A third of the decade has passed (if you count year zero as
the beginning and nine as he end). It is intriguing to look
back at my notes and nominate a partial decade's best list.

1. _Saint Omer_, Alice Diop
2. _Compartment Number 6_, Juho Kuosmanen
3. _A Radiant Girl_, Sandrine Kiberlain

After that there are an unsually large number of films I might
promote to the main list afterwards. (There are also too many
films I've missed -- having a bad hip and unable to sit in a
theater for long -- or forgotten.)

_She Said_; _Return to Seoul_; _Anais in Love_; _The Forgiven_;
_The 11th Green_; _Who You Think I Am_; _Suzanna Andler_; _Saturday
Fiction_; _Stars at Noon_; _My Zoe_. A good number of these are
probably technically from the last decade!

That's not counting TV; the re-imagining of "Scenes from a
Marriage" would top many of them. _Suzanna Andler_ makes for
a terrific triple feature with _India Song_ and _Baxter, Vera
Baxter_; I'm working my way through the DVDs. And finally,
this is the 34th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.
The Hong Kong vigils have been banned (we'll make sure you pay
for this, PRC), but I will be watching Lou Ye's _Summer Palace_
for the first time in many years to commemorate the event.
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There has been non-stop promotion of "Succession" and its
ending recently. I probably saw a couple episodes in hotels,
and didn't think much of it (granted I didn't see it from the
beginning). But it is one of a long procession of TV series
about emperor-substitutes and similar rogues so wrong-headedly
worshipped in the U.S. I fell asleep watching "The Sopranos,"
"Breaking Bad," "Mad Men," etc., etc.

But that reminds me of the endings in my own favorite series.

"Days and Nights of Molly Dodd," in my view, ran out of steam
not long after its second season. The comedic brio and inspired
characters of the early years were strangely replaced with a
somber tone and annoying substitutes (Arthur, Uribe, Ron, Ramona
....). But the light touch of the last episode, written and
directed by creator Jay Tarses, went a long way towards reminding
us what was great about the series. If they can't release this
great show on DVD, at least publish the screenplays! We need
a kickstarter campaign.

I barely watched "The West Wing" beyond the 4th season, after
which Aaron Sorkin left. The 5th was OK for a while, but then
the series became obsessed with politics and elections instead
of policies, which were what it used to excel at -- making the
most seemingly mundane policy topics riveting. Even worse were
the artificial conflicts among the White House staff (clearly
the producers' interference, and likely the reason Sorkin left).

"Battlestar Galactica" got its graceful, long-planned, and
well-deserved resolution. "The OA" was cancelled.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, a couple Netflix movies before I quit that particular
addiction.

I only saw a fourth of _To Leslie_. Andrea Riseborough is
pretty good at portraying a extroverted alcoholic, particularly
since she has been so understated recently (_Here Before_). But
nothing bores me quite like stories about drunks. I know one
person who becomes a brilliant conversationalist after a few
drinks -- and a horde of tiresome others who only think they are
heavenly creatures under the influence. The statistics are much
debated, but perhaps 1/8 of Americans are said to have alcohol
"disorder." This disorder disproportionately affects Hollywood
writers, however. Drinks must be to these writers what steaks
and gas-guzzling SUVs are to, well, some people. Not an unfair
comparison either. Again the statistics are disputed but at
least one source puts CO2 emssion due to alcohol use to be 1.5
gigaton a year. If true, that would be twice the amount due
to air travel. Kick the habit already. Riseborough got a
controversial Oscar nomination that should have gone to Carey
Mulligan playing an ace professional. How many actresses have
won Oscars playing professionals (of the non-escort type)
anyway? Not many, I bet.

Wouldn't _Mudbound_ be a much better film without the lynching
and mutilation at the end? Toxic racism is no doubt felt by
almost all Black US soldiers after return from WWII; it is a
universal, heart-felt theme. I know the film is adapted from
a novel, but in contrast the violence feels so cheap, exploitative.
Without that lynching scene the film and its main characters
would end up in pretty much exactly the same place.

The rest of the screenplay is more interest, with multiple
protagonists contributing voiceovers. At the heart of the film is
the unlikely bond between white McAllan family blacksheep Jamie
(a magnetic Garrett Hedlund) and son of a black sharecropper
Ronsel (a memorable Jason Mitchell, balancing submission and
seething indignation). Both suffers from post WWII trauma.
Everyone else suffers from the mud, the primitive conditions,
the poverty. When Jamie builds a shower stall for his sister-
in-law it feels like the dawn of civilization. The acting is
uneven. Carey Mulligan is amazing as always, Rob Morgan is
thoughtful and dignified as Ronsel's father, but Jason Clarke
once again seems about to erupt into a murderous rage every
scene, like he is the AI-terminator in the Terminator reboot
(he is getting too typecast). Mary J. Bilge, while contributing
an inspiring song, is emotionless and simply dreadful. The
film elevates the WWII era Germans' racial tolerance (!) just
to use it to bash Americans. Fassbinder had far greater
nuance in depicting interracial relationship in postwar Germany.
(The writers also seem to think erroneously that B-25 bombers
operate at 20,000 feet.) But the directing is good; Dee Rees
should be complimented. Her next outing, an adaptation of Joan
Didion's _The Last Thing He Wanted_, got ridiculously bad
reviews; not sure what was the progressive Commandment
she violated to deserve such a thrashing.

On Sunday, June 4, 2023 at 8:03:32 PM UTC-6, septimus wrote:
> A third of the decade has passed (if you count year zero as
> the beginning and nine as he end). It is intriguing to look
> back at my notes and nominate a partial decade's best list.
>
> 1. _Saint Omer_, Alice Diop
> 2. _Compartment Number 6_, Juho Kuosmanen
> 3. _A Radiant Girl_, Sandrine Kiberlain

By the way, for some reason I always thought Juho Kuosmanen is a woman.
I stand corrected. If there is one serious auteurist omission, it might be
Melanie Laurent's _The Mad Women's Ball_. Lou de Laage should be
represented somewhere in these lists anyway!

And I did rewatch _Summer Palace_ for the first time in years. It
was a shattering experience. Five high spirited, passionate friends
studying at Beijing have their lives spilt into two by the Tiananmen
massacre. This leads to exile, disillusionment, suicide. The film
opens with the irrepressible protagonist's voiceover, her diary entry,
and at the end even she has been silenced forever. The only thing
left is a haunting inscription on a gravestone. What has really died is
the idealism of a generation, and of an entire nation. One of the
greatest films of all time indeed.