Trailer for Spike Lee’s new film, which is coming to Netflix on June 12. Lee’s films cycle on and off Netflix. Currently streaming: She’s Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Malcolm X (1992), which I think is his masterpiece, Get on the Bus (1996), and Inside Man (2006). Also streaming: Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show Rodney King, directed by Lee.
Brad Pitt’s character at the end of Killing Them Softly (2012)
I wrote about Killing Them Softly (dir. Andrew Dominik, 2012) for Decider, a Brad Pitt film you’ve probably never even heard of, but that I think makes for a timely (re-)watch post coronavirus.
Here’s a taste:
If you’re one of those people who, in times of turmoil, craves art equal in gravity to the moment, consider adding it to your Netflix list. Though it offers little in the way of escapism, the point it makes about America — namely, that we’re a country where consequences are unevenly distributed — is more relevant than ever.
“Let the currents move beneath you. Powers will shift. Enemies can vanish. Do what you can do to stay alive. Time will do the rest.”
—Luke Evans’s character in Anna (2019), directed by Luc Besson, who is admittedly “problematic” (Outlaw Vern explains why in his review), but I liked it and this line
This looks like Malick’s most-disciplined film in years. There’s still swooping shots and soaring strings, but also, it looks like, a stirring — and relevant — story.
I’ve joked about this subject before (see, e.g., here and here) and enjoy upbeat lighthouse-themed songs such as Diane Birch’s “Lighthouse,” but from the looks of this, being a lighthouse keeper is no joke.
I recall checking out Green’s blog briefly and then filing him and his quixotic project away in the back of my head somewhere under “other weirdos who are interested in walking as epistemology.”
Recently, though, I came across and watched the 2018 documentary about Green and his walking project: The World Before Your Feet.
Here’s the trailer:
If you’re interested in walking like I am, or in New York City, or simply in documentaries about people who march to the beat of their own drum (to borrow a phrase from Thoreau, one of history’s great walkers), I recommend it to you.
After watching it, I feel like it’s not a stretch to say that Green has an understanding of NYC that few, if any, other human beings have, or ever have had. What’s more, it is an understanding that you can have of your own city or town, provided you are able to walk it — though, as Green’s example suggests, to really walk a city isn’t easy.
Saw it last night. Simple, almost hackneyed “man versus nature” story (which I’m a sucker for, and such stories are always also “man versus himself”), but done really well. Spare and unsparing. Easily my favorite new movie of 2019 so far.