MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2018)

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RECOMMENDED - Meaning Strongly Recommended. A film that's good enough or historically important enough to demand viewing. WARNING: A few real stinkers are important enough to rate this label. And, on the other hand, lots of pretty good or pretty valuable films, don't quite measure up to our RECOMMENDED level. (See also UNIQUE, below.)

FAMILY FRIENDLY - CAREFUL!! Not necessarily a KIDDIE pic, but a film that school kids may get into if the subject interests. You'll find foreign & silent pics in here as the need to read the sub-titles & inter-titles to follow the narrative and get all the jokes does wonders for ADD types.

LINK - To quickly find any Write-Up that includes an InterNet Link of interest for that specific film.

UNIQUE - Films that may not fit into the usual critical categories of Good, Bad or Indifferent, (certainly not indifferent!), but are worth watching because there just ain't nothing like 'em. Sui generis pics. (Phooey generis if they don't work for you.)

READ ALL ABOUT IT - While there's a book or two (or ten dozen) closely related to just about any film you might think of, here's a specific book you might not have known about (or thought of) that opens a window on the chosen title.

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POSTER - Hmm, I bet you can figure this one out.

(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

. . . and DOUBLE-BILL - a suggested second feature.

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AND YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE . . . ?

Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Thursday, July 11, 2024

THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2018)

After decades in French cinema (editor to script & direction), Jacques Audiard, best known for A PROPHET/’09*, went West, way West, on this English-language Western. Shot in Romania (which is actually East!); such are the vagaries of international film production when you need twenty producers & production companies for finance. What’s important is that it passes for America just as the film passes as a Western, if a rather unpleasant one. Set around the time of the California Gold Rush, the eponymous brothers are assassins-for-hire (loose cannon Joaquin Phoenix/stable but depressed John C. Reilly) on route to meet up with company scout Jake Gyllenhaal who’s found their target, gold ‘diviner’ Riz Ahmed. On the other hand, why bring him in to the boss when you can make untold riches trying out his 24 carat methods of finding ore? Just don’t get too greedy, boys. Situations and characters all involving (Ahmed really a spectacular actor), but somehow the combination of that tongue-tying title and a lighting scheme to beat COMES A HORSEMAN/’78 on the darkness meter, dampened commercial enthusiasm. And why so long? Western master Budd Boetticher would have brought this in at 80".

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *In case you missed it, Audiard is the real deal. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/06/un-prophete-prophet-2009.html

READ ALL ABOUT IT/SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Academics like to divide Westerns into Traditional; Modern; Post-Modern. Broadly meaning White Hats vs Black Hats; Grey Hats vs Black Hats; Grey Hats vs Grey Hats. This is cherry-picking as usual since even back in the Silents, particularly in feature-length films, the 'Good’ Bad Man of Modern and even Post-Modern Westerns shows up with William Hart in the 19-teens. You'll find it all parsed to perfection in William K. Everson’s A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE WESTERN FILM, which only looks like a photo survey for non-discriminating fans.

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Thursday, July 11, 2024

THE SISTERS BROTHERS (2018)

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