The basu! Guide to the Movies

RIP #MichaelChapman Not quite the household name as some of the other star cinematographers, but when you have a career that stretches from #Spielberg & #Scorsese to Space Jam, and everyone/thing in between, well, you have to be considered one of the all-timers. Just look at the list of movies he worked on as a camera operator: Husbands, Klute, The Godfather…Jaws! And then, just look at the genre-defying work as a cinematographer: The Fugitive, the severely underrated Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Scrooged, Personal Best, The Man with Two Brains, The Lost Boys, and, of course, the 1-2 MS punch of Taxi Driver & Raging Bull! Look at the list of directors, I mean, he's a one-man collection of film history right there: SS, MS, Coppola, Ashby, Cassavetes, Pakula, Schrader, Towne, Reiner(*both* of them), Kaufman, Schumacher…so boldfaced just one name will do! Look at the run he had in the 70s, he wasn't a part of cinema history…he *was* cinema history! And t...

#TheBrokenHeartsGallery Delightful…just bl**dy delightful! Best #GenZ-Rom-Com-That-I-Was-Already-Vibing-With-And-Then-Don't-Go-Breaking-My-Heart-Just-Put-It-Over-The-Top-Starring-A-Scene-Stealer-Who-Gets-Her-Own-Rightful-Mainstream-Spotlight-All-The-While-Sharing-It-With-Fellow-Scene-Stealers-All-Nicely-Put-Together-By-A-First-Time-Writer-Director-Aided-Immeasurably-By-The-Spotify-Definition-Of-Perfectly-Breezy-RC-Music, Ever! Seriously, that kid Vishy(c'mon, ya know that's her #desi petname😂) just absolutely stole #Blockers and you were thinking, ya know, if only Hollywood would…but ya know what, Hollywood did, can you believe it, Hollywood *did*! Kid's just had a spectacular, (if slightly-oxymoronic)under-the-radar, rise up the ranks (supporting in TV series, supporting in indie high-profile TV movie, starring in indie film) and wow, her own starring role in a mainstream romantic comedy…without too much sturm-und-drang about her ethnicity, she's just one...

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 OnTheBasisOfSex (2018) Well-crafted, stirring biopic that thankfully follows the turning-point-in-heroine's-life rather than the dutiful cradle-to-grave model. Almost like a real-life superhero origin story. Massive credit to director Leder for guiding us through the complex legal battle at hand without ever losing sight of the characters at the heart of it all. Nice work by the ensemble, esp. young Spaeny, and vets Root, Waterston, Mulkey, & esp Bates(it's a defining fact of life, no?, we could always use more Kathy Bates👍!). But, I was not expecting this to be the two-hander it was, and Jones and Hammer are fantastic together. Their easy chemistry, commitment to their roles, it's what ultimately elevates the whole thing, and makes it worthwhile, especially in retrospect… - - - #MimiLeder #FelicityJones #ArmieHammer #KathyBates #SamWaterston #StephenRoot #CaileeSpaeny #JackReynor #JustinTheroux #ChrisMulke...

#MurderInTheWoods Good, clean, bootstrapped-80's-slasher-homage fun. As TBH remarked, they brought a giant hunting knife but no torch, er, flashlight…I was like, hah, #millennials (or #GenZ-ers🤔?, okay, fine, Gen-Zers)😂… …but ya know what, instead of whinging about how Hollywood does a terrible job about Latin(o?a?X?) representation, preferring to shoehorn in them into lazy genre categories, these (millennial? GenZ?)kids pulled themselves up with their, er, bootstraps(that's what kids still do these days, right?), and pulled off a cheeky slasher flick on a micro-budget, in only 15 days, and managed to get Trejo(yes, *that* Trejo) to, ahem, boot. Good for them! The cast is a lot of fun, esp. scene-stealing Wise, the twist is cool (even if TBH figured it out, okay, now she's just showing off), and good for Trejo for lending a hand, the guy's the very definition of a mensch…and I know from personal experience👍 Kids these days…I tell ya…always doing what t...

