I watched a couple more movies tonight. I have a lot more lined up after everyone’s top ten lists, too!
Any semblance of a through line for this one-gal, personal-pan film fest is now gone!
The Last Showgirl (2024)
This was pretty good. Very sad :'( I thought it was beautifully shot and the acting performances were great, especially from Pamela Anderson and Jamie Lee Curtis, but the story and characters felt a little underdeveloped. It highlights its themes well (aging as a woman in entertainment, the vanity / selfishness of pursuing your passion, delusions of grandeur), but personally I didn’t think these were grounded enough through the story / characters, so they came across as a bit generic. PA’s character Shelly in particular kind of felt like she hadn’t existed outside of the club for the thirty years prior.
Brazil (1985)
Last month, I read an article in the Observer likening the Trump administration’s first few months of messy destruction to the “evil and bumbling” authoritarianism on display in Brazil. I’d seen this movie for the first time over ten years ago, but watching it again now is truly chilling, the parallel of its inciting plot point with a man being detained (and ultimately killed) due to an administrative error in particular.
It also highlights the collective ambivalence exceptionally well — carrying on with daily routines/work/dinner/shopping/fucking within the authoritarian state, and always vulnerable to its whims. The lack of closure from a happy end feels more like an urgent call to action than ever.