Alejandro Jodorowsky (March)

"My films are like clouds: their meaning keeps changing every minute."

There is only one reason Jodorowsky made this list of directors, and that is because I read Dune last year and became wholly obsessed with it. The timing of this obsession serendipitously coincided with the release of Jodorowsky's Dune, a documentary about the failed adaptation Alejandro tried to produce back in the day. The documentary showcases the director's gigantically ambitious plans for a film version of the classic novel; it also is a wild ride through the psychedelic art, music, and science-fiction movements of the 70s. Dali, Pink Floyd, and Geiger are all involved- seriously everyone should see this doc. Anyways, in the movie there are some brief clips from Jodorowsky's other works, and the sheer strangeness of those visuals intrigued me enough to seek out more.

Which brings me to the works themselves: El Topo, The Holy Mountain, and Santa Sangre. It's extremely difficult to review these movies in any sort of sensible way. They are so far "out there" in terms of their storylines and visuals that there is little I can compare them to. Jodorowsky is a mystic and a surrealist who doesn't shy away from the absurd or the obscene. There is graphic depiction of animal slaughter, sex, incest, and that's only scratching the surface. All three movies are very different, but each share striking visuals and themes such as family, perseverance, and religion. There is also usually a quest element. Beyond that I can only say that these are basically acid trips in cinema form. In fact, El Topo is one of the original "acid Westerns" which I can honestly say is a genre I had never heard of until I Wikipedia'd this movie.

Giving these films a numerical rating strikes me as exceedingly pointless. They shouldn't really be compared to any of the other movies I'm watching as a part of this exercise, except for maybe Satyricon by Fellini. People who happened to be in the room with me while I watched these called them "easily the weirdest movie I've ever seen" and (other than maybe Holy Motors) I can't think of much to disagree with them. By the way, these films aren't exactly meandering or plotless; in fact the story in Santa Sangre (of a circus boy who must act as his amputee mother's murderous hands) was very captivating and I think ripe for a remake. But they're so damn weird it's somewhat easy to forget that you're watching a movie with a distinct beginning, middle and end. One thing's for certain: the movies are better after having watched Jodorowsky talk about his process (in the documentary) because he's not simply a madman- there is a spark of genius lurking somewhere beneath the absurd.

• El Topo (1970) - 5.5
• The Holy Mountain (1973) - 6
• Santa Sangre (1989) - 6.5

By the way, everyone should peruse Jodorowsky's quotes; I had a helluva time just picking one out for the head of this post. I also enjoyed, "I am like the rain, I go where I'm needed" and "Failure doesn't exist. It's only a change of direction." I for one am quite glad that that crazy old man is still out there trying to make art and movies. P.S. Robert Altman is on deck for March. 

Terrence Malick (February)

"I film quite a bit of footage, then edit. Changes before your eyes, things you can do and things you can't. My attitude is always 'let it keep rolling.'"


Terrence Malick's films make Wong Kar Wai's looks downright compact. Malick is famous for shooting hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage and then editing until the last possible minute before the premiere. After starring in a more recent Malick flick (To The Wonder), Ben Affleck tellingly said, "Terry uses actors in a different way- he'll [have the camera] on you and then tilt up and go up to a tree, so you think, 'Who's more important in this- me or the tree?' But you don't ask him, because you don't want to know the answer." Earlier in the same interview, Affleck had also mentioned, "...I realized that he was accumulating colors that he would use to paint with later in the editing room." Painting in the editing room seems to be the name of the game for Malick, who often cuts away from "action" (little that there is) to scenery or wildlife. He also loves to utilize voiceover, which adds to the surreal dreamlike quality of these movies. His films are highly stylized art pieces, often hewing closer to visual poems than narrative fiction with clear distinctions between beginning, middle and end. For the most part, somehow, he can usually make it work.

And say what you will about the guy, but damn can he put together an impressive cast. Over the years he's worked with Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jessica Chastain, Martin Sheen, Ben Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Richard Gere, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Adrien Brody, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Jared Leto, John Travolta, Nick Stahl, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, Olga Kurylenko, Rachel McAdams, Javier Bardem and more. And that's just in 6 or so movies, and sometimes his A-list actors end up on the cutting room floor! It's mind-bending.

ANYHOO, going into this project I had seen The New World (I didn't enjoy this movie but it was lit naturally and looked beautiful) and The Tree Of Life (I actually denied having seen this because I couldn't make heads or tails of it or my emotional response to it. I think it was... good...maybe?). After decades of incredibly sparse output (2 movies in 30 years), Malick would release 3 movies and schedule 2 more in the 2010s. These new ones were not on my must-see list. Rather, I went back to the beginning and watched his first three movies: Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line. 

Badlands was very good, and you can tell it was made in 1973 because it somehow has a PG rating despite being about patricide (although I guess some Disney movies are as well). Martin Sheen is a great Rebel-without-a-cause-style Canadian-tuxedo-wearing badass, and Sissy Spacek is good as his impressionable young love interest. The song from True Romance is at play here too, which my old roommate Andy was shocked to discover. The movie meanders a bit. Days of Heaven was less enjoyable to me, although it's fun to watch a young Richard Gere and the scenes at the farm (especially with the fire) were all beautiful. The movie meanders quite a bit. The Thin Red Line is the meandering-est of all and was pretty difficult for me to follow closely. Apparently the movie went way over-budget, and I feel like most of that is because Malick assembled one of the greatest ensemble casts in movie history but spent hours filming iguanas. But that's his style and the movie was nominated for 7 Oscars, so what do I know? Anyway it was nice to finally watch these but I doubt I'd ever feel very compelled to rewatch them. Cheryl Gibson said to me they're a bit more like computer screen savers than movies, and depending on the moment and the movie I pretty much agree with her. They're damn poetic screen savers though.

• Badlands (1973) - 7.5
• Days of Heaven (1978) - 6
• The Thin Red Line (1998) - 7

Next up is the weird wacky world of Alejandro Jodorowsky.