Anora on Fandango. New this year and up for best picture most likely. Tale of a Russian 21 year-old living in NYC sort of on his own, in his parents mansion, He meets Anora (Ani), an exotic dancer, and falls for her. Very entertaining, but not sure it is a best picture quality film. If you are interested in exotic dancers, nudity and sex, the first third of the movie is chock full of it, then it pretty much stops.
Interstellar- Netflix 2014 maybe? Came up on recommendations and Iād never seen it when it was first out. Generally like the actors who were in it. But man this was an unbelievable dog with few redeeming features.
The Room Next Door at the theater. Stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as long time friends who havenāt seen each other in years. Swinton has stage 3 cervical cancer and is receiving a new treatment. Things go sideways a little bit. The movie is almost 100% dialog driven between the two actresses. John Turturro has a small role and a few very others have very minor roles (less than a couple minutes each). I thought the story was good, but the acting was so stiff. Sounded like they were reading their lines at a table read through at least the first hour. Had a lot of good things to say throughout though, so worth the time.
Sirocco - 1951 Humphrey Bogart
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Wallace & Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl on Netflix. Might get an Oscar nomination, so I watched it. Not sure Iāve seen much in the W&G universe, but it was mildly entertaining. Reasonably interesting story, but the grown-up men, Wallace and the police chief, were always many steps behind.
Subservience on Netflix. The latest from Megan Fox. A thriller where she plays an AI enabled robot to help around the house. Wife has a bad heart, waiting for a transplant. Dad is a construction foreman who needs help around the house with 2 kids while mom is hospitalized indefinitely as they wait for a donor, so they get āAliceā. Does Alice become sentient or not is sort of the question and what does she do once she overcomes her programming? Not too bad for the genre.
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Sounds exactly the same as āMeganā if it is a horror film.
Or, maybe it is a happier ending like āI sing the Body Electricā from āThe Twilight Zoneā episode of yore.
Becoming Hitchcock - The Legacy of Blackmail (TCM) As a movie buff, a good documentary on Hitchcock, but a bit ālist-ieā, repetitive and the narration was rather bland.
Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot (Airplane) Better than I expected, though a bit too Jesus-ie for me. Based on true story of a town that started adopting hard to handle kids. Actually, rather well done, not too scrubbed and it is a miracle stuff.
Freudās Last Session (Airplane) Anthony Hopkins as Freud discussing religion with CS Lewis. Ok, a bit too talky and a bit confusing on continuity and flashbacks.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix) Documentary of a disabled boy who spends all his time in computer fantasy games. His parents think he is lonely, but he develops a very real social circle. Well done, it moved me.
His Three Daughters (Netflix) The dialogue felt a bit forced and was a bit stiff, but boy did some things hit home for recent personal experiences
Emilia PĆ©rez (Netflix) Different, quirky. I liked the musical interludes, but was ultimately unsatisfied with where it went. Selena Gomez, just didnāt seem to fit the rest of the casting.`
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Not horror, more thriller. Not a really happy ending as a sequel looks possible.
Nickel Boys at the theater. Based on a book that my wife said was very well written. It is a rough account of a āreform schoolā in Florida in the mid 1960ās focusing on the portion populated by African American boys. Interesting story in general, but I would never recommend the film due 100% to the incredibly poor work by the director. What a total POS. He tried to use about 100 different things he learned in film school last year and none of them worked. Also, according to my wife, I completely missed the switcheroo at the end of the movie. I still think she is wrong, but her explanation does directly from the book. Not the sign of a good movie. Stay far away.
Back in Action on Netflix. Diaz/Foxx as spies who quit to raise a family and get sucked back in after 15 years. Standard fare but I like Diaz in these types of roles (Knight and Day, Charlieās Angels). Felt a little bit Spy Kids though. Fun and not as predictable as I expected. Would watch again.
The Brutalist at the theater. Runs long at 3:35 with a 15 minute intermission. Didnāt need to nearly that long. Not really sure what the infatuation the critics have with this film. It is good, but not great in my book. I found a lot of what may have passed for connective scenes to be pretty irrelevant to either the story of the tone of the film. The minimal sex scenes with on exception (Guy Pearce) didnāt add anything to the film nor did the long rambling dialog scenes. The ending was a bit of a disappointment as I didnāt feel like it wrapped up anything.
Watched Wonka on my first flight home yesterday. Very whimsical so it was good airplane fare. Strong performance by TimothƩe Chalamet but Hugh Grant stole the show as an Oompa Loompa.
Watched something heavier on my connecting flight, Cloud Atlas. Had read the book when it first came out and seen the movie before but it is the type of movie that you pick up something new every time you watch it. Outstanding performance by Tom Hanks and Hugh Grant pops up a few times.
Memoir of a Snail on Fandango. This was the last of the animated films up for Oscar consideration that I hadnāt seen, so we watched it yesterday ($3.99 on Fandango). It was a very weird film, done in Claymation (from Australia). It follows a young girl as she grows up and learns a lot about loss. Her mother loved snails, so she sort of inherited that and wears a hat with snail eyes hanging off it. Hence it is a memoir of her life. The clay people are rather disturbingly crafted and it gives the film a very strange vibe. Not my favorite, but the film is somewhat novel.
The Dain Curse on Amazon. An oldie from 1978 starring James Coburn as a Dashiell Hammett detective. It was originally a mini-series, so this version ran over 3 hours long. Not much to really see here, unless you like Coburnās smugness. There was a pretty big role for Brent Spiner though.
The Conclave.
Eh.
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Greenland.
I guess this was set after Trump made the purchase. Well made B movie.
theater?
Streaming. Peacock.
āA Man Called Ottoā
Good, but the original (Swedish) was way better.
And the book topped the original.
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