tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28614215046242389352024-02-07T07:58:12.101-08:00Film ShuffleP. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.comBlogger242125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-69356340826208812202024-01-08T14:02:00.000-08:002024-01-08T14:02:44.026-08:002023 FILMS - THE MASTER LIST<p>I saw 86 new releases this year, and here's how they broke down.</p><p>4. The Good, the Bad and the Meh (click <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2024/01/2023-everything-else.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> for brief comments) - a wide range of stuff I liked, stuff that was endearingly terrible and stuff I just didn't take to for whatever reason.</p><p>3. The Gold Mine (click <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2024/01/2023-3-gold-mine.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> for commentary) - stuff I loved, period.</p><p>2. Platinum Level (click <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2024/01/2-platinum-level-2023-films.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> for blathering) - stuff I loved that I also thought was the best this year had to offer.</p><p>1. The Diamonds (click <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2024/01/1-diamonds-2023-movies.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> for profuse expressions of admiration) - my special favorites.</p>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-79790608922038453422024-01-08T12:28:00.000-08:002024-01-08T13:11:38.359-08:001. The Diamonds [2023 Films]<div class="separator"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;">These are my absolute faves of the year, transcending silly things like rank. All of these were profoundly special to me.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH99u53F4MaF5vXxWroCyo3h2AGWrhOgRSpagDfneH_CHu7Q00zN_QAgYaT-VrwRP9RbrmVZgR4Vmg14d5qvuv_x2Y8_Vn50Qdq58wNaUEkawNrT9yv1iPXo1sDMD3z5YgVL-dj0rO33RFndjy61Iq8ZKdsRTCYjJbWZeNhSD2m9Z33LbkV3qWSEyxAkOX/s2800/Barbie-collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2800" data-original-width="1299" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH99u53F4MaF5vXxWroCyo3h2AGWrhOgRSpagDfneH_CHu7Q00zN_QAgYaT-VrwRP9RbrmVZgR4Vmg14d5qvuv_x2Y8_Vn50Qdq58wNaUEkawNrT9yv1iPXo1sDMD3z5YgVL-dj0rO33RFndjy61Iq8ZKdsRTCYjJbWZeNhSD2m9Z33LbkV3qWSEyxAkOX/w297-h640/Barbie-collage-FULL.jpg" width="297" /></a></div><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee7a47d2-7fff-0662-1a60-8babd7c007d7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br />I'm just so tired of watching myself and every single other woman tie herself into knots so that people will like us. And if all of that is also true for a doll just representing women, then I don't even know.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This movie has no right to be as good as it is – as complex, as emotional, and as deep (Deep! A Barbie movie!) as it frickin’ is. I think most people suspected that with Greta Gerwig directing it would be more than just product placement or even a fun spoof. But not this. Not this candy colored almost entirely practical set that makes you want to step through the screen and have the time of your life. Not this movie that feels like a technicolor musical, even before the epic “I’m Just Ken” number. Not this celebration of womanhood where Barbies can code feminine and be powerful at the same time. Not this treatise on feminism that somehow manages not to be preachy (unless you’re a butthurt dude who thinks anything they don’t want to hear is preachy). This movie surpassed every expectation I had and became one of those movies where every time I think about it I’m suddenly sad that I’m not watching it right now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Is it perfectly logical? Does it do everything imaginable to criticize Mattel and Barbie’s legacy? LOL of course not! But play has its own logic. And the movie pokes at Mattel a whole lot more than anyone had any reason to expect it to. (Whatever Mattel’s qualms, I’m sure they’ve been crying all the way to the bank for the last six months as sales have gone through the roof.) This movie is about the impossible expectations of women, it’s about mothers and daughters, and it’s about how feminism benefits everyone, not just women. It also has a closing line that is Billy Wilder-level brilliant. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Streaming on Max and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJ0bbUTIZYS2MFg_jSnMjo9eFElS5QlE4obXrGdDCK68oLp63byCdQVxr1txLymkcQ5KOZ5ZELocBDZLouDJHLNu-_9aiVbjvbZbPk3PkIm3kOOQw5NXVuD8tSBMEjcpUd7g0GFLtmyo7nEkeeuPN3lD_-lO-jsx85acJDAsbeM4QAosbrSwaUhYAV43e/s2800/Killers-Collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2800" data-original-width="1363" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfJ0bbUTIZYS2MFg_jSnMjo9eFElS5QlE4obXrGdDCK68oLp63byCdQVxr1txLymkcQ5KOZ5ZELocBDZLouDJHLNu-_9aiVbjvbZbPk3PkIm3kOOQw5NXVuD8tSBMEjcpUd7g0GFLtmyo7nEkeeuPN3lD_-lO-jsx85acJDAsbeM4QAosbrSwaUhYAV43e/w312-h640/Killers-Collage-FULL.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Can you find the wolves in this picture?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Of all the historical epic movies that make me furious at the state of history education in America, this one takes the cake. And of course, this is exactly the kind of history that some people don’t *want* taught because it makes white people feel bad. You know what? We should feel bad because white people are The Worst. I wasn’t even aware that there were indigenous Americans who became seriously wealthy when they discovered oil on the land they were forced onto. It was predictable that white people would swarm the land and try to take what advantage they could by selling goods and providing services. And it shouldn’t really have been that surprising that some people – like the figures portrayed in this movie – were capable of much worse. Martin Scorsese is no stranger to crime stories, but this is definitely a new milieu for him and you can tell that every effort has been made to get all the historical details right. (The list of indigenous consultants in the credits is vast.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This is a beautifully made movie that takes its time and immerses you in its world. Leonardo Dicaprio has played villainous characters before but I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play someone so dim and weak; that you can still feel an inkling of pathos for this guy is kind of a miracle. Robert DeNiro is a much more clear villain and his character “King” is his own version of a mob boss – outwardly benign and helpful but capable of real evil. The heart of this movie, though, is Lily Gladstone, whose Molly goes through inconceivable amounts of grief and pain and still manages to convey the real love she had for her treacherous husband. The end of the movie has been much discussed, but I think it’s an essential lampshading of the nature of this movie – a retelling of a genuine tragedy that not only is being told chiefly by white men but is also packaged as a piece of entertainment. Having Scorsese himself utter the final words and accept responsibility for that is a fascinating note to end the film on. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Available to rent on AppleTV but will be streaming for free for AppleTV users starting Jan. 12</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNL0yyyeBYm_xM5LNm6sU5XAVGyjUKFCbRGyRXsP5U-uGI5dPbqI52orWftWXIDfFrndjCVACH4SklhuqG53VGCNpCEsxPF1SdJZqeNheZDYrOR1QT3JRrDUfz-6eEylC1H7xz0Jcqp44KAZK-kMPkzTh9W2T1nZ1ONJXY_tVDCsfnIG7bBD3kdPcFtIo/s2800/PastLives-Collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2800" data-original-width="1330" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCNL0yyyeBYm_xM5LNm6sU5XAVGyjUKFCbRGyRXsP5U-uGI5dPbqI52orWftWXIDfFrndjCVACH4SklhuqG53VGCNpCEsxPF1SdJZqeNheZDYrOR1QT3JRrDUfz-6eEylC1H7xz0Jcqp44KAZK-kMPkzTh9W2T1nZ1ONJXY_tVDCsfnIG7bBD3kdPcFtIo/w304-h640/PastLives-Collage-FULL.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I liked you for who you are, and who you are is a person who leaves. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">But for him, you’re the person who stays.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’ve never really been a fan of love triangles, despite some of my favorite romantic movies containing that element. I was wary of PAST LIVES from the trailers, as it looked like exactly the kind of triangle that rubs me the wrong way – there’s this great love trying to manifest and no matter how much the third person loves and respects one of the parties, they are In The Way of destiny. I’m sure that might resemble someone’s love story in real life, but that’s not my idea of how love works. So imagine my surprise when this turned out to be incredibly, heartbreakingly real and mature, with no one as the bad guy and no one with an ulterior motive. We meet Na Young and Hae Sung as children and the two clearly have feelings for each other. They’re parted when Na Young’s family moves to Toronto, but 12 years later, after Na Young (now Nora) has moved to New York, they reconnect online. Wanting to focus on her life in New York and her career, she suggests that they not have contact for a while. She soon meets Arthur at a writer’s retreat and they fall in love. Another 12 years later, Hae Sung comes to see Nora in New York.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This is yet another incredible feature directorial debut – assured and confident and not desperate to impress you. There are some really cool editing choices that take us briefly to another time period to underscore something happening now. And the photography is incredible; I don’t think I’ve ever seen New York City look so warm and romantic. The performances from the three leads are all impeccable, and I want to especially heap praise on John Magaro, who plays Nora’s husband. He has such complicated feelings to convey and it would be so easy to make this character a villain. But he really is the hero in many ways, not only because he loves Nora and trusts her enough to not try and keep her from seeing Hae Sung, but also because he is there for her in a way that Hae Sung doesn’t have to be, which says so much about the nature of a long-term love versus the idealism of romantic possibility. This is one of the best romantic movies I’ve ever seen. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Available to rent on various streaming platforms</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyNrX0PGSFbsE47nPGsSjY8F9lvro_jDbFe2I3YMDEV35WWL4sx9RjrnasmdHyHGsO9OFZypgv-zTXG_5HN8XzuhJPsQHIcJoNcR3-gU_TLi3bSCUsmpZ8uTtGNL3p6enpfdvQ6VA9seQ7k-V29xIQI79yhTmPtesaU_R3datV6yVvBdPaDgtW54mIzhW/s2341/PoorThings-Collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2341" data-original-width="1074" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCyNrX0PGSFbsE47nPGsSjY8F9lvro_jDbFe2I3YMDEV35WWL4sx9RjrnasmdHyHGsO9OFZypgv-zTXG_5HN8XzuhJPsQHIcJoNcR3-gU_TLi3bSCUsmpZ8uTtGNL3p6enpfdvQ6VA9seQ7k-V29xIQI79yhTmPtesaU_R3datV6yVvBdPaDgtW54mIzhW/w294-h640/PoorThings-Collage-FULL.jpg" width="294" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">We must experience everything. Not just the good, but degradation, horror, sadness. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Then we can know the world. And when we know the world, the world is ours.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I’ve loved everything I’ve seen from Yorgos Lanthimos, but this is by far my favorite thing he’s done. Teaming up once again with Emma Stone (who gives one of the best performances of the year), he tells the tale of Bella Baxter, which is essentially a feminist version of Frankenstein. It also would make a fascinating conversation with BARBIE, both films being about women on a journey of self-discovery. There are some elements that some will probably strongly object to, among them being the way in which Bella is “born.” There is also a very frank sexuality in the film and in Bella’s character arc, and I found myself rather astonished at seeing a woman in a film talk about “needing” sex – a thing I’m almost positive I have never heard a woman say in a movie or on television EVER because women traditionally are not allowed to have those feelings (and for sure never to admit to them).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Bella’s growth as a person is rather brilliantly written and acted – from the way she moves to her manner of speaking and syntax. The look of the film is also quite distinctive. It’s not clear what time period this is supposed to be, but there’s a sort of pastel steampunk look to everything. The costumes are extraordinary and all of Bella’s outfits *look* very period while clearly not being period (lots of elaborate high collars and puffy sleeves paired with silk pajama-like shorts). Pretty much any shot in the film that’s not a close-up is skewed in some way (including a whole lot of fisheye shots), reflecting the unique way that Bella sees the world. It’s all incredibly specific and unique and stunningly beautiful to look at. The screenplay was written by Tony McNamara, who also wrote the screenplay for Lanthimos’s THE FAVOURITE (and created the TV series “The Great”) but while you can see a similar sense of humor at play in the writing, it’s much less biting and more humanistic (I mean, I love THE FAVOURITE, but damn it’s mean). I love everything about this movie. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbviYrVFMNmrZ0cpkWqfWj7cu4W9igg_3q9u5ct7M2e8RJ9S-kvuWqV4qer67RipFgTLxkBKM7nVy8SB13ifywMTLYb2O3NCYnRB_sP9cfr4a4haCcykm3YT66QgQKkLqlbFhOfMtdhRhtPZqMM2r0t5t6qHoAfxcQf2a0ZmBmvlKW3E9XlcDQSCEwbQ_o/s2729/Riddle-Collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2729" data-original-width="1372" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbviYrVFMNmrZ0cpkWqfWj7cu4W9igg_3q9u5ct7M2e8RJ9S-kvuWqV4qer67RipFgTLxkBKM7nVy8SB13ifywMTLYb2O3NCYnRB_sP9cfr4a4haCcykm3YT66QgQKkLqlbFhOfMtdhRhtPZqMM2r0t5t6qHoAfxcQf2a0ZmBmvlKW3E9XlcDQSCEwbQ_o/w322-h640/Riddle-Collage-FULL.jpg" width="322" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I knew we should have gone to Nacho Mama.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(There is not a whole lot to choose from yet when it comes to stills and quotes for this movie. Thank goodness one of the child actors reminded me of the quote above.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This was by far my favorite thing I saw at Fantastic Fest. I have a strange relationship with movie kids and movies *about* kids. I didn’t get to see a lot of movies when I was an actual child and I ended up seeing a lot of movies that were formative for people my age when I was an adult and therefore had a much different perspective on them. And it’s incredibly rare that I see a movie that evokes what I remember about actually being a child. Which is one reason this movie is so special to me. A lot of people will compare this to THE GOONIES, and there’s definitely a sense of “kids on an adventure that’s a bit too big for them” here. The director Weston Razooli says his biggest inspiration for this was “The Little Rascals” and I definitely see that as well. But it’s also got a lot of eldritch vibes and mystical journey tropes (kind of like a redneck Lord of the Rings).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The basic story is that three children, on the last weekend of summer vacation, “acquire” a new video game system and hope to spend their last free weekend playing it to their hearts’ content. But they hit a snag when they realize the boys’ mother has put a password on the television and to get it from her they have to complete a task that grows increasingly complicated and potentially dangerous as the movie goes on. This is maybe my favorite kids adventure movie that I’ve ever seen and genuinely took me back to my own childhood, when the most mundane things could feel like an actual adventure. The children in this are all spectacular, and the plot heavily depends on the classic laissez-faire parenting that we know and love from all our favorite stories from childhood (and many of our own actual childhoods, let’s be real). And it has the most unexpected use of the “Cannibal Holocaust” theme you could imagine. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Coming to theaters in April the last I heard</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqMy31CYuoPfT1aEqblEEog1o9xysY_TPxAOHJeIVx6jw8dzQ2x54D4h4o5xoF2EXxrKl9qz7YK9_YP_aHQR8HfVUendl6xzoe6x9ENwVmGwDqSSiHOqyiGeEol7E_mwZVYrXSdZNyDt7npcbhx71O1a4M3YI432NP2jNjGe8ml8qBXYmRKs7TWUY1lsw/s2800/Taste-Collage-FULL.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2800" data-original-width="1331" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnqMy31CYuoPfT1aEqblEEog1o9xysY_TPxAOHJeIVx6jw8dzQ2x54D4h4o5xoF2EXxrKl9qz7YK9_YP_aHQR8HfVUendl6xzoe6x9ENwVmGwDqSSiHOqyiGeEol7E_mwZVYrXSdZNyDt7npcbhx71O1a4M3YI432NP2jNjGe8ml8qBXYmRKs7TWUY1lsw/w304-h640/Taste-Collage-FULL.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Happiness is continuing to desire what we already have. But you, have I ever had you?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This snuck up on me at the end of the year, and I confess that a huge part of my curiosity about the film was due to its two leads, Juliette Binoche and Benoit Magimel, who were partners in the late 90s and early 2000s and have a child together but split about 20 years ago. I try not to “ship” real people, but seeing these two play a love story was too much to resist. And their real-life history definitely adds to the passion between their characters. Dodin and Eugenie have worked together in the same kitchen for 20 years and a romance has blossomed between them, though Eugenie continually says no to Dodin’s marriage proposals because she prefers her freedom. At the same time, the two of them are mentoring a young girl who shows all the signs of being a cooking prodigy.</span></p><br /><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The first roughly half-hour of the film is a mostly dialogue-free scene of the characters cooking an elaborate meal. We get to know them by how they wordlessly communicate with each other, how they move around the kitchen and how they handle the food. I always love watching competent people doing things competently, but to show emotion and passion through the act of cooking took my breath away. There’s another cooking scene later in the movie, where Dodin is cooking just for Eugenie, and it’s like his version of a proposal and his best way of expressing his love for and devotion to her. This is so beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted, and there’s something so incredible and tender about being able to convey deep emotion through an act of service. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Coming to theaters in February</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-10948975526776356812024-01-08T01:21:00.000-08:002024-01-08T13:51:09.637-08:002. Platinum Level [2023 Films]<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> These are the movies I loved that I also thought were the best of the year.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5RT4JE0Xku4KfCSqOO7bVBgExj7Jz8A_JspVIVgI94EpUOyNXTCtR3Lp8BkdGnSUP2BReSEpRniGTwixzcx67Ubv_e_NG8bWHH52z0bSOotoNOKJVuIKJ5GZywvl9cf3O9q5-92NUk738PDlzgyVzQHfyGWWebLyXYMKHH-ObJY6AAHv6YVHwFdQDO7f/s1024/platinum%202023.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr5RT4JE0Xku4KfCSqOO7bVBgExj7Jz8A_JspVIVgI94EpUOyNXTCtR3Lp8BkdGnSUP2BReSEpRniGTwixzcx67Ubv_e_NG8bWHH52z0bSOotoNOKJVuIKJ5GZywvl9cf3O9q5-92NUk738PDlzgyVzQHfyGWWebLyXYMKHH-ObJY6AAHv6YVHwFdQDO7f/w640-h480/platinum%202023.001.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-style: italic; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">A shoe is just a shoe until someone steps into it.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c16ad777-7fff-efd2-5db4-ba688084c0b1"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Of all of the product placement movies that came out this year, this one charmed me the most. I used to work a few blocks from the Nike store in midtown Manhattan, and when I would pass it there was always a line (which I always wondered about, but thanks to TED LASSO I know this is de rigueur for an athletic shoe store). Of course, like so many “true stories,” we know how this one ends. But I’m always a sucker for a “yeah, but did you know how close it was to NOT happening???” story, and this one is really well done, to the point that I *almost* forgot that Air Jordans not only exist, but they have been a cultural icon for decades. This movie largely rides on a stellar cast, led by Matt Damon and co-starring lifelong BFF (and the film’s director) Ben Affleck. The obvious standout is Viola Davis as Michael’s mother, and every scene she’s in is the best part of the movie. The “80s vibes” might seem pretty on-the-nose and the music cues might seem a bit “now that’s what I call an 80s movie,” but it all really worked for me. Even the production design is amazing – everything looks extremely 80s but it still looks “new,” if that makes sense. I genuinely thought this was great storytelling, culminating in one of the best “pitch” scenes I’ve ever seen. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Streaming on Amazon Prime</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.)</span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span></div><div><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijH5Hm_2LxWOlFh4dupeXv3VC8NdNAf4ZHeoTcvQmpewHPRIBgE-ubp1Go85HhkQnDyJ4mxywT-BGvs0nV1lI-Gp5hAWC0LWyP4jQlqS8qyc4BegnGdNEYk_i1kAwAA7agKg3JqAsdoXwI-Iqk2BvAF4dchvJUvqoKBLkpFrM_ZbYU7nxtVLIkNLvAt1nS/s1024/platinum%202023.002.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijH5Hm_2LxWOlFh4dupeXv3VC8NdNAf4ZHeoTcvQmpewHPRIBgE-ubp1Go85HhkQnDyJ4mxywT-BGvs0nV1lI-Gp5hAWC0LWyP4jQlqS8qyc4BegnGdNEYk_i1kAwAA7agKg3JqAsdoXwI-Iqk2BvAF4dchvJUvqoKBLkpFrM_ZbYU7nxtVLIkNLvAt1nS/w640-h480/platinum%202023.002.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-style: italic; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-style: italic; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Do I scare you?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-b469e57d-7fff-3983-ad2e-6310b5edbe42"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There’s a lot in this movie I can’t relate to, as a straight American woman. But when it attacked me, it </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ATTACKED me. There were some very particular ways in which I identified hard with this movie. I don’t </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">want to say too much about the story because it’s tricky, spoiler wise. But it’s a tough movie to nail down, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in terms of what’s actually happening (if you’re someone who needs that to be etched in stone, that is). Is </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this a fantasy? A ghost story? Time travel? All of the above? However you come down on any of those </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">questions, it’s nonetheless emotionally devastating. Andrew Scott is in top form here and his chemistry </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with the equally great Paul Mescal, who plays his neighbor and romantic interest, is palpable. Claire Foy </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and Jamie Bell (my goodness, has it been THAT long since Billy Elliott?!) are also excellent as Andrew </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Scott’s parents and the only other characters in the movie. There’s a profound sense of loneliness in the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie, though I also identified with the main character’s seeming contentment with not being around </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people most of the time. And I will never hear “You Were Always On My Mind” again without crying. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifOOv8R9yaLVMZaI7eec8PhEoax2YnLgVk9Qy5HEpa2G3FGqYRGE53oufQ5PTb-C9L9RKGxMwvyuLckkH8hEiTA14oe3JP6hT4JcDGaQ9OUS1bvx3RRzDqijdHvz3X1EjRB8LnQsVhd10URWroWwhaOepZE7cAAxTXwun5b48XjEw4sAox8imwyACB9KrO/s1024/platinum%202023.003.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifOOv8R9yaLVMZaI7eec8PhEoax2YnLgVk9Qy5HEpa2G3FGqYRGE53oufQ5PTb-C9L9RKGxMwvyuLckkH8hEiTA14oe3JP6hT4JcDGaQ9OUS1bvx3RRzDqijdHvz3X1EjRB8LnQsVhd10URWroWwhaOepZE7cAAxTXwun5b48XjEw4sAox8imwyACB9KrO/w640-h480/platinum%202023.003.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-style: italic; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Not being able to relate to people isn’t a badge of honor.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a7aa6487-7fff-8dd7-9562-585ca5befee7"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This movie was not what I expected from the trailer, which has quite a different energy than what it’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">advertising. Our main character is a Black writer whose books don’t sell. After seeing a colleague get some s</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">uccess with a book exploiting Black stereotypes, he decides to write his own exploitative “masterpiece” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">under a pseudonym as a joke. Except no one gets the joke. That’s what you get from the trailer, but there’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">so much more going on here. There are a whole lot of family dynamics and even a romance in the offing, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but all of that gets swallowed by the main character’s accidental success. Which is the entire point. Jeffrey </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Wright gives a career-best performance and he’s in excellent company, with Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Brown, Issa Rae, John Ortiz, and Leslie Uggams filling out the ranks. Not to mention Keith David and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Hamilton’s Okieriete Onaodowan in an incredible meta scene. Speaking of incredible scenes, the film’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ending has sparked a lot of discussion, with many of the opinion that it kind of ruins the movie. I agree </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that it “ruins” it but that’s actually why I love it and why I think it works. This is an astounding movie </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to be its director's feature debut and I’m excited to see what he picks to do next. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2m1snElIUpyEOLAe84y-KNJxbmO6xEDvfKGd7BWGsLP4m4BF6IuSv9s3UmsQTPx4Hm7Csx7Ce-_t1zCnfcYhoG09rOOJ1drbsiZ2t_lF3k4E0eygAlICA8E4itflz767VhyphenhyphenzWUp1CYq0yTeDezwr_9SpVK5rUQ3por4981eW86AWMNNwWzgX0GWBBeqqP/s1024/platinum%202023.004.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2m1snElIUpyEOLAe84y-KNJxbmO6xEDvfKGd7BWGsLP4m4BF6IuSv9s3UmsQTPx4Hm7Csx7Ce-_t1zCnfcYhoG09rOOJ1drbsiZ2t_lF3k4E0eygAlICA8E4itflz767VhyphenhyphenzWUp1CYq0yTeDezwr_9SpVK5rUQ3por4981eW86AWMNNwWzgX0GWBBeqqP/w640-h480/platinum%202023.004.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-style: italic; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Sometimes a couple is kind of a chaos and everybody is lost. Sometimes we fight together and </div><div style="text-align: center;">sometimes we fight alone, and sometimes we fight against each other, that happens.</div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8a7ec79a-7fff-fa33-b4a7-34f93250ae7e"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">German actress Sandra Hüller gave at least two incredible performances this year and I feel like this is the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">better one, if only because you can actually see it. Here she plays a woman whose husband dies from a fall </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">out a high window, and she finds herself on trial as the chief suspect of his alleged murder. Like last year’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">SAINT OMER, this movie gives us a glimpse at how French court trials work, which is very different to </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">how I think most English-speaking people think of how courts work. Here, it’s not just about presenting the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">facts and proving the case; defendants have an opportunity to tell their story – and opposing counsel to </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">challenge that story – which is exactly what we see happen for more than half of this movie. It’s fascinating </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and compelling, because it drives home the fact that you cannot fully know and understand another person’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">marriage. Things get said and are done that sound very different without their full context. You can see the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">main character’s frustration at being misinterpreted. And it’s quite possible that she could have acted </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">without malice and still be responsible for her husband’s death. None of this is knowable and the film </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">makes no attempt to come down on one side or another, which some viewers might find frustrating but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I think is brilliant. It doesn’t matter if you think she did it or not. The uncertainty is the point. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Available to rent on various platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBAeGSrjjUI2H8ceiR7g57gTgiAi4p3jXcDjq3GTaJvGz1ud8v2PAwiq2VVMPLfux70p9G0r-w2pFCQsCAruaZsReD2e0qflW9tkVN_BJ2m-kNS4WtsRlUSBazdVkh15q_lNkQA0RJauu97Wgk5OZTX-LDzfJkX__ozt8W4JAzD5x5-Co7y7dSgIYUm3-/s1024/platinum%202023.005.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBAeGSrjjUI2H8ceiR7g57gTgiAi4p3jXcDjq3GTaJvGz1ud8v2PAwiq2VVMPLfux70p9G0r-w2pFCQsCAruaZsReD2e0qflW9tkVN_BJ2m-kNS4WtsRlUSBazdVkh15q_lNkQA0RJauu97Wgk5OZTX-LDzfJkX__ozt8W4JAzD5x5-Co7y7dSgIYUm3-/w640-h480/platinum%202023.005.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I've been looking for you, God. I looked for you in Temple. I looked for you in Church. I didn't feel you at all. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Why? Why, God? Why do I only feel you when I'm alone?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-1c94466b-7fff-3687-d5ea-ce92509bae53"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Like many people my age and a little older, the Judy Blume novel on which this is based was a beloved text </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in my home during my childhood. I considered it a “how to” book for how to get through puberty, especially </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the obligatory female troubles. This is a joyously faithful adaptation and reinforces that this isn’t just about </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a girl getting her first period; it’s about a girl learning her place in the world and figuring out who she is. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The cast is outstanding, perhaps especially Rachel McAdams and Benny Safdie, who play Margaret’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">parents. Kathy Bates is great as always, as Margaret’s grandmother. And Margaret herself, as played by </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Abby Ryder Fortson, is fantastic, as is just about all of the tween cast. They all feel real and not like </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cloying, cutesy “movie” kids. I never really thought of the book as taking place in a specific time, but it </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">was published in 1970 and the movie is very much a 70s movie, with all the delicious period detail that </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">suggests. I’m bummed this movie hasn’t gotten more critical or awards love because I think it’s genuinely </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">great and feels as daring as the novel did when it first came out. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Starz and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEal5hoTKvXxcK1_jljzJr0bOcuwliIe5lxll_PZoWbXI2n_aCsnjlM3Yj1MLSvAVW46CMJV-IMJp09_y0ESYjcbT9YSCHjGwvvFjtNaQMmtPnbt6nSGXYzRZe6kMLk61BeQD88wiZVrwzsN0OheNnSsaQGVqdqZDOQnQOeGTX1mlybdxkE44c2P4_ZY3/s1024/platinum%202023.006.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnEal5hoTKvXxcK1_jljzJr0bOcuwliIe5lxll_PZoWbXI2n_aCsnjlM3Yj1MLSvAVW46CMJV-IMJp09_y0ESYjcbT9YSCHjGwvvFjtNaQMmtPnbt6nSGXYzRZe6kMLk61BeQD88wiZVrwzsN0OheNnSsaQGVqdqZDOQnQOeGTX1mlybdxkE44c2P4_ZY3/w640-h480/platinum%202023.006.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Can you die from this?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6e17f497-7fff-71cc-0d5f-bb721ece6b93"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Oh, Ari Aster, you beautiful weirdo. There’s been a looooot of overthinking this movie, which you can hardly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">blame people for. It’s kind of built to make you desperate to make sense of it. I think it’s a mistake to read </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">all of the glorious nonsense that happens to this character as somehow not really happening or “it’s all in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">his head,” but at the same time a lot of it is clearly symbolic rather than literal. Aster’s Kafkaesuqe nightmare </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">comedy is undoubtedly influenced by stories like Scorsese’s AFTER HOURS or the Coen Brothers’ A SIMPLE </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">MAN, in which a character has misadventures heaped upon them past the point where a single human could </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">conceivably endure it. This is that narrative filtered through Ari Aster’s absurdity palette, and I think it can be </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">enjoyed and appreciated on that level without even needing to get into the figurative – save that for a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">subsequent viewing. This movie also boasts an all-star cast, many of them stage veterans, which lends the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie a theatrical quality. Chief among them is Patti Lupone, whose character looms over the whole movie </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">like a massive bug swarm until we finally meet her in the final act. Of all of the domineering and manipulative </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">mother figures in fiction who have ever made their child’s life a living hell, Lupone’s monstrous Mona is </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">right up there with Mrs. Bates, Margaret White and Eleanor Iselin. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Showtime and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFBu7o0ix0u6WK__PH7kLOe71untsTWTkXDv4RijQkEWGL0Z0dgr_fq1Njv37q5r12my22_HZueTzQTlFPndaq6hkunWRmkA-rp8O8Rij3BBknik0lDc5xQnLIdO3J9Duu3ST0sqPFEFEG7xrSmxQoK8lmPLK6T2HhD3K2adyrbwAs3N5RdfmPMgFCd-g/s1024/platinum%202023.007.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFBu7o0ix0u6WK__PH7kLOe71untsTWTkXDv4RijQkEWGL0Z0dgr_fq1Njv37q5r12my22_HZueTzQTlFPndaq6hkunWRmkA-rp8O8Rij3BBknik0lDc5xQnLIdO3J9Duu3ST0sqPFEFEG7xrSmxQoK8lmPLK6T2HhD3K2adyrbwAs3N5RdfmPMgFCd-g/w640-h480/platinum%202023.007.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I really value when people use violence for me, it's actually one of my love languages.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-80740a99-7fff-bb15-8b6a-d03ce802996f"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The teen movie has had a tried and true blueprint for decades, with John Hughes as one of its preeminent </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">architects. That has been changing in the last few years and BOTTOMS feels like it has completely rewritten </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the playbook. This feels like a new HEATHERS – very different story, but the tone and heightened reality </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">are quite similar. The plot centers on two unpopular high school lesbians who start a self-defense club to get </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">closer to the girls they have crushes on, and it’s not really like anything else (other than HEATHERS and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">probably BOOKSMART) that I’ve ever seen. Most of the familiar beats are *kind of* there, but never in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the way you expect. And the humor is so balls to the wall, it’s really something (there is one gag about a kid </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">who’s planning to kill the whole school that had me ROLLING). I enjoyed Emma Seligman’s previous film, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">SHIVA BABY (also starring absolute treasure Rachel Sennott), but this was a huge step up for me. As fond </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">as I am of the classic 80s teen movies, it’s great to see a new one of these that feels very much of its time </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and not such an homage. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on MGM+ and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxawNF19QdrplnPUg5_LQTq1gjrOxiXWQHGVyUZYb7eAWIcP-jyb87KSjDH5D6DK9jL6wLC3rgzD2H6ksSGIxWlLgMeLpQnenIh0mem4iFQyT2yIBVsKVQKeyO5CjiAp7jicMKxlDW9vYcc2gHU8A866bpLYAoSD6MG08ADpwsu01yjXebe3pGvUmL0iT/s1024/platinum%202023.008.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggxawNF19QdrplnPUg5_LQTq1gjrOxiXWQHGVyUZYb7eAWIcP-jyb87KSjDH5D6DK9jL6wLC3rgzD2H6ksSGIxWlLgMeLpQnenIh0mem4iFQyT2yIBVsKVQKeyO5CjiAp7jicMKxlDW9vYcc2gHU8A866bpLYAoSD6MG08ADpwsu01yjXebe3pGvUmL0iT/w640-h480/platinum%202023.008.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Why make a masterpiece? Do what you’re good at.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-12a4f986-7fff-f589-e818-5046e9ff2abf"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This is the Korean COBWEB, not to be confused with the horror film of the same name that also came out </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this year. This was one of my favorites from Fantastic Fest, and it’s the latest from Kim Jee-woon, who also </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">made THE GOOD THE BAD THE WEIRD, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS and (a movie everyone loves a lot </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">more than I do, apparently) I SAW THE DEVIL. Song Kang-ho (PARASITE, SYMPATHY FOR MR. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">VENGEANCE) stars as a director who has just wrapped his latest film and suddenly changes his mind about </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">how it should end. Most of the film is the chaotic couple of days spent reshooting and telling various lies and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">hatching various schemes to hold everything together. This reminded me a lot of ONE CUT OF THE DEAD, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">but this is more cynical!funny and satirical than endearing!funny (not a criticism). It’s also a period movie, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">set in the early 1970s, with loads of great period detail. There are loads of hilarious characters rounding out </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the fictional cast and crew and </span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">you find yourself really invested in the movie getting finished, even as the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">director’s behavior teeters over into abuse. There’s an interesting reveal about a previous shoot that ended in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">catastrophe. And the last fifteen or twenty minutes are an incredible playout of the final product – the perfect </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ending everyone’s been killing themselves to bring about, which happens in a jawdropping oner. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Not yet released.</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSY7naIHzsDjZGNF5oqZU9ZHiM5ECqTrJFsXkSmBeEodY2wUecf8G0VGACfRKN5iRg93Jl3DBwhBULjnP2WpCIyuFp0qBUTxjQMmvg4h8p7zIVHUt2zUiHq9sobFlCtjRgBn1U4DTGQZLjjhBAl5y5o_GPA0vVZ76ryJHwpzWsQlW3WaxdJicive7Q_O4p/s1024/platinum%202023.009.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSY7naIHzsDjZGNF5oqZU9ZHiM5ECqTrJFsXkSmBeEodY2wUecf8G0VGACfRKN5iRg93Jl3DBwhBULjnP2WpCIyuFp0qBUTxjQMmvg4h8p7zIVHUt2zUiHq9sobFlCtjRgBn1U4DTGQZLjjhBAl5y5o_GPA0vVZ76ryJHwpzWsQlW3WaxdJicive7Q_O4p/w640-h480/platinum%202023.009.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">To have never gone to war is something to be proud of.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-62c9c715-7fff-2eff-ed0d-ea9e5929f102"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Saying this is the greatest Godzilla movie ever may seem like hyperbole, but I think it might be true. Yes, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">perhaps even better than the original 1954 film. This movie goes back to the feel of the original, actually </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">dealing with the serious subject matter, and creates an astoundingly emotional narrative. It’s set right at the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">end of WW2, when Japan is at its lowest point, and sends in a kaiju to kick them while they’re down (which </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I think is the meaning of the title). Our eventual hero is not initially heroic at all – being a kamikaze pilot </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">who abandoned his mission out of fear. And it’s incredibly satisfying to see him find something to fight for </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and become willing to do what is necessary, even if it costs him his life. The monster effects are first-rate </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and the spectacle of destruction is breathtaking. And I always love the sciency scenes, where all the smart </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people get together to figure out if and how the beast can be destroyed. If you’ve never seen a Godzilla </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie … well, go back and watch the first one first, but definitely watch this one. It is movie magic in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">every sense. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazBwhy4EZEfdbMqAXvWbY9qAf9pYQPng-9YNVrlGvHGTLnB7aJGpWuR-megxreUim1QfWnqIjR35s0MoRcJ7QHPaR9xmgnbqKjDhOznlngvnwGHZVQXlnMs6LnWQOfMn2vUbhQxsqtKNBUSfVTqEK9Ean6Zu-6brxkQ5-pf0sqvCgNaxKWRdXlLUmjT3i/s1024/platinum%202023.010.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazBwhy4EZEfdbMqAXvWbY9qAf9pYQPng-9YNVrlGvHGTLnB7aJGpWuR-megxreUim1QfWnqIjR35s0MoRcJ7QHPaR9xmgnbqKjDhOznlngvnwGHZVQXlnMs6LnWQOfMn2vUbhQxsqtKNBUSfVTqEK9Ean6Zu-6brxkQ5-pf0sqvCgNaxKWRdXlLUmjT3i/w640-h480/platinum%202023.010.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It's my own arrogance to think I could survive on what he could give.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0b739a8f-7fff-6b26-d1b0-d7dafa053ed0"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There is ONE moment that very nearly throws this whole movie off a cliff, it’s so bad. Why that needle drop? </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">WHY??! Thankfully, it happens very near the end of an extraordinary film and I can ignore it. I’ve heard </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">complaints that this is a by-the-numbers biopic, that this needs to be the death knell for biopics, etc. I feel </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">differently. The biopic tends to be the least interesting genre because a person’s life is not a story. Not one </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">story, anyway. And chronicling the events of a person’s life like ticking off boxes on a checklist doesn’t </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">really tell you anything about them. But I don’t think that’s what this movie is. This movie is not really </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">*about* Leonard Bernstein; it’s about his wife and their unconventional love story. This is Carey Mulligan’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie and it’s not an accident that she, not Bradley Cooper, has top billing. This isn’t a perfect movie, but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I think it’s an interesting one, with lots of interesting filmmaking decisions. For example, I like that each of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the eras of Lenny’s and Felicia’s life are filmed like the movies of that particular time in cinema history (e.g., </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">when they meet in the 1940s, the movie is shot and performed like a 1940s movie, with rapid-fire dialogue </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and dynamic black-and-white photography). This is also, for me at least, an emotional movie. As a lover </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of music, it’s hard not to be moved by a lot of this – especially the glorious Mahler performance. Also, and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this is only a personal thing for me, there’s a moment in the movie where Carey Mulligan looks almost </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">precisely like my late mother, which was a whole other layer of overwhelming. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Netflix and still in some theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVCJcFC-Vq2HbrfOH-xoA_2ALKLyJfOsOEP1caFoW9UBAmMiQjp2fFRLB7PkT4mctHR23GOyi1mPJXEEeA8inptxKfICLVDtLb2jE28lzUHXPaI9JD0_D2CWCeFPcrt4WK5PoDPQisOwrV7u_VXICygFDaHyu74WOMTkQ8lvLpgZqW5dIvO5QcEKAlzrv/s1024/platinum%202023.011.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVCJcFC-Vq2HbrfOH-xoA_2ALKLyJfOsOEP1caFoW9UBAmMiQjp2fFRLB7PkT4mctHR23GOyi1mPJXEEeA8inptxKfICLVDtLb2jE28lzUHXPaI9JD0_D2CWCeFPcrt4WK5PoDPQisOwrV7u_VXICygFDaHyu74WOMTkQ8lvLpgZqW5dIvO5QcEKAlzrv/w640-h480/platinum%202023.011.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">What’s the future like?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-347e3e9a-7fff-afd5-02d7-56cfe5204bcb"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">A few years ago, I saw this team’s previous film BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES at Anomaly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Film Festival in Rochester. That was a devilishly clever film that had a simple time travel premise that the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">filmmakers took to unbelievable lengths. When I read the description for RIVER and saw that it was another </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">plot revolving around a “two minute” time anomaly, I was dubious and wondered how this would be sufficiently </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">different from the previous film to merit another story. I should not have doubted these geniuses. Instead of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">seeing two minutes into the future, all of these characters are experiencing the same two minutes over and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">over again. Well, not the same exactly. The same in time – bowls of food refill themselves, characters who </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">move during the two minutes end up back in the same spot – but the characters all retain their memory of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">each loop, so they can learn and figure out solutions. As much as I loved BTITM, this movie steps up the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">storytelling significantly, with lots of incredible character moments and a setting that allows for all sorts </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of interesting development. There’s one chunk of the movie that actually manages to slow the movie down </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">enough for two characters to have an extended and meaningful conversation. Like the previous movie, there’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a bit of Extraordinary Sci-Fi that miraculously saves the day, which in another movie might be annoying, but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">here it’s literally the only way to resolve the situation. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Available to rent on AppleTV</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8Zz1eFxSEEVO-KIj1fxqKLAckmzQSE1QPdTxPuSp88p67afBTgZEFTAWNRRooDqOVyYLVzMZHrnPN3tNcve5jxeIavczZ12KAS11mThe65dqaxhmLSoo739pfVVEmH_btYq_TkCJi1aShlXZPczA2YHTxuSO5__c5HEHEqufNA0sUCim0NEZDLxQPI4C/s1024/platinum%202023.012.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN8Zz1eFxSEEVO-KIj1fxqKLAckmzQSE1QPdTxPuSp88p67afBTgZEFTAWNRRooDqOVyYLVzMZHrnPN3tNcve5jxeIavczZ12KAS11mThe65dqaxhmLSoo739pfVVEmH_btYq_TkCJi1aShlXZPczA2YHTxuSO5__c5HEHEqufNA0sUCim0NEZDLxQPI4C/w640-h480/platinum%202023.012.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">So apparently there are two types of people in this world. The ones who wave at boats, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and the ones who hate joy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d165c2fd-7fff-e6d8-4288-11eb03743376"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The romcom genre feels almost as much in need of a dramatic overhaul as the biopic, but what I think this </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie does so well is prove that it’s not the tropes that drag these movies down; as long as you’ve got </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">interesting characters and an interesting setting, you can still make it feel fresh, especially if you’re a gifted </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">filmmaker with style and energy. This movie has style seeping out of its fingertips – so much color and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">deliberate detail, even in the background of shots – and it’s a joy to look at, on top of an engaging story. There’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a walk-and-talk scene where one character is constantly moving around the other that I swear evoked </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and how Michael keeps dancing and singing around Ola Ray. There’s an </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">incredible confidence in the filmmaking here, and it’s even more noteworthy as this is the director’s first </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">feature. And it’s all shepherded along by an amazing cast of characters, including the supporting players. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Our two main would-be lovers are mysteries that unfold for us over the course of the film, just as they do </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to each other through all the ridiculous situations and mishaps they get into, and it’s such a good time </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">watching it all happen. