What Are You Watching in Jan-April 2026? - TV Shows or Film!
Talk Movie Lovers Plus 2
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1featherbear
Continues: What Are You Watching in Sept-Dec 2025? - TV Shows or Film!
If you caught something in December 2025 but haven't gotten around to posting, you can do it in this thread.
If you're reporting on a movie not viewed in a theater, it would be helpful to indicate what streaming or cable/network service you accessed, or whether it was a streaming rental, or a DVD/Bluray from your collection (have I missed something?), in case other members want to consider watching/or avoiding as well. (If a film or series is exceptionally long, e.g. Suggestions for 2025's Longest Movies welcomed it would affect my decision as well -- when I can be watching UConn Women's Basketball! or my various reading projects).
If you caught something in December 2025 but haven't gotten around to posting, you can do it in this thread.
If you're reporting on a movie not viewed in a theater, it would be helpful to indicate what streaming or cable/network service you accessed, or whether it was a streaming rental, or a DVD/Bluray from your collection (have I missed something?), in case other members want to consider watching/or avoiding as well. (If a film or series is exceptionally long, e.g. Suggestions for 2025's Longest Movies welcomed it would affect my decision as well -- when I can be watching UConn Women's Basketball! or my various reading projects).
2featherbear
Via Netflix or HBO/MAX Ne Zha (2019 1h 50m); HBO/MAX Ne Zha 2 (2025, 2h 24m). Director & screenplay contributor Yu Yang.
Didn’t like but tolerable: 1. not a fan of computer animation, which is how the characters are presented, I’m more of a 2D guy: old school Looney Tunes, Sponge Bob most of the time, Miyazawa. But the overall animation of these two Chinese hits: landscapes, hellscapes, battles, water, heavenly architecture, movement, armies, dragons & demons: spectacular! Rewatchable for sure! Would have been fantastic to watch on the big screen. 2. Ne Zha 2 is dubbed. I was able to watch #1 on Netflix in what I presume was the intended Mandarin, but A24 released it in dubbed form & HBO/MAX didn’t have an option to switch to the original language. Dubbing for me is less immersive, but #2 was so visually fabulous I got used to it.
Things I liked: 1. Overall animation as noted. 2. The interplay of demonic/”pure” --- demon & blue pearl was something you won’t get in Disney; maybe some of that in Pixar but not to this extreme, with twists and turns on good guys/bad guys: maybe the Taoist background? 3. Bodily function humor you won’t get in Disney (or Pixar or the anime I’ve encountered) but without the DRAMA of American taboo breaking – I’m thinking of the Sarah Sherman stand-up I’ve been watching on HBO/MAX. It’s just another part of the movies’ world. Reminded me of some of the childish humor in Sponge Bob.
I was first made aware of the Ne Zha movies from an article in WaPo 09/05/2025: Why the world’s biggest movie bombed in America by Jeff Yang. Basically, it was a hit world wide, w/a 2 billion haul pre-(English language) dubbing – though for all I know it was already being dubbed in different non-Chinese languages or in non-Mandarin dialects. But in the US, to quote Jeff Yang:
““Ne Zha 2” is estimated to have earned just $1.5 million on 2,228 screens, making it the weakest-performing wide-release premiere of 2025. A limited-release subtitled edition released in February earned a more respectable $21 million, leading distributor A24 to bet that a prestige version featuring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh would help bring it mainstream bankability. … It’s part of a long history of cultural missed connections that have kept Chinese blockbusters from translating abroad. And the very things that Western critics complain about most in these movies are often core to the Chinese source material on which they’re based.
““Ne Zha 2” is a unique cinematic experience, with animation that meets and, to some, exceeds the bar set by American studios such as DreamWorks and Disney. For its home audiences, it tells the story of a culturally authentic superhero — a fiend-fighting teen named Ne Zha who shares a body with a dragon spirit named Ao Bing — in bona fide Chinese epic fashion. There are also some unsubtle digs at America for the Chinese nationalist crowd, including an evil clan that wears bald eagle badges and is led by a fat Uncle Sam analogue.” I missed this reference by the way
“In fact, the mythical roots of “Ne Zha 2” go a long way toward explaining the gap between Chinese and Western storytelling — even down to the poop jokes.
“In Chinese culture, epic fantasy sagas have been passed down for centuries and play a role similar to the one Greek myths have played in Western classical traditions — inspiring countless retellings and reinterpretations in literature, onstage and now in cinema.
Indeed, they provided the material for three of China’s biggest movies of the past decade: “Journey to the West” was the source for 2015’s “Monkey King: Hero Is Back,” which was previously China’s most successful animated feature ever; “The Classic of Mountains and Seas” inspired “Monster Hunt,” at the time the highest-grossing film in Chinese history; and a tome called “The Investiture of the Gods” introduced the characters seen in “Ne Zha 2.” Journey to the West was an epic I read in translation in 2024, & I’ve dipped into some movie versions so perhaps that’s why it didn’t seem so “foreign”.
“… the biggest difference is a fundamental expectation of what a full story with a beginning, middle and end looks like. Western stories are rooted in a hero’s journey formula in which an individual protagonist is plucked out of nowhere, achieves greatness through luck or talent, defeats monstrous evil, and subsequently receives their reward of a kingdom, true love or happiness ever after. They tend to be linear, goal-oriented and focused on progress.”
I’m pretty sure a sequel to Ne Zha 2 is in the works providing employment to hordes of workers as the epic rambles on! Stick around for the credits sequence in Ne Zha 2
Per IMDB may also be on Disney+/Hulu or rentable via Amazon Prime & other sources.
