Chris Dashiell
@cdashiell
Essayist, film critic, philosopher
All We Imagine as Light (2024) A drama about three women working at a busy hospital in Mumbai. In different ways, they represent the need for Indian women to break free from family & social strictures to make their own choices. Some fine acting, and Payal Kapadia's style is warm and understated.
Sunset Boulevard (1950) I've always been struck by how funny this movie is. This time I recalled that it's creepy too. Impeccably made, it impresses me more each time with its imagery and mix of acting styles: Holden so wry, Swanson perfectly embodying silent era performance. Wilder's masterpiece.
It’s the Old Army Game (1926) It's hard to imagine a W.C. Fields film without his distinctive voice, but in fact he appeared in a dozen silent pictures. This is the original version of my favorite Fields film, It's a Gift (1934). Many of the same situations & gags. Not as good, but not bad at all.
LaRoy, Texas (2023) A timid hardware store owner (John Magaro) is hired by mistake to kill someone, while the real contract killer arrives a few minutes too late. Steve Zahn plays a wonderful loon who thinks he's a detective, and I wish he'd win some award. How bad can it get? Very bad. And funny.
Wolf Lowry (1917) One of nine features made by William S. Hart in 1917. (He was averaging about that many a year.) A tough rancher falls for a pretty homesteader (Margery Wilson, quite charming). Turns out there's another man. More of a romantic melodrama than a western, but solidly constructed.
La Rupture (1970) Stéphane Audran plays a woman trying to divorce her mentally ill husband, while her evil father-in-law seeks custody of her son. A con artist (Jean-Pierre Cassel) is hired to spy on her, with dismaying results. Sorry to say it, but Claude Chabrol's film never quite comes together.
The Overcoat (1952) Gogol's story is moved from 19th century Russia to 20th century Italy by Alberto Lattuada and a team of six writers. Renato Rascel plays a poor clerk ashamed of his threadbare overcoat and fixated on getting a new one. His dumb behavior around his pompous superiors is hilarious.
It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) Rose (Googie Withers), a housewife in a poor London neighborhood, has an escaped convict turn up at her door. He's her lover from years before, and she decides to help him. It's a beautifully constructed multicharacter suspense movie directed by Robert Hamer.
Silent Running (1972) Bruce Dern is in charge of the greenhouses on a huge space ship, preserving the last remnants of Earth's plant life, when the crew receives orders to destroy them. He disobeys. A weak story is helped a bit by three weird robot companions. It's an occasionally funny misfire.
A Complete Unknown (2024) Timothée Chalamet pulls off a great imitation of the young Bob Dylan—the voice seems authentic, both singing & talking. But James Mangold gives us the legend instead of reality, full of phony romantic intrigue, without the humor or much insight into why the songs matter.
Scene of the Crime (1949) A cop is shot, and his former partner (Van Johnson) traces the killing to a gang that are robbing bookies. Johnson does fine playing a tough guy for once. Norman Lloyd is memorable as a creepy snitch. A subplot with Arlene Dahl as the thankless worrying wife is not so good.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) In Phạm Thiên Ân's debut feature, a listless young man in Saigon travels to the country village of his birth to take care of his little nephew when his sister-in-law dies in an accident. He is a Catholic struggling with his faith. A film of dreams and yearning.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) The first (and simplest) often seems the best. I can't imagine how floored audiences were by this. Snow White running in fear through the woods is still astounding. The version of childhood & motherhood is of course old-fashioned. The film remains immortal.
Empire of Light (2022) Olivia Colman plays the manager of a movie theater at an English coastal town in the 1980s. She has mental health issues, and her relationship with a young black guy (Micheal Ward) draws attention from bigots. I found the film uneven but touching, thanks largely to Colman.
The Power of Emotion (1983) The title of this film by Alexander Kluge sounds like a psychology doc. It’s actually a collage of old footage, dramatic parables, enigmatic voice-over, and opera excerpts. Kluge sees emotion as irrational, repressed by society, only to find expression through art.
Kuessipan (2019) Two young Innu women grow up on an Indian reserve in Quebec and become lifelong friends, although Mikuan's family looks down on Shaniss for being a rebel & unwed mother. Based on a novel by Naomi Fontaine, and directed by Myriam Verreault, it's honest, moving, and skillfully done.
In the proposed Trump Library, the world’s largest Child Porn collection will fill twenty floors.