In April, I made the claim that I had gone “a little crazy with movies” that month. That was with twelve movies; compared to that, June was on another level. And July is on pace to be even crazier (I’ve been watching 1-2 movies a day consistently). I even excluded several entries from this month’s movie blog post, because some just didn’t leave much of an impression at all, or I felt like I didn’t have anything to say. For whatever reason, this month I felt especially drawn to movies from the 1970s. They have a certain look and attitude that is edgier and altogether different from modern films.

Fantastic Planet

France, Czechoslovakia | 1973 | 72m | French, Czech

I love everything about Fantastic Planet. It’s not only that the visuals are striking, surreal, and scary, or that the soundtrack kicks ass from start to finish, but the story is great as well. A group of humans kept as pets by giant blue alien creatures manage to miraculously break free and, over time, fight back. It took me a long time to actually watch this movie after first having heard of it, but I’m so glad I did. There’s nothing else quite like it.

5/5

Heavy Traffic

United States of America | 1973 | 77m | English, Italian, Yiddish

Heavy Traffic doesn’t tell a story so much as it just wallows in cynicism, depravity, and ugliness. Charitably, I would interpret it all as director Ralph Bakshi artistically expressing his misanthropy due to living in crime-ridden, 1970s New York City. The movie is a series of crude, vulgar cartoons animated against mostly live action background shots of New York City at night. To be fair, the aesthetic it creates is truly unlike anything else I had seen up until then. My favorite part of the movie is not the animation but rather the music – I adore the rendition of “Scarborough Fair” that plays throughout – but I can’t imagine returning to this movie.

2/5

Fritz the Cat

United States of America | 1972 | 78m | English, Yiddish

I watched Fritz the Cat, Ralph Bakshi’s first movie, right after Heavy Traffic. This had a more coherent plot than Heavy Traffic, following Fritz as he lives his life as a bachelor in the mean streets of 70s New York City. There’s some funny social commentary; the performative progressive attitudes of the girls he meets at the beginning of the movie before he invites them all to a drug-fueled orgy reminds me that some things stay true across time. But still, this movie often feels vulgar just for its own sake – just for the novelty of being able to claim the title of “first X-rated animated film.” I don’t consider this movie to be any sort of unmissable landmark of animation, but Bakshi’s style is undoubtedly unique and Fritz the Cat is the best of his early films.

2.5/5

Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song

United States of America | 1971 | 97m | English

What in the world? I guess this is considered a significant film, as one of the earliest examples of blaxploitation, but it surprises me to think that audiences could tolerate sitting through this mess, even back in 1971. The story follows a black man named Sweetback who fights back against – and then goes on the run from – corrupt white cops who attempt to frame him for murder. That’s all well and good, but the problems begin with the cinematography – oftentimes, the screen is so pitch-black that you simply have no clue what you’re looking at. Actually, no, the problems begin with the opening scene, which depicts something I wish I hadn’t seen, that looked far too real to write off as “acting.” Then, there’s the audio which is hardly ever audible, rendering much of the dialogue completely unintelligible. The music is kinda cool – maybe even the film’s saving grace – until you start hearing the same short clip repeated over and over. There are even times when different songs play over one another, and not in a clever, remixed kind of way, but in a way that leaves you with your mouth agape, wondering how such brazenly incompetent editing made it into the final cut. I can truly say that this is the worst movie I’ve ever seen. The idea of sitting through it again fills me with dread.

0/5

The Passenger

Italy, France, Spain | 1975 | 126m | English, Spanish, German, French

In this movie, Jack Nicholson steals a dead man’s identity so that he can get out of his war correspondent assignment. Then, of course, his stolen identity leads to his being chased by ne’er-do-wells. Along the way he meets a character known in the credits only as “Girl” and they go on the run. There’s some great cinematography, especially in the penultimate take where the camera makes a maneuver that seems impossible, but I thought that the majority of this movie was slow and boring.

2/5

Goin’ Down the Road

Canada | 1970 | 90m | English

Goin’ Down the Road is a beloved Canadian independent film about two young men who leave their native Nova Scotia to try to better their lives in Toronto. Life in the big city isn’t as glamorous and easy as they expect, and we follow their struggles as they navigate low-wage work and relationships. The movie is well-paced and unpretentious. With likable but realistically flawed characters, the story feels admirably grounded in reality until the rather dramatic ending. The writing makes up for the low production values. I loved the time capsule it offered of Canada in 1970 and I can easily say it’s one of the most enjoyable Canadian films I’ve seen.