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Hulu</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7dXElMLHSMwAxU7K5exmwec-ut-_Tm6Qs1eyP15KJLpbHcpaiAbpqFVmZi7iV4DnWtX-_6CwCE3O7kIx3srxVVqKvPf3Tq4lv7Sn_UmM51ybMRXwbfaSZtoxcEZonpYsmrGij0UNUOYfw9kcCkm80ZxQUU9dT88yXDRfrukuczj6CMQ6fD7fA2uVtnQH1/s1024/platinum%202023.013.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7dXElMLHSMwAxU7K5exmwec-ut-_Tm6Qs1eyP15KJLpbHcpaiAbpqFVmZi7iV4DnWtX-_6CwCE3O7kIx3srxVVqKvPf3Tq4lv7Sn_UmM51ybMRXwbfaSZtoxcEZonpYsmrGij0UNUOYfw9kcCkm80ZxQUU9dT88yXDRfrukuczj6CMQ6fD7fA2uVtnQH1/w640-h480/platinum%202023.013.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Can we watch something happy now?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fa90e2bc-7fff-1b7c-93ac-b9e3f0e52e96"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This one was very divisive, and I definitely understand why. “Experimental” is a word to keep in mind if </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">you’re going to check this out. It’s a movie of childhood terrors and is exclusively from the point of view </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of two small children (ages 4 and 6). There may be a collective total of 60 seconds in which you can see </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">an identifiable person on screen (i.e., a face or even the back of a head). The view of any figures, including </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the protagonist children is almost exclusively legs and feet. The camera angles are all askew and mainly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">looking up from a low height (the point of view of the children) and the only noise other than thumps and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bumps and the occasional creepy voice are cartoons playing in the background. Plenty of scary things </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">happen – the doors and windows disappear, objects appear to move on their own, and voices say creepy </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">things and instruct the children to harm themselves. But none of it happens in the way you expect if you’ve </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">watched any “normal” horror movies. And that’s why I think it’s brilliant. Lots of people hated this, and I </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">have no judgment on that at all, but if you can tune in to this movie’s strange frequency, you’ll be rewarded </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with one of the scariest movie experiences you’ve had in quite a while (if you want to call that a reward :P). </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I saw this in a theater, but I’ve been really wanting to watch this at home, with my own strange noises </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">adding to the creep factor. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><i>Streaming on Hulu and Shudder and available to rent on other platforms</i></span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHBaxWb-0fOdwWHQM_QRKC5HVb1pNRPVJyQigi3NiaqJIjMky2g8byu9oWFfZi-R-u6J-m4FrLCza36h75P1_cCqJOeTRmf-R6-8bzGyYWU4zkm9RnrxzPndKnAkyLJDRtlAqXZqQjgTS66kCFTbsdI3e7fkM_J0dgbDVIDNSrMG6OwZb9MVFtFQSP-SS6/s1024/platinum%202023.014.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHBaxWb-0fOdwWHQM_QRKC5HVb1pNRPVJyQigi3NiaqJIjMky2g8byu9oWFfZi-R-u6J-m4FrLCza36h75P1_cCqJOeTRmf-R6-8bzGyYWU4zkm9RnrxzPndKnAkyLJDRtlAqXZqQjgTS66kCFTbsdI3e7fkM_J0dgbDVIDNSrMG6OwZb9MVFtFQSP-SS6/w640-h480/platinum%202023.014.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-e83fa42e-7fff-75b4-3b74-c8c7f049df7f"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">But my faith … isn't in your God. Because that God tells me what I'm supposed to do at home. But He </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">doesn't tell me what to do on the mountain. What's happening here is a completely different situation. This is </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">my heaven. I believe in another god. I believe in the god that Roberto keeps inside his head when he comes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to heal each of my wounds. In the god that Nando keeps in his legs and that lets him continue walking no matter </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">what. I believe in Daniel's hands when he cuts the meat. And Fito, when he gives it to us without saying which </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of our friends it belonged to. That way, we can eat it without... without having to remember their faces. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">That's </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre;">the god I believe in.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-3c454049-7fff-d254-0f88-72990b0b07df"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This is a retelling of the true story of the 1972 Andes flight disaster (which was, incidentally, a key inspiration </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for the series “Yellowjackets”). There had been another movie based on this story – 1993’s ALIVE. I have </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">never seen that version, but I do know that it has an awful lot of white people playing Uruguayans. SOCIETY </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">OF THE SNOW is harrowing and heartbreaking, and even if you can’t quite put names to faces (I certainly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">had difficulty), you’re attached enough to these characters and understand enough of their dynamics to be </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">compelled and invested. The crash is intense and deeply upsetting, and that’s only the beginning of these </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">people’s trials. There are numerous avalanches, failed escape attempts, and of course the much talked about </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">cannibalism, which survivors were forced to resort to after discovering the rescue attempts had been called </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">off and there was no end to this nightmare in sight. What struck me the most about this story was that there </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">was no miracle for these people, no fortuitous rescue. They had to rely on each other, and their true saviors </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">were the two survivors who trekked to Chile to search for help. This movie puts you squarely in the wilderness </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with these people, and you fully understand why they make all the decisions they make. It breaks my heart </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that the real survivors faced backlash after coming home and after news of their cannibalism broke (they had </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">tried to keep it secret, at least in the beginning, so they could talk to their families about it first). What this </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie does really well is make you feel everything they were going through and how hard a decision that </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">was. I can’t imagine judging them for it. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Netflix and still in some theaters.</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5yq_oYQCInbHcoEx8IVpk7pOCLHLX9Am0x0C2z1de1LkNb0FBo65W2TuIZ7Ew0ANF54yHfDJ8KTxaKfwddTTeRWvmBoCAd3qaqEbKiCfTKrtj_RauuPOUEAdJPMBg0A90lLiKloJr1VJonH0pepHtkpN5mxTKzVhYc6UaQ2qsY4i1TV4iAlgeAlsy-vN/s1024/across%20the%20spiderverse.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU5yq_oYQCInbHcoEx8IVpk7pOCLHLX9Am0x0C2z1de1LkNb0FBo65W2TuIZ7Ew0ANF54yHfDJ8KTxaKfwddTTeRWvmBoCAd3qaqEbKiCfTKrtj_RauuPOUEAdJPMBg0A90lLiKloJr1VJonH0pepHtkpN5mxTKzVhYc6UaQ2qsY4i1TV4iAlgeAlsy-vN/w640-h480/across%20the%20spiderverse.001.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Everyone keeps telling me how my story is supposed to go. Nah, I'ma do my own thing.</i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br /></i></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-fb836390-7fff-73dc-a3b0-400bd44d544b"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I should have Spider-Man fatigue by now. I remember when they announced they were starting the new movies </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">with Tom Holland thinking it was too soon for yet another Spider-Man series (it already felt too soon when the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Andrew Garfield movies started). But this movie and its predecessor feel like such a fresh vision of this character </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and this story, and this movie in particular kicks things up several notches from the already incredible INTO </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">THE SPIDER-VERSE. The animation is so beautiful (all of the scenes in Gwen's universe are breathtaking and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I never knew you could convey emotion like they do in those scenes) and the stakes could not be higher. I love </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the new Spidey characters and all the meta references in the Spider-Man headquarters (even the pointing </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">meme!). And I reeeeeaally love the whole concept of "canon events" and Miles is disrupting that. The buildup </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to the final reveal and cliffhanger is heart-stoppingly great, and as awesome as Gwen's final call to action is </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(YES, I AM IN!) it's so frustrating (i.e., awesomely frustrating) that that's where they leave it, making you </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">need to see the next movie immediately. (</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Streaming on Netflix and available to rent on other platforms</i></span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61nLkOqauBJijjHMDIentwdP2-S9gKWEthWh-yBG-XOCLPlL7B4zzPVHcxIDTLrw3yvT5SjO2XQKrWrwaBuRWxEI1cjQ-dXFNtP8jPs9YM1H2jd1CO_VJubuPxynfQ5Qlvzz_Fe8Ji14uu5U1UNr9SKzd3wDpRS5ZbOA0kGZXvDfx7jf25JgrjRx0pCFb/s1024/platinum%202023.015.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg61nLkOqauBJijjHMDIentwdP2-S9gKWEthWh-yBG-XOCLPlL7B4zzPVHcxIDTLrw3yvT5SjO2XQKrWrwaBuRWxEI1cjQ-dXFNtP8jPs9YM1H2jd1CO_VJubuPxynfQ5Qlvzz_Fe8Ji14uu5U1UNr9SKzd3wDpRS5ZbOA0kGZXvDfx7jf25JgrjRx0pCFb/w640-h480/platinum%202023.015.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Evil loves children. And children love evil.</span></p><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9efac040-7fff-dd52-f18e-34915f96b043"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The scariest movie of Fantastic Fest and (for me) the best horror movie of the year. It’s a demon possession </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie, but not like one I’ve ever seen before. This movie takes place in a world where demon possession is a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">known thing that everyone is aware of and that there is a very specific way of dealing with (as well as a list of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">things *not* to do). For everyone who watched this and complained that it was unrealistic what bad decisions </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">these characters make, I would like to ask if they have been on this planet for the past four years. I found these </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">characters’ ill-thought-out plans, and especially the denial (as if this couldn’t possibly be actually happening </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to them), to be incredibly plausible while also being extremely frustrating. The most horrifying part of the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie, though, is the way the demon uses children and weaponizes them against adults. There were parts of this </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie that reminded me of WHO CAN KILL A CHILD?. We’re instinctively trusting of children and want to </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">protect them, so when they turn on us, what do we even do? This movie is bleak as hell and I kind of loved it </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for that, especially as it doesn’t go the route of this just being a metaphor or somehow not really happening</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">except inside someone’s head. Bad shit is happening, mistakes are made, and it just keeps getting worse </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">until everyone is dead. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Shudder and AMC+ and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-50220057334409708842024-01-08T00:56:00.000-08:002024-01-08T13:39:54.217-08:003. The Gold Mine [2023 Films]<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> These are all movies I loved, period. No rank, just alphabetical order.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEc40m4lU5NsgufUTdVJrz72zuZgcJrywLSQAD4BgCuys-Bb_lpN0P-Uagkydv9g3qSlDZSNDJGqvJKe_M-YE_u8V-HXloA3YCqQntFKKmqV5vR-MqF1WiXISUf0I2kMlemINbbmbiB90wThpCO7tB3kwSKydy9XkaEQhIzLeDSWG_JT9Bhx3JJhGOxrN/s1526/The-Blackening.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="672" data-original-width="1526" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivEc40m4lU5NsgufUTdVJrz72zuZgcJrywLSQAD4BgCuys-Bb_lpN0P-Uagkydv9g3qSlDZSNDJGqvJKe_M-YE_u8V-HXloA3YCqQntFKKmqV5vR-MqF1WiXISUf0I2kMlemINbbmbiB90wThpCO7tB3kwSKydy9XkaEQhIzLeDSWG_JT9Bhx3JJhGOxrN/w640-h282/The-Blackening.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></h2><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Blackening</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I slept on this when it was in theaters but I’m so glad I caught it eventually because it is a great horror </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">comedy that doesn’t settle for just being a spoof. Following a group of friends spending the weekend </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">at a rather nice house (no rickety cabin) in the woods, we then watch as they find themselves trapped </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">playing a strange board game with life or death stakes. This movie has some things to say about Black </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">roles in pop culture and horror movies especially. And in particular the conflicts among Black people </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">themselves when it comes to being “sufficiently Black.” This movie is brilliant, right through the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">hilarious ending, and for non-Black viewers, you may find yourself getting unduly excited and proud </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of yourself for getting references. For me, it was the SISTER ACT 2 shout-out. “If you wanna be </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">somebody … if you wanna go somewhere … you better wake up and pay attention.” I actually </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">SANG that shit while the actress was saying it, and then immediately laughed my ass off. I hadn’t </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">thought about that in years! (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Starz and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b id="docs-internal-guid-ecf99d0a-7fff-2839-a7f4-1af7e3a6ff7c" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p></p><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkpy8s5ukOJsJpFjvpt2ZAkhKwN9BPQd_Y7__pUg99HaI_EECl9prnWLJ_sSbwHmcG6_ITJb1kgLV4BXpRrCDEcax8tCNfABTbffvcuzOlkdbKbevtwYP5-Syke9ArCwx2xrdF6h7kMExd0kRWu0NMKWeRNXDX-K1khhP415NwHt4YkyYSBwVG9RhEy9s/s1200/cocaine%20bear.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="1200" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkpy8s5ukOJsJpFjvpt2ZAkhKwN9BPQd_Y7__pUg99HaI_EECl9prnWLJ_sSbwHmcG6_ITJb1kgLV4BXpRrCDEcax8tCNfABTbffvcuzOlkdbKbevtwYP5-Syke9ArCwx2xrdF6h7kMExd0kRWu0NMKWeRNXDX-K1khhP415NwHt4YkyYSBwVG9RhEy9s/w640-h338/cocaine%20bear.jpeg" width="640" /></a></h2><h2 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Cocaine Bear</b></span></h2><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There’s nothing that special about this as a movie. I mean, it’s great and immensely entertaining </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(hence its place here), but it’s not reinventing the wheel. It’s not a “take” on anything. But that this </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie exists, and that a woman was able to direct a movie like this, is kind of amazing. It’s exactly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">what it says in the title: bear gets high on cocaine and runs amuck (incredibly based on a true story). </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It’s set in the 1980s – the heyday of cocaine – and has some hilarious and memorable characters, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">which is what makes this movie sing beyond the insane premise. There’s a lot of wild stuff in this </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movie, most notably what it allows its pre-teen characters to do, and I was very pleased that there </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">was so much to enjoy that wasn’t already spoiled for me by the attention-getting trailer.
(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Amazon Prime and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEatzN59dr2Yg3gGB3cYbP8ElRpaN_aR87gBNpPDqACmZ_ZQH8-P1n5WMEYkAgsz7YdKkt1_3ADhY1KohDAGQYK9FMJo2xI6hZWD07H_JzRJOoyJtaX7oukfM8YGVOF3vD7YKuiAC4sO9FLVWvIcieriV2esNSw5uhHWlP3IJRdp5qI3W2csAdaJ3SbPaS/s1200/the-color-purple-6473a5f74fb38.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEatzN59dr2Yg3gGB3cYbP8ElRpaN_aR87gBNpPDqACmZ_ZQH8-P1n5WMEYkAgsz7YdKkt1_3ADhY1KohDAGQYK9FMJo2xI6hZWD07H_JzRJOoyJtaX7oukfM8YGVOF3vD7YKuiAC4sO9FLVWvIcieriV2esNSw5uhHWlP3IJRdp5qI3W2csAdaJ3SbPaS/w640-h360/the-color-purple-6473a5f74fb38.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Color Purple</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(A bit of a cheat as I technically saw this in 2024.) This is a really well-done, beautiful movie full </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of off-the-charts great performances and incredible songs. It manages the unreality of the musical </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">numbers really well and it never felt awkward to me when someone started singing or dancing </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(though honestly, it rarely does for me). I love the costumes and the look of the film, particularly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">as they’ve slightly changed the location to a coastal town. Fantasia Barrino soars as Celie and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the quality of her voice lends itself really well to Celie’s journey from meek and subdued to </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">strong and independent. The star of the show to me, though, is Danielle Brooks as Sofia (the role </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">formerly played by Oprah Winfrey in Spielberg’s film). Her number “Hell No!” was my favorite </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">moment. The trauma of what happens to these women, especially Celie, feels a great deal softened </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">in this version (not to say it’s glossed over, but it’s somehow not as difficult to watch as in the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">1984 film). Some of the condensing of the story didn’t entirely work for me and it felt sometimes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that too many things were happening in not enough time. But it’s a beautiful adaptation that I </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">know I’ll be revisiting again and makes me long for a time when musicals were more of a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">presence at the cinema. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfZ_87l66j8KSDT7O9BP7v61kf6Gy8lwFRZDXBJqBKsu0b3N8ZrhlpADgTZICJmidXcaMrvuvGLmBlTEC7IECdENJIGb_4ikdBlBowV9vPJ_vyTqCJFC-_GALiTS-ghdyD4NufT1d0C-9C2Xz-lG3XEVilD-dq25gg33LQ_MzrbQFtgRkhE4r_BsU8xv8/s1296/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-260387-H-2023.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="1296" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfZ_87l66j8KSDT7O9BP7v61kf6Gy8lwFRZDXBJqBKsu0b3N8ZrhlpADgTZICJmidXcaMrvuvGLmBlTEC7IECdENJIGb_4ikdBlBowV9vPJ_vyTqCJFC-_GALiTS-ghdyD4NufT1d0C-9C2Xz-lG3XEVilD-dq25gg33LQ_MzrbQFtgRkhE4r_BsU8xv8/w640-h360/dungeons-dragons-honor-among-thieves-260387-H-2023.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I know nothing about Dungeons & Dragons, or any RPG for that matter, except what I’ve seen </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">on STRANGER THINGS. But you don’t have to know anything about it to get a ton of enjoyment </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">out of this movie (though I’m sure the more you know, the more rich it is). It’s another “go to </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the place to get the thing to cast the spell to do the thing” plot, but that’s pretty much what </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">D&D is, as I understand, so it works. There’s a team of great characters (Chris Pine is predictably </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">awesome), a pretty terrifying villan, loads of humor (OMG TWENTY QUESTIONS IN THE </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">GRAVEYARD!), and a compelling adventure/road trip story with a satisfying and heartwarming </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">resolution, which is all you can really ask for. Except a sequel – I’d really love to see these </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">characters again in another movie. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Amazon Prime and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNL4UeWIqkFLa9xAoSO2Q8GkLMmUhXfgxvW0oaqh9Z5BIwQkvyDqMGuch-43kpZ8WCpcDvJkmo-IwD6e64LnW9VkJ0ghVbqrHK3pT5IifCEuF-ErlCf71ddYwEjBXDvcz1v2FUu8FjkpH6js9WILfb678w4Fh-SX5x0qb0eNsuYmMDx2qSwKgJ-y6iczKd/s1480/InfinityPool_.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1480" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNL4UeWIqkFLa9xAoSO2Q8GkLMmUhXfgxvW0oaqh9Z5BIwQkvyDqMGuch-43kpZ8WCpcDvJkmo-IwD6e64LnW9VkJ0ghVbqrHK3pT5IifCEuF-ErlCf71ddYwEjBXDvcz1v2FUu8FjkpH6js9WILfb678w4Fh-SX5x0qb0eNsuYmMDx2qSwKgJ-y6iczKd/w640-h338/InfinityPool_.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Infinity Pool</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Brandon Cronenberg continues to follow in his father’s formidable footsteps, and this film goes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">even further into Cronenberg body horror legacy. We follow a husband and wife on vacation who </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">fall in with the wrong people and find themselves on the wrong side of a foreign country’s law, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">more than once. The sci-fi element with the clones is creepy to be sure, but the depths these </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">characters go to and, in particular, the lengths to which they are willing to go to escape consequences </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">are the real horror of this movie. Unsurprisingly, Mia Goth is the queen of every scene she is in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(there’s a scene where she’s sitting on the hood of a car that is INCREDIBLE). And the way </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">most of the characters end the movie – fully back to normal and discussing mundane real life </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">things like bills and appointments – is the most horrific of all. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Hulu</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxJqucfulwji8eaIZG_7iyN2-QqjipQkaeDTft3Ww_gi0SD4lvEeC3KTGKnAwohQw2eYJ7AAjUDNRD46GvWVDdhds837TkZDg5Eg0SkFkmgz4OrTai3qpgYPChuaXCWzzY0dWuae39_fhjDqE3ygRE16J-q4ABb6jwrZFddEFrGdWLRr_gF_PM698r55A/s1970/johnwick4.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="1970" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPxJqucfulwji8eaIZG_7iyN2-QqjipQkaeDTft3Ww_gi0SD4lvEeC3KTGKnAwohQw2eYJ7AAjUDNRD46GvWVDdhds837TkZDg5Eg0SkFkmgz4OrTai3qpgYPChuaXCWzzY0dWuae39_fhjDqE3ygRE16J-q4ABb6jwrZFddEFrGdWLRr_gF_PM698r55A/w640-h346/johnwick4.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">John Wick: Chapter 4</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I realize there’s probably no way this is the actual final chapter, but it’s as good an ending as this s</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">eries could have had. It’s everything you want in a John Wick movie, with easily the most Extra </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">villain and an opponent for John that you actually don’t want to see harmed. The second half of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">this movie takes place in Paris and makes such great use of the city’s landscape and iconography </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(holy crap, that Arc de Triomphe setpiece!). The fight on the steps of Sacre-Coeur is the most </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ridiculous fight sequence in all four movies, and that is saying something. And the story and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Wick’s saga resolve themselves in an incredibly satisfying way. If these four movies are the sum </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">of the John Wick story, that is fine by me (barring worldbuilding spin-offs and prequels, which </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’d totally be here for). (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Starz and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-S-7RhfDol5a7QQU62VUdzWq75XmHhe7ea7nwjvaS0Kiyw8TbJ4scxyvQriFSVd3si7g3BCRMKsqJcQAo_W4pZKg0KIGvErKPY-xclctJKLv061xkANvJSMdwZCuQLc5bb5E7dADwYEucnunpRusyhHxDL9X4Cy38Ur-vhlFLncAJxh6Bfd_PASGAc38/s7728/maydecember.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5152" data-original-width="7728" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN-S-7RhfDol5a7QQU62VUdzWq75XmHhe7ea7nwjvaS0Kiyw8TbJ4scxyvQriFSVd3si7g3BCRMKsqJcQAo_W4pZKg0KIGvErKPY-xclctJKLv061xkANvJSMdwZCuQLc5bb5E7dADwYEucnunpRusyhHxDL9X4Cy38Ur-vhlFLncAJxh6Bfd_PASGAc38/w640-h426/maydecember.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">May December</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">First of all, yes, this movie is a comedy. Julianne Moore’s character is heavily inspired by Mary Kay </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Letourneau, but the movie is not *about* that scandal and it’s not *about* grooming. The main character </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is Natalie Portman’s character – an actress who’s playing Moore’s character in an upcoming movie. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">It’s making fun of these movies that exploit a serious subject for cheap titillation. Director Todd Haynes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">doesn’t want to call this movie “camp,” but I think it definitely is. Five minutes in, there’s an overly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">dramatic music cue, then a push in on Julianne Moore looking in the refrigerator before she says “I </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">don’t think we have enough hot dogs.” If you don’t at least chuckle at that, you need to recalibrate </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">before watching the rest of the movie. Charles Melton is rightfully getting accolades for his performance </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">as Moore’s much younger husband. He’s kind of the only “straight man” in this and you definitely feel </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for his character, who is in his 30s but is still a child in a lot of ways. Meanwhile Portman and Moore </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">face off like a couple of soap opera divas and I LOVE IT. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Netflix and still in some theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9pECx8Svl0yCgxvsxvSEmbrWJoroigJOzIUEpemtwEd2Cdkj2LVxAB2L8UhoeFgg5cxFSxoPHJFX-JhjobbDMHRp4njC_-mAJutShd4mhQhyphenhyphen9mNkaPfGbBMYt9tWLYjsAdc_lj9RdrqNLGVEfxFu1jBWX21kBMebeM2mpnMFAZ_YoVEvgMZ00jF9ZnWJ/s2009/mi7.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="2009" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD9pECx8Svl0yCgxvsxvSEmbrWJoroigJOzIUEpemtwEd2Cdkj2LVxAB2L8UhoeFgg5cxFSxoPHJFX-JhjobbDMHRp4njC_-mAJutShd4mhQhyphenhyphen9mNkaPfGbBMYt9tWLYjsAdc_lj9RdrqNLGVEfxFu1jBWX21kBMebeM2mpnMFAZ_YoVEvgMZ00jF9ZnWJ/w640-h360/mi7.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Should we still be calling this Part One when they've decided not to call the next movie Part Two? </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Anyway, I’m bummed this didn’t do better box-office-wise (I still think the laborious title is at least </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">partly to blame), but this is one of my favorite entries in the franchise. I like that the threat is AI </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">because they’ve done the nuclear threat too many times already, and this feels incredibly timely. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Everyone is bringing their A game here (though Ving Rhames seems underused, as he has been for </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the past few of these). Hayley Atwell is a welcome addition to the cast and holds her own as well </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">as anyone can against the sheer mountain of intensity that is Tom Cruise. I mainly differentiate </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">these movies by the villains and each movie’s Super Ridiculous Cruise Stunt. This time it’s riding </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that bike off the edge of a mountain – a truly jaw-dropping stunt, made more exciting by the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">behind-the-scenes footage of Christopher McQuarrie breathing a sigh of relief that his star hasn’t </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">been killed. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Available to rent on various streaming platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHfEa1DfK4HsTJm2igJLEMXYq6ZJVkvqHFBYjnJ7HmBw5gbZCguKMUiw-GwQBOgIxXSbGypqejTJdI7Yq9Xug7Ep0DG23GM23zt8L7c9nqx0zrIhduR6pRekrIdHZROolmMJU-vbkwGohtg6L6aOyRYqdGEr9nKXoCRNbj-WKFfjlutS9Tq8ZxzqIKnhW/s1080/politesociety.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdHfEa1DfK4HsTJm2igJLEMXYq6ZJVkvqHFBYjnJ7HmBw5gbZCguKMUiw-GwQBOgIxXSbGypqejTJdI7Yq9Xug7Ep0DG23GM23zt8L7c9nqx0zrIhduR6pRekrIdHZROolmMJU-vbkwGohtg6L6aOyRYqdGEr9nKXoCRNbj-WKFfjlutS9Tq8ZxzqIKnhW/w640-h360/politesociety.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Polite Society</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This was such a fun and cool movie that I feel didn’t get the attention it deserved. Part Jane Austen </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">marriage plot, part heist movie, part martial arts showcase, this movie is pure joy and I loved every </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">minute. Revolving around a young Pakistani woman who wants to be a movie stuntwoman, the movie </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">takes an unexpected turn when her sister begins dating and eventually becomes engaged to a man our </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">heroine finds suspicious. We then see an almost reverse Jane Austen novel, where characters are trying </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">desperately to *stop* a marriage from happening. There’s a sci-fi element at play that goes to a place </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I guarantee you will not expect. And the sister dynamic is wonderful and messy, with our heroine and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">her sister being a truly Bizarro version of Lizzie and Jane Bennett. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Amazon Prime and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRD1M0-Yo5E54_YLYmkRe_GNMOHw8c2_kxwXlcZmJ94yXE6-WXNQ3kyTEGkCVhyphenhyphengw0Avex6u3YxlWa01IMcd8Lj43XsRkUxVcuJFzkoDgJb-Rq0C1cfE_O1sfqymtvXAyi7ZhUrk1-76MN7u-rPKswWmWzGw4d-rmToQYgxBVY66SbPHpCfyYIrwr-vLI/s3840/renaissance.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1606" data-original-width="3840" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRD1M0-Yo5E54_YLYmkRe_GNMOHw8c2_kxwXlcZmJ94yXE6-WXNQ3kyTEGkCVhyphenhyphengw0Avex6u3YxlWa01IMcd8Lj43XsRkUxVcuJFzkoDgJb-Rq0C1cfE_O1sfqymtvXAyi7ZhUrk1-76MN7u-rPKswWmWzGw4d-rmToQYgxBVY66SbPHpCfyYIrwr-vLI/w640-h268/renaissance.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I didn’t go to either of this summer’s blockbuster concert tours, but I briefly considered going to see </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Beyonce (until I looked at ticket prices, yiiikes), and I watched countless clips from the shows for </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">weeks. So I was pretty pumped for this. It’s not entirely a concert film; there’s a good deal of backstage </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">detail and commentary from Beyonce and members of her team. It’s also drawing from multiple </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">performances, which takes away from the “you’re watching a live show” feel but instead gives us </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">all those amazing costumes and a number of individual show quirks that you would miss in a single </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">performance. It’s truly extraordinary to see how much goes into putting this show together (e.g., there </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">are three identical stage sets so that they can already be setting up two cities ahead while the current </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">show is happening). And I don’t care if it’s put-on, I love how down-to-earth Beyonce seems, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">especially in the section about her daughter, and her anxiousness as a mother watching her baby </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">girl perform on stage for the first time. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">In theaters</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81bRUzC4WAnda-Hqq4jbLsPBvk5t1aAH9qtZEuX_EjIJJ-jhJ2VkRZggjfdTSR_XHlSsWO9Q_GiVGtrEKtwrCiJ42g71hx_Vl-kiTllbR_tbXrG9x20kT6YM5TA46_8V_LC4d4gYvHu94_NXnbYEpexeF1q8geV_xoxR84IPrG0XRIeoz3JwKaN3jv4PJ/s1920/sheisconann.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi81bRUzC4WAnda-Hqq4jbLsPBvk5t1aAH9qtZEuX_EjIJJ-jhJ2VkRZggjfdTSR_XHlSsWO9Q_GiVGtrEKtwrCiJ42g71hx_Vl-kiTllbR_tbXrG9x20kT6YM5TA46_8V_LC4d4gYvHu94_NXnbYEpexeF1q8geV_xoxR84IPrG0XRIeoz3JwKaN3jv4PJ/w640-h360/sheisconann.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">She Is Conann</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This director previously made the film AFTER BLUE, which I adored. This is a retelling of the Conan </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the Barbarian story, with a queer female Conan(n) and an all female cast. Conann is played by six </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">different actors in different eras and different settings, with each new incarnation killing the old. The </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">visuals are breathtaking and the storytelling is wild and imaginative, which I was expecting having </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">seen AFTER BLUE. And like that movie, it’s best not to try and understand it in any normal way. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Don’t try and fit everything together into a rational narrative. You will miss so much. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Coming to Alamo Drafthouse Jan. 30</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJBdrjQKKmhqH8GJkiDODOi5Tp6wK__vvciAv4XTfAoaci5OY6W89bL7dHUk5yRPSExY9BqTtiFRQKwDn10FdYB8n2cdWqlTy6epgauhtYyvRFewfmVqxbuwOEcGt7rByUU1hvHuUG7TMycXMB9Gc5TwT8Zf43B6URjTyvVpWkHl3qXBcbRPYJqFL1NBj/s4096/SUITABLE-FLESH-Still-6-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1716" data-original-width="4096" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJBdrjQKKmhqH8GJkiDODOi5Tp6wK__vvciAv4XTfAoaci5OY6W89bL7dHUk5yRPSExY9BqTtiFRQKwDn10FdYB8n2cdWqlTy6epgauhtYyvRFewfmVqxbuwOEcGt7rByUU1hvHuUG7TMycXMB9Gc5TwT8Zf43B6URjTyvVpWkHl3qXBcbRPYJqFL1NBj/w640-h268/SUITABLE-FLESH-Still-6-1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Suitable Flesh</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Director Joe Lynch makes the movie Stuart Gordon was hoping to make before he died and the highest </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">compliment I can pay him is that it feels so much like a Stuart Gordon movie without feeling like a copy. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Part of that is due to the presence of Gordon regular Barbara Crampton, both in front of the camera </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and in a consultant capacity. Part of it is also undoubtedly due to its source material – like so many of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Gordon’s movies, this is based on another Lovecraft story. This is a great body swap horror story, and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I love that Lynch treats the concept seriously instead of making it a fun “walking in someone else’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">shoes” narrative. Because the idea of occupying someone else’s body and doing whatever you want </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is actually terrifying and a violation. I think perhaps my favorite aspect of the movie, though, is that </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">its stars are female characters of a Certain Age that are allowed to be complicated and horny and not </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">just matronly. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Available to rent; premiering on Shudder on Jan. 26</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisgtKA5xlJO44DD5WhOokg-BgYJrh_jsVPIP3RJQedAa1AARMOcQBPYtr8TYoReuXpUyoVqdOQlknKqxAIAekdtZcyBWZazqFgEMQJBRLrJ3A6qpLpn6ags3Ojy1eqv6eYZvuC5e1NedTXLpo0MvbDO_ukgkaKgpR2-bJVCkvuoal788e8J9JTShKBZQiz/s768/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Mutant-Mayhem-Review.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisgtKA5xlJO44DD5WhOokg-BgYJrh_jsVPIP3RJQedAa1AARMOcQBPYtr8TYoReuXpUyoVqdOQlknKqxAIAekdtZcyBWZazqFgEMQJBRLrJ3A6qpLpn6ags3Ojy1eqv6eYZvuC5e1NedTXLpo0MvbDO_ukgkaKgpR2-bJVCkvuoal788e8J9JTShKBZQiz/w640-h360/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Mutant-Mayhem-Review.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Having been very much into the Ninja Turtles in the 1990s, I always have a soft spot for whenever there’s </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">something new in this universe. I was especially interested when I heard that Seth Rogen and Evan </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Goldberg were involved in the writing. This is so much fun and has so much love for the characters. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I love what genuine teenagers they are and how protective Splinter is of them (and that he’s not just </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a randomly overprotective parent – he knows from experience what could happen to them). I love </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">all the various mutant characters they meet, and Superfly is an incredible villain. The movie has such </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a great look too, and I’m a huge fan of the animation style, which is very similar to the new Spider-Man </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">movies. I’m really excited to see what’s next in this story. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Paramount+ and available to rent on other platforms</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvOqH7QxFmqjt4n30Npeq8u9K8cLUf2cTCFH833-Hnrot_HV4bVIXSu2HcvuTbnutepY_T1x1Op7sV1nbqM51yb6UfBJco9315Gm987nEvDHwpIOOjI6sPlHrAMPBy5wHS0YTHanVoVRK7ZyfprajC1FI38TPXDZDZTY3k3rEBbb-_TK78BjY_zJAIIPb/s2001/thanksgiving-movie_Courtesy-of-Sony-Pictures.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="2001" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvvOqH7QxFmqjt4n30Npeq8u9K8cLUf2cTCFH833-Hnrot_HV4bVIXSu2HcvuTbnutepY_T1x1Op7sV1nbqM51yb6UfBJco9315Gm987nEvDHwpIOOjI6sPlHrAMPBy5wHS0YTHanVoVRK7ZyfprajC1FI38TPXDZDZTY3k3rEBbb-_TK78BjY_zJAIIPb/w640-h260/thanksgiving-movie_Courtesy-of-Sony-Pictures.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thanksgiving</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I know Eli Roth is not everyone’s cup of tea, but this is a genuinely great slasher and a welcome addition </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">to the holiday-themed horror pantheon. It has some great takes on slasher tropes, notably in the opening </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">sequence, which gives us both a horrible inciting incident and Thing That Must Never Happen Again Lest </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">There Be More Deaths. The movie hits all the best beats of Roth’s Grindhouse trailer from 2007 </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(including a more realistic version of the trampoline kill). There are better-than-average horror characters, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">which doesn’t sound like much, but when you’ve seen a lot of slashers you cling to better-than-average. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The kills are pretty extraordinary, with some great gore, and there are some unexpected moments of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">levity (the killer pausing to feed the cat before they escape one crime scene is especially memorable). </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’m glad this movie has done well, and I’m curious to see where a sequel could take this. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">(</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Available to rent – not cheaply – on several platforms; releasing on physical media Jan. 30</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzLW11CusP_ilmy0Wq97YSoLaE0apxnYSenHVgN80jWJw7o1doVa6PYLEAiMvtp9pzXX2IoPt_cHXEd1Ops73q5mOjCB-NNJc08Z1FdT_kErFF62RnU8PBthe3sV5hGA1XnyY8Ogwk5X3RPfd9eHCl-9HvUNdWdJekJ-Qs4DpGYQ_fbkCXMC8LGKjRC9a/s1400/totally-killer-featured-image.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSzLW11CusP_ilmy0Wq97YSoLaE0apxnYSenHVgN80jWJw7o1doVa6PYLEAiMvtp9pzXX2IoPt_cHXEd1Ops73q5mOjCB-NNJc08Z1FdT_kErFF62RnU8PBthe3sV5hGA1XnyY8Ogwk5X3RPfd9eHCl-9HvUNdWdJekJ-Qs4DpGYQ_fbkCXMC8LGKjRC9a/w640-h320/totally-killer-featured-image.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Totally Killer</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This was the final film of Fantastic Fest and it was such a delight. While it technically is a slasher, it </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">doesn't have the same feel as one. It has a lot in common with THE FINAL GIRLS from several years </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ago (especially emotionally and with regard to mother-daughter dynamics), but while that movie took </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a “Last Action Hero” approach, where characters are magically brought into a fictional world through </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the movie screen, this is like a comedic slasher version of “Back to the Future.” The initial setup is darn </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">near identical (character is chased, they take refuge in the time machine, accidentally go back in time, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">get stuck and try to fix something from their parents’ teenage years before managing to get back to their </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">own time). This isn't the first time an 80s throwback has commented knowingly on that time period, but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">it's the first time I've seen a Gen Z character trying to navigate the 80s and (rightly) boggling at how </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">wild a lot of things were (like the school office’s complete disregard for students’ privacy). This cast </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">is exceptionally strong, especially our lead, Kiernan Shipka, and my personal MVP Olivia Holt – the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">bitchy but badass final girl and future mom. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Streaming on Amazon Prime</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p><p><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgVFJjpLwkiBQkAuSCpqAL1gJPCl-mytxWgerhb2QdzutfK8i-Bb1ToSWQsMoTARhcEsk4kbGbAW0NA5FR2qgpoojKCihHuFeNoCgD9o8ofsn09JVQXBohMhFqfhr0okSNIJjEGQBRX-2qRTX5-pWBlb_gVuvr8qauoTB41O1yKSv_V9BMjvhVx7_Oswc/s2000/toxicavenger.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgVFJjpLwkiBQkAuSCpqAL1gJPCl-mytxWgerhb2QdzutfK8i-Bb1ToSWQsMoTARhcEsk4kbGbAW0NA5FR2qgpoojKCihHuFeNoCgD9o8ofsn09JVQXBohMhFqfhr0okSNIJjEGQBRX-2qRTX5-pWBlb_gVuvr8qauoTB41O1yKSv_V9BMjvhVx7_Oswc/w640-h426/toxicavenger.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h2 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Toxic Avenger</span></span></h2><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This was the *opening* film of Fantastic Fest and it was a delight in a very different way from TOTALLY </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">KILLER. It’s based on the character and films originated by Lloyd Kaufman and his scrappy B-movie </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">camp factory Troma Entertainment. I was a Toxie newb and had never seen any of these movies until </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a couple weeks before the festival. I watched the first three and fell for them pretty hard, so I was pumped </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">for this new version, especially as it was directed by Macon Blair (who also made BLUE RUIN and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">GREEN ROOM) and starred Peter Dinklage as the titular avenger. This was seriously great and very in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the spirit of Kaufman’s movies. I told someone at the fest it was kind of a “glow up,” and it is – a little </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">more budget to make things look slicker and some known stars (including TED LASSO’s Sarah Niles). </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Peter Dinklage is great as pre-Toxie and I love his awkward stepdad relationship with Jacob Tremblay; </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">even better is that he also plays Actual Toxie (the Troma films used two different actors), which gives the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">character some welcome consistency. Kevin Bacon, who was hesitant to play a villain after being offered </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">so many villainous roles of the “dirty cop” variety, is gnawing on every bit of scenery he can find. And a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">clear audience favorite was Elijah Wood, who this crowd will always have a soft spot for, and who </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">actually has a pretty great role here. I can’t wait for this to get to a wider audience and see what people </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">make of it. (</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Not yet released</span><span face="Arial,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">.)</span></p>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-22011794106921087382024-01-08T00:13:00.000-08:002024-01-08T13:11:54.711-08:004. The Good, the Bad and the Meh (aka Everything Else) [2023 Films]<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I only have four categories this year - the top 3 tiers, then everything else. From stuff I quite liked to stuff that's endearingly terrible to stuff I just didn't take to for whatever reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4fK0knyYqoZ7lpvUK6l0_5RwxTGaMiq5PGwj9wx-C0Y4zrAYiZTyeOrosio5SMMwx5YPlgIlGjVJbiiInEl24xBmjx6eCcj_LUjGdWjiI0Pi9nVmEYyoBc8d9E2JrBSzDUpQi5ryHMTuugT8Pmi-p291vbEnlWiRZCxg__Jmow-eXOUadxQ6iiydPuxf/s2117/4s-Collage.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2117" data-original-width="1475" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY4fK0knyYqoZ7lpvUK6l0_5RwxTGaMiq5PGwj9wx-C0Y4zrAYiZTyeOrosio5SMMwx5YPlgIlGjVJbiiInEl24xBmjx6eCcj_LUjGdWjiI0Pi9nVmEYyoBc8d9E2JrBSzDUpQi5ryHMTuugT8Pmi-p291vbEnlWiRZCxg__Jmow-eXOUadxQ6iiydPuxf/w446-h640/4s-Collage.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-2205a4c8-7fff-02ec-e55f-9960ad85eac2"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Boston Strangler</i></b> - I liked where this ultimately went, but it was quite dour and I’m afraid I wasn’t in the mood for it (which is obviously more my problem than the movie’s).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Boy and the Heron</i></b> - Miyazaki’s films aren’t always my cup of tea, but I always appreciate the incredible artistry and this is no exception (on both accounts). This is Miyazaki at his weird and wonderful best, and I have never hated parakeets more.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Cade: The Tortured Crossing</i></b> - The latest from Neil Breen, and all that entails. Only now he’s learned(?) how to do special effects. I think I’m still enjoying this guy’s fascinating take on cinema and what he’s capable (and not capable) of doing with it. But I was not on the same wavelength with most of the rest of the audience I saw it with, who seemed to think they were guest stars in a Rifftrax commentary.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Deep Dark</i></b> - This was a cool French “monster in the dark” movie with an amazing and scary monster and a bunch of very stupid victims. One of the minor hits of Fantastic Fest.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>DogMan</i></b> - A Fantastic Fest secret screening, this one apparently got laughed at when it played Cannes, but I liked it a lot. Caleb Landry is excellent as a Godfather-type figure, and the movie is chock full of good boys and good girls.