Also: Esther Zuckerman. NYT, 08/22/2025: What to Know About the Chinese Blockbuster ‘Ne Zha II’
Didn’t like but tolerable: 1. not a fan of computer animation, which is how the characters are presented, I’m more of a 2D guy: old school Looney Tunes, Sponge Bob most of the time, Miyazawa. But the overall animation of these two Chinese hits: landscapes, hellscapes, battles, water, heavenly architecture, movement, armies, dragons & demons: spectacular! Rewatchable for sure! Would have been fantastic to watch on the big screen. 2. Ne Zha 2 is dubbed. I was able to watch #1 on Netflix in what I presume was the intended Mandarin, but A24 released it in dubbed form & HBO/MAX didn’t have an option to switch to the original language. Dubbing for me is less immersive, but #2 was so visually fabulous I got used to it.
Things I liked: 1. Overall animation as noted. 2. The interplay of demonic/”pure” --- demon & blue pearl was something you won’t get in Disney; maybe some of that in Pixar but not to this extreme, with twists and turns on good guys/bad guys: maybe the Taoist background? 3. Bodily function humor you won’t get in Disney (or Pixar or the anime I’ve encountered) but without the DRAMA of American taboo breaking – I’m thinking of the Sarah Sherman stand-up I’ve been watching on HBO/MAX. It’s just another part of the movies’ world. Reminded me of some of the childish humor in Sponge Bob.
I was first made aware of the Ne Zha movies from an article in WaPo 09/05/2025: Why the world’s biggest movie bombed in America by Jeff Yang. Basically, it was a hit world wide, w/a 2 billion haul pre-(English language) dubbing – though for all I know it was already being dubbed in different non-Chinese languages or in non-Mandarin dialects. But in the US, to quote Jeff Yang:
““Ne Zha 2” is estimated to have earned just $1.5 million on 2,228 screens, making it the weakest-performing wide-release premiere of 2025. A limited-release subtitled edition released in February earned a more respectable $21 million, leading distributor A24 to bet that a prestige version featuring Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh would help bring it mainstream bankability. … It’s part of a long history of cultural missed connections that have kept Chinese blockbusters from translating abroad. And the very things that Western critics complain about most in these movies are often core to the Chinese source material on which they’re based.
““Ne Zha 2” is a unique cinematic experience, with animation that meets and, to some, exceeds the bar set by American studios such as DreamWorks and Disney. For its home audiences, it tells the story of a culturally authentic superhero — a fiend-fighting teen named Ne Zha who shares a body with a dragon spirit named Ao Bing — in bona fide Chinese epic fashion. There are also some unsubtle digs at America for the Chinese nationalist crowd, including an evil clan that wears bald eagle badges and is led by a fat Uncle Sam analogue.” I missed this reference by the way
“In fact, the mythical roots of “Ne Zha 2” go a long way toward explaining the gap between Chinese and Western storytelling — even down to the poop jokes.
“In Chinese culture, epic fantasy sagas have been passed down for centuries and play a role similar to the one Greek myths have played in Western classical traditions — inspiring countless retellings and reinterpretations in literature, onstage and now in cinema.
Indeed, they provided the material for three of China’s biggest movies of the past decade: “Journey to the West” was the source for 2015’s “Monkey King: Hero Is Back,” which was previously China’s most successful animated feature ever; “The Classic of Mountains and Seas” inspired “Monster Hunt,” at the time the highest-grossing film in Chinese history; and a tome called “The Investiture of the Gods” introduced the characters seen in “Ne Zha 2.” Journey to the West was an epic I read in translation in 2024, & I’ve dipped into some movie versions so perhaps that’s why it didn’t seem so “foreign”.
“… the biggest difference is a fundamental expectation of what a full story with a beginning, middle and end looks like. Western stories are rooted in a hero’s journey formula in which an individual protagonist is plucked out of nowhere, achieves greatness through luck or talent, defeats monstrous evil, and subsequently receives their reward of a kingdom, true love or happiness ever after. They tend to be linear, goal-oriented and focused on progress.”
I’m pretty sure a sequel to Ne Zha 2 is in the works providing employment to hordes of workers as the epic rambles on! Stick around for the credits sequence in Ne Zha 2
Per IMDB may also be on Disney+/Hulu or rentable via Amazon Prime & other sources.
Also: Esther Zuckerman. NYT, 08/22/2025: What to Know About the Chinese Blockbuster ‘Ne Zha II’
3KeithChaffee
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Song Sung Blue, a "based on a true love story" movie about a Minnesota couple who found some success in the early 1990s as Lightning & Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute band. Or, as Mike "Lightning" Sardina (Hugh Jackman) insists on calling them, "a Neil Diamond experience." His partner and eventual wife is Claire (Kate Hudson), and both of them have been knocking around the local club scene for a few years when they're booked on the same state-fair oldies/impersonator show. (She's Patsy Cline; he's upset about being asked to fill in as Don Ho.)
The movie itself is a cover of sorts, being based on a 2008 documentary of the same name. And the knowledge that this all really happened is particularly important here, because when the bad times hit (as they inevitably do in such stories), they are so overwhelmingly, mindbogglingly, repetitiously bad that an audience wouldn't believe it if it were being sold as fiction. At my showing this afternoon, when one awful thing happens for a second time, half the audience burst into laughter.
Hudson is particularly good here, and should be (though she won't be) seriously considered in this year's award races. The part is an actor's dