My winter break project was documenting, the best I could, all the films shown by Asian Media Access in their “Cinema With Passion” series.

Not only was it an important series to me, but I think it’s an important part of film exhibition history here in the cities. And I could find almost nothing about it online.

There are still some gaps. I’m missing the first couple of years worth of screenings. And my records towards the end are spotty. If you happen to have any of their schedules, let me know! I’ve also sent a note to AMA. Hopefully they can help me out.

If you want to see the list (215 films and counting!) it’s available at Letterboxd

The Second Annual Whitney/McDonald Tamalada is complete! I lost track of how many tamales we made, but it’s likely between 50 and 60. A buffet-style assembly line let folks make tamales with their choice of:

• masa w/ pork fat
• masa w/ chicken fat
• shredded chicken
• pork carnitas
• roasted chilies
• Oaxaca cheese
• salsa verde
• salsa rojo
• mole

Next year we need to figure out a better way to identify everyone’s tamales. Colored twine? The strips of parcment paper we used this year worked OK, but not great.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 93: Mandy

An early entry in the collection of “Fancy Genre Directors that Understand Nicolas Cage” movies that has been rumbling along the past few years.

Mandy has chapters but structurally has 2 halves, roughly divided by the Cheddar Goblin sequence. Andrea Riseborough stars in the first half and Cage stars in the second. I found myself much more involved in the first half, where director Panos Cosmatos luxuriates in slow and gorgeous mood.

The second half felt more like a “The midnight film crowd is gonna go apeshit for this!” pander. And I did like it! It was a good pander. It just felt a little targeted.

But the end, when the two halves join again, was astounding.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 91: Monsters University.

I’m a big fan of the original and it remains near the top of my Pixar List. Other than Inside Out it’s probably their best Trojan Horse movie — entertaining for the kids but an emotional bomb for the parents in the theater. The ending is perfect; it’s a film that needs no follow-up.

So, of course they made a Zero Stakes prequel that must be one of the least necessary films I’ve seen. And they made it as an 80s-style Snobs vs Slobs college comedy? Such a weird choice. The whole thing seems disposable.

But, being Pixar, they did a good job. The story offers no surprises, but is well done. The casting works. The message is hammered on, but not overly so. It looks great. It’s all fun. Had the film not been a pointless prequel I would feel less conflicted about it.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 89: Return of the Living Dead III.

Overconfident-yet-anxious white boy tries to exert power over the world by forcing his date through an increasingly-uncomfortable tour of LA’s ethnic diversity.

“Try some Latino,” the boy says. She does not want to, but he insists.

“Try some Korean,” the boy says. She does not want to, but he insists.

“Try some African American,’ the boy says. “They are so hospitable!”

“Ok,” the girl says, “this metaphor is getting a bit strained.”

🎥 Movies of 2021, 86: They Live. Despite being a John Carpenter fan since I was way-too-young to be a John Carpenter fan I’ve never seen They Live. And it may be because it starred Roddy Piper.

My parents took me to see every dang sci-fi film. Didn’t matter how R rated it was or how young I was. But we didn’t go to this one. We saw other Carpenter movies. I saw The Thing in the theater when I was 7. I watched Dark Star on Betamax. Same with Halloween. But not this one.

In every way this movie was right up my parents’ alley. Classic sci-fi look, anti-Regan, darkly satirical. But it starred a pro-wrestler. And I can see my family (and me) being classist enough to say “no thanks”. Weird.

Anyway, it’s fun.

For several years I ran a site called “More Than Kung Fu” wherin I reviewed the extensive Shaw Brothers film catalog. I did not complete my goal of reviewing all of them (an impossible task, as no one can even agree on how many Shaw Brothers films there are), but I did get through more than 100.

I’m slowly reposting those reviews over on Letterboxd using the More Than Kung Fu tag. If oddball HK comedies, musicals and melodramas are your thing maybe go take a look.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 77: Mismatched Couples. Taken by itself, Mismatched Couples is largely plotless, chaotic, frequently dated/offensive, and fun-as-hell mismash of breakdancing, romance, and more breakdancing. Even by the broadest standards of broad Hong Kong comedies this movie is a wild ride. Half of it will blow your eyeballs off while the other half will make you groan in dismay. You’d be hard pressed to see anything else like it.

