Turning 50 is weird. I’ve almost certainly lived half of my life. Unless I live to be more than 100, which is doubtful. Not with my blood pressure anyhow. Fifty years is a long time. I’ve done a lot of stuff. Not all of it has been enjoyable, but taken in full, it has been pretty good. I’ve watched a lot of movies in those years. Not all of them have been good, but I’ve seen my fair share of classics.
I generally strive to watch movies I haven’t seen before. I like watching movies I’ve previously enjoyed, but there is always that nagging doubt that while I’m rewatching a film, there just might be something amazing out there that I’ve never watched.
This becomes increasingly difficult as each year passes. I watch more and more films, which leaves less and less films I’ve never seen. To be fair, they’ve made a lot of films since the invention of cinema. Like a whole lot. I’ll never see them all. And that’s not counting all the hundreds of films that have been lost to time. But as I scroll through the streaming service feeds, or look through my DVD shelves, it becomes increasingly difficult to find something that I’ve both never seen and have any interest in actually watching.
One of the nice things about getting older is that I often forget which films I’ve seen and which ones I haven’t. Manys the time I’ve started watching a movie that I would have sworn I’d never seen only to realize somewhere in the middle of it that I have, in fact, previously seen it. More than once I’ve watched an entire film thinking it was new to me only to discover I’ve previously logged it on Letterboxd.
The thing is, as you get older, the way you feel about a film changes. Movies I once loved now seem like crap, and films I disregarded I’m finding to be masterpieces.
Which (finally) brings me to Body Heat. I can’t actually remember the first time I watched it. I was probably in high school or maybe college. If I’m being honest, I most likely watched it for Kathleen Turner. I knew the movie was supposed to be steamy, and Kathleen Turner is a beautiful woman, and this was before the internet was invented.
Other than the steam and the flesh, I didn’t particularly care for the film. It just seemed like another crime drama in a world full of them. The William Hurt character acted like a fool. I’d never act like that, not even for a sultry, sexy Kathleen Turner (even if I was paying good money to rent a videocassette tape of her being sultry and sexy.)
I didn’t know what a neo-noir was back then. I’d never heard of film noir. I had no clue of the long cinematic tradition this film was traveling in.
I’ve seen it a couple of times since that first viewing, and I’ve come to love it. It is a sultry movie. It literally drips with sweat and sex. Kathleen Turner is sexy as hell, but she also gives a hell of a performance. William Hurt’s character is dumb, but I get that now. Writer/director Lawrence Kasdan fills the movie with twists and violence, sweat and shadows. I love film noir now, and appreciate how this film is updating that old genre.
The Criterion Collection is releasing Body Heat with a new 4K UHD transfer and filling it with new interviews, conversations about the film by film historians, deleted scenes and more. All of which makes it my pick of the week.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Avatar: Fire and Ash: I have absolutely no interest in the Avatar universe. I’ve only seen the first one, and that was on television. I know I’ve missed out on the theatrical spectacle of it, but I just don’t care. But lots of people do, and for those people this will be a major release.
Speed Racer: The Wachowski’s take on an old Japanese anime was derided when it first came out, but it has since found a large cult following.
Fallout: Season Two: This post-apocalyptic series from Amazon has garnered good reviews. I watched the first few episodes and liked them, but then I got distracted. I really ought to finish it and move on to the second season before the third one comes out.
The Bride!: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s take on the Frankenstein story is a bit of a mess, but a glorious one. Jessie Buckley is brilliant as the Bride and the movie is wild, crazy and a lot of fun.
Snowpiercer: The Complete Series: Based on the Bong Joon-ho film of the same name, this series follows a group of people, the last of humanity, as they live life on a train they can’t leave, for the world has become a frozen wasteland. I liked the film quite a lot, and I’m curious how they will be able to expand that concept to a full series.
The Conjuring Universe 9-Film Collection: The Conjuring is one of my favorite horror movies of the last couple of decades. It is a terrific mix of good story, good acting, and genuine scares. The sequels have been less successful, and I’ve not seen any of the expanded universe, but for fans this looks like a nice collection. It includes all the Conjuring, Annabelle, and Nun films.
