#filmpenance

[filmpenance]

Butterfield 8 (1960)

Dir. Daniel Mann, 1h 49m [Film Penance 2026 - Elizabeth Taylor]

"Mama, face it: I was the slut of all time!" - Gloria

Gloria (Elizabeth Taylor) is a Manhattan party girl and influencer. She gets paid to wear designer dresses at the right spots, and makes even more from the men who pay her to take them off. If you want to get a hold of her, you have to call her answering service, at Butterfield 8.

Her mother worries about her, the way Gloria disappears for days. Her childhood friend Steve (Eddie Fisher) doesn't want to bail her out anymore. She's turned up again at his door. Gloria decided to take revenge on Weston (Laurence Harvey), the married man she's seeing, by taking off with his wife's fur coat and bringing it to Steve's.

Gloria & Weston's relationship runs hot and cold. There is a kind of love there, such ad it is wrapped up in egos & posturing. Weston was a talented lawyer before he got married and went to work at the company his wife's family owns. He got soft, taking executives to lunch. If he's going to make it with Gloria, he has to choose a harder life.

But oh, that pesky coat.

I really enjoyed Butterfield 8. It's a good melodrama, with lovely costumes, barbed quips, and great atmosphere. Shot slickly and brightly with impressive production value. I'm thinking in particular of a wonderful shot of Taylor & Harvey at the threshold of their motel room, where the light throbs around them; a visual representation of their desire that's just stunning. My one quibble with the movie is that it goes beyond it's natural ending, and would have been more successful if it were tighter.

Overall, and really good film with solid performances from the whole cast.

Recommended

TRAILER: https://youtu.be/FH0xqOJyycI?si=mcdFt1VD4FJdhNhK

[filmpenance]

The Driver (1978)

Dir. Walter Hill, 1h 31m [2026 - Thrilled]

"Lotta crooks around these days." - The Driver

The Driver (Ryan O'Neal) emerges from a parking structure. Everything has been carefully orchestrated for this casino heist. We quickly learn why he's the best man for the job. After taking off with the thieves and their quarry he successively evades the cops in an elaborate high-speed chase.

Only two problems: The Detective (Bruce Dern) with a vendetta against him, and the gorgeous Player (Isabel Adjani) who can identify him.

It's a beautiful, if a bit run down, nighttime world Hill invites us into. A world populated with people just trying to get by on the margins. These are not the high roller, fantasy criminals of John Wick. And, as you would imagine in a movie calledThe Driver, there are exceptionally well executed car chases.

I really enjoyed The Driver, and that's been true of most films by writer/director Walter Hill I've seen (e.g.: The Warriors, 48 HRS.). There are high stakes interactions between the characters, and much of the story is communicated visually. There is barely any dialogue in the first 25 minutes of the film, and we know 100% what is going on.

I genuinely liked the chemistry between the actors. Dern is a standout as the cop who is willing to cross the line and make dirty deals to meet his objectives, and we hate him for it.

I also have to mention Isabel Adjani as The Player. She's looking for a clean way out of this game of one-upmanship.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED I will watch it again.

Pair With: Drive (2011), Thief (1981)

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[filmpenance]

Teorema (1968)

Dir Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1h 38m [Film Penance 2026 - Bad Company]

"You've simply destroyed the idea I've always had of myself" - The Father/Paolo

A wealthy family in Milan is about to receive a Visitor (Terence Stamp).

The family is rolling in dough because the Father is an industrialist factory owner. He has a very proper Italian household with his wife, (the Mother), his Son, his Daughter and his Servant. The kids go to private schools. They're a social group, so when the Visitor arrives, they have a little soiree. No big deal, they do this all the time.

As the party goes on and the guests dwindle, bedtime draws near. Everyone who lives at the house has eyes on the Visitor.

The members of the household are drawn to him, and each makes a sexual advance towards him in personality-revealing ways. They each need something different.

The Visitor courteously obliges them, and as the physical encounters with him occur, one by one they become obsessively attached.

The film is stylish, has a spare Ennio Morricone score, and Pasolini makes the interesting choices, such as cutting to a landscape of dark rocks each time the Visitor and a partner are intimate. Silvana Mangano is particularly arresting as The Mother of the family, as is Laura Betti as the servant Emilia. And of course, Terence Stamp dazzles as the Visitor.

Where a typical film would have the players catch wind of their mutual lover, leading to jealous confrontations and competition for the Visitor, that's not how Teorema plays out.

Half way through the film, the Visitor just leaves. In his absence, each member of the household has their identity devolve or transform in some way. Everything from naked madness to religious ecstasy.

Pasolini intended this film to be a critique of the bourgeoisie in Italy; he identified as being a Marxist film maker. That part did not connect with me.

