Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, one of last year’s most highly praised films in Anatomy of a Fall gets a physical release, and it’s the Criterion Collection treatment, to boot! There are also underrated gems like Knox Goes Away hitting shelves this week, as well as more Criterion titles. Reas on for more…
Anatomy of a Fall (Criterion)
Anatomy of a Fall pretty much lived up to the hype whenever someone saw it last year, whether on the festival circuit or in general release. It’s just wonderful, with so much to ponder over and discuss once it’s over. I spoke to leading lady Sandra Hüller and co-writer/director Justine Triet here, as well as Messi the Dog, alongside owner/trainer Laura Martin, and translator Frederic Cassidy here. At the Toronto International Film Festival last year, my review here had high praise like this:
You often hear some version of the statement “well, it doesn’t actually matter if the protagonist did it or not” when discussing a legal procedural. Most of the time, it’s an exaggeration. Occasionally, however, the argument is apt. In the case of Anatomy of a Fall, it’s a rare occasion where it truly is. Watching this movie play out, whatever side of the case you fall on, it’s an equally enrapturing experience. Playing here at the Toronto International Film Festival after wowing other festivals this year, it truly is tremendous filmmaking.
Anatomy of a Fall engrosses you from start to finish. Is it perhaps a bit longer of a film than it needs to be? Maybe so, though I dare you to figure out where you’d make any trims. The length allows the courtroom sequences to breathe and feel more realistic. Plus, a centerpiece argument scene gets to be the showstopper and showcase that it really is meant to be. By the time the flick wraps up, your heart may well be racing.
Recommended Viewing
Michael Keaton‘s latest directorial outing, where he also stars, was one of the bigger surprises of last year’s festival season for me. This hitman drama with a psychological bent was enjoyable, smart, and impeccably made. Few of you saw Knox Goes Away, so now is the time to correct that glaring omission. My rave review out of TIFF here includes the following:
Any film that does something interesting with genre trappings goes a long way with me. With Knox Goes Away, a lesser movie with this premise would have been a chore. We’ve seen the older killer losing it done countless times before. Here, there’s a new spin, as well as the capable hands of Michael Keaton as director and star. It adds up to one of the more compelling little flicks at the Toronto International Film Festival this year.
Knox Goes Away could easily have been something disposable. In fact, in lesser hands, we might have seen something out and out bad. Instead, Keaton and company find not just the humanity, but the hypnotic quality in the story. This was one of the surprises of the festival for me, considering how it could have gone wrong.
Also Available This Week
Arthur the King
Batman (1989) (4K)
The Bricklayer
Club Zero
Crimson Peak (4K)
Damaged
Drift
Io capitano
Kung Fu Panda: 4-Movie Collection
Kung Fu Panda 4
Monk: The Complete Seventh Season (TV)
My Home Hero: The Complete Season (TV)
Red Right Hand
Sasquatch Sunset
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (4K)
All That Breathes
From The Criterion Collection: “Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes reinvents the environmental documentary by portraying, in incisive yet lyrical fashion, the reciprocal influence of animals and humans. For more than a year, Sen followed New Delhi brothers Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad as they rescued birds of prey from the increasingly destructive effects of urban pollution. While charting the siblings’ daily struggles and successes, he also documented their poetic reflections on humankind’s relationship to the environment, the interaction of wildlife with the city, and India’s explosions of anti-Muslim violence. Suffused with beauteous, sobering, and contemplative imagery, All That Breathes ponders the delicate bonds of interconnectivity among humans and between species.”
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Girlfight
From The Criterion Collection: “Bullied by her father at home and feeling adrift at school, Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) finds refuge in an unexpected pocket of her native Brooklyn—a timeworn boxing gym, where she learns to channel her strength, discovers a sense of community, and falls for a rival fighter. In Karyn Kusama’s raw, understated feature debut, Rodriguez commands the screen with both tightly coiled intensity and deep wells of vulnerability as a young woman hitting back at society’s expectations and her own personal demons. Capturing the full emotional weight of Diana’s journey and the kinetic thrill of bodies in motion, Kusama crafts a singularly uncompromising story of self-realization.”
*As a reminder, Anatomy of a Fall is also a Criterion new release and is today’s Top Pick above*
Stay tuned for more next week…
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