But I wasn’t watching this movie in isolation. I was watching it as part of my Yuen Woo Ping retrospective. And taken in the context of Yuen’s career I think Mismatched Couples is pretty interesting!

This was the 11th film directed by Yuen Woo Ping in 7 years. He’d launched the career of Jackie Chan and helped kick off the Kung Fu Comedy genre. Everything must have been going great, right?

This is mostly theorizing on my part, but I don’t think things were going well. After 1981’s Dreadnaught, Yuen only worked with smaller budget studios. And he kept recycling a lot of the same ideas with the same actors. He was successful enough to keep getting work, but he wasn’t making hits (judging by the box office reports on hkmdb.com).

Part of the reason for Yuen’s lack of hits may have been the shifting Hong Kong film market. Yuen had worked in HK film for over 20 years, and during that time the industry was largely dominated by martial arts films, first swordplay and then kung fu. But in the early 80s this began to shift and modern-day action began to dominate. Jackie Chan released Police Story in 1985. And A Better Tomorrow would come out the following year.

So here’s Yuen Woo Ping, making movies that show off his hard-earned skills and the industry, seemingly, didn’t respond.

And then Donnie Yen appears. He is a generational talent. Massively charismatic and astounding physicality. He’s 20 years old and ready to become a star. He and Yuen Woo Ping clearly got along. 4 of Yen’s first 5 movies were directed by Yuen Woo Ping. He clearly wants to work with the guy.

In Yuen you have an industry veteran who is not being loved by the business that he so clearly loves. And in Yen you have a star-in-waiting who wants to show off his skills. And this odd couple needs to find a way to work together.

Which is, basically, the plot of Mismatched Couples. Yuen stars as classically-trained Chinese Opera performer who finds himself out of work and money. Yen is a brash, breakdancing, charismatic kid. The two, somehow, become friends and have a series of increasingly weird adventures.

I think the two of them looked at the film market of 1985, looked at Donnie Yen’s skills and said “Fuck it, let’s go all in.” And they made a relentlessly modern comedy in which Donnie Yen constantly shows off how goddamn amazing he is. There’s a heartwarming amount of trust and bravery here. Yuen throwing out 20+ years of genre knowledge and Donnie Yen diving full-hearted into the most batshit comedy bits.

As weird and confusing as this movie is I don’t think that anyone can say that the makers half-assed it.

It didn’t work, though. The movie made some money, but about the same amount as Yuen’s previous movies. Only ¼ of what Police Story made in the same year. Donnie Yen took a break from films to train, before returning in 1988’s Tiger Cage (directed by Yuen Woo Ping) and starting a successful career. Yuen Woo Ping would also take a break, directing only one movie between 1986 and 1988 (for a guy that directed 11 movies in 7 years, this counts a break). Like Yen, Yuen Woo Ping’s career would take off after Tiger Cage leading to some of the classics of ‘90s HK cinema. Mismatched Couples may not have been a success, but I love it for trying.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 76: Drunken Tai Chi. Where the hell did Donnie Yen come from? Jackie Chan worked as an extra in films for years before his first starring role. Nearly every star in Hong Kong film did the same, working their way up the ranks until they learned the business and got their break.

But in 1984, apparently out of nowhere, Donnie Yen takes the lead role in Drunken Tai Chi and is astounding. Apparently (according to Wikipedia, un-sourced) he’d met director Yuen Woo Ping 5 years earlier. Had the two of them been planning this debut for the past five years?

Unfortunately, it’s Yuen Woo Ping who lets Yen down here. The film’s first 20 minutes, which focus closely on Yen, are fantastic. But then it devolves into a collection of Yuen Woo Ping’s familiar tropes. There’s puppetry, there’s goofiness (oh so much goofiness), there’s a large collection of jokes that have not aged well. There are fart sound effects. Etc.

None of this is new and none of it suits Donnie Yen particularly well. It worked well for Jackie Chan, who excelled in the role of a lovable brat. But the role is an awkward fit for Yen, as is Yuen’s assorted weirdness.