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Dream Scenario</i></b> - Another FF secret screening. Nicolas Cage is superb, which he almost always is. The concept is interesting and hilarious, but I’m not a big fan of the places the movie goes.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Eileen</i></b> - Lovely thriller with two knockout performances (everyone is talking about Anne Hathaway, but Thomasin Mackenzie is just as good in a very different role). There’s a reveal here that’s so sudden and nonchalant that it actually made me laugh.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Elemental</i></b> - This was very badly advertised by Pixar, who focused more on the worldbuilding than the characters and story, which is where this movie truly shines. It’s still not top-tier Pixar for me, but it is definitely worth seeing. The animation is beautiful and the story is sadly timely.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Enter the Clones of Bruce</i></b> - Very fun documentary on the phenomenon of “Brucesploitation,” where Bruce Lee’s death triggered a whole sub-industry of movies starring off-brand Bruces. Special attention is paid to my favorite Bruceploitation flick, THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN, which I adore.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Evil Dead Rise</i></b> - A great addition to the Evil Dead canon, with an incredible performance by Alyssa Sutherland. Some great kills and gore (CHEESE GRATER), an all-timer title card, and a fairly good wrap-around story.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Fallen Leaves</i></b> - This has all the trappings of your favorite romantic comedies. The meet-cute, the near misses, the end-of-act-2 falling out, etc. But in a very different milieu than you’re used to, especially if you came up as I did on 90s romcoms, where everyone seems to have lucrative jobs in publishing. This is really bleak a lot of the time, but that only serves to emphasize what a light these people are to each other. I liked it a lot.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Ferrari</i></b> - I feel like I would have gotten more out of this if I were more familiar with the history of Ferrari and the people around him. The driving scenes are excellent and there is one crash that is the most horrifying car crash I’ve ever seen in a movie. I just wish the biopic parts were more engaging. Penelope Cruz is the standout and I was always interested in whatever was going on with her.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>A Haunting in Venice</i></b> - Far better than the previous Branagh-as-Poirot films. Michelle Yeoh is predictably great, but I do not buy Tina Fey as a person living in the 40s – much less someone who is supposedly even more brilliant than Poirot! Honey, no.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Holdovers</i></b> - This is a truly wonderful movie. Incredible 1970s homage, wonderful performances (I wouldn’t be a bit mad at Paul Giamatti getting the Oscar this year, but I want Da’Vine Joy Randolph to win even more). I just wish I didn’t feel like I’d seen this several times before. It feels like much more than an “homage” to Hal Ashby; it’s practically a cover. Nothing wrong with that, but it makes me wonder why it even has to take place in the 1970s and have all that period detail.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</i></b> - I actually really liked this, and I don’t really care if the de-aging tech is … whatever we’re finger-waggingly calling it these days. I kind of wish that it had the guts to end the way it looks like it’s going to end for a hot second. But I can’t deny I’m a complete simp for where they ultimately leave it.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Invisible Fight </i></b>- This was SUCH a fun Fantastic Fest flick, in which a guard on the Soviet-Chinese border wants to learn kung fu and the only place in Soviet Russia he can do so is an Orthodox monastery. Great fashion, great Black Sabbath needle drops, and an exercise in kitschy charm.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>It’s a Wonderful Knife</i></b> - The latest in the niche horror subgenre of “this classic story, but horror.” I appreciate the ideas here, and the performances are top notch (including Justin Long and his horrid veneers). But the mechanics of what is happening supernaturally are way too complicated and it kind of kind of lost me in the second half.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Joy Ride</i></b> - This was a lot of fun, and I’m fully here for movies where women get to be disgusting and horny. This cranks the raunchy up from, say, GIRLS TRIP, but doesn’t have quite as compelling a story or group of characters.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Killer</i></b> - I know a lot of people loved this, but this was a miss for me. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d seen it properly in a theater – as a David Fincher film deserves. It has a lot of LE SAMOURAI vibes, but I don’t like it nearly as much as that film.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Kim’s Video</i></b> - Fun and fairly suspenseful documentary about how the massive collection of movies from Kim’s Video in NYC ended up in Italy and how one filmmaker and some friends basically hatched a heist and got them back. I couldn’t believe the things this filmmaker did to right this epic wrong, and there were times I wondered if he would be in serious trouble. But everything seems to have worked out, and I’m glad I can check out a video from this collection any time I want.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Last Voyage of Demeter</i></b> - I loved this, despite a lot of poo-poo-ing critics. This is essentially a “missing moment” fic that wonderfully elaborates on the small scene in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” where the Count travels from his home in Transylvania to England. It’s quite good – good characters, great gore, and a rare movie where you know the ending but are still invested.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Little Mermaid</i></b> - With a couple of quibbles, I thought this was pretty great – definitely one of the better live action Disney remakes. Halle Bailey is a wonderful Ariel, and I appreciated that they built both the character and her relationship with the Prince into something I could root for. I liked a lot of the new music, but a couple of the new versions of the original songs bummed me out because they were so much better and richer in the 1989 version (looking at you, “Kiss the Girl”).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>M3GAN</i></b> - I feel like everyone loved this a lot more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, and it was more thought-provoking than I thought it would be. But the killer doll here doesn’t have as much personality as her peers in the genre (I’m sorry, but she can’t touch Chucky OR doll!Tiffany). I was also very sad that I was apparently the only person in my theater who recognized the Martika shout-out.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Marvels</i></b> - Way better and more satisfying than most critics and Marvel fans would have had me believe. I love all three of these lead characters and their relationships and how they bounce off each other is wonderful. Yes, the movie has flaws – some of them serious – but I don’t care about them because it’s so much fun to watch – especially the two blockbuster ridiculous moments that I could have watched a whole movie about.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Missing</i></b> - This was pretty great and I enjoyed watching it (though not quite as much as I enjoyed its sister flick, SEARCHING). The third act went a little too far off the rails for me, but it’s still a great watch. Joaquin de Almeida and his character’s relationship with our hero is the reason to see this.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Napoleon</i></b> - This is beautiful and a bit baffling (the latter not necessarily a bad thing). Some of the battle scenes took my breath away, and I don’t usually get into those kinds of scenes because I frequently find them hard to follow. But the Austerlitz sequence was one of the most incredible things I saw on a movie screen this year. I was pleased that I was able to understand most of what happened despite knowing almost nothing about French history or Napoleon in particular. But like a lot of others, I really want to see the four-hour version, because the theatrical version feels like it’s missing some important bits.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>No One Will Save You</i></b> - I thought this was a fun take on the alien invasion / body snatcher story. Kaitlyn Dever is great, as usual, and the gimmick of almost no dialogue worked surprisingly well.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>NYAD</i></b> - Fairly by-the-book true story movie with two of the best performances of the year – from actresses I feel like I don’t get to see nearly enough of. Annette Bening and Jodie Foster are absolutely incredible and really elevate this movie, which manages to be thrilling and inspiring, despite the familiar tune.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Oppenheimer</i></b> - I very much took to one half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but this mostly left me cold. I loved the entire Trinity segment and everything that led up to it, but most of the other two-thirds of the film felt like it didn’t belong and would have been better suited being expanded into a mini-series. In particular, I don’t know why the Robert Downey Jr. section is here at all. It leads to a pretty good reveal, I guess, but I wasn’t as thrilled as I think the movie wanted me to be. And the way his entire thing was fueled by what he imagined Oppenheimer and Einstein were talking about that one time, I just couldn’t believe we were spending all this time with this petty little bitch.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Other Laurens</i></b> - I remember enjoying this at Fantastic Fest, but for the life of me I couldn’t tell you much about it now other than it has a lot in common with THE BIG LEBOWSKI (though visually it reminded me more of LET THE CORPSES TAN). I was also thrilled to see Kate Moran in it, who I’d last seen in KNIFE + HEART.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields</i></b> - This is a fairly comprehensive look at Brooke Shields’s rise to fame and her career – in particular, the roles and moments from her youth that raised eyebrows. Pop culture in the 80s had a fairly disgusting obsession with her, and I was glad to see that she got through that relatively unscathed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Priscilla</i></b> - This would make an interesting triple feature with JACKIE and SPENCER – all stories about women who are trapped, either physically or metaphorically. From very early on, you get the distinct impression that living at Graceland with Elvis (a life many girls would have killed for) is suffocating and miserable. Cailee Spaeny sells this really well, and Jacob Elordi is kind of a miracle as Elvis, giving us a look at some sides of him that are not so pleasant and fangirl-worthy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Rustin</i></b> - Another solid but basic biopic that is elevated by an incredible lead performance. I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Bayard Rustin before I started hearing about this movie, and it is amazing how much of a hand he actually had in the civil rights movement without getting much at all of the glory or legacy. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Saltburn</i></b> - I liked this more than Emerald Fennell’s previous movie, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, which isn’t saying much. This has a lot of things going for it and is bonkers in many ways that I liked (and others not so much – I’ll never see a bathtub drain without an involuntary wave of nausea). But this reminds me too much of other, better movies. There’s a lot of TALENTED MR. RIPLEY here, as well as TEOREMA. The performances are where this stands out – from the always excellent and interesting Barry Keoghan to the fabulously aloof Rosamund Pike to the pretty and sincere Jacob Elordi to the amazing Carey Mulligan who plays a character literally credited as “Poor Dear Pamela.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Saw X</i></b> - I’d resisted this entire franchise for years, but just before Fantastic Fest I sort of resolved to burn my way through it as part of this year’s Shocktober. Funnily enough, then, this turned out to be the final secret screening at the festival. So now I was even more compelled to see the rest of the series. I … actually liked this? Having now seen the whole series, this one is less frenetic and more toned down than its predecessors (except perhaps the first one). And gives us MUCH more John Kramer, which is great because the movies always suddenly become better whenever he’s on screen, so having him in this as an actual main character was a treat. I wouldn’t say I’m a full-on Saw cultist now, but my eyes will probably light up whenever I see Billy the Puppet.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Scream VI</i></b> - I really liked the previous Scream movie, which kicked off this “requel” trilogy(?), so I had high hopes for this one. And I did mostly like it. For one thing it was a much better “killer loose in New York” than JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (not a high bar). I just wish these new movies had the berries to actually kill off major “good guy” characters. Seriously, nine people die in this movie and FIVE of them are killers (or wannabe killers, in the case of two of them).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Sisu</i></b> - Excellent, brutal action and (eventually) some kickass ladies. I just wish there had been a bit more story to match up with the punchy-punchy, slashy-slashy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Sleep</i></b> - Loved this at Fantastic Fest. Husband and wife are about to have a baby and the husband starts doing some increasingly terrifying things in his sleep. Great suspense and some pretty wild somnambulism incidents. I don’t even know what to say about Lee Sun-kyun, who plays the husband (and also played the rich husband in PARASITE), who tragically died recently.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Sly</i></b> - I’ve cooled on Sly as a person after seeing him slide into the MAGA cult, but this is a great look at his career and the turns it has taken. Especially how he has managed to get so much mileage out of the main roles that made his career (namely, Rocky and Rambo).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Talk to Me</i></b> - Probably the most talked about horror movie of the year, and for good reason. Love seeing a good Aussie horror with an exciting talent in the lead. The concept here is chilling and effective, and I’m looking forward to the prequel that’s supposed to be in the works. If I have anything against this, it’s how much the characters and their decisions frustrated me – more so than even the usual horror bad decision machines.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Tetris</i></b> - I was waffling on this for the first half hour, and then this movie became something else entirely and I was fully on board. This was a year chock full of “how this product became a phenomenon” movies – from Air Jordans to Blackberry phones to Tetris but each of them has a different flavor. This movie doesn’t start the strongest but it gets so much better when it becomes an International Intrigue movie.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>They Cloned Tyrone</i></b> - This was great, with yet another incredible performance from John Boyega. The worldbuilding here is fun and has some important things to say, but I couldn’t help being reminded of GET OUT and how much more effectively I felt it tackled a similar idea.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Tiger Stripes</i></b> - The Fantastic Fest blurb compared this to HAUSU (1977), which was all I needed to want a ticket. The actual movie isn’t quite what I expected from that description. Less crazy magical action and more body horror and teen melodrama. And it’s mostly great until it kind of fizzles out in the third act. It’s still an interesting take on period body horror.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Triggered</i></b> - This has some good action setpieces and some fragments of a good story. I did like that the hero is kind of a coward who needs to redeem himself, and he’s not the only character who challenges your perception of them. It was just not as engaging as I wanted it to be.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Trolls Band Together</i></b> - Each of these movies is less than the previous, but this was still pretty fun. I’m just laughing at how N’SYNC fans trolled (*rimshot*) themselves into thinking the group was actually getting back together to do a tour. They barely did a voice cameo!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Wham! </i></b>- Loved this look into the ultimate 80s pop duo, especially as we get so much of Andrew Ridgley, who I think for a lot of fans – at least casual fans, like myself – was always a bit of a mystery. Or maybe it just seemed that way with him in the enormous shadow of George Michael.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>Wonka</i></b> - This is not exactly the best movie ever, or even the best Wonka movie ever, and there are far too many fat jokes for a movie in this day and age. But there’s a lot to enjoy here if you let yourself get caught up in it. The best parts are definitely when Hugh Grant is on screen.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b><i>The Zone of Interest</i></b> - I found this a well-made and bone-chilling movie that it was a bit of a challenge for me to engage with. In many ways, it works like a dramatic exercise. There is no plot to speak of; it’s more an immersive experience. A German family builds an idyllic home life next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp. That’s it; that’s the movie, but it’s so much more if you’re willing to give it just a bit more attention. The sound design is the real star here and the only sign (other than some dialogue and a couple of shots inside the camp – though not of a single prisoner) of what’s going on. You hear gunshots, you hear officers yelling, you hear commotion, but you never see any of it. Just like the family doesn’t have to see any of it, except for the father who is the commandante. This isn’t shot in a “pretty” way – no close-ups and no editorializing whatsoever. Director Jonathan Glazer doesn’t want you to empathize with these people. He’s just showing you “the banality of evil.” </span></p><div><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div></span></div><p><br /></p>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-34036738923375000722023-01-04T12:57:00.000-08:002023-01-04T12:57:51.823-08:002022's "Top Ten" - Master Post<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">To save you scrolling and clicking all over the place, I put all the links to each category below. And for all but the top two categories, I've put the titles of all the films in their respective categories (all in alphabetical order), in case you're looking for something in particular.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">11. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/2022-top-ten-list-11.html" target="_blank">*sigh*</a> (click link for full post) - Babylon, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Invitation</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">10. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-10.html" target="_blank">Didn't Hate It, but It Left Me Wanting</a> (click link for full post) - Bros, Bullet Train, Crimes of the Future, Demigod: The Legend Begins, Living with Chucky, Piggy, She Said, Thor: Love and Thunder</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">9. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-9.html" target="_blank">Didn't Knock My Socks Off, but Still Pretty Good</a> (click link for full post) - Breaking, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Confess Fletch, Crush, The Fallout, The Good Nurse, Hustle, Kimi, The Lost City, The Outfit, The Roundup, See How They Run, Sick, Smile, Violent Night, Year of the Shark</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">8. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-8.html" target="_blank">Don't Hate Me, I Loved This Garbage</a> (click link for full post) - Marry Me, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">7. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-7.html" target="_blank">I Respect a Wild Swing</a> (click link for full post) - Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Elvis, Halloween Ends, Men, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">6. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-6.html" target="_blank">I Love You, but I'm Not *in* Love with You</a> (click link for full post) - The Banshees of Inisherin, Decision to Leave, The Fabelmans, Holy Spider, Hunt, Pearl</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">5. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-5.html" target="_blank">The Acquired Tastes</a> (click link for full post) - Flux Gourmet, Glorious, Kids vs. Aliens, La Pieta, Leonor Will Never Die, Moonage Daydream, Smoking Causes Coughing, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Triangle of Sadness, Unicorn Wars</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">4. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-list-4.html" target="_blank">The Surprises</a> (click link for full post) - The Batman, Beast, Blood Relatives, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Final Cut, Fire Island, Hellraiser (2022), Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Resurrection, Spirited, Terrifier 2</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">3. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2022/12/top-ten-3.html" target="_blank">Crank These Up to Eleven and Roll Down the Windows!</a> (click link for full post) - Ambulance, Barbarian, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Do Revenge, Fresh, Hatching, The Northman, Orphan: First Kill, Prey, Project Wolf Hunting, Scream (5), Top Gun: Maverick, The Woman King</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">2. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2023/01/top-ten-list-2.html" target="_blank">The Gold Standard</a> (click link for full post)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">1. <a href="https://filmshuffle.blogspot.com/2023/01/top-ten-list-1.html" target="_blank">My Movie Soulmates</a> (click link for full post)</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-90735832510079534942023-01-04T12:29:00.002-08:002023-01-04T12:29:49.473-08:00"Top Ten" List - #1<span id="docs-internal-guid-3f5dbfd7-7fff-faf4-51bf-2ec73f19b0d7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">1. My Movie Soulmates</span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Better than the best, transcending trifling concepts such as rank, these are the movies that meant the most to me in 2022.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAG_oCaJF29GOkiJ98o-YZmoMZDmAssnzb-kXQn6ijOVbUrK4zZlLutl4L-qrIH-dTbNunsiSQ9BhyrtV0PKxcVsWQyzHJIDJka7K4umkSxQTHSLfvNCO9CrmCDgoWpUv-3NcIM6RTQp9U_Xf9w84JvDMJribC73eLOyac4xOmFLJ-Fuxde3N57d4Xkw/s2700/bonesandall-FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1610" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAG_oCaJF29GOkiJ98o-YZmoMZDmAssnzb-kXQn6ijOVbUrK4zZlLutl4L-qrIH-dTbNunsiSQ9BhyrtV0PKxcVsWQyzHJIDJka7K4umkSxQTHSLfvNCO9CrmCDgoWpUv-3NcIM6RTQp9U_Xf9w84JvDMJribC73eLOyac4xOmFLJ-Fuxde3N57d4Xkw/w382-h640/bonesandall-FULL.jpg" width="382" /></a></div><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The world of love wants no monsters in it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t often get into love stories, especially young love stories. I didn’t have a lot of experience with that in my own youth and young adulthood, so I felt like I didn’t relate to those stories the way others did, and it just became another way that I felt different. Which is perhaps one reason why I latched onto this particular love story because it is *about* people who are different. And not different in a cutesy “aww, we both love celery root” way – in a real can’t-exist-in-normal-society way. It’s a romantic horror movie that goes harder than any movie I’ve ever seen that’s claimed to be in that subgenre. NEAR DARK could never. TWILIGHT and its sequels *absolutely* could never. Our two lovebirds and the people like them live on the fringes of society, a reality that is subtly emphasized by the Reagan-era setting. They’re called “eaters” in the film, but we would just call them cannibals. They’re not like the cannibals you might have seen in other fiction. This isn’t the neat and tidy cannibalism of Hannibal Lecter (no Rolodex and recipe cards) and their cannibalism isn’t a symptom of some other psychosis; this is a physical, biological compulsion (well, not for Brad, but for everyone else). </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the cannibals in this movie are kind of an underground subset of humanity, they are not a community with common values and goals. “Everyone’s got their rules,” one character tells us, and you get the impression that whenever eaters meet each other in the world, there’s a real risk that their respective rules come into conflict and someone almost always gets hurt. Maren and Lee latch onto each other not just because they’re both young and pretty (though they certainly are that) but because they share an inner struggle between the horror at what they’re capable of and the undeniable relief it brings them. A struggle that most of the other eaters we meet either never fought or have long since given up as a lost cause. This movie is poetry on every level – the cast, the cinematography, the music (“Lick It Up” is such an inspired choice), the sense of dread, and oh my, that devastating ending. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent - not cheaply - on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepv7rtPamPhVsdMBFk-6RWwlGP4yhhEbdf1Q8wkEo2tsze9IVNwKvyesZuZ0tyjJEWDKAeN4x1WvJtikj9aSLsg15GSuOd4n6CtLu7S8x8sv6Va4kkuMLcYfSfdyddGFjxHUbgiaxI9GM_hZssEGyJ2bmrgPxHQIPtA3AQt5BriCfjvHaTACFQeNtnA/s2700/eeaao-FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; white-space: normal;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2700" data-original-width="1551" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjepv7rtPamPhVsdMBFk-6RWwlGP4yhhEbdf1Q8wkEo2tsze9IVNwKvyesZuZ0tyjJEWDKAeN4x1WvJtikj9aSLsg15GSuOd4n6CtLu7S8x8sv6Va4kkuMLcYfSfdyddGFjxHUbgiaxI9GM_hZssEGyJ2bmrgPxHQIPtA3AQt5BriCfjvHaTACFQeNtnA/w368-h640/eeaao-FULL.jpg" width="368" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You think because l'm kind that it means I'm naive, and maybe I am.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It's strategic </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; white-space: pre-wrap;">and necessary. This is how I fight.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rules are overrated. And it seems like the Daniels (directors Kwan and Scheinart) are intent on breaking all of them to tell a story that, for all the multiverse trappings and butt plug-shaped trophies and hot dog fingers and hardcore parkour, is ultimately about a family trying to hold itself together against a sea of chaos. We’re introduced to the sci-fi stuff early on, first in the background on a CCTV monitor – watching Waymond hop around like a madman – and then in the elevator, when Evelyn first gets connected to the verse-jumping tech. What follows is a glorious mess that is explained to us piecemeal over the next half-hour, as Alpha-Waymond and Evelyn battle AU versions of everyone around them in an effort to defeat the multiverse villain Jobu Tupaki, the Alphaverse version of Evelyn’s daughter Joy, and the black hole she has created in the form of an everything bagel (a humorous image but a symbol of her depression). Watching all this is like drinking from the firehose of cinema (h/t Cinema Therapy), and it can be hard not to be overwhelmed by it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But while the movie works hard to shape all this nonsense into a mostly logical construct, it doesn’t really matter if you can follow it 100% of the time. The most important part of the story is the family dynamics and the attempts to heal intergenerational trauma. Perhaps the most magical moments in the movie are in the Wong Kar-wai section – in the ‘verse where Evelyn and Waymond never married and ended up separately successful, which is styled after Wong Kar-wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE – and it carries the movie’s mission statement, which is the importance of simply being kind. But I think my favorite moment is just after Evelyn’s epiphany, when she thinks she’s fixing the problem with her daughter. She isn’t, of course, because Joy is much more than angry and disillusioned. And Evelyn ultimately does all that you can do with someone who is depressed – be with them, sit with them, listen to them, and love them unconditionally. Just be kind. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></blockquote></blockquote><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-SEXc1vAkq_3dbA9T6JjyhRxhFfjeZHMpkpEksTKq6yzuc8vcch72jitqUBqKPKxwdkD_NpwtiZtjbGD3Xko0t37u-XsToes9GeMlNqhAkb6SJasMPo7-eI8mcAZeG8B7-NSF1LciiogcDSKMFg1aeO7QeXT_WEQFGduPw4JslKitQfElPhMz7jT8xA/s2570/rrr-FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2570" data-original-width="1529" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-SEXc1vAkq_3dbA9T6JjyhRxhFfjeZHMpkpEksTKq6yzuc8vcch72jitqUBqKPKxwdkD_NpwtiZtjbGD3Xko0t37u-XsToes9GeMlNqhAkb6SJasMPo7-eI8mcAZeG8B7-NSF1LciiogcDSKMFg1aeO7QeXT_WEQFGduPw4JslKitQfElPhMz7jT8xA/w380-h640/rrr-FULL.jpg" width="380" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your friendship is more valuable than this life, brother. I’ll die with pride.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indian cinema, at least what I know of it, just operates on another level. One of my favorite films of all time – like, all-time top ten – is 2001’s LAGAAN: ONCE UPON A TIME IN INDIA, a 4-hour underdog sports movie with song and dance numbers. And I adored Rajamouli’s two brazenly epic Baahubali movies, so I knew I’d be in for something special with RRR (RISE ROAR REVOLT). This movie is basically historical fanfiction – the two main characters were real historical figures and the movie poses the question, “what if they were best friends and did awesome things together?”. The movie’s structure is very effective. We are introduced to our two heroes (who they are, what they can do) with two astounding set pieces, then after we show them setting about their respective tasks, they meet in arguably (and there is serious competition for this, so I don’t say it lightly) the most epic and amazing scene in the movie before we finally get the title card 40 minutes in. And the way the movie kind of stops halfway through and gives us some important backstory reminded me a lot of Baahubali, where the first half of the second movie does something similar. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This movie operates under the maxim that it doesn’t matter if it makes sense, it just has to look cool. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The set pieces are jaw-droppingly awesome and, yes, intentionally ridiculous. Like the insane, rollicking ridiculous fun of the early Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but cranked up to 11. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The effects are used fairly economically – basically, if it’s something you need to look at, it looks great. If not, making it look super realistic is not a priority and there’s no reason it really should be. But the real special effect of this movie is the two leads — N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan Teja. There are no movie stars like this outside of India. None. Not even Tom “Imma Fly This Motorcycle Off A Cliff” Cruise. The way these two do EVERYTHING — including dance (Naatu! Naatu!, y’all) — is them going for it one billion percent. And the movie is all the better for it. This was a riot to see in a theater full of people, but I got just as jazzed seeing it at home. If anyone tries to tell you cinema is dead, you show them this defibrillator of a movie. What a time to be alive! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix but only in Hindi; available on Zee5 in original Telugu language</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span><span><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwmngH0XM7mgVrx3j7ESyOQdLjC2YqfwbpkP3t_0FCaYzii5HDiskKy8x6goYyi6fkvQPQ4Bqg2QxIRahRr6tu7Avu9eayN0BrhPgJzWnPRQ3kSvPOB2slpjnaAsdy1BF5HaRHHOH9jPgBuhaSAQRXacMAUUj-XJBsNNpfVQZIotCpABVxq3101Fmrg/s2501/turningred-FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2501" data-original-width="1505" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHwmngH0XM7mgVrx3j7ESyOQdLjC2YqfwbpkP3t_0FCaYzii5HDiskKy8x6goYyi6fkvQPQ4Bqg2QxIRahRr6tu7Avu9eayN0BrhPgJzWnPRQ3kSvPOB2slpjnaAsdy1BF5HaRHHOH9jPgBuhaSAQRXacMAUUj-XJBsNNpfVQZIotCpABVxq3101Fmrg/w386-h640/turningred-FULL.jpg" width="386" /></a></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People have all kinds of sides to them, Mei. And some sides are messy. The point</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">isn’t to push the bad stuff away, it’s to make room for it, live with it.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I still cannot get over the amount of bullshit controversy there was over this movie. Some parents really need to talk to (and LISTEN TO) their children. Much like Mei’s mother in this movie (I have never been so frustrated with a fictional character in my entire life). The movie is not really about menstruation, though that is significantly mentioned. The red panda, however, is clearly a metaphor not just for periods but for puberty in general. There is also an element of women and girls being conditioned to stay quiet and demure and subsume any emotion or attitude whatsoever. And of course this is yet another story about intergenerational trauma (I need a prequel short about Ming’s adolescence and what led to Ming Kong). The story is so great, with refreshing twists on the norms of tween movies, and subtle inclusiveness – like the girl with the insulin patch and the concertgoer in the wheelchair (oh, and the very likely bi Priya). And with the main character being in eighth grade, I couldn't help but relate this movie to my own ride-or-die besties at that age.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The animation is absolutely gorgeous (if GdT’s PINOCCHIO didn’t also come out this year, this would be a shoo-in come awards season), perhaps especially the way all the food looks in this movie -- down to the flour on the uncooked dumplings. The style is still Pixar, but there are elements that set it apart, like flashes of anime and the embarrassingly accurate fanart. I also suspect Domee Shi is a fan of SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD because I see shades of that occasionally as well. I love that the female characters look distinct from one another – sadly, a new development for Pixar. And let’s not forget the music – score by Ludwig Göransson and early 2000s boy band-ish songs by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell. There was seriously not a greater, more sublime moment in a movie to me this year than the 4*Town ritual mashup. Followed by the forest scene which brought on some serious crying. My new favorite Pixar. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Disney+ and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuCNDtEOaA18DSQWweHkKWKRNvy9PsOwQc8WL33fvfBz2T-ltDciFULtpseBblwe-fY99yXr1DSx2N6crOKc2n-4WPzuiRVZsUT4P4jS9A3SIvG5a99iMT-ocfKu69YdzNM8jnG-2qyFSm7PSHPa1YXUKtdbuGS4KkxNECMxASMSDVUbpUhpkBtzbXg/s2545/x-FULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2545" data-original-width="1500" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipuCNDtEOaA18DSQWweHkKWKRNvy9PsOwQc8WL33fvfBz2T-ltDciFULtpseBblwe-fY99yXr1DSx2N6crOKc2n-4WPzuiRVZsUT4P4jS9A3SIvG5a99iMT-ocfKu69YdzNM8jnG-2qyFSm7PSHPa1YXUKtdbuGS4KkxNECMxASMSDVUbpUhpkBtzbXg/w378-h640/x-FULL.jpg" width="378" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">F*** me, Howard!</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perfect slasher is perfect. From the opening frame with the deceptive aspect ratio to the creative editing to the final line of dialogue, which sums up the film fairly succinctly. There’s quite a bit of TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974) here, down to some near identical shots, but it’s definitely its own movie. Like one of West’s previous films, HOUSE OF THE DEVIL (2009), this is a period horror film that is not only stunningly accurate to the period but also feels like a film *made* in that period. The plot is fairly simple – a small film crew goes to a farmhouse in rural Texas to shoot a porno and brutal murder ensues. All of the characters are likable (even the villains, in their own way) and I’m genuinely sad when shit starts going down. There are excellent scenes of tension – perhaps especially the scene with Maxine swimming – and the movie never loses itself in a messy, nonsensical splatterfest. It also takes its time getting to know the characters and exploring the ethics and morals of being in the porn business. And while the “Landslide” scene might seem unnecessary, it’s the calm before the storm that almost makes you forget what kind of movie you’re watching and I love that.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t understand charges that this film is ageist. I think that, despite their being the villains, the movie has enormous empathy for Howard and (especially) Pearl. I actually feel happy for them when they’re finally able to, errr, reconnect. There’s a tendency to see older people as having always been old, but this movie goes to great lengths – with Pearl, at least – to show that they’re the same people inside as they were when they were much younger. And I feel like we learn enough – or can infer or extrapolate enough – about Pearl in this movie to make her standalone film feel superfluous. Fun, but unnecessary.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I adore this movie, and I think it's a new top-five for me for horror movies. I would never argue against the original TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE's place in the horror canon, and there's no doubt that this movie lifts heavily from it. But -- controversial yet brave opinion incoming -- I like this more and think it might actually be better. (<i>Available on Showtime and to rent - not cheaply - on other streaming services</i>.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-24587166787463945062023-01-04T11:10:00.004-08:002023-01-04T12:31:37.200-08:00"Top Ten" List - #2<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. The Gold Standard</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-45ee2ade-7fff-70c5-59a6-3eda2a9f0890"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s one more category “above” this one, but these are the movies that I feel like were the best of the year and that I also loved and enjoyed reading commentary about this year. This is also this year’s biggest category, at least partly due to some bedeviling release dates for movies that I just decided to count as 2022 movies because that’s when they were available in the U.S. and therefore available to me.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfVrEgAZQlTVF7DivhFwkdcgXQqnn4wvy6JVEX5u2SZJFATAERKqd315uJQJ-nRqTRH8gJFxF81L-PZaVbbDbpM1DJ9mA4uZ-uElNItr2iz6ol1ICpj4qA9zdT6gsoK726OZxNpQmjO0yCJjpfgN48txEnKjzftohjVnLrcD9chuVJUd7Ck9a7H4DCw/s1024/aftersun-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdfVrEgAZQlTVF7DivhFwkdcgXQqnn4wvy6JVEX5u2SZJFATAERKqd315uJQJ-nRqTRH8gJFxF81L-PZaVbbDbpM1DJ9mA4uZ-uElNItr2iz6ol1ICpj4qA9zdT6gsoK726OZxNpQmjO0yCJjpfgN48txEnKjzftohjVnLrcD9chuVJUd7Ck9a7H4DCw/w640-h480/aftersun-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it’s nice that we share the same sky.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I feel a little dishonest putting this movie here, because I didn’t initially respond that strongly to it. I practically dragged myself kicking and screaming to go see it. Every description I read or heard about this movie sounded pretentious and boring and stupidly vague and made me decreasingly desirous to know more. I also had a less than ideal viewing experience for a few different reasons, which affected my real time understanding of the movie. Having said that, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a movie that more astutely embodies what movies are and what they can do than this one. On the surface, it’s incredibly simple. Ninety percent of it or more is just a father and daughter on vacation in Turkey – no real plot to speak of – but the total package is kind of a miracle. And for a director’s first feature to be this confident and at the same time restrained, Charlotte Wells should be a name everyone is on the lookout for from here on out. The same for her two stars, Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio. The weird thing (and what frustrated me initially) is that I was only able to see what the movie was doing once I got home and started reading/watching other people’s thoughts on it. And not in an “oh, that’s what that was” way but more like “of COURSE.” And understanding or interpreting things in the past more richly or in a different way is precisely what the movie is about. As in, it’s literally what the main character is experiencing. Now that I go back and reread all the comments that failed to inspire me to see this to begin with, they’re much more meaningful to me. Of course. This would have been a great movie to see with other people and chew over afterward, but I couldn’t do that with this one and don’t get to do it often enough in general. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent - not cheaply - on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdeqGH4MB4xXP_mXepAR_FN-zGYqRZd5vTjuOjM8m43_RuRCXa6xx91eCJs7its9oZu-yjzsFbG4GbrWlKPEMDPyoMXd7GuZgJhPi7Zn3Cjc7tTvqw0kP7LBI5nOBpytom_od39e89-2p2qLPos1hOD86ZWCTQOlMX6fIGT1NgXhUUuuJYIXDxO5FQEA/s1024/avatar2-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdeqGH4MB4xXP_mXepAR_FN-zGYqRZd5vTjuOjM8m43_RuRCXa6xx91eCJs7its9oZu-yjzsFbG4GbrWlKPEMDPyoMXd7GuZgJhPi7Zn3Cjc7tTvqw0kP7LBI5nOBpytom_od39e89-2p2qLPos1hOD86ZWCTQOlMX6fIGT1NgXhUUuuJYIXDxO5FQEA/w640-h480/avatar2-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>The way of water connects all things. Before your birth, and after your death.</i></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have issues with Cameron’s world building and sense of tone and dialogue — and when I left the theater after seeing this I couldn’t tell you the name of a single new character — but the filmmaking on display is undeniably impressive. There’s some stunningly dumb science here (that stuff from the tulkuns stops aging? Like, permanently? You’ll never die???) but it’s a very small part of the movie so I can ignore it. The previous movie was a game-changer and even people who disliked it seemed to still have respect for the technical marvel of it all. I think it’s the same with this movie. I’m glad we spent far less time away from Pandora this time, but I wish we could have an entirely new villain because the bits with Na’vi!Quaritch were my least favorite. I really loved that we got to see a new area of Pandora and the underwater scenes were incredibly beautiful (though I couldn’t help thinking of how hard they must have been to film given how Cameron tends to be with his actors). I adored the tulkuns and hope we get to see much more of them in future movies. I also liked that this movie focuses a bit less on Jake and Neytiri, since Jake at least has never been that interesting to me. I was very fond of Lo’ak and especially Kiri and I’m intrigued by the mystery of her parentage (and of course glad that Sigourney Weaver still gets to be in these films). I know that this is not as engaging a world as the Star Wars universe and not as easy for fans to play in, but I don’t think that’s a priority for Cameron. I like seeing him doing exactly what he wants and pushing the medium further and further. (<i>In theaters</i>.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1687QBmrr5EayimoqOtOXPoAZbrSkKAxFZvyLJN_03Rqe7EUUY7upzFdh882hBk7JzmY77ta6cdF8Ay3LJREDXibQjAelJeP3nQgcsUwSgl0NN2Fn0EWWj2M3s1B3-pgguUwLpOo9LTBAqQy2AClxWgoEd1tW38VAX-GK_jSMh4Lt6ktNqHMF9dzHSg/s1024/blackphone-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1687QBmrr5EayimoqOtOXPoAZbrSkKAxFZvyLJN_03Rqe7EUUY7upzFdh882hBk7JzmY77ta6cdF8Ay3LJREDXibQjAelJeP3nQgcsUwSgl0NN2Fn0EWWj2M3s1B3-pgguUwLpOo9LTBAqQy2AClxWgoEd1tW38VAX-GK_jSMh4Lt6ktNqHMF9dzHSg/w640-h480/blackphone-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus? What the f***?!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At one point, during this year’s Fantastic Fest, C. Robert Cargill declared 2022 to be for horror what 1982 was for movies in general. What he probably would never say (but I will) is that he and his co-writer and director Scott Derrickson made one of the best horror movies in a year full to the brim with great ones. I had the chance to see this at last year’s FFest and it has absolutely held up. It’s a rare movie set in the 1970s that actually feels like the 1970s rather than a Halloweentown-style facsimile. The kids feel like real kids, especially the two leads, Mason Thames and Madeleine McGraw. Ethan Hawke, who has never really played a straight-up villain before, is utterly terrifying. Jeremy Davies manages to wring some empathy out of a character who I never could have imagined feeling the least bit bad for. And I loved seeing James Ransone, who seems to be part of the Derrickson stable at this point. I love the set design and the locations used – I still can't get over the neighborhood, which looks exactly like so many neighborhoods I knew growing up and which probably still exist in a lot of towns, except for the ones bought out by airports and shopping centers. The movie has an excellent structure. I love the increasingly threatening appearances of the black van, giving us just enough bad vibes to be horrified when Finney is confronted with it. I love all the pieces of the previous escape attempts that all come together to help Finney find his own way out. And I think most of all I love that the supernatural element, while creepy at first, is actually a force for good. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuIkNt4JYOYDMeOqLUK33kAJuwckdiLbQf8xVW9P4ua6yTM-O3hLYE8aWxAVHJl2L0wciTqOG1qJ14KtLt2qphKhxj1-IlE569vpVhIusJcH1YcfWCNDB-3FD7KhOS52KCkBRrUZESVJ2lh9aLnJ_l_EcFKjHFEL-A4bpWx-ydo7eZzbv8c6EPASzHA/s1024/corsage-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEuIkNt4JYOYDMeOqLUK33kAJuwckdiLbQf8xVW9P4ua6yTM-O3hLYE8aWxAVHJl2L0wciTqOG1qJ14KtLt2qphKhxj1-IlE569vpVhIusJcH1YcfWCNDB-3FD7KhOS52KCkBRrUZESVJ2lh9aLnJ_l_EcFKjHFEL-A4bpWx-ydo7eZzbv8c6EPASzHA/w640-h480/corsage-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A lion doesn’t lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Empress Elisabeth of Austria (nicknamed “Sisi”) isn’t just a historical figure; she’s a cultural icon, at least in Vienna, where her image and kitschy merch tie-ins are comparable to Mozart’s. Probably the most famous incarnation of her in pop culture is the film version played by Romy Schneider in a trilogy of Austrian films from the 1950s. It’s an infantilized, cutesy version of the Sisi that’s still popular across Europe even now. Marie Kreutzer’s CORSAGE delightfully pokes at this persona, and Vicky Krieps (who I’d only ever seen in PHANTOM THREAD) pilfers and takes what she wants from the history and creates a character that is truly her own. In so doing, she makes this woman feel more alive than I imagine a more reverent depiction would have. The movie also revels in deliberate anachronisms, not in the overly hip style of MARIE ANTIONETTE, but much more casually – a modern doorway here, a clearly modern passenger ship there – just enough to take you out of it for a second and remind you that what you’re watching is artifice and not meant to be taken as a historical document. Think SPENCER, by way of (a great deal more subdued) WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY. Perhaps the most clever touch is the movie’s complete reimagining of this woman’s death, which incongruously gives her an enormous amount of agency at the end of a film that has shown us over and over how she bristled against her role and the expectations of her. I also have to shout out the music, which is all modern and mostly synthy pop. Soap&Skin’s “Italy” will be in my head for quite a while, as will Vicky Krieps’s ethereal dancing to it over the closing credits. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8yDSUXCmHZZAkrudbAu5U3ZxY_SwAw8mzPeKRSSEFT4ScBmj0XgrwtYtxlKf1vsRoeGW8h6c2FZLIdMv9le-NNVEgljXSqJioYerfuK3Zrvtql1fjcslarhPEj_CGkDQfau3iW9VpapNlCeiIQoN9UR46YhcKJrkOyhdlEpVYsWFRY_D8d7XYzv3yA/s1024/eo-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim8yDSUXCmHZZAkrudbAu5U3ZxY_SwAw8mzPeKRSSEFT4ScBmj0XgrwtYtxlKf1vsRoeGW8h6c2FZLIdMv9le-NNVEgljXSqJioYerfuK3Zrvtql1fjcslarhPEj_CGkDQfau3iW9VpapNlCeiIQoN9UR46YhcKJrkOyhdlEpVYsWFRY_D8d7XYzv3yA/w640-h480/eo-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">May all of your dreams come true.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No, this isn’t a documentary about Captain EO. Inspired by Robert Bresson’s AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, it’s a road trip drama starring a donkey named EO (played by six donkeys, called Ettore, Hola, Marietta, Mela, Rocco, and Tako in real life), and it is phenomenal. It reminded me a lot of THE STRAIGHT STORY in its deceptive simplicity and its purity. We first see EO in a Polish circus, before the circus goes bankrupt and sells him off to farmers. He gets out of a fence he’s being kept in and sets off into the wild, wandering into various adventures, both good and bad. This isn’t a cutesy animal story, it’s not an anthropomorphic animal story like BABE (ain’t nothing wrong with BABE, though), and it’s definitely not for younger kids – not that it’s inappropriate, by any means, but I suspect most children under 12 would lose interest pretty early. If you are an animal lover, there are moments in this movie that will be truly upsetting. There’s no on-camera violence toward animals, but what is implied just off-screen can be horrifying. Whatever horrors or brief delights await this poor donkey, the film is gobsmackingly beautiful to look at, and it’s kind of amazing how 84-year-old director Jerzy Skolimowski is able to use the camera to make these donkeys so expressive, as if they are actually acting. (I couldn’t help thinking of KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS – a much less accomplished filmmaking venture – and the cow that can act. But could that cow carry an entire movie? I think not!) The ending is nonchalantly brutal, without showing us anything, and I may never eat salami again. