Predators (25): Beyond highlighting and analyzing the popularity and legacy of a popular reality news program, the filmmaker smartly goes beyond to answer why these are so popular and how it can affect how we view these crimes and how it affects victims. Stunning and direct. B+
I’m gonna step away from the socials for just a couple days to regroup.
The last few das have rocked me a bit, and I need to recenter myself.
I am ok, and I will continue to be. Just need a bit of quiet self-care away from the noise.
See you this weekend for Oscars!
The Running Man (25): Inessential, unexciting, and in the end too sanctimonious to take seriously. I get Wright likes the original film and novel, but this is the end product? Woof. Powell woefully miscast. Domingo and a film stealing Michael Cera are the only signs of life. C-
Marty Supreme (25): It’s important and impeccably crafted. It’s an utterly American tale of unbridled ambition and immigrant assimilation anchored by a wily and enervating Chalamet. Safdie is swinging huge with every take, but it doesn’t feel excessive. Gwyneth! Jack Fisk! A-
The Roses (25): Colman and Cumberbatch have fun chemistry and are bringing something to a middlebrow movie that undermines their work at most turns and is just tone deaf throughout. Their Greek chorus of awful friends are an epic whiff. C/C-
Always Bears repeating
The Secret Agent (25): Knotty, funny, and thrilling portrait of Brazil’s turbulent history and one man’s attempt to navigate it. Geniusly cast and directed to evoke a style and mood while still being able play with the cinematic form and unpack what we’re watching in real time. A
Zootopia 2 (25): The moment to moment cleverness and sweetness make up where the story gets a bit repetitive. It doesn’t wear out its welcome, and the voice cast is still lovely across the board. The thematic messaging gets a bit jumbled for my taste. Entertaining. B/B+
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 (11): Love the triumphant nature of the final battle and the elegiac ache of Snape’s chapter on screen. The visual effects and fan-servicing moments aren’t too indulgent. Glad Maggie Smith got a moment. That coda though…eek. B/B+
Train Dreams (25): Bentley/Kwedar’s sensitivity and tender eye makes much of the film a elegiac, sensory experience. Eventually though, it and Edgerton’s performance still feels too at arm’s length for me to love. Really wish they removed the VO. Stoic but wanted furtive. B+
Mission: Impossible- The Final Reckoning (25): The BIG set pieces—the submarine, the biplane—are as awe-inspiring as you imagine and they’re just as expertly shot and cut. The rest is so portentous and heavy with McGuffins galore, but it’s very watchable. Just too long. B-
It is giving each other an atmosphere in which each can grow.
It is finding room for the things of the spirit.
It is a common search for the good and the beautiful.
It is establishing a relationship in which the independence is equal, dependence is mutual, and the obligation is reciprocal.
Ms. Joanne Woodward, one of the greatest actresses ever, turned 94 yesterday.
She was married to Paul Newman for 50 years, and they had an amazing, complicated marriage. I’m just in love with them frankly. Newman spoke on how they kept their marriage strong, and they’re words to live by.
Paul Newman with a beard playing a himbo artist though. My god.
What A Way to Go! (64): Excellent concept rife with possibilities, but the execution is a little dodgier. All the actors are having a ball especially Newman and Kelly, but I just need it tightened more? Or less outwardly dumb by the end. Peerless costumes, hair and makeup. B-
Ladies and germs, Daddy Giant has re-entered the room
The Silence of the Lambs (91): An undeniably perfect film. A genius director assembles a crew of craftsmen at their peak and brings his style to a project you wouldn’t associate with him. Truly frightening and transgressive. Foster and Hopkins have never been better. A+
Fresh Cut Friday.
Slurp
The Crucible (96): Hytner and composer Fenton do err on the side of bombast in their adaptation even when you’d rather some mystery or introspection. Day Lewis is good especially as it goes. Joan Allen is remarkable; Winona is less so. The piece continues to be prescient. B/B+
The Life of Chuck (25): Reaches, maybe too desperately, for some sense of mystical profundity. The problem is by design the film feels at arms length. The middle section is my favorite mostly due to its fleet approach. Ends up feeling like an extended pharmaceutical ad. B-/C+
The Hospital (71): Maybe slightly too over its skis with how many different issues it tries to tackle, but from its arsenic-tinged dialogue to the stupendous lead performance by Scott there’s a lot to like. Hiller’s direction feels almost too human for how satirical the work. B
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 1 (10): Admire its willingness to buck traditional structure in favor of the something more deliberate and punctuated with encroaching doom. The shadow puppet ‘Tale of the Three Brothers’ is the highlight of the entire series. B+
Love & Basketball (00): Gorgeously wrought romantic drama with a killer soundtrack, the sexiest leads, and they even get the basketball right. The cast is terrific even in the smaller parts, but the ever-fierce Alfre Woodard and the indomitable Sanaa Lathan are perfect. A-
The Deer Hunter (78): Exceptionally directed from the small human moments to the grand effects of war on communities and people. It’s thorough, tough, and deeply emotional. Exceptionally cast and performed. The film is the purest of definition of ambition and hubris. God-tier. A+
Funny Girl (68): Streisand is a dynamo: pure star power, nuanced emotion in both singing and acting. She IS the movie. Wyler fashions a film around her that can hang with her for the first half. Sputters with a poorly paced second half until that transcendent ‘My Man’ finale. B
Hidden Figures (16): Driven by personality and heart, it’s a truest definition of a crowd-pleaser. It just plays. The three leads have incredible chemistry with each other, but Taraji is quite an actress if given the chance. Pharrell’s score bops along with joyful momentum. B+
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (23): Felt the sagginess of the middle third more on a rewatch, and it does feel like a first act of a whole story. But, the energy, technical showmanship, and that score are only bettered in revisiting. The Gwen opening is chef’s kiss. A-
This year's Oscar nominees tell us which actor or actress from the Golden Age they would bring to the Academy Awards ceremony as their date. #31DaysOfOscar
Goodbye June (25): Easily Mirren’s best work in ages, but what a sad trombone. There are moments throughout that were affecting, but there’s almost one too many siblings? There’s a quality Winslet brings to how she shoots her actors I liked, but in general I was colder overall. C
