Jan. 31st, 2020 02:38 pm
Fuck Yeah Friday! [2020-01-31]
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thrillingdetectivetalesFor today's Fuck Yeah Friday! I want to talk about two things.
First up: research!
I've always enjoyed learning and discovering. I'm a naturally curious person, which works in my favor more often than not, and over the years I've managed to hone that trait into a deep and abiding love for research. While not all research is created equal—some projects are wildly boring no matter what you do—I will admit to a staunch affection for the process. There's something singularly satisfying about being on the hunt for a specific piece of information and finally managing to track it down. It's one of my favorite feelings and is what inspired me to include research as the opening act on this fine Fuck Yeah Friday!.
(I've tried to adapt this passion for my day job but haven't quite managed to fully integrate it yet, though I live in hope.)
Secondly: a movie!
One of my favorite movies, to be exact, which I watched again last night because I needed to unwind with something that made me ache in just the right way.
That's right, folks, we're talking about Hell or High Water. It is, by now, no secret that I'm a fan of the Western, and Hell or High Water is a true gem of the genre despite its being set in 2016. Not only does it give us peak Chris Pine—sporting a cowboy mustache that I honestly don't hate—and an absolutely outstanding performance by actual human chameleon Ben Foster, but it perfectly encapsulates the whimpering death throes of the so-called "frontier spirit" rattling its last breaths in bleak and abandoned rural towns across the American southwest.
Hell or High Water follows the trajectory of two brothers, Tanner (Foster) and Toby (Pine) Howard,/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50371189/hellorhighwater.0.0.jpg)
as they take off on a spree across West Texas, robbing branches of the struggling Texas Midlands Bank. Cast in the archetypical role of the bandits, the brothers catch the attention of soon-to-be retired Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and his partner, Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham). Centering around themes of justice, the movie follows both sets of men as they circle closer and closer to each other, Tanner and Toby seeking their own particular flavor of "frontier justice" and Marcus and Alberto representing the civil institution of justice.
There's so much to love about this movie, but one of my favorite aspects is the way that writer Taylor Sheridan (of Sicario and Sons of Anarchy fame) and
director David Mackenzie (who has directed a ton of movies I haven't seen, from musical comedies to tragedies like the one I'm taking you through right now) play with this theme. We start with the two main characters, Toby Howard and Marcus Hamilton, both fixed firmly as representatives for the type of justice they're meant to embody, but as the film progresses and the narrative flows we watch Marcus, the bastion of greater civil justice, forced to pursue frontier justice to right the wrongs inflicted upon himself and his partner over the course of the film. At the same time, it becomes clear that Toby, though introduced with a singularly selfish motivation and operating strictly outside the law, is pursuing justice that will be upheld by the very civil institution that's seeking to hold him responsible for his crimes.
It's difficult to explain without giving too much away, but the interplay of the parallel storylines is absolutely masterful. I read Sheridan's script after the fact and, unlike some "screenwriter/directors" I won't name, it appears to have stayed largely the same from page to screen. (It's David Ayers. I'm talking about David Ayers.) Beyond being an expertly crafted narrative, the look of the movie is dead-on. It's hard to say it's beautiful, because it is by and large a gritty, dirty film about towns that time forgot, but Mackenzie so perfectly captures the sort of tragic magic that suffuses these abandoned hamlets. Call it Texas gothic, perhaps, but it's incredibly compelling to watch.
The soundtrack for this movie is just another point in its favor. Not only did it introduce me to one of my favorite songs of all time, Colter Wall's "Sleeping on the Blacktop, which I wrote a whole feature on not long ago, but the original music was composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and is just as beautifully bleak and sparse as the film. Take, for instance, the title track, Comancheria:
Tell me, friends: ARE YOU NOT HAUNTED?
This flick is astonishingly well-written, beautifully directed, and stunningly scored. It's less of a rollicking cowboy adventure story and more a view of a very real and very troubling America through a classic Western lens, so don't expect a feel-good experience, but if you're a fan of the Western by any stretch of the term I honestly can't recommend this film highly enough.
Here's the trailer, if Chris Pine in a questionable mustache as depicted above wasn't enough to entice you alone:
As always, I welcome you to flail about the above or share something that's making you go, "Fuck yeah!" today in the comments~
First up: research!
I've always enjoyed learning and discovering. I'm a naturally curious person, which works in my favor more often than not, and over the years I've managed to hone that trait into a deep and abiding love for research. While not all research is created equal—some projects are wildly boring no matter what you do—I will admit to a staunch affection for the process. There's something singularly satisfying about being on the hunt for a specific piece of information and finally managing to track it down. It's one of my favorite feelings and is what inspired me to include research as the opening act on this fine Fuck Yeah Friday!.
