Good morning 🐣

Somehow, even with the reduced number of films and TV shows released during COVID, I still missed so much over the course of 2020 and 2021, even movies I had been anticipating for years. I think that might be the case for quite a few of you.

It’s been a weird time.

We’ll get caught up eventually.

And with the Oscars having descended upon us this past Sunday to have the final word on 2021, they’re as good a place as any to start binge-watching.

Before we go down that rabbit hole though, I’d first like to take you back 90 years and point you to Kristin Thompson’s recent list of the ten best films of 1931. She and her husband, David Bordwell, are both film theorists that run an outstanding blog and resource on film history and technique. They even wrote a textbook together, “Film Art: An Introduction,” that’s been in print since the ’70s. It’s a great list of films that are entertaining and groundbreaking even 90 years later.

In that span of time, between 1931 and now, sensibilities have changed and film technique has continually evolved and matured, but there is at least one defining trait that has remained consistent: the close-up.

In a 7-minute video essay called “Faces On A Big Screen,” Evan Puschak argues that “massive faces emoting on massive screens is as epic, if not more epic, than explosions and battles.”

And he’s right. We are fundamentally drawn to faces, even finding them in inanimate objects. He goes on to explain that “action can be compelling, but only in as much as it serves a story, and stories are fundamentally about people. People reveal themselves through faces.”

One filmmaker is especially known for a distinct type of close-up — Steven Spielberg. You know the face: someone looking up in childlike awe, wonder, even fear. It’s found in some of the most iconic moments in his catalog of films: “Jaws,” the “Indiana Jones” series, “Jurassic Park,” “E.T.,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” and on and on.

In the 9-minute video essay “The Spielberg Face,” Kevin B. Lee claims that “if Spielberg deserves to be called the master of audience manipulation, then this is his signature stroke.”

Now watch this 👀

Spielberg has done just about every genre, but one he hasn’t tackled in his five-decade career until now is the musical, a perfect medium for characters to express themselves succinctly in a big way, a way they would be unable to otherwise. So when the twin paragons of heightened emotion — Spielberg and musicals — are combined, we get the masterpiece that is the latest adaptation of “West Side Story” (now playing on Disney+ and HBO Max).

This is a gorgeous film, from the opening shot, to a choreographed fight scene in which the combatants are showered in dust, to the final crane shot behind a fire escape. Its use of color inside a chapel, when Tony and Maria talk about their love for each other amidst a bitter Romeo-and-Juliet-esque rivalry, is otherworldly. It is a visual feast from top to bottom.

I mean just look at this Renaissance painting:

It’s oozing defeat.

And of course there’s the music.

If you’re reading this, however, there’s a good chance you haven’t seen it. It was a box office bomb, most likely because people stopped going to the movies as often as they used to — even before COVID — and they certainly aren’t going to musicals anymore. A lot of people just didn’t care. And for those who already love the original stage production or its 1961 film adaptation, they’re probably grumbling about a modern remake. Even I had doubts.

But I’m telling you this film is perfect Hollywood spectacle. It was nominated for seven Oscars this year, including Best Picture, for a reason: it’s Steven freaking Spielberg doing “West Side Story!”

I mean come on.

That’s it for now. I’d love any feedback or movie recommendations you might have. You can reach me at e38b868f8f8ca3808a8d869080829386cd808c8e.

And please feel free to forward this to anyone you think might be interested.

Until next time! 👋