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters - I’m hearing it will be a while before it’s available for home viewing</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7ZG2RyLbi7WYPxEOa2XgXi1bLxqatjfiVoaEDiItRtPlOXQuHJBKDDOoVzHPyezTYuLfcs2CvORC-HFIYsEnPPUtp4688eDlDcOZxPgVmAqs_Hr1wLW76yvXL4vuhO1CAgh_XoaxXguVhQsaCx7GQ2fOfz8qbMYmRYGsnifELwTlLyVV6nPKOMmikA/s1024/glassonion-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7ZG2RyLbi7WYPxEOa2XgXi1bLxqatjfiVoaEDiItRtPlOXQuHJBKDDOoVzHPyezTYuLfcs2CvORC-HFIYsEnPPUtp4688eDlDcOZxPgVmAqs_Hr1wLW76yvXL4vuhO1CAgh_XoaxXguVhQsaCx7GQ2fOfz8qbMYmRYGsnifELwTlLyVV6nPKOMmikA/w640-h480/glassonion-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s so dumb.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh, it’s so dumb, it’s brilliant!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">NO! It’s just dumb!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hope we get an entire Benoit Blanc franchise because this movie manages to match, if not exceed, the excellence of KNIVES OUT. This has a much different feel from its predecessor. We trade the autumnal manor house for a much more summery feel, following most of our cast of characters as they journey by boat to a private island in Greece owned by their friend, tech billionaire Miles Bron. (I’m sure there were several intentional parallels to that Musk guy, but they can’t have known all the stuff that would happen in the weeks surrounding this movie’s release that made Miles an even more stunning parody.) The movie starts off very LAST OF SHEILA, with Miles concocting (with a significant amount of help, it turns out) a murder mystery game for his guests to solve. Just like with KNIVES OUT, there’s what you *think* the mystery is going to be, until about halfway in when things become much more complicated (and thereby more interesting). There’s a whole new cast of characters, of course, most of whom are fairly insufferable. Except for one, who the movie sets you up to root for – for this mystery, the role of Ana de Armas will be played by Janelle Monae, who prior to this I thought was … okay as an actress, but she’s on another level here, playing essentially three characters, and there’s a reason she’s getting all the awards buzz. I loved every bit of this, perhaps especially the use of the song “Mona Lisa,” which brought back memories of my mother playing it on the piano when I was a kid. Also, blink and you’ll miss them, but there are cameos from both Stephen Sondheim (who co-wrote THE LAST OF SHEILA with Anthony Perkins) and Angela Lansbury. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc0VLkRs5xBfQGehLryP1B6pmTCdw9ohfyYLxnn4eOtngBOfoHdmfDSVfMvhYQ6f69Mq4j7lpJBhBkwuvL2_4_F2GcdTpA6FWlaA9EnIJUXaYjrxwz-HnqDxT5e7c4CKdZnP6lo9KESKom5Y6n8opZPs-mzqrodeR9tXYj_4zh3SqeHQ80d3ZX9IhILw/s1024/goodluck-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc0VLkRs5xBfQGehLryP1B6pmTCdw9ohfyYLxnn4eOtngBOfoHdmfDSVfMvhYQ6f69Mq4j7lpJBhBkwuvL2_4_F2GcdTpA6FWlaA9EnIJUXaYjrxwz-HnqDxT5e7c4CKdZnP6lo9KESKom5Y6n8opZPs-mzqrodeR9tXYj_4zh3SqeHQ80d3ZX9IhILw/w640-h480/goodluck-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You’re the only adventure I’ve ever had.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Movies in general have been strangely sexless in recent years, but a few movies have cut through with occasionally brutal honesty regarding physical intimacy. This movie takes place almost entirely in a hotel room between just two people. And there’s nothing that explicit about the sexual content, except that sex is talked about openly and there is a focus on female pleasure (which is so rare in movies it certainly *seems* explicit). Emma Thompson plays a retired teacher who was recently widowed and who hires an exceedingly attractive male sex worker in order to experience a series of sexual acts she has never had a chance to try and which she feels she has missed out on – sort of a specialized bucket list, if you will. She is also hoping to finally have her first orgasm, which she never had in over 30+ years of unfulfilling “missionary style” with her late husband. This movie shouldn’t be remarkable, but it is. It is so refreshingly sex-positive and body-positive – not to mention actually intimate – that I was quite moved by it. I’m still not sure how I feel about the sudden end-of-act-two bring-down, but it does give us the necessary reminder that these hotel room encounters are transactions and manufactured fantasies, and that both Leo and Nancy are playing roles when they’re together. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOgp9CDc3iGRXD8FitWEvvp7q1vH7Mt8uzxl0s-k55yTgqJZ0BKTQapIbv6Q23ENM4SMwoBesombU_jWOwDNIUY57THNyVyAbpX4qbp2EyMYmVm72futA8E3TSiCl_lwCTCUBoru8PWFkiekgHiiYgbrvnzTcqHU9hjufZ_Ylv0XBCro20rzchy7Xeg/s1024/happening-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOgp9CDc3iGRXD8FitWEvvp7q1vH7Mt8uzxl0s-k55yTgqJZ0BKTQapIbv6Q23ENM4SMwoBesombU_jWOwDNIUY57THNyVyAbpX4qbp2EyMYmVm72futA8E3TSiCl_lwCTCUBoru8PWFkiekgHiiYgbrvnzTcqHU9hjufZ_Ylv0XBCro20rzchy7Xeg/w640-h480/happening-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wasn't able to study, now I am.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Were you ill?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The kind of illness that strikes only women and turns them into housewives.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I saw this, I think, less than a week after Alito’s draft opinion on Roe v. Wade leaked and what a time to see a movie that so painfully shows the world we could be going back to. Set in France in 1963, when abortion was still illegal, this movie follows a young woman named Anne who becomes pregnant and desperately seeks a solution that will allow her to continue her university studies and have the life she’s been working for. It’s so wild to me to see what life for women was like at a time where there was literally nowhere you could go to terminate a pregnancy and it was even dangerous to ask around. Anne can’t even trust doctors because some of them are anti-abortion (and in fact one of them lies to her about a medication he gives her, which he claims will end the pregnancy but in reality makes Anne’s situation worse). Anne makes the choices that she must under desperate circumstances, but it’s extremely nerve-wracking to watch all the things she has to go through. It only occurred to me while watching this that these people women and girls sought out to “take care of it” were not actually performing abortions, as in removing the fetus; they were simply making it so that the women miscarried on their own. And, we are told, if the miscarriage goes actively bad and the woman has to go to the hospital, their fate is decided by the first doctor they see, who must report the event as either a miscarriage or an abortion (and if it’s the latter, the woman will go to jail, after having nearly died). This was incredibly hard to watch but really well done, putting the viewer firmly in the shoes of its protagonist and putting us through the hell of her increasingly hopeless crisis. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Side note: After burning through all of Agnès Varda’s filmography recently, I was thrilled to see Sandrine Bonnaire (the star of her film VAGABOND) in a supporting role.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShICV_3pi1TwVk4vER1PAdhMGRS2CWHwviW89lok2wVxc20sYgNw8CJ-N6PXTrQc4Q1puScwGzVBy6gJpnlyBDXxfdNGKCxmmMVjBd5W15tAUK7v_KRwNUb9_10iu88yTtjXkqSoDyjDlarf3iGbBJxJTX4tZ6bSdV4XDmOAfn3BLe7UglP6pME8DnQ/s1024/living-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShICV_3pi1TwVk4vER1PAdhMGRS2CWHwviW89lok2wVxc20sYgNw8CJ-N6PXTrQc4Q1puScwGzVBy6gJpnlyBDXxfdNGKCxmmMVjBd5W15tAUK7v_KRwNUb9_10iu88yTtjXkqSoDyjDlarf3iGbBJxJTX4tZ6bSdV4XDmOAfn3BLe7UglP6pME8DnQ/w640-h480/living-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now I remember what it’s like to be alive.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d never seen IKIRU, the Kurosawa movie this is a loose adaptation of, and I decided not to see it right beforehand so I could let this exist as its own thing. I’m sure many find it cloying and overly earnest, though I have to believe that making this an English story (not just British, specifically English) creates a buffer of restraint that cuts the sweetness. Bill Nighy has never been better, and it seems like this was a role he was destined to play. I was reminded a lot of his character in GIRL IN THE CAFE. His character, Williams, works in a government office and has for decades. It’s one of those jobs where the goal very much seems to be to get as little done as possible. After he gets a troubling medical diagnosis (yes, this is another cancer story - yay *feebly blows noisemaker*), he realizes how much of his life he has wasted just going through the motions and decides he’s going to do something about it. This movie is just all-out gorgeous. It has the look of a 1950s British film, the costumes are immaculate (particularly the sea of bowler hats), and the cast is lovely – there’s such an understated joy beneath the surface of Nighy’s face that perfectly underscores his character’s awakening. (I also can never see Adrian Rawlins without thinking of him as James Potter.) And in an absolute coup de grace against my soul, the final moments of the film are scored with one of my favorite pieces of classical music of all time. It’s called “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis,” composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the Tallis piece it’s based on is the old English hymn “When rising from my bed of death.” I heard the first two chords, recognized it immediately and keeled over in my chair mimicking the Pippin “why was I given emotions” meme. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTmZQ9sZaEYuqCfAqjQHw-uCnlF2kylDUaOCHpie688OjoyYUJwJlVVv4UgQz6TiwKuJrs2EVM2Xto59gW7VJ4xy7IMqXHFAqM4jyJF3GylYbcmSwZxm2rDmSNmfFrWRODz-apiHBXGUEXp3wdnlENqS5A-GHmm5v1b0DMhjIsxIgUqXbGSKYNnchfJg/s1024/menu-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTmZQ9sZaEYuqCfAqjQHw-uCnlF2kylDUaOCHpie688OjoyYUJwJlVVv4UgQz6TiwKuJrs2EVM2Xto59gW7VJ4xy7IMqXHFAqM4jyJF3GylYbcmSwZxm2rDmSNmfFrWRODz-apiHBXGUEXp3wdnlENqS5A-GHmm5v1b0DMhjIsxIgUqXbGSKYNnchfJg/w640-h480/menu-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I need to know if you’re with us or with them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There has been so much cinema this year satirizing wealth and class, and this is another one. But it’s one of the more interesting ones to me because it takes something that seems fairly specific and niche and makes it a stand-in for something much larger and more universal. Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy play Tyler and Margot, who are going to dinner at an extremely exclusive restaurant – so exclusive that it only serves 12 patrons a night, is located on a private island that guests must take a boat to get to, and costs more than $1000 per person. As we move through each course – helpfully named and described for us with onscreen text, like we’re reading an actual menu – it becomes more and more clear that something sinister is going on, which Margot notices before anyone else does. I saw the trailer for this approximately one fafillion times over this past year, going back to at least the spring, and while it seemed interesting, I was worried I’d seen in the trailer all the movie had to give me. Nope. There were still plenty of surprises in store, and just when I thought it had gone as far as it could, it just took everything further. This movie seems like it’s coming for “foodies” but it’s much more a satire of people who can afford the best in life but take no enjoyment in it. The cast is an incredible ensemble. Anya Taylor-Joy is, as usual, a treat to watch as our audience surrogate. Nicholas Hoult is great as maybe the most annoying foodie ever (I was ready for Tyler to die as soon as he swatted Margot’s hand away from a dish so he could take a photo of it). Hong Chau, who is also in another movie in this category, is low-key the MVP (and makes me want to shout “WE GEL” at people randomly). And Ralph Fiennes is clearly having the time of his life in this movie, playing the head chef. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in some theaters; available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL71KOzoo06PgyjjvZUCt8fjcancRiwWUa6o4kh3tVkyaxriBUeEAOUZA6-ws7FrmjMJFmQjiZFZhkMA_qf07OzKf4fLKpDBdu2hLAGkL8yvLITPkISbmIiJpwnsmmVIpQdHjzpdzLNxaY_ydrwqrNGzjbv93B3SrKO-N787xkkSer4ppIoh-eeKXtbA/s1024/nope-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL71KOzoo06PgyjjvZUCt8fjcancRiwWUa6o4kh3tVkyaxriBUeEAOUZA6-ws7FrmjMJFmQjiZFZhkMA_qf07OzKf4fLKpDBdu2hLAGkL8yvLITPkISbmIiJpwnsmmVIpQdHjzpdzLNxaY_ydrwqrNGzjbv93B3SrKO-N787xkkSer4ppIoh-eeKXtbA/w640-h480/nope-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every animal got rules.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nobody is doing horror like Jordan Peele; his stories are fresh and original, and that makes his films exciting, must-see events. I think most people knew going in that there would be aliens (though it turned out there was only one), but the movie is about so much more than that, as all of Peele’s films so far have been. It’s really about our cultural obsession with spectacle and the commodification of the unusual and horrifying – which is always accompanied by a few yahoos who think they can handle it or harness it for their own ends. Steven Yeun’s character is crucial here, and the whole backstory of the disaster that befell his ill-fated sitcom back in the 90s is kind of the movie’s mission statement. We anthropomorphize animals so much that we think we understand them much more than we actually do. This character also carries a lot of the allegory of how humans seek to profit from disaster and spectacle – not just his “show” featuring the alien, but how he has profited from his experience on the sitcom, particularly the massacre, which he only seems to be able to talk about in terms of the SNL skit that parodied it. (I loved the detail of having the monkey be played by Chris Kataan, who actually played a similar character when he was a cast member.) Our investment, however, is with OJ and Emerald (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer). Their relationship is fascinating to me, and Keke Palmer is my favorite part of the movie (OMG the fast high-fives she gives OJ over the nonelectric camera!). And that upended shoe is still the creepiest thing in the entire movie. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Peacock and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidcxJIQr4do_O6bSyACFczM3TGJTpWjaqiyHCBdd7e0Rok_ij5x-OOrYXJixKMItsIyif3eK_1ld39BX0XKiw38wXZ4pDwq0zT7CWq9eL3kIgcWxwtjJJ23vjgtv2MjAG16Bhobd5j1ZV7BMuosU1ddGw9hQDq65z2vRT8eMbMLR1foT9Tw8MFgX6fHw/s1024/onethecount-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidcxJIQr4do_O6bSyACFczM3TGJTpWjaqiyHCBdd7e0Rok_ij5x-OOrYXJixKMItsIyif3eK_1ld39BX0XKiw38wXZ4pDwq0zT7CWq9eL3kIgcWxwtjJJ23vjgtv2MjAG16Bhobd5j1ZV7BMuosU1ddGw9hQDq65z2vRT8eMbMLR1foT9Tw8MFgX6fHw/w640-h480/onethecount-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You can't listen to music that exactly describes the emotional thing you're going through. You know how cheesy that is? I don't listen to Alanis Morissette when I'm going through a breakup, and I'm not listening to Papa f***ing Roach on the day I'm gonna kill myself.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Content Warning: suicide] A dark comedy about suicide doesn’t sound like something that would work at all, and I remember going to see this thinking it wasn’t actually going to be a comedy but that people didn’t know how else to categorize it. This movie is about two best friends who each have decided to kill themselves. They meet at a spot where they’re going to do it, point their guns at each other, and just before they’re supposed to pull the trigger, one of them suggests they give themselves one more day to do some things they’ve always wanted to do or tie up loose ends – in short, to celebrate their last day. So we follow them through this day as they do some fun and/or wild things – shoot at a gun range, ride dirt bikes, rob a gas station – and have some difficult confrontations. You never quite know where this movie is going to go, and it certainly doesn’t end up where you might expect. The two leads have incredible chemistry, and it’s fascinating to watch their characters almost completely reverse roles. And Tiffany Haddish is, I think, the best she’s ever been here, despite not having a lot of screen time. The thing this movie really gets right, though, is the tone. This movie could have gone terribly wrong in so many ways, especially in trying to find lightness in something so incredibly heavy. But it miraculously finds humor and humanity in these characters and their lives, and it’s pretty thrilling to watch. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMEmZ5ulbBKlGQOjBO3-KwFwm-93kbQySF1CBDn8NO5oC-LdfmFYgMB9h75F-w1Cgg77mf8b3qaTHcpRHfs_M9P4CaSKNeqng157YSB45wbjyYwhbTCwJJ7ynFwoeSITOz95vRIgryLH4hEUiNvZUWSWpSsLCi5-82pS2c5KbpHOMXT9XzIpyvsSMXZw/s1024/petitemaman-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMEmZ5ulbBKlGQOjBO3-KwFwm-93kbQySF1CBDn8NO5oC-LdfmFYgMB9h75F-w1Cgg77mf8b3qaTHcpRHfs_M9P4CaSKNeqng157YSB45wbjyYwhbTCwJJ7ynFwoeSITOz95vRIgryLH4hEUiNvZUWSWpSsLCi5-82pS2c5KbpHOMXT9XzIpyvsSMXZw/w640-h480/petitemaman-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Secrets aren’t always things we try to hide. There’s just no one to tell them to.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First, a warning that I’m going to spoil one big thing about this movie, but as it’s right there in the title I feel fine about it. This movie is precious and I want to hold it close and wrap it in blankets and dress it in adorable sweaters and corduroys. All I’d ever seen of Celine Sciamma’s films was 2019’s PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, so this was definitely a surprising follow-up to that. Our heroine is an eight-year-old girl named Nelly, whose grandmother has just died and who has gone with her parents to clean out her grandmother’s house. While her mother is away, Nelly is wandering through the woods and meets a girl her own age building a fort. She soon realizes that this girl, Marion, is actually her mother in the past, when she was Nelly’s age (Nelly and Marion are played by twins, Josephine and Gabrielle Sanz). I love that this reveal comes relatively early and that we watch Nelly having these interactions with someone she knows is her mother but is also this little friend she can play with. (I’m really curious how Sciamma directed these girls regarding what they know about each other and when.) The movie is so incredibly touching, and I think we can all identify with how hard it can be to imagine that our parents were ever young – especially *this* young. It’s only 72 minutes but it packs a whole lot into that short runtime, and it is just as beautiful and cinematic as Sciamma’s previous film. And for a movie centered on two children, it is surprisingly low on sentimentality. It’s cute without being cutesy, which is incredibly hard to pull off. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3eq0MyVZh4WwwjRmNflf2mvvHdTOhhG99BVVEAu9xYwQ8Vi_2MQ7R4hLdprJOWh3McwaLbYpLa-ZjY7RJd39uGKjJvgkDuIdXBeADgAlnAvZYApacZvAgCari59sue6BgRdNPMZNcOSLOf9iF3vPzErztfs5jqejZlvfnFSqWD_7pBAL9Xer7Gpf6ZA/s1024/pinocchio-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3eq0MyVZh4WwwjRmNflf2mvvHdTOhhG99BVVEAu9xYwQ8Vi_2MQ7R4hLdprJOWh3McwaLbYpLa-ZjY7RJd39uGKjJvgkDuIdXBeADgAlnAvZYApacZvAgCari59sue6BgRdNPMZNcOSLOf9iF3vPzErztfs5jqejZlvfnFSqWD_7pBAL9Xer7Gpf6ZA/w640-h480/pinocchio-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What’s a burden?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s something painful you must carry, even though it hurts you very much.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">The 1940 Disney PINOCCHIO is probably still my favorite Disney movie of the classic era (pre-1960). There have been a lot of adaptations of the Carlo Collodi novel over the years – with wildly varying levels of success (I have not seen this year’s live action one with Tom Hanks; I just cannot) – but this movie is I think the most artistically successful and meaningful adaptation since the 1940 version, which in many ways I think it exceeds. Set in fascist Italy during both World Wars, this version sees the carpenter Gepetto lose his beloved son Carlo and, after two decades of mourning, cut down a tree in a drunken rage in order to make a new "son" from it. And while he sleeps, a blue wood sprite brings the doll to life so that Gepetto won’t be alone anymore. Almost all of the elements we know and love from the original story are here, with basically all of them tweaked -- some of them heavily -- to fit the new setting (this movie’s version of the Pleasure Island sequence is particularly brilliant in my opinion). This is one of the most incredible animated films I’ve ever seen, and I actually forgot for most of the movie that it’s stop-motion, because it’s so smooth and natural-looking. The visuals are beautiful and dark, especially the representations of death and the afterlife. The score, by Alexandre Desplat, is gorgeous and there are some quality songs (though for me this was one of the only weak spots). The voice cast is incredible – you’ll never pick out Cate Blanchett, unless you looked it up beforehand. And the theme of nonconformity seems fitting for both the film’s time setting and our own time. If you’re looking for where this sits among Guillermo del Toro’s other works, this reminded me of both PAN’S LABYRINTH (for the visuals) and THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE (for the tone and message). And like both of those movies, it has contempt for traditional Hollywood stories about children that ignore how dark and unsafe it can be to be a child (real or not). It’s amazing and a must-see. (</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">In some theaters; available on Netflix</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">.)</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUWNPYa6NvwOwAONUBHl8DlHpFFW6JN3Mf9_piyQQ4FUYhdh8RdQcnYciG1HZ4qBHhSav2j68x_zxMxDPIVFmAmWhHXI1VhVaKl0sdcvmQn2mqyF5ZwPpa4RCr0OGOVCvnwQFO3ychVN38ZHO5mheTXDtH99G2LdaWlrw4m6_tgSQl-eC7nJXBpplzg/s1024/pleasure-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEUWNPYa6NvwOwAONUBHl8DlHpFFW6JN3Mf9_piyQQ4FUYhdh8RdQcnYciG1HZ4qBHhSav2j68x_zxMxDPIVFmAmWhHXI1VhVaKl0sdcvmQn2mqyF5ZwPpa4RCr0OGOVCvnwQFO3ychVN38ZHO5mheTXDtH99G2LdaWlrw4m6_tgSQl-eC7nJXBpplzg/w640-h480/pleasure-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m here to be the next big porn star. </span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This has been labeled an “erotic drama” but it’s not really erotic in the slightest. The main character is a young woman who moves from Sweden to Los Angeles with the intention of becoming a porn star. We see her first gig, where she is extremely nervous but ends up impressing everyone, and then she works her way up the ladder, pushing herself to do more and more extreme things to get noticed by a well known agent. We also see her harden as a human being as she occasionally throws people under the bus to get what she wants. We see several very different film sets, and all of the technical stuff that goes with shooting this kind of film. I was especially struck by two scenes – nearly back to back – that show just how different an all-female film crew can be from an all-male one. What is used on one set to make performers feel safe is weaponized on the other set to manipulate and coerce performers to do things against their better instincts (even the instinct of self-preservation). This movie is frequently very uncomfortable to watch. There are conflicting accounts as to whether the sex scenes in the movie are simulated or not, which is further complicated by the fact that a lot of the actors in the film are real-life porn actors. This is an incredible film, though. A harsh watch to be sure, but an interesting look at a very specific world. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOgN_8rwnbAClU038Dx7kXlJa7re89ofVV1W6Qi013lgKIXatogjgOBYRJ5ovrUFZnCyoeO4_3dZA4Qk-aSi48XnMtC31dgp0mUVRWOCoyqPOIMGOlO8mehgRywoxldM9Aj9ShaEe6hBov4IQ9gjTMuyuOGefQuo7bISaTFpAVdSm-X8d6G1iO22v3w/s1024/tar-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbOgN_8rwnbAClU038Dx7kXlJa7re89ofVV1W6Qi013lgKIXatogjgOBYRJ5ovrUFZnCyoeO4_3dZA4Qk-aSi48XnMtC31dgp0mUVRWOCoyqPOIMGOlO8mehgRywoxldM9Aj9ShaEe6hBov4IQ9gjTMuyuOGefQuo7bISaTFpAVdSm-X8d6G1iO22v3w/w640-h480/tar-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with enrolling yourself as an ultrasonic epistemic dissident is that if Bach's talent can be reduced to his gender, birth country, religion, sexuality, and so on, then so can yours.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t know whose idea it was to call this a movie about “cancel culture,” but that’s a very bad sell. I spent most of the movie expecting something else when what it actually is is much more basic and interesting. It’s more about abuse of power and how dangerous and intoxicating extremely brilliant and talented people can be. We follow Lydia Tár, a world-famous conductor and composer (and EGOT recipient) over a period of weeks (months?) as she prepares for a live recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the Berlin Philharmonic, for which she serves as the first female conductor. There isn’t what you’d call a story – instead, we watch Lydia’s life slowly fall apart as various situations and dynamics play out. Director Todd Field smartly dispenses with the necessary exposition about who Lydia is and what she is to the world by opening the film with an interview, where we can plausibly be told all her credentials in a concise way. We see her interactions with various colleagues, her long-suffering assistant, a potential protégé, and her wife and daughter, and we get a picture of a person who has reached such a pinnacle of success and admiration that she seems almost beyond reproach. Which is exactly the kind of situation that frequently becomes toxic and abusive because the idea is that this young up-and-comer should be honored that this brilliant person deigns to show them attention. There’s very little flash here, in the film or in the central performance of Cate Blanchett (arguably a career-best for her, which is a very high bar to begin with). But it’s so compelling to watch her manipulate and charm everyone around her, even (perhaps especially) as you recognize exactly what she is doing and. how awful it is. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in some theaters; available to rent - not cheaply - on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxtjZzFkV43su-zOdAZLdbalnUmJy__5AdvS6oDWT4jhh0yPuFGuxobjmllwPDvaI9EYgG7fO39COyA7avWT9QIkPocq9eIUfDBTX_83SwhV1ZDiGVF0BvHSaIRRsDgSzg-kQzfWQuDNDNQjkoCRvIvurCE3gLQrGNe_9uSN06OLk9Npc43niID0f1A/s1024/till-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxtjZzFkV43su-zOdAZLdbalnUmJy__5AdvS6oDWT4jhh0yPuFGuxobjmllwPDvaI9EYgG7fO39COyA7avWT9QIkPocq9eIUfDBTX_83SwhV1ZDiGVF0BvHSaIRRsDgSzg-kQzfWQuDNDNQjkoCRvIvurCE3gLQrGNe_9uSN06OLk9Npc43niID0f1A/w640-h480/till-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be small down there.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was floored by Chinonye Chukwu’s previous film CLEMENCY, which was one of my 2s in 2019. Like that movie, TILL centers around a powerful female performance, this time with Danielle Deadwyler playing Mamie Till-Bradley, mother of Emmett Till. The movie isn’t as much about Till’s murder as it is about his mother’s pursuit of justice after his death and the story is entirely from her perspective (though we do see scenes without her, when Emmett is in Mississippi, leading up to his murder). Deadwyler’s performance is the meat of the film, but there are some stunning supporting performances as well. Jalyn Hall is fantastic as Emmett and really sells his innocent but tragic misunderstandings about the difference between being Black in Chicago and being Black in Mississippi (I hope it’s clear I’m not saying he did anything wrong in the slightest; obviously, I’m referring to her concerns about how people will respond to him). And Whoopi Goldberg is so great as Mamie’s mother that I seriously miss when she was in movies more regularly. I’m sure The View is a great gig, but give me Oda Mae Brown, give me Terri Doolittle, give me Dolores Van Cartier! (ETA: I see that a third Sister Act movie is currently in pre-production, so I guess we're getting Dolores at least!) This is a fantastic, moving film and I love seeing Mamie’s journey from devastated mother to civil rights activist, learning all the painful lessons about who you can count on and – even more importantly – who you can’t along the way. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent - not cheaply - on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKF56T7VoBGM3UdMI0wp6O7MDMbyYwVlN2v6UioCgHK7KaDuzS47Z_RN2kBxY3lrDbV36D3svSEpcFqee75N3dbsax-NMrbT-Cz1nspEBLNqALbzqe1mfOcOt0udfL9q1C3zVmuyG3MsC3PXUG_M_BstYBMk6EXb6Pyhv6DCTaPBX8zUmdCM9J0LA3g/s1024/whale-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKF56T7VoBGM3UdMI0wp6O7MDMbyYwVlN2v6UioCgHK7KaDuzS47Z_RN2kBxY3lrDbV36D3svSEpcFqee75N3dbsax-NMrbT-Cz1nspEBLNqALbzqe1mfOcOt0udfL9q1C3zVmuyG3MsC3PXUG_M_BstYBMk6EXb6Pyhv6DCTaPBX8zUmdCM9J0LA3g/w640-h480/whale-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I need to know that I have done one thing right with my life!</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, I know. I KNOW. I’ve seen the complaints, and I understand them and sympathize with them, agree with some of them, and I’m not about to try and persuade anyone to feel differently. But speaking as part of the demographic that is supposed to be the most offended by it (i.e., fat people), I had a wildly different experience watching this. I was incredibly moved by this movie. It’s not flashy, and I don’t feel like it’s didactic. It knows how powerful its central performance is and focuses almost entirely on that, to the point of 1) never leaving Charlie’s home and 2) using a 4:3 aspect ratio to give us basically nowhere else to look. It shows Charlie to us not as a carnival sideshow (though again, I acknowledge that’s how many have seen it) but to confront us with this person who for many would inspire a reflexive response of revulsion and make us ask ourselves *why* we respond that way. I think that, no matter what someone’s feelings are about the use of the fat suit or what director Arronofsky’s intentions might have been, most would still acknowledge that Brendan Fraser’s performance and his empathy for this character are unimpeachable. The rest of the cast is stellar as well, particularly Hong Chau and Samantha Morton. Perhaps the movie itself, without these performances to elevate it, is not that hot. But those performances and those characters *are* the movie, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being taken in by them. (Or, for the record, *not* being taken in.) (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgITMHLleerT2ebQYqDNc3DO7qB5FRbJqvpdIi7BYwECOS6piJV6pOAO2vWablSAtWJgQAwLDTZbcCBs9fIAQmg2XUH_bnjCl-t65WIgm1IP0KNlt1W4hRzGbT0ICKvqB6Co5oMvO6zb6Wh4uNUfus96QJGrTvIq-3WK2h4kE5dNz5Fk6e8IBdRe8EKTw/s1024/womentalking.001.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgITMHLleerT2ebQYqDNc3DO7qB5FRbJqvpdIi7BYwECOS6piJV6pOAO2vWablSAtWJgQAwLDTZbcCBs9fIAQmg2XUH_bnjCl-t65WIgm1IP0KNlt1W4hRzGbT0ICKvqB6Co5oMvO6zb6Wh4uNUfus96QJGrTvIq-3WK2h4kE5dNz5Fk6e8IBdRe8EKTw/w640-h480/womentalking.001.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hope for the unknown is good. It is better than hatred of the familiar.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the surface, this looks like yet another #metoo movie, where we have to watch women suffer at the hands of men, then after they come forward and tell their stories, the men in question see little in terms of consequences. The movies are almost always sensationalist (or worse, exploitative – looking at you, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN), we always know how they end, and frankly, I’m just kind of tired of them. This movie is a welcome novelty. Based on a novel that itself is based on real events that happened to a group of Mennonite women in Bolivia, the story revolves around a group of women, most of whom have been repeatedly drugged, raped and often impregnated. They have been told for years that this was the work of devils or their own imaginations, but someone finally caught a few of the men in the act. While the men of the town go with the accused to post bail, the women meet and debate whether to do nothing, to stay and fight or to leave. We do not see any scene of the actual attacks, thank God. We see glimpses of the aftermath, usually involving one of the women waking up with bruised thighs and blood on the sheets. The whole movie (well, nearly) is just as the title suggests. These women talking through what they’re going to do and the pros and cons of each potential choice. It is brilliant, intelligent and immensely moving. For a movie called “Women Talking,” though, it’s odd that the most emotional and magnificent performance to me was by a man – Ben Whishaw, who plays August, a schoolteacher who is taking minutes of the proceedings (because the women cannot read or write). His answer to the women’s question of whether they should take the male children if they leave absolutely wrecked me. This movie is smart, thoughtful and beautiful, in ways I did not expect. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCYWpSx0Nucma2S0HRTSpnmaA5tESqXCEmTcTGROGPsOE30CKvk2SvXfHbSnj1HI9w6ig8JPYmR_A89XefNVg_WkZIb6LruL7fNId9foqWLf8V9bAdL755GfECPxSJB05aDTcFKunYWyofVwO_Fj0pnqIcsL_MASbXGKI972Cb1afBLbktXmI_c0A1A/s1024/womentalking-slide.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeCYWpSx0Nucma2S0HRTSpnmaA5tESqXCEmTcTGROGPsOE30CKvk2SvXfHbSnj1HI9w6ig8JPYmR_A89XefNVg_WkZIb6LruL7fNId9foqWLf8V9bAdL755GfECPxSJB05aDTcFKunYWyofVwO_Fj0pnqIcsL_MASbXGKI972Cb1afBLbktXmI_c0A1A/w640-h480/womentalking-slide.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everything we feel, we have to put into words. Sometimes, I just want to feel things.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First off, I am withholding SUCH A RANT about Neon holding this over from 2021. Still mad about it. Just saying. This movie follows a woman named Julie, who we meet when she is in her late 20s. She is flitting from one life path to another – she was a med student, then a psychology student, now a photographer. She begins a relationship with a comic artist who is significantly older than her, and they seem to be making it work for a good long while until she meets and falls in love with another man. Julie is a woman who seems unwilling to stick with anything that requires an actual commitment. And while it might seem like this is another of many stories about a twentysomething struggling to “adult, waaah,” this feels completely fresh. The movie doesn’t judge Julie for the choices she makes and (I think even more importantly) it doesn’t give us answers about which choices are better or telegraph what she should or will do. You truly don’t know what she’s going to do next at any point in the movie and that makes it thrilling to watch. And the movie does an exceptional job of showing how making those choices closes off other option. If you've seen the trailer or seen the image above, you might have a false impression of what this movie is. Believe me, this is not sentimental and it's not fantastical or magical; it's quite grounded in real life. But it's also very much rooted in Julie's point of view. This is phenomenal, with great writing and a great cast led by Renate Reinsve. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-19586684567119456042022-12-31T02:24:00.001-08:002022-12-31T02:25:03.310-08:00"Top Ten" List - #3<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">3. Crank These Up to Eleven and Roll Down the Windows!</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-21d45854-7fff-636e-b9c0-dc52ef513a4c"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These movies were everything I wanted and I loved them. And while I can’t quite put them among the 2s, these were among my favorites. Also, this being the 1982 of horror, at least half of these were horror movies. I make no apologies.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWQEg7djZ2pEh51VUKys9mI-WqeNEYcSEf76jV2uEskoT9kvEPXt_TTGRUgON2RhCt2z0LCkgULzVxJQ5puFPW8XVeAOz2VdFoNKR9aT8Fc7W57kOZMiI34MFoaunyDoDcbQBMvF-N28EPoULyxPueb74km0aUDS8KS-QIWIlaYqzfN97cadUIF8XDQ/s1500/ambulance-2.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="703" data-original-width="1500" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNWQEg7djZ2pEh51VUKys9mI-WqeNEYcSEf76jV2uEskoT9kvEPXt_TTGRUgON2RhCt2z0LCkgULzVxJQ5puFPW8XVeAOz2VdFoNKR9aT8Fc7W57kOZMiI34MFoaunyDoDcbQBMvF-N28EPoULyxPueb74km0aUDS8KS-QIWIlaYqzfN97cadUIF8XDQ/w640-h300/ambulance-2.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Ambulance</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael Bay has been doing bloated, overdone action movies for a while now and it’s pretty much his brand (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but this is genuinely the most engaging he’s been as a director since his 1990s heyday. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a life-long criminal who convinces his adoptive brother (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a Marine and Afghanistan war veteran who needs money to pay for his wife’s experimental cancer surgery, to join him on a heist. Things go awry, as you’d expect, and they end up stealing an ambulance with a paramedic and a cop they injured and spend the rest of the movie fleeing the police OJ-style. If you wanted to call this absurd and overblown, you wouldn’t be wrong, but it is extremely entertaining and compelling. Every time I watch movies like this, though, I have questions about whether all these characters would be *that* familiar with the city’s geography. I guess that would be part of the job if you were a cop or ambulance driver, but I’ve lived in New York 14 years and still don’t know every single nook and cranny of Manhattan, much less the other boroughs. In any case, if you miss films like THE ROCK and SPEED and other high-octane 90s action flicks, you will love this. I’m sad it didn’t do better at the box office because I could do with more like this. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMFsIMvFkMwjlIwq3WUYwLK8-iRff9za7oWXHasV3lSXemihR-aDczxA7V67PTN2Dr4FLCX3fZ4TEeu9U8cwJ4gqkAIWGT3yi8q5P3onIjJh_ZhJpPOISf8jLv3_fWz9yeDNgXUhDv9Ek5k2arESFOm9yFtcsf2mHcD8vnrfTnzm5bs4L-IechyVzcw/s1000/barbarian.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1000" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkMFsIMvFkMwjlIwq3WUYwLK8-iRff9za7oWXHasV3lSXemihR-aDczxA7V67PTN2Dr4FLCX3fZ4TEeu9U8cwJ4gqkAIWGT3yi8q5P3onIjJh_ZhJpPOISf8jLv3_fWz9yeDNgXUhDv9Ek5k2arESFOm9yFtcsf2mHcD8vnrfTnzm5bs4L-IechyVzcw/w640-h384/barbarian.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Barbarian</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was one of the most talked-about horror movies of the year, and I can’t tell you how many reaction videos I’ve seen of it. It’s a movie of great surprises and one of those movies where it’s best not to know anything going in, so I’m not even sure how much to say about it here. It really plays with your expectations throughout, perhaps especially in the beginning, where what looks like a potential nightmare situation becomes a meet-cute before the real nightmare scenario is revealed. And juuust when the scary stuff starts, we cut to something entirely different. This movie has a lot to say, obviously about #metoo but also about suburban decay. The movie’s final girl is unique in that she does everything wrong and still survives – though I would argue she does at least one thing right in playing along with Mother, which I think ends up benefitting her more than not. I liked this movie a lot, but I do wish we could start moving away from evil or scary being portrayed as a human being who just looks different, especially in ways they can't help. In every single reaction to this that I watched, all anyone could talk about with Mother was her sagging breasts, which … is something a whole lot of normal women have. Obviously the movie has a lot of sympathy for this character, even while portraying her as repulsive, but I just wish it wasn’t such an obvious go-to to be like “ewww, look at this ugly woman and her droopy tits.” I also did not really enjoy the “joke” at one character’s expense where we’ve learned that they sexually assaulted someone and then they end up being forcibly breast-fed as a narrative “punishment.” This movie gets so much right, but those things stick out. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZH9pAhhX_DUGuql0i0lVHevtZGvwb1dcU6DtSXH8IyUvcpQ5rdeVhhVA_-fKl4kv1EtoOmL2QfPsXCLIa2lz-LMrZxy95Kez9mZjm3v4-xxFIixAeMPP5OYVDO9U3Eo_BnQ3h16dScBLY_PyhEWGN8SIVs8ecO1tz7lu84SH9sKzM_bCGLhyovyf6Q/s779/blackpanther-wf.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="325" data-original-width="779" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZH9pAhhX_DUGuql0i0lVHevtZGvwb1dcU6DtSXH8IyUvcpQ5rdeVhhVA_-fKl4kv1EtoOmL2QfPsXCLIa2lz-LMrZxy95Kez9mZjm3v4-xxFIixAeMPP5OYVDO9U3Eo_BnQ3h16dScBLY_PyhEWGN8SIVs8ecO1tz7lu84SH9sKzM_bCGLhyovyf6Q/w640-h268/blackpanther-wf.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To start with, this is not quite as accomplished as the first Black Panther film. You can tell that they had plans, as soon as they started developing a sequel, to tell a particular story (with Namor) but then something awful happened and they had to change the movie to be in part about that. The Namor story and the grief over T’Challa story don’t entirely work together BUT I don’t care that much as everything is so gorgeous and rewarding to watch. The movie had me at the Marvel intro, which was edited to make every hero shot a shot of Chadwick/T’Challa. The opening sequence feels a bit rushed, but I’m glad they decided not to show T’Challa in any form, not even as a faceless body. The turns this movie takes are pretty extraordinary, and among several very strong performances, Angela Bassett is at an all-time high here. Letitia Wright has to carry a lot of this movie on her tiny shoulders, but she does it very well, especially since she could not have known when she signed to do this movie (nor could anyone else) that Shuri would be the main character. Great visuals, good storytelling, amazing costumes, incredible music, and a fitting tribute to Chadwick Boseman. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJdXZyGvSnS3fwz-ObqDJVOKTi89SA1inIck7bTxrWeyABuJELP7JnA_-bmRpaiuNBf6buEYbAUCW1Tjl1FWYqj8iE_QwSKe7y4fi53VFrbJpBACTY4raupvAZuMpkvXfL32Wmkkamk6OgtNqIoA00JPW7ObBlSgKw0JPDsyRe4wlKDFIP6dwuh2DeA/s3200/dorevenge.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1324" data-original-width="3200" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyJdXZyGvSnS3fwz-ObqDJVOKTi89SA1inIck7bTxrWeyABuJELP7JnA_-bmRpaiuNBf6buEYbAUCW1Tjl1FWYqj8iE_QwSKe7y4fi53VFrbJpBACTY4raupvAZuMpkvXfL32Wmkkamk6OgtNqIoA00JPW7ObBlSgKw0JPDsyRe4wlKDFIP6dwuh2DeA/w640-h264/dorevenge.png" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DO REVENGE</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really loved this, but it also depressed me, having once tried to write something set in high school (during and some time after my college days). If I’d been able to get it in good enough shape to show someone back then, it might have become something, but between this movie and Euphoria, I know for certain that stories about people that age have long since passed me by and I don’t understand nearly enough about that generation to write anything meaningful about them; those are not my stories to tell. This movie has rightly been described as a new MEAN GIRLS, but wow, these girls are so much meaner! It takes place at a private school, one of those Ivy League prep schools, and the reality is incredibly heightened and the fashion a very particular flavor. DO REVENGE takes all the classic teen movie tropes and gives them a very modern twist. The revenge plot is very STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, but that’s only part of the movie. Camila Mendes is great as a character that is somehow both Regina George *and* Janis Ian. And she and Maya Hawke are incredible together as unlikely friends who become involved in each other’s drama. And the visuals are stunning -- a perfect fit for a generation that doesn't know a time that Instagram didn't exist. This is an excellent addition to the teen movie canon. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7siGTIjl_H57oxEgVUsmDTkTF2ecc_1iayCVPT0kEYHIfzNCpB0QK1RGUWh2h6nFDoU6r32b_tp3iQM49HTmB4HkK8V3Yioc1DuibuMASEdoBXeF7yFZTT94N1mb8ra3WtcfVe0qSB6JJLj6IJKg1G9KJ_ptOM52sdUWyYUm7XDZ1ykpq2a56jI2weA/s1920/Fresh-2022-Movie-Explained-First-Meeting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1920" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7siGTIjl_H57oxEgVUsmDTkTF2ecc_1iayCVPT0kEYHIfzNCpB0QK1RGUWh2h6nFDoU6r32b_tp3iQM49HTmB4HkK8V3Yioc1DuibuMASEdoBXeF7yFZTT94N1mb8ra3WtcfVe0qSB6JJLj6IJKg1G9KJ_ptOM52sdUWyYUm7XDZ1ykpq2a56jI2weA/w640-h342/Fresh-2022-Movie-Explained-First-Meeting.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Fresh</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the year of cannibalism, apparently, between this and BONES AND ALL and even a bit of the second season of CHUCKY. I see some notes of HOSTEL here as well, with the commodity element. You could even make a small film festival with this movie and all the other “rich people are awful” movies from this year alone, like TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and GLASS ONION. And while this movie is certainly not the first movie to be a rom-com/horror hybrid, I’ve never seen the romance tropes weaponized quite like this, where the movie serves partly as a cautionary tale about dating and trusting someone too much too soon. Our heroine Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) starts the movie very disillusioned about dating and the absolute a-holes she keeps getting paired with (I don’t blame her in the slightest, given the example we see). And when she meets Steve in the produce aisle of the grocery store, it feels like fate – who needs all these dating apps when you can meet your dream man in the most unexpected place? Noa’s friend Mollie is rightly skeptical, but it’s easy to see why Noa would fall for Steve (not just because he’s played by Sebastian Stan). You can tell something bad is about to happen, and if you’ve seen the movie’s poster, you’ll have a good idea of what it is. But the power dynamics and how manipulative Steve turns out to be are what makes this movie really stand out. It’s also another great example of ladies helping ladies, which I’m always here for. My one quibble is that incoming phone call at the end. Noa, I know you’ve been through a lot, but don’t answer that phone. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R7bJrqdJn1DkQYVV7zmoOw8A5N9SdtaR70iU6xiezIKcTdZXRTrW66AD3gMZvm-KtWk_KtbpNlsIWG4fKt1SrkSGiSIcEVbtIg_X_VjIP3leMK2AXDCMkzsMpCFTIZcYmkvhGK8YJWx8dUye32fwQhLhgBEc5B8bb9YFuGwL1B2ABIMgdfL4PPdSXw/s2560/hatching.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="2560" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0R7bJrqdJn1DkQYVV7zmoOw8A5N9SdtaR70iU6xiezIKcTdZXRTrW66AD3gMZvm-KtWk_KtbpNlsIWG4fKt1SrkSGiSIcEVbtIg_X_VjIP3leMK2AXDCMkzsMpCFTIZcYmkvhGK8YJWx8dUye32fwQhLhgBEc5B8bb9YFuGwL1B2ABIMgdfL4PPdSXw/w640-h360/hatching.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Hatching</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finnish body horror, hell yeah! This reminded me a lot of POSSESSION, but without all the psychosexual stuff. Also BLACK SWAN a bit, with the element of a sport/art form (gymnastics, in this case) that we associate with grace and beauty, but which can often be quite brutal. Our heroine, Tinja, is a 12-year-old reluctant gymnast whose mother is a lifestyle blogger and influencer. After a traumatic incident with a crow, Tinja rescues its(?) egg and incubates it, first under a pillow, then as it grows larger, a stuffed animal. It eventually hatches and Tinja, naming it Alli, takes increasingly horrific measures to hide it and take care of it, and over the course of the movie it gradually transforms into Tinja’s doppelganger. The family dynamics here are fascinating, especially as we see them contrasted with Tinja’s devotion to Alli (even as Alli becomes more and more terrifying). Child actors can be real hit or miss, especially in horror, but Siiri Solalinna is exquisite in the dual role of Tinja and Alli. Sophia Heikkilä is also great in the fairly thankless role of an incredibly unlikable mother, and I think this mother and Lexi’s mother from CHUCKY should get together and go bowling. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVf0JJscEixNYC2Dq8WZdAfO4yKZe_0SDYZC3DGVraRQO8HjRae3K2XEwpiqyk3feOBnuPIr0BqAT8l8d9l5tBVEOM1DCingjNZVBPqkbbTPtyyiGFxly0yiXOQp6VOzLhDlrdu0TEaupIPTso8mWtkwGiu8yUjhsvbdM9hPymtLKQmH6SAw6HCbLcrw/s1411/northman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1411" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVf0JJscEixNYC2Dq8WZdAfO4yKZe_0SDYZC3DGVraRQO8HjRae3K2XEwpiqyk3feOBnuPIr0BqAT8l8d9l5tBVEOM1DCingjNZVBPqkbbTPtyyiGFxly0yiXOQp6VOzLhDlrdu0TEaupIPTso8mWtkwGiu8yUjhsvbdM9hPymtLKQmH6SAw6HCbLcrw/w640-h360/northman.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Northman</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This movie could also be called Men, Screaming; you could seriously cut the testosterone with a chainsaw. This is based on the old Viking tale that inspired Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and while you can certainly see some familiar notes here and there, the movie sets itself apart from both of those stories. Our hero is Amleth, who as a child witnesses the murder of his father and the kidnapping of his mother, both at the hands of his uncle. He flees to avoid being killed himself and returns years later to exact his revenge, only to find out that things might not be as he has always remembered. Like Robert Eggers’s previous two movies, there’s an aggressive authenticity in this movie that makes you feel fully immersed in a very specific world. This is a very, errr, Masculine movie, but for me the women – particularly the two most significant women in the movie, played Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicole Kidman (holy moley, Nicole Kidman, y’all!) – are its secret strength. This is a great big T-bone steak of a movie, and I’m sad that having come out so early in the year it seems to have been all but forgotten in the awards-bait rush. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMMig7E0_gcdR-K6dKf13sPsPfQ1HpCb-UfFPw3bolWVUYRrm2bQnZkOd-5-M30-YxTzWvqZA2Sng5xCItp4-6-NFl3OV94yNY8groRK7MRU32B9bn3X35zb9lL1HV4r221pbk-gSAMP3jNgFsTNOkYbhM2foz-X_9u9Ym-pmYUCecYiN8mHz5Q8r50Q/s2000/orphanfirstkill.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="2000" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMMig7E0_gcdR-K6dKf13sPsPfQ1HpCb-UfFPw3bolWVUYRrm2bQnZkOd-5-M30-YxTzWvqZA2Sng5xCItp4-6-NFl3OV94yNY8groRK7MRU32B9bn3X35zb9lL1HV4r221pbk-gSAMP3jNgFsTNOkYbhM2foz-X_9u9Ym-pmYUCecYiN8mHz5Q8r50Q/w640-h342/orphanfirstkill.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Orphan: First Kill</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Look, I’m not saying this is some masterpiece. Wait, yes I am. It’s a campy prequel to a campy original and I love everything about it. I love that Isabelle Fuhrman, who was an actual child in the 2009 original, is now a 25-year-old woman playing an even younger child … only not. I love the addition of Julia Stiles, playing an absolute Karen whose family came over on the Mayflower, dammit! I love that Esther is not the only one with a secret here. I love that, despite the title, this is not in fact her first kill. I love the ties to the original, like where Esther learned to do the blacklight art. And most of all, I love that the filmmakers knew exactly what kind of movie fans wanted and gave it to them. I’m not usually a fan of fanservice, at least when it comes to specifics, like plot points, character beats and especially callbacks (gah, the way some fans want to be winked at constantly is just bewildering). This is fanservice done right, where it’s exactly the tone and level of wildness that people expect from an Orphan movie, and specifics aren’t that important, as long as it’s insane. Long live Esther! I hope they do another prequel where the even older Isabelle Fuhrman plays an even younger Esther! