November is unthemed this year: one noir collection but otherwise not heavy on the femmes fatale and criminal sorts. It’s also nicely varied, with one blockbuster of a collection and a fair amount of other cool stuff. Actually two blockbuster collections now that I think about it.
First up, Family Reunions. This is just a range, with a lot of good movies. Don’t skip The Savages for a pair of superb performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney. For me this is a chance to catch up on my Jonathan Demme with Rachel Getting Married, and hey, I’ve been wanting to try some Arnaud Desplechin so there’s A Christmas Tale for me. I will probably not rewatch Garden State.
Directed by Werner Herzog is the first blockbuster. Quick count says a full 29 movies, with one more showing up on January 1st. This is just daunting in scope, going from his early career to 2009 and representing both his fiction and documentaries. I have no idea where to start with this. Probably one of the Klaus Kinski ones. Like that narrows it down much.
Then the nod to Noirvember with Blackout Noir. If you haven’t seen In A Lonely Place, I firmly recommend it. Bogart really commits to the role. Farran Smith Nehme and Glenn Kenny curated this one so I expect it to be thought-provoking throughout, and the theme of amnesia and memory holes is quite cool.
Soundtracks by Trent Reznor is small, only four movies, and maybe a bit cutesy as a collection theme. That said, they’re all good movies! I watched Guadagnino’s Suspiria recently and it reaffirmed my belief that he’s a master of Grand Guignol infused with real emotion, so Bones and All is worth the time.
Our second directorial collection is Howard Hawks, with 14 movies. I wasn’t counting this as one of the blockbuster collections; arguably it qualifies. I wanna finally see Scarface, and Rio Bravo is on my Westerns list. And if you haven’t seen The Big Sleep and Bringing Up Baby, good time to watch those; they’re both delightful.
Josh Brolin’s Adventures in Moviegoing shows that the gentleman has good taste. I’ve seen most of these; I might take the excuse to watch A Woman Under the Influence. As is often the case with this kind of collection, I’m actually the most excited about the interview — many of these are already on the Channel.
The big documentary collection for the month is Native Nonfiction, which seems really interesting. A ton of shorts — I may make a point of trying to watch some of those. The promise of “innovative cinematic language” intrigues me. Also putting a pin in maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore, which is about the Chinookan people in the PNW.
I’m a little disappointed in the Vicky Krieps collection. She is a great actor, and I enjoyed her in both Bergman Island and Phantom Thread. Only four movies, though? If I make the probably unwarranted assumption that anything on Kanopy and Plex is reasonably available, rights-wise, I’m seeing A Most Wanted Man and The Dead Don’t Hurt as possible additions. And Corsage won her an award at Cannes — that would have been nice. Still, the movies look good, and I’m not responsible for the Channel’s finances so it’s easy for me to mouth off.
The second collection I consider a blockbuster is Pioneers of African American Cinema. This is all “race films” from the 1920s through the 1940s. I think this is a revival of a Kino Lorber curated collection from five years ago. I have no idea where to start with this — the Zora Neale Hurston, I guess, although I think that’s a short. But it’s amazing and I owe it to myself to dive deep.
OK, on to the everything else. I’m hopping around a bit from here on in.
Hey, another director stuffed down in the director spotlights and this time it’s Jafar Panahi. I don’t totally get this; he’s one of the major directors working today, yet not featured? Still, it’s six of his films in one place, so that’s a blessing. Check it out if you like metatextual narrative.
Next to him, Nancy Savoca has a small collection. I know nothing about her except that she’s an indie filmmaker who’s been working since the 1990s. Looks interesting and while I love Criterion giving us a huge wad of Herzog films, I also love the spotlights on directors we might have missed. Rob Nilsson and John Hanson also seem to be in that category: Midwestern filmmakers of the 70s and 80s. A little research tells me that the three shorts in their collection are documentaries on a 1910s socialist movement in North Dakota. The feature film, Northern Lights, also touches on that history. This looks amazing. Oh, hey, it won a Camera d’Or at Cannes.
What else? No new anime this month. Cairo Station picks up a bunch of supplements to match the new Blu-ray release; as I have said before, it’s a great movie. One Hand Don’t Clap is a West Indian musical documentary, I bet that’s worth while. Overall, good month, with an inexplicable lack of Boston-themed collections.
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