Director Day In The Age of The Coronavirus

A couple of months back, Tanner, Chris, and myself had settled on doing our next Director Day on April 11th. Chris is up next and we usually get something weird with him, so there was the usual anticipation for the upcoming date. Since then, things have gotten weird without Chris' input and frankly, these days are a little scary. The world at large has started to feel like a movie. With the barrage of "end of days" films that have been prevalent over the past couple of decades, it almost feels like life imitating art doesn't it? 

For us, Director Day is an event. We usually schedule it every 3 months or so, and for me it's one of my favorite days of the year. I'd rather skip any sort of birthday celebration than miss a Director Day. These are people I like to spend time with and since we all love movies, it's a win for all of us. Needless to say, the COVID-19 nightmare has caused us to take pause and re-evaluate our date. Sure, we could have tried to be safe and do all the necessary steps leading up to and during the day itself, but that's just not the prudent thing to do right now. Instead, we brainstormed and came up with an alternative plan. 

We have long decided that since we all love the work of Quentin Tarantino and none of us wanted to be tasked with having to decide on three movies from him that we were all likely very familiar with. With that in mind, we decided this crisis, with it's "shelter in place" and "social distancing" guidelines in full effect, that we would decide on three movies of Tarantino's and communicate with each other before and after each film via ZOOM. Now, that means we don't get to eat some delicious BBQ, but hell, you can't have it all can you? 

Chris devised a plan to whittle us down to three films. We each had to rank QT's movies in order of preference, 1-9. The three films with the lowest number of points, would be the ones we would watch. We were given a couple of days to get our list in order and send it to Chris for compilation. At 9 pm on "Selection Sunday" Chris announced the choices. 

They came out in this order; 

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Kill Bill Volume 2

3. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

 I had no doubt that the top spot would be a consensus and my boys didn't fail me. "Pulp Fiction" is a classic and a masterpiece that has long been a favorite film overall for each of us. The final ranking worked out really well for me, since all of these movies were in my top four picks. Of Tanner's top four picks, two of the films were in there and also two for Chris. With a small sample size, it wasn't very hard to come up with the three that would be most satisfactory. All of the films we are watching were in the top 5 for each of us. There were a few interesting differences though. For example, I had "Jackie Brown" as my third favorite, but both Chris and Tanner have it as their least favorite. They also had the "Kill Bill" films near the top and grouped together, while I had Volume 2 as my 4th favorite, but Volume 1 as my 7th favorite. "Inglorious Basterds" is another film that split us up. It was 2nd on Tanner's list, but Chris and I had it as our 8th favorite. 

I'll likely do either a follow up or an addendum to this just to record how the day went watching movies alone, yet kind of together. I'm rather looking forward to the experience. Take a peek below for how each of us voted on our favorite Tarantino films first to last.....and by last it by no means should indicate that we didn't like the movie. I chose "The Hateful Eight" as my bottom film and I'd prefer to watch that over a large percentage of any other movie not made by our living legend and hero, Quentin Jerome Tarantino. 

CHRIS

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Reservoir Dogs

3. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

4. Kill Bill I

5. Kill Bill II

6. The Hateful Eight

7. Django Unchained

8. Inglorious Basterds

9. Jackie Brown

TANNER

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Inglorious Basterds

3. Kill Bill II

4. Kill Bill I

5. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

6. The Hateful Eight

7. Django Unchained

8. Reservoir Dogs

9. Jackie Brown

FREDDY

1. Pulp Fiction

2. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

3. Jackie Brown

4. Kill Bill II

5. Django Unchained

6. Reservoir Dogs

7. Kill Bill I

8. Inglorious Basterds

9. The Hateful Eight

UPDATE
4/11/2020
We held our day and worked it out that we used ZOOM to communicate before and after each film. We also exchanged texts during the movie and since we all had seen them numerous times it never took us out of the enjoyment. In all, it was kind of interesting and fun to do out Director Day while not being together. If the virus lock down continues, we will likely do this again. Having it go off so flawlessly is a positive so now, we realize we can pretty much do this at any time and enjoy the experience. 

Billy Wilder

Billy Wilder 

HOST: Freddy

Freddy's Take:  Until a few months ago I had never seen a Wilder film. He wasn't on my radar for some reason. Not because I don't appreciate classic film, but simply because I hadn't run across him. I found "Some Like It Hot" for $5 and bought it as a curiosity. I enjoyed it and looked up the director (Billy Wilder) and went from there to watching Double Indemnity, Stalag 17, and The Apartment. All of those are terrific movies, but the film that got me motivated to dump the director I had planned on doing was Sunset Boulevard. That one is a revelation. A daring examination of Hollywood in it's day, I found it both engaging and captivating. I wanted to watch it again right after it ended. I went into it expecting a "noir" type film, but came away understanding that Hollywood has always had problems in what it values and how easily it can move on from the people who built it. The underlying theme of not being able to accept one's current lot in life and living in the past or a delusion was attractive also. Glad I found this guy! I have found another "old master" and feel like my world in terms of being a movie lover has been greatly expanded. As a bonus, Tanner, Chris and I came up with a new drinking game....called "Take Another Shot Baby!" (see below)

Sunset Boulevard

Double Indemnity

This is a great noir film that hits all the right buttons and is even more fun as a drinking game. While watching, you can have fun with your pals or just get blasted by yourself. Every time Fred MacMurray says "baby", take a drink. Every time Fred MacMurray lights a match with his thumb, take a drink. Every time a character says "down the line", take a drink. If you really want to add to the fun, every time that Fred MacMurray says "Keyes", take a drink. Take two aspirin and call the doctor!!!