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStDUR0kMbxxMxv_R-mDxA4zEgTFhyjpKKEw0vu2MrUU53L3bUNlhDFRU1821QnPxiTV_4SXZpm8IZDdTRkZjqo7W50dA7Vd4ld1uknL-j3GbdaHYV4Ojuir5n0QrjmXMlDhUEETOLg5FBzCEHefYsxIJalacI-dzD2leXnp4YNSrxXffSWFpIgJj7gw/s1200/prey-movie-review-2022.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgStDUR0kMbxxMxv_R-mDxA4zEgTFhyjpKKEw0vu2MrUU53L3bUNlhDFRU1821QnPxiTV_4SXZpm8IZDdTRkZjqo7W50dA7Vd4ld1uknL-j3GbdaHYV4Ojuir5n0QrjmXMlDhUEETOLg5FBzCEHefYsxIJalacI-dzD2leXnp4YNSrxXffSWFpIgJj7gw/w640-h266/prey-movie-review-2022.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Prey</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This movie was such a gift. I’d seen the first two Predator movies and enjoyed them, but I’d heard enough about the later sequels and crossovers to want to steer clear. There was only so far they could take the original concept by continuing to tell stories in the present day. So deciding that the original PREDATOR was not the first time these kind of creatures hunted on Earth opened the door to a whole lot of exciting possibilities that I hope are explored in future films. But I absolutely LOVED that they went with 18th century Great Plains, where our hero is a Native American woman – a woman who has to struggle with being undervalued and underestimated because of her gender and expected role in society. (And something I love almost as much is how butthurt fragile male fans were about “Woke Predator.”) Amber Midthunder is an incredible action hero and I sincerely hope this is just the beginning of a long line of asskicking women she gets to play. And I can’t wait to see where and when the Predator is going to pop up next. Feudal Japan? Regency England (#prideandpredator)? Ancient Rome with gladiators? Gimme gimme gimme! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu, including a version in Comanche, which is how I would recommend watching it</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjgsNHd38KAgDG9UIx4SwE5Ey3FW64MkHbvgN5zBwKoJDbeHS8eNpCvHm_VZckrwvyUxS6m5c_thLKvcJEQMjQLnYbuyxCehjKMRPWvtFd20wwdtGyUgDeJqmc2RZiTkgZQHjq4rPrVXT5vd8E-nScfGpkdRDd6sMcLFIWVsKNzH0TcgI1j4OYx8bXVA/s1500/projectwolfhunting.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjgsNHd38KAgDG9UIx4SwE5Ey3FW64MkHbvgN5zBwKoJDbeHS8eNpCvHm_VZckrwvyUxS6m5c_thLKvcJEQMjQLnYbuyxCehjKMRPWvtFd20wwdtGyUgDeJqmc2RZiTkgZQHjq4rPrVXT5vd8E-nScfGpkdRDd6sMcLFIWVsKNzH0TcgI1j4OYx8bXVA/w640-h426/projectwolfhunting.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Project Wolf Hunting</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another hit from Fantastic Fest, and where something like HUNT is clever and brilliantly structured and thought-provoking, not all movies have to be like that. Some movies can be just mindless fun. This Korean movie is part CON-AIR, part ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and part JASON X. Set on a ship where a bunch of dangerous prisoners are being transported from Manila, Philippines to Busan, South Korea, things go pear-shaped pretty early and predictably, coming to a head when the guards find themselves in a standoff against a bunch of newly unbound prisoners looking to party. But nobody counted on having to deal with Korean Jason Voorhees (well, one person did, apparently, but spoilers). He’s just this unconscious body on one of the decks (presumably another prisoner, as I recall? Maybe incorrectly?) that has to be injected periodically with a tranquilizer. Until he wakes up and turns the movie into a full-blown splatter flick. There are perhaps too many characters and too convoluted a plot, but I didn’t care that much. This is brutal, bloody and amazing, and a great one to see with a crowd. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLF5rSkeRV8gfTYKyTvDPvcxOkvMWTDCMNVX0ekrY4ydZFIVYxx8wrrDm2lrMfguZpGFukEoZXIDP_q7gHDKx9mhPy-zvkSZS3Ih29fnF-M9L9aatcNAxrpqO9tfTiAR1jZ9mXzSm_PeGrTepMaf9z82LGXmWlSTwiC8FfBcYyiF9mI2PpNbTa4Z8IQ/s2560/Scream-2022.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1073" data-original-width="2560" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLF5rSkeRV8gfTYKyTvDPvcxOkvMWTDCMNVX0ekrY4ydZFIVYxx8wrrDm2lrMfguZpGFukEoZXIDP_q7gHDKx9mhPy-zvkSZS3Ih29fnF-M9L9aatcNAxrpqO9tfTiAR1jZ9mXzSm_PeGrTepMaf9z82LGXmWlSTwiC8FfBcYyiF9mI2PpNbTa4Z8IQ/w640-h268/Scream-2022.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Scream (5)</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First off, please just give these movies numbers. You don't need to be cute and clever (though 5Cream would have been deeply hilarious). I’ve been meh on the Scream sequels, even though I think they’re much more solid than most slasher sequels and a lot more care seems to go into them. I love having most of the gang back together in 2, though the constant rewrites to dodge leaks made the plot and reveals less than satisfying. Number 3 is a bit of a mess and I hate how they basically retcon all of the murderers’ motives (don’t even get me started on the assassination of Maureen Prescott), but it does have Parker Posey and that awesome Carrie Fisher cameo. The fourth one was surprisingly good and Kirby would have made a great final girl if they weren’t still determined to make this all about Sidney (I love Sidney, but damn, give that girl a break!). But the fifth one, I think, is genuinely terrific – easily the best of the sequels, though nowhere near the heights of the original. I love most of the new characters we’re introduced to, and I love how they fold in our OG trio, especially Sidney, who is nowhere near the action until Ghostface kills … *sobs* STILL NOT OVER IT). The reveal that the wake/party is in the old Macher house is INCREDIBLE, and the action climax is suitably emotional and bloody. And the commentary on toxic fandom (this movie absolutely CAME FOR a certain section of Star Wars fans) was probably my favorite part. I’m still not sure how I feel about de-aged Skeet Ulrich, and the fact that Sam is Billy's daughter creates some wonky math with the teens’ ages. But I thought this was great, and it got me actually excited about the Scream franchise for the first time in a loooong time. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MmKUhxiV_P7RLXd4SmZ4vqjXbVu1O7-RZJh-0kwhQ6CSVe6F0w4BQINwF6shd4pP1Qe-gy4J9g3cvjYmI9tBuKTHeOHcs9nnGeEQjeXqPyB3aLC50mZMXDiL1EdjrnNf3rkw_qDyKGv4WJ-IRjC24NRX0YwAdDhaPS4t9QwJTOwZ-QKE-GuVYrZrFg/s1536/topgunmaverick.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1536" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3MmKUhxiV_P7RLXd4SmZ4vqjXbVu1O7-RZJh-0kwhQ6CSVe6F0w4BQINwF6shd4pP1Qe-gy4J9g3cvjYmI9tBuKTHeOHcs9nnGeEQjeXqPyB3aLC50mZMXDiL1EdjrnNf3rkw_qDyKGv4WJ-IRjC24NRX0YwAdDhaPS4t9QwJTOwZ-QKE-GuVYrZrFg/w640-h266/topgunmaverick.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Top Gun: Maverick</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It kind of boggles my mind to see this movie in the Oscar conversation, but it *is* immensely entertaining and an honest-to-goodness improvement on the original (a movie I also love). I think some of the dialogue, especially early on, is painfully bad, and aside from the obligatory topless male revue of a football game, the movie is weirdly sexless. I do love that Maverick goes to Penny’s house and they just hang out and talk in her bed, which is super cute, but the original was so horny (TONGUE!) that it feels weird for there to be nothing of that sort here. But the storytelling is first-rate. I love the device of showing us the course of the dangerous mission in a digitally animated form, so that we can follow it more easily when they have to do it for real – it reminded me of that scene in TITANIC when they show the animation of the sinking, for the exact same narrative reason). I always laugh at stories where these young’uns just can’t do what needs to be done, so we have to get the old veteran in here to show everybody up and be the one who actually saves the day. I’m glad this movie doesn’t *quite* do that and shares the glory a bit (Glen Powell’s character-arc-completing moment is especially satisfying). And while the movie might lean a *bit* too hard on the nostalgia buttons, the movie’s finest scene by a mile is the one with Iceman. It’s so good to see Kilmer and Cruise together again and that they found a way to use Kilmer and work around his difficulties. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some theaters again; available on Paramount+ and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR--qB3jdF9fBMgJJJqYpz4b_KHVyN55a3X2uW_qptWN-oYAHcbtmZ5hJrXu91H7xjHL6TUeKcwK1j4iqYkOJMiWpFvMdkqczCPh4Wz1UxbKY2DFuHbXDTib1t_4Bjbi4vm85xm9KzzZ1C_rT9pBhngiugFgBmb8DYbKxYyZbwBIsq3nMswMUNe4_Ymw/s1200/womanking_1200xx1244-700-43-0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR--qB3jdF9fBMgJJJqYpz4b_KHVyN55a3X2uW_qptWN-oYAHcbtmZ5hJrXu91H7xjHL6TUeKcwK1j4iqYkOJMiWpFvMdkqczCPh4Wz1UxbKY2DFuHbXDTib1t_4Bjbi4vm85xm9KzzZ1C_rT9pBhngiugFgBmb8DYbKxYyZbwBIsq3nMswMUNe4_Ymw/w640-h360/womanking_1200xx1244-700-43-0.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Woman King</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t know why I just couldn’t bring myself to see this in a theater, but it finally came to streaming and I watched it and of course it’s remarkable. Beautifully filmed, well written, and incredibly acted, especially Viola Davis and the movie’s MVP, Lashana Lynch. I’ve loved every film I’ve seen from Gina Prince-Bythewood (all the way back to LOVE & BASKETBALL) and this was no exception. There are some questionable bits regarding historical accuracy, but I don’t know how effective a completely unvarnished story set in this world would be. And since Viola Davis’s character is fictional, I can kind of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS it and imagine that, if she *had* existed and had that same relationship with the king, perhaps things would have been different. The battles in this movie are off the chain, and the women playing these warriors have clearly worked very hard to get into the condition they needed to be in to pull those scenes off. If I have one note, I’d say that it traffics a little too heavily in some predictable and melodramatic tropes. I found myself thinking “oh, we’re doing that?” a few times. But it’s a relatively minor quibble in what is overwhelmingly a successful piece of storytelling. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-8005277886923766462022-12-31T02:13:00.004-08:002022-12-31T02:13:48.427-08:00"Top Ten" List - #4<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">4. The Surprises</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-b21353eb-7fff-5c20-1148-c713cbc88a64"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are movies that, for various reasons, I didn’t expect much from going in but which ended up impressing me greatly.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUBSLFfq1f9B7wonop_FHEvFBo7-UQ7HhXmQWOHDXMaEhurYV3U4bJsBBcwiE7U_vJa36qNhu8MF7izh953QwRvg1mTjDuWNUMwjSCWgfPS0fPSmm6O94if1ID_uKOGIDabFE-atnV4FdEeKfdBgOnzOEsb8agFAH3rjDgXUVthJ36rxF2Np3xeg8UA/s1920/thebatman.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUBSLFfq1f9B7wonop_FHEvFBo7-UQ7HhXmQWOHDXMaEhurYV3U4bJsBBcwiE7U_vJa36qNhu8MF7izh953QwRvg1mTjDuWNUMwjSCWgfPS0fPSmm6O94if1ID_uKOGIDabFE-atnV4FdEeKfdBgOnzOEsb8agFAH3rjDgXUVthJ36rxF2Np3xeg8UA/w640-h360/thebatman.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Batman</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve had superhero fatigue for a while now, and it’s also been a while since I’ve been very interested in Batman. I’m not even as in love with the Nolan films as others. So imagine my surprise at being very much into Matt Reeves’s THE BATMAN. It’s dark and gritty but still very much a heightened comic book-style reality. Nolan’s movies always struck me as if they were embarrassed of where they came from and were trying incredibly hard to *not* be comic book movies. And honestly, the more grounded you make Gotham, the less it feels like you need a costumed vigilante and the more appropriate things like government reform and task forces sound. I think Robert Pattinson makes a pretty great emo Batman, though (we don’t really see enough of his Bruce Wayne for me to have an opinion on that). This movie’s Gotham is like Westeros – it feels like you can’t even take two steps out of your door without getting bruised. The color palette here is largely very bleak with lots of black, gray and green, which would normally annoy me, but I like it here because it makes the rare splashes of color pop so much more and mean so much more. Especially in perhaps the greatest scene – certainly the most iconic visual in the movie (to me, at least) – where Batman leads a group of people to safety and the screen is absolutely saturated in red, which is used in a way I’ve never seen (hopeful, not horrific) and which kind of overwhelmed me. I’m excited to see another film in this particular cinematic universe. This movie also has easily the best car chase of any movie this year. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and Amazon Prime, and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOwcEdjhFpPt_ypi5URvz6K7BnIwVssVNsMJMMC2ynkHYsIeHubOQwSFLNYormkxSiDJbXqR5hyaUOAsw38hZkvlL-Tp_Pa-PFDB0AwTr0hty7qJzqmQCV08x506mulrq9umnkqkpzpBFrE71UKYujP6kfcdYUjdNmLyIc2DTKt0HDfjnw43cS_saMg/s960/beast-4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbOwcEdjhFpPt_ypi5URvz6K7BnIwVssVNsMJMMC2ynkHYsIeHubOQwSFLNYormkxSiDJbXqR5hyaUOAsw38hZkvlL-Tp_Pa-PFDB0AwTr0hty7qJzqmQCV08x506mulrq9umnkqkpzpBFrE71UKYujP6kfcdYUjdNmLyIc2DTKt0HDfjnw43cS_saMg/w640-h360/beast-4.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Beast</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First off, I desperately want to double feature this movie with ROAR, a movie that is meant to be a touching story about a family living with big cats but which plays like a horror movie. I also want to show that movie to people who complained that all the animals here are CGI -- dudes, you don't even know how much better that is for EVERYONE, including/especially the animals. BEAST knows exactly what kind of movie it is, and while it is *also* a touching family story about a widowed father trying to reconnect with his daughters, it is also an incredibly tense and well done thriller. This is honestly one of my favorite Idris Elba performances, at least partly because it doesn’t feel like an advertisement for how cool and sexy he is. I don’t need to be sold on that; I don’t think anyone does. His character is not doing great as a dad, and his daughters are alternately embarrassed by and resentful of him. But this family experiences a real crucible in the form of a safari trip that turns terrifying when they are attacked by a lion that has gone rogue after poachers killed most of his pride. Sharlto Copley is great in a crucial supporting role, and the actors playing the daughters are impressive as well. I love that the family has real issues before they’re even in the biggest struggle of the film and that that doesn’t just disappear when shit gets real. They come together to help each other survive this ordeal, sure, but you never get the sense that, oh well, everything’s okay now and they don’t have those issues anymore. They certainly do, but what’s different by the end is that the dad has proven – in the most intense way imaginable – that he is willing to fight to hold his family together. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Peacock and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7njxy3ylRq8gmne886mxXTR_HuWIJOlYeB7rOxOI_GHO6ThIov--rlXck4zImSrLibcIJXIOKlsKY-fWB2kD0WYSMe2NZGRYRRMjvvSfI1kmBUorwUKQ84PbTGysUbCVRYRkCDxdtASYjTkcf3GHyspzKwi-OuuiUDhNQ2YplmDVmrBrOSRym0TcRw/s1366/bloodrelatives.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1366" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ7njxy3ylRq8gmne886mxXTR_HuWIJOlYeB7rOxOI_GHO6ThIov--rlXck4zImSrLibcIJXIOKlsKY-fWB2kD0WYSMe2NZGRYRRMjvvSfI1kmBUorwUKQ84PbTGysUbCVRYRkCDxdtASYjTkcf3GHyspzKwi-OuuiUDhNQ2YplmDVmrBrOSRym0TcRw/w640-h360/bloodrelatives.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Blood Relatives</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve seen a lot of vampire movies and a lot of road movies and a lot of father-daughter stories. And the description of the movie made it sound a bit more saccharine and heartwarming than I usually care for. I love, then, that this movie doesn’t really traffic in sentimentality. It’s kind of PAPER MOON meets NEAR DARK, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Longtime Rian Johnson collaborator Noah Segan (he plays the stoner guest in GLASS ONION) directs and also plays the main character, Francis – a vampire and a drifter, who can’t stay long in one place because of his particular diet. He is approached by a girl named Jane, who tells him she is his daughter (from a previous relationship with a non-vampire woman), and we soon learn that she is both vampire and human. She needs to drink blood but she’s not as affected by sunlight and, unlike full-fledged vamps like Francis, she ages. The relationship dynamics here are excellent, as Francis struggles with what it would mean to let this girl be a part of his life (or let himself be a part of hers). I especially loved Jane’s clear-eyed vision of the future, in which they’ll have to play these various roles for society as she ages and he doesn’t. This was great, and I was excited by the prospect of seeing more of this world and these characters (Segan in the Q&A at Fantastic Fest suggested a sequel called “Dracula: Dad and Loving It”). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Shudder and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SmmfEa56-KmtrxABI9Q5w2tjMhr2jF61tZfpJAwi2hdVPRgGwNRYsZVOF83lIhD1d-k6lfJkU4DgKWPzV_60na6nMTEZ9YnVl0aez5McWFdLoiQnOEISUMxCYQdr3i_7Me-J5hjRmz__XCAP1Q4RB4jW_2Ae_0dKCVRKc8zTWZTYlERY-JKu_mtWww/s1200/bodies-bodies-bodies-r-rating-featured.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SmmfEa56-KmtrxABI9Q5w2tjMhr2jF61tZfpJAwi2hdVPRgGwNRYsZVOF83lIhD1d-k6lfJkU4DgKWPzV_60na6nMTEZ9YnVl0aez5McWFdLoiQnOEISUMxCYQdr3i_7Me-J5hjRmz__XCAP1Q4RB4jW_2Ae_0dKCVRKc8zTWZTYlERY-JKu_mtWww/w640-h336/bodies-bodies-bodies-r-rating-featured.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Bodies Bodies Bodies</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a time where most slasher movies are either tired retreads of the classic formula or tired “clever twists” on said formula – with characters that aren’t nearly as interesting or fun as their 70s and 80s forbears – this movie was a breath of fresh air. It’s also a refreshing take on Gen Z in that it doesn’t feel condescending or like it was made by some Old who just doesn’t understand. It revolves around a group of barely twentysomethings who have gathered at the huge house of one of their parents for a hurricane party. There’s your standard insufferable and/or punchable young’uns but there’s also a 40-something Lee Pace sticking out like a sore thumb as the much older boyfriend of one of the young women, and he’s actually the most likable character (to me, but I’m also an Old, so what do I know). Another odd person out in this group is Bee (played by BORAT 2’s Maria Bakalova), who was brought by her girlfriend (played by HUNGER GAMES’s Amandla Stenberg) and who is kind of the audience surrogate. The group decide to play “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” a whodunit game that most viewers will have played some iteration of, perhaps by another name, in their youth. Things get horror-flavored when people actually start dying all over the house, but to say more would be serious spoiler territory. This is really well written, with dialogue that feels fresh from a Twitter thread. The performances are all pretty great (Rachel Sennott is the MVP -- her rant about how hard podcasting is floored me). And I was especially impressed with the lighting, which gets dark when necessary but not prohibitively dark and makes excellent use of what the characters already have on them (cell phones with flashlights, Rachel Sennott’s glow stick necklaces). If you’re looking for a slasher that’s a little different and has a more modern sensibility, I highly recommend it. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK48nBvyIBivpcriZ8BObQXw6rfWxaW2MBrj2knTBEF-tRjbBlyyW-aWum3hZUJBMWxR8PUb_1r_gM8ofw_RhNGLg07flQNu6Y6yyApyNwKxBbKMA0_sgm6Jx11_35ku9H8JQa_MdKC3sZwLyUiBs5KFtWL201lT1JsbCNdGqoiX7xC6tFZlVegui25g/s1280/finalcut.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK48nBvyIBivpcriZ8BObQXw6rfWxaW2MBrj2knTBEF-tRjbBlyyW-aWum3hZUJBMWxR8PUb_1r_gM8ofw_RhNGLg07flQNu6Y6yyApyNwKxBbKMA0_sgm6Jx11_35ku9H8JQa_MdKC3sZwLyUiBs5KFtWL201lT1JsbCNdGqoiX7xC6tFZlVegui25g/w640-h360/finalcut.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Final Cut</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s a remake of one of my favorite horror movies of the past decade. The original is perfect, and this should have been a disaster. I fully expected it to be. It’s a French remake, directed by Michel Hazanavicius (who directed the 2011 Best Picture winner, THE ARTIST). I’d seen one of his Bond spoofs, so I felt pretty confident that he’d be able to navigate the comedy end of things. The plot stays very close to that of the original – too close, it seems in the first half, since the plot of the movie-within-the-movie is almost identical to the Japanese version, even down to the Japanese character names. But like the original, everything has a purpose and nothing whatsoever is wasted. I didn’t like this as much as the original, but I was very surprised at how good it turned out to be. Some of the emotional beats, while different, managed to affect me as much as the original (the human scaffolding at the end was a bit different in context, but still wiped me out). If you can only see one of them, I’d recommend the original, but this is actually quite good. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fqc0lPLBFURIlEB6oeBbh0JSXMSOiPRMatO8GS0lRO0YTDzezKYxcXR95CAXi34dCzh67NBpt0kjJmVmAlMRCKpbLBeO0RE50aq1-htfASxHhT9bWfewsrmMKSf49e4zaTx97Mqn-_-P3YD4VKfOa0tjkzGxUinsF-uF0oUzOoc9bACSuUSrdG7Quw/s1024/Fire-Island-Release-Date.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4fqc0lPLBFURIlEB6oeBbh0JSXMSOiPRMatO8GS0lRO0YTDzezKYxcXR95CAXi34dCzh67NBpt0kjJmVmAlMRCKpbLBeO0RE50aq1-htfASxHhT9bWfewsrmMKSf49e4zaTx97Mqn-_-P3YD4VKfOa0tjkzGxUinsF-uF0oUzOoc9bACSuUSrdG7Quw/w640-h426/Fire-Island-Release-Date.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Fire Island</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just when I thought we’d been through all the permutations of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, Joel Booster Kim comes along and parlays the novel into a gay romcom. I love that this movie takes all the tropes and plot points from the novel that we’re expecting but doesn’t make it such a cookie cutter find-and-replace exercise that things feel shoehorned in. There are maybe one or two things that feel a bit forced, but this far out from watching the movie, I can’t even remember what they are. This movie handles the differences between gay love stories and straight love stories more successfully, I think, than BROS does – particularly in its discarding of the “marriage ending” (because dude, these guys have only known each other a week). Yet it still manages to be heartwarming and romantic. Conrad Ricamora makes a great addition to the Darcy pantheon and Margaret Cho as the movie’s Mrs. Bennett is inspired. It’s just done so well and has such a specific setting that’s hilariously and irreverently analogous to Austen’s marriage market. I think my only real problem is that I still feel like the casting of this movie’s Lydia and Kitty is backwards. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9IlIV1E7LND1N75kbE-JxvuyuiCfu7M9OQZ6Ge-12vpmA1H3dY7D5wrB7N4TKBtR5vTs8IPEeg0zX1r-ishqTmaeBC4gIRBcFUjRq_n4E8qgCZRIF-7-XkuWiD99sGGHIB9eZnwKamskTGJoqCgjhX33Pg4J3Icgqr-aa_1fz_PN8md_fVED1uiOAA/s1400/hellraiser2022.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih9IlIV1E7LND1N75kbE-JxvuyuiCfu7M9OQZ6Ge-12vpmA1H3dY7D5wrB7N4TKBtR5vTs8IPEeg0zX1r-ishqTmaeBC4gIRBcFUjRq_n4E8qgCZRIF-7-XkuWiD99sGGHIB9eZnwKamskTGJoqCgjhX33Pg4J3Icgqr-aa_1fz_PN8md_fVED1uiOAA/w640-h320/hellraiser2022.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Hellraiser (2022)</i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yet another Fantastic Fest movie (the second of the two secret screenings), and this was a ton of fun. I love the first two Hellraiser movies, have a bemused not-quite-fondness for the third, and haven’t trudged into the bajillion other sequels. But I have a fair amount of familiarity with the basics of Hellraiser and the Cenobites. I really dug this and I feel confident nodding in agreement with people who are way more conversant in this canon than I am and who think this is the best Hellraiser movie since the second one. There’s a really good story here, with our final girl being a troubled woman who’s struggling to kick a drug habit, as well as trying to save her brother. And her conflict with the Cenobites and the puzzle box are a great way of dramatizing her issues with addiction and the pain in her life. Jamie Clayton makes a fabulous new Pinhead, so much so that she apparently inspired Clive Barker to write a new story revolving around her. The Cenobites look amazing. I’ve seen complaints about the loss of the leather, but the director said they were trying to move away from the black leather look (which felt very taboo in 1987 but not so much nowadays) and decided to let the Cenobites be their own leather. My favorite thing about this new movie, though, is that for the first time I really felt like I had a handle on what the puzzle box was and what it could do. And I love that the things the Cenobites are supposed to give people – things people think they want, like pleasure and power – are never what the wishmakers expect, but instead the Cenobites’s hellish version of those things. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Ak5Y9-exjshYTWdS6bUx6YzgbzaRisyU4i9V91EJMMP3sVKMqxFtuavt42QYH5tvlxU2AC1XYFBc7wos-fxM_UKNoSyxjes7TrULaH2-e6omW-kEoeZMWmePJ3rHFtlNGK_QtzuKyEqsaiBa_U5bz6tWayV8eGza7V81y6EsWt6Gn3lTodf9qoP64g/s1864/marcel-the-shell.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1049" data-original-width="1864" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Ak5Y9-exjshYTWdS6bUx6YzgbzaRisyU4i9V91EJMMP3sVKMqxFtuavt42QYH5tvlxU2AC1XYFBc7wos-fxM_UKNoSyxjes7TrULaH2-e6omW-kEoeZMWmePJ3rHFtlNGK_QtzuKyEqsaiBa_U5bz6tWayV8eGza7V81y6EsWt6Gn3lTodf9qoP64g/w640-h360/marcel-the-shell.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Marcel the Shell with Shoes On</i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like most people, I found Jenny Slate’s “Marcel” voice utterly adorable, but I wondered how the short YouTube videos that originally established this character could be made into a tolerable feature-length movie. But this turned out to be pretty great. I loved all the little devices and processes Marcel and Connie use to get around the house and do things. I like the tone of the movie and that it’s not too precious (especially when Marcel posts a video asking for help in finding his family and is annoyed that most of the comments just talk about how cute he is). The story itself is a fairly basic against-all-odds destiny quest story, but the details and voice performances are what really make the movie sing. Marcel has a little monologue about being at a party and feeling overwhelmed, and I swear I have never felt more seen by a stop-motion shell in my life. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2DZE2KVj9-RHTUJesYQNN6kb9tfZpz9_NaLhL5FYOAol4YL0UBNOs3bGHu9ll51srtE1r9oXPKefIS7SO6jHDDkgEewg777L7vo5Y5YOMOboUrjSMTFoimgo3cbgHpv3Z2I5a8oewVbrlXleysJ1OsPxgjARVbj2fn8C-0oxsSAZKcbLYkHP56imW5A/s1486/resurrection.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="892" data-original-width="1486" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2DZE2KVj9-RHTUJesYQNN6kb9tfZpz9_NaLhL5FYOAol4YL0UBNOs3bGHu9ll51srtE1r9oXPKefIS7SO6jHDDkgEewg777L7vo5Y5YOMOboUrjSMTFoimgo3cbgHpv3Z2I5a8oewVbrlXleysJ1OsPxgjARVbj2fn8C-0oxsSAZKcbLYkHP56imW5A/w640-h384/resurrection.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Resurrection</i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you haven’t yet jumped on the Rebecca Hall train, it’s beyond time to rectify that. She elevates every single thing she’s in, and her directorial debut (last year’s PASSING) was one of the best movies of 2021. I’m not always a fan of movies where none of the horror (or anything supernatural or magic, for that matter) is actually real, which is why I was slow to warm to this. But to this movie’s credit, it never tries to fool you. You know almost from the first moments of the film that Margaret has had to deal with some psychological trauma, otherwise she wouldn’t give such convincing advice to the young woman who confides in her. And not very long at all after Margaret’s ex David comes into the picture, we know that trauma involves some heavy duty gaslighting. We don’t get any flashbacks to what happened, which means we only have the characters’ own accounts to go on, which yes, probably was better for the film’s budget, but also puts us squarely in Margaret’s shoes (there’s a joke here about the barefoot thing, but I’m too classy to make it :P). She can’t tell what’s true and what’s not, and neither can we. This was pretty remarkable, and yet another astonishing performance from Rebecca Hall. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Shudder and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXpwe6VbZ1JiXWd7xHttLd_n94H3BQhqisSwUf-nEoDxEfNEp5M_m7J8ExK0Y-U3EK08JtAauWEw5MzGp-OygfDCkMN7ZN3BJAOj4S5JgX23EClpbD4fWiLh32wfU4eR6p9CdZt9rp8Of_EofoOOSNDeA9lwoAiYTKKjcV3aj9yQJeXf4OrYm1UDTBgw/s4971/spirited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2796" data-original-width="4971" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXpwe6VbZ1JiXWd7xHttLd_n94H3BQhqisSwUf-nEoDxEfNEp5M_m7J8ExK0Y-U3EK08JtAauWEw5MzGp-OygfDCkMN7ZN3BJAOj4S5JgX23EClpbD4fWiLh32wfU4eR6p9CdZt9rp8Of_EofoOOSNDeA9lwoAiYTKKjcV3aj9yQJeXf4OrYm1UDTBgw/w640-h360/spirited.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>Spirited</b></i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went to a mystery screening in early November and it turned out to be this. I hate walking out on movies, but I just can’t watch Christmas movies *that far* from December. So I caught up with it the week of Christmas, not hoping for much (I’m not as in love with Pasek and Paul as others are), but wow, this is a new holiday favorite. There are LOADS of adaptations of “A Christmas Carol,” many of them “clever twists” on the story, but this is the first one I’ve seen since that episode of Doctor Who that truly earned that description. You think you know how this one is going to play the Dickens tropes, but it has some real surprises up its sleeve. Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds are predictably great together, and I love seeing Octavia Spencer playing a love interest, which I don’t think she’s ever done before. Most of the songs are quite good – some of them very heartstring-tuggy – but the best by far is “Good Afternoon,” which I want to watch about a hundred more times. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on AppleTV</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55jM336DPPcYj-UpPmvDsvxF83Qj7BVGyQzPEYIvlFKcf6E-EHrSoRXOu0uomB3zKo83zAzjgyPOhfIE5QvBi33NdV464JUuhii8UoL-B-_yoFNtwgSKc8OAtrqNr8TW5SQAFEXpZDMyuPlp53LUld87oEFepzA45m0oMuJNDFmTueGtJ6XYANDlTtA/s1072/terrifier-2-image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="1072" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj55jM336DPPcYj-UpPmvDsvxF83Qj7BVGyQzPEYIvlFKcf6E-EHrSoRXOu0uomB3zKo83zAzjgyPOhfIE5QvBi33NdV464JUuhii8UoL-B-_yoFNtwgSKc8OAtrqNr8TW5SQAFEXpZDMyuPlp53LUld87oEFepzA45m0oMuJNDFmTueGtJ6XYANDlTtA/w640-h384/terrifier-2-image.png" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Terrifier 2</i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was perhaps the biggest surprise of all of these films. I had no real knowledge or curiosity about it until it screened at Fantastic Fest and was a huge hit both there and in its theatrical release. I spent a few weeks watching reviews of and reactions to the original movie, and I was pretty convinced that it was just too much for me. But I kept hearing about this sequel and what a blast it was with an audience and decided that I’d seen enough of the original through the reactions and reviews to understand what I needed to going into the sequel without watching the first one. So I went to see it. And yes, it is extreme. But it’s also a ton of fun. I did eventually see the original, which was exactly as traumatizing (no more, no less) than I was expecting, but it’s more a proof of concept than a movie. The sequel takes things up several notches in every area. The acting is stronger, the character work is stronger, there’s an actual story rather than just a series of kills, the score is on a whole other level, and the gore is stronger and even more creative. (I agree that the bedroom scene is more violent and bloody than the hacksaw scene in the original, but the hacksaw scene – along with the, um, “wig” scene? – has a layer of something else that’s more upsetting to me than anything in the sequel.) I love the mythology being set up here, but my one complaint is that it is way too long, and that being so long, there’s no excuse not to give us a bit more to go on with the mythology and backstories. Still, I liked it far more than I expected to. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-20331772848031897282022-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:002022-12-30T19:15:02.602-08:00"Top Ten" List - #5<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">5. The Acquired Tastes </span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-cfffe142-7fff-5a46-f9ae-4da929113ff7"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the “key lime pie” category (h/t NATURAL BORN KILLERS). Most of these movies have a weird tang that can be off-putting, but the off-putting-ness has its own satisfaction or thrill. Basically, all of these movies are wackadoo as all get-out, but I think I love them because of it?</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEfEjiUG8-jGkGAkdsYb0l8_Xf9WgiHbBjeC_XAcW2uieBq_DliVes1buP6QQJQihnzLxZeW-A7UQaimvW9GggKc6iYulLWSuJC7QD-O9eY_HVQ4BAhYrFXjxZMpemf5pJuEslNg_gy2yOdG1RAp9R6Wa5i5buWyKv0C_SDtn_wV6IA5m89f9PnRI-w/s2000/fluxgourmet.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1081" data-original-width="2000" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEfEjiUG8-jGkGAkdsYb0l8_Xf9WgiHbBjeC_XAcW2uieBq_DliVes1buP6QQJQihnzLxZeW-A7UQaimvW9GggKc6iYulLWSuJC7QD-O9eY_HVQ4BAhYrFXjxZMpemf5pJuEslNg_gy2yOdG1RAp9R6Wa5i5buWyKv0C_SDtn_wV6IA5m89f9PnRI-w/w640-h346/fluxgourmet.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Flux Gourmet</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is director Peter Strickland’s follow-up to the incredible IN FABRIC, and I think his films are getting progressively weirder and I am here for it. The movie takes place at an artistic institution (more of a retreat), whose director is played by Gwendoline Christie. The group in residence during the film is a band that specializes in “sonic catering” – a kind of extreme ASMR in which the musicians make weird and disturbing noises with various foods. The movie follows their day-to-day rituals and activities (there’s an exercise they regularly do where they pretend to be in a supermarket and the director gives them various strange and really specific scenarios), and we see the power struggles and creative crises play out in public and in private. And there are some out-there subplots, like an assistant who suffers from excessive and uncomfortable flatulence. Everyone here is committing to the bit one thousand percent. Gwendoline Christie and Fatma Mohamed are especially game (if you’ve only ever known Christie as Brienne of Tarth, her performance here is spectacularly different). I don’t feel like this is as strong as IN FABRIC (and I still think DUKE OF BURGUNDY and BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO are my favorites of Strickland’s films that I’ve seen). But this was enjoyable in a “wow, I really just watched that” kind of way. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Shudder and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWd885UurvE3Hi2ZuW9uUche7og-aN3PqcMx3Zb-7_mVizX__N7YJ70rQWiUZpryQXuI7TT3NYJPMpW8TZtmrMoQnbmTACQhq7tfZbT9t_CWC0Y2ts024iiU5PFXglaQMNxYPWDUCN8E69dVSBPP-wgQSOp3uE8LKopqS1fn6QbnInni0Avgr-RoVu6g/s740/glorious.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="740" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWd885UurvE3Hi2ZuW9uUche7og-aN3PqcMx3Zb-7_mVizX__N7YJ70rQWiUZpryQXuI7TT3NYJPMpW8TZtmrMoQnbmTACQhq7tfZbT9t_CWC0Y2ts024iiU5PFXglaQMNxYPWDUCN8E69dVSBPP-wgQSOp3uE8LKopqS1fn6QbnInni0Avgr-RoVu6g/w640-h328/glorious.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Glorious</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This feels very Lovecraftian, and while it’s an original story, the character of Ghatanothoa comes from Lin Carter’s Xothic legend cycle, which is based on Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. So it’s indirectly Lovecraftian, I guess. The story revolves around a man who, hungover, stops at a rest stop and has a strange encounter with the man in the next stall by way of a glory hole. But it’s not what it sounds like! The man in the next stall is not a man but a demigod, whose father is trying to find him so he can use him to destroy humanity. The demigod, Ghatanothoa, needs something from Wes (the hungover man) in order to transcend the physical plane, elude his father and prevent humanity’s destruction. This is quite a short film, but it still feels a bit thinly stretched. It all takes place in the bathroom, and while the two actors (one of them Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons, playing Ghatanothoa) make their exchanges compelling, I think it could have been even stronger as a maybe 30-minute short film. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Shudder and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4W60t8D-3Zq8LGKIiBsKr_I5PMUr0iVbqFR8jzU4dO-wzsfyh3El1s2yAZY216oZh60A_qBo9Z4bgH39CDO7NJSKzoJG8kM8OJ-XO30YzIIEXJMuPXKHVMcxpSOCrWCHxTymw5sePHTaPXykIcpZj7J382FMkHlcaaRmfkxTG68yXA2OCFkbQnvX7CA/s1024/kidsvsaliens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4W60t8D-3Zq8LGKIiBsKr_I5PMUr0iVbqFR8jzU4dO-wzsfyh3El1s2yAZY216oZh60A_qBo9Z4bgH39CDO7NJSKzoJG8kM8OJ-XO30YzIIEXJMuPXKHVMcxpSOCrWCHxTymw5sePHTaPXykIcpZj7J382FMkHlcaaRmfkxTG68yXA2OCFkbQnvX7CA/w640-h360/kidsvsaliens.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Kids vs. Aliens</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of my favorite experiences from Fantastic Fest, this is Jason Eisener’s first feature film since his 2011 film HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN. According to Eisener, both films take place in the same universe – the Hoboverse, if you will (I just made that up, please don’t blame Mr. Eisener for that) – and I find that fascinating. Like HOBO, KIDS VS. ALIENS is pretty brutal, but KvA is a *bit* tamer, thankfully, as its main characters are children. This reminded me a lot of THE GATE, especially its older sister / younger brother dynamic, and I really liked it overall. All of the kid characters are great, with nary a cloying over-wise Fanning type in the mix. While there sadly is no adorable ginger death metal kid (i.e., Terry in THE GATE), there *is* an amazing ginger kid in the person of Jack, who for my money is the MVP of the entire movie. The kids in the movie are amateur filmmakers (occasionally joined by the older sister) and the aliens have a very B-movie aesthetic (almost as charmingly ridiculous as the little aliens in the opening of NIGHT OF THE CREEPS). This movie is steeped in such childlike glee that I couldn’t help but be won over by it. I am really excited by the prospect of seeing more of this universe, either in film or TV form. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Premiering on Shudder on 1/20</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_3I7p5GRUYkW69XDxnEiQs-ca1OCcagCBWy-Cp3Ik2TrlFbPdclm6GKHLJVWSpNpb3G1RfvU1QYr-6CHA0w2qbLFCK-tqJcdwiifrgkMqRLHs0UszN-qE3SCvCWu6W-XepjXks7FzZp-uyDgVQfQ7tDzs33e0s0wXfDkPc86I7h5UhFYGFJ3R3tB7Q/s1920/lapieta.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_3I7p5GRUYkW69XDxnEiQs-ca1OCcagCBWy-Cp3Ik2TrlFbPdclm6GKHLJVWSpNpb3G1RfvU1QYr-6CHA0w2qbLFCK-tqJcdwiifrgkMqRLHs0UszN-qE3SCvCWu6W-XepjXks7FzZp-uyDgVQfQ7tDzs33e0s0wXfDkPc86I7h5UhFYGFJ3R3tB7Q/w640-h360/lapieta.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">La Pieta</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This won Best Picture at Fantastic Fest, and the director – who introduced the film at the screening I went to – was so bonkers and unpredictable that I had no idea what to expect. (He got lost going souvenir shopping in Austin while we watched his film and was unable to attend the post-screening Q&A; I hope he made it home alright.) The movie centers around a codependent mother-son relationship that becomes more and more toxic after the son is diagnosed with cancer. The film takes place in 2011 and we see lots of news reports about North Korea and Kim Jong-il, leading to a bizarre but surprisingly apt analogy between the relationship between this mother and son and the relationship between the North Korean government (especially Kim Jong-il) and its people. The movie has a very aggressive style with an almost suffocating pink and gray color palette (the art decoration of the mother’s house alone should be in a museum). And the whole thing is incredibly over-the-top and operatic. In a good way. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqzOcZzt8wfjbOX2gSpJAtCcuI6Ye9ctMrdDlSMtAhguMYffIBVTk6KBAJTv0fegzFO601J3hoGXepni4HTnWTeYBIGAMskLGK3b_tJD6mGvGUa-wnuX7VY8NPwDL9N5C6E5-Bcee_As76mTwSOahHf-tHxakYu_yNd9ia9F3Xw0Xxt1PGY8lYii9B8A/s950/leonor.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="633" data-original-width="950" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqzOcZzt8wfjbOX2gSpJAtCcuI6Ye9ctMrdDlSMtAhguMYffIBVTk6KBAJTv0fegzFO601J3hoGXepni4HTnWTeYBIGAMskLGK3b_tJD6mGvGUa-wnuX7VY8NPwDL9N5C6E5-Bcee_As76mTwSOahHf-tHxakYu_yNd9ia9F3Xw0Xxt1PGY8lYii9B8A/w640-h426/leonor.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Leonor Will Never Die</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I missed this at Fantastic Fest but finally caught up with it a couple months afterward when it was released in theaters. My main takeaway from this movie is … GIVE ME MORE ELDERLY WOMEN AS ACTION HEROES. The movie follows Leonor, a retired screenwriter who is known for writing great action movies. She is living with her son and the situation is not ideal for either of them, for many reasons. Leonor finds an ad looking for screenplays, so she pulls out an unfinished script and starts tinkering with it. While working on it, she becomes the victim of a freak accident when a television falls on her head and lands her in a coma. While unconscious but not exactly asleep, she finds herself as a character in her own movie, affecting the story and trying to figure out the ending. This was really great and unexpectedly emotional (Leonor’s story about Ronwaldo’s namesake is devastating). And I know it’s become a cliche to end a movie with a musical number, but I loved this one. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9qwh8FcQon2jtEn6jzKw6t7eX7Qa5SMpaIhNNATubp0XaMBenyj2TT0cxdq9WdrOa11JfodlPf76zJCT7-AJA1cvhjHxFrViFruDOY7iOQrYZjQhCkahV6z8ob4eLk-ylzBqh9d6n1ORnPoWMOpo9mkqBI2_b_3zzu2zaLKXNkKPcfTSGveJW7-qpw/s3480/moonagedaydream.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="3480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE9qwh8FcQon2jtEn6jzKw6t7eX7Qa5SMpaIhNNATubp0XaMBenyj2TT0cxdq9WdrOa11JfodlPf76zJCT7-AJA1cvhjHxFrViFruDOY7iOQrYZjQhCkahV6z8ob4eLk-ylzBqh9d6n1ORnPoWMOpo9mkqBI2_b_3zzu2zaLKXNkKPcfTSGveJW7-qpw/w640-h320/moonagedaydream.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Moonage Daydream</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This movie is certainly an experience, and I loved seeing it at the Lincoln Square IMAX with the director Brett Morgen in attendance. I’m not sure how much new stuff we’re actually learning from it, despite the use of tons of never-before-seen concert footage, photos, interviews, etc. I consider myself to be a fan of David Bowie, but I’m not nearly as knowledgeable about his career or the breadth of his musical oeuvre (or filmography, for that matter). As such, I was pretty overwhelmed by this and found myself wondering if I was even a true fan at all. This isn’t a documentary by any known standards; it’s much more of an overall impression and headspace. It’s fascinating to see his evolution as an artist as it’s presented here, and yet there’s so much that’s left out. I’m not sure how to even evaluate it except that it’s an experience I’m glad I had. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQL4rz_lamR9-dkqEUOkM7KXn8ysnvcdo4KpZGPf3ILeFZC4BBMBQN_Fynh90HbUr1b1FoD7KgRHvktUeFIqikBOnGNtCfukc23ewuex9BjFnVnlVlyctj-CzkjfBMGIDgCBb7gAjSQsOygJ6Pzq3Ky3o4sQl71A1h4yIOEosK0olew3YVMSztdXsaPA/s4096/smokingcausescoughing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1860" data-original-width="4096" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQL4rz_lamR9-dkqEUOkM7KXn8ysnvcdo4KpZGPf3ILeFZC4BBMBQN_Fynh90HbUr1b1FoD7KgRHvktUeFIqikBOnGNtCfukc23ewuex9BjFnVnlVlyctj-CzkjfBMGIDgCBb7gAjSQsOygJ6Pzq3Ky3o4sQl71A1h4yIOEosK0olew3YVMSztdXsaPA/w640-h290/smokingcausescoughing.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Smoking Causes Coughing</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’d only ever seen one of Quentin Dupieux’s movies before this, but that movie was RUBBER and it was about a rubber tire that kills people, so I was here for whatever this filmmaker was about to give me. The main characters in this movie are a group of avengers that call themselves Tobacco Force and are sent on a compulsory teambuilding retreat. Much of the movie is a bit like an anthology movie, with the characters telling scary stories that are dramatized for us. There’s an apocalyptic threat that feels a bit tacked on and inconsequential, to be honest, though it does culminate in a hilarious ending. My favorite bits, though, were the random details of this skewed universe. I love that the Tobacco Force are famous and that families want “us-ies” with them. I love that the team’s boss is a rat puppet who is a real ladies man, despite constantly secreting some kind of ooze from his mouth (and, you know, being an anthropomorphic rat). I love the 24-hour convenience store in the team’s cabin that’s staffed by just one person who has to sit there all day and all night until one of these five people decides they want something. This is a bit more fun than RUBBER, if a little less focused. I loved it. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCTepdUEgm6rVWmgSIyDQ4DtiMHy2Fwj3-PfoI3VhgBlQc-wAxxhwKHYkNzn-CDzEC0q0d6_y-YF2n-6hPtgGWXubMndSpKAtvKvgMflRZAumAYP0Q4lzZFsYoxO0R9UUPZJTfZRXBUE6XX0So1RWf_On1uLb2rooZPItgNN4CubL7keVIHP7l7TWLcg/s1200/Three-Thousand-Years-of-Longing-Trailer-scaled.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="1200" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCTepdUEgm6rVWmgSIyDQ4DtiMHy2Fwj3-PfoI3VhgBlQc-wAxxhwKHYkNzn-CDzEC0q0d6_y-YF2n-6hPtgGWXubMndSpKAtvKvgMflRZAumAYP0Q4lzZFsYoxO0R9UUPZJTfZRXBUE6XX0So1RWf_On1uLb2rooZPItgNN4CubL7keVIHP7l7TWLcg/w640-h328/Three-Thousand-Years-of-Longing-Trailer-scaled.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Three Thousand Years of Longing</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been seven years since we’ve had a George Miller-directed movie (2015’s FURY ROAD) and while this wasn’t *precisely* my jam, there’s a lot to love. This movie is essentially an anthology story wherein Idris Elba’s character, a djinn who grants wishes, is summoned (unintentionally) by a scholar played by Tilda Swinton. Having a very comfortable life and being educated enough to know how all wish-granting stories inevitably end, she resists making any wishes. He then tells her three tales to explain how he became imprisoned in the bottle she released him from, and by the end she has decided on her first wish. This is beautiful, with some really stunning visuals. The love story is a bit odd to me (though perfectly understandable that a woman would make a wish to be Idris Elba’s lover), but I do love the interplay between Swinton and Elba and their characters’ perspectives. My favorite thing about the movie, though, is how different it is from what George Miller tends to be known for. I think, when we look back on his career, the Mad Max films stand out as his most iconic achievement. But it gives me such joy to know that he can also make a film like this (not to mention THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, BABE: PIG IN THE CITY and the HAPPY FEET movies). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy37yxkAiqtECd2Wv2kpY9qx1gzBHcWChPGxwMismtzYQlm8tKvxRNoqrjvD646BNpswYEhG-1zprd2OqgXJozUjnrhWIV72C-_1K4SufYv0tQXAS0_eSCuCMj8fcMa0fewhhYgJ3UJRgPR6SUKbrY1lhY63S5MZPKlHC8AXlV679LLl53r2edt10b4w/s740/triangleofsadness.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="740" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy37yxkAiqtECd2Wv2kpY9qx1gzBHcWChPGxwMismtzYQlm8tKvxRNoqrjvD646BNpswYEhG-1zprd2OqgXJozUjnrhWIV72C-_1K4SufYv0tQXAS0_eSCuCMj8fcMa0fewhhYgJ3UJRgPR6SUKbrY1lhY63S5MZPKlHC8AXlV679LLl53r2edt10b4w/w640-h328/triangleofsadness.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Triangle of Sadness</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the much-hyped closing film of Fantastic Fest, and while I was meh on the director’s previous film, THE SQUARE, the trailer had me pretty excited for this. I think most of the movie has unfortunately been overshadowed by the extended “vomit” sequence, but it’s a lot more than that. It’s one of many movies this year that comments on class and satirizes the super wealthy. And while there’s plenty of that biting satire and class commentary in the first half – Yaya and Carl’s discussion about who pays for what, the rich woman who thinks she’s giving the poors a real treat by insisting on their abandoning their duties and going for a swim, and of course the Captain and Dimitry literally having an argument about socialism and capitalism – the second half takes it to another level by completely upending the established class structure. Everyone in the cast understands the assignment, but Dolly DeLeon is the MVP (in every way) and I’m fully behind the campaign to get her an Oscar nod. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwRmOx3Uek_Y6ngYq5C7HmQNoEUh9YWXL8Tj2Sa4NE8zHnRijVzyA4RZb0Yenst7ZbkWIxoA5CPUMz9LxL8DgoxqIWFA3kTVZTvH15ByvvEdcqOUDDfXfJtD8Jg6vqgOw7oXayUZCXinoqaAL-EbbDKl4VDCbxkYTYYRWb-rYk9stzVGD5ErtcQqOzQ/s2048/UNICORN_WARS_03.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="2048" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHwRmOx3Uek_Y6ngYq5C7HmQNoEUh9YWXL8Tj2Sa4NE8zHnRijVzyA4RZb0Yenst7ZbkWIxoA5CPUMz9LxL8DgoxqIWFA3kTVZTvH15ByvvEdcqOUDDfXfJtD8Jg6vqgOw7oXayUZCXinoqaAL-EbbDKl4VDCbxkYTYYRWb-rYk9stzVGD5ErtcQqOzQ/w640-h338/UNICORN_WARS_03.