To continue my bachelor weekend, I thought I'd watch a real Guy's Movie. I picked This is Me ... Now (2024), J. Lo's directorial debut. This is an odd film. After a bit of talk about a Puerto Rico legend of a hummingbird and a red flower, we find Lopez in a steampunk factory, feeding red flower petals into a giant metal heart. This turns out to be a dream, possibly symbolizing the death of her true love, Ben Affleck, in a motorcycle accident. She discusses this with her therapist, Fat Joe. She has a new guy, but when he gets abusive, she smashes their modern glass house.
The problem was probably zodiacal. In fact, we meet the heavenly zodiac council, which includes Sofia Vergara as Cancer, Post Malone as Leo, Trevor Noah as Libra and Neil deGrasse Tyson as Taurus. Lopez goes on to marry three other times, to different signs. These weddings are intercut as a single wedding, with just the groom changing.
Single again, she comes home with a sleazy dude to find her friends staging an intervention - they think she's a romance addict. Then she meets up with her self as a child and they bond. And so it ends ... for now.
This is sort of a musical, with six or seven songs. Or maybe it's a long form music video? I'm not a fan of J. Lo's music, but I don't hate it. But I did like the mix of stylish surrealism, banal self-help and goofy humor. This movie looked great, was a ton of fun and was only 66 minutes long.
I felt like a little more surrealism, and I had a copy of Fellini's The Clowns (1970) that I hadn't cracked open, so out it came for a rewatch. This is one of Fellini's semi-documentaries. It starts with scenes from his (fictional) childhood when the circus came to town. He also showed us the people from his town who were clownish enough that he never felt the need for circus clowns. This includes the evil clowns of fascism. Then in the present day, he takes a documentary film crew on a search for the surviving classic clowns of the great circuses of Europe. His thesis is that the circus, and the classic art of clowning, were dying out. We meet several old performers or their descendants, and learn a little about the white-face clown and the August clown. It ends with the performance of a funeral for a clown.
In addition, Anita Ekberg shows up to buy a tiger. Also, the score is by Nino Rota. But somehow, I wasn't as charmed as I was the first time I saw it. Then, I might not have noticed Fellini's dismissive and cynical approach to clowns. I suspect this is part of the put on, but it sort of spoiled the fun. I enjoyed the historical discussions, but I think that was even meant to be dismissive - what clowns we are, talking seriously about clowns. So I was left a little dissatisfied.
I ended up with Tabu (1931), directed by F.W. Murnau with assistance by Robert Flaherty. Flaherty is best known for the Nanook of the North, a semi-documentary made with Inuit locals. Tabu began with the same idea, made in Tahiti with locals, but Flaherty dropped out when he felt that Murnau was imposing too much directorial influence on the actors, ruining the authenticity. Nonetheless, we do get a movie about Tahitian life, filmed in Bora Bora with Tahitian actors.
It is the story of Anne Chevalier as the Girl and her lover Matahi. They live a carefree existence, but an aged emissary from the high chief arrives and tells Chevalier that she has been selected as the sacred virgin. From now on she is tabu, and any man who touches her or even desires her will be put to death.
They flee in a canoe to a colonized island, where tabu is not the law. Matahi quickly becomes the best pearl diver on the island, and holds a big celebration. But he doesn't understand that he is being billed for all the drinks that the Chinese restaurant owner is serving the party. When the emissary finds them, he will need money to get away again. And the only way he knows is to dive in the shark-infested waters of a tabu bay.
My feelings on this are somewhat mixed. This is essentially a silent movie (synchronized music and SFX), and Murnau uses letters, etc. in place of intertitles when he can. He has a good visual style, but nothing breathtaking. He definitely imposed a melodramatic plot, which was pretty cliched. But we do get some lovely scenery (including some bare-breasted maidens for a celebratory dance). And our leads are very charismatic and surprisingly naturalistic. And the old emissary, Hitu, is a fierce, silent force of nature. So, worth watching.
To sum up my experiment in intensive solo movie watching: I might not have the stamina I thought. Also, I might not be that great at picking movies when I wasn't trying to please someone else as well as myself. I should either be more careful, or just roll with. Or maybe I would have enjoyed some of these more if I had seen them one at a time. Oddly, my favorite of these was the (critically despised) This is Me ... Now. Although the Grillo Boss Level was kind of fun.
Still, I wouldn't mind trying this experiment again. I might get it right.
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