Day: April 9, 2015

It took me long enough but last night I finally saw It Follows. I had access to an online screener but I decided to pay $14 and change to see it at the Grove. It’s skillfully shot, somewhat different, silly here and there but definitely scary. (The 60something stalking woman really got me.) And funny at times. Love those 360 degree pan-arounds. Congrats to director-writer David Robert Mitchell, whom I met and interviewed five years ago in Cannes where his first film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, had its big debut. Horror queen Maika Monroe runs and screams and freaks with conviction — a good job. But the stand-out performer, for me, is costar Daniel Zovatto, who also costarred in Laggies.

One note of confusion: The rule, of course, is that Monroe can escape the stalking curse only by passing it along to someone she has sex with. So why were we shown that scene where she undresses on the beach in order to swim out to a boat with three guys on it? I thought she was going out there to rid herself of the curse by doing those guys. Mitchell doesn’t show anything but lets us think she might have had sex with one or all of them. Then Monroe has sex with Paul (Keir Gilchrist), a loyal, geeky-looking friend who’s been mooning over her for the whole film, and there’s an implication that Paul (and not those three guys on the boat) is now the carrier of the curse. If so, fine. Creepy but fine, I mean. (I kind of sensed early on that Paul would offer to take the curse off her back.) But what was the deal with swimming out to the boat?

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Speaking of The Hospital, this is one one of my favorite passages from it. I’m mainly taken by the notion of equating “love” (or the hormonal first-blush sexual phase) with resurrection of presumed-dead feelings. It’s not so much “you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone” as much as “you don’t know what you were missing until you suddenly get it back.” Then life is almost entirely glorious, primal and sublime. My last taste of this came in mid ’13, and if it never happens again…ah, well.

Richard Dysart, best known as the wise and gentle-mannered L.A. Law character Leland McKenzie, has, at age 86, left this mortal coil. Dysart ruled as the basketball coach in the original 1973 Broadway production of Jason Miller‘s That Championship Season. (Robert Mitchum played the role in the 1982 film version.) That happened two years after my all-time favorite Dysart performance — as the “greedy, inept, unconscionable” Dr. Welbeck in Arthur Hiller and Paddy Chayefsky‘s The Hospital [clip below]. Dysart also shone in The Falcon and the Snowman, John Carpenter‘s The Thing, Mask, Steve McQueen‘s An Enemy of the People and Back to the Future, Part III. Superb actor, good fellow, conveyer of gravitas.

Behold — the first taste of the second season of Nic Pizzolatto‘s True Detective (HBO, 6.21). I’m a little concerned that certified Fast and Furious anti-Christ Justin Lin has reportedly directed the first two episodes, but that aside things look mildly enticing. The same eight episodes, this time in Los Angeles and with a pudgy-looking Colin Farrell (an apparent variation of the ragged-edge Matthew McConaughey character from season #1) sucking down the smokes. Vince Vaughn (first quality thing he’s done in how many years?), Rachel McAdams, Taylor Kitsch, Kelly Reilly.

I’ve never watched an action- or FX-driven film with the augmentation of the 4DX experience, but it seems like the perfect compliment. I’m serious — if you’re just looking for a mindless “wheee!” experience at the movies, doesn’t it make sense to have your seat vibrate and pitch around and get sprayed with moisture and simulated snow and whatnot? If you’re too thick to understand the transcendent joys of real cinema, 4DX is the way to go. (It’s entirely conceivable that I might have had a better time with Furious 7 in a 4DX theatre — it’s that kind of movie.) I’ll be sampling 4DX at Cinemacon on or about 4.22. I’m not so sure it’ll be a good idea to watch Mad Max: Fury Road with 4DX as that film is presumed to be much more than a stupid visceral thrill ride, but 4DX will be ideal for viewings of San Andreas and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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If I decided to replace my generic password (I actually use three variations) with a pass phrase, as Edward Snowden has suggested to John Oliver, I would choose dialogue from my favorite films and add the last two digits of the year of release. Please name the films. Example #1: “illtakethebeard71.” Example #2: “barbecuesandballgames95.” Example #3: “lastrefugeofascoundrel57.” Example #4: “keepyoualivetorowthisship59.” Example #5: “thatboywashungry52.”