WEEK 63
Run Lola Run - Saint Omer
#311 - RUN LOLA RUN
1998; dir. Tom Tykwer; starring Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup
This is an immature film, for better and for worse.
There’s a lot I dig about Tykwer’s kitchen sink approach, his quick cuts, medium-mixing, thumping techno, and bonkers digressions. It feels like he’s having as much fun as possible, like he just discovered what a movie is and wants to make every movie at once. That level of fun and invention is contagious!
And tiring! And, maybe, fundamentally empty? Or maybe when the film tries to shift into more “serious” scenes, especially when Lola talks to her dad or waxes philosophical with her beau in the “reset” scenes, I realize the movie doesn’t have much to say other than “I’m a cool movie and cool movies need to have these kinds of scenes, too.”
Obviously, I loved this one in high school, and obviously, I hope other high schoolers find it and love it too.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#312 - RUNNING OUT OF TIME COLLECTION
1999-2001; dir. Johnnie To
Johnnie To is a stylish filmmaker, but just like Run Lola Run before it, the style is not enough to make a sizable dent.
It’s close, I think! It’s got great actors committing to pulpy material, all shot and cut slickly and stylistically - all stuff that’s catnip to me. But, and this is just a taste thing, it can’t help but feel like “TV” to me, derogatorily. It has more in common to me than the ultra-slick TV crime procedurals of the 2000s than with the crime and/or Hong Kong cinema I particularly enjoy. Not enough!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#313 - SABOTEUR
1942; dir. Alfred Hitchcock; starring Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger
There’s some nice atmosphere and vibes to this one; it feels like Hitchcock wants us to get to know the characters and their dynamics before his typically windy-grindy thriller plots take over. It feels like TV, positively!
But Robert Cummings, to me, doesn’t particularly have the juice to lead us through said windy-grindy thriller plot once it takes over. So, despite the nice attempt at making me care about him and his various missing identities and double crosses and whatnot, I just don’t. I just get a little listless! Sorry, Saboteur!
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#314 - SAFE
1995; dir. Todd Haynes; starring Julianne Moore, Peter Friedman, Xander Berkeley
There’s a lot quietly gripping about Safe, especially now that I’ve got a lot more mileage with some of its themes and explorations (SoCal living, mysterious chronic illnesses, the fine line between “alternative medicine” and “charlatans”). Julianne Moore is, obviously, one of our great actors, and Haynes gives her ample room and space to react. Its enigmatic conclusion is quite intriguing!
But maybe I wanted the film to express a little more interiority. It’s not really functional as a plot-driven potboiler; it’s a meandering character study. It’s just, the study of the character seems exclusively reacting to things neither she nor the audience can understand, which means there’s never really any room to just stop and know who Carol is other than “a lady going through some shit.”
I like “a [person] going through some shit” movies a lot. But I prefer the ones where I know more about the person and the shit.
Also - I definitely feel stupid for not quite connecting to this one since it’s so obviously a beloved film to many, and I’m sure I’m just stupid! And that’s on insecurity.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
#315 - SAINT OMER
2022; dir. Alice Diop; starring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville
I love courtroom dramas and long takes of actors acting. I’m interested in metatextual story-within-stories and when the impulses of documenting and depicting merge and conflict.
Saint Omer definitely is interesting, and I think I’m using italics to convey the level of undeniable intellectual curiosity getting slanted or squished by a visceral emptiness. It felt like it was trying to say a couple things too many, leaving it, to me, saying nothing. It felt like watching an art installation at times, and if I had seen it as an art installation, I wonder if I would’ve responded to it more.
Another one that makes me feel stupid for not connecting! Okay, that’s not, no more insecurity in any of these posts.
VERDICT: GOES AWAY
THE RUNNING TIME SO FAR
Total Watched: 315
Stays And Plays: 204
Goes Away: 111
Thanks for checking out Greg’s Blu-Rays A-To-Z! Next week: I want to play a game.
Absolute blood bath this week, wowza