Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
Okay, so maybe this recommendation is a few months early, but is there really a bad time to watch Groundhog Day? No. Featuring what is arguably Bill Murray’s greatest comedic performance, Groundhog Day is one of the most perfect comedies ever made. Murray plays a self-involved weatherman who is forced to relive February 2nd–Groundhog Day–over and over again in Punxsutawney, PA, home of Phil, the groundhog who ushers in Spring or portends six more weeks of winter. Nothing he does or says can reverse the time loop; numerous suicide attempts fail, as does getting thrown in jail, trying to ruin the lives of everyone in town, and eating everything on the cafe menu for breakfast. Like a caustic George Bailey, Murray’s character eventually learns the true meaning of the holiday and even gets the girl (Andie MacDowell). Should you watch Groundhog Day right now? As Ned Ryerson would say, Bing!
2) Hahaha
As is typical of Korean director Hong Sang-soo’s films, 2010’s Hahaha features two old friends reminiscing about old times, forgotten friends and discarded loves over many cigarettes and lots of liquor. The framing story concerns Jo, a film director, and Bang, a film critic, swapping stories about their travels to the same city,where it seems they met the same people and encountered similar situations but without either of them knowing. The theme of recursion and repetition is integral to Hong’s style; in this film, the framing story is shot in black-and-white still photos, and then the narrative unfolds in full color. The resulting film is a lighthearted look at the coincidences and unexplainable mysteries of everyday life. Like much of Hong’s oeuvre, nothing really happens in Hahaha, but it’s full of delight and a palpable pleasantness, largely due to the effortless performances and casual, intuitive editing. Hahaha feels like reconnecting with an old friend over a good meal–nothing revolutionary, but entirely satisfying.
3) The People vs. George Lucas
Suffused with barely-contained nerd rage, the comedy/documentary The People vs. George Lucas sheds light on the weird, wonderful, and perennially soul-crushing world of fandom like few other films. Highlighting Star Wars‘ participatory culture like fanfiction, fanart, video remixes and bootlegs, the documentary sets up the binary of “fan” vs. “creator.” Who has the right to control a piece of art? The People vs. George Lucas never delves too deeply into philosophical or ethical debates, instead favoring the more humanistic, real-world reactions to the Star Wars prequels and Lucas’ sweding of the original trilogy. Although lacking an interview with George Lucas himself, the film uses archival footage to paint a pretty damning portrait of a young, idealistic artist who became the very figure he railed against: a corporate figurehead whose creative impulse has been supplanted by slavish devotion to consumer culture gone mad. But the nerds don’t get off scot-free, either. Consumed by their insatiable obsession, they feed the Jabba-Lucas with every R2D2 action figure they buy, and then keep coming back for more. In light of the new J.J. Abrams-helmed Star Wars series, The People vs. George Lucas becomes even more relevant. Will the same disgruntled fans interviewed for this documentary wait in line for days to see this next installment for the third time? Hey, did Han shoot first?
With all the Oscar buzz surrounding Bruce Dern’s performance in Nebraska, now might be a good time to revisit one of his best early starring roles in Bob Rafelson’s The King of Marvin Gardens. Dern plays a schemer, con man and local mob flunkie who reunites with his introverted radio talk show host brother David (Jack Nicholson, in an uncharacteristically underplayed role) to aid him in developing a real estate venture in Hawaii. The title refers to the film’s Atlantic City setting and comments on Jason’s half-baked pipe dreams as symptomatic of the capitalistic greed inherent in the American Dream. Shot entirely on location in a run-down, early ’70s Atlantic City boardwalk, the film reeks of economic depression and urban decay which mirrors the characters’ moral ambiguity and doomed ambitions. One of the essential films of the New Hollywood, The King of Marvin Gardens is a sad artifact of the detritus of ’60s optimism transitioning to Nixonian cynicism, an elegy for the American Dream that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hunter S. Thompson article. The richly dark and chilly cinematography of Laszlo Kovacs and ace performances by Nicholson and Dern remind us how fecund a period of cinema the ’70s was, even amidst the decay of a dying society.
One of the most popular cult movies from the past 15 years, Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ controversial novel is a brilliant satire of status-obsessed yuppie culture, featuring a star-making performance from Christian Bale as serial killer wannabe Patrick Bateman. He’s one of the most infamous and iconic film characters in recent memory, spawning numerous parodies, tributes and cosplayers; that almost any white guy with a suit could “be” Patrick Bateman for Halloween speaks to the ironic Everyman quality of the character, whose outrageous behavior is both artificially alien and disturbingly relatable. As dark as American Psycho gets, it’s also a truly hilarious comedy. Most of the humor stems from Bateman’s desperation for social acceptance and laughably serious consideration for pop culture trends (“You like Huey Lewis and The News?”). Harron and co-writer Guinevere Turner (who cameos as a prostitute!) maintain the absurdity of the premise while allowing the true terror of Bateman’s mania to seep in, creating a blend of horror and comedy unmatched in recent cinema.
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