The Frame

Challenge Week 10: The Keys of the Kingdom

On March 12, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

Although a 1944 film starring Gregory Peck in an Oscar-nominated performance sounds like something right up my alley, I never really thought much to seek out this film, largely because films specifically about priests or pastors often don’t tend to do as much for me as you might expect. Either I disagree with the theology presented, or I’m angered by the portrayal, or I’m bored with the piety. I knew little of this except that the main character was a priest, but I presumed one of the above might be the case.

I actually got far more out of it than I thought I would, though I guess I could still nitpick the theology a bit here and there. Peck is Father Francis Chisolm, who winds up going to seminary after the girl he loved chooses a different path (and a somewhat surprising one for a 1944 film, I have to say), but his methods don’t always please his superiors. His teachers take his dogged questioning as a lack of faith in traditional theology, and later on his superiors worry that he’s too ecumenical – he has friends who are atheists! One superior, however, sees something special in him and appoints him head of a mission in China.

Challenge Week 9: Mauvais Sang

By Jandy

On March 5, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

The Roku description of this movie goes like this: “In the near future, Paris is devastated by a new AIDS-like disease that infects people who have sex without being in love. Aging thieves Marc and Hans develop a plan to steal a newly devised serum that combats the disease.” So I’m like, okay, so it’s a sci-fi type thing with these thief guys as futuristic Robin Hoods who go on a crusade to help the little people. Thankfully I knew enough about Leos Carax to know it probably wasn’t QUITE like that. Turns out it’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like that.

Marc (Michel Piccoli) and Hans are aging thieves whose partner gets killed before they can finish a job and pay off a scary aggressive American lady. She gives them one more chance to pay her back, so they decide to recruit their old partner’s son Alex (Carax regular Denis Lavant) to heist this valuable serum. He’s a disaffected 20ish-year-old who breaks up with his girlfriend (Julie Delpy) to go with the guys, but he isn’t planning to actually do their heist until he falls for Anna (Juliette Binoche), except she’s in a relationship with Marc.

Challenge Week 9: Whiplash

By Jandy

On March 4, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

I’ve been meaning to see Whiplash since it came out a couple of years ago, so this recommendation was more like a “get on it already!” kick in the pants than getting me to see something I otherwise wouldn’t have – still, I gotta thank Alex for the kick in the pants, because this was just as great as I’d been hoping, if not more.

Miles Teller plays Andrew, a drum student at the prestigious (and fictional) Shaffer Conservatory in New York, who wants nothing more than to make it into Studio Band, the most elite and respected jazz ensemble at the school – making a mark in Studio Band could lead to positions with the best professional ensembles in the country. The director of Studio Band is a notorious perfectionist, Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons) who brooks no mistakes and no challenges to his authority.

Challenge Week 8: Capricorn One

By Jandy

On March 1, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

Is it weird that I actually found this movie to be MORE bizarre than Derek’s other choice Mr. Nobody? In theory, this seems like a fairly straightforward 1970s-style paranoid thriller, but it gets pretty goofy, in ways that I didn’t expect but enjoyed.

The first manned mission to Mars is all set to blast off when the trio of astronauts is pulled from the ship and taken to a secret warehouse with a studio set up where they’re supposed to pretend they landed on Mars, since NASA wasn’t really ready for a manned mission to Mars but needs a major success to inspire Washington to keep funding them. All goes well with the faked Mars landing until the shuttle is on the way back to earth and, well, loses its heat shield and disintegrates, making the very much non-disintegrated astronauts a bit of an untidy loose end. Meanwhile, journalist Robert Caulfield (Elliott Gould) smells a rat and investigates what’s going on from the outside.

Challenge Week 8: Mr. Nobody

By Jandy

On February 25, 2016

In 2016 Movie Challenge

So far in this challenge I’ve been assigned films that I loved, that delighted me, that I thought were okay, that surprised me, and that impressed me. This was the first one that blew me away. On Facebook I’ve been asking people involved in the challenge to guess which of the week’s films I’ll like better (upcoming: Capricorn One, which I have not watched yet). Derek, who assigned this week’s films, said I’d like Mr. Nobody better “because it is more directly in your wheelhouse.” Boy, is it ever.

Mr. Nobody is the last mortal in the world at 112 – everyone else is now immortal thanks to a process that endlessly renews their cells. No one knows who he is, where he came from, and his memories are unclear and confused. But that’s not stopping a curious journalist from sneaking in to try to get his story. That’s what we get in flashbacks, alongside “current” sections with Mr. Nobody and the journalist. But hold on, Mr. Nobody seems to be recalling two or three different lives, branching narratives based on a choice he may or may not have made at age 8.