Forgive me Editors for I have sinned. I’ve been Carrie Bradshawing in the vein of her more distracted side: living more than writing the words. I would offer the line, a movie hasn’t moved me, but it's more so that I’ve been so on the move during this brief world tour. Cheeky. London to home to Cartagena to home and all the fleeting pitstops along the way. Within the whiplash of boarding and connecting, passport stamps and pat downs, ear popping and gum chewing, I have found comforting refuge in The Plane Movie. That 90 to 120 min teleportation device (kudos if you’ve built up your attention span stamina to pull off the Big Boy: 3 hours, 4) that, for the allotted time, causes you to forget that you’re in a floating hunk of metal, suspended thousands of feet in the air. This time around I knocked out some classics of the cult variety, rewatched two Coen Brother Cat mouse chases dear to my heart and development as a cinephile(P.U!) (or my preferred term Escape Artist) and finally got around to, what I’d deem, a gem of recent times. As I sulk in my cubicle cell, with a bad case of the back home blues and walk down these 5 films, I invite you to reminisce vicariously through me.
no country for old men (2007) dir. the coen brothers
I started off with an A5 marbled beauty of a film, the subversive western from my favorite director tandem. We venture into this one to the tune of an old man soliloquy by Tommy Lee Jones’ character, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, disillusioned with the state of the world he set out to protect, (forgive the copaganda for a second and walk with me) playing like an omen over our first look at the bowl cutted basket-case that is Anton Chigurh, performed by the always amazing Javier Bardem. There's no punches pulled, the Coens show us exactly what type of uniquely depraved evil we’re dealing with as Anton goes on a murderous spree, his face filled with disturbed glee as he takes a life with his bare hands, paired with a chilling exhale of satisfied breath. Then, an introduction to his weapon of choice, a captive bolt pistol, that resembles a harmless oxygen tank but is far from it. He wields it nonchalantly, putting it to his victims heads, snuffing their life out in a second like it means nothing because it doesn’t to him. He plays games with his prey, making them flip a coin for their life. And he drinks other people’s glasses of milk. We shift to our fake protagonist, Josh Brolin’s Llewelyn Moss, who stumbles upon the remnants of a drug deal gone bad, Mexicans dead or on their way begging with their last breath for agua, millions in a briefcase. Taking the tempting loot, he stashes it home with the wife, played by Kelly Macdonald, one of my cast highlights, her southern belle concerned wife role providing some semblance of humor in such a dark arena, as well as a crucial scene at the tail of the film where she dismantles Anton’s God playing under the guise of Chance. Unable to sleep because he didn’t oblige the dying mans request for drink, this dumbass of a good Samaritan, Moss, returns to the site, and chaos ensues. One of the most riveting cat mouse chases I’ve seen on screen with a bone-chilling villain and the common-man bumbling around finding ways to survive for the sake of something so banal as Money. But this chase is just the sideshow: it culminates anticlimactically, its results not even on screen. Instead, we shift back to the old man, the horrors he’s witnessed in his tenure having led him to retirement. We’re left with his contemplation on his failure to safeguard this world, on the ever-coming evils that permeate, each one more vile than the previous brand. Leaves you with a mirror facing the world but also, facing you, desensitized and even entertained by this cruel anarchy. This one is hailed for a reason.
5/5 escape
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) dir. Gil junger
To clear my palette of the bitter taste no country left, I turned to something lighter, lil airplane pre packaged dessert, for my double feature: 10 Things I Hate About You. I landed on this Gil Junger adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, mainly because I wanted to scratch it off my recommended by friends list. Highly praised by my sisters, I thought lets see what the hype about. Little did I know it was just their childhood crushes on a young Heath Ledger that held it so near and dear to their hearts. But regardless it was a decent watch, I fear the age where it would’ve been anything but a way to spend the time is far in my rearview. Its dated, the tropes way too loud and one note. To be expected though. The white feminist caricature was actually pretty funny and somethings did ring true. Nothing much to write home about. Your run of the mill rom com. Not trying to piss off the inner child of ladies everywhere so ill hold the 10 things i hate about this. Lol.
