A brief summary of some brilliant movies I’ve watched during the pandemic, including some 2020 highlights

 I haven’t been updating this blog as much as I should. I’ve seen some pretty great movies while sitting through the pandemic. Two were months ago, stuff I came across by sheer chance.

One was Bill (2015), which strictly speaking is not a theatrical feature (which is what this blog typically discusses), but a BBC production, a farcical, brilliant fictional account of Shakespeare’s formative development. Since I grew up adoring Monty Python, it’s always nice to see something that resembles the level of satirical insight of Holy Grail, which is exactly what Bill does, as The Death of Stalin did a few years later. Pythonesque is officially a film genre, I guess.

The other was Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), a Japanese film (in case it weren’t obvious from the title) in which the ramifications of a feudal lord’s decision to force a supplicant to perform seppuku play out in unexpected ways. It’s a hugely affecting drama in all manners, that cuts well beyond the romance of samurai life we normally see (but still has an epic showdown).

Funny thing is, I also finally watched what will likely go down as the last Monty Python production, a little more recently, what has turned out to be the obscure Absolutely Anything (2015), directed by Terry Jones and featuring all surviving members in vocal performances, as squabbling aliens, as they decide what is to become of humanity based on... Simon Pegg’s ability to wield infinite power. Yes, Simon Pegg. You’d think we were screwed, right? But his dog, voiced by Robin Williams in one of his last roles (which is what made me interested in the movie in the first place, not Monty Python), has...other ideas. Williams is surprisingly committed to a specific scope for the role, so unlike...every other animated role he tackled he’s pretty subdued. And Kate Beckinsale is pretty in general, of course, and Pegg’s would-be girlfriend. The basic outline of the movie is similar to Bruce Almighty, but the results are ultimately very different. I think they’re well worth celebrating, at any measure.

I’ve finally watched The Wiz (1978), which is a bit ridiculous because I had been working on an Oz project earlier this year without having done so. Turns out Michael Jackson’s whole career pivoted around this thing, and watching him in it is a real treat.

For films to be considered 2020 releases, in a year that couldn’t possibly be more challenging, in every regard, if it tried, I’ve seen two that are now contenders for my favorite of the year.

The first is Waiting for the Barbarians (2020). Mark Rylance has sort of been a critical favorite, out of nowhere, in recent years. This is my first Rylance, and as far as this one’s concerned, he was absolutely worth the hype. Somewhat a pity he has such a worthy adversary in Johnny Depp, in another recent villainous role, as a government official auditing an imperial outpost and finding Rylance...entirely too sympathetic to the locals. Rylance’s deep convictions aren’t presented in a preachy fashion but a personal concern. He isn’t looking to convince anyone of anything, and yet he finds Depp’s attitude appalling. Robert Pattinson has a supporting role as Depp’s supercilious subordinate. It’s the kind of allegorical tale that’s both timely and timeless. Before I cracked the other film, I thought I’d found the best movie of the year.

The other one’s True History of the Kelly Gang (2020). This is the kind of movie that’s designed to be the exact opposite of everything you’d expect, so of course a lot of what I’ve read about it assumes it’s everything you’d expect it to be. It’s supposedly too violent, even though it doesn’t actually show most of the violence (or even young Ned Kelly saving another boy, perhaps the only time he’s unabashedly a hero). It’s a complicated study of gender, even though most of that is kind of incidental, merely a part of the intricate web of motivations that led to Ned’s infamy. George MacKay (1917, which I’ve also finally seen and absolutely loved) is Ned, and Charlie Hunnam, Nicholas Hoult, and especially Russell Crowe are the males in his life that only complicate it, to say nothing about his domineering mom. I had to keep trying to watch it to make it all the way through. But it was absolutely worth it. This is an unusual film that’s unusual in all the right ways, forcing you to consider Ned Kelly in a lot of different ways, if not sympathetically then certainly as a product of his experiences, which is also a hugely pertinent message for these times.

Watched lots of other movies, of course. I finally gave Jojo Rabbit (2019) the time of day, and, yeah, absolutely worth it. If I blogged here as much as I watched, it would be clearer how much I love movies. Yeah. It’s a great medium. In a different lifetime I would have loved to have pursued a career in it. Well, still time, I guess.