CALL ME BY YOUR NAME dir. Luca Guadagnino (2017)

Guadagnino. I'm going to have to practice saying that name. The man knows how to use windows and french doors like they were portals and thresholds and invitations all at once.





We saw this on a three degree night in a refurbished single-screen- all sea foam green and cream- and got to spend a summer in Crema, Italy.



The screenplay is adapted from a novel by André Aciman, who teaches the works of Proust.  The film plays with classical v. pop, the echoes of interchange between Roman and Greek art and ideas, made concrete by the abundance of stonefruit and stone, ephermerality and permanence, unearthability. The summers of desire, desirability are few and fleeting and you should probably spend them making art of life, joy of apricot juice.



ps
Have a year, Michael Stuhlbarg! I'm going to have to get around to finally seeing A SERIOUS MAN now.

Favorite Television of 2017

20. MASTER OF NONE
19. VEEP
18. SILICON VALLEY
17. CATASTROPHE
16. LES TÉMOINS (WITNESSES)

15. THE HANDMAID'S TALE
14. LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER
13. LOVE
12. GAME OF THRONES
11. STRANGER THINGS

10. RICK AND MORTY
9. BROAD CITY
8. THE MINDY PROJECT
7. REVIEW
6. HOMELAND

5. GLOW
4. FARGO
3. UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT
2. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER: TEN YEARS LATER
1. NATHAN FOR YOU

What I missed that I'm most excited to check out: LADY DYNAMITE, THE GOOD PLACE, MR. ROBOT, THE YOUNG POPE, SEARCH PARTY, RIVERDALE, TOP OF THE LAKE, TWIN PEAKS, THE LEFTOVERS.

I'm sorry this was so shouty; I really need to re-think my formatting!

Sheer Mag NEED TO FEEL YOUR LOVE (2017)

Debut album with all the strutting chops of Philly lifers, novelty being the unique and irrepressible lead vocalist Tina Halladay.  For a six-pack, Dilly Bar and lawn chair in the living room kind of winter's evening. Needs to score a David O. Russell film. I really dig that album cover, too.

PERSONAL SHOPPER dir. Olivier Assayas (2017)

Assa-yas queen. (That stupid joke was nowhere else on the internet, so welcome to my new era of SEO dominance.) I will be here for all future films in which Kristen Stewart plays an expatriate on the Continent.  Turns out I like the cinematography of Yorick Le Saux and it was really interesting how Assayas integrated a small investigation into theosophy.  Hilda af Klint made some spooky art. Wild how predictive her work was of post-WWI Modernism and fits so nicely with the canon, despite being done in seclusion and hidden for so long.

THE SHAPE OF WATER dir. Guillermo del Toro (2017)

Double feature with CAROL (2015)

Tom Rogerson/Brian Eno FINDING SHORE (2017)

My sanitarium is a greenhouse on a wide lawn surrounded by cypress.

SONG TO SONG dir. Terrence Malick (2017)

Scott's review of a film that will almost certainly be in his top ten this year.

Gosling is the perfect lead for an improvisational film, Fassbender brings his manic energy and seems to leap from the screen, Rooney Mara continues to be puzzlingly cast and, to my eye, couldn't act her way out of a paper bag (luckily she has the world's most fascinating midriff-- men are powerless to resist!) and it should be criminal to advertise that Natalie Portman was in this.  To the extent that you're willing to be submissive to Malick's vision of film as a ballet with the whole world as a stage, you'll be able to accept the beauty and vibe with the slow banalities of his voiceovers.  I literally laughed out loud when the final scene ended, abruptly to my mind, and the screen read "Written and Directed by Terrence Malick."  Yeah, I guess someone writes fortune cookies too, but you don't see them trying to get credit for it.

THE MINDY PROJECT S6 (2017)

TV is about friendship.  Movies are about kissing.
~ @danceremixsam (paraphrased)

I liked this show more every season, which seems pretty well correlated to how much more control Mindy Kaling had over the project.  I think the most winning aspect was that she flipped traditional sitcom friends-sniping-at-each-other format on its head. The majority of laughs were the result of the characters intentionally revealing something vulnerable to each other, like trust falls. This made it a strangely resilient show that seemed to benefit from cast fluidity.  It was an encouraging, generous, humane antidote to the dark, edgy comedies that get more respect.  In this day and age, it takes much more courage to have a bright color palette.  Here come the warm jets.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith THE KID (2017)

I got really into her at the end of last year,  so with my increased expectations came the letdown.  (I really need to stop anticipating anything.) It just seems more woozy and meandering, and I truly disdain the vocals.  If you come into the house of Grouper, or Julianna Barwick, you better have pipes, and these are directionless, uninspired. I always like to support our PNW people, but this is like a tourniquet, I'm telling you that you may like her more if you start elsewhere.

Woo WHICHEVER WAY YOU ARE GOING, YOU ARE GOING WRONG (1982)

They put me in an incredible mood yesterday, I was singing all day long, which happens maybe once a year, so I'm going to double-down and see if these brothers are operating on some frequency I've been missing for too long.

Woo INTO THE HEART OF LOVE (1990)

Here's to a day of mischief managed.

THE LITTLE HOURS dir. Jeff Baena (2017)

As funny as anything I've seen this year, as well as a celebration of slow, communal living and the Italian countryside. I wish more farces took themselves this seriously in terms of making a beautiful film as a second greater gift.

It is 99¢ on Amazon right now.  Just realized there is no cents symbol on the keyboard. Inflation is out of control!