May 18, 2023
Chapter 118
Chapter 118: We Didn’t Start The Fire, But We’re Gonna Let It Burn, Burn, Burn, Burn!
seen from United States
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seen from Italy
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seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from China
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Chapter 118
Chapter 118: We Didn’t Start The Fire, But We’re Gonna Let It Burn, Burn, Burn, Burn!
It still makes me suspicious that no part of the Fire Arc has been adapted into an alternative media form. It’s perfect 1-cour or movie-length material, I’m just sayin’
CARRIE
"No one's gonna laugh at me, Mama."
FIRE ARC movie 7 [FINALE]
CARRIE (1976)
JUNE 29, 2025
We have an accidental mini-Sissy Spacek festival on our hands! Though I have somehow avoided seeing this movie until now, the prom blood scene is so iconic that I seem to run across references to it, or parodies of it, regularly. But I also know there is big fire, here, so it seemed like a good choice to end our Fire Arc with a bang.
I tend to not enjoy the stress that comes with the horror genre (there are enough things to stress me out in real life), and thus I missed a lot of the 70s and 80s horror movies that were such impactful pop culture staples for so many of my peers. But these days I am tempted to wade into horror more and more, as it seems it's become such fertile ground for celebrated indie films. When I was younger, though, horror movies seemed like throwaway carnival rides, at best, more of a dare to the viewer than art. And, considering how beloved Stephen King's novels are, so many of his film adaptations have been disappointing. Which makes this 1976 Brian DePalma effort even more remarkable; it's become a landmark of the 70s, and the two major rankings I found online from respectable sources ranked Carrie the #2 King adaptation of all time, after only The Shining. So I guess it's good time to give it a go. Come on over and help me survive the trauma!
"Carrie is an absolutely spellbinding horror movie, with a shock at the end that’s the best thing along those lines since the shark leaped aboard in Jaws It’s also (and this is what makes it so good) an observant human portrait. " -Roger Ebert
"DePalma's horror masterpiece is a death metal spectacle of carnage... Carrie is about all the things it didn’t know it was about: internalised misogyny and self-hate, and the theatre of cruelty involved in high school popularity. It isn’t explicitly about school shootings and yet it shows you, like no other film I have ever seen, the horrifying wish-fulfilment ecstasy of such horrific acts. De Palma is the only director who could have done it." -Guardian [5 stars]
7:30 trailers 7:35 short film 7:40 - 9:18 Carrie
[Want to watch at home instead? Carrie is streaming for free on HBO/Max]
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
"You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we’re in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’."
FIRE ARC movie 6
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)
APRIL 6, 2025
I still vividly remember going alone to the theater in 2009 to see this movie. A big fan of early Tarantino, I was interested in this gonzo WWII fantasy, but, coming after his throwaway 2007 movie Death Proof, I wasn't expecting more than an entertaining diversion. But Tarantino throws us instantly into one of the most rivetingly written and executed slow burn suspense scenes in film history, and from that moment on, it was absolute immersion. Despite the vivid brilliance of Pulp Fiction, I still think that this is Tarantino's best film.
Displaying his usual genius at casting (including bringing German television actor Christoph Waltz to international fame, and an Oscar win), Tarantino's cast mesmerizes in scene after unforgettable scene. It's a movie that has everything painted in bold extreme: drama, horror, comedy, gore, and cathartic revenge executed against the modern world's most villainous villains... a perfect Tarantino symphony.
"From the heart-stopping prologue that kicks things off, to the gleeful (and enormously cathartic) bit of revisionist history that highlights its third act, Inglourious Basterds isn’t only the most entertaining Tarantino film, it’s also the one that best illustrates the primacy of moving pictures, and their unique power to change the world in their image. Tarantino deploys similar tricks to different ends with Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, but it still feels more radical and resonant here." -IndieWire
"It is not as brashly startling as Reservoir Dogs, his first film, or as influential as the violent, funny, time-looping Pulp Fiction. But with its swoop through history, and its flawless ability to be at once a war movie and a homage to war movies, a comedy and a drama, Basterds is his most ambitious, most perfectly realised work." -BBC
7:30 trailers 7:35 - 10:08 Inglourious Basterds
[Want to watch at home instead? rent Inglourious Basterds online for $3.99]
TITANE
"I don't care who you are. You're my son."
FIRE ARC movie 5
TITANE (2021)
MARCH 16, 2025
For you Substance fans out there, here is another over the top, button-pushing body horror movie directed by a French woman who loves David Cronenberg. But Julia Ducournau, whose previous movie was the celebrated 2016 cannibal body horror film Raw, shocked the world and out-Canne'd Coralie Fargeat when her Titane won the Palme d'or in 2021. I have been wanting to see it since then, but most nights these days I'm just not sure if I feel too fragile to handle a grisly movie spiked with body horror about a female serial killer who has sex with cars. If y'all will be my support group, though, I bet I can handle it. Check out the trailer here to get a taste before you wander over.