4/5

Coonskin

United States of America | 1975 | 100m | English

Coonskin is very much along the lines of Ralph Bakshi’s earlier two movies, Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic. That means lots of shocking, exaggerated, vulgar-for-its-own-sake cartoon antics superimposed over moody, atmospheric live action street footage – this time mostly in Harlem. The social commentary is a lot more on-the-nose in this movie compared to his others, which makes it easier to digest as an artistic work that’s actually trying to say something, as opposed to simply shock audiences. This still isn’t anything I’d recommend other than as a curiosity.

2/5

Fist of Fury

Hong Kong | 1972 | 106m | English (dubbed)

Bruce Lee stars in this amazing kung fu classic about a student seeking revenge against the rival Japanese dojo responsible for the death of his teacher. The version I saw on Amazon Prime was dubbed in English, which was a shame because I could tell the voice actors were not putting as much passion into their roles as the onscreen actors. I would love to see more movies like this.

4/5

Return to Reason: Four Films by Man Ray

France | 2024 | 70m | French

Return to Reason is an anthology of four black and white avant-garde French short films from 1923-1929, originally silent, but in this anthology set to a semi-improvised psychedelic and electronic soundtrack by a band called SQÜRL. Does that sound interesting to you? (Don’t worry, you don’t have to answer.) Occasionally the movie stumbles onto some striking, surreal imagery. Most of the time, however, I got the sense that it was all just an excuse for the filmmaker to have fun playing around with the camera, lenses, and lighting, which was all surely novel for the time. Without the soundtrack, this would be unwatchable.

1.5/5

Bloodsport

United States of America | 1988 | 92m | English

Cheesy and fun, Bloodsport is about Frank Dux, an American martial artist / super agent who leaves the military to enter into a secret, deadly tournament. His opponents are the greatest fighters from all over the world. Think real-life Street Fighter II. I honestly admire how brazenly this movie gaslights the audience with its claim to be based on a true story. Frank Dux is played by Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose ability to do the splits comes in handy more than once over the course of the movie. I enjoyed this.

3.5/5

Two-Lane Blacktop

United States of America | 1971 | 102m | English

Two-Lane Blacktop is like if you took The Fast and the Furious, but partway through one of their street races, they all stop for coffee. Actually, that’s still making this movie sound more exciting than it is. Some people might be able to enjoy Two-Lane Blacktop for evoking a certain mood – the freedom and desolation of the open road, stretching as far as the eye can see. But speaking for myself, I would have appreciated a clearer plot. You see, there’s not a whole lot of dialogue in this movie. On the surface, it’s about two pairs of drifters who decide to race each other to Washington D.C., with the losers having to give up their car to the winner. But at some point the characters seem to forget that they’re in a race, and the movie suddenly ends without any of the characters being anywhere close to D.C. I didn’t really get what the point of any of it was.

1.5/5

Saving Face

United States of America | 2004 | 91m | English, Mandarin, Shanghainese

Saving Face is a romantic comedy from 2004 about a lesbian Chinese-American and her first-generation immigrant mother who live in New York City, and the secrets they keep from one another. I think it portrays the unique cultural dynamics at play in a realistic but humorous and entertaining way. The story devolves into full-scale silliness by the end, but this is a movie with heart that I think can be appreciated by a lot of people.

4/5

Tank Girl

United States of America, United Kingdom | 1995 | 104m | English

Yeah, I can definitely see how some people despise this movie. Your enjoyment of Tank Girl has a lot to do with what you think of the main character, played by Lori Petty. Do you find her charming and funny or grating and annoying? I didn’t have any expectations going into this movie, so I just “went with it” but I can imagine some people cringing from the opening line. The standout aspects of Tank Girl are its rock soundtrack and the brief but wild animated interludes. I definitely would have preferred having the entire thing animated like that.

The movie is all over the place, likely due to its troubled development. There are many questionable creative decisions – an inexplicable musical number, Ice-T as a kangaroo man, etc. It’s also surprisingly brutal at times. Tank Girl awkwardly straddles the line between PG-13 and R, not really committing to either. In the end, it’s hard to know who this movie was meant for. Not me, certainly.

2/5

Showgirls

United States of America, France | 1995 | 128m | English

Alright, alright, lower your eyebrows. Showgirls is not a “good” movie by any objective measure, but seen under the correct circumstances, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. I saw it in what I imagine is the ideal way: in 35mm at a single-screen theatre late at night with an audience who is there to laugh. I myself laughed harder during this screening than any other movie in a long time.

There’s such a bizarre, chaotic energy to Showgirls. You really never have any clue what tone the next line of insane dialogue will be delivered in. The 35mm print we watched at the Revue Cinema was grimy, appropriately so for the griminess onscreen, I thought. The biggest misstep in this movie is towards the end, where the perspective alternates between a calm party and brutal rape scene. It’s jarring, tasteless, and sends the fun mood of the movie up until that point to a grinding halt.

