The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972)
a/k/a The Goalkeeper’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
This is one of Wim Wenders’ earliest features, very subdued but fascinating. Josef Bloch is a pro soccer goalkeeper, and sees that an opposing player is off-sides. This should stop play for a penalty, so he doesn’t bother defending the goal, and there’s a score.
The referee doesn’t make the offsides call, though, so Bloch goes ballistic, yells and even even shoves the ref, and is ejected from the game. He leaves the stadium, goes wandering into the town, and the rest of the movie happens.
If you hate sports or soccer, don’t worry. All the movie’s athletic action was in that first scene.
Bloch goes to the cinema, goes home with the pretty blonde selling tickets, sleeps with her, and for no particular reason, he kills her the next morning. He tidies up, tries to wipe away his finger prints, and goes on about his life after taking hers. He doesn’t even leave town, and makes no effort to hide himself.
It’s very nonchalant — if the cops can put together the evidence, they’ll know who and where he is, and you’re wondering whether the cops can put together the evidence. But the movie’s attention isn’t on the cops. It stays with Bloch, and unlike any murder movie I can remember, there’s no particular tension. Everything plays out quietly, calmly. Bloch’s just a bloke doing things around town, which includes killing someone.
“What’s that noise?”
“Your room’s right above the bowling alley.”
It’s very odd, anti-genre, and I loved it. Among many other things, I appreciate that the murder is hinted at more than shown. If you hold a sustained blink for a few seconds you’ll miss it.
Also, from reading the papers I assume most American football players are horrible and violent people, so it plays into my prejudice to see that a German footballer is just as horrible and violent.
Verdict: YES.
NEVERENDING
FILM FESTIVAL
#295 [archive]
MAY 24, 2024
The Goat (1921)
Buster Keaton is mistaken for an escaped killer, but the story is unimportant, almost nonexistent. It’s just Buster doing several bits, most of them funny.
I laughed out loud only four times in 23 minutes, so this isn’t Mr Keaton’s best, but it’s better than a lot of other comedians’ best.
Verdict: YES.
God Has a Rap Sheet (2002)
In New York City, nine men are jailed in a single holding cell about the size of a school classroom. This being a theatrical exercise, one is a Hasidic Jew and one’s a Muslim wearing a kufi cap; one’s a black tough-talker, one’s his Puerto Rican best-buddy, and one’s a heavily tattooed white supremacist; one’s an Asian-American gay guy, one’s his English companion who’s startled at all things American; and one’s God, and one’s Satan.
“In order to make this whole thing work, you guys have got to make it work, do you understand?”
The setting and characters don’t seem real, but reality probably wasn’t the intent. It’s more the telling of a tall tale — ‘nine stereotypes walk into a jail cell’. It feels like a play written and well-staged by amateurs, trying to be profound, and it slightly might be.
God Has a Rap Sheet is an attempt at something out of the ordinary, successful on those terms, with not lots but noticeable amounts of intelligence. Also, some cool music.
Verdict: YES.
The Gods of Times Square (1999)
Before its tragic clean-up by Giuliani, Times Square in New York City was an interesting place. This doc is all about its 1990s street preachers, proselytizing all manner of nonsense at every intersection.
Jesus has already returned, and plans to marry Madonna, says one man claiming “inside knowledge.” Black nationalists stand before a Star of David and preach that all white people are evil. A priest tells us that Mickey Mouse is the antichrist.
When I was 25 years younger — when this was made — I would’ve enjoyed this more than I enjoyed it today. The joy of meeting kooks and their gods has faded, and become wearisome, because religious insanity isn’t found only in places like Tehran and Times Square. it’s everywhere, and if you believe in a religion you’re part of the problem.
Verdict: YES.
Godspell (1973)
Direct from the New Testament via off-Broadway, this is a musical adaptation of the book of Matthew, set in the present day and performed as mild vaudeville.
If you attended Sunday School as a child, you’ll recognize all the plot points, but the disciples have become squeaky-clean hippies, and instead of the usual sanctimonious tone, the lessons are delivered lightly, conversationally, which is nice, or spoken the way you’d speak to a child, which isn’t.
Some of the music sounds like cotton candy, but most of it’s pleasant, although the best-known number, “Day by Day,” seems sung a little off-key. The film is inoffensive, sticking close to the gospel, at least as I recall it.
Victor Garber plays Christ, wearing a Superman shirt with suspenders, singing and dancing and getting ready for his crucifixion.
It’s as sincere as a big-budget movie can be, and it’s not bad, but not as good as Jesus Christ Superstar, and nowhere near as good as Jesus of Montreal, where they don’t even sing.
Verdict: YES.
5/24/2024
• • • Coming attractions • • •
Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla: King of the Monsters! (1956)
Gog (1954)
Going Attractions: Drive-Ins (2013)
Going Attractions: Movie Palaces (2019)
… plus schlock, shorts, and surprises
especially starting with the letter ‘H’.
Just add a comment, below.
Click any image to enlarge. Arguments & recommendations are welcome, but no talking once the lights dim, and only real butter on the popcorn, not that fake yellow stuff.
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