#21Bridges Good, clean, dirty-NYPD-action-thriller fun. In this day and age of slapdash indie-action movies, it's so nice to see a spare-no-expense, production-values-up-the-wazoo, awesome-music, tremendous DP-ing (actually lighting all those city blocks!) turn-off-your-brain-and-enjoy flick. So nice, also, to see such a name-brand cast rising above the plot (TBH, as usual, saw the twist coming from a mile away🤭), with special honours to that kid James, he's already had one h*lluva career-start, and it's only the beginning👍! And, yeah, it's wonderful to see the effortlessly commanding Boseman at the center of it all. He really was something, no?, at home in larger-than-life comic-book spectaculars, noble-minded period pieces, and gritty contemporary action-thrillers. So much range… PS. "The trigger…" "You'd better have *perfect* diction to call me that…"😳😬 - - - #BrianKirk #PaulCameron #HenryJackman #AlexBelcher #Anthon...

RIP #DianaRigg Legendary star of stage and screen(*all* of them) with the kind of career length-and-breadth few can dream of. The funny thing is that even before I knew of her, I knew her…in those old video tapes the British expats would bring back with them and make available in the lending library. There was this strange, exciting, super-fun spy show that I fell in love with, and had no idea that it shared the same name as the ultimate cinematic franchise, and that impossibly-cool woman doing those impossibly-cool things was the one and only *Dame* Diana Rigg. I knew of her, of *Dame* Diana Rigg, by the time I watched her so-awesome intros to Masterpiece Mystery, that's *Dame* Diana Rigg I would tell TBH… Of course, I knew her principally from The Avengers, and as the best Bond Woman(tied with Eva Green) from #OHMSS, and from the awesome Muppet movie, and, of course, as the *razor*-tongued #OlennaTyrell from #GoT(that's *Dame* Diana Rigg I'd tell TBH…), but, ...

#TENET Mere mortals: don't try to understand it, feel it! Feel the larger-than-life, LieMax theatrical experience, where every cough, sniffle, sneeze will make you feel the same life-threatening dread as the Protagonist. Feel the Red Team/Blue Team attention to detail, right from the opening company logos! Feel the *massive* scale(they crashed a 747😮!), the massive score (Goransson takes the baton from Zimmer and sprints with it🎶🎹🥁💪!), the massive globe-hopping, the massive time-altering, mind-bending, reality-reshaping, if-you-dig-deep-enough-you'll-see-it's-not-all-empty-calories-critics-be-d*mned concept underpinning the whole thing. Feel the #JamesBond/#MissionImpossible-with-touches-of-#Hitchcock's-MacGuffin/Cool-Blonde homage. Feel the incredible craftsmanship on full display, those costumes, the cinematography…and especially the deft, seemingly impossible editing, that how-did-they-do-it? VFX (give them the #Oscars now/later, it won't m...

#TBT so how about a #Throwback Movie? 😁 #MessageFromTheKing (2017) Terrific, down-and-dirty, gritty, sleazy, violent, LA-neo-noir directed with stylish panache and centered on a remarkably contained, yet furious lead performance by Boseman. This is the kind of thing that blows up an algorithm, right? That neverending parade of quickie, cheap, indie B-action all starring well-known actors, all featuring well-trod tropes, all made for a price, all turn a quick profit before moving on to the next one (I've probably seem them all🤣!)…how do you tell the algorithm that no, this one's a step above? You say, look at the cinematography, wow, instead of the usual-usual flat-digital turn-the-gain-up stuff we get texture, we get quality, we get, dare I say it, some cinema? *Massive* kudos to Lenczewska. You say, hear the music, this hasn't been dashed off on someone's Mac just to fit the post schedule. You say, look at the flair and tersely stylish direction by genre specia...