With the same director as Robocop, I don’t think Showgirls is meant to be taken seriously, but it’s hard to tell sometimes what tone the movie is going for. This is something to watch with friends while you’re drinking. Approached with the right attitude, Showgirls can be extremely entertaining.

3.5/5

The Wolf of Wall Street

United States of America | 2013 | 180m | English, French

My third viewing of The Wolf of Wall Street has only further convinced me that it’s one of my favorite movies. Everything about it (including its length) feels over-the-top and gratuitous. But that’s also kind of the point. If there are any issues with this film, it might be that it inadvertently glorifies Jordan Belfort, the titular swindler and convicted criminal. The fact that the real-life Belfort has had newfound fame and success directly because of this movie is a little uncomfortable. At the end of the day, however, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street is simply non-stop entertainment.

5/5

Escape from New York

United States of America | 1981 | 99m | English

Maybe I was just having a bad day or something, but this popular and beloved 80s action movie did not click with me at all. Coming into this right after having watched The Wolf of Wall Street, I found myself deeply bored by the comparatively lifeless pacing and camerawork. Maybe I just don’t like John Carpenter movies. I thought They Live was a disappointment, too. And similarly to that movie, I thought that the only interesting thing about Escape from New York was its premise, where in future America, New York City has been entirely walled off and turned into an inescapable prison state. I can see the appeal in the anti-hero protagonist, but when the action is bad in an action movie, my praises run out pretty quickly.

1.5/5

Blue Lock: Episode Nagi

Japan | 2024 | 91m | Japanese

While I did watch quite a bit of the first season of the Blue Lock, a sort of battle royale soccer anime, before coming into this film, I still have an easier time identifying most of the one-note characters in this movie by their hair color rather than their name. Protagonist Nagi and his purple-haired friend have a nice rivalry throughout the story, but in the last few minutes the movie pisses it all away for no reason at all. In those final moments, the movie throws away any pretense of being a standalone film worthy of being screened in a cinema and it instead embraces a less respectable identity of being a glorified trailer for the next season of the anime series.

Dumb question: how is Nagi so effortlessly athletic when he is also so incessantly lazy? No explanation is ever even attempted. I guess it’s just a pure power fantasy: imagine having god-like soccer skills while spending zero time practicing or exercising, ever. I mean, what the hell are these characters?

This shouldn’t have been a movie; it should have been a special episode of the series. Certainly the stiff animation doesn’t elevate anything onscreen beyond TV-level production levels. Episode Nagi actually makes me want to revisit that recent Slam Dunk movie that I didn’t like, since, to its credit, it was actually structured like a movie. For goodness’ sake, even that semi-musical CG Prince of Tennis monstrosity had a real movie plot. I came very close to walking out of the theatre during Episode Nagi. I’d say to avoid it, even if you like the series.

1/5

A Force of One

United States of America | 1979 | 90m | English

A Force of One is a mostly forgettable action movie about a mysterious assassin who kills his victims without leaving bullet wounds or any of the other usual clues. How does he do it? What could it be? Yup – karate. So the detectives of the local police unit seek out the proprietor of the local karate dojo, played by Chuck Norris, to help catch the killer. Besides the fun premise, A Force of One offers little else. It feels like a TV production, and not a remarkable one.

1.5/5

Convoy

United States of America, United Kingdom | 1978 | 110m | English, Spanish

Mercy sakes alive, can you name a better movie based on a song than Convoy? I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. Kris Kristofferson plays “Rubber Duck,” a trucker who’s well-respected among his peers. When Dirty Lyle, the corrupt local sheriff, frames Duck’s friend Spider Mike for a crime he didn’t commit, Rubber Duck starts a wild bar fight against the police and flees in his truck. Then, one by one, his fellow truckers join him on the road in a mile-long convoy. Goofy as it can be at times, this movie unapologetically oozes with the spirit of American freedom, independence, and anti-authoritarianism, while also turning a critical eye towards racism in 1970s America. “They’re all following you”, says Melissa, Rubber Duck’s love interest. Duck responds, “No, they ain’t. I’m just in front of them.” Is that a profound line or cheesy nonsense? Whatever it is, I love it.

4/5

The Mechanic

United States of America | 1972 | 100m | English

The ending saves this movie. I was ready to write off The Mechanic as a film that starts strong but fizzles out in a predictable way, but then the last five seconds came and blew me away. I actually felt amped afterwards. The best part of the movie, apart from the ending, is the long, tense, and wordless sequence at the beginning where Charles Bronson’s character sets up an elaborate murder. Bronson plays a skilled but aging hitman who wants to pass his craft to a younger man he meets. Much of the latter half of the movie is slow, and there is a scene where a woman threatens suicide to a completely nonchalant listener that I thought was tasteless and uncomfortable. But for its very strong opening and ending sequences, I can recommend The Mechanic.

3/5