Some Like It Hot

Billy Wilder: Best Screenwriter Ever?

Denis Villeneuve

Denis Villeneuve

HOST:  Tanner

Enemy

Incendies 

Blade Runner 2049

Director Trademarks with Denis Villeneuve

Werner Herzog

Werner Herzog

Host:  Chris

Even Dwarfs Started Small

Stroszek

Aguirre: Wrath of God

Herzog on Charlie Rose

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese (starring Robert DeNiro)

Host: Freddy

Freddy's Take:  There aren't many film lovers or casual movie goers that haven't watched at least one Martin Scorsese film. He has been making films since 1967 and some of them are ingrained in our culture as significant pieces of art and many more are a part of our pop culture, with references ranging from The Sopranos to The Simpsons. The influence of Scorsese movies are everywhere, even embedded in many of today's best filmmakers styles. 

I didn't want to just take Scorsese without drawing down to a specific set of films. I want Chris and Tanner to feel like they can use him at a later date, as he has so many movies that are fun to watch with other people. I chose to do his films with DeNiro which netted the acting great an Academy Award nomination. So, I went with Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Cape Fear. It doesn't hurt that each had a great supporting cast. I'll use any Director Day as an excuse to see a young Cybill Shepherd in the early days of her career, to watch Joe Pesci kick the shit out of Frank Vincent, or to catch Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck get "tip of the cap" cameos! That's just some cinematic goodness right there. 

There isn't a lot to say about these movies that hasn't been said before, but they are among my favorites, regardless of genre or director. Each has its own style in how it's shot. Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are almost documentary like, with Raging Bull getting the black and white treatment which lends to the obvious attempt to make it feel "vintage"and Taxi Driver having an almost "confessional" feel to the narration. Cape Fear owes a lot to Alfred Hitchcock and Brian DePalma in the use of camera moves and color palette. As far as appreciating an homage to another director, Cape Fear is as good as it gets.

I'm glad I got to watch these with my friends. It's a tough day to have three very serious, and often times very violent films, back to back to back, but we made it through. The main characters are hard to identify and sympathize with and I feel like that almost lets us into the world of a sociopath without getting too close for our own good. I look forward to eventually watching Mean Streets, Goodfellas, The Aviator, or even The King of Comedy with my friends some day. You just can't go wrong watching a Martin Scorsese picture. 

Taxi Driver

Raging Bull

Cape Fear

Scorsese & DeNiro at Tribeca 2019

The 3 Amigos: Inarritu, del Toro, & Cuaron

The 3 Amigos: Inarritu, del Toro, & Cuaron

Host:  Tanner

Freddy's Take: Tanner decided to go off the beaten path and stole three directors on one day. LOL! That's OK though, because that's what we do. We don't really set limits to how we conduct our day and we all know that if one of us wanted to revisit a director it's alright to do so. Exposing each other to what we love or have interest in is a big part of why we do this. 

I enjoyed the films from all of these directors that I have seen. Individually, their body of work is impressive, but together, it's a collection of diverse, interesting, and complex film from three men who are among the best in the world at what they do (each has at least one Academy Award for directing). Tanner chose del Toro's "Pans Labyrinth", Cuaron's "Roma" and Inarritu's "Biutiful". All three are excellent choices, but let's face it, could he have gone wrong picking ANY film that one of these gentlemen have directed?

I have watched "Pan's Labyrinth" multiple times and love the rich storytelling. It ties in real events with the fantasy (or is it?) world of a little girl trying to cope with her life being turned upside down. It has the signature creatures that del Toro is famous for, but the story of the girl trying to figure out who to trust and manage her feelings in a situation where she feels (rightfully so) in the way is what stands out to me and keeps me going back to the movie. 

"Biutiful" is a movie that I had seen once before and remembered it being gritty and short on being an uplifting film. It sort of reminds me of "Taxi Driver" in that way. Javier Bardem is terrific as a man who can "see" death and suddenly has to come to grips with the imminent reality of his own demise. In a more mainstream film, the main character would have been able to provide his family with the means to carry on and he would know they were OK, but this isn't that movie. Inarittu doesn't let us off the hook, as he keeps Bardems character rooted in his world of hiring cheap labor along with creating and selling bootleg products. He isn't a good man, but he tries to be and it's just not possible to live in that world without things going wrong. Great movie from a director (Inirratu) that has several honest to goodness "great" films in his arsenal such as "The Revenant", "Birdman", and "Babel". 

Finally, that brings us to Cuaron's "Roma". I hadn't seen this film and was a little uncertain of what we were getting into as it is basically a "Netflix" movie. I won't sight unseen wave off a Netflix movie again. This was a terrific piece of work, albeit a little strange. It's set in 1070's era Mexico City and is strongly rooted in reality. There is an attempt to get the audience to see the differences in classes from a societal view, but it also does a good job of portraying how class plays a role in how we perceive each other on a personal level, day to day. I highly recommend this one. 

Another enjoyable day with my friends watching movies! Thanks Tanner!  

Roma

Biutiful

Pan's Labyrinth