Thighs Wide Shut

Phantom Thread
Fashion Victims
Official Site | Trailers & Mo
R | 130 min

A movie about a frigidity, neurotic clothing designer in 1950s London who hates distractions AND butter doesn’t exactly sound like the most swinging time this holiday season, but there is just SOMETHING so entrancing about PT Barnum Anderson‘s Phantom Thread that makes it the greatest film with the word ‘Phantom’ in it (sorry Jar Jar, Billy Zane and that horrible screen adaption of the Opera with Gerard Butler)!

I cannot even tell you that this is a muss see movie.  It would actually make for a really boring home rental, but for 2ish hours I was udderly mesmerized about the tale of a tailor (with a really dumb name – Reynolds Woodcock), and his muse who he doesn’t seem to be so a-MUSE-d by.  Maybe cause this is rumored to be Daniel Day-Lewis‘ acting swan song, and so we paid extra thought and love to his INCREDIBLE performance, or that we fell hard and felt so bad for his underloved love interest (Vicky Krieps), or that Dan Day’s icy-cold staring sister (Lesley Manville) set the prefect chilled mood for this entire movie.  Or maybe cause the film was made with such attention to detail and care, that we cared so much about all the details.  I wanted to physically be in all the places and settings they occupied and roamed around in.  TAKE ME THERE!!!  And while the clothes they made were really pretty, I didn’t really want to wear any of them, but that’s cause I’m not really into wearing dresses

We often think that David Fincher is keeper of the Kubrick torch, but PT Barnum Anderson may actually be the true torchbearer.  Phantom Thread feels like a Kubrick movie – uninviting and distant, and yet it makes you feel up close and personal, and sew – what more can you ask for in a film?  NEEDLE ME THAT BATMAN!!!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Thread bares in limited release on Xmas day

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Another Year
Another Mike Leigh Gem
Official Website | Trailers & Mo

Think we’ll have to keep reusing what we said in the opening paragraph of our Happy Go Lucky review:

When a Mike Leigh film is released, without question, you should go and see it. The man is incapable of bad filmmaking, and if you’ve seen anything he’s made, we’re sure you’ll agree. If the titles Naked, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, Meantime, Topsy-Turvy or Secrets & Lies don’t sound familiar, then you need to familiarize yo-self with them pronto tonto! They all are rich works that explore the banality of everyday (British working class) life, rife with both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments that are so genuine you’ll have a hard time ever forgetting them. The same is mos definitely true with his latest…

…Another Year. Yep, this guy has the golden filmmaking touch (and we’re not juss talking about getting his actors Oscar noms, which does and righfully happen), and he’s doing the fine serious adult themed work that Woody Allen used to do all the time.  If yer looking for hot babes and explosions, look elsewhere, cause his films thrive on words, good and bad ones.  Can you handle that???  You should

And like the Woodman, Leigh continually leans on a marvelously talented group of actors.  In Year he recruits stalwarts Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen and Lesley Manville, side players Oliver Maltman and Peter Wight + throwing a big screen bone to the caretaker of Hogwarts (David Bradley).  We don’t even need to bother explaining what characters they people play and what they’re all about cause they’re all so perfect at playing them and being them (Lesley Manville tops them all with her go for broken performance, and in our humble mumble opinion, deserves the Best Actress statuette).  Plus why should we bother, since you should see this without question.  Sure, it may not be the world’s strongest Mike Leigh film, but even an above average Mike Leigh film is still better than 98.23% of the flicks playing in a theater right now.  Hear, hear to another year with Mike Leigh!

It’s A Man-Manville World: Actors Acting – Lesley Manville

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Another helps to close out a great Year in films in NY/LA only on December 29th and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…