Joey Magidson
Welcome back to my Home Movies! Today, we have a jam packed slate of titles. There’s top tier new releases like Challengers and Civil War, alongside a 4K Criterion Collection release of Le samouraï. I wrote about that classic film here recently, so it’s a bit of good timing that Criterion is putting it out again. What gets top honors this week? Read on to find out…
Joey’s Top Pick
Challengers
One of my favorite films of the year, I was shocked how much I loved this flick. After all, I don’t tend to out and out love Luca Guadagnino works. However, everything here in Challengers worked for me, especially the three main performances by Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor. It’s fun, sexy, and just incredibly well done. I spoke to writer Justin Kuritzkes here about the movie, so definitely give that a listen. My rave review here had this to say, in part:
I’ll confess to going into Challengers not knowing what my reaction would be. The cast and trailer certainly intrigued me, without question. On the flip side, filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has yet to fully land for me. I find myself often at arm’s length from his work, for one reason or another. So, it was quite the shock to discover that not only is Challengers Guadagnino’s best film to date, but a 2024 highlight. Dramatic, hilarious, intense, and uber sexy, this is one of the most enjoyable times you can have in a theater. This flick has the goods, from top to bottom.
Challengers might be one of the sexiest movies ever made. That’s saying something too, considering this isn’t a work filled with sex scenes. There’s just sex dripping from every frame of celluloid, and it’s often on the minds of one or all of the characters on screen. A love triangle unlike one we’ve seen to date, this is creative, entertaining, and just might get you pregnant. When it ends, your heart will be racing, your eyes will be wide, and you’ll kind of be in awe of what you just saw.
Recommended Viewing
Civil War
One of the tougher theatrical experiences of the year so far, Civil War is not easily forgotten. Alex Garland crafted a work meant to be thought provoking and upsetting, so watching it unfold is a lot. Still, especially due to Kirsten Dunst‘s central performance, you’re willing to go down the rabbit hole with Garland. My review here on the site began like so:
Walking out of Civil War, I really wasn’t sure where I stood on the film. I knew that it was deeply upsetting, by design, and that it was meant to leave you grappling with its message. The movie takes many of the beats that we’ve seen played out in war dramas of yore, but splayed out on American cities and streets. Thinking about what that means, well, it upsets and distresses you. That, however, is the power of this work, and if it took a bit to recover from, just means that it’s doing its job. Rarely letting up but never conforming to the requirements of genre, this is, in some ways, a one of a kind picture. Consider it A24’s take on the action blockbuster, with ideas over set pieces.
Civil War is a threat, a warning, and still somehow also mainstream entertainment. How filmmaker Alex Garland manages to pull that off is some feat. To call it apolitical is a misnomer, since there is clearly politics at play (the President in the film is, in Garland’s own words at our post-screening Q&A, a fascist), but you’ll never hear Democrats, Republicans, or anything like that mentioned. The flick also never states why a civil war has come to America, since every character would already know it as a fact of life. You’re dropped in and just have to deal with it. It’s a credit to Garland’s vision that when the end credits roll, your heart is still racing, your emotions are fraught, and you’re terrified of what you just saw coming to pass in our own lives.
Also Available This Week
The Boy and the Heron
Boy Kills World
Food, Inc. 2
Stress Positions
Tarot
True Detective: Night Country (TV)
Twister (4K)
Unsung Hero
Criterion Corner
Le samouraï
From The Criterion Collection: “In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean‑Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture —with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.”
Stay tuned for more next week…
Comments
Loading…