What did, was the idea what plagues us about other people originates from within.

Recommended

TRAILER:https://youtu.be/NYykfQVjH2w?si=CxYx-czlv1XHA_f6

PAIR WITH: Down and Out in Beverly Hills

[filmpenance]

Bug (2006)

Dir. William Friedkin, 1h 42m [Film Penance 2025]

"I shouldn't have told you that, but I needed to tell somebody, and I trust you." - Peter

Agnes is a divorced waitress living hand-to-mouth, staying in a room at the end of a motel. She's been getting unsettling telephone calls from someone she assumes is her ex-husband - a violent man recently out of prison.

Her life is small and she keeps it that way. If your head stays down, there are fewer worries to contend with. The drawback to this life is the loneliness.

Her friend from work introduces Agnes to Peter. He's a bit of a loner too; integrating back into US society has been difficult since returning from his tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Something about Peter sparks something deep in Agnes, and their relationship grows. It grows into something strong enough to confront her Ex.

It grows into something that can defy reason itself.

Bug had an impact on me. Directed by William Friedkin and written by Tracy Letts, it had me thinking about the realities we create in relationships. It successfully married the reality of a hard scrabble town and the real violence that people face alongside the delusions and hopes we sustain to get by.

The movie has a dusty, worn-in feel. It starts exhausted, which makes sense for people at the end of their rope. The camera work and music add to the sense of unease. I've seen Bug referred to as a horror film; I'd say it leans more toward a dramatic thriller, though there are terrifying moments.

The performances are extraordinary. Harry Connick Jr is Agnes' demonic ex-husband, and Michael Shannon inhabits the looming and child-like Peter. Ashley Judd as Agnes however, is a standout. I have never seen her this good - it's an award-worthy turn. I would watch it again just for her.

The end moments of this film feel shocking yet inevitable.

I'm surprised this movie isn't better known, given the talented names associated with it. I've had it on my list forever, from an old movie review I saw, and I'm glad I did.

It's not for everyone, that said, I highly recommend it.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/QMRljLE8gQA?si=5ofgoREyIKi5_c-C

[filmpenance]

The Big Short (2015)

Adam McKay 2h 10m [Day 10, 2024 - "The" Saturday]

"I have a feeling in a few years people are going to be doing what they always do when the economy tanks. They will be blaming immigrants and poor people." - Mark Baum

Adam McKay's style reminds me of the Tarantino maxim that if you need to feed detailed information to the audience, call it out in a splashy way. That technique is used to maximum effect in The Big Short, a comedic take on the 2008 mortgage crisis.

Amongst the "weirdos and outsiders" who saw the crash coming, we spend most of our time with Michael Burry (Christian Bale), Mark Baum (Steve Carrell) and Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling).

Burry is a numbers obsessive and goes completely against all known strategies to call out the inevitable demise of mortgage backed securities. Baum learns about it through Vennett and each man bets against the market, in the sick hope of the corrupt bond system disintegrating.

Corrupt bond grading system you say? What the hell is that? Using flashy cut away scenes laced with humour we learn about the levers used in financial and political systems that lead to predatory practices in mortgage backed securities.

The film is funny and the performances are solid. The ensemble cast is note perfect and the pacing is great. Recommended...

AND YET...

Let us remember, that these wealthy white men, were not saints. It is a strange story where these captains of capital with enough access to create a financial instrument to bet on a crash can be seen as real "weirdos and outsiders". Let me tell you something that people in finance are unequivocally interested in: making lots of money. If you make them money, there is nothing off-putting about you at all. Even the suggestion of making millions from people being put on the street. What is an outsider after all in this context but a rugged individualist?

They become the centre of the story.

Pair with: The Other Guys, Magic Mike (on my future list is 99 Homes)

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[filmpenance]

Last Rites (1988)

Donald P. Bellisario 1h 43m [Day 12, 2024 - Trashy Tuesday]

"You are all witnesses! The wop started it!" - O'Bannon

Last Rites is what happens when you want to make a cool mafia film, but plot, good casting and assured direction are incidental. But still, it will be so cool!

Packed with Italian American cliches, this movie has more cheese than a Kraft factory.

It essentially follows a film noir framework, with all of the gravitas of Chef Boyardee.

Tom Berrenger plays mafia connected priest Father Michael Pace (pah-chay), who smokes, drinks, and bullies the other priest in his parish.

Word spreads quickly through the Italian mob community that underboss, Geno has been taken out. But who killed him?

It was mafia daughter Zena, Geno's wife who shot him - catching him in the arms of his Mexican mistress Angela (Daphne Zuniga), doing it against a lot of curtains.

Angela narrowly escapes the gunfire, and with possibly the least convincing Mexican accent of all time, finds herself at church in a confessional spilling the beans to Fr. Pace.