Donnie Yen would go on to star in 4 of Yuen Woo Ping’s next 5 movies; once they figured out how to write films that worked for Yen’s persona, his star began to rise. But this film shows that it wasn’t Donnie Yen who needed to change, it was Yuen Woo Ping.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 75: The Invincible Armour. There’s a whole sub-genre of kung fu movies that are very focused on what happens when you punch the villain in the dick. This is one of the better examples of the genre. It overstays its welcome a bit, but features a solid cast and choreography.

Wu Tang Collection streams a surprisingly good print with subtitles or dub.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 73: No Time To Die. The movie’s first mistake was expecting me to remember the plot of Spectre, a movie that I instantly purged from my memory. The second mistake was asking Rami Malek to mumble dialog written by a neural net. The third mistake was being nearly 3 hours long.

But the Evil Lair was cool. Always happy to see a good Evil Lair.

Aside from Casino Royale and the first half of Skyfall, I can’t say I have much affection for the Daniel Craig era of Bond. It’s mostly dour, overlong and overly concerned with trying to turn this goofy spy in to a Real Boy.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 72: Dreadnaught. A semi-sequel to The Magnificent Butcher, this one is half a Wong Fei-hung film and half a Halloween-style slasher. It’s a weird mix, and the two halves only barely interact.

I’m a sucker for a lion dance scene and the two in Dreadnaught are both great. But I find the spooky killer parts of the film pretty forgettable.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 71: Shaolin Drunkard. Another film in the style of The Miracle Fighters, but not nearly as charming or fun. This one is darker and all the characters are jerks (the dub may bear some of the blame for this, hard to say).

As per usual, the choreography is inventive and the Yuen Clan performs it well. The movie has a surprising leitmotif of puppetry, which I liked. Oh, and a guy fights with his hands actually on fire. Hard to go wrong with that. But these bright spots weren’t enough to save this movie for me.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 68: The Miracle Fighters. The poster 100% summarizes this movie. There’s an evil sorcerer. There’s two other bickering sorcerers who learned from the same teacher (a tribute to Simon Yuen). There are butterflies. There’s a weird all-white kid that lives in an urn.

Super inventive and fun, The Miracle Fighters falls in to the broader genre of “Spiritual Comedy”. These had shown up a bit in the late 70s, but Sammo Hung’s Spooky Encounters (1980) really kicked off the craze that would last through most of the 1980s. Unlike most of those, though, The Miracle Fighters does not feature vampires. Instead it’s more like a Méliès film, a celebration of cinematic effects and oddities.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 67: Rumble in the Bronx. We watched the dubbed, New Line edit.

Yes, yes, multi-cultural gangs that ride dune buggies and hang out in factories full of pinball machines and cross country skis – which they can enjoy on the pine-covered mountains that surround The Bronx. It’s all goofy and great.

But good god, what a US publicity campaign Jackie had in the mid-90s. Who arranged that? How much of it was planned? From making this “Jackie comes to the US” movie, to the appearance on MTV, the re-relase of Supercop, etc. There was so much work put in to transplant Jackie from Hong Kong to Hollywood before the handover.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 64: The Buddhist Fist. Low budget kung fu movies frequently stage their fights outdoors, to overcome their small lighting budgets. Yuen Woo Ping takes a bold new direction here and films fights inside dim, cave-like rooms. One fight takes place in total darkness. Is the choreography good? Probably? I guess? I can’t see.

The story is not great. Sunny Yuen continues to be tolerable. But the characters of Chess Guy and the Hunchback Assassin With Too Many Gimmicks are both a lot of fun.

Though released after Magnificent Butcher it was clearly made before it, as evidenced by the brief appearance of Simon Yuen Siu-Tin

🎥 Movies of 2021, 63: The Magnificent Butcher. Long story short, it’s great. You should watch it. End of review.

In this watch I found myself thinking a lot about the production of this movie. I’m always really interested in how movies get made. And I think this one is super interesting. Explaining why will require some backstory.

In the late 70s there were 3 emerging groups in Hong Kong kung fu movies.

The first was the Yuen Clan, led by director/choreographer Yuen Woo Ping. He releases his first movie, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow in 1978. That film stars Jackie Chan, but nearly everyone else in it was part of the extended Yuen group. They are folks that Yuen Woo Ping would work with again and again.

