Hola compadres. I am gearing up for fall movie season and I. cannot. wait. If you live in the DC area and want to join me, please drop me a line or leave me a comment… I’ll be looking for movie buddies nearly every weekend.
H and I took a quick trip up to New York City for the long Labor Day weekend. In addition to being an awesome weekend on a personal, professional, social, and culinary level, it also put me back in touch with D, a family member and fellow cinephile, on the topic of movies. It seems every time I see D he gives me a new movie to look into… This time, he gave me a full list. I am diligently making my way through it (and eternal thanks to J for loaning his Criterion collection-enabled Hulu account).
Image c/o respectthequeendom.wordpress.com
First up was She’s Gotta Have It, an early Spike Lee joint from the 1980s with a surprisingly progressive look at female sexuality. “She” is Nola Darling, serial dater who’s sworn off monogamy, at least for now. And she doesn’t need a reason either; she’s just doing what she feels like doing. Lee himself plays one of the three men vying for her undivided attention. Filmed in a fake documentary style and with rudimentary stylistic flourishes, like filming it entirely in black and white save for one scene of dancing, you can feel Lee reaching for a directorial style as he stretches his film making muscles. The best part of the film happens in the early-to-middle part of the movie; audiences are still getting to know Nola through interviews of those who know her. Lee’s character Mars Blackmon talks about what a “freak” she is for liking sex as much as she does, and asserts that a girl with that kind of libido must have “daddy issues” (a stereotype not unheard of today). From this, the film immediately smash cuts to a stately, middle class home where a well-dressed man is playing classical piano. After he finishes playing, he turns to the camera and waxes on that Nola grew up wanting for nothing, least of all love, in a childhood home where he and her mother indulged her interests and curiosity. Take that, misogynists.
As I told D in an email, my experience with Spike Lee movies is deleteriously lacking… before She’s Gotta Have It, I had seen only his more mainstream and recent productions (25th Hour, Inside Man), which I liked but did not find particularly challenging of societal norms. I’m interested to see the films that show his progression from frank social commentary to more boilerplate fare.
Image c/o Washington Post
At Mama Reel Insight’s behest, I finally got my hands on a DVD copy of Dallas Buyers Club, but find myself without much to say about it that hasn’t been said before… Matthew McConaughey is scary thin and very talented… Jared Leto did great… the mistakes of our government and other institutions during that time are a national shame… etc. Good movie, good cast, nothing more to be said. Not regretting seeing it, not changing my life because of it.
I am attempting to clear my calendar for a host of new movies, so stay tuned, fellow movie-goers!
REEL INSIGHT 