Angela doesn't know it, but Zena is Fr. Pace's sister.

He vows to keep her safe, despite his ties to Zena (Anne Twomey - giving her best Anjelica Houston impersonation). He also vows to keep it in his pants.

Fr. Michael is not great at the whole "keeping your vows" thing.

I still viscerally remember how much Roger Ebert hated Last Rites, calling it, "easily the most offensive big budget picture of 1988". I waited decades to experience what he was talking about. And it is so wonderfully, unintentionally funny. *

The film draws from some great inspirations. A little Scarface, some Fatal Attraction. It had me wondering if Jonathan Demme or Brian De Palma could have done something with this material. I think the first thing they'd do is rewrite it.

It's terrible. I'll probably watch it again.

Pair with / watch instead: Prizzi's Honor, Married to the Mob

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* So sidenote...

I was really trepidatious about watching Last Rites. I kept pushing it off. I remember the terrible Siskel & Ebert review - Ebert went in hard and it stuck with me. I was worried it would be terrible and I wanted it to be awesome. In my mind, there could be nothing more appealing than this Berenger/ Zuniga pairing. Before watching, I get to imagine everything this movie could be and watching it locks in a specificity I sensed I would find distasteful, like nationalism or spaghetti straps. But I had to confront it. Just watch it and accept history as it is and not the poster. Sort of like Electric Dreams.

Siskel & Ebert: https://youtu.be/u9gCiLZtpZI?si=elYoIq3c4sHlMb5P

[filmpenance]

The Diary of a Teenage Girl

(2015) Marielle Heller 1h 42m [Day 3 - 2024]

"What's the point of living if nobody loves you? Nobody sees you? Nobody touches you" - Minnie

It's 1976 San Francisco and Minnie is overwhelmed with self-satisfaction. You see Minnie has just had sex for the first time, the thing that she has been longing so desperately for. Because if you are not being desired do you even exist?

Thus is the setup for "The Diary of a Teenage Girl", and while Minnie is 15, this is not a film geared toward that age group.

We quickly learn that Minnie's paramour (Bel Powley) is her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend Monroe (Alexander Skarsgård), so we know immediately that her bravado is misplaced and that she's being taken advantage of. Minnie cannot see it that way. Love is attention from her point of view.

Minnie lives with her single mom Charlotte (Kristen Wiig) and her sister Gretel (Abby Wait) in a rented place, where any night could become a party.

We get the sense that Charlotte has also run through a string of relationships to get to this point in her life. When it comes to looking for care from the wrong people, the apple did not fall far from the tree.

In this world of free love, minimal supervision and no social media we see transformational events happen in secret with their impact oozing into the day to day.

I appreciated the onscreen relationship between Minnie and Charlotte. There is love between them, but neither is equipped very well. It's a thorny relationship, and true.

The film does a good job of not pitying Minnie, and not letting Minnie feel like she's broken in any way. Her lessons all arrive the hard way.

Explicitly so. We see the sexual encounters that occur, which made me grateful to learn that Bel Powley was 22 at the time of filming.

"The Diary of a Teenage Girl" does not pull it's punches, and it benefits from this approach. It's the quotidian horror of abuse. It's also about moving forward with your scars and your humanity.

Recommended

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PAIR WITH: I'd pair this movie with Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank". It's about a 15-year-old in a Scottish housing project who dreams of leaving to become a dancer and the desperate lengths she'll go to for attention.

[filmpenance]

Suture (1993)

Scott McGehee & David Siegel 1h 36m [What? Wednesday - Day 7, 2024]

"I'm a very wealthy man, expensive things all around me, and I am forced to protect what's mine against the people who might feed off my privilege, feed off what doesn't belong to them." - Vincent Towers

Clay has just met his brother Vincent at their father's funeral. Vincent (Michael Harris) is aloof and suspicious toward Clay, despite his welcoming words and Clay (Dennis Haysbert) lets him know he's not after any money.

What's more, they're both shaken by the striking resemblance between them. It's like being in a dream where you don't know who you are anymore.

Clay doesn't know that Vincent needs to elude the police and he plans on killing his brother to do it.

Surviving attempted murder, Clay wakes up in hospital with amnesia, with every person telling him he's Vincent. With no memory of his own, his life seeps into his brother's existence.

So much of who we can say we are is bound up in who will vouch for us. Existence is the testimony of others.

Shot beautifully in black and white, with classic crisp production design and sweeping camera work, the film brings you into it's world. The clever use of opera betrays the passion beneath the facades.

Suture is a film noir dream of brotherhood and identity*.

Highly Recommended

Film Pairings: Get Out, The Third Man, The Man Who Wasn't There

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* Race, gender and class.