Library Tech with A Movie Rec

Dogfight (1991, 94 min; DVD, BD)

Despite the cruelty of its premise, Dogfight is Nancy Savoca’s tender exploration of young lovers (River Phoenix, Lili Taylor) in 1960’s San Francisco over the course of one night, predating Before Sunrise by four years. 

Punch Drunk Love (2002, 89 min; DVD, Kanopy, Hoopla)

Buried within the schemes & scams, Adam Sandler falls in love. Jon Brion’s score moves from sparce to lush, mirroring Sandler’s loneliness and the swell of love when he meets Emily Watson’s, Lena. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, 120 min; DVD, Kanopy)

This film by Celine Sciamma literalizes the female gaze. Forgoing the use of a musical score, the use of sound brings you closer into Marianne and Héloïse’s romance. When the film does include music cues, those moments become transcendent, especially the bombast of Vivaldi’s “Spring.”  

The Age of Innocence (1993, 138 min; BD)

Anybody that tells you this is one of Scorsese’s minor works does not know ball and has never felt the healing light, nor the dizzying pain of love.  

Love & Basketball [2000, 120 min; DVD]

Lives up to the title. Exploring the ups and downs of Monica & Quincy’s (Sanaa Lathan, Omar Epps) romance, I often see this film compared to Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy; When Harry Met Sally… is an apt comparison as well

Drylongso (1998, 81 min; DVD)

 The title of this movie comes from book of the same name by John Langston Gwaltney. It means “ordinary” or, in Gwaltney’s use of the word, the ordinary people that make up Black America. In the context of this film, this can mean the ordinary life of its protagonist, Pica: a young Black woman, an art student, living with her mom in Oakland. Or the “ordinary” violence her community faces: the sudden serial murders of young Black men in Pica’s neighborhood and the interpersonal violence done to Tobi, who Pica befriends in the film. Cauleen Smith did not set out to make any grand sociological statement. In this newly restored edition from the Criterion Collection, Smith depicts the dissonant nature, both love and violence, of trying to live an ordinary life of this time and place.

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018, 76 min; Kanopy)

Ramell Ross’ (Nickel Boys) background in fine arts photography is evident in this documentary, forming loose narrative threads as he is embedded in Hale County, Alabama as a photography teacher and basketball coach. Patience is a virtue; captured moments make us feel the passage of time. My favorite moment is when the camera rests on shafts of light shining through trees, given form by smoke wafting from a tire fire below.  

Time (2020, 81 min; DVD)

Garrett Bradley met Fox Rich while working on another documentary short for the New York Times called Alone. From that initial contact, Bradley felt compelled to tell Fox’s own story of the work she had done to commute her husband’s 60 year prison sentence for an armed robbery they had committed together over 20 years prior. Initially taking form as a more traditional documentary, Fox gifted Bradley a box of camcorder tapes towards the end of production. These tapes contained hundreds of hours of footage documenting Fox’s life as a single mother raising their children. The memories her husband, Rob, missed. Bradley and her editing team wove those memories with the present day interviews to create a monument for the time lost and, more importantly, the devotion she and her husband had for their family. L.O.V.E. “Life’s Only Valid Expression.” 

Michel Gondry: Do It Yourself (2023, 80 min; Kanopy)

“That was different!” an older woman exclaimed the handful of us left the theater. An interesting look at Gondry’s career, especially in light of the fact that no one will see his most recent film.

Roger Corman: The Pope of Pop Cinema (2021, 54 min; Hoopla)

Scorsese, Coppola, Ron Howard, James Cameron, and many more all got their first breaks working for Roger Corman.

Only In Theaters (2022, 93 min; Kanopy)

It is ironic to suggest you watch this documentary about a theater chain at home, given the current industrial climate for theatrical presentation. At the time of publication, the Laemmle Claremont 5 has just closed at the end of January.

I Like Movies (2022, 100 min; Kanopy, Hoopla)

The title really says it all. The library has now become the vestige of the video store. I hope you enjoy movies too; I imagine you do if you made it this far. Tune in for more suggestions on the Santa Barbara Public Library’s news posts.