The Thing (1982) is a riot and defines John Carpenter.
There exists an incredible canon of Carpenter movies from the ’70s and ’80s – Carpenter pulling out one sublime picture after another. A wee bit of snobbery swirls around commentary on him, that he can’t do a period drama or handle anything another other than horror and thrills, which is making an obvious point. And I keep referring to him in the past tense. Because I haven’t seen a new movie from the lad for decades.
As much as I would ascribe the term ‘auteur’ to the truly multi-skilled Carpenter, folk read way too much into these films, always seeking for the allegorical or the profound statement. They are all cult B-movies where very little acting nuance is needed, high-concept affairs elevating the primacy of the image and the economy of the edit. You’re in it for 90 minutes and then afterwards that’s that. It’s not Antonioni.
And to The Thing (1982) and that score, the landscape, the constant menace, and yet with the wackiest visual effects, brilliant for their time and curiously not dated at all.
The Thing is his peak.
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (2010) isn’t as dreadful as I thought I remembered once.
I hated this when I first saw it. I had expectations that were way too high (life advice: never do this). It’s really not that bad of a viewing experience, and to the extent that it could have been great.
The casting is mostly spot on, Josh Brolin doing a sneering, charmless version of Gekko, and Douglas playing the veteran raider as a wily fox slowly getting his groove back. I don’t mind Shia LaBeouf despite his arty-farty antics. He’s a fine actor – witness him in Fury (2014).
Sadly, this movie is saddled with a pointless love interest much like the first, though in the 1987 capturing of ‘Loadsamoney‘ the airhead female was at least a symbol of soulless social climbing. Charlie Sheen also makes an appearance here in perhaps the most nauseating and unnecessary cameo ever. Thank fuck the Donald Trump cameo was culled (yes, this happened).
It does get the financial crisis so right, though. It’s just a shame that Stone – usually the nailer of the zeitgeist – is a few years too late. Eli Wallach being very weird is also a hoot. And the movie is a worthy watch for the visuals alone. It’s more of an introduction to the wonderful Wall Street (1987) than an experience on its own terms. Peak Stone was both a product of an era and a stylisation of it, when Stone was the Bret Easton Ellis of celluloid.
Banging trailer here, though:
Hostiles (2017) should be seen by more folk.
I usually hate revisionism because it’s almost always ‘crafted’ through the lens of ridiculous zeitgeist lefty reevaluations of a now controversial time. Artistry comes second with this crusade. They are just message movies and aesthetically worthless.
This one looked ominous. However, it was surprisingly almost brilliant. Bale was … Bale. He is titanium. He cannot be broken. This did baffle me a wee bit as with a lot of these flicks we have the flawed protagonist die at the end because of his sins and he somehow finds catharsis in this. Not so here. Which is just fabulous.
I say almost great. There aren’t any memorable moments or sequences which wander out of formula. But it’s masterfully shot and put together. And I hate most movies.
A strong 4/5.
JFK (1991) is a masterpiece of garbage.
The Kennedy ‘Camelot’ worship is just pathetic, a whitewashing of some truly horrific folks. I just don’t get it and the only explanation I have for the adulation of that pampered clan is that when you’ve got Nixon or Goldwater you have to pick the lesser of two … something like that. Anyway, the outright lies in this movie are audacious in their temerity. The director quite literally makes shit up. No wonder the amenable masses think everything is a conspiracy these days.
But what a cast, what style, what editing razzmatazz. If you could define bravura it would be peak Oliver Stone. He’s the best kind of worst propagandist. What does the lad get up to these days aside from interview dictators? His last masterwork was Any Given Sunday (1999). I saw a film he made about Alexander the Great. It was worse than one of my shites after tanning a vindaloo.
“Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left.”
Wanderings and ... wonderings. 