Favorite First-Time Watches of January 2024
I had quite a successful movie watching time in January. I capped it at six films because I don’t want to get carried away with this exercise. Here are six films I watched for the first time in January of 2024 that I recommend you watch.
Escape from Alcatraz - 1979
My first book in 2024 was Quentin Tarantino’s “Cinema Speculation”. A novel about the films that inspired him from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. Each chapter is devoted to a different film, so I wanted to be sure to watch those films before I read the book. This was one of them.
Escape from Alcatraz is inspired by the true story of the three inmates who attempted to escape Alcatraz in the 1960s. The bodies were never found, some believe they escaped, and some believe they drowned.
Clint Eastwood leads the film in a quietly brooding performance. Perfect for Clint’s acting prowess who can do more quietly than talking, like Steve McQueen. The film gets a little repetitive but the tension remains throughout the entire film.
We Own the Night - 2007
Criterion added a series to their channel this month, James Gray’s New York. His first five films take place in his home state of New York. I went back and forth on which of his two films from this series I watched to pick. We Own the Night or The Yards.
We Own the Night takes place in late 1980s New York. It stars Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg as two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Phoenix works in a nightclub where a ruthless drug dealer deals. Wahlberg is a police officer set to catch him.
I went into this film expecting it to be one thing, and it turned out to be another one. Also starring Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall, it’s an interesting look at family and brotherhood and how it can shape your life.
The Quick and the Dead - 1995
Another Criterion series, this one about Female lead westerns. Some very good ones, especially Johnny Guitar with Joan Collins. However, the most interesting is Sam Raimi’s The Quick and the Dead.
Sharon Stone, essentially her blank check, strolls into town and partakes in a duel/shootout bracket-style contest with a winner take prize. I say this is Stone’s blank check because she chose Sam, she chose baby Leonardo DiCaprio. This was her project.
Sam, an idiosyncratic filmmaker, has such a unique style that every film of his feels fresh. Even when he plays in a well-tread genre like westerns. This also boasts Russell Crowe’s first Hollywood film, again, at Sharon’s behest.
PlayTime - 1967
Part of my continuous journey through the Sight and Sound 100’s greatest films of all-time 2022 version. I do not see why some of the films are on the list. Maybe because I didn’t go to film school, maybe they just do not resonate with me. The minute PlayTime ended I knew why it was on this list.
It’s a hard film to describe so I will just inscribe what Google says: “Clumsy Monsieur Hulot (Jacques Tati) finds himself perplexed by the intimidating complexity of a gadget-filled Paris. He attempts to meet with a business contact but soon becomes lost. His roundabout journey parallels that of an American tourist (Barbara Dennek), and as they weave through the inventive urban environment, they intermittently meet, developing an interest in one another. They eventually get together at a chaotic restaurant, along with several other quirky characters.”
A great film remains timeless, what makes this film timeless is the ability to infer many different things. People can take away something different and we can take away something new with every rewatch.
There is the mockery of American tourists who go to a foreign-looking for things that remind us of home. Seeing things we can see in America. I was taken with the thought that in this life we all live in our own bubbles for the world to see. We’re isolated, with much of our life online, we can have everything we need delivered to our house.
But, we’re on display through social media. The whole world can see what we’re doing if we allow them. This thought came from the apartment building sequence when Monsieur Hulot goes to a friend’s apartment and the entire front is a glass window. Brilliant film.
Strange Days - 1995
Wanted to watch this as I slowly work through Kathryn Bigelow’s filmography. For a long time, Strange Days was not available to watch. One of the few things Zaslav did correctly was put this one Max.
It takes place in a futuristic Los Angeles where a technology exists that captures people’s memories and records them for other people to not just watch but experience and feel. Ralph Fiennes is an ex-cop who sells them on the black market now that the tech is outlawed. He stumbles into a serial murder case, at least that’s what he thinks.
I cannot talk about why this film remained prescient and was scarily prescient at the time. For you to understand you should just watch the film. It’s currently streaming on Max.
sex, lies, and videotape - 1989
Soderbergh’s first film burst him onto the scene and made everyone take notice. He became one of the signature 90s filmmakers that would shape Hollywood for the next 30 years. Soderbergh, Tarantino, Boyle, Paul Thomas Anderson.
A married couple (Andie McDowell & Peter Gallagher) is trapped in a sexless marriage that gets more stale by the minute. Peter is cheating on Andie, but when Peter’s friend from college comes to town, he turns Andie’s world upside down with his views on Sex.
The script is great, the film is just people talking for 100 minutes but it’s as compelling as a car chase. Soderbergh writes unbiasedly about sex and the roles gender plays in sex. Talking about what it means to be masculine in the bedroom.