2.5/5 escape
Mickey 17 (2025) dir. Bong Joon Ho
On my flight returning home I was searching for something new to sink my teeth into, something I’d been meaning to get around to, something actually good, that wouldn’t disappoint and discourage the search for new. And I found it with Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17. Having ruined the Earth, this world takes place in space, a pilot program to find alternatives. Rob Pat, who in my eyes is the only true movie star standing of young(ish), pencils in a world class performance as a set of twins/clones, seemingly a rite of passage role for any actor who wants to be a Great( see Tom Hardy Legend MBJ Sinners see SPOILER ALERT Christian Bale The Prestige Sam Rockwell Moon et cetera, et cetera) Mickey 17 is a punching bag, funnily voiced(it works) and beat down by any and everyone but his saving grace, the talented and absolutely gorgeous, Naomi Ackie. Give her every role Hollywood she is that one! And that Gap!!! Beautiful lady. A true actor. A Screen Stealer and owner and possessor. Okay moving on. Mickey 18 Rob Pats other half is aggressive brutish and rebellious ready to stand up for himself and eventually 17. Star studded with the likes of Toni Collete and her always alluring facial expressions and Steven Yeun’s devious trickster side, this cast is well put together besides the one name I’ve omitted who I felt left much to be desired (Bruce Banner). Joon Ho gives us another one of those alien symbolic imperialism vessel things and its not terribly organic but its fun and structured as it should be. With the star duo of Rob Pat and Ackie leading the charge this one gave me my fill I was hunting for.
4/5 escape
Burn After Reading (2008) dir. The coen brothers
My 2nd favorite Coen only behind The Big Lebowski, Burn After Reading is my go to party movie. It has pace, its actual laugh inducing funny not hahaha fake chuckle funny, and things happen, there’s action. This might be my favorite cast thrown together: The king of the supporting role (word2KD)as a goofy gym trainer with careless sunshine pouring out of him, Brad Pitt, a Coen favorite (wifey for a reason) in a new light as the imbecilic lonely gym trainer Linda Litzke, fixated on finding money for a litany of elective surgeries played by all-time great, Frances McDormand, a freaked out Womanizing schmuck of a man played by George Clooney, in the scripts words a stuck up cold Bitch of a lady, anal and British, played by my white lady GOAT, Tilda Swinton, and the always singular, raging and complaining as an out of work CIA agent, fake writer, fake in control bum, John Malkovich. This amalgamation is genius just the pairing of these actors is insane like what did they know? When Johns character is let go from his job for drinking and turns to his “memoirs” to bide his time (yea right) two gym nimrods get a hold of his first pages, mistaking it for vital CIA intel, trying to get reward money for their case of lost and found. The tangling of relationships and Hardbodies Gym v Russian stalemates that follow, make for fun twists and turns with mic drops galore, a myriad of line deliveries that give you no choice but to commit them to memory (you think this is a schwinnnnn) and a big bang that pushed me to a tear filled, never ending laughter on both my first and second watches. Provides a convoluted plot of stalking and watching as well and a good Government intelligence satire to boot. Comedy doesn’t get much better than this.
5/5 escape
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) dir. Terry Gilliam
The drugged out buddy movie. Non stop over simulation. This bender of a movie follows a journalist and writer as they spend their days in Las Vegas under every drug known to man. Wild and outrageous, we have front row seats to their vices, all unsheathed and displayed with reckless abandon. Not much to say. Place that acid tab on your tongue and watch it. See what it does to you. A Benicio Del Toro and Johnny Depp duo showing us that this is our brains off drugs.
3.5/5 escape
Tires down. Patrons up starving to get back on solid ground.
Til next flight.
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