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Unicorn Wars</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honour! Pain! Cuddles! A French-Spanish anti-war animated film with the animation style of an uber violent My Little Pony is something you’re either going to be into or you’re not. I expected this to be bonkers but I didn’t expect it to be as sincere as it is. The story’s main conflict is a war between religious zealot teddy bears and environmentalist unicorns, and it is surprisingly gory and obscene for an animated movie. (Definitely not for kids – in addition to the violence, there is drug use and a few teddy bear penises.) There is a secondary plot revolving around two of the bears who are brothers who have sustained a lifelong rivalry for their mother’s affections, going back to just after their birth. If the combination of cute and brutal appeals to you, this movie might be right up your alley. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-6388563691346044382022-12-30T08:31:00.001-08:002022-12-30T08:32:11.460-08:00"Top Ten" List - #6<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. I Love You, but I’m Not *in* Love with You</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-bcf3846c-7fff-6a7d-7910-5404b76f95cd"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I respect these films. If you were to ask me about any of them, I’d say something like “Oh yeah, that’s a great movie!” But I didn’t connect with them the way I did with other films further up the list and I find myself a little envious of those who love them so much more than I do.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyJuYtkVQTTWm7AVknwQh-TI2sPvD5QXA4tK9i05r20RnWHswCP_fH1jv7vS2GxMEK2N8hNyloOICsnyt5ddk25HluuNMLVOc1X6WxofR4UN79AutCwdG609YI_OQ965ubrR-_Ti9lXuM08BCa_ZrEXWxLQAz85OL77n-xHulN0-gQojln73zCZUQSw/s1024/the-banshees-of-inisherin-1024x512.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyJuYtkVQTTWm7AVknwQh-TI2sPvD5QXA4tK9i05r20RnWHswCP_fH1jv7vS2GxMEK2N8hNyloOICsnyt5ddk25HluuNMLVOc1X6WxofR4UN79AutCwdG609YI_OQ965ubrR-_Ti9lXuM08BCa_ZrEXWxLQAz85OL77n-xHulN0-gQojln73zCZUQSw/w640-h320/the-banshees-of-inisherin-1024x512.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Banshees of Inisherin</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are doing career-best work here. Kerry Condon is phenomenal. And Barry Keoghan is a wonder (I don’t want to say “career best” for him, even if it’s true, because he’s only 30). I loved IN BRUGES and I liked THREE BILLBOARDS more than a lot of folks. And while I mostly liked this movie, it feels more like a play to me (which makes sense, as Martin McDonagh is a playwright). The set-up and premise feel very stagey and theatrical, like a fable or a short story. If you’ve seen the trailer, you know the premise: two friends, one decides he doesn’t want to be friends anymore, he tells the former friend not to talk to him anymore and, in fact, if he talks to him at all, he’ll cut off his own fingers. There are clearly some mental health issues going on with Gleeson’s character, and Farrell’s character’s story is an exploration of loneliness (and I do love the parallels with Keoghan’s character). But it all feels a bit too fantastical for me to fully take it seriously. There is some beautiful cinematography but I feel like it’s hard to screw that up given the utterly heavenly location where they’re shooting. Loads of people love this movie, and I liked it fine, but I feel like the performances are the showcase here more than the film itself or its story. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in some theaters; available on HBOMax and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh53LHBVauxyEywNdS7IYuGdUmAYGtuojK7MTwDDzuSci_q0M1agv0RC2Ql1zkMqLQqcRdDyXpHMC-0AEwbHzaDalusCL5oEthrH_SGRvqAWHwvx8VzIbeBY4zEX2cbClnk16yHX0_9Wm38rumkMF2RMat1Pw1XCnEW4Nz17HQVpQO7KPpjoR4iveEhXA/s1200/decisiontoleave.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="1200" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh53LHBVauxyEywNdS7IYuGdUmAYGtuojK7MTwDDzuSci_q0M1agv0RC2Ql1zkMqLQqcRdDyXpHMC-0AEwbHzaDalusCL5oEthrH_SGRvqAWHwvx8VzIbeBY4zEX2cbClnk16yHX0_9Wm38rumkMF2RMat1Pw1XCnEW4Nz17HQVpQO7KPpjoR4iveEhXA/w640-h278/decisiontoleave.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Decision to Leave</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have one big impediment that keeps me from whole-heartedly embracing this. Because it’s gorgeous and twisty and psychological and sad and I should be eating this up with a spoon. It's sort of a departure from a director who is well known for a certain flavor of film, which always fascinates me. But I sometimes have a thing about infidelity stories. Now, there are plenty of movies I love that have infidelity as a central factor in the story (THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING being one of my all-time top fivers and definitely being one of those stories). But the way it’s done here, I found it hard to get invested in the illicit love story because they’d made the guy’s wife such a sympathetic character who’s doing nothing wrong and is completely oblivious for most of the movie. I can appreciate complicated feelings, and I am fully aware (at least intellectually) that the idea of one’s lifelong happiness or passion revolving entirely around one person is to a large degree sentimental nonsense. And of course the guy in this movie is never technically unfaithful to his wife. I just could not get invested in his strange connection with this woman. I do find the ending very effective and sad, but I suspect I was supposed to be a bit more so than I was. It’s obviously beautiful to look at, though, as all of Park Chan-wook’s films are. If you see this, though, check any expectations you might have for a film by this director at the door. It’s quite different from his vengeance movies (which is not a criticism). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in some theaters; available on MUBI and to buy on AppleTV.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzJUVty-TUb4NS-23ug4aeowUi6cxbQaJMnwrtfuYASl_PYUr9kmExfeRG6HUzD824lENkSLyE-X-QRTUfNyjuwsO3qGRWrcPNkAAP47VqInTWd6taNcZL32WP807fpxG4g6u7eelTk7WgVlnMb8L967ZHBGpFxqHLDnFkHHsvHVXH-u_ybQRIWY_3Q/s1200/The-Fabelmans-Trailer-Steven-Spielberg-Michelle-Williams.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzJUVty-TUb4NS-23ug4aeowUi6cxbQaJMnwrtfuYASl_PYUr9kmExfeRG6HUzD824lENkSLyE-X-QRTUfNyjuwsO3qGRWrcPNkAAP47VqInTWd6taNcZL32WP807fpxG4g6u7eelTk7WgVlnMb8L967ZHBGpFxqHLDnFkHHsvHVXH-u_ybQRIWY_3Q/w640-h360/The-Fabelmans-Trailer-Steven-Spielberg-Michelle-Williams.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Fabelmans</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The trailer had me and had me good. It completely sold me on what a wonderful experience this movie would be, which of course is what trailers are supposed to do. So I was seriously bummed when I didn’t love this movie as much as I expected to. It’s a beautiful, well made film (which one expects with Spielberg) that contains easily one of Michelle Williams's best performances. Paul Dano is lovely and understated. Both kids who play the younger and older version of Spielberg stand-in Sammy are uncannily cast (though the character of Sammy is … I’m just going to say it, kind of a Gary Stu with no perceivable flaws, which is not unusual for an author stand-in but rarely interesting). I just felt like I was looking at someone else’s old photographs – snapshots of moments that I can tell mean a great deal to them but which I can’t fully connect with because they’re incredibly specific and personal and not relevant to me (and not meant to be). There are some genuinely great moments, and my favorite parts are when the movie deals with Sammy’s growth as a storyteller – learning how to manipulate footage in editing to make the audience feel a certain thing, discovering something the camera noticed but that nobody else in the real moment did, and especially the last five minutes (down to the perfect final camera move). But *that’s* his growth as a character – as a storyteller, not a person. I also would have loved if the movie had more time for Sammy’s sisters (I mean, you’ve got Julia Butters, and surely you know what she can do). I wish I loved it more, but it’s by no means a failure. I think Spielberg made exactly the film he wanted to make and it deserves to be seen. It’s just not in the pantheon of his oeuvre for me. Right now, at least. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still in theaters; available to rent – not cheaply – on streaming services.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibyBmRiFOJeTjz1deHP8q755yIaJb2hc3frQJJUWfyK2c5HNDv17bynLkis87wMYmfaGfgJZcN5n_cNkfG8zgAy1LaioqQLxIpAHJ-50uTx_LkUbpq6mPQVJ1Q8zOTGZzUpXhyWA6ImZhLp-UQkZPwk83v9aSVBnTaRSkZ1JTF9NICl6TJCkckNcGhFQ/s1024/holyspider.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="1024" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibyBmRiFOJeTjz1deHP8q755yIaJb2hc3frQJJUWfyK2c5HNDv17bynLkis87wMYmfaGfgJZcN5n_cNkfG8zgAy1LaioqQLxIpAHJ-50uTx_LkUbpq6mPQVJ1Q8zOTGZzUpXhyWA6ImZhLp-UQkZPwk83v9aSVBnTaRSkZ1JTF9NICl6TJCkckNcGhFQ/w640-h360/holyspider.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Holy Spider</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is one of those where it makes me too upset and angry to properly enjoy it. It won Best Director at Fantastic Fest and it’s objectively excellent. But the subject matter and the film’s antagonist are infuriating to me to such a degree that I had a hard time watching it (which could very well be the filmmakers’ intention; it’s just not usually an experience I enjoy). The movie centers on a journalist who goes to the Iranian holy city of Mashhad to investigate a string of murders in which a serial killer (called the Spider Killer) has been targeting sex workers, believing himself to be cleansing the streets of immorality. It’s a really good thriller with a real sense of danger, and it’s based on a real life serial killer who murdered 16 sex workers in 2000-2001. Mehdi Bajestani is amazing as the titular Spider, and he’s so smug and self-righteous you want to punch him every time he’s on screen. And the reality this movie presents, where a significant portion of the town are behind him and think what he’s doing is morally just, just makes me want to sit down and cry. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, of course, but it’s the kind of movie that makes me want to protect myself from it. Glad I saw it, but I could do with never seeing it again (which was itself a category a few years ago). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In some theaters; not yet available for home viewing in any format</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yuK0FMcEHJ5Sk2D0JEL45fFRuagPdOtKEW-BGuqoElXdnXD6xPTtcrC57PUcafCArN3X4LCbNQle218W6NbLccKpjj2UR74peI976deXMfOy8QA3xlwOkcYebja34ARSvZtP_UB37PB374kamYW-nUnXdNWWX29JYhNRs6Lu4ztI0EjCZATpudkhgQ/s1200/hunt-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0yuK0FMcEHJ5Sk2D0JEL45fFRuagPdOtKEW-BGuqoElXdnXD6xPTtcrC57PUcafCArN3X4LCbNQle218W6NbLccKpjj2UR74peI976deXMfOy8QA3xlwOkcYebja34ARSvZtP_UB37PB374kamYW-nUnXdNWWX29JYhNRs6Lu4ztI0EjCZATpudkhgQ/w640-h360/hunt-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Hunt</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is this a well-made action thriller? Certainly. Did I understand even half of what was going on at any given time? Absolutely not, but I can’t entirely blame the movie for that. This isn’t like THE ROUNDUP, where by just paying a bit more attention (or giving it a second look) could have helped me follow it better. I’m sure this plays very differently for a Korean audience (or anyone remotely familiar with recent Korean history). It’s a movie made for Korean audiences and obviously there’s nothing wrong with that. Americans (including myself) can be so darn selfish when it comes to movies that aren’t specifically catered to them and don’t hold their hands through stuff that audiences in other countries don’t need hand-holding for. This stars and was directed by Lee Jung-jae, who many of you would recognize as the star of SQUID GAME (#456). Fans of that show might also recognize Heo Sung-tae (who plays the treacherous thug Deok-su) in a small role here. The movie deals with actual historical events that happened in North and South Korea in the 1980s, and I am fairly certain I would have been better able to follow it if I’d had even a cursory familiarity with those events. As such, I was lost a lot of the time, but not so lost that I couldn’t appreciate the fantastic action set-pieces and at least a few of the reveals and reversals. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPbX7F-AqvT0eb-Be63pGODjQv3_NLrt3Qf8MKJMMMBQm83_TngsbgS4_Pb8xEVSv45Ra-OBftJ2mTbEFthVMby-BfypqxzJDOD5WSTA62fY_reV4M3yrC4zQFkWgynSE9SHNOr6Et9TbU310AUPyS2YVNHe1QAi9VAiwvpaVr9tz9nSJFabTnmHrPw/s1920/Pearl.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlPbX7F-AqvT0eb-Be63pGODjQv3_NLrt3Qf8MKJMMMBQm83_TngsbgS4_Pb8xEVSv45Ra-OBftJ2mTbEFthVMby-BfypqxzJDOD5WSTA62fY_reV4M3yrC4zQFkWgynSE9SHNOr6Et9TbU310AUPyS2YVNHe1QAi9VAiwvpaVr9tz9nSJFabTnmHrPw/w640-h360/Pearl.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Pearl</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the credits rolled on X, I was so excited to see the trailer for this and know that this was coming fairly soon. Having now seen it, I liked it fine, but I’m not sure it was necessary. Mia Goth is excellent and she is definitely the reason to see this movie. Her extended monologue at the end of the movie, followed by the absolutely chilling, desperate, “I’m happy, dammit” smile over the ENTIRE closing credits are feats which, in a just world, would see her showered in accolades. She’s genuinely brilliant here. The movie, however, feels a lot like a special feature for an X Blu-ray. It’s beautifully shot, and many people have rightly compared it to a classic technicolor movie or an MGM musical. That’s accurate, but what’s strange to me is that the style choice seems arbitrary. After all, the film doesn’t take place in that time period. Not that I’d expect Ti West to film this like it was an actual 1918 film, but … X is set in 1979 and looks like it was made then. Same with HOUSE OF THE DEVIL – set in 1983 and looks exactly like an early 80s horror flick. And while I get that the style is probably meant to evoke Pearl’s dreams of becoming a dancer and a star, her dreams wouldn’t be likely to look like this because she’s never seen a technicolor musical and nor has anyone else in this time period. It seems like West just picked the earliest style era that could be in color so we could see the blood. Incredible central performance (I also loved the actress who played Pearl’s mother), but I wasn’t as enamored of this as everyone else seems to be. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-63074306181432713212022-12-29T23:13:00.000-08:002022-12-29T23:13:12.540-08:00"Top Ten" List - #7<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">7. I Respect a Wild Swing</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-1b93eb87-7fff-009a-d2d0-5cc84b1a0799"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of these movies are pretty flawed – perhaps hopelessly so – but I still respect the bold moves these filmmakers are making, even if it doesn’t always work.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpt992mlZmKyDmsae9pfezAATT-jseS9Xy-adiAk5wOf3AAZU1PWf4GdCXQNAuU0J3gMt0AP7XyNKsXHhDvmrJU3FFa1oJN68pzFeXN58eXdARHT12UbgyeZsC9NF8FiPu1mDi_9w7NYC59Io6bxpihELmFHu5HJ0VUSBctn1xm6rJMdTWE5m7maMB0A/s768/doctor-strange-2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpt992mlZmKyDmsae9pfezAATT-jseS9Xy-adiAk5wOf3AAZU1PWf4GdCXQNAuU0J3gMt0AP7XyNKsXHhDvmrJU3FFa1oJN68pzFeXN58eXdARHT12UbgyeZsC9NF8FiPu1mDi_9w7NYC59Io6bxpihELmFHu5HJ0VUSBctn1xm6rJMdTWE5m7maMB0A/w640-h360/doctor-strange-2.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Doctor Strange in the Multitude of Madness</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This turned out to be something very different for Marvel and I was kind of here for it. It gets a little lost in the weeds, and I’m still not sure how I feel about making Wanda some mega-villain (her arc in WandaVision is understandable, but this movie takes her into straight-up supervillain territory and I just kept wanting to scream at her “THOSE ARE NOT YOUR CHILDREN”). I love the little continuity details, like Wong being Sorcerer Supreme because Strange disappeared for five years. Loved seeing Rachel McAdams again and getting some closure to that story. Loved the introduction of America Chavez and that the whole story is essentially about her. And I loved that Sam Raimi just said screw it and went full-on zombie!Strange. I liked the Illuminati scene at the time, but its power lies in the surprise of who we’re seeing and looking back I’m less fond of it. Not perfect, but certainly not boring. (I also have no interest in comparing this to that other multiverse movie from this year.) (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Disney+ and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKkOYKqtm1QLtZVch3oaxFbD6vz6PpgQvXJ6zNxs0zyXMRLOx7LzJdpt8XQ7A1V9xBOhUBjEXU0m9ISArU4GtfQ5JGYyR0YicCGfMRIcJmja9GiGjfQGtIPBY6YHXum3QxqzCGx6isalPhUPmg-ObVcU1uhfAPqmkW6_W96LnTu4ld7tpuHr6_r5F2g/s1920/elvis-review-austin-butler-as-elvis.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKkOYKqtm1QLtZVch3oaxFbD6vz6PpgQvXJ6zNxs0zyXMRLOx7LzJdpt8XQ7A1V9xBOhUBjEXU0m9ISArU4GtfQ5JGYyR0YicCGfMRIcJmja9GiGjfQGtIPBY6YHXum3QxqzCGx6isalPhUPmg-ObVcU1uhfAPqmkW6_W96LnTu4ld7tpuHr6_r5F2g/w640-h360/elvis-review-austin-butler-as-elvis.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Elvis</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wrote a bit about this on FB, but I loved a lot of this, even as some of it made me cringe. Austin Butler is flawless and he’s the entire reason the movie works at all. Tom Hanks could not be more of a head-scratcher, though. His non-surface character work is actually quite good, and he successfully weaponizes his long-running audience goodwill to create this incredibly manipulative man who pulled Elvis’s strings for so long. But he leans far too much on the accent and voice, which makes him very difficult to take seriously. Also, I don’t have a problem with the movie leaving certain things out, because a movie cannot be about every dang thing (even though Priscilla’s age and Elvis’s predation is a pretty huge dang thing). And I cannot imagine faulting the movie for being a gaudy mess because so was Elvis. Plus, it’s a Baz Luhrmann movie, so if you’ve seen literally any of his other movies, you should know to expect a tacky tiara of a movie. Ain’t nothing wrong with a tacky tiara. Tom Hanks, though … yeesh. Also, the oft-memed “he’s white?????” sequence is truly hilarious. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUSFTPIBmeqG7q3eixiABbMqu8mdF79Tqb8jBF5KuqbDwAjm44O9ip1nBz33l_wQX6vx23HyYg_V0mb0W4Ef3ec-9Jmo_O1ZScC6njIITCca9gElaADzFZiVz5hO5IbjzcDoduG9ZthYyfMoiZtasD66tzuQtlZsOkmGf7VPWvEsUzYly5Et3ufOXryA/s2872/Halloween-Ends-Cast-Peacock-Jamie-Lee-Curtis-Laurie-Strode.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1186" data-original-width="2872" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUSFTPIBmeqG7q3eixiABbMqu8mdF79Tqb8jBF5KuqbDwAjm44O9ip1nBz33l_wQX6vx23HyYg_V0mb0W4Ef3ec-9Jmo_O1ZScC6njIITCca9gElaADzFZiVz5hO5IbjzcDoduG9ZthYyfMoiZtasD66tzuQtlZsOkmGf7VPWvEsUzYly5Et3ufOXryA/w640-h264/Halloween-Ends-Cast-Peacock-Jamie-Lee-Curtis-Laurie-Strode.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Halloween Ends</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hoo boy, the Discourse on this movie was exhausting! I liked the 2018 movie, though I somewhat agreed with the complaints about Laurie’s character and her entire life revolving around Michael. I was less enamored of HALLOWEEN KILLS because it sidelines Laurie and other legacy characters (killing most of them, actually) and focuses on Tommy and the town mob. (Also because they’ve now turned Michael into more of a Jason Voorhees. Yes, there’s a difference.) And I was kind of dreading HALLOWEEN ENDS as a result. But it was actually pretty darn good. Seriously. I kind of loved that, knowing what the fans undoubtedly expected for this final chapter, they decided to go the SEASON OF THE WITCH or FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART V route and focus on a whole new character. They give us a Laurie who has finally moved on and done some healing (the grocery store scene with Frank actually made me cry). Don’t get me wrong; there are some sketchy moments, but this might have been my favorite of the trilogy and I feel certain it will be reappraised in a decade or so. (And for what it’s worth, that kid in the opening sequence had it coming.) (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Peacock and to rent – not cheaply – on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6evUu7ENz8wYDPi6UmQE3Mzp3-gmxdLm9BM47MQVN1JVhy7cBarGJWNOjgKBYt9V7mBwm6dSsoKbWaRFvs5szh0hL8mfboAB-xXZQ6PTOZNauphOTZasWnWwVqAJFnIHz2YywNimz6qUsrPfMFdlqFuvBP5lYYQzsUEjTLgUkF0qNlLl7exGPTZMOHA/s3000/men2022.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1689" data-original-width="3000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6evUu7ENz8wYDPi6UmQE3Mzp3-gmxdLm9BM47MQVN1JVhy7cBarGJWNOjgKBYt9V7mBwm6dSsoKbWaRFvs5szh0hL8mfboAB-xXZQ6PTOZNauphOTZasWnWwVqAJFnIHz2YywNimz6qUsrPfMFdlqFuvBP5lYYQzsUEjTLgUkF0qNlLl7exGPTZMOHA/w640-h360/men2022.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Men</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So weird, so unexpected, and maybe a lot on the nose, but I mostly dug it. Jessie Buckley plays a woman who rents a beautiful country manor house to take some time away after the (probable?) suicide of her husband. Between this movie and BARBARIAN, I wouldn’t be surprised if Airbnb’s (and the like) business has gone down a bit. The movie’s schtick is that every man in the town is played by the same actor (Rory Kinnear) and they are each an embodiment of negative male characteristics. There’s a lot of beautiful English landscape to look at, and there’s also a lot of disturbing and unsettling imagery. The “birthing” sequence is quite a lot to deal with, and the ultimate meaning of it is perhaps not as smart as it’s trying to be. Still, it certainly gives you something you’ve never seen before, which is what horror should always try to do. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFO-UHDH0j22dOXf9VMSfvFEhkeVfSIFT1loGz1rCE7HJJvPrTXQMkCpCRfsswceZLdOlHaVYZSGceq4wqk07aMBOSpUNjwoTw1UGeipCtVU9GN1cRbnFNsmwMSUZbw9Y8AGPBWorrpXUSLYRjr6ucie4WHcatJzv7Iv-cvLDkxhc36S6-BTWUqkpBHQ/s1600/unbearableweight.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFO-UHDH0j22dOXf9VMSfvFEhkeVfSIFT1loGz1rCE7HJJvPrTXQMkCpCRfsswceZLdOlHaVYZSGceq4wqk07aMBOSpUNjwoTw1UGeipCtVU9GN1cRbnFNsmwMSUZbw9Y8AGPBWorrpXUSLYRjr6ucie4WHcatJzv7Iv-cvLDkxhc36S6-BTWUqkpBHQ/w640-h360/unbearableweight.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve seen this kind of story before (which is one reason I’m not ranking it higher, despite enjoying it quite a bit) – movie star plays themselves (or sometimes a fictional facsimile) and skewers or otherwise examines their public image. The story around the star’s performance is usually fairly boilerplate and this movie is no exception. I could take or leave the CIA plot, which boils down to “person who has no business getting mixed up with spy shit gets hopelessly entangled in spy shit,” but the relationships are where this movie’s juice is. The relationship between Cage and Javi (played by Pedro Pascal), the relationship between Cage and his movie family, and, weirdly, the relationship between Cage and “Nicky,” an avatar of himself that is younger and more successful. With Javi being such an obsessed Nic Cage fan, we get tons of fun details and references to Cage’s previous work – like the lifesize statue of Cage’s FACE/OFF character (complete with matching golden guns). Perhaps the greatest part of the movie, though, is the well-deserved lovefest for PADDINGTON 2. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Starz and to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8XOo3kk9ypF63GLmPZFkwgWuM_RSnIpIYi3oGRiJZxyYUbyubCyQbkPM1mrRIfUkP4k0OSzdRVG3zyyLX95mcnaEGtMY7qL5NC5sEbcp0b9gVPMOqNBHOR7R986dCauk3ffkSAd9bRIEePFxUj78Fm6qYJf6Y2VUHCiAxgO0ksDq-ahv_p7XZ5Jolg/s1024/Weird-Al-1024x538.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="1024" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip8XOo3kk9ypF63GLmPZFkwgWuM_RSnIpIYi3oGRiJZxyYUbyubCyQbkPM1mrRIfUkP4k0OSzdRVG3zyyLX95mcnaEGtMY7qL5NC5sEbcp0b9gVPMOqNBHOR7R986dCauk3ffkSAd9bRIEePFxUj78Fm6qYJf6Y2VUHCiAxgO0ksDq-ahv_p7XZ5Jolg/w640-h336/Weird-Al-1024x538.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Weird: The Al Yankovic Story</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like many children of the 1980s, I grew up with “Weird” Al and his parody songs. I can’t say I was the hugest fan of his, but I did enjoy him and have a good deal of affection for him. He always seemed to have such a different life and career than everyone else on the radio, and that has always fascinated me. So I loved that, when someone decided to make a biopic (of sorts) about him, it followed the pattern of his best known songs and was a straight-up parody of everything we’re used to seeing in these kinds of stories. There are a few things in this movie that hew closely to the truth, but none of it is meant to be taken seriously and I love that. A lot of it is not my particular brand of humor, but there are unmistakable notes of genius here, especially the pool party with all of the celebrities, and the idea that Al wrote “Eat It” as an original that *Michael Jackson* then parodied. Daniel Radcliffe seems oddly cast to me (Weird Al is so TALL and bless him Dan is not), but then perhaps that was exactly the point. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on the Roku Channel</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-13311524491505770442022-12-29T22:31:00.000-08:002022-12-29T22:31:28.478-08:00"Top Ten" List - #8<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">8. Don’t Hate Me, I Loved This Garbage</span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e4747da5-7fff-21f4-c8e6-22b8708b4b43"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I don’t believe in guilty pleasures anymore, but if I did, these would be mine for the year.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAYOpKry_pCWQ0assccXo9iA-113yFJSFd7hZEc69Q2IRXE0TxHQGjEO71_bRUzLxLjXNnaG2dU9oUkEEd-nCvG3ti4aPEY_b1yCmrCQPfchYWR4liIE0BnxEtlKV3UUGyQ1vd_eOBJkf6Gu1MYTh_KSziZVTu1LHifw8IEsWjA57ldFjLNcr29s7FQ/s1776/Marry-Me.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1046" data-original-width="1776" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXAYOpKry_pCWQ0assccXo9iA-113yFJSFd7hZEc69Q2IRXE0TxHQGjEO71_bRUzLxLjXNnaG2dU9oUkEEd-nCvG3ti4aPEY_b1yCmrCQPfchYWR4liIE0BnxEtlKV3UUGyQ1vd_eOBJkf6Gu1MYTh_KSziZVTu1LHifw8IEsWjA57ldFjLNcr29s7FQ/w640-h376/Marry-Me.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Marry Me</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is dumb fun with a truly ridiculous premise, and I liked it probably more than I should have. A pop star (Jennifer Lopez) plans to marry her boyfriend on stage at a concert, only to find out juuuuuuust before going on stage that he’s been cheating on her. In a haze of emotions and facing humiliation, she spots someone (Owen Wilson) holding a “Marry Me” sign (in tribute to her song of the same name) and brings them on stage for some impromptu nuptials. Once the concert is over and she’s somewhat come to her senses, she and her team persuade the guy to play along with the stunt marriage for a few months to help her save face in the press. They eventually fall in love for real, yadda yadda yadda. JLo is great, playing a heightened version of herself, and I always love a good aw-shucks Owen Wilson performance. *shrugs* It’s not great but it worked for me. It has an especially good “last minute dash” sequence (like everything in this movie, your mileage may vary). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Amazon Prime and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3WFcHjLH_t6KAd43fCRKZNH2FwrVRRK1IQzsMtAS2Ygch0j4pvV2rzjlCNzBLisy5KpPlosv2q6DeBFc2-QMGuzyrqlYMTgwvuERv8t4vBtU-VJQvg9VQeYwWfE8Su48Wme4ohNxOkkx5uv2wgRkaZvqNBM9LF6NADYi9SaJYy1mAgDPeMrZG6VbhQ/s1400/Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit3WFcHjLH_t6KAd43fCRKZNH2FwrVRRK1IQzsMtAS2Ygch0j4pvV2rzjlCNzBLisy5KpPlosv2q6DeBFc2-QMGuzyrqlYMTgwvuERv8t4vBtU-VJQvg9VQeYwWfE8Su48Wme4ohNxOkkx5uv2wgRkaZvqNBM9LF6NADYi9SaJYy1mAgDPeMrZG6VbhQ/w640-h320/Texas-Chainsaw-Massacre.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Texas Chainsaw Massacre (‘22)</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The original 1974 film is one of my favorite horror movies ever, but as a franchise it is a sweaty hot mess (though I am fond of TCM2). This movie is one of those “requels” that people are suddenly talking about, which takes what it wants from the franchise history (in this case, just the first movie, like the new Halloween trilogy) and throws out the rest. We see a reappearance of the original film’s final girl, Sally Hardesty, now played by MANDY’s Olwen Fouéré (RIP to the original, Marilyn Burns), as well as (obviously) Leatherface himself. Don’t ask me how Leatherface ended up in a children’s home after the events of the first movie in which he was a grown-ass man – this movie does not care about such trivial things. I also think the setup – with the young entrepreneurs who have just … bought this town (?) and are fixing it up to entice small business owners (???) – is hella weird. (*insert underpants gnome “PROFIT!” meme*) But Leatherface is actually pretty great here, and there are a TON of great kills (the party bus massacre is an all timer, and I really loved the stabbed-with-a-wristbone kill). Also, that townie mechanic was super hot. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-13283424316976444982022-12-28T02:45:00.005-08:002023-01-06T14:58:01.376-08:00"Top Ten" List - #9<div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">9. Didn't Knock My Socks Off, but <br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Still Pretty Good</span></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-1bca3059-7fff-3719-9f6e-f5a1e7fda19d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is where most of the films I see tend to fall, honestly. Nothing especially wrong with them, and most of them I highly enjoyed. But for whatever reason they didn’t really stick with me as much as other films did.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOGTtc6qMKdLCctqnFMDx0KjIGVv2UBAB23smZVS2MxuTevH_F4O8LIrOSp0BRO5jTymMZaNQRNs5qCIQka_7yxFyLAvkBNMa_vWN4ubMqZmw9ihQlK7Ta5Cy_L7MVyft_dy62dr1phlBb8oHqa5lrCk2ctO2OoTchIYeaaZC4HobO_p92MMuga24bg/s2048/breaking.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrOGTtc6qMKdLCctqnFMDx0KjIGVv2UBAB23smZVS2MxuTevH_F4O8LIrOSp0BRO5jTymMZaNQRNs5qCIQka_7yxFyLAvkBNMa_vWN4ubMqZmw9ihQlK7Ta5Cy_L7MVyft_dy62dr1phlBb8oHqa5lrCk2ctO2OoTchIYeaaZC4HobO_p92MMuga24bg/w640-h266/breaking.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Breaking</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a fairly straightforward heist-with-a-heart story, even if that definition seems horribly flippant, considering the real story (and this *is* a real story, based on an article written about a Marine Corps veteran who held up a bank after his disability check fell through a crack in the systemic failure in the Department of Veterans Affairs). This is a very effective suspense movie, and I was floored by how the audience I saw it with was silent and on the edge of their seats for the entire runtime. John Boyega is the star here and everything hinges on his controlled, emotional performance. But the MVP for me is the late Michael K. Williams, in the penultimate role of his career/life. His interactions with Boyega are the heart of the movie, and his frustration on this man’s behalf is palpable. In the end, everything goes about how you’d expect (in the worst way) and maybe that’s why it didn’t stick with me as much in the long run. It’s still a darn good movie and well worth seeing. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IBYjhWjKfaYH-353mdZx9ijtYaQ3EW0Ma59oVIhH2C5ePN-DfBwJfEgV-L3zyIoa0TfYFZnHUoXb9bR-WzZI2R4sKCdaoTJN9gKPz3QrPqUTh7GupEWFzu1aAYinryZeYaPbwkO38KltxICpKdVfXBvqQdpwScYxHBfYg2Z6wGrRXqkxrYe9eJOPPw/s1176/CHA-CHA-REAL-SMOOTH.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1176" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_IBYjhWjKfaYH-353mdZx9ijtYaQ3EW0Ma59oVIhH2C5ePN-DfBwJfEgV-L3zyIoa0TfYFZnHUoXb9bR-WzZI2R4sKCdaoTJN9gKPz3QrPqUTh7GupEWFzu1aAYinryZeYaPbwkO38KltxICpKdVfXBvqQdpwScYxHBfYg2Z6wGrRXqkxrYe9eJOPPw/w640-h380/CHA-CHA-REAL-SMOOTH.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Cha Cha Real Smooth</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Straight white guys went nuts for this movie, and it *is* a fairly good example of hashtag-not-all-men. Our main character Andrew is extremely likable and doesn’t fall into the usual tropes of a young man who doesn’t know how to be a person. That might be the only problem I have with this movie – it feels a bit flat, and the character doesn’t really grow because he doesn't really need to. He’s pretty much the same person at the end of the movie that he is in the beginning, save being young and still having so much ahead of him (which is hardly a character flaw). Dakota Johnson is wonderful, as always, and she has a cool chemistry with star (and director) Cooper Raiff, without it being about whether they’re going to “get together” or not. The movie is perfectly fine and the epitome of what this category is all about. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on AppleTV</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAv15ndugeZq2TjMAr30qIv0zF9OCmNSM4PeqwZstI_p-JB7OmO_w6NW3TNPnJthjuQdLXhYjVyFBI5K_n7WB6VTrvI7SE37kGOrfuePjwvTVvYX_YrZuO0Ch3BbFuSZ5ItbwQefnIekzMTOES5Vdqfnk_nVuI2m_l_yWat1g87H1AFWkfqJ2V3zKSrg/s1600/confess%20fletch.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAv15ndugeZq2TjMAr30qIv0zF9OCmNSM4PeqwZstI_p-JB7OmO_w6NW3TNPnJthjuQdLXhYjVyFBI5K_n7WB6VTrvI7SE37kGOrfuePjwvTVvYX_YrZuO0Ch3BbFuSZ5ItbwQefnIekzMTOES5Vdqfnk_nVuI2m_l_yWat1g87H1AFWkfqJ2V3zKSrg/w640-h240/confess%20fletch.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Confess, Fletch</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I haven’t read any of the Fletch novels, and I haven’t even seen the Chevy Chase FLETCH movies. So maybe I wasn’t the ideal audience for this. I know that people who are Fletch aficionados (or more so than myself, at any rate) were gaga for this, and I’m happy for them. Jon Hamm is very enjoyable here, in a role that’s not like what we most associate him with (i.e., Don Draper). He’s dry and funny and as likable as he needs to be (I rolled my eyes at his much younger love interest, but whatever). Marcia Gay Harden chews up every bit of scenery she can find and spews it back out all over the place, and it’s GREAT. This does make me curious about the novels, though, and I can only guess that I would have been way more into it if I’d been more familiar with the source material. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent or buy on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNGct7ZpYzgEVPAdCx9QNng6Pz88VGSbA9-loL0tRgLI-Q_DdtU1DZ5a9-iKEiVr4aFmlkJsat-jc-FmmSTiBCeGMKc_Lagn_4WB7OXnV7WaBENo9tjPQlvVinIPrYnkOD6waTB4J5RZMFVhjkb3n4FlK2Ccpm9_JEYCnAbZ9Gj5agCxGdff-6dreIg/s1000/Crush.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilNGct7ZpYzgEVPAdCx9QNng6Pz88VGSbA9-loL0tRgLI-Q_DdtU1DZ5a9-iKEiVr4aFmlkJsat-jc-FmmSTiBCeGMKc_Lagn_4WB7OXnV7WaBENo9tjPQlvVinIPrYnkOD6waTB4J5RZMFVhjkb3n4FlK2Ccpm9_JEYCnAbZ9Gj5agCxGdff-6dreIg/w640-h360/Crush.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Crush</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is very cute and I’m so glad that there’s starting to be so many more stories about gay characters, especially rom-coms, which straights have commandeered for far too long. I love how this takes the usual teen rom-com tropes and gives them a new spin (particularly the token straight couple). I do feel like the movie occasionally bends over backward a bit too far for its own good. Megan Mullally’s way-too-understanding mom is rather cringy (there’s supporting and understanding your gay kid and there’s being creepy, and this character leans way too close to creepy). It’s also a very strong argument against the insane notion that gay love stories are somehow more sexually explicit than straight love stories. There is a whole thing in this movie with a first kiss and a couple’s first kiss together being the first kiss <i>period</i> for one but not the other, and whether that’s a big deal and whether it should be. The movie does feel like it’s trying too hard at times, but it’s a worthy entry into the teen rom-com pantheon (and a welcome entry into the LGBT love story canon). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Hulu</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYkeMRp6XLHDE-VCpbTDlqEObjzzGM32_Aus2H8rGvmBCj0I2AUEnjoWjcWrX0J4UTO_cW0_nBbB76YgHWsWhx-gTzQszi7w4au90CQYlOWQtMCfuoYyvTSy1nTc6sYe9bGioxayx3-LSjGy0QulnQCf3UgbsLIq8XOBXxYmsDByfpB0fKp1IA186MA/s780/The-Fallout.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="780" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZYkeMRp6XLHDE-VCpbTDlqEObjzzGM32_Aus2H8rGvmBCj0I2AUEnjoWjcWrX0J4UTO_cW0_nBbB76YgHWsWhx-gTzQszi7w4au90CQYlOWQtMCfuoYyvTSy1nTc6sYe9bGioxayx3-LSjGy0QulnQCf3UgbsLIq8XOBXxYmsDByfpB0fKp1IA186MA/w640-h388/The-Fallout.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Fallout</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As sad and angry as I am to see “school shootings” become their own trope in teen movies (see also VOX from a few years ago), this is a thoughtful take on the aftermath of such an event. Jenna Ortega has had quite a year, between this movie and SCREAM and X and now WEDNESDAY, and she gives an incredible performance here. Her character Vada is in the school bathroom with a couple of other students when they hear the unmistakable signs of a shooting somewhere close to them in the building. She huddles in a stall with two other students, and the film really puts you in their shoes and makes you feel their fear, which is incredible but deeply upsetting. The three students become close in the aftermath of the shooting, but Vada at least starts to spiral while her best friend Nick responds in a very different way and becomes an activist. This is a lovely exploration of a specific kind of trauma, powered by some great performances from young actors, particularly Miss Ortega. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcVLKjv_Wntk21-4t3s-9cWOjylgXVbgC7-QyUu0SBMo2RAPJottl2ABEkwcN1TC5Hs2qAa-N5-6f0FANWANmcs9Wkw9Q5wCcwY5W4qSACn1KUwiyBDbRkwGGX3jLq_TKysQZO4wie0hy_LdZUjsrDX09P9gqwBBK4ZY81qsMjOaSV6WpqrCVPaxHYQ/s4911/the%20good%20nurse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2762" data-original-width="4911" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcVLKjv_Wntk21-4t3s-9cWOjylgXVbgC7-QyUu0SBMo2RAPJottl2ABEkwcN1TC5Hs2qAa-N5-6f0FANWANmcs9Wkw9Q5wCcwY5W4qSACn1KUwiyBDbRkwGGX3jLq_TKysQZO4wie0hy_LdZUjsrDX09P9gqwBBK4ZY81qsMjOaSV6WpqrCVPaxHYQ/w640-h360/the%20good%20nurse.jpg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Good Nurse</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I saw this mainly for the co-writing credit of Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote one of my favorite movies of last year. This is fairly engaging, but also feels like a Lifetime movie – a high-end Lifetime movie, mind you, but Lifetime nonetheless. It’s based on the true crime story about a night nurse who begins to suspect her co-worker and friend might be a serial killer. Jessica Chastain is predictably great here, as is Eddie Redmayne. I love how complicated their relationship becomes once she realizes what he’s been doing (perhaps especially as he’s literally been keeping her alive so that she can get to the end of her probationary period at the hospital and can finally get health insurance, without which she can’t get much needed cardiac care). I also love the bureaucracy and how hard the hospitals are covering their asses. The fact that none of the hospitals were sued over Cullen’s actions feels shocking for a minute, then you realize what it would mean to go after a hospital and potentially shut it down. I did enjoy this story but my goodness I’m SO TIRED of these dang underlit movies! I get that an overnight shift at a hospital probably wouldn’t have all the lights on, but it shouldn’t be Battle of Winterfell dark! We know we’re watching a movie! We can accept that things have to be lit more than they would be in real life! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQPVplsajkEQziimQnl-Sm01xqNVgD8vouUzgrDuxfuuQAiGIMEGrL92YB7zr5lrhtMtZVSn53_JfzMFus4h4GjvirlO14stMXpS_3aCwODDH5dmEyySoZjSjLkBR9pq8Og3qS91N15W_Tne-55BReb-d-HYb_Cmemvh73eVa5aUGlyOWsGQS01jA3Q/s1200/hustle-movie-review-2022.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzQPVplsajkEQziimQnl-Sm01xqNVgD8vouUzgrDuxfuuQAiGIMEGrL92YB7zr5lrhtMtZVSn53_JfzMFus4h4GjvirlO14stMXpS_3aCwODDH5dmEyySoZjSjLkBR9pq8Og3qS91N15W_Tne-55BReb-d-HYb_Cmemvh73eVa5aUGlyOWsGQS01jA3Q/w640-h266/hustle-movie-review-2022.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Hustle</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a very solid sports drama and a good reminder that Adam Sandler is more than just his goofball comedic roles. He plays a pro basketball scout for the Philadelphia 76ers who finds an unexpected star player while scouting in Spain. The movie follows the scout, Stanley, and his discovery player, Bo, as Stanley brings Bo to America and goes through all of the various hoops (heh) trying to get Bo either signed to the 76ers or into the NBA draft. There are complications with Bo’s arrest record, and Bo has serious hang-ups and problems focusing when he becomes the target of trash-talk. But Stanley believes in him enough to put his own career and even his family’s livelihood on the line (which, honestly, is what he’s asking Bo to do as well). A solid feel-good sports movie that gives you a positive conclusion without it being a cookie-cutter happy ending. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Netflix</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0-xarM3yjYzbo_dTikFNBgHCmO_3V7rw4mlcZl20OIDyKW9v8zDgtAAE9U_HqSyZOBXBAGtyUe8qXuE5xOJGHcd5IZCzZsrmM_J5NkuEro3Iw4csVOuaGxNyNzRATx-BPlR5FIMEzgoPiFOlfzwUZdCCrzq8gaWDt8cYjtm9S-0T0Gh7u0OMP5bQFA/s1200/Kimi-Movie-Review.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1200" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs0-xarM3yjYzbo_dTikFNBgHCmO_3V7rw4mlcZl20OIDyKW9v8zDgtAAE9U_HqSyZOBXBAGtyUe8qXuE5xOJGHcd5IZCzZsrmM_J5NkuEro3Iw4csVOuaGxNyNzRATx-BPlR5FIMEzgoPiFOlfzwUZdCCrzq8gaWDt8cYjtm9S-0T0Gh7u0OMP5bQFA/w640-h374/Kimi-Movie-Review.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Kimi</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really liked this, though it has a lot of familiar beats. It’s a tech horror and yet another entry in the “Alexa is evil” subgenre, but the setting and our main character (played by Zoe Kravitz, another actress having a great year) set this one somewhat apart. Kravitz plays Angela, an employee of the tech company that has produced a new smart speaker called KIMI. Somewhat controversially, KIMI makes use of human monitoring to improve its search algorithm. Angela’s job is to listen to KIMI recordings and make corrections to the software. She is also agoraphobic (a result of trauma from a sexual assault), which has been made worse by the COVID pandemic. She hears evidence of assault on one of the recordings and the bulk of the movie involves her trying to figure out what exactly happened and bring it to light, against a corporation that is invested in keeping it quiet. This is good, and Zoe Kravitz is great. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHZVojE5yfigH3uU5wSiMwunc3YRrKUIRI5Vic0UZqNKPAy1Huv1iiRhn93SvKum9G4TkbJxLQFFm8_gJam7ZL9n2pJYlMzhnCaptLCfcUe_tXiJg2IRTV2GJ07njs0BXmCa2oaLQTMkmjKq4mU7bvy5V8QSoDbxiF6t4HeMTHlt4S_woExbhyF5ROQ/s1100/lost-city-trailer-screenshot-daniel-radcliffe-super-tease.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="1100" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcHZVojE5yfigH3uU5wSiMwunc3YRrKUIRI5Vic0UZqNKPAy1Huv1iiRhn93SvKum9G4TkbJxLQFFm8_gJam7ZL9n2pJYlMzhnCaptLCfcUe_tXiJg2IRTV2GJ07njs0BXmCa2oaLQTMkmjKq4mU7bvy5V8QSoDbxiF6t4HeMTHlt4S_woExbhyF5ROQ/w640-h360/lost-city-trailer-screenshot-daniel-radcliffe-super-tease.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Lost City</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The stars of this movie are Daniel Radcliffe and that purple sequined jumpsuit Sandra Bullock wears for most of it. What we have here is ROMANCING THE STONE for a more modern audience. I love the touches of how they visually present the writing of the novels, and there are loads of funny moments and a lot of entertaining adventure stuff. My biggest problem is that I don’t buy the romance at all. Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock are each separately very funny, but they don’t have a ton of chemistry to me (possibly due to the age difference?). In addition, they are outshone at just about every turn by the supporting players, namely Brad Pitt, Daniel Radcliffe and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. They are the biggest reason to see the movie. This is plenty entertaining and well worth a watch, but it’s a story we’ve seen a lot of times before (and frequently better) and it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb0UrDlbLgfBymQqfuzK9f5BUX9qrI8Q1RHsORoxdj_niMzgtYI-zV0jJD1KiTB7euyJ93RbwJsNjUNwNw3b9c2t4EvfTTk4_fe6nVrVBjKs73RVQ07hqoseJWmNeOuAW9_xumyVjFWoQUrBB5jENRCwgkfQsnZFlaOyPdzbLNt4V5kINcBQxsdLepjw/s2048/the%20outfit.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb0UrDlbLgfBymQqfuzK9f5BUX9qrI8Q1RHsORoxdj_niMzgtYI-zV0jJD1KiTB7euyJ93RbwJsNjUNwNw3b9c2t4EvfTTk4_fe6nVrVBjKs73RVQ07hqoseJWmNeOuAW9_xumyVjFWoQUrBB5jENRCwgkfQsnZFlaOyPdzbLNt4V5kINcBQxsdLepjw/w640-h360/the%20outfit.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Outfit</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I saw this pretty late in the year once it came to streaming, and it’s a cool little spy thriller that all takes place in one tiny location (one of my favorite tropes). Mark Rylance plays Leonard, a cutter (not a tailor, this is an important distinction) who trained on Savile Row in London but now (now being 1956) owns a shop in Chicago. One evening, after his assistant has left for the night, he finds himself mixed up in some gangster goings-on when he is forced at gunpoint to sew up a fellow’s gunshot wound before things start becoming increasingly complicated for him. I wasn’t wild about where this ended up, but it’s still a very effective one-room thriller, and it’s great watching the main character keep his head and outsmart these criminals who could very easily dispose of him. I think this was the first thing I’d seen Johnny Flynn in other than 2020’s EMMA and his character here is certainly cut from a different cloth (*rimshot*). Well worth watching for Mark Rylance and the competency porn of not just his keeping up with the gangsters but his loving devotion to his craft. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Amazon Prime and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MD3JQGVcS2rrKRGOZnsyFGYFHtvHmwUxyZisU8I_CCfJnh8HDp_aqdCMeASzYmxbqNvAxHgKzy4DLFXEhYV0tKjBSGRCywDh1JdMY1lJiaRpD9zH5scVD6ij-x11IPhnzseHapHHoi2PYMMpAsFfzGWWN3oZLf6U5gAvMgxJ3spnU4BUY44n2iRRsA/s1024/theroundup.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="682" data-original-width="1024" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_MD3JQGVcS2rrKRGOZnsyFGYFHtvHmwUxyZisU8I_CCfJnh8HDp_aqdCMeASzYmxbqNvAxHgKzy4DLFXEhYV0tKjBSGRCywDh1JdMY1lJiaRpD9zH5scVD6ij-x11IPhnzseHapHHoi2PYMMpAsFfzGWWN3oZLf6U5gAvMgxJ3spnU4BUY44n2iRRsA/w640-h426/theroundup.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Roundup</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I went to see this purely because it starred Ma Dong-seok (who played the hot heroic dad-to-be in TRAIN TO BUSAN). He makes a compelling action lead, but I found this film hard to follow. This is most likely a “me” problem but it took rereading the synopsis for me to even remember the basics of this movie’s plot. The movie starts with a cop being given a mission to repatriate a criminal who had fled to Vietnam. Once the criminal is found and seems strangely willing to turn himself in, the main character discovers a string of murders of Koreans and tourists that has been going on for years. There is some incredible action in this, and if you enjoyed Ma Dong-seok in TRAIN TO BUSAN, he’s an absolute beast in this. I should probably watch this again now that I have a better hold on the general plot. Perhaps I’ll get more out of it. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkarXp0PXyqiy-rFwUiNaK2QpL5XNh40hdJQTSf0VcTAjHDGsW42v1_Vk-dTZsn42CsRc1zwYYyK48zGsKzNRQHrNE7EcFxCBjOgOVCRM8qTX2Z9nrLbxRIWufpiGtDyCpaByiZCjifSI78DVEsWft2V50ET6_E6gpeIwPeu8LdqAvWja4D_VIos5JNA/s1000/See-How-They-Run.jpg_max.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkarXp0PXyqiy-rFwUiNaK2QpL5XNh40hdJQTSf0VcTAjHDGsW42v1_Vk-dTZsn42CsRc1zwYYyK48zGsKzNRQHrNE7EcFxCBjOgOVCRM8qTX2Z9nrLbxRIWufpiGtDyCpaByiZCjifSI78DVEsWft2V50ET6_E6gpeIwPeu8LdqAvWja4D_VIos5JNA/w640-h360/See-How-They-Run.jpg_max.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">See How They Run</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s nothing exactly wrong with this but it does feel like a 90s or early 00s TV movie, which makes sense given the director has done a lot of television. It revolves around a murder at a theater in London doing a production of Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap.” Our sleuths are a crusty-but-benign detective played by Sam Rockwell (with a British accent, which I’d never heard him use before) and a plucky girl </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: line-through; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">detective</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> constable played by Saoirse Ronan. There is a parade of quirky characters, at least half of whom I couldn’t really distinguish from one another. Many of them seemed like they were characters in a source novel that a screenwriter was reluctant to cut for the adaptation and left in for fanservice without being prepared to actually use them in the story. I was pleased to see Sian Clifford (FLEABAG’s Claire), for example, but she had very little to do and I could not tell you who her character was or what purpose she had in the story. Shirley Henderson is delightful in what is basically a cameo as Agatha Christie herself. But I was a tad boggled by the casting of Harris Dickinson (Carl from TRIANGLE OF SADNESS) as Richard Thee Attenborough – he plays the slightly self-absorbed actor thing well and I chuckled at his final line, but was there no one who physically looked even remotely like the actual Attenborough? “Dickie’s” appearance is fairly distinct. Surely someone with a pair of big sad eyes, if nothing else. The movie is fine and there are some funny moments and the tiniest moments of genuine suspense. But it lacks wit, and it’s just not as charming or clever as it’s trying to be. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kCE_8ul0ltcr-_8dqih64uddLx3Rwg8ZhdlONPf7MaaFcMrosHSnlmfsBJA51c1BXWKL4ghFw5CCvcS7WOZdTFBCTymkcZqW8KB6z5Czg5RA2aEEotkvZrjXeXufu1cmHv40Eg9JeGAYJBCcfAoBzdvJ52rOKliUaV3_wFgQjBeo4uzG0yKU-he85w/s900/sick-2022-horror-kevin-williamson.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_kCE_8ul0ltcr-_8dqih64uddLx3Rwg8ZhdlONPf7MaaFcMrosHSnlmfsBJA51c1BXWKL4ghFw5CCvcS7WOZdTFBCTymkcZqW8KB6z5Czg5RA2aEEotkvZrjXeXufu1cmHv40Eg9JeGAYJBCcfAoBzdvJ52rOKliUaV3_wFgQjBeo4uzG0yKU-he85w/w640-h320/sick-2022-horror-kevin-williamson.