The second group is the Seven Little Fortunes, of which Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao are the best known. These folks had worked in movies for years, but mostly as extras. You can see Sammo showing up in background roles of Shaw Brothers films all through the 60s. But with, again, Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Jackie started his climb to stardom. And, around the same time, Sammo was becoming both a recognizable star and lauded director with films like Warriors Two.

The third group was led by director Lau Kar-leung and actor Gordon Liu. By the late 70s these folks were more established than the other two groups. They worked within the Shaw Brothers studio where they made classics of kung fu such as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and Dirty Ho. Like the other two groups, they mixed comedy in to their films, but they were also very focused on accurate fighting, thanks to their family history, which I’ll get to in a second.

In addition, the late 70s is a time of upheaval in the Hong Kong film industry. The Shaw Brothers studio, which dominated filmmaking in the region since the early 60s was showing its age. And stars like Bruce Lee deliberately chose to work outside of the Shaw studios. The Golden Harvest studio started in 1970, and by the late 70s it had “supplanted Shaw Brothers as Hong Kong’s dominant studio.”

Ok, those are the players and the businesses involved. Let’s talk about Magnificent Butcher.

First, it brings together the Yuen Clan with the broader Seven Little Fortunes group of Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao and others (note, Yuen Biao has no relation to the Yuen Clan). This makes sense, as previous collaboration between the two groups led to hits like Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and Drunken Master.

Second, it’s a Golden Harvest movie. This is a big jump in quality and budget for Yuen Woo Ping, who’d previously worked for Seasonal Pictures, a smaller fish in the HK film market. Sammo had already directed The Iron Fisted Monk and Warriors Two for Golden Harvest and was a growing star; my guess is that he was the one who made this project happen and he brought in Yuen Woo Ping.

I think the trajectory of these two folks after this high-profile film is interesting. Sammo’s star continues to grow. This is partly due to his own work in films like Spooky Encounters and his association with Jackie Chan in various Seven Little Fortunes movies. But Yuen Woo Ping’s path is weirder. He works with a wide variety of studios on films that are kind of all over the map. And it’s not really until the late 80s where he firmly establishes himself.

But, what about Lau Kar-leung and Gordon Liu? Let’s talk about their family history. The Lau family, led by their patriarch Lau Cham, trained in a martial arts style called the Hung Fist. Lau Cham learned the style from his teacher Lau Kar-wing and Lau Kar-wing’s teacher Wong Fei-hung.

Which brings us back to Magnificent Butcher where Sammo Hung plays….Lau Kar-wing! And he’s kind of a dip. He ignores his teacher, blunders in to conflict, and accidentally gets a bunch of people killed. Yes, he’s the hero of the movie and defeats the villains. But the skills he uses to win aren’t taught by Wong Fei-hung. Instead he learns them from a drunken beggar. Had Yuen Woo Ping’s dad Simon Yuen Siu-Tin been alive, he would have played the beggar.

And, a fun little detail, Magnificent Butcher features Kwan Tak-hing playing Wong Fei-hung. He played this role at least 77 times over four decades. In terms of cinema Kwan was Wong Fei-hung. Having him play the role here is staking a claim to the legacy of Wong Fei-hung.

So, with this background, Magnificent Butcher starts to look like a high-budget diss track. The upstart movie studio brings together two newer groups of kung fu stars, along with a legend of HK film, to make a film that makes fun of the teacher of the Lau family and, by proxy, the stars of Shaw Brothers biggest films. Not only was Lau Kar-wing a bumbler, he had to learn ‘real’ kung fu from a drunken beggar (aka Yuen Woo Ping’s dad). Damn, that’s cold.

This all my theory, of course. I haven’t found any sources that back up my reading of this film. So take this all with a grain of salt.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 62: Dance of the Drunk Mantis. Pretty much the whole crew from Drunken Master reunite for a semi-sequel. Sunny Yuen steps in to the lead role and…he’s fine, I guess. Replacing one of the most charismatic actors of all time is a big ask, and Sunny certainly gives it his all, but it’s not great.

Everything around him is really good, though. Yuen Woo Ping’s choreography, Linda Lin as the mom, the goofy styles (duck style, sickness style), etc. There’s a lot to enjoy in this one.