"Whatever you’re willing to take from it, there’s no denying that Titane is the work of a demented visionary in full command of her wild mind; a shimmering aria of fire and metal that introduces itself as the psychopathic lovechild of David Cronenberg’s Crash and Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man before shapeshifting into a modern fable about how badly people just need someone to take care of them and vice-versa." -IndieWire
"Utterly unpredictable, profoundly graphic and horrifying, and, ultimately, life-affirming and beautiful. Titane is a triumphant scream of a movie, a balls-to-the-wall, darkly funny body-horror extravaganza about aching loneliness, found families, and breasts that leak motor oil." -Vulture
7:30 trailers 7:35 - 9:23 Titane
[Want to watch at home instead? Titane is rentable online for $3.99]
DO THE RIGHT THING
"Hey, Sal, how come they ain't no brothas on the wall?"
FIRE ARC movie 4
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
FEBRUARY 15, 2025
Spike Lee's third film, after the low budget (but terrific) She's Gotta Have It and School Daze, is this masterpiece. I don't need to describe this movie to you. It somehow gets even better year after year, and viewing after viewing. It is more relevant than ever. And it's just damned entertaining throughout, with iconic performances, and brilliant writing and characters. It's definitely in my top ten of all time, and I'm shocked it hasn't found its way into movie club yet, but the Fire Arc is a perfect doorway for it. If you have seen it, you'll want to see it again. If you haven't seen it, by all means please do the right thing.
"I have been given only a few filmgoing experiences in my life to equal the first time I saw Do the Right Thing. Most movies remain up there on the screen. Only a few penetrate your soul." -Roger Ebert [4 stars]
(Roger Ebert was appalled that Do the Right Thing won no awards at Cannes, and threatened to boycott the festival. It won no major awards in 1989 but was nominated for two Oscars... Spike Lee for screenwriting and Danny Aiello for supporting actor).
7:30 trailers 7:35 - 9:35 Do The Right Thing
[Want to watch at home instead? Do the Right Thing is currently streaming on Prime]
THE BEAST
"There must be beautiful things in this chaos."
FIRE ARC movie 3
THE BEAST (2023)
JANUARY 19, 2025
I saw this movie at Cinema 21 this past spring, and it was a bit more unsettling and perplexing than enjoyable... but then I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks afterward. It's hard to pinhole; this iconoclastic vision from French director Betrand Bonello spans from 1910 Paris to a dark vision of the year 2044, and touches upon AI, past lives, toxic masculinity and alienation, all through a relationship that is reborn again and again over the centuries. A mind bender that I think will open up even more on a second viewing, it features a magnetic, stunning performance by Léa Seydoux (whom American audiences will know from Dune Pt. II and The French Dispatch), and ultimately made my top 10 list for 2024. Parts of it reminded me of Mulholland Drive in its layers of mystery and disorienting discomfort. This is fearless, high concept filmmaking.
"The Beast is an audacious interdimensional romance, techno-thriller and Los Angeles noir rolled up in one. This shamelessly ambitious epic is about, among other things, civilizational collapse and existential retribution, yet it is held together by something delicate." -New York Times
"Bertrand Bonello’s head-spinning Henry James adaptation set in 1910 Paris, 2014 LA and an AI-controlled 2044 casts a dreamlike spell... Elliptical, enigmatic and infused with a luxuriant melancholy, The Beast won’t be for everyone, but submit to its looping structure and beguiling dream logic, and this extremely loose adaptation of a novella by Henry James weaves a bewitching, if a trifle head-swimming spell." -The Guardian [4 stars]
7:25 trailers 7:30 - 9:56 The Beast
[Want to watch at home instead of joining us? The Beast is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel, or rent for $3.99 online]
EMA
"When you know what I'm doing and why, you will be horrified."
FIRE ARC movie 2
EMA (2019)
JUNE 9, 2024
Chilean director Pablo Larraín has made a bit of a splash in US arthouses, with the unconventional biopics Spencer and Jackie. In his filmography, Ema bridges those two English-language pics (though released in 2019, it didn't reach most US theaters until 2021), and is even more decidedly unsettling.
I'm still not sure if I even like this movie, with its two unhinged lead characters, and uncomfortable plot, bordering on the horrific. But it is incredibly memorable, crackling with (literal) fire and energy, with gorgeous cinematography and a force of nature main character, fully inhabited by a force of nature lead performance from Mariana Di Girólamo.
This is an appropriate follow up to last month's All About My Mother (which is a better movie), another Spanish-language tale of a mother dealing with trauma. I considered showing a summer blockbuster this week to break in/show off my new tv, but with a pulse-pounding score by Nicholas Jaar, and exciting visuals and choreography (the main character is a dancer, and dance is used as visual element throughout the film), this will definitely look and sound good on the new system. Check out the trailer here to get a sense of what you are in for!
"A darkly sensual fable of motherhood and the modern family... Ema isn't so much a character study as it is an exercise in keeping up with an abstruse yet undeniably fascinating figure." -Los Angeles Times
"Di Girólamo has a rapt millennial-void presence, like Garbo on mood stabilizers, and she's the lone force holding a precarious, prismatic movie together. Ema is an estranging experience at first but slowly lures you in." -Variety
7:30 trailers 7:35 short film 7:45 - 9:22 Ema
[Want to watch at home instead of joining us? Stream for free on Amazon Prime]