Criterion Challenge 2022

[Idioteque Stalker]

29. Watch a film that has an out of print physical release -- Claire's Knee. I loved this but don't know how to talk about it. Four stars. I've been sleeping on Rohmer.

30. Watch a film from the "America Lost and Found: The BBS Story" collection -- The Last Picture Show. "Youth Is Wasted on the Young: The Movie." Maybe I'm at the exact wrong age to appreciate its point of view (neither old enough to romanticize my skinny-dipping days nor young enough to experience their awkwardness in real time), but I don't think I'll ever come around on the decision to have a total of two blameless characters in an ensemble just to kill them both off because... well, isn't that the saddest thing that could happen? Isn't life hard? Isn't it ironic that parents do everything they can to keep their kids from getting frisky in the back of a pickup, but secretly feel they were happy only when they themselves were young and horny? There are nuggets of wisdom in every scene and the performances are good, but jeeze-louise am I skeptical of this fetishization of sadness, as if it's oh-so-deep to say "let's never forget how cruel we are to each other." It's the opposite of nostalgia, like a Norman Rockwell illustration of a barber giving the highschool QB his first beard-trim while we know full and well they're both screwing the same lonely housewife. I may sound overly harsh, but the movie's reputation as an all-time classic deserves at least a little push back. Definitely moving down my list of favorite modern black and white movies, if not falling off completely. Three stars.


Up next:
31. Watch a film with a spine #1-100 -- Hard Boiled or The Blood of a Poet

32. Watch a film with a spine #500-600 -- Still Walking, Kiss Me Deadly, or Vanya on 42nd Street. Will I ever be able to find/watch KMD? Feels unlikely.

33. Cannes Film Festival Winners -- Viridiana