There’s a stretch early in the movie where the older actors just slap the shit out of a bunch of young actors and I was totally there for it.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 61 (and 61.1?): Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. I was pretty sure that I’d seen this one before. But the movie I remembered was much funnier. It’s likely that I was confusing this with Drunken Master or Fearless Hyena.

For this showing we saw the second US release, with the title The Eagle’s Shadow and the re-done music. That may have also led to my confusion, as the music in the original HK/US release is goofier, making the movie a little funnier.

But this still feels like a dry run for the much better Drunken Master. Worth watching, but if you only have time in your life for one Jackie Chan/Simon Yuen Siu-Tin movie, watch Drunken Master.

Paired with the Buster Keaton short The Scarecrow which was excellent. Luke the Dog was a good buddy.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 59: Drunken Master 2. Watched the original 1994 version. Possibly the best Jackie Chan movie. The role of Wong Fei-Hong is such a good one for him; he gets to be supremely skilled while also bratty and reckless. Even though he was too old for the part, it still works. The care and effort put into the action by both directors is evident. And, unlike his big US breakthrough Rumble in the Bronx, I like how clearly pitched to Chinese audiences this film is – The English are villians, they are stealing our heritage, fight them and their collaborators.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 58: Spite Marriage. A Keaton one I had not seen before from late in his silent career. I liked this one quite a bit. It takes a while to get rolling, but once he ends up in the play it starts clicking.

But prepare yourself for another dose of Keaton’s love of the ‘Lost Cause’ narrative complete with honorable Southern gentlemen and vicious Union soldiers. Sigh.

Movies of 2021, 56: Project A. The second film in Trylon’s ‘Buster and Jackie’ series. Of the Chan/Hung/Biao films Project A has never been my favorite. It has fantastic moments, but I’ve never liked it as a coherent whole. Those moments are still fantastic, though.

Revisiting Jackie’s more pro-police films (this one, the Police Story films, etc.) is more of a challenge. My views on policing have certainly changed, as has my enjoyment of copaganda. And Jackie’s policital thoughts don’t help.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 55: Three Ages. The first film in Trylon’s ‘Buster and Jackie’ series. Not a great Keaton film, though it has some moments. The repeating structure of the film means a lot of jokes get told multiple times, only the costumes vary.

The live musicians chose to remain silent during the film’s one overtly racist bit, which I thought was a good choice.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 54: Gold Diggers of 1933. A thoroughly enjoyable pre-code musical. These don’t always work for me, as I grew up on the later MGM/Gene Kelly musicals which are a very different style. But the cast and story in this one are fun and the neon violin dance is cool.

You do have to appreciate the swerving tones of 1930s films. At a high level, the plot of this is:

• Let’s make a musical about how much the depression sucks
• Musical number about sex
• Plot about sex
• More sex, with subtext of class warfare
• Musical number about sex
• Everyone is happy
• WE REALLY FUCKED OVER THE VETS OF WWI, Y’ALL!

🎥 Movies of 2021, 53: Ice Station Zebra. I started this thinking it would continue my WWII Squad series, but it’s a Cold War movie. But, other than the Cold War vibe, it follows the conventions of the genre – an aging star leads a group of bland, characterless white dudes (and one Black person) to adventure! Only this time they fight the Commies instead of the Nazis.

Ernest Borgnine (doing the broadest possible Russian characterization) and Patrick McGoohan (doing a nervy, drunk Bond) are probably the main human reasons to watch this one. The rest of the cast forms a bland white blur, except for Jim Brown who is only in the movie to serve as a point of tension.

But this film wasn’t sold on story. Shot in Super Panavision 70 and released to the biggest screens available, this movie was sold on spectacle! And it looks great. The outdoor, real-world submarie shots are still cool. The studio shots look like, well, a modernist studio-version of a submarine.

🌮Orale Mexican Eats. I drive past this place a few times a week, as it’s on the route between my house and my partner’s. I’d meant to get to these folks’ earlier restaurant Mi Casa Su Casa, but never got the chance. Today, finally, I was able to stop in.

Since the ‘hook’ of Mi Casa Su Casa was their blend of Filipino and Mexcian food, I ordered the Filipino Tacos. These seem to be the only item that overtly blends the two cuisines. The rest of the menu looks like pretty normal taqueria fare.

