Seth Harris

Movie Review – Jacob’s Ladder (1990)

Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Written by Bruce Joel Rubin
Directed by Adrian Lyne

My wife’s first remarks as the credits rolled were, “That was intense.” Now, it takes a lot to phase my wife when it comes to movies. Between the amount of horror cinema I’ve exposed her to and the limited sentimentality, she has towards many films, she is a tough nut to crack. I’ve only known her to weep at two movies, Dancer in the Dark and The Elephant Man, otherwise, she appreciates the pictures but doesn’t get too deeply emotionally invested in them. I tell you all this as a way to begin talking about this heartbreaking existential horror film, a movie that the first time I viewed it, my maturity wasn’t at the level to really understand what the filmmakers were saying. This time around, I agreed with my wife, I was shaken and found a deep appreciation for the performances and themes in this movie.

SXSW Short Film Festival @ Home – Animated

Chicken of the Dead ***
Directed by Julien David

I was immediately struck by how much this animation style reminded me of the work that came out of the Klasky-Csupo studio in the 1990s (Rugrats, Wild Thornberrys, Duckman, etc.). In this short, chicken factory maven Bernard Lepique has come to a gala dinner in his honor. He uses this as an occasion to introduce his newest genetically modified delicacy, a melange of chicken and antibiotics. The result is a horror movie spoof that sees the effects of this new food creating hordes of monsters. It’s a fun and light satire on the factory farming industry that is animated quite well.

Movie Review – Daddy Longlegs

Daddy Longlegs (2009)
Written by Josh Safdie, Benny Safdie, and Ronald Bronstein
Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie

On the Criterion Channel website in an episode of their Meet the Filmmakers series, the Millennial filmmaking duo of Josh and Benny Safdie share a story about their father. When it was time to explain why he and their mother were getting divorced, he sat the boys down and had them watch Kramer vs. Kramer. This informs us to a lot of things about the Safdies like their deep love of New York City centered film and their fixation with well-intentioned characters that keep digging their holes deeper. Daddy Longlegs doesn’t quite have the anxiety-riddled moments of Good Time or Uncut Gems, it is more slice of life. But it’s protagonist, based on the Safdies’ father is just the same sort of protagonist that makes the audience groan as he makes one foolish decision after another.

SXSW Short Film Festival @ Home – Midnight

Heat **
Directed by Thessa Meijer

This short is visually and technically fantastic, however, that’s about it. Heat is a joke with a set-up and a punchline. It definitely doesn’t overstay its welcome but I don’t particularly enjoy it. It happened and then it ended. I can imagine director Thessa Meijer doing a great job on music videos but I look for short stories when I watch a short film.

Movie Review – Miller’s Crossing

Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Written Joel and Ethan Coen
Directed by Joel Coen

Miller’s Crossing is not often cited these days when people talk about the Coen Brothers’ body of work, but I think it deserves a higher spot. The film is such a cleverly constructed story, moving at a brisk pace and never feeling it’s two-hour runtime. The world of the film is so rich and layered with a back story, and the Coens reveal only as much as we need to know to understand the story. The rest is left up the viewer to infer and ponder, which is something about the Coen Brothers that I absolutely love.

How I Read a Poem: The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

So why should you spend any time reading poems? Isn’t the world in a state of crisis so severe that we don’t have time for such frivolousness? Or, shouldn’t I numb my brain with endless streams of Netflix binging? Well, I mean suppose. You don’t have to read poetry. I am sure you could go your whole life and never feel like you missed much by not reading poetry. But that could be said of lots of things like traveling abroad or eating at a fancy restaurant, but those things are nice to do, and they add richness to your life.

Movie Review – A Night at the Opera

A Night at the Opera (1935)
Written by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind, Al Boasberg, and James Kevin McGuinness
Directed by Irving Thalberg

With this film, many changes happened to the Marx Brothers going forward. It was their first picture at MGM, having left Paramount on reasonably bad terms. Their contract expired, and they had no interest in renewing it with Paramount. Zeppo left the pictures and joined brother Gummo in working on the business side of things, forming a talent agency that would take on clients like Jack Benny and Lana Turner. Irving Thalberg played cards with Chico and worked as a producer at MGM. During their games, he began discussing the Brothers make a move to MGM but had some terms and conditions.

Movie Review – The Invisible Man (2020)

The Invisible Man (2020)
Written & Directed by Leigh Whanell

Once upon a time, Universal Pictures wanted some of that sweet cinematic universe money, and they introduced The Dark Universe, a rebooting of classic monsters from their film catalog but modern and basically like superheroes. The opening film, The Mummy, was released, performed terribly, and received scathing reviews, and thus the Dark Universe died. Now Universal has pivoted and handed the reins to Blumhouse, a company quite skilled at coming way under budget and making lots of money with gimmicky B-horror movies. I’ll admit, I found the first Insidious to be pretty good, but the rest of their films are not my particular cup of tea. So, how does The Invisible Man stack up?

Movie Review – Duck Soup

Duck Soup (1933)
Written by Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, Arthur Sheekman, and Nat Perrin
Directed by Leo McCarey

Duck Soup is arguably the Marx Brother’s masterpiece. It is their last pre-code movie meaning it’s their last chance to push the boundaries of content in cinema. Duck Soup is also the perfect mix of the Brothers’ anarchic style and a semi-cohesive narrative structure. We still get gags and skits, but they feel much more connected to what is happening to the characters. Duck Soup wasn’t the smash hit that Horse Feathers was, and there was a lot of conflict between the Marx Brothers and Paramount during and after the production. The movie would mark the end of their relationship with that studio and send them to MGM for their next feature.

TV Review – Tales From the Loop Season One, Episode Three

Tales from the Loop (Amazon Prime)
Season One, Episode Three – “Stasis”
Written by Nathaniel Halperin
Directed by Dearbhla Walsh

We’ve all had those moments in our life that we wistfully drift back to from time to time. There’s a very distinct emotion we feel when thinking about them, a yearning to go back there, and our senses recalling smells and sounds that further recreate the scenario. More likely than not, if we were to have a way to be in that moment perpetually on closer examination, we would discover flaws & incongruities with our memory. Emotion has such a strong ability to cloud the mind and create false pasts that feel better, editing the problematic parts.