Film Diary #18: Some New-ish Movies, I mostly just watch TV now, and RIP David Lynch
Yes, I know my last post was my big send off for 2024. So I should probably stop talking about movies from last year and move on to 2025. Well the problem with that is that the only new things out right now are Wolf Man (which I might see, and that’s a heavy might) and Presence (which I did see and will not talk about, you can’t make me) and there are still a handful of pretty big movies from 2024 that I haven’t seen yet(cue The Brutalist staring longingly at me with its 3 hour and 35 minute run time). And wouldn’t you know it, I managed to cross some of them off my list this month, what an accomplishment. So let me talk (type) at you about them for a few minutes.
Nosferatu
Despite not watching this as close to its release as I would have liked, I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I anticipated, which is always fun. I was a tad worried because from the bits I had seen out of context, I kind of thought I was gonna find Bill Skarsgard’s Count Orlok a bit goofy to the point of not really being able to take him and/or the movie seriously. Luckily, I only found him goofy sparingly, and weirdly enough it wasn’t because of his moustache.
I wouldn’t call myself the biggest Robert Eggers fan, but boy does he know how to make a movie look gooooood. I’m still a little lukewarm on The Lighthouse (I am due for a rewatch on that, however), and I thought The Northman was fine. The Witch stands right now as my favorite of his, but with a rewatch that all could change. Weirdly Nosferatu is probably the most I’ve connected with one of his movies, I found myself deeply invested in Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult’s characters and their plight (yeah I'm surprised too). Hoult, especially in his first big scene with Count Orlok, gives probably one of the best ‘scared shitless’ (or ‘terrified beyond belief’ to be less crass) performances I’ve seen in a while. You truly believe that he’s encountering the epitome of evil. I for one wish this movie scared me that much, that might be my main gripe (and I really don’t have that many).
A Complete Unknown
I hate to admit that I’m only familiar with Bob Dylan and his music at the most basic level, and my main motivation for seeing this was for Edward Norton (Nortvember!) as Pete Seger (I don’t know who that is) and Boyd Holbrook as Johnny Cash (I do know who that is). And Scoot McNairy playing Woody Guthrie for 5 minutes of screen time (if even that) was an added bonus.
I’m not the biggest Timothee Chalamet fan and my hopes for him were low-ish but I gotta say that the boy does a decent job playing Dylan. I also didn’t realize how young Dylan actually was when he started out and that he became famous rather quickly, so I learned something.
My biggest issue which I have been proudly complaining about to anyone who will listen, is that the scenes set in Newport, Rhode Island (my hometown) and at the Newport Folk Festival are very obviously not filmed in Rhode Island (those scenes were filmed in New Jersey, boo). And with further research that I did just mere moments ago, they turned the famous and historic Viking Hotel, where Dylan and other musicians did actually stay while they were there for the festival, into the Viking Motel, because I guess they couldn’t find anything in Cape May, New Jersey that they could believably make look like the Viking Hotel so they took an existing Motel and rewrote history. And I find that quite annoying.
Anywho, my other significant gripe is that if it came out one month earlier it could have been a part of Nortvember and that would have been big for me. But besides that and the whole Newport thing I guess it’s fine.
Flow
Not since Homeward Bound have I grown so attached to a rag tag group of animals in such a short period of time. AND these animals have the decency and respect not to speak with human voices. Pretty incredible.
Refraining from saying too much about this one because I think it’s beneficial going in knowing the bare minimum. All you gotta know is that it’s animated, it’s very cute, it’s very sad, there isn’t a drop of dialogue to be found, and it’s gotta be one of the sweetest and most life-affirming things I’ve seen in a long while. And see it with a good group of pals if you can, that added a lot to the experience for me.
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Now let me explain this whole “I only watch TV now” thing. That is only partly true, I’ve also been watching a lot of YouTube as well (not my fault that the latest RedLetterMedia videos have been great and very rewatchable). I really can’t pinpoint why I’ve been slacking on my movie watching, I swear it’s not intentional. I just haven’t felt that compelled to make the time to watch as much stuff at home. God knows the last time I watched a morning movie (that actually does bum me out). I’ve just been in way more of a TV groove lately, specifically this new medical show called The Pitt, which has led me back to watching ER from the beginning, let me tell you why.
I remember seeing The Pitt briefly promoted on Instagram last month, either by MAX itself or Noah Wyle (or the ER fan account I follow), can’t remember which. My ears and eyes perked up immediately because I like Noah Wyle a lot (mostly because of ER but he’s good in everything he’s in) and I’m a big ER fan (in case that wasn’t obvious) and Noah Wyle being the lead in a brand-new medical drama that isn’t ER (but kind of is ER) seemed too good to be true. But it is indeed real! And it’s very good! Fiona Dourif (Brad Dourif’s daughter) is in it too! And she’s great! Everyone in it is great! It’s a weekly show so please go watch the first 4 episodes and come back and talk to me about it please (being very genuine here, I don’t know anyone else who’s watched it yet and I’m desperate to talk about it with another human).
Because I can’t binge watch The Pitt (my only critique), I’ve started watching ER from the beginning, mainly to see the difference between Noah Wyle as a fresh-faced, blue-eyed newbie to the medical world (ER) to the seasoned, slightly gruff but deep down very good dude (and doctor) who loves to repress his emotions (The Pitt). I've also never seen ER from the beginning, only from season 5/6 all the way to the end so it's probably high time to be a completionist about it.
Rest in Peace, David Lynch
Would be remiss if I didn’t talk a little bit about David Lynch’s passing. He’s always been this incredible artistic and genuine presence in the film/TV world, and I think it’s safe to say that every creative person has been inspired by Lynch at some point in their lives. His uniqueness is just extraordinary and weird and wonderful and everything in between, and his love for authentic stories and people and just doing as much with this life as possible that doesn’t jeopardize your true self is beyond inspiring, it’s life affirming as heck.
I still have some pretty big movies of his that I need to see (Mullholland Drive, Wild At Heart, Inland Empire, and I have half of The Straight Story left to watch), and I think this is the year to do it. Blue Velvet will always hold a special place in my heart and I gotta rewatch Eraserhead because I feel like that rewatch is gonna be a lot but probably very therapeutic. But for me it's always gonna be Twin Peaks. I still need to finish The Return ( I know, I know), but I love the first 2 seasons so much, and I stand by my stance that Dale Cooper is the best character ever created for anything ever. But Lynch and Mark Frost created so many beautiful and incredible people (would die for the Log Lady and Audrey Horne) that inhabit that wonderfully strange fictional town and any chance I get to revisit it I do with a big thumbs up and a huge cup of coffee (it’s actually tea, I’m sorry). Can’t emphasize enough how much of a loss this is, but just so grateful for his existence and for what he created in his time here.
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Well the first month of the new year is wrapping up already (ahh). I’m still forever trying to figure out how to establish consistency with my writing and this substack, but it’s the first time in a long while that I actually feel pretty good about where things are going writing-wise. Personal life-wise is a whole other story (my anxiety has quietly been ruining my life more so than usual lately, let’s goooo) and almost everything happening in the world is bad and the sense of impending doom never seems to go away. And it sucks and it’s tough not knowing what to do and it’s all become so scary, but being surrounded by amazing friends and just a great community of creative and thoughtful people gives me a lot of hope and I hope everyone has that to help keep them going.
Thank you for reading, as always. Till next time.