rblenheim

Because I am not a paid critic and don't have to see films I don't want to see, on lucky years I often avoid the clunkers completely. I wasn't so lucky this time -- but, on the other hand, now I legitimately do have a film to proclaim proudly as having all the criteria necessary for a "worst film of the year".

It's Alex Ross Perry's "Her Smell", a title that actually could fittingly describe the entire movie. It stars the usually responsible fine actress Elisabeth Moss (of TV's "Mad Men" and "The Handmaid's Tale") who actually co-produced this narcissistic imbecilic ego-trip that shows a self-destructive punk rocker during a recording session from Hell curse, vomit, bleed and spew vitriol at her friends for 2/3 of its 136 minutes, and a final 1/3 failing to atone for the rest. Moss does her own singing (though the songs suck), but nothing saves this amateur mess from becoming an ordeal for its viewers, each of which must certainly regret to have even attempted to sit through it.

To all Moss fans: you can spare yourself the embarrassment of seeing a fine actress make a fool of herself by rewatching instead her other fine movies and shows. It is hoped Moss will continue her climb in the future to legitimate acclaim so the memory of this deep and dank humiliation can slip sullenly and silently into the forgetful land of the irretrievable stinker.

This episode is all built around one gag: The kids give him a hat to show their appreciation which he really doesn't like, and they keep ambushing him all around town to check that he is still wearing the hat. This one gag is carried on to such ridiculous extent that it almost reaches the Samuel Beckett level. Silly, but Ozzie's understated performance makes it work.

Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour" poses a problem for me. The subject is interesting and important, but the film, following Winston Churchill's early days as Prime Minister of Britain during World War II, never rises above the average. Worse: one could also say that -- in the fictitious sequence, about 2/3rds of the way through, when Churchill rides the tube to talk person-to-person with average British citizens riding the train -- it comes to life precisely at the same moment it sinks into cliché, and credulity is strained past the breaking point. Ultimately, Oldman playing Churchill is the only thing that makes this movie experience worthwhile. (But Joe Wright has seen better days -- especially in his 2007 masterpiece, "Atonement", the extraordinary film that incidentally introduced 12-year-old Saoirse Ronan to the world.) Not much better than a BBC-TV movie of the week.