I liked my tacos. A good blend of fattiness and crsipiness. I’m not familiar enough with Filipino food to say how the tacos reflected on the food of that country, but as tacos they were fine. Only the sesame oil indicated that they weren’t tacos that you could get anywhere along Lake Street.

My first impressions are that this is a worthwhile, though maybe not outstanding, taco place. Should the taco urge strike me while driving home, I’ll know where to go for a quick bite. But Prieto is now just 6 blocks away and offers some outstanding tacos if I’m looking for a fancier taco experience

🎥 Movies of 2021, 51: Where Eagles Dare. Imagine how much easier WWII would have been had all the Allied soldiers been hyper-compenent, middle-aged white dudes with meticulous plans and and endless supply of magic explosives?

Grade A war adventure wish fullfilment here. The plot twists, Richard Burton sweats, the tension builds, Eastwood scowls, the whole plan goes off without a hitch. Masculine Competence Porn taken to extremes.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 50: The Guns of Navarone. My rewatch of The Dirty Dozen reminded me that:

• I love WW2 Squad movies
• There’s a bunch I haven’t seen

So, addressing both of those by watching this movie. It gets a little Hollywood Roadshowy, but it’s fun to watch a bunch of guys my age pretend to be a crack team of super soldiers.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 49: Raining in the Mountain. Maybe my favorite King Hu movie? It blends the intrigue and geography of his Inn movies with the spiritual inquiry of films like Touch Of Zen or Legend of the Mountain. Fun, engaging, and beautiful.

I watched the 2018 restoration. I don’t know the quality of their original sources but the restoration was a bit disappointing. Shots will switch from crystal clear to grainy, color grading changes frequently, ghosts of of old subtitles sometimes over at the bottom of the shots. I’m glad the film is being cared for but I’m hopeful for something better.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 47: Legend of the Mountain. An easy movie to glibly dismiss. It’s 3 hours long. The main character is bafflingly dumb. A huge battle is interrupted by a 10 minute musical interlude that mostly focuses on frogs and seagulls.

But if you’re on King Hu’s wavelength (especially his Touch of Zen wavelength), then there’s a lot here to chew on. In this time of people disbelieving what is right in front of their eyes, it’s easy to see a parallel with protagonist Ho Qingyun and his inablility to see the reality of his situation.

Also, it’s beautiful!

🎥 Movies of 2021, 45: The Suicide Squad

I had planned on skipping this one, for reasons I’ll get to, but positive reviews from people I like led me to change my mind.

I should have stuck with my instincts.

Before getting to that I should say that I think this whole cast was strong. It’s rare to see Idris Elba give much of a shit about what he’s in, and he’s really good here. Though I think any King Shark not voiced by Ron Funches is bullshit. Also I should point out that Joel Kinnaman may be a awful person.

Initially I was avoiding the film because I don’t like James Gunn films that much. He strikes me as someone who constantly wants to prove to you how clever and surprising he is. He will pummel you with DIRECTION until you give in and agree that he’s super clever and surprising. Wow, you have characters walking in slow motion while a Pixies song plays?! You are so clever Mr. Gunn!

I find his films smothering, focused on Proving Themselves and never just Being. On occasion (the Michael Rooker stuff in Guardians 2) Gunn steps back and the films improve.

But with The Suicide Squad Gunn would be free from the Strict Rules that Marvel enforces (have to stick to the Phase Plan, have to stick to PG-13 rating, have to keep characters A, B and C alive, etc.) and given free rein to show off his smarts. That did not sound fun to me.

And all of those concerns turned out to be valid. This movie will not stop trying to ‘surprise’ you with its ‘coolness’. It is relentless. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it never fucking stops. Even in a brief moment of emotional quiet they made sure to have Taika Waititi drop by for a cameo wearing a bonkers wig. So glad you didn’t let that moment breathe, Mr. Gunn.

But then the movie trotted out even more reasons to dislike it, endless racial stereotyping! Ah, the most fun one can have at the movies, a gang of mostly-white, mostly-American folks murdering brown people. Is there a military dictatorship? You bet there is. Is it run by a grizzled older general who chugs rum? Yep! Is there a secretary with huge boobs? Naturally.

The film tries to hang a lantern on all this by pointing the blame at the USA, but the film follows this twist with 20 more minutes of death and destruction of brown folks. How entertaining.

