THREE MOVIES THAT COME AT CURRENT ISSUES IN A UNIQUE WAY
THREE MOVIES THAT COME AT CURRENT ISSUES IN A UNIQUE WAY #3: Bad Education (2004, dir by Pedro Almodovar). We wanted to highlight three 21st century movies that have come at a current topic in a uniquely engaging way. First up is Pedro Almodovar's fascinating movie on the sexual abuse countless Catholic children and adults suffered by clergy who were protected from accountability by higher ups. Rather than tell a straight ahead didactic story, Almodovar goes Almodovar and tells the story of a director in 1980 who wants to make a movie about a childhood friend who later became a transgender drag queen. They both attended a Catholic school as children and were the subject of child abuse by a priest who taught there. The movie cross cuts between the present and the past and takes loopy turns into murder, comedy, and mystery. But by taking this eccentric approach, Almodovar personalizes and humanizes the emotional and sexual confusion and trauma countless people have felt when an institution they loved or were raised in betrayed them in the most vulnerable of ways. Almodovar is one of our great directors and I tend to prefer him when he goes dark (THE SKIN I LIVE IN, MATADOR, LAW OF DESIRE). His incredible grasp of cinema sharpens when he's angry somehow. A tremendous and challenging movie.
THREE MOVIES THAT COME AT CURRENT ISSUES IN A UNIQUE WAY #2: The Wolf of Wall Street (2013, dir by Martin Scorsese). Ahead of our Netflix Watch Party of THE SOCIAL NETWORK this upcoming Sat 6/13/20 @ 8p, we wanted to highlight 3 other 21st century movies that have come at a current topic in a uniquely engaging way. Second is Martin Scorsese's and Leonardo Di Caprio's surprisingly hilarious and wild hard R rated comedy about real life penny stock trader Jordan Belfort who amassed a fortune ripping off average people who didn't understand anything about the stock market. Like GOODFELLAS, many folks have criticized WOLF for glorifying sex, drugs, and adolescent behavior before weakly (in the eyes of many) appearing to critique it at the end of the movie. I've always understood this viewpoint and respected it. But I've also always strongly disagreed with it. Scorsese has built a lifetime of cinema that tries to really understand WHY such behavior and WHY such a lifestyle would seduce so many people. Why would all the people who worked at Belfort's Oakmont Stratton trading firm be so willing to rip off hard working people knowing full well they were just stealing their money? This really happened and people really did this. By the end of the movie, I have no desire to be Jordan Belfort or any of his friends. In fact, I live in fear that I might become them. But the movie has shown (in, it has to be admitted a wildly entertaining 3 hours) why both the traders and the suckers are seduced by the tempting but ultimately empty golden calf of material wealth.
THREE MOVIES THAT COME AT CURRENT ISSUES IN A UNIQUE WAY #1: Get Out (2017, dir by Jordan Peele). Ahead of our Netflix Watch Party of THE SOCIAL NETWORK this upcoming Sat 6/13/20 @ 8p, we wanted to highlight 3 other 21st century movies that have come at a current topic in a uniquely engaging way. Finally we end with Jordan Peele's breakout debut feature GET OUT which uses a wildly pulpy Twilight Zone-y plot to get at the insidious way white culture appropriates, exploits, and ultimately abuses black culture. A black man is taken by his white girlfriend to meet her parents and brother out in the country. But slowly he notices unsettling unexplainable things happening around the house including horrific behavior by a black maid and black gardener. This is a wild horror ride of a movie that wants to make sure it delivers the storytelling goods. It does. What's so amazing about the movie is how forcefully it also makes its point about American obliviousness and exploitation of black lives that persists to this day.
Written by Craig Hammill, Secret Movie Club Founder.Programmer