(I've tried to adapt this passion for my day job but haven't quite managed to fully integrate it yet, though I live in hope.)
Secondly: a movie!
One of my favorite movies, to be exact, which I watched again last night because I needed to unwind with something that made me ache in just the right way.
That's right, folks, we're talking about Hell or High Water. It is, by now, no secret that I'm a fan of the Western, and Hell or High Water is a true gem of the genre despite its being set in 2016. Not only does it give us peak Chris Pine—sporting a cowboy mustache that I honestly don't hate—and an absolutely outstanding performance by actual human chameleon Ben Foster, but it perfectly encapsulates the whimpering death throes of the so-called "frontier spirit" rattling its last breaths in bleak and abandoned rural towns across the American southwest.
Hell or High Water follows the trajectory of two brothers, Tanner (Foster) and Toby (Pine) Howard,
as they take off on a spree across West Texas, robbing branches of the struggling Texas Midlands Bank. Cast in the archetypical role of the bandits, the brothers catch the attention of soon-to-be retired Texas Ranger Marcus Hamilton (played by Jeff Bridges) and his partner, Alberto Parker (played by Gil Birmingham). Centering around themes of justice, the movie follows both sets of men as they circle closer and closer to each other, Tanner and Toby seeking their own particular flavor of "frontier justice" and Marcus and Alberto representing the civil institution of justice.There's so much to love about this movie, but one of my favorite aspects is the way that writer Taylor Sheridan (of Sicario and Sons of Anarchy fame) and
director David Mackenzie (who has directed a ton of movies I haven't seen, from musical comedies to tragedies like the one I'm taking you through right now) play with this theme. We start with the two main characters, Toby Howard and Marcus Hamilton, both fixed firmly as representatives for the type of justice they're meant to embody, but as the film progresses and the narrative flows we watch Marcus, the bastion of greater civil justice, forced to pursue frontier justice to right the wrongs inflicted upon himself and his partner over the course of the film. At the same time, it becomes clear that Toby, though introduced with a singularly selfish motivation and operating strictly outside the law, is pursuing justice that will be upheld by the very civil institution that's seeking to hold him responsible for his crimes.It's difficult to explain without giving too much away, but the interplay of the parallel storylines is absolutely masterful. I read Sheridan's script after the fact and, unlike some "screenwriter/directors" I won't name, it appears to have stayed largely the same from page to screen. (It's David Ayers. I'm talking about David Ayers.) Beyond being an expertly crafted narrative, the look of the movie is dead-on. It's hard to say it's beautiful, because it is by and large a gritty, dirty film about towns that time forgot, but Mackenzie so perfectly captures the sort of tragic magic that suffuses these abandoned hamlets. Call it Texas gothic, perhaps, but it's incredibly compelling to watch.
The soundtrack for this movie is just another point in its favor. Not only did it introduce me to one of my favorite songs of all time, Colter Wall's "Sleeping on the Blacktop, which I wrote a whole feature on not long ago, but the original music was composed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis and is just as beautifully bleak and sparse as the film. Take, for instance, the title track, Comancheria:
Tell me, friends: ARE YOU NOT HAUNTED?
This flick is astonishingly well-written, beautifully directed, and stunningly scored. It's less of a rollicking cowboy adventure story and more a view of a very real and very troubling America through a classic Western lens, so don't expect a feel-good experience, but if you're a fan of the Western by any stretch of the term I honestly can't recommend this film highly enough.
Here's the trailer, if Chris Pine in a questionable mustache as depicted above wasn't enough to entice you alone:
As always, I welcome you to flail about the above or share something that's making you go, "Fuck yeah!" today in the comments~
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(Uhhh I just woke up ((yeah)) so what's making me go "Fuck yeah!" is coffee. I can try again after the coffee.)
Not enough coffee because I was like "....David Ayer?" and then the first thing that kicked in was "OH Suicide Squad guy." That's going to be on his tombstone. (And he signed up for the sequel.) The cinematography looks gorgeous -- I grew up in NM and it looks like the photography caught a certain look the way most other films really don't.
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The Suicide Squad guy, indeed. Any movie that has his hands on it is thoroughly suspect in my mind.
Funnily enough, HoHW was filmed in New Mexico! Despite its being set in Texas, lol. This whole part of the American continent has a certain vibe that gets skipped over in a lot of cinema I've seen so it was nice to have it captured so well.
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Nice Clapton cover.
GOVERNMENT!
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