Gunn is an edgelord and he wants to have it both ways. He wants to trot out all the stereotypes and then use this late twist to defend himself. “Oh, it was all just a joke/commentary about the US, trust me.” No thanks.

Finally got to Las Cuatro Milpas last night. It’s been on my list since reading about it in Heavy Table last year.

I went with their special, birria tacos dorado. I meant to order them with cheese, but forgot. Vitial to birria is the side of consomme, but you only get the consomme if you order 5 or more birria tacos. 5 is a lot! My recommendation is to go with two people and order 6-8 tacos to split. I was dining solo, so I was ‘forced’ to eat 5 tacos by myself. Truly a misfortune.

I’m looking forward to returning as they have some tacos I haven’t seen other places, like buche (pig stomach) and adobada (grilled pork, similar to al pastor but prepared differently). Also, they offer many types of basket tacos (called tacos al vapor on their menu).

Here’s their full(ish) menu if you want to peruse your options before heading over.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 40: Suspiria. Apparently this is “Long art-horror films featuring nude dances” week. Huh.

I’ve seen the original, but don’t really remember it much. I’m not a big Argento fan. I remember liking the music. This one is much more in its own head, more a long squeeze than a quick stab. I was mostly with it, up until the end of chapter 5. Then it kind of fell apart for me. For a film that had such great physical effects, the CGI-laden climax felt like the wrong way to go and the whole thing felt like a heavy metal music video gone awry.

How anyone could think that wasn’t Tilda Swinton in makeup is beyond me. A great performanc and fantastic makeup, yeah, but she still sounded exactly like Tilda Swinton.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 38: Solo: A Star Wars Story. Prequels like this are almost universally a waste of time. There are no stakes, because the characters that have to appear in later movies aren’t going to die or alter in any appreciable way. They can’t introduce any significant change; all new characters have to either die or get shunted off somewhere (or, ugh, get their memory wiped).

The only way to make them worthwhile is to make them either fun or surprising. Lord/Miller were apparently going the “Fun” route and were fired for it. And the new team did not take the ‘surprising’ route, instead turning out the most generic-ass movie they could. The actors here are all doing good work, but there’s only so much they can do with this.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 36: The Hot Rock At least the 3rd time I’ve seen the movie. And I’ve read the book at least twice. I decided to give it a re-watch after my most recent re-read of the book.

As always, I’m baffled that there aren’t more good Dortmunder films. Or Parker, for that matter. Westlake’s writing is fast, fun, tense and cinematic. He also wrote a fucking ton of books, so there’s no shortage of material. I’ve never understood why Hollywood didn’t adapt a jillion of his stories during the 90s and 00s when heists and cool criminals were all the rage.

During this watch of The Hot Rock I formulated a theory, it’s because the films focus on the wrong parts of the book. Dortmunder books are funny because of the dialog, the personal interactions, the weird bits of overheard conversations in the OJ. Yeah, the heists are fun, but they are funny because of the characters.

The Hot Rock, while good, gets this mostly wrong. There’s character stuff at the start, but once the heists start the movie is all heists. It starts to feel flat and repetitive. The novel alternates between heists and character. So it builds and gets funnier.

Hollywood is always going to favor showing a heist over showing a funny conversation. Maybe that’s why the other Dortmunder movies never worked.

The Hot Rock still works because it’s got an astounding team behind it. George Segal is Kelp. And Ron Liebman is Murch. Redford is a bad choice for Dortmunder, but he’s still charming as hell, because he’s Redford. Quincy Jones delivers an amazing score. Peter Yates and Edward R. Brown capture 70s New York gloriously.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 33: A Day at the Races. Some good Marx tomfoolery in here, and an excellent Margaret Dumont turn.

With most Marx Bros movies you can ignore the musical numbers, with ther charmless tenors crooning forgetful songs. And that certainly holds true for the super-foregttable Blue Vetenitan Waters number early in the movie. Yes these scenes don’t meet our current style, but you can just check your phone for a few minutes until the music is done.

But then this movie’s second musical number starts up with Harpo leading a dancing group of ‘poor’ Black children and all the racist sterotypes come spilling out. Can’t just check your phone for this one. Nope. People try to skirt around this number by saying it doesn’t denigrate people, or that the Marx brothers only put on blackface for ‘a little bit’. I don’t buy any of that.

