtrack slaps so hard lmao). But it feels, to me, like a movie made of parts; parts that I will take as inspiration to make other wholes, rather than experience the whole itself.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#263 - THE PROJECT A COLLECTION
1983-1987; dir. Jackie Chan; starring Jackie Chan
I feel similarly to Project A as I do to Profondo Rosso - incredible, incredible moments that are not put together in a smooth, satisfying way.
Jackie Chan continues to be the most fun performer ever to watch; so funny, so endearing, and did you know he’s good at stunts and martial arts? There are some action sequences in this thing, including one of Chan’s most infamous and explicitly Buster Keaton-aping where he, like, falls 9,000 feet from a clock tower, that are breath-taking. And 88 Films does typically gorgeous work in their 4K restoration; the colors, especially, look incredible.
But it’s a pokey, slipshod affair, fundamentally rough-hewn and padded with some borderline icky comedy bits. It just don’t work as a “movie” for me! Sorry!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#264 - A PROPHET
2009; dir. Jacques Audiard; starring Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif
Now A Prophet is a consistent watch. It’s undeniably compelling, a smooth ride through bumpy situations and territories. Its style is really interesting; primarily rendered in slice-of-life, handheld, borderline docu-style modes, Audiard then pops off with these interesting moments of magical realism and smeary slow-mo. There’s a “hit” scene near the end that’s among the most gripping “hit” scenes I’ve seen. The performances are all really good, too!
Good movie! Yep! So why, then, is it not staying on my shelf?
Maybe because it only struck me as “good,” rather than “great”? Maybe because I’m finding the movies that deserve a spot on the shelf need to scratch some undeniable, highly personal itch that’s difficult to describe in words (isn’t it great to read a blog where the guy writing a blog says “writing a blog is hard!”?).
Maybe A Prophet was too smooth, and needed a little more of those hard-hitting pokes from something like a Profondo Rosso. It’s a movie I stayed engaged in completely through its runtime, then sorta dissipated the moment it was done. A good flick, told well, that I’m not sure will inspire me in any way moving forward.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#265 - THE PROTÉGÉ
2021; dir. Martin Campbell; starring Maggie Q, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson
This 4K blu-ray was given to me for free as part of my old job writing for Collider, which was very nice!
I first saw The Protégé in theaters and absolutely ate it up. It’s the kind of movie I almost annoyingly want to love and proselytize about - a mid-budget action-thriller made by a capable, underrated journeyman starring underrated actors like Maggie Q punching the heck out of each other. It also came out in the summer of 2021, the summer I got vaccinated for covid and started going to the movie theater regularly again after lockdown. All of this to say - I had some serious rose-tinted sunglasses about this movie.
Watching it now, well, Maggie Q is still great, and I still enjoy the screenplay’s willingness to be weird and - I’ll say it - horny! Q and Keaton have a wonderful sexual chemistry and it’s fun to watch, especially when compared to contemporary revenge-action-thrillers like John Wick with no romance at all!
But the rest of it just kinda sits there, not particularly justifying a hold on my time or attention other than “good enough.” I still annoyingly want to love this movie, but now I feel a little wiser to know I just can’t.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
THE RUNNING TIME SO FAR
Total Watched: 265
Stays And Plays: 185
Goes Away: 80
Thanks for checking out Greg’s Blu-Rays A-To-Z! Next week: a few absolute classics, one of which I’ve seen approximately 900 million times.