WEEK 26
#126 - HONK FOR JESUS. SAVE YOUR SOUL.
2022; dir. Adamma Ebo; starring Regina Hall, Sterling K. Brown, Nicole Beharie
Audacious and jaw-dropping. There’s a simpler, broader, probably more crowd-pleasing comedy somewhere in the raw materials, but Ebo is clearly too smart and too provocative for that.
Instead, in her beyond-inspiring feature debut, Ebo mixes film forms, aspect ratios, and most excitingly, tones. It’s often so funny, yes, but it’s also sad, specific, and in one jaw-dropping scene, scary (it’s in a gym and it takes my breath away every time).
Obviously, the two lead actors are delivering career-best work, unwilling to play the easiest choice in favor of something more crinkly and real (unless they’re purposefully playing up the easiest choice because they’re conscious of the camera; this shit’s got layers!). Not enough people have watched this, and you simply must.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#127 - HOPE SPRINGS
2012; dir. David Frankel; starring Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell
Speaking of “not enough people have watched this, and you simply must” -
I saw Hope Springs in an Encino, California theater in the middle of the afternoon surrounded by people in their 60s and older. I had just moved to Los Angeles and was feeling “a lot of different feelings,” but I was purposefully keeping up my “see as many movies as possible” routine because the habitual comfort centered me. I don’t know why Hope Springs entered my radar, and I don’t know why I picked this particular screening at this particular theater - none of it, on paper, felt intuitive to me. But then, I guess, neither did leaving home and my friends and family across the dang country. On paper, anyway.
Because in practice - both, uh, the huge life decision and the 2012 dramedy Hope Springs - it all worked like gangbusters. Hope Springs gets at the universality behind emotions and drives, from love to sex to regret and beyond. It breaks down barriers like age and looks at its subjects simply as human beings. It’s really sweet and inspiring - not just in a selfish “I’m inspired as a filmmaker” way, but in an “I’m inspired to be a better human” way.
And I genuinely think living out here has made me a better human. How’s that for hope springing?
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#127 - HOSTEL
2005; dir. Eli Roth; starring Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eyþór Guðjónsson
Alright, now I’m back on my bullshit.
The 2005 horror film Hostel, oft-derided as torture porn nonsense, is a bit of a masterpiece. It’s a viciously bleak and satirical slap across the American male face, a muckraking, biting the hand that feeds statement indicting the kinds of people it’s ostensibly being sold to straight-faced. It’s an effective, even elegant screed against consumerism, xenophobia, sexism, and entitlement - and like many works of art before, it uses violence and terror to make these worthy points. It was released smack-dab in the middle of George W. Bush’s neo-conservative era of American politics and terrified foreign policy, and it rattles this cage harder than any more explicitly “political” movies released around the same time.
It’s also really well-made, really scary, and not nearly as violent as its reputation might make you think. Hostel is so good, and I don’t care if you believe me.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#129 - HOUSE OF GAMES
1987; dir. David Mamet; starring Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum
Last week, I talked about Mamet’s Homicide, a smart and prickly combination of genre and sociopolitical musings.
House of Games, I think, is a lot more shallow - and thus, a lot more fun. It’s all about people conning each other - which Mamet is always interested in, but never quite as explicitly as with a film about literal con men. It’s full of double-crosses, smoky rooms, femme fatales, broken men, and endlessly clever machinations.
It never feels formulaic or generic, however. Mamet is still elevating his elements to the highest level of gameplay, giving it a rich, deep-feeling texture. And Lindsay Crouse’s lead performance is masterful, enigmatic, underrated stuff.
It’s highbrow fun - and if you like Better Call Saul or Rian Johnson, you’ll love this one.
VERDICT: STAYS AND PLAYS
#130 - HUSTLE & FLOW
2005; dir. Craig Brewer; starring Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning
This is a mildly important, informative movie to me; a decently big benchmark in cultivating my love of hip-hop music. So when Paramount announced a fancy 4K release, I was quite excited to revisit!
Its first half contains the pleasures and sparks of inspiration I remember so vividly, vividly rendered in its new, HDR-bolstered codec and bangin’ sound mix. The sequences surrounding raw creativity getting whittled into a listenable track remain arresting and profound in their procedure. Plainly spoken, it’s fun to watch people create, and makes me want to create more, anew.
But throughout the picture, a lingering odor of “cosplaying hood movies” wafts. Its plot machinations, character behaviors, and even running jokes feel generic, mean-spirited, and airlifted in from other movies. This all comes to a head in its second half through its climax and denouement; it hard-turns into such a cynically rendered “this is what happens in these kinds of movies” that it can’t help but feel offensive, let alone inorganic.
Too much hustle, not enough flow!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
THE RUNNING TIME SO FAR
Total Viewed: 130
Stays And Plays: 102
Goes Away: 28
Thanks for checking out Greg’s Blu-Rays A-To-Z! Next week: Some dreams, some nightmares, and some vividly American crimes.
hell yeah. "Denouement" paired with a semicolon makes me feel like I am reading this substack in a wood-paneled study that smells like pipe tobacco.