Yes, the number is far more engaging and fun than any other musical number in a Marx Brothers movie, but it doesn’t change that the one time Black people appear in this movie it’s to sing & dance through a parade of stereotypes. Doesn’t make it right.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 32: Jour de fête. Tati’s gag writing and physical prowress are on full display here, as his his disdain for modernism in general and American Modernism in particular. But it’s way talkier than his later films, and a bit meaner.

I also watched his short School for Postmen which is like the Classics Illustrated version of Jour de fête. A fifteen minute short with many of the same jokes, and in some cases the exact film that was resused in the later feature film. If you want some Tati and only have 15 minutes, you’re set.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 31: My Uncle Note: not Mon Oncle. Instead I watched the English-language version.

I’m a big fan of Jaques Tati and Playtime is hovering near the top of my “favorite films of all time” list. An astounding physical comedian, Tati’s films seem like they would be naturally grouped with silent classics like Keaton or Chaplin.

But Tati may also be the most gifted sound comedian I’ve heard. Not because of language, but because of foley. He uses the soundscape of his movies to tell jokes. The particular sound of shoes on a metal floor, the squeak of a rubber dress, the feral gurgling of a dying fountain. His movies sound hilarious.

This requires an audience attuned to sound, you have to be listening actively to hear the jokes. I think that’s one of the reasons I always find myself so engaged by Tati’s movies. And I think that’s why some people find them to be plotless, nostalgia obsessed bores.

Mon Oncle is possibly more plotless and notstalgia-obsessed than other Tati films. When he focuses in on a gag or scene, the movie is great. But there’s a bit of loose rambling in between.

Below is a copy of an email I sent this morning to the Seward Co-Op board. If you would also like to ask these questions, please email board@seward.coop

–

Hello,

When I went to shop at the Franklin location at 9am on Sunday, April 18th I was angered and shocked by the presence of a security guard outside the store.

The guard didn’t get in my way, or hassle me. As a white middle-aged man my privilege saves me from such problems. But was angered by the guard’s mere presence.

A guard signals fear. A guard signals that someone is not welcome. A guard destroys community with the clear sign that “some” people are welcome here, but not all.

From the Co-op’s “About Page”

Everyone is welcome to shop at Seward Co-op.

And

we see the co-op as a tool through which to support society’s need for greater racial equity

How does a security guard support these values? Does it support our community members who have been traumatized by law enforcement? Does it improve racial equity by telling our immigrant community members that some random white guy with a badge could prevent them from shopping?

Hiring a security guard comes from a place of fear. And that fear, along with hiring guards to make us feel “safe”, supports white supremacy. Leaning on systems of power and law enforcement in a time of upheaval only strengthens those systems of power and only further excludes those who are struggling against white supremacy.

In a time where Minneapolis is being traumatized, over and over again, by the systems of power, why would the co-op choose to place a security guard out front? How could that guard do anything but re-traumatize our community?

I would like to know the following:

• How the decision to hire the security guard was made
• If the board voted for the presence of the security guard
• What actions will be taken to prevent such traumatizing acts in the future [original-html]

🎥 Movies of 2021, 26: Animal Crackers. I’ve always been more of a theoretical Marx Brothers fan. I ‘liked’ them, but if pressed I would have to admit that I’d probably only seen two of their movies (Duck Soup and A Night at the Opera). So I’m trying to fill in the gaps.

I think every Marx Brothers movie has four types of scenes:

• Funny ones
• Musical interludes
• Plot rigamarole
• Racism or Harpo being a sex pest

And I pretty much ignore the last three. But I do like the funny ones.

🎥 Movies of 2021, 15: Hear My Song. Through the whole thing I was thinking “This is a lot like Funny Bones”. Turns out they were made by the same folks.

Like the later Funny Bones, this one is built on charm, music-hall nostalgia and a hefty dose of magical realism. It’s a bit of a ramshackle affair, but a fun one. Given a choice between the two, Funny Bones is the better film. But I’d rather spend time with Ned Beatty playing a goofy Irish tenor than Jerry Lewis playing an asshole comedian (aka himself).