Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat. We hope you enjoy the movies.
Amy Berg’s investigative documentary is a stomach-churning true tale of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church bound to test your good taste as well as your faith. Chronicling a single, prolific abuser, Fr. Oliver O’Grady, the film exposes the hundreds of children he molested from the ’70s to the ’90s, as well as the church-wide conspiracy of silence around the scandal. In interviews with victims, their families, as well as on-screen testimony from Catholic elders like former Los Angeles cardinal Roger Mahony, create an indisputable pattern of systematic obfuscation and downright lies. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the film is the rather cheerful, upfront and honest admissions from O’Grady himself, who fully admits the abuse should not have happen, but seems totally oblivious to the far-reaching, scarring implications of his actions. The film is a remarkable, haunting document of institutional criminality and the effects of the Catholic Church’s inaction on people who trusted them for spiritual guidance.
2.) Paris, Texas
Criterion’s selection this week is Cannes Winners, which means that pretty much every film they offer for free this week is worth seeing. My pick of the litter is Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, a bizarre journey of self-discovery, and coincidentally, a great Father’s Day film. Harry Dean Stanton plays Travis, a near-mute drifter found wandering in the desert who’s reunited with his brother and sister-in-law who are acting as parents to Travis’ son. Having abandoned his son four years previous, Travis has no memory of why he left or where he’s been, but soon begins to unravel the past. He then goes on a search for his estranged wife and seeks to reunite his family. A mysterious and near mystical film, brought to life by Ry Cooder’s distinctive, slide guitar score and gorgeous, neon-lit photography by Robbie Muller, Paris, Texas is a quintessential American masterpiece (albeit, one produced in France and Germany).
My personal favorite Roger Corman film, A Bucket of Blood, is the less-famous cousin of Little Shop of Horrors, although with a similarly deadly premise. Dick Miller is a shy, nerdy busboy at a Beat poet’s cafe; he longs to be one of the hep cats, but he doesn’t have an artistic bone in his awkward body. That is, until one day when he accidentally kills his neighbor’s cat and casts it in plaster. These gruesome death mask sculptures become the hit of the art scene, forcing Dick’s creations to become more and more murderous. Corman perfectly blends comedy with the dark material, crafting a sharp satire of artistic hypocrisy and fame.
4.) Il Grido
The crucial film between Italian Neo-Realism and his later trilogy on “modernity and its discontents,” Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il Grido (1957) is a meditation on disappointment and disillusionment. When Aldo (Steve Cochran) is suddenly dumped by his common law wife, he departs on an aimless journey across the Italian countryside. Drifting from woman to woman, making meaningless sexual encounters, Aldo grows increasingly disillusioned with life, unable to cope with the loss of his wife and daughter. The film’s tragic finale and ambivalent tone presuppose the existential angst of later films like L’avventura.
Another offering from Criterion’s Cannes Winners, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry is a must-see for film-goers who only know his more recent work. The film is about a man who drives around a city, looking for someone to bury him after he commits suicide. Most of this slow-moving, minimalist movie was filmed inside the man’s car, with Kiarostami filming in the passenger seat. Mr. Kiarostami’s fascination with cars–and the conversations and travel therein–is one of modern cinema’s greatest love affairs. The distinctive pacing and mournful tone of the film is balanced perfectly by the subtle celebrations of the little things in life, for instance, the taste of cherry.
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One thought on “The Penny-Pinching Cinephile (5/14/13–5/20/13)”
I own Paris, Texas on Criterion and still have yet to see it. It’s time to change that.