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Sick</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of many Fantastic Fest offerings you’ll see throughout these lists, and a solid horror flick in a year chock full of great ones. With an original story by SCREAM scribe Kevin Williamson – his first time on a horror *movie* in over a decade – this is a pandemic horror story, taking place at the height of the lockdowns (April 2020). Our main character and her friend decide to quarantine at her family’s lake house. It’s supposed to be just the two of them, but this is a horror movie so that’s not how things play out. This is an above-average slasher with a bit of commentary on the times, and I like that it doesn’t really take sides the way it easily could have. I do wonder how this might play for someone whose life was upended by COVID (there’s a critic I follow whose father died of COVID and who is very vocal in his criticism of people who are flippant about the pandemic and masks and vaccines; I would really love to hear his thoughts in particular on how this movie deals with all of that). There’s not a ton of new ground being covered here – even as a pandemic horror movie – but it successfully plays the classic slasher-in-a-big-house tropes to great effect. (<i>Available 1/13 on Peacock.</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBjGlHOssqt5eAl8h2ycq7D-aao1claYU7qslcC-5PcKMBc7TTWa1-PT32ToRfXSgYIQVpLGnYq52OyxiqDBLqH2OCooiKBSGMKZN8kywMhjc_5BYS39ogZ_n0Y7LRytasxP9epAZ24htKdeLlYqogL7lG-m1Nn-vri9P6hInm--Ka1Nl6lSm_-dohg/s960/smile-2022.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifBjGlHOssqt5eAl8h2ycq7D-aao1claYU7qslcC-5PcKMBc7TTWa1-PT32ToRfXSgYIQVpLGnYq52OyxiqDBLqH2OCooiKBSGMKZN8kywMhjc_5BYS39ogZ_n0Y7LRytasxP9epAZ24htKdeLlYqogL7lG-m1Nn-vri9P6hInm--Ka1Nl6lSm_-dohg/w640-h360/smile-2022.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Smile</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was the opening film of Fantastic Fest this year, and while I loved it and found it very effectively scary, it had the misfortune to come out in a year where there was an insane number of really, really good horror movies. It’s *really* good and is a rare horror movie that does good jump scares that feel earned. The star, Sosie Bacon (daughter of Kevin), is phenomenal as a woman who is completely falling apart. Kyle Gallner is a welcome presence as her hottie ex who’s trying to help her figure out what’s going on. Loved seeing Kal Penn as the caring boss who just wants the main character to take care of herself. I do think the strongest part of the movie, though, is the opening sequence with the unforgettable Caitlin Stasey, and the rest of the movie is never quite that good again. Don’t feel bad, SMILE – you’re in good company; I feel the exact same way about the OG SCREAM. Speaking of SCREAM, there’s a moment in this movie where the main character is talking to someone on the phone that forcibly reminded me of that first bone-chilling moment with Drew Barrymore (specifically, “I want to know who I’m looking at”) – just one of those moments where you can actually feel the blood freeze in your veins. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on Paramount+ and to rent on other streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXRq_-Ow8syfsZOusGgz23eiUIG3304plca1pyMgMtnBC0XTc4c5GiiIPjYxOrsyvs8t4y_11DMeqnsy4ml0Le8p9lmLPSthBidPf9G3yrsvvlDzZ1p6I9DMPZcdexryXsZV1BEUJsIRGfVzie7WjQr6DKf61TwdVQZC86vNCY_JHmriJa4NLZI8Nww/s3000/violent%20night.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1689" data-original-width="3000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXRq_-Ow8syfsZOusGgz23eiUIG3304plca1pyMgMtnBC0XTc4c5GiiIPjYxOrsyvs8t4y_11DMeqnsy4ml0Le8p9lmLPSthBidPf9G3yrsvvlDzZ1p6I9DMPZcdexryXsZV1BEUJsIRGfVzie7WjQr6DKf61TwdVQZC86vNCY_JHmriJa4NLZI8Nww/w640-h360/violent%20night.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Violent Night</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a fairly simple concept with a lot of familiar notes from other action movies (and Christmas movies). There’s a lot of DIE HARD, there’s a lot of HOME ALONE, maybe a little CHRISTMAS EVIL and a smidge of YOU’RE NEXT, among others. David Harbour plays a burned out Santa who’s just going through the motions until he finds himself in the middle of a heist plot with murderous robbers targeting an ultra-rich family. Said family is led by an unrecognizable (to me) Beverly D’Angelo, who plays the matriarch. The leader of the group of would-be thieves is played by John Leguizamo, and he’s a surprisingly effective villain who has no scruples about killing whoever he needs to to get what he wants. This movie doesn’t really care about the Santa lore and how it works – Santa repeatedly says he doesn’t really understand how it all works – but there are some fun details. The little girl’s “nice list” entry on Santa’s magic scroll is especially hilarious (one of her listed virtues is “invited weird kid to party,” which got the biggest laugh in my audience). This is a lot of fun, especially thanks to Harbour and Leguizamo, but it doesn’t add much to the holiday movie canon. It’s also hard to get invested in the safety of these rich assholes (though the little girl and her mom are alright). (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGm7MG7VBZlIk5nOYWz38mWMWoawNexrpzI93HbL09bwMsdE9ndq28cT5vniZAv9I4K3PXlC-q3EPJWRxz_XkTY5B-0sj1xs0dlE8Z5sfCdCLd9xv8Ng4jT1Ay1LhSk8sD22DJIt1i1UO0TKpV2g0EXo0u8p1zheIm243XuIuxeJFCyPy-oocz8grPg/s1400/yearoftheshark.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1400" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAGm7MG7VBZlIk5nOYWz38mWMWoawNexrpzI93HbL09bwMsdE9ndq28cT5vniZAv9I4K3PXlC-q3EPJWRxz_XkTY5B-0sj1xs0dlE8Z5sfCdCLd9xv8Ng4jT1Ay1LhSk8sD22DJIt1i1UO0TKpV2g0EXo0u8p1zheIm243XuIuxeJFCyPy-oocz8grPg/w640-h340/yearoftheshark.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Year of the Shark</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was another Fantastic Fest film and it impressed programmer Annick Mahnert enough that she programmed a handful of other shark films around it. It’s very charming and its protagonist gets you on her side pretty quickly, even while you recognize the mistakes she is making. On the eve of her retirement, she has reason to suspect there is a shark in local waters, but is she really just postponing having to retire? The movie covers the ground of JAWS in the first half and then throws in some unexpected consequences and complications. Once the shark is caught, our heroine is determined to simply take it back to its home waters and set it free. Unfortunately, that becomes impossible and the woman’s compassion leads to more deaths by shark attack. This movie does the disgruntled townfolk bit really well, and in fact the shark aspect of the story is secondary to the character work, especially the relationship between the main character and her husband. It’s an enjoyable slice of French action-comedy and an actually meaningful successor to JAWS. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not yet released</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-91399624552311610912022-12-28T02:07:00.004-08:002022-12-28T03:52:48.356-08:00"Top Ten" List - #10<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> Note: If you're scrolling, there's a #11 below. I do what I want.</span></p><p><br /></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">10. Didn't Hate It, but It Left Me Wanting</span></span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">These are movies where I like the concept or acknowledge the importance of what they have to say or what they’re trying to do. But they just don’t work for me (or at least not as well as I hoped). But, starting with this category, every movie from here on out is one that I enjoyed to some degree, even if it’s flawed or not quite satisfying.</span></p><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-92dae239-7fff-6748-8f58-a398cff856b0" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhms0I7t30dGrFY58U1rN7Ea3CbICLVihme-psINTteGSoHQ4aIiNyJidtuQ_ocD_iCJEG-mHztyjZx4aAf0rPgXK8wJx5PpRWDPd_cJQa0QsGABjhhbhoGFXnrUh-CRaZNwXCxPzxN4haeol0bim7qlU9gGnY1wjwKytK67UiwkWuScfJD1WkZ8GAu6g/s1920/bros.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhms0I7t30dGrFY58U1rN7Ea3CbICLVihme-psINTteGSoHQ4aIiNyJidtuQ_ocD_iCJEG-mHztyjZx4aAf0rPgXK8wJx5PpRWDPd_cJQa0QsGABjhhbhoGFXnrUh-CRaZNwXCxPzxN4haeol0bim7qlU9gGnY1wjwKytK67UiwkWuScfJD1WkZ8GAu6g/w640-h360/bros.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><b><h3 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Bros</span></i></span></h3></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This movie struck me as more of an essay on rom-coms and gay love stories (and the LGBT community in general) than a movie. I love a lot of what’s being done here, particularly the choice to cast all gay actors (even those playing straight characters in the film). And I *love* that this movie is so emphatic about gay courtship being significantly different than what we’re used to seeing with straight love stories in basically every movie we’ve ever been exposed to. I just wish it felt more like a story and less like the definitive treatise on Gay Relationships. It’s okay that it’s not universal; it shouldn’t have to be. And there’s something to be said for allowing gay stories to exist, even if they’re a bit of a misfire. I just wish this was more emotional and less intellectual. Maybe it can’t help being that, given the foibles and neuroses of our POV character, but I suspect it would be more satisfying if it wore its heart a bit more on its sleeve. It’s just trying so hard to be different from a straight love story that it’s difficult to get invested. (For comparison, this year’s FIRE ISLAND handled this balance more successfully, in my opinion.) In any case, I still look forward to whatever Billy Eichener does next. (<i>Available on Peacock and to rent on other streaming services</i>.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7F1Cr0dKYWyFEbmjtrSSmiTEyYG7CekLBx_8iflU2ueRTuNn9KvgshXjQtZD4yfIqJCguWSfjZhx1Pl8El2SJ14_pGxfCMMcA8kloDspXEXjbkwwqiZmEbvJL-pR8YAjTNEulxPJsjVDWou-Wt1iezhe-kGE0PrzT48LrDU5hs7DrYpcmBPTaU3sFw/s1200/Bullet-Train-trailer-still.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="676" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK7F1Cr0dKYWyFEbmjtrSSmiTEyYG7CekLBx_8iflU2ueRTuNn9KvgshXjQtZD4yfIqJCguWSfjZhx1Pl8El2SJ14_pGxfCMMcA8kloDspXEXjbkwwqiZmEbvJL-pR8YAjTNEulxPJsjVDWou-Wt1iezhe-kGE0PrzT48LrDU5hs7DrYpcmBPTaU3sFw/w640-h360/Bullet-Train-trailer-still.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Bullet Train</span></i></div></span></span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This movie is a live-action Bugs Bunny cartoon, stretched to more than two hours. Nothing wrong with that on paper (except the length), but it just feels kind of empty. The action is entertaining and the cast are clearly having a good time, but it doesn’t feel like anyone involved has any real passion for what they’re doing here. I mean, fine, it’s an action movie, whatever; it doesn’t have to be JEANNE DIELMAN. But there are so many moving parts and none of it seems to have any purpose other than to constantly dangle shiny things in your face to try and hold your attention at all costs. It’s amazing to look at and, as an American, it makes me insanely jealous of other countries’ transit systems, which seem so many light years ahead of our rickety-ass EVERYTHING. But I could not tell you what this movie was about. At all. Fun action, insane cast, LOADS of reveals and reversals, but it’s a whole lot of noise. I didn’t dislike it, but it also left almost no impression on me other than flashy-flashy-bang-bang-punchy-punchy. (<i>Available on Netflix and to rent on other streaming services.</i>)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuVCAp4UXtsbQ7HR9oxv940s8XkvB1KJsFARcx11im5duH7Y1PWYfzdjjj7lyNrTzlRvbBxDRfySfxaJIyuM0rSgGlZfdNuL0bzpEnZdLpFiIMPJ1lYt9SupRuI3pg5kHo-JfpqO1ZVjxJrx--OtpUhk-pFMn7QD3UOabnUYDq5Tp51BC36xdU4kO_Q/s1015/crimes-of-the-future.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="1015" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfuVCAp4UXtsbQ7HR9oxv940s8XkvB1KJsFARcx11im5duH7Y1PWYfzdjjj7lyNrTzlRvbBxDRfySfxaJIyuM0rSgGlZfdNuL0bzpEnZdLpFiIMPJ1lYt9SupRuI3pg5kHo-JfpqO1ZVjxJrx--OtpUhk-pFMn7QD3UOabnUYDq5Tp51BC36xdU4kO_Q/w640-h358/crimes-of-the-future.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Crimes of the Future</span></i></div></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I was so pumped for this, and maybe the pressure of Cronenberg’s Return to Body Horror set my expectations a tad high. I did mostly enjoy this and it’s wonderfully twisted. But it feels like Cronenberg’s Greatest Hits and reminded me too much of all of his other movies rather than being its own thing. Maybe the thing I actually admire about it and what’s the most shocking about it is how nonchalant all of its horror is. This is a world in which pain has ceased to exist for most people and where surgical procedures – performed on fully conscious patients – have replaced sex as a means of physical gratification. As I said above, I did enjoy this – if “enjoy” is the right word for a classic Cronenberg freak show – but it mainly served to make me want to rewatch his older films. Still, it’s a great showcase for a stellar cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Don McKellar (aka Darren “deal with that” Nichols). (<i>Available on Hulu and to rent on other streaming services</i>.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzXIJE-o_ZXco7TUC-A9EOpUib6soM9jCFGIXWfjOXJJ6GSeFlIKZArTJ1zwdjHB9t4Fr9qwRUNKNXD5Q6xEAjJkiLqgNLdTvPJT8b9191YkhOlN4fHTCzECwJ_ompzs5nOPog-yEMyQydOYsQTuzeNlOPRKT3U4PuKCOvm-G4JsC_RbJRJDqFMMsBQQ/s1280/DemigodLegend-3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="803" data-original-width="1280" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzXIJE-o_ZXco7TUC-A9EOpUib6soM9jCFGIXWfjOXJJ6GSeFlIKZArTJ1zwdjHB9t4Fr9qwRUNKNXD5Q6xEAjJkiLqgNLdTvPJT8b9191YkhOlN4fHTCzECwJ_ompzs5nOPog-yEMyQydOYsQTuzeNlOPRKT3U4PuKCOvm-G4JsC_RbJRJDqFMMsBQQ/w640-h402/DemigodLegend-3.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><h3 style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Demigod: The Legend Begins</span></i></span></h3></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This was one of the Fantastic Fest movies I was most looking forward to. It delivers on several fronts, especially the beautiful bùdàixì glove puppetry and the costuming. Despite the fact that it’s based on a series I’d never had any exposure to, it’s easy enough to follow the story, through all the power upheavals and reversals. I guess my biggest problem is that, due to the design of the puppets, they can’t show emotions and so those notes have to come through the voice performances and the filmmaking techniques, which the movie sometimes manages and sometimes doesn’t. It’s lovely to look at and I liked the story, but the limitations of the medium made it hard for me to fully fall in love with it. (<i>Not yet released or streaming anywhere, but there are clips and trailers on YouTube, if you’re curious about the style and look of it</i>.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Tjnv2LF6ehNKjhtUfqSU3K_fx-U6h4Tv10KzaWIIPGge-_BzUJKApnEMjtDqfXWphaoLd2kWjVdoPNwEX1c0R4PLBcPPxztk6XyyQmma4kdngb2ZsxMKd9vJLYJntfD-fakzUHq8tVkcM9kyEaJ6SveZZc1vhs4Ez7L8OLv9atrCXTlCuiy0-z0jxA/s1636/livingwithchucky.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="1636" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Tjnv2LF6ehNKjhtUfqSU3K_fx-U6h4Tv10KzaWIIPGge-_BzUJKApnEMjtDqfXWphaoLd2kWjVdoPNwEX1c0R4PLBcPPxztk6XyyQmma4kdngb2ZsxMKd9vJLYJntfD-fakzUHq8tVkcM9kyEaJ6SveZZc1vhs4Ez7L8OLv9atrCXTlCuiy0-z0jxA/w640-h394/livingwithchucky.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Living with Chucky</span></i></div></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I spent part of the summer burning through the entire Child’s Play franchise for the first time (I’d seen the first two movies, but never the rest), including the first season of the amazing television show. So I was pumped to get to see this at Fantastic Fest, and I liked it … mostly. This is a documentary made by the daughter of one of the series’s longtime visual effects supervisors, and as such there’s a lot here about the family of the Chucky franchise. But it starts as a movie-by-movie history of the series and then kind of switches over. It’s an odd combination that doesn’t entirely work, and while there is some great talking head stuff from significant people in the franchise history, there are also interviews with people who have nothing to do with any of the films, who are commenting on horror tropes in general, which is an even stranger move to me. There’s a lot to like here, don’t get me wrong, and this is clearly a labor of love for its director and everyone involved. And I understand that part of the nature of documentaries is that you’re creating a narrative based on the footage that you have. I just found some of the choices a bit strange. (<i>Not yet released or streaming</i>.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14.7px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJ1XrWps44DyRlQk6N9EoXTUe1K9HdsapIyJPQDQ-uRFHC3QDInyb4ERt6ZPcaG92ww4WISQTrM-W0XTdT-x3BJUt3pvnSctb0SIfJd18F2yAddfZNDcGzJkOu9ex0dZlQFHu5Qza1Sxy7aSlLKCH3iiHauu9l8xyBIWtLRZzRfSN-5-5EFYk0Hj84A/s740/piggy.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="740" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJ1XrWps44DyRlQk6N9EoXTUe1K9HdsapIyJPQDQ-uRFHC3QDInyb4ERt6ZPcaG92ww4WISQTrM-W0XTdT-x3BJUt3pvnSctb0SIfJd18F2yAddfZNDcGzJkOu9ex0dZlQFHu5Qza1Sxy7aSlLKCH3iiHauu9l8xyBIWtLRZzRfSN-5-5EFYk0Hj84A/w640-h328/piggy.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">Piggy</span></i></div></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I wanted to see this at Fantastic Fest, but it conflicted with something I wanted to see even more, so I had to skip it. Luckily, the Drafthouse in New York had several screenings of it after the fest. This has some of the same problems that I think people have with THE WHALE, except notably a lead performance in a fat suit. Our main character is mercilessly bullied because of her weight, but when her tormentors are in danger she has to choose between letting them suffer and helping them. It’s a nice twist on the “bullied person gets revenge” trope, and I appreciate that it actually presents us with a moral dilemma rather than giving us the satisfaction of seeing this poor girl eviscerate her bullies (what they do to her at the pool is unconscionable, and I felt very little pity for them when we see them in that van and know they’re in for some hell – but this movie isn’t interested in easy answers and lizard brain wish fulfillment). Having said that, this feels a bit underwritten, and while the lead actress is great, it also feels like she’s weirdly underused, despite being on screen for pretty much the entire movie. (<i>Not in theaters or streaming</i>.)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: normal; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9H89E13ma2GJjdd5J3dgx6lEZhfnmh8A679fd1BfnZZa4eU09ZyGoFRiJqksDwgAkYNJPDXtYuGXInfeMh-JlRklvTkybGjHO-8UMCM-7_6yU1nn2QYfsxv-gtpV331bFE6Jz5QDKs7fRMh3UPvuChFPiHphrwGjk9-E4n3PHIs8wKM_YUMLMEjih2w/s696/she-said.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="442" data-original-width="696" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9H89E13ma2GJjdd5J3dgx6lEZhfnmh8A679fd1BfnZZa4eU09ZyGoFRiJqksDwgAkYNJPDXtYuGXInfeMh-JlRklvTkybGjHO-8UMCM-7_6yU1nn2QYfsxv-gtpV331bFE6Jz5QDKs7fRMh3UPvuChFPiHphrwGjk9-E4n3PHIs8wKM_YUMLMEjih2w/w640-h406/she-said.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">She Said</span></i></div></span></span></b></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">I always feel terrible when I’m not on board with a movie that’s about an important topic. Megan Twohy’s and Jodi Kantor’s article exposing Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault and harrassment of several women in the film industry – and the system that protected him for so long – was a watershed moment for the #metoo movement. This movie has some truly great and powerful moments, but the movie itself is kind of a mess and falls into a number of cliches and cringy moments. For one thing, the tone is off – it’s trying to be a thriller like ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN and it is not a thriller. And some of the choices are (to me) just wrong and ill-considered, chief among them the appearance of Not Harvey Weinstein, which actually made me laugh and took me right out of the movie. Also, when they’re about to publish and decide to go over it one more time and everyone suddenly focuses super hard on the computer screen for several seconds – babes, I do proofreading for a living and I like my job, but it is not *that* exciting. You don’t want unintentional comedy in a movie like this. I wish the movie had just been about the real women, particularly the three main women they get information from – Laura Madden, Rowena Chiu and Zelda Perkins – who all have such strong moments that would have been even stronger with more context and room to breathe. I get that the movie is based on Kantor’s and Twohy’s book, but I would have loved a movie centering on the victims’ voices instead of the reporters. On a related note, maybe the most chilling moment in the movie is a scene where you don’t see anything but a hotel corridor and the audio is the real life recording of Weinstein harassing model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez. That’s the real deal, no dramatization, and it feels like the *most* respectful and serious way to treat this subject. Maybe the whole thing should have been a documentary, actually. There’s a part of me that feels like making a dramatic narrative film about this at all is obscene. (<i>Still in some theaters; available to rent – expensively, at the moment – on streaming services.</i>)</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">Side note: I did love seeing two of my BBC BritLit Adaptation Queens – Samantha Morton (TOM JONES’s Sophia Western) and Jennifer Ehle (PRIDE & PREJUDICE’s Lizzie Bennett) – in two significant but small roles.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; white-space: normal;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXcgxZgpeVvLwczamc59RC6RSovNgnAcuXCUziRmDYbwgQoS9r3SiQRKqKJk4wOm2tAVmOWknYCBNogvpyaFK-OWKxpc780qtZZBfS09pDiz6N_cS20dLUpoOFq9mTGDKpNnp_ky6t3V3WoZY_GEJDWpr667Xm-aJcXox_JrmxuSliLqlHBooJQXAOA/s1920/thorloveandthunder.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAXcgxZgpeVvLwczamc59RC6RSovNgnAcuXCUziRmDYbwgQoS9r3SiQRKqKJk4wOm2tAVmOWknYCBNogvpyaFK-OWKxpc780qtZZBfS09pDiz6N_cS20dLUpoOFq9mTGDKpNnp_ky6t3V3WoZY_GEJDWpr667Xm-aJcXox_JrmxuSliLqlHBooJQXAOA/w640-h360/thorloveandthunder.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Thor: Love and Thunder</span></i></b></span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-kerning: none;">This was a lot, and I’m finding that I have a hard time these days watching stories where cancer is an element (I can’t imagine why), but obviously that can’t be blamed on the movie. Christian Bale is the MVP and I love a villain that almost (or even fully) convinces you to be on his side. Director Taika Waititi has saved a lot of the best stuff for himself (he reprises his role here as Korg and serves as our narrator), and he takes the flamboyance of THOR RAGNOROK and cranks it even higher. A bit too high for me, ultimately, but your mileage may vary. One of my favorite moments was a little bittersweet, though, when the children battle a parade of monsters to the strains of GNR’s “November Rain,” a song used in spectacular fashion in the working print of KICK-ASS that played BNAT more than a decade ago, but which didn’t end up being used in the final version (though they came up with a sort of facsimile in the original score). The moment and the use of the song kicks all kinds of ass, because of course it does, but it made me sad that KICK-ASS didn’t get to use it first. (<i>Available on Disney+ and to rent on other streaming services</i>.)</span></p></div>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-82163082201930408892022-12-27T23:28:00.002-08:002022-12-27T23:29:02.285-08:002022 "Top Ten" List - #11<h4 style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">11. *sigh*</span></span></h4><span id="docs-internal-guid-da0ca76b-7fff-edbc-8898-c7717f619164"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have gotten rather good at avoiding stuff I know I won’t like, and I loathe “worst of” lists and other joy-sucking negative commentary. But the bottom’s got to be somewhere and these were the only ones that I outright disliked or was overwhelmingly disappointed by.</span></p><div><span><br /></span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMMHMWk5j2T1bgMWmVVGT-9NzsWL_r9Q8AReCo29eTcDxTpxPOwWw58x7LEGsGqLmy02RUBMbTbb-LweA7mVFCZn8TVlBpRn_g53D5DPm-OVfftnjDUlpCjT1-r8P71B3Nb0j7TVzX8-GvcHA3VmTniWjaKGzOx0JduZPCbf9R-dQMd_STfey7g9GZkg/s2560/Babylon.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1707" data-original-width="2560" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMMHMWk5j2T1bgMWmVVGT-9NzsWL_r9Q8AReCo29eTcDxTpxPOwWw58x7LEGsGqLmy02RUBMbTbb-LweA7mVFCZn8TVlBpRn_g53D5DPm-OVfftnjDUlpCjT1-r8P71B3Nb0j7TVzX8-GvcHA3VmTniWjaKGzOx0JduZPCbf9R-dQMd_STfey7g9GZkg/w640-h426/Babylon.webp" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Babylon</span></i></b></span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had difficulty placing this, because there are parts of this that I genuinely liked. And it’s not … *completely* incomprehensible. But it *is* a mess. In many ways, some more literal than others, one of which is that within the first five minutes we see an elephant spew gallons of poop of varying consistencies all over one of the characters, which I guess is supposed to set the tone for the remaining 3+ hours. This feels like a self-indulgence that a director of Damien Chazelle’s age and point in his career is too young to be making. There are other films that deal with this subject matter and era of moviemaking much better than this, though I suppose what sets this apart is Chazelle’s need for us to know how bawdy and decadent (and sprayed with bodily fluids and cocaine) this era of Hollywood was. I liked the chaotic eight-movies-at-a-time silent film set scene. I liked the “first day of shooting the talkie” scene. Jean Smart’s scene with Brad Pitt is actually pretty exquisite. A lot of the performances really come through in the few moments when this movie calms the hell down. But everything is so frenetic most of the time that I feel like audiences should be warned not to drink coffee or Red Bull while watching. The scene with Tobey Maquire feels like it’s from another movie entirely (specifically a movie called BOOGIE NIGHTS). There should be way more with Jovan Adepo and Li Jun Li and their characters should have been much better developed and not just footnotes, especially as they’re two of the very few people of color in the movie. And those last five minutes of “did you see what I did there?” are unforgivable. To quote MST3K - “never put a good movie in the middle of your crappy movie.” Not that I think this movie is actually crappy, but dude – don’t invite people to compare your movie to SINGIN’ IN THE dang RAIN! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In theaters</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbi9A7NRSpb_-76S7jXqoQpFKxbpM5lxseMnoyqxdKUYJPQvwj8y713rZejiRc-nSMIhE_IaNr2C4YUQBr1gChGVQf3xlSBBJJB1rZeE2oL_a3GlayywSi-s4ibLHU2sYShaW9TisJ7NPQkggdUzyMAQLNa21y9OiDRM2vsdMN6SpcDGgOFX5GfO5uA/s600/Fantastic_Beasts_Secrets_Dumbledore-Rep.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="600" height="334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcbi9A7NRSpb_-76S7jXqoQpFKxbpM5lxseMnoyqxdKUYJPQvwj8y713rZejiRc-nSMIhE_IaNr2C4YUQBr1gChGVQf3xlSBBJJB1rZeE2oL_a3GlayywSi-s4ibLHU2sYShaW9TisJ7NPQkggdUzyMAQLNa21y9OiDRM2vsdMN6SpcDGgOFX5GfO5uA/w640-h334/Fantastic_Beasts_Secrets_Dumbledore-Rep.jpeg" width="640" /></a><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Goldman once talked about writing BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, which he originally planned as a novel until he realized he didn’t want to do all the research it would require. He figured that if he wrote a screenplay to be made into a movie, then someone else (i.e., the director) would have to do all that work. That feels almost exactly like what’s happened with these films. The author doesn’t want to relinquish control of the story, she knows WB will just get someone else to do it if she doesn’t, but she doesn’t want to do all the worldbuilding required to flesh it out, like she did with the Potter canon. I can’t say I blame her, but the trouble is, there’s no one who’s as qualified as she is to do that, since it’s her story to begin with. I had hopes for this series and for this particular installment. I was intrigued by the casting of Mads Mikkelsen, as well as the return of Steve Kloves as co-writer (my old fandom peeps know my Kloves-apologist ways from way back). But this is just an increasingly confusing mess with no real purpose, especially since everyone who’s seen the Potter movies and read the books knows what eventually happens down the line. I’ve always loved coming back to this world, even if the more recent movies haven’t been the greatest (not to mention the change in my feelings about the author the past few years), but every time there’s a new installment it feels less and less like the home it used to be. (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available on HBOMax and for rent on other streaming platforms.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRolCvMIQ7ZxHiXvOAitfwFmobx1x6BB97_JCr-YZcfHafbhypzjPlLlfG7KNEVugixas4aHvBEkLxb_2LtH8guxIHp70AosHs_HuGEU7uN6MIE28UwNN57FVjacnVmq2h_PHIoaMHxs9BNVKZiohZAfUV9bu-bOu6Z1BvcPjagRl-RhQUsS7CumNeVg/s1000/The-Invitation.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="1000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRolCvMIQ7ZxHiXvOAitfwFmobx1x6BB97_JCr-YZcfHafbhypzjPlLlfG7KNEVugixas4aHvBEkLxb_2LtH8guxIHp70AosHs_HuGEU7uN6MIE28UwNN57FVjacnVmq2h_PHIoaMHxs9BNVKZiohZAfUV9bu-bOu6Z1BvcPjagRl-RhQUsS7CumNeVg/w640-h360/The-Invitation.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Invitation</span></i></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not to be confused with the 2015 Karyn Kusama film of the same name. This one starts off okay, and I could have gotten behind a reimagining of the Brides of Dracula story, which doesn’t get enough love in my opinion. I love seeing Game of Thrones’s Nathalie Emanuel in a lead role. And while it might seem like the main character makes some dumb decisions, I can’t help thinking a lot of people would make the same choices if they were told they had some extremely wealthy long-lost relatives who wanted to connect with them. It breaks down pretty quickly, though, once the actual horror elements kick in. I’m rarely a fan of women pitted against each other for *any* reason, but especially when it’s over a man, and this is no exception – especially given who these other women turn out to be. Why are they so bitchy towards our heroine when they’re all essentially on the same team? Why do none of them consider teaming up and killing him? I mean, the lesbian vampire trope is RIGHT THERE, people! (</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Available to rent on streaming services</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p></span><br />P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-60710706275504293052022-08-19T03:06:00.002-07:002022-08-19T03:06:37.759-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: Sirk du Soleil<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">No apologies for the corny title. I’ll be on vacation this weekend and next week, but before I go I wanted to bask in the emotional turgidity of Douglas Sirk’s most saturated technicolor masterpieces. All of these are rewatches and they are all great.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJM_mTZFRWN4femyUM62ua2BYtLlLSSRde8JfOTO3j3I-0E-Ap3bY4qQICR89ERwhJIpYPs_iy7kAbAJ3Uqnb8XatsNvELfGxXD6ULq1QlR16xTzepUoFpsqPRHYkNK-lPBiD1_Uk4-lpV-HQCsTbT9SvEg8xOV0FgxFSSwAYXgg65efrWErmjiDYzw/s1600/magnificentobsession.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjJM_mTZFRWN4femyUM62ua2BYtLlLSSRde8JfOTO3j3I-0E-Ap3bY4qQICR89ERwhJIpYPs_iy7kAbAJ3Uqnb8XatsNvELfGxXD6ULq1QlR16xTzepUoFpsqPRHYkNK-lPBiD1_Uk4-lpV-HQCsTbT9SvEg8xOV0FgxFSSwAYXgg65efrWErmjiDYzw/w640-h360/magnificentobsession.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Magnificent Obsession (1954) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: There’s Always Tomorrow, Thunder on the Hill</i></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is peak Sirk, with poetically tragic situations and information being withheld from people until it will cause the most devastation. I won’t describe the plot here but it’s like seven or eight soap opera plots rolled into one movie. They really play up what an absolute saint Dr. Philips is and what a shame it is that the horrible Bob Merrick (Rock Hudson) survived at his expense. I love that the other doctors and nurses at the hospital treating Merrick say exactly that. I love how the late doctor’s great secret philosophy is basically “do nice things and help people and don’t take credit.” I love that Merrick pledges to adopt this philosophy and after doing one good deed thinks he’s about to get dividends from it. I love Merrick posing as a poor medical student to help the now-blind Helen (Jane Wyman) without her knowing who he is. I love the tortured narrative path that gets us to Merrick *having* to do the surgery because by gosh no one else can do it. And oh man, that ending. Only in a Sirk movie.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLS4DTKCV4Par58d9eOK3pcDr5R4TE4N8HhBnOASKDzZc8-AU1fDdnaPwA5Q9kjb7wj_52cfA3ZMZU9YFAE-D74C5I24UU4YEcyG6X1rGsp0ErqOfzgpoM1IYLMbxZaUCYwyMGqMmcRBtEPNeGmETAGzob_xemkbscjikyHlLH7T1fTh2tWhoszPxgfQ/s1280/All_That_Heaven_Allows_(1955)_trailer_1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLS4DTKCV4Par58d9eOK3pcDr5R4TE4N8HhBnOASKDzZc8-AU1fDdnaPwA5Q9kjb7wj_52cfA3ZMZU9YFAE-D74C5I24UU4YEcyG6X1rGsp0ErqOfzgpoM1IYLMbxZaUCYwyMGqMmcRBtEPNeGmETAGzob_xemkbscjikyHlLH7T1fTh2tWhoszPxgfQ/w640-h360/All_That_Heaven_Allows_(1955)_trailer_1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">All That Heaven Allows (1955) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-bce4f8dc-7fff-908d-ffe5-03b9fd7c0133"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Ali Fear Eats the Soul, Far From Heaven</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is my favorite Sirk and one of the most infuriating things I’ve ever seen. Of course, it’s Sirk’s deliberate indictment of 1950s America and its polite (white) society, so it’s *supposed* to be infuriating. Hudson and Wyman are reunited, with Wyman playing a widow who falls in love with her much younger tree man, played by Hudson, and having to endure the judgment of her snotty friends and the whining of her grown-ass children. Everyone in the movie aside from Hudson and Wyman are trash (well, Agnes Moorehead’s character has her moments). But Wyman’s son and daughter are the LITERAL WORST. Seriously, screw those two and their television “gift.” “Here mom, you clearly don’t have anything else to do because you’re too OLD to be in love and have sex!” I’d forgotten how early they plant the seeds for that, with Wyman’s friend telling her she ought to get a television so she won’t be lonely. In less infuriating news, it was this rewatch that I recognized William Reynolds (who plays the son, Ned) as Gordon from the classic MST3K episode “The Thing That Couldn’t Die.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z9mNTtKV0ppIaXNlfuWik-nJDEqDv5EukS_Co0GFH-N9GK0b4Et0oSxEvTBLpRMw5qnQrrVdPcQ8tIpbdIpsiFtsJA12DYFfV9KLlq2YKfRpXjDT6N0yS3IxH-P6cowf3dMpXqlVjjAvL4I2Mxh8WgWytzNuhu-1P3YtBf7EKVpCC5-VTQaH2kmwyA/s2400/writtenonthewind.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="2400" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z9mNTtKV0ppIaXNlfuWik-nJDEqDv5EukS_Co0GFH-N9GK0b4Et0oSxEvTBLpRMw5qnQrrVdPcQ8tIpbdIpsiFtsJA12DYFfV9KLlq2YKfRpXjDT6N0yS3IxH-P6cowf3dMpXqlVjjAvL4I2Mxh8WgWytzNuhu-1P3YtBf7EKVpCC5-VTQaH2kmwyA/w640-h360/writtenonthewind.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Written on the Wind (1956) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Tarnished Angels, Trouble in Paradise</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the surface this looks like pretty Southern Gothic trash, and indeed that seemed to be the general consensus of critics at the time it originally was released. But lurking under all that style is some razor-sharp parody, not unlike Sirk’s previous films (especially All That Heaven Allows). There are some very complex family dynamics that are the centerpiece here, but there are also some complicated romance dynamics and possible unrequited homosexual feelings and maybe even some incest-y vibes. It’s got a fantastic cast that knows exactly what’s expected of them – particularly the indisputable MVP of the whole enterprise, perfect horny queen Dorothy Malone (that last shot of her stroking the oil derrick is *chef’s kiss*). Something I noticed this time was that, in the opening credits, the main cast are introduced as they appear in the opening scene – as in, the scene is happening, we cut to a shot of Rock Hudson reacting to something (title card: Rock Hudson), then the same with Bacall, Stack and Malone. I just thought it was a cool way to introduce us to the main cast, like “hello, you’re watching Rock Hudson! And now you’re watching Lauren Bacall! Now Robert Stack! Now Dorothy Malone!”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGX4OjjPfRTpPCafE7A0vU0ZC79kAxpKv6j31szsxDhJ-IxBwkf_171mmpSYe2M1268mPFEgJltLS3fErs_yIZ-fUeFVkBbH3fs_xWtju_bp3HUB_yRwp0roeRwx7p5kKdW-o2FGKWqKxwsdaOLX6xtqo7jf4CYxhAWUtivpDOJt8qaSvroIIa6GKgXg/s1200/IMITATION+OF+LIFE+pic+2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="674" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGX4OjjPfRTpPCafE7A0vU0ZC79kAxpKv6j31szsxDhJ-IxBwkf_171mmpSYe2M1268mPFEgJltLS3fErs_yIZ-fUeFVkBbH3fs_xWtju_bp3HUB_yRwp0roeRwx7p5kKdW-o2FGKWqKxwsdaOLX6xtqo7jf4CYxhAWUtivpDOJt8qaSvroIIa6GKgXg/w640-h360/IMITATION+OF+LIFE+pic+2.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Imitation of Life (1959) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Imitation of Life (1934), Pinky</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are tons of “daddy issue” movies, but not nearly as many “mommy issue” movies. There used to be, though, and this is one of the best. The “main” story here is Lana Turner, playing Lora, a widow and late-in-life aspiring actress who is raising a young daughter named Susie. She meets Annie, a Black woman who has a daughter of her own, Sarah Jane, who is a couple years older than Susie and passes for white. Even though Turner is the star of the show, Sirk constantly and deliberately pulls the focus away from her to show us more of the life and conflicts of the POC characters. The element of racism is hugely significant to the film, obviously, but I was particularly knocked out this rewatch by the mother-daughter struggles. I have frequently found it difficult to get invested in mother-daughter dynamics in movies, given my own personal not-that-ordinary experience with mother figures in my own life. But I found myself really moved by both Lora’s relationship with Susie and especially Annie’s relationship with Sarah Jane, and I nearly couldn’t watch the end, it was so heartbreaking to me. There are some (probably intentionally) hilarious melodramatic moments in this (“Is a beer can real?”) but for the most part it’s a genuine hanky-destroyer. And that’s even before Mahalia Jackson sings “Trouble of the World.”</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-67093880672122163392022-08-14T14:16:00.003-07:002022-08-15T14:46:59.872-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: 90s Westerns<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 1990s brought a renewed interest in westerns and, in turn, a new rush of western films -- some revisionist, some homages, and some in a more modern setting. All but one of these are rewatches, but it’s been a while on all of them.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-O3kuI167UHMqcujkfZcn1foF9u3imnN0sRYlFmzo7cCDeYE70bCNOhqECcsVVKQFxyHbuzqhmbb_Qt8-ENxe-iklliFgV8HxWFPYeW_t8mvf8ndvH0HR-jE3dqVZEtwE6pEkNVUqBldkdHarriRblp_ehbO-1RBVlOtdSgw9GMAwU_TmYbAlDvnJOw/s1920/cityslickers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1037" data-original-width="1920" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-O3kuI167UHMqcujkfZcn1foF9u3imnN0sRYlFmzo7cCDeYE70bCNOhqECcsVVKQFxyHbuzqhmbb_Qt8-ENxe-iklliFgV8HxWFPYeW_t8mvf8ndvH0HR-jE3dqVZEtwE6pEkNVUqBldkdHarriRblp_ehbO-1RBVlOtdSgw9GMAwU_TmYbAlDvnJOw/w640-h346/cityslickers.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">City Slickers (1991) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Romancing the Stone, Crocodile Dundee</i></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love this movie so much, and it’s one of the most emotional comedies I’ve ever seen. I’d forgotten how many tear-jerking moments there are in this. Curly’s “one thing.” Norman’s mom. Phil’s breakdown. Ed’s best day. Bringing in the herd (complete with Bonanza sing-along). Jack Palance, after an incredible career, finally won an Oscar for this role and it’s a good one. Billy Crystal and his BFFs Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby play besties who are always taking over-adventurous vacations (the movie begins with a Pamplona bull run), and their latest is a cattle drive. I don’t know if people ever actually did this as a vacation, but I completely buy that this is a thing rich people would do for fun. Of course, in addition to being real work to begin with, things get complicated along the way and the group is stranded in the middle of nowhere with a herd of cattle and absolutely none of the people who were supposed to be responsible for them (the cattle *and* the tourists). This works not just as a comedy but as an action movie (a light action movie, I guess) and a western. It’s one of Billy Crystal’s best roles and one of Jack Palance’s best roles (in a career full of them), and the rest of the cast is uniformly great (including a very young Jake Gyllenhall). My one quibble – wow, that closing credits song is a horrible, generic 90s ballad that in no way fits with the movie.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2UhIW1SvHj2Yv78NEva-1dcheMzB4gTwsFv46uy611XgjZKB98KBg8yvPE8m2MG09acVVqd9Un4Ul4JUh6dhGxK4tqAGKGsGysss4R30HemSVZDhVkegRLJEIRbG0pSySzpFBeqOsRtxCxTT6Xwq-BFQPnnAbPyFZwJjD4zezFNce9PutWbQopcWBg/s1023/thelmalouise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1023" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_2UhIW1SvHj2Yv78NEva-1dcheMzB4gTwsFv46uy611XgjZKB98KBg8yvPE8m2MG09acVVqd9Un4Ul4JUh6dhGxK4tqAGKGsGysss4R30HemSVZDhVkegRLJEIRbG0pSySzpFBeqOsRtxCxTT6Xwq-BFQPnnAbPyFZwJjD4zezFNce9PutWbQopcWBg/w640-h432/thelmalouise.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Thelma & Louise (1991) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-7b968181-7fff-7e58-24c9-db4403e6d1f4"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Fried Green Tomatoes, Bound</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This came out the same year as Susan Faludi’s book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. And the same year that Clarence Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court and Anita Hill gave testimony against him to the Senate Judiciary – and we all know how that turned out. Oh, and it was also around the same time Rush Limbaugh coined the term “feminazis.” A lot of critics at the time clutched their damn pearls over violence they wouldn’t have given two thoughts about if the leads were men. And this movie is all about those kinds of double standards. Thelma and Louise are going on a weekend trip to the mountains, but their plans go to hell when one of them gets into a situation that far too many women find themselves in every day just because some man decides he’s entitled to a woman’s body. Our heroes bounce from one horrible situation to another and are forced to make increasingly worse choices until that infamous ending. Louise, and later in the film Thelma, make a point that is unfortunately still pretty relevant today – that they can’t trust law enforcement to help because no one will believe them. That’s at least part of why the ending actually works for me. A while back, the screenwriter, Callie Khouri, <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/thelma-and-louise/" target="_blank">explained</a> that she never saw the ending as literal. "It was a way of saying that this was a world in which they didn't believe there was the possibility of justice for them. … And that this was just a way of letting them go and letting them stay who they were, who they had become. …To me, they got away." The movie was nominated for six Oscars (including for its director, Ridley Scott, and both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis for Lead Actress – a rare double nomination in that category). And Callie Khouri won for Original Screenplay (alongside Ted Tally’s Adapted Screenplay win for The Silence of the Lambs). It’s a great one and it still holds up, perhaps even more now than 31 years ago. I have loads of favorite moments, but I think the winner is when that disgusting truck driver f***s around and finds out.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_NeDh_r12HjTQ7zZfnZZ196iCyGKWV2XXES_Yqvr1Xkql4rNRO_k67b6v5irNrlV2ZPbg1IvvfnJ1HBNhMfpjIabPC3JolNB5dMx4exeUrLeJMlwL26egX51Ug96ekqL6bpSKUyRlgCPm79QoVEdVXgKNVn8ULxZhVli2n4yIWvieCIB5w0Jw2O8gg/s1200/Unforgiven-2017.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-_NeDh_r12HjTQ7zZfnZZ196iCyGKWV2XXES_Yqvr1Xkql4rNRO_k67b6v5irNrlV2ZPbg1IvvfnJ1HBNhMfpjIabPC3JolNB5dMx4exeUrLeJMlwL26egX51Ug96ekqL6bpSKUyRlgCPm79QoVEdVXgKNVn8ULxZhVli2n4yIWvieCIB5w0Jw2O8gg/w640-h266/Unforgiven-2017.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Unforgiven (1992) (rewatch)</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: For a Few Dollars More, The Beguiled (1971)</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have found that this one is somewhat controversial. A friend of mine doesn’t refer to it by name but instead calls it “that revisionist drivel.” And it’s certainly a bold step in a genre that had all but played itself out at least a decade before. The spaghetti western had already deromanticized audiences’ lofty notions of the American West, but with those there was still a sense, however slight, of who were the bad guys and who were the good guys (or at least the less bad). And good or bad, most of the heroes were still cool af. No one is cool in Unforgiven. This movie smashes all that to hell. Maybe we identify with some of the behavior but we shouldn’t feel good about it. Nearly every character in this movie is a subversion of what we’re used to seeing in a western and most of them are dripping with moral ambiguity. I feel like the best example of that is Little Bill (played by Gene Hackman, who won his second Oscar for this role). I’ve always thought of him as the villain of this movie, and that’s precisely how the movie presents him (even as we kind of triumph over his ownage of English Bob). But what does he do that’s so wrong here (other than badly building a house)? He just wants the people in his town to live in peace; he's not some oppressor, like Hackman's character in The Quick and the Dead. And yet we want to see him bested by Munny in the end.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiECxsAmPp4g4lwJEDF5aUKzcLm6VkGgDcC2NAZwGoeOM6I_LqTvVq39JCdOgU8dqcRkDkCUrOFxsx_EMb9P5WIrYcy7WemepKAHA6S455PapFxuOD6Nj5vPFxhucJbg_uc7J5AqsslpsXFcQpKmhtRISbiq7guQa0hGKwD_7eemOmEmokFtQVGqbMHWw/s1023/posse1993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="687" data-original-width="1023" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiECxsAmPp4g4lwJEDF5aUKzcLm6VkGgDcC2NAZwGoeOM6I_LqTvVq39JCdOgU8dqcRkDkCUrOFxsx_EMb9P5WIrYcy7WemepKAHA6S455PapFxuOD6Nj5vPFxhucJbg_uc7J5AqsslpsXFcQpKmhtRISbiq7guQa0hGKwD_7eemOmEmokFtQVGqbMHWw/w640-h430/posse1993.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Posse (1993)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Buck and the Preacher, The Harder They Fall</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is just one of many stories about real American history that desperately need to be told. Like last year’s The Harder They Fall, this is an attempt to preserve (or perhaps restore would be a better word) a record that there were indeed Black cowboys in the Old West, and they have so many stories that have gone ignored for many many years (as the film’s closing text states). The cast is stacked with tons of legends, many of whom are in small roles and are, frankly, underused (blink and you’ll miss Pam Grier). There is some good camera work, but I wish this were a better movie. As important as telling this story is – not to mention the importance of having a Black filmmaker tell it – director Mario van Peebles doesn’t seem as interested in the story as he is in flashy camera moves and music video effects. The sepia-toned flashbacks bug me most of all, especially when they’re there to explain why the main character is killing someone we’ve never met before. Having said all that, I’m still glad this movie exists; there are still far too few doing the job it’s trying to do. (No comment on the “Can’t we all get along?” line in a movie released the year after the King riots.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlPPZvwG2sHNPFumpLE-IdWeLQfwyd5tosuHtzNUuP3cIeH9nWFMcHQIAij8C360tx4p9bVHu5rKqEgg5BCSI5tkOW1IlB-bd-ikWc5czNdaIePe9vsXnWODffhAwlWWWL8vXcz80EUdn7t2ayk4DWpOFETgb3Bm50baH91Z1w2SRYvFfTbLFC-etYA/s768/tombstone_kurt_russell_director_val_kilmer_0.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="432" data-original-width="768" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTlPPZvwG2sHNPFumpLE-IdWeLQfwyd5tosuHtzNUuP3cIeH9nWFMcHQIAij8C360tx4p9bVHu5rKqEgg5BCSI5tkOW1IlB-bd-ikWc5czNdaIePe9vsXnWODffhAwlWWWL8vXcz80EUdn7t2ayk4DWpOFETgb3Bm50baH91Z1w2SRYvFfTbLFC-etYA/w640-h360/tombstone_kurt_russell_director_val_kilmer_0.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Tombstone (1993) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Young Guns, Wyatt Earp</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may be an unpopular opinion, but this doesn’t hold up that well for me. Val Kilmer’s performance is still one for the ages, but he feels like he’s in a different movie than everyone else. I’m tempted to say I wish I could watch whatever movie Kilmer is in, but I think he’s intentionally on another wavelength. Russell is mostly great, but he’s outshone by Kilmer every time they’re on screen together and he’s also saddled with a romance plot that seems an ill fit for both him and the movie. The love interest, Josephine Marcus (played by Dana Delaney), is the only woman the movie seems interested in. Which is a shame for Dana Wheeler-Nicholson (playing Wyatt’s common-law wife Mattie), who looks like she is giving a lot more than the director is interested in capturing. There’s undoubtedly some great stuff here. Lovely cinematography, good action, and Powers Boothe chewing every bit of scenery he can find in yet another one of those insanely stacked casts. But the movie has a similar problem to Posse, in that there are too many characters and too many conflicting motivations and too little time devoted to getting us invested in them. And, like a lot of 90s westerns, it is entirely too long.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhJa6ksVd_uQ3N57zi4PbRImJ7VLuv5-POlJbFpu0V4Yc4iLGQJyyeW4WzlQESZ8bNsFk3EvmSK-y4F-NyNe0ywRZe3oNUd3LQfD_V_xb_CoOQltB3295wpZYsU5C0xxqHQ9jylSFkyOXxFo-1lFFXjAhLvPRqAxv6SHDY4Y1Qfp6TTTxC5Rr0qknbw/s1198/wildbill.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="1198" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdhJa6ksVd_uQ3N57zi4PbRImJ7VLuv5-POlJbFpu0V4Yc4iLGQJyyeW4WzlQESZ8bNsFk3EvmSK-y4F-NyNe0ywRZe3oNUd3LQfD_V_xb_CoOQltB3295wpZYsU5C0xxqHQ9jylSFkyOXxFo-1lFFXjAhLvPRqAxv6SHDY4Y1Qfp6TTTxC5Rr0qknbw/w640-h352/wildbill.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Wild Bill (1995) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Long Riders, True Grit (2010)</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Biopics and historical movies are painfully easy to make dull and formulaic, so Wild Bill is an interesting attempt to do something a bit different, even if it’s not all that successful. We start with Bill’s funeral and Bill’s friend Charley (played by John Hurt) starts telling us about who Bill was. It’s kind of a cool take to give us an impression of a man through a series of “there was this one time”s, but the movie is an absolute cacophony of flashbacks and styles and POVs within POVs. Again, it’s an interesting way to present him as a character and it seems to give truth to my own belief that people’s lives, birth to death, do not constitute A Story but many stories, many of which overlap. There’s a kind of half-plot here with David Arquette, but it’s almost background to the larger part of the movie, which is this hodge-podge of vignettes about Wild Bill. I kind of wish the movie had committed more to either the character study or the traditional plot. I suppose the character study informs the traditional plot, but it still feels like two different movies that don’t seem to mesh well. Having said that, it’s a great Jeff Bridges performance. I also spotted The West Wing’s Janel Moloney in a small role, four years before Donnatella Moss (I would not have known her from anything when I originally saw this in 1995), which was a nice surprise.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQNb8VAC2lletFEOfbvgc9rZjrDbqFg-E21S1kFHMNnnUx-wnL_nM5FJ924NuTyKZsqY2299Q6xBj8VB5bthx_WHjRIJO2g0XJRdAW9sDVtuFfA5FCUVwmGAqEiQqLMFELIvYG-GxKbQRKmmQW3ayLQ8HD8mjDeNH1B6AWcYll_ay0ZRe3u_1Sut8vQ/s2000/quickandthedead.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1125" data-original-width="2000" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcQNb8VAC2lletFEOfbvgc9rZjrDbqFg-E21S1kFHMNnnUx-wnL_nM5FJ924NuTyKZsqY2299Q6xBj8VB5bthx_WHjRIJO2g0XJRdAW9sDVtuFfA5FCUVwmGAqEiQqLMFELIvYG-GxKbQRKmmQW3ayLQ8HD8mjDeNH1B6AWcYll_ay0ZRe3u_1Sut8vQ/w640-h360/quickandthedead.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Quick and the Dead (1995) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Bad Girls, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bless Sam Raimi and his peculiar sensibilities. This is by no means a spoof but it has loads of over-the-top moments that make it seem like one. It has a frankly astonishing cast (sounds familiar) – Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Tobin Bell, Kevin Conway, Pat Hingle, WOODY STRODE, Raynor Scheine, Roberts Blossom … and that’s not even getting to the main cast of Stone, Hackman, Crowe and tiny baby DiCaprio. Raimi regular Bruce Campbell even had a small role, though it ended up being cut. Everyone is mostly playing it straight here, but it’s so excessively earnest and unrestrained that it comes off as bonkers. This was considered a flaw at the time it came out but more people have come to appreciate the movie’s eccentricities. It’s wild seeing Russell Crowe in this, the same year as Virtuosity (the first film I saw him in) and well before he became a household name (in the States, anyway). Having once been a proud member of Hoes for DiCaprio, there’s a moment in this movie that always sent me into a squeeing fangirl frenzy. Watching it again last week, it still does.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTuvwffztj1yZJDvSrjePUY7-8H4sV4CYcoVhg9RHIhXjeA9cdvWBU7kzkl_en_Lacn323t61r-SZc_NqxwtIQU83Blo5b9K8dSex3TxJ26VaKEjE_AJJfmQd8aLwxVI63l6QDV9d_pT0Ouf4b1RQm9c2j-P92x5Do6abPuFVXv0W_VLLUOZ8ZYSrOQ/s4301/maverick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2896" data-original-width="4301" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfTuvwffztj1yZJDvSrjePUY7-8H4sV4CYcoVhg9RHIhXjeA9cdvWBU7kzkl_en_Lacn323t61r-SZc_NqxwtIQU83Blo5b9K8dSex3TxJ26VaKEjE_AJJfmQd8aLwxVI63l6QDV9d_pT0Ouf4b1RQm9c2j-P92x5Do6abPuFVXv0W_VLLUOZ8ZYSrOQ/w640-h430/maverick.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Maverick (1994) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Three Amigos, The Apple Dumpling Gang</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I love this movie. I know almost nothing of the original television show, but the movie is like if they took the show, made it into a theme park ride, then made a movie out of that ride. I watched a reaction video to this a while back and the reactor seemed genuinely concerned that the movie’s main character was going to be killed at several points well before the end of the movie. Which I guess is a testament to how effective the action scenes are. And the movie is amazingly good at switching from action to comedy, which it does with great frequency. It’s directed by Richard Donner and stars Mel Gibson (with a brief cameo from their Lethal Weapon compatriot Danny Glover), and the screenplay is by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President’s Men, The Princess Bride, Misery). Add to the mix James Garner (who played Bret Maverick in the original show), Jodie Foster (who I just now learned replaced Meg Ryan in this role – can’t imagine Ryan as Annabelle, honestly), James Coburn and Alfred Molina, among others, and it makes an incredible western-action-comedy stew that’s a lot of fun to watch. And I love the use of modern (to 1994) country music, as well as a handful of country music stars in small roles (Waylon Jennings, Carlene Carter, Kathy Mattea, Clint Black, Vince Gill and Reba McIntire, and probably some more). There are some good twists and turns and double-crosses, and thank God no one took that ending and decided there needed to be a sequel. It’s perfect just as it is.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-91056350651638084282022-07-31T09:30:00.010-07:002022-08-02T22:18:42.990-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: Witney and the Three Georges<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a kind of continuation of last week’s theme, I wanted to familiarize myself with some of the names dropped in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Namely, William Witney – who Rick and Cliff discuss over margaritas at Casa Vega – and the “three Georges” that Rick says (along with him) were up for the role of Hilts in The Great Escape during the brief period Steve McQueen was possibly not going to do it (in the order Rick named them – Peppard, Maharis and Chakiris). All of these are also first watches.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS43Hk8KtXHnsdNWPxMDemj5qflF38pv3uAWNfJY0uU0ZUwooZKIZc__w355qJo4PWUYv9sno9aOwnUOi4EIzOBz9xWuJ04wDp3k40LDYTnBIxVAXhJ_R1bLQhVCnk6yWxBDhDnDomRx1kmzjLcwzeSbuKR4-AVjDElaeg5AJQGpRQTpTJvJ6_7614Og/s2303/houseofcards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1704" data-original-width="2303" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS43Hk8KtXHnsdNWPxMDemj5qflF38pv3uAWNfJY0uU0ZUwooZKIZc__w355qJo4PWUYv9sno9aOwnUOi4EIzOBz9xWuJ04wDp3k40LDYTnBIxVAXhJ_R1bLQhVCnk6yWxBDhDnDomRx1kmzjLcwzeSbuKR4-AVjDElaeg5AJQGpRQTpTJvJ6_7614Og/w640-h474/houseofcards.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">House of Cards (1968)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-270967d6-7fff-44cd-d25d-00df715cd09f"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: P.J., The Groundstar Conspiracy</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first of my two Peppards, and I liked this a lot. Peppard is a classic semi-ordinary guy who gets mixed up in a complicated and deadly situation. His character Reno is a retired boxer who has decided to become a writer. He takes a job as a tutor for a young boy and it turns out to be way more trouble than he bargained for because the boy’s family is connected to a fascist group that’s planning to take over Europe (one of whom is played by The Orson Welles, who is in the movie for like five minutes). Finding himself framed for his best friend’s murder, Reno and the boy’s mother try to find her now kidnapped child while being hunted all around France. This was really engaging and Peppard is a great leading man.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ezNyw8v9W3OfEQrMFGJ5XnpwlUeX7vyfvIsv_4TXoiui0Eqc3ZcV6c7rMIz5SahwjsgsHrZGBcXklpvV_LntmBEF5JHwZjiIzYYGTJiSuPlP1NwRVokYa8h7JlI7AoBZBIH4xvcGo-AubrcwCDE91cNpeB05SKn-iBcSZ7MC1r9LA_Q2Zi_ztKMtZw/s1280/pendulum.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8ezNyw8v9W3OfEQrMFGJ5XnpwlUeX7vyfvIsv_4TXoiui0Eqc3ZcV6c7rMIz5SahwjsgsHrZGBcXklpvV_LntmBEF5JHwZjiIzYYGTJiSuPlP1NwRVokYa8h7JlI7AoBZBIH4xvcGo-AubrcwCDE91cNpeB05SKn-iBcSZ7MC1r9LA_Q2Zi_ztKMtZw/w640-h360/pendulum.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Pendulum (1969)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: 23 Paces to Baker Street; Sleep, My Love</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The plot of this movie resembles a whole lot of the erotic thrillers of the 80s and 90s, though this is no erotic thriller – if only the defense attorney had been a woman. This moves kind of slow, and I could take or leave the whodunit plot, but there’s still some good stuff going on and it really kicks into gear by the third act. Madeleine Sherwood (who I’d only ever seen as Sister Woman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) is by far the MVP of this movie, playing the mother of a convicted and recently released rapist and murderer. What a performance!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQShVaelDIjAiUoP8FihjtgM-h4aZjNFc4zckdL-wTyIh_9uGLQzO2rnulaia4OSztNEum-aiX-fZ5PGdbFK_5LvtjfurJpxKY8ubUCdC_O7_ZjE34-ktqmQDzyXuCkuSkwvfV6JigNWhaK2Smktof7wtQMH9nBaEA0C1RJbYaAqPT6B3dUV_4huxHyA/s1600/The-Happening-1967.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQShVaelDIjAiUoP8FihjtgM-h4aZjNFc4zckdL-wTyIh_9uGLQzO2rnulaia4OSztNEum-aiX-fZ5PGdbFK_5LvtjfurJpxKY8ubUCdC_O7_ZjE34-ktqmQDzyXuCkuSkwvfV6JigNWhaK2Smktof7wtQMH9nBaEA0C1RJbYaAqPT6B3dUV_4huxHyA/w640-h356/The-Happening-1967.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Happening (1967)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Deadly Trap, Fargo</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My goodness, this was silly! And reminded me a bit of the Star Trek episode “The Way to Eden” (the one with the space hippies). George Maharis, who is the real life person Rick Dalton is a proxy for, was less interesting to me here (until the final scene) than the other three actors who play his accomplices – Faye Dunaway (just a few months before Bonnie & Clyde), Michael Parks (a Tarantino regular), and Robert Walker Jr. (who I remembered from the “Charlie X” episode of Star Trek). Everyone seems to be having a good time here and “understands the assignment,” as they say – especially Michael Parks, who is the most entertaining of the four young characters. He and Maharis, Dunaway and Walker play beach bums who, out of boredom and through a series of misunderstandings, end up kidnapping a former gangster who is now a respectable businessman. Things get more complicated when it turns out no one is that interested in paying the ransom. And it mostly looks like little more than an excuse to poke fun at Middle America and people who are no longer young.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNRYGDe9wf0Nkmeqs_fiEZjypIoe-IUKyfStHlXRFFUn7eudz9JbDJgQs3hGeH46XaWl-079qcJgpxc-3gSz5-w7kUnrOv9oLXcSFyk_stM_t8RobGboXkq-6dwjs0dnB5aaP8nH2qHToTX37gMS6dpr-wi47vsDN0EmyvI8teHWput-Gc_3Yauap3Q/s1478/landraiders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1478" height="472" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdNRYGDe9wf0Nkmeqs_fiEZjypIoe-IUKyfStHlXRFFUn7eudz9JbDJgQs3hGeH46XaWl-079qcJgpxc-3gSz5-w7kUnrOv9oLXcSFyk_stM_t8RobGboXkq-6dwjs0dnB5aaP8nH2qHToTX37gMS6dpr-wi47vsDN0EmyvI8teHWput-Gc_3Yauap3Q/w640-h472/landraiders.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Land Raiders (1969)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Two Flags West, Rio Conchos</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I liked this one, even though it has its problems, and I feel like it’s a much better showcase for what kind of actor George Maharis is than The Happening (Land Raiders was Tarantino’s inspiration for “Red Blood, Red Skin” – one of Rick Dalton’s Italian movies). Maharis costars with Telly Savalas and they play estranged brothers of Mexican descent (ahem). Savalas plays a real sumbitch who puts out bounties on Indian scalps and then buys up the land that has been made cheap due to all the conflict. Maharis’s character is adrift, unable or unwilling to return to his home due to the tragic end met by his lover (an end that many people think he caused). There’s some good story here and definitely some good acting, but the movie has inconsistent quality and sometimes looks like it was made for TV. Then there are the Native Americans. I appreciate that the movie acknowledges that these characters have genuine grievances but the movie doesn’t portray them as much more than violent vigilantes.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYv8QCqGekkUPuoA7_HqEVoDkX5X51be4VkOgqr7n5KodBEPHUEj5FrFz0JhDd4_WQLWzUSQdEVoG3U8VT3uWAtZWZfp5lRQyvRkmFv7H7XGwp6k8oSX_wEDp2_J4l4tvrsB473mfC0rRWLEdzVAE9Z3dHwqIEV316bVlYWJa_cliXdnXt50Ii5gKqzg/s732/diamondhead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="732" height="470" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYv8QCqGekkUPuoA7_HqEVoDkX5X51be4VkOgqr7n5KodBEPHUEj5FrFz0JhDd4_WQLWzUSQdEVoG3U8VT3uWAtZWZfp5lRQyvRkmFv7H7XGwp6k8oSX_wEDp2_J4l4tvrsB473mfC0rRWLEdzVAE9Z3dHwqIEV316bVlYWJa_cliXdnXt50Ii5gKqzg/w640-h470/diamondhead.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Diamond Head (1963) </span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Hawaiians, 55 Days at Peking</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I actually liked this quite a bit. I got weary of Charlton Heston’s character pretty quickly, but I think that’s the idea here – that he’s a fossil, stuck in outdated norms, and he’s also a hypocrite. It’s a pity he’s the main character and we have to spend so much time with him. (He’s actually a teddy bear compared to his sister-in-law, though, and I was thrilled when she was no longer in the movie.) Yvette Mimieux has the same charm she has in Three in the Attic, but the stakes are much higher here. It was nice to see Star Trek: DS9’s James Darren in this, even if he’s in brownface. And George Chakiris is the best part of the movie to me. Every moment he is on screen, I was riveted, and I was very pleased to have called his true role in the film early on. It’s always touchy to deal with white people living in Hawaii, especially when those white people have lived on the land for over a century and feel like they’re just as entitled to it as true natives. This movie deals with a lot of those issues (including Hawaii’s then-new statehood) in a surprisingly thoughtful way. (Side note: I'm bummed I had to use a black and white photo, but just about everything else was either too small or watermarked.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdu3-V4YeWe5jw2xqzLobXzRQdOHcMO_rWrNVVIRrzZUlHMyOS-gnywDXJmvEYLq-ndG96g61ogRZgyDvuWwZT7FeXpAzYT8FZCtQ1_AxFswOhqiTMVzxM8kIRR7NYLbBdtf7rTchf_-g8KsNYRcKQsfZAPHnVw_-QPsdjujoqMyiRLJaheuDe3zusg/s1269/thebigcube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="1269" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMdu3-V4YeWe5jw2xqzLobXzRQdOHcMO_rWrNVVIRrzZUlHMyOS-gnywDXJmvEYLq-ndG96g61ogRZgyDvuWwZT7FeXpAzYT8FZCtQ1_AxFswOhqiTMVzxM8kIRR7NYLbBdtf7rTchf_-g8KsNYRcKQsfZAPHnVw_-QPsdjujoqMyiRLJaheuDe3zusg/w640-h312/thebigcube.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Big Cube (1969)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Bunny Lake Is Missing, Strait-Jacket</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a pretty cool story here buried in a lot of psychedelic silliness. Chakiris plays a drug-dealing womanizing villain here, but the star of this show is Lana Turner. She plays an actress who is retiring from the stage to get married (to Dan O’Herlihy, archvillain of Halloween III). When her wealthy husband dies, it falls to her to give consent for his adult daughter to marry (at least if the daughter expects to inherit her share of daddy’s fortune). When Stepmom Lana refuses, the daughter and her fiance dose her with psychedelic drugs to have her declared mentally incompetent so they can get married *and* get the money. I liked some of this, especially the ending. A few of the characters wore on my nerves, but Chakiris is a pretty good villain who meets a fitting end.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDiArYLaPX0GAnCsO63VMlxdgQY1Fo10o8dDahT1JdVOaxPXlLolfE2VSwY5_Wj4y6eAfctt_rT8rDoSbwfCP27jzhlfn1ClgO5ITBiGNBSwbzxQheqMMUtRc_X2CpkvOnQIWjFiQVmpEbcqLmUB7aUYo8_VtEFiZZEq7p4dHBNKlO-XfbpLN7XLitIw/s780/goldenstallion.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDiArYLaPX0GAnCsO63VMlxdgQY1Fo10o8dDahT1JdVOaxPXlLolfE2VSwY5_Wj4y6eAfctt_rT8rDoSbwfCP27jzhlfn1ClgO5ITBiGNBSwbzxQheqMMUtRc_X2CpkvOnQIWjFiQVmpEbcqLmUB7aUYo8_VtEFiZZEq7p4dHBNKlO-XfbpLN7XLitIw/w640-h360/goldenstallion.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Golden Stallion (1949)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Crimson Ghost, The Adventures of Captain Marvel</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a fun little (just under an hour) Roy Rogers western, with some good action sequences. I just wish there were a better version of it to watch. As far as I can tell, there’s no physical version available (except the actual film reels someone is selling on eBay). The only version on streaming (same version on all the platforms) is a TV broadcast, with lots of interstitials of Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and Gene Autry. Which is great, but the fact that it’s a TV broadcast means the movie looks like it was shot on a toaster. I imagine a lot of people don’t like this kind of western, with its total moral clarity and lack of nuance and ambiguity (I found it cloying at times myself), but it’s fascinating to think that there was a time when this was perfect entertainment. All hail Trigger, king of horses!</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-78005623957444477612022-07-25T03:37:00.002-07:002022-07-27T22:32:57.309-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: Once Upon a Time ... in Easter Eggs<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few years ago, I fell hard for Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It’s a movie chock full of references – even more so than his previous films – and I wanted to at least make a dent in the mountain of nostalgia. So all of this week’s films were referenced in OUATIH in some way (billboards, radio/TV ads). And most were either still in theaters or coming to theaters when the movie was set. (And they’re all first watches.)</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbQ8f36ptpC87Nwsfn69Xalxb6Shzp9uMbl4FWd1QNxFv4K-yOVg2qstr7RE85M2ZGYo3jJH30o1nwU42C_FcerSXEZbmSvhhhjIRSe90rlp1SRPZ_I5idPJIA1tO148ni9F0e2r06cWk2fJ1BRFiRfdOQMf7IE8MR3OXSO4Jmn4_Drzf3gknrAwo1g/s1600/Boston-Strangler-1600x900-c-default.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJbQ8f36ptpC87Nwsfn69Xalxb6Shzp9uMbl4FWd1QNxFv4K-yOVg2qstr7RE85M2ZGYo3jJH30o1nwU42C_FcerSXEZbmSvhhhjIRSe90rlp1SRPZ_I5idPJIA1tO148ni9F0e2r06cWk2fJ1BRFiRfdOQMf7IE8MR3OXSO4Jmn4_Drzf3gknrAwo1g/w640-h360/Boston-Strangler-1600x900-c-default.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Boston Strangler (1968)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-4d8dfe1f-7fff-9316-70a1-a6078903f096"><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Copycat, Helter Skelter</i></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Overall I liked this. It had its slow moments, particularly in the second half, and I’m not sure exactly what the movie was trying to accomplish. Obviously, there’s only so much perspective a filmmaker could have had so soon after the real life events took place. I appreciate that they wanted to humanize Albert DeSalvo, and I more than appreciate that they didn’t want this to be a lurid film that was too exploitative. It’s much more of a psychological movie. It seems wild to see a world where women apparently thought nothing of letting a strange man into their homes, often for fear of being impolite or causing the man inconvenience. That’s a commentary and a half on 1960s America. The cast is second to none. Tony Curtis is pretty amazing, especially in the final scene, and I loved seeing Henry Fonda, William Marshall, George Kennedy and Murray “Jaws Mayor” Hamilton. And I always love seeing Mike Kellin in anything (he was the “NOT YOU, MEG!” head counselor in Sleepaway Camp). But I think the biggest star here is the editing, which employs split screens (and multi-screens and screens-within-screens) years before Brian DePalma became known for them, and it’s a fascinating way to move through the facts of the case without letting the movie get too dry.</span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9h5eZ6FbffQRaPpiaqTRnHQkcIEA_omCRUgjlECU395ezBFwKNZQ4lu0svLmCf2Z75Kw1d12R0R_5uXDJ_8TqgjW2ryz8qUviIPXlKR_WGHAidi5LB3X6mK0T5PuGMt42liscNz5sNch9gAcnhIH20KZDIYd4xmOpRYJhRvlT8DVwPe8an5Cgwlsamw/s1920/threeintheattic0.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9h5eZ6FbffQRaPpiaqTRnHQkcIEA_omCRUgjlECU395ezBFwKNZQ4lu0svLmCf2Z75Kw1d12R0R_5uXDJ_8TqgjW2ryz8qUviIPXlKR_WGHAidi5LB3X6mK0T5PuGMt42liscNz5sNch9gAcnhIH20KZDIYd4xmOpRYJhRvlT8DVwPe8an5Cgwlsamw/w640-h360/threeintheattic0.png" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Three in the Attic (1968)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 11pt;">Trailers: John Tucker Must Die, Plaisir D’Amour</i></div></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The theme song from this movie – “Paxton Quigley’s Had the Course” – is one of my favorite tracks on the Once Upon… soundtrack. The premise intrigued me and instantly reminded me of both of the movies whose trailers I watched before this movie. And I liked … some of it. I’m all for the idea of female revenge, and especially in a situation like the one in this film, where three wronged women band together against a common f***-boy. But the way they take their revenge is bizarre and seems like throwing this young man right into the briar patch, so to speak. It also sends a chill down my spine to think what it would look like if the genders were reversed and it was three men against one woman. In fact, we see a very similar situation play out in our protagonist’s frat house, in the moment that finally gives him his conscience. That’s not to say there’s not worth in exploring how different it looks for women to treat a man this way. I just wish their revenge had been more clever and less sex crime. Also, this movie has one of the weirdest credit sequences I’ve ever seen.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1K_GgLbxadvPEzXIL9UVcPFex5Ggjl-58spdkoM8HNvs5kKw9aCybWWz6Y--n72H7sXI3tKYLuLN5kBnLYNa9yPCEdns3o4twY4YEexGeiEq2Ea5ywrh_y01PjE2IMb3YOVO16lrB0n4nwEPXE-GfPdqk8iaOfFEuSfIgBpf_RhghULejfOsPbExjlg/s1201/illustratedman1969_24764_1201x784_10112018022722.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="1201" height="418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1K_GgLbxadvPEzXIL9UVcPFex5Ggjl-58spdkoM8HNvs5kKw9aCybWWz6Y--n72H7sXI3tKYLuLN5kBnLYNa9yPCEdns3o4twY4YEexGeiEq2Ea5ywrh_y01PjE2IMb3YOVO16lrB0n4nwEPXE-GfPdqk8iaOfFEuSfIgBpf_RhghULejfOsPbExjlg/w640-h418/illustratedman1969_24764_1201x784_10112018022722.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Illustrated Man (1969)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 11pt;">Trailers: The Terminal Man, Memories</i></div></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was not wild about this. The trailer makes it sound so ominous and awesome and the movie is just kind of dull. Rod Steiger plays a man whose body (or most of it) is covered in “skin illustrations” (it is Very Important to him that you don’t call them tattoos). The framing story, where he meets a man in the woods and starts telling the stories behind some of his skin illustrations didn’t make sense to me at all. Why was either of them there? Why does Rod Steiger keep his dog in a sack? (Spoiler alert: Nothing bad happens to the dog, thank goodness, except that he’s in a bag for a minute before being let out, which is weird and never explained.) The stories themselves are decent as far as sci-fi stories go, but it’s not clear whether these things actually happened to the illustrated man (in the future?) or the illustrations are prophecies (which would seem a plausible conclusion given the ending of the movie). It’s just kind of nonsense. I know Zack Snyder signed on to do a remake of this about 15 years ago, but I never heard anything else about it. It seems ripe for a remake. There are some good ideas in here, but they deserve a better movie.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKaMEhSbiaSIDfdqzEq3JK9xqQd_XV24KSoJ90MRlQ6Ja5hCaTTsryPnsZkoDX-scwxJliwsXlP5jB1UpFqys5dJERw_bpUD5VYEyTGVgg0rPDPOZ-rKUEfVH4NVbK-nZekZ6ZvP5oojTeMjenRvM_zU7s15nPEs0RWg7WNGrKd--N9qh3bK14kPtjA/s704/hammerhead.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="704" height="350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKaMEhSbiaSIDfdqzEq3JK9xqQd_XV24KSoJ90MRlQ6Ja5hCaTTsryPnsZkoDX-scwxJliwsXlP5jB1UpFqys5dJERw_bpUD5VYEyTGVgg0rPDPOZ-rKUEfVH4NVbK-nZekZ6ZvP5oojTeMjenRvM_zU7s15nPEs0RWg7WNGrKd--N9qh3bK14kPtjA/w640-h350/hammerhead.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Hammerhead (1968)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 11pt;">Trailers: Crossplot, Smashing Time</i></div></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A swinging ‘60s Bond knock-off with an Amicus budget. Not as fabulous or ostentatious as pretty much any Bond movie, but still pretty fun. A movie that is trying really hard to be Goldfinger, including a theme song that’s trying really hard to be “Goldfinger” – sung by someone trying really hard to be Shirley Bassey (she doesn’t have the range, darling). The producer, Irving Allen, made The Wrecking Crew that same year – a Matt Helm movie with Dean Martin in the title role and Sharon Tate as his helper and love interest. This isn’t nearly as silly (or fun) as The Wrecking Crew but it has a similar style. A wild Kathleen Byron appears (though not as wild as she was in Black Narcissus two decades before) as the mother of a piano prodigy. Tarantino is a fan of this movie, but not of the star Vince Edwards, and I have to agree – he’s pretty forgettable. The villain of this movie is especially eccentric and travels to and from his helicopter in this tiny closet-like device. He does meet an amazingly abrupt end at the hand of a character I had been annoyed by up until that very moment.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCu3NSDdsvDHS4BFRUNQJB0ieEPNb4oTdKraZcmfg4Wpm4-l2xkEG7RnYiECGC63fynES036NK2yiYJgXyxEk1RYhpqUrPzObygslzxqOsSfG3aU9iDkgBpavRpUuLuYLcr5_3UEoRS7N_ssQRZ2CB2Son0WBTcDT_qbQ28a-mxhYqkZhOLPOntVFL4g/s1280/theycametorob.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCu3NSDdsvDHS4BFRUNQJB0ieEPNb4oTdKraZcmfg4Wpm4-l2xkEG7RnYiECGC63fynES036NK2yiYJgXyxEk1RYhpqUrPzObygslzxqOsSfG3aU9iDkgBpavRpUuLuYLcr5_3UEoRS7N_ssQRZ2CB2Son0WBTcDT_qbQ28a-mxhYqkZhOLPOntVFL4g/w640-h360/theycametorob.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">They Came to Rob Las Vegas (1968)</span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Model Shop, Machine Gun McCain</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I really liked this. It’s a kind of heist movie I’ve not seen too often before, though it reminded me a bit of Ocean’s Thirteen, where it’s a heist as revenge and the money (at least for the main character) doesn’t matter that much. Gary Lockwood, despite some unfortunate near-Will-Byers-level bad hair, is quite good in this, as is Elke Sommer, and Jack Palance and Lee J. Cobb are always welcome presences. I love the idea of these two different generations of robbers. Gary Lockwood’s character turns down a job because the mark has more modern security and the job will take more sophisticated planning. And we see just how sophisticated it is when he finally decides to do it. There’s a lot of inherent tension in the job itself, taking place largely in one space, with the main obstacle being just having the patience to let things play out in the robbers’ favor. And even though you know how it’s probably going to end, the movie still gets you on the criminals’ side and makes you want them to succeed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1jasqHvH40YOI-2Ydqbc5hB8n46r2j-ggmt2czVq6yjKMYqwfTnyYMNPqpPC0oiCmbk0udatFDjytqtg9ouJDITUQuPPeKs4i5Hy2llB5v09JI5zQ30stFUXzkcvsE0Z55YegG1WGWNZFLuYf5T8-BbByNV14LS3TOUHUw_4DqyzdB4liRtU58kb5w/s848/ladyincement.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="848" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie1jasqHvH40YOI-2Ydqbc5hB8n46r2j-ggmt2czVq6yjKMYqwfTnyYMNPqpPC0oiCmbk0udatFDjytqtg9ouJDITUQuPPeKs4i5Hy2llB5v09JI5zQ30stFUXzkcvsE0Z55YegG1WGWNZFLuYf5T8-BbByNV14LS3TOUHUw_4DqyzdB4liRtU58kb5w/w640-h276/ladyincement.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Lady in Cement (1968)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Tony Rome, Fathom</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was a bit meh. It was part of a new breed of hard-boiled detective movies that were previously hot in the 40s – not quite neo-noir but getting there. Frank Sinatra reprises his role from the movie’s predecessor, Tony Rome. And while the opening is pretty spectacular and the twists and turns are kind of fun, this movie never quite knows what it wants to be. It’s sillier and more nudge-nudge humor than most movies of this type (including Tony Rome), but it also tries to be serious and gritty and the two tones don’t go together (or perhaps the filmmakers just don't know how to make them go together). It felt like a cross between a spoof and a genuine detective story and sadly ended up being pretty forgettable. That opening is the thing that will stick with me.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivoQbP4JBLxKK6XGUgP7vzKA3vtmYrFD87MsbsoaLeDajdak-ggSue00vJvls15F6WYZTYeckHgCYi1-LTsy97K4-hmqRcSUhrG_fI0e5Ysm1PNHPLoCILfwiX-_cGgbmQdyVGuuVf-PRdtJddedNdqksjDcVKNUwMlRfLUnrs-hBr4bnWN-eKYkYChg/s1200/prettypoison.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivoQbP4JBLxKK6XGUgP7vzKA3vtmYrFD87MsbsoaLeDajdak-ggSue00vJvls15F6WYZTYeckHgCYi1-LTsy97K4-hmqRcSUhrG_fI0e5Ysm1PNHPLoCILfwiX-_cGgbmQdyVGuuVf-PRdtJddedNdqksjDcVKNUwMlRfLUnrs-hBr4bnWN-eKYkYChg/w640-h360/prettypoison.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Pretty Poison (1968)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Play It as It Lays, Petulia</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This one is probably my favorite of the week. It played as the second half of a double bill with Lady in Cement at the fictional Van Nuys Drive-In in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and it’s definitely the fairer of the two. Starring Anthony Perkins, eight years after Psycho (his first film since then, in fact), and Tuesday Weld. It doesn’t surprise me that people at the time compared Perkins’s character to Norman Bates, but they’re not that similar at all. His character has just been released from a mental institution (end of similarity, and that it shares more with Psycho II), and is going through all the usual parole stuff. He meets Tuesday Weld’s character – a high school student – and falls in love. Having an active imagination that his parole officer warns him about indulging, he pretends to be a CIA agent, “recruiting” this girl to help him with supposed missions, and she gets a little too into the excitement of it all and turns out to be a real piece of work. I do wonder if she would be where she is as a character in the end if she’d never met the Perkins character. I love the tone of this and the moments of dark comedy, and it’s an all-around gorgeous film. Also, look out for Ken Kercheval (of TV’s Dallas) in a small role, a decade before he played Cliff Barnes.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5imCE9GAj-6ItWB6tu8JJo4qhQKIhKPN0PR_fhZofCD__xDmDn77HYXRPR5GRT98GeCMBpvRt3FDv_X_QU2baHH4meK4SdoeuuZgSlXwLpR0cDT_KcSbIDylMO1dLZeaS1N-ksFLegJ0uoEKjt8UriqOcTr5rZfRbSgEis3O0fNpUwzTsP0NYjK2yUA/s1280/krakatoa.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="1280" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5imCE9GAj-6ItWB6tu8JJo4qhQKIhKPN0PR_fhZofCD__xDmDn77HYXRPR5GRT98GeCMBpvRt3FDv_X_QU2baHH4meK4SdoeuuZgSlXwLpR0cDT_KcSbIDylMO1dLZeaS1N-ksFLegJ0uoEKjt8UriqOcTr5rZfRbSgEis3O0fNpUwzTsP0NYjK2yUA/w640-h272/krakatoa.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Krakatoa, East of Java (1968)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Crack in the World, Hell and High Water</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I looooove a good 1960s special effects disaster flick with a healthy dose of soap opera thrown in! This takes a while to get going, and while I can see what they were going for in trying to establish a wide array of characters that we’re supposed to care about, it’s just not terribly compelling until the second half. It also could use a more robust leading man than Maxamilian Schell, who I can’t see without seeing his performance in the German TV Hamlet that appeared on MST3K (“Damn, I’m interesting.”). I feel like Burt Lancaster would have been a better fit. I wish I could have seen this in a theater since it was made for 70mm Cinerama. The practical effects are pretty impressive and were nominated for an Oscar. Not a game-changer, by any means, but still pretty entertaining.</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-36060018897668687452022-07-17T20:30:00.003-07:002022-07-18T00:09:27.833-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: BNAT Fave Double Features VII - Fighting Fascists Double<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of these movies caused an international incident and was pulled from most theaters. The other played a month after the 2016 election, when America had just elected its own fascist.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-oMn8Cngi-5-ZMSzgawqinjoTyvpls1UGbVKEUXtCSOmk-lBfUkc-8I-fFev5Fz28hS37BUr5QonUnZppNfChNeKlfrbBT7izMUMdBU5Tl5YY1iw_1yJBBX_jnnJ2mi7RvvOBlPFsS_RlBXCB3p38mYE5jOwXjKEXlpDoqPIghiwFYEXHFdeMJ8dGQ/s912/theinterview.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="912" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-oMn8Cngi-5-ZMSzgawqinjoTyvpls1UGbVKEUXtCSOmk-lBfUkc-8I-fFev5Fz28hS37BUr5QonUnZppNfChNeKlfrbBT7izMUMdBU5Tl5YY1iw_1yJBBX_jnnJ2mi7RvvOBlPFsS_RlBXCB3p38mYE5jOwXjKEXlpDoqPIghiwFYEXHFdeMJ8dGQ/w640-h360/theinterview.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Interview (2014) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/767062.html" target="_blank">BNAT 16 (2014)</a></span></div></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Trailers: American Ultra, Team America: World Police</i></span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Haters gonna hate. And ainters gonna ain’t. We saw this at BNAT riiiiiight before the shit hit the fan – three days before all the theaters started pulling the movie. So this turned out to be one of the more infamous screenings of the event, although there’s not much in the film that is actually infamous. The plot revolves around a celebrity talk show host who gets the opportunity to interview North Korean president Kim Jong-un; meanwhile, the CIA sees this as a chance to "take him out." Some aspects of this movie aren’t as funny now as they were eight years ago (not in an offensive way, just a bit stale), but it mines its pop culture references better than most comedies. The skewering of “celebrity news” is as sharp as ever, though. It also brought the term “honey-dick” into all of our lives, and for that I am grateful. And on a personal note, because of <a href="https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5667740/1/Batman-and-Robocop-The-Day-the-Men-Found-Love" target="_blank">this fanfic</a>, I laughed way harder at “you just got f***ed by Robocop” than anyone else.</span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-4d2ccf4c-7fff-7c9f-be77-13e37427ec83"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">#theyhateuscuztheyaintus</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gQeMyS6yaPSmFADckkOYA8XPXR2chjOD5F5SIuhGtxd-fqskMLTSV_kNHyifQFi8qa6Y3U6vpEu2fIQl3PM5611A3rK7aOCBizok1UA0jFd5PxEGF1I_6cw0esSqmZdEsm0XxcYoQ2G5x3bSXNnLBpX-AcFQrDKq0o0ABZ8NuOJ0Z2N5Svz8GOKMUw/s2560/PimpernelSmith1.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="2560" height="380" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9gQeMyS6yaPSmFADckkOYA8XPXR2chjOD5F5SIuhGtxd-fqskMLTSV_kNHyifQFi8qa6Y3U6vpEu2fIQl3PM5611A3rK7aOCBizok1UA0jFd5PxEGF1I_6cw0esSqmZdEsm0XxcYoQ2G5x3bSXNnLBpX-AcFQrDKq0o0ABZ8NuOJ0Z2N5Svz8GOKMUw/w640-h380/PimpernelSmith1.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">'Pimpernel' Smith (1941) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/774474.html" target="_blank">BNAT 18 (the last, 2016)</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Great Dictator</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BNAT 18 was about a month after the 2016 election and some feared it would be the last BNAT – which would turn out to be true, but not for the reason suspected. In any case, after living through that election and facing at least four years in which America’s worst person was going to be in charge, this movie was something I needed very much. Directed by Leslie Howard, who also stars, this movie takes the character of the Scarlet Pimpernel (which Howard also played previously) and places him (or rather a Cambridge professor facsimile) in WW2, where he surreptitiously helps artists, scientists and other notable figures escape Nazi Germany. There's a romantic element that I loved, particularly as Smith seems to have a lot in common with Pygmalion (Howard also previously played GB Shaw's version of *that* character -- better known as Henry Higgins). The final scene is incredible, particularly the “You are doomed” speech. Howard’s practiced aloofness makes the movie funnier than you might expect, given the subject matter. And his character is practically porn for sapiosexuals like myself.</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-27464611917121651322022-07-16T00:39:00.012-07:002022-07-17T01:56:11.814-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: BNAT Fave Double Features VI - Bros on a Mission Double<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Men on a mission" has been a time-honored trope of adventure movies since just about the beginning of movies. And today's movies are a couple of great ones. </span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">(No link to a BNAT 17 LJ post because I did not attend that year; I did an HPNAT with a friend that weekend instead.)</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTNFZUCwMf5ELsk78p3kztL-jvA-1KXDBZ-jchdwplZLm6ZmO6yIzYvYrEJNr62DQbtq0OaZ6m1KEYijdjfczqDVRqV9wjcTr0v7gFCBH6IrOgKV_Zdnkc08MiF5vzC2xfyhHU-PSRV44HNVg8YKW-ZNp5I06l-iAxL8UsBhJzNJaU40Gt8n89cutyQ/s1280/gungadin.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTNFZUCwMf5ELsk78p3kztL-jvA-1KXDBZ-jchdwplZLm6ZmO6yIzYvYrEJNr62DQbtq0OaZ6m1KEYijdjfczqDVRqV9wjcTr0v7gFCBH6IrOgKV_Zdnkc08MiF5vzC2xfyhHU-PSRV44HNVg8YKW-ZNp5I06l-iAxL8UsBhJzNJaU40Gt8n89cutyQ/w640-h360/gungadin.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Gunga Din (1939) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at BNAT 17 (2015)</span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Trailers: Soldiers Three, Kelly’s Heroes</i></span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-6ab925e3-7fff-7599-b64c-1d3a2417315d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s no doubt this movie is well made and that the actors are great in it. And the story is certainly well told. But the story itself gets on my nerves, not only because of what it has to say about the Indian people (not to mention that Gunga Din is portrayed as a hero for betraying them) but also because the whole story only happens because these soldiers want to see some action (which they think will convince their friend to not get married and stay in the army – which is actually what ends up happening!) and so that Cary Grant’s character can steal some gold. These three/four guys just go off half-cocked and write checks the British Army has to cash. It all seems so unnecessary to me. Having said that, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do love this movie in spite of itself. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has also obviously inspired many other filmmakers, perhaps especially George Lucas, who based Jar-Jar Binks on the title character (even giving his race the name "Gungan") and apparently originally planned to give Jar-Jar a similar character arc. The extreme backlash to the character convinced him to drop it. This one is a classic, but with a LOT of asterisks. Hardly the only one of these to play BNAT (or indeed this week’s doubles).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt93_4cOfzdQYyMpp4rV304SzLEQcu-8Ca7wcCYBKE73tT3kbodZTtc9uqfWw7vKx_PQwvxujUkDVNIm12VTHJeA2L5Yp135p9hesE06P4IdOPWPNkOzupCN7YscrvCox3YDYekAaBAK6eXQ_kxYkuXp6T42DxaNQGSQLlLmA8qZ4sZLLIis3fr0-_AQ/s1280/returnoftheking.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt93_4cOfzdQYyMpp4rV304SzLEQcu-8Ca7wcCYBKE73tT3kbodZTtc9uqfWw7vKx_PQwvxujUkDVNIm12VTHJeA2L5Yp135p9hesE06P4IdOPWPNkOzupCN7YscrvCox3YDYekAaBAK6eXQ_kxYkuXp6T42DxaNQGSQLlLmA8qZ4sZLLIis3fr0-_AQ/w640-h360/returnoftheking.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/29343.html" target="_blank">BNAT 5 (2003)</a> (Theatrical Cut)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, </i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(<i>Please note that the BNAT 5 post linked above was written in 2003, when I felt somewhat differently about the final film and before most of us had learned many unpleasant things about its director.</i>)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This one is well into the mission, but a mission nonetheless (I didn't have time for all three). Another one about which everything has already been said (and I’ve said plenty myself in other places). Yes, I watched the theatrical cut because it’s the one we saw at BNAT (and Wahleecon, incidentally -- still LOLing at "His name is Faramir," Emily). Don’t worry; I’ve seen the extended edition many many times. My favorite moments are still the lighting of the beacons (*happiest sobs*) and that silent moment with the hobbits in the Green Dragon at the end, but there are so many more noteworthy and iconic moments that it is fruitless to even start listing them. I do feel the need to shout-out both the Pelennor Fields battle sequence and the Black Gate battle sequence as absolute master classes in editing and the way they both push forward ALL of the competing story threads and character beats more effectively than just about any action movie (or any other kind) I’ve ever seen. And I love watching the credits roll with Alan Lee's excellent drawings of the cast, remembering how the whole room at BNAT 5 applauded each name like it was a curtain call. Well, except John Noble, poor guy. Fringe didn't exist yet and most people only knew him as this shitty father. :P</span></p></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-46219166269408907672022-07-15T04:19:00.003-07:002022-07-17T00:37:04.229-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: BNAT Fave Double Features V - Family Values Double<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I hope I haven't opened a portal to a dark dimension by watching these two back-to-back.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkcJzqU6I3bZ0S-n1eXckdCkGg8-B6QkNVC3uMNZvFlxwzf-0eahmr2DQFL6BCGyCO1eZ5At2lscSqNorJ6yGbh6zTkaecEMcGkBgj7PM_Kcc-AvENpu8MWqA4NxOzYbnWelRlds-zNGgaMtw_j5k89Sy1lyIB4lo1uiZh6IoS89cV88MpkYiNbLwTbw/s1000/Night-Warning-1.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkcJzqU6I3bZ0S-n1eXckdCkGg8-B6QkNVC3uMNZvFlxwzf-0eahmr2DQFL6BCGyCO1eZ5At2lscSqNorJ6yGbh6zTkaecEMcGkBgj7PM_Kcc-AvENpu8MWqA4NxOzYbnWelRlds-zNGgaMtw_j5k89Sy1lyIB4lo1uiZh6IoS89cV88MpkYiNbLwTbw/w640-h320/Night-Warning-1.webp" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Night Warning (1981) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/241861.html" target="_blank">BNAT 4 (2002)</a></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Trailers: Next of Kin (1982), Pieces</i></span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still probably my favorite vintage movie that played at any BNAT. There is no reason for this to be as good as it is. A former “video nasty” powered by two absolutely unhinged performances (Susan Tyrrell and, to a lesser degree, Bo Svenson), it’s part slasher, part after-school special. It’s also an uncharacteristically sympathetic (certainly for the time) portrayal of gay characters. Coach Landers is the real hero of the movie and it’s the homophobes who are the villains. It starts with an almost Final Destination-esque action/horror sequence. It has one of my favorite lines EVER (“College is for rich kids and people with brains. You wouldn’t fit in there.”). And every single moment after Aunt Cheryl cuts her hair is 24 karat GOLD. I finally cracked the seal on my Code Red Blu of this, and it looks incredible (though I'm still partial to the VHS version, which seems like the most appropriate way to experience this).</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4w4qNtK_R0IUvwOJsIvzAuyikLjsTo7Nqofuu9dsb_3aCIVPHs3MGAFXhRlSNmoiBy7HhboXft3JQaPMMi5RGc22lXbfkGDMe6bhMY1WuCwGIrtyfWq8-Fyzgi9epwt1a0g58LUemnFD07PZxUd05VEIvwLWgY695KVdt7K8fZUh0rRd6zCaBHboa9w/s1920/toysarenotforchildren.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4w4qNtK_R0IUvwOJsIvzAuyikLjsTo7Nqofuu9dsb_3aCIVPHs3MGAFXhRlSNmoiBy7HhboXft3JQaPMMi5RGc22lXbfkGDMe6bhMY1WuCwGIrtyfWq8-Fyzgi9epwt1a0g58LUemnFD07PZxUd05VEIvwLWgY695KVdt7K8fZUh0rRd6zCaBHboa9w/w640-h360/toysarenotforchildren.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Toys Are Not for Children (1972) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-61d00d6a-7fff-b414-d9e3-d79c1dc2138c"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/127718.html" target="_blank">BNAT 6 (2004)</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: The Corruption of Chris Miller, Angel (1984)</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m always surprised by how thoughtful and artistic this actually is because I always lump it in with other exploitation movies and the story seems ripe for exploitation. But as shocking as so much of this movie is, it takes its characters and story dead serious. And the filmmakers are flexing their muscles and being inspired by all the new wave films coming out of the 60s, which you can see in the editing and the nonlinear storytelling. (I just had a thought that this would make an interesting double with Poor Pretty Eddie, but I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. :P) I recently got the Blu-ray, which really brings out how beautiful and colorful it is. Marcia Forbes, in her only film role, gives a genuinely great performance and plays the lead role with a childlike naivety that is never over-the-top or a joke. The ending is one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve EVER seen. Still. Unforgettable.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2861421504624238935.post-88810282866636319572022-07-14T04:25:00.013-07:002022-07-17T00:34:09.664-07:00SUMMERFEST '22: BNAT Fave Double Features IV - "Woke Nonsense" Double<div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Remember when movies were pure entertainment and didn't have all that woke crap? Yeah, me either. Here are a couple that ring my SJW bells.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-2OJ1GVvdZNxxhNh05Cz_bbmXdbldf0D7YhcLlSstuNUr53h4PPPivjb8qK31sQz64ZRErLch8rrx4x4Iy1CHCG7swr9QXzM3_6_4ia-suHMmV4NjR8x_StmC9DrT6TO_Bb3fkx-vEMJLq9Iyi2-yX7CR-xtNfYwqzgmNxcnV_BmAZ9ilIujQegL0g/s960/inherit-the-wind_960_589_80.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="960" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia-2OJ1GVvdZNxxhNh05Cz_bbmXdbldf0D7YhcLlSstuNUr53h4PPPivjb8qK31sQz64ZRErLch8rrx4x4Iy1CHCG7swr9QXzM3_6_4ia-suHMmV4NjR8x_StmC9DrT6TO_Bb3fkx-vEMJLq9Iyi2-yX7CR-xtNfYwqzgmNxcnV_BmAZ9ilIujQegL0g/w640-h392/inherit-the-wind_960_589_80.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Inherit the Wind (1960) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/345171.html" target="_blank">BNAT 8 (2006)</a></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><i>Trailers: 12 Angry Men, Judgment at Nuremberg</i></span></div></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I first saw this 16 years ago, and I wish it were not even more relevant now than it was then. Based on the stage play, it’s a fictionalization of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial and -- having come out in 1960 -- a pointed response to the McCarthy era. Spencer Tracy and Fredric March are titans, obviously, and Gene Kelly is an amusing sort of troll in this. But the standout for me is Dick York, who plays the beleaguered schoolteacher on trial for breaking the law by teaching evolution. Nonetheless, Tracy gets all the good dialogue (though Kelly’s “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” is truly a gem), and his questioning of March’s character on the witness stand is legendary. The only strange thing to me is what’s so special about sour apple trees – the mob is determined to hang every heathen on one.</span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljeWbrkD9Qm-NsSk9WkIVa_hJj33QldOsrewVm0j6pdmFK3tod8ALbh5kyXLGiIpNkzjEMMtE5M49OXpr54ZkjdJPgqfY2GpRHa6byBiiMs7_dw5NlGUrr9Vr7O7Wfl77eDqdau8HyqwWWXXQ2oiKt0ZbNi_bmilGNnmTYj3Ba5Sw78WF1B01g66rrQ/s795/hunchback1939.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="795" height="474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljeWbrkD9Qm-NsSk9WkIVa_hJj33QldOsrewVm0j6pdmFK3tod8ALbh5kyXLGiIpNkzjEMMtE5M49OXpr54ZkjdJPgqfY2GpRHa6byBiiMs7_dw5NlGUrr9Vr7O7Wfl77eDqdau8HyqwWWXXQ2oiKt0ZbNi_bmilGNnmTYj3Ba5Sw78WF1B01g66rrQ/w640-h474/hunchback1939.png" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) (rewatch)</span></b></div></span></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-5794bd25-7fff-3fec-7cd5-d559eacf9733"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Played at <a href="https://connielane.livejournal.com/678505.html" target="_blank">BNAT 12 (2010)</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Trailers: Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)</i></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If the only version of this story you’ve ever seen is the Disney version (which I also love, in its own way), you should check this one out. Not quite as depressing as Hugo’s novel but much closer to it than the Disney film, which can barely touch on the darkness of the story (though wow, Frollo’s song “Hellfire” certainly goes there). Charles Laughton as Quasimodo gives one of the all-time great performances, conveying so much through heavy makeup and not much dialogue. While the protagonist of the novel is Esmeralda, most adaptations center more on Quasimodo, and this film is no exception – though one could argue the poet Gringoire is a secondary protagonist and gives the movie most of its message. This is such a wonderful movie, and there are few moments more triumphant than Quasimodo’s rescue of Esmeralda from the gallows. Just as there are few things more heartbreaking than the movie's final moments.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>P. K. Nailhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00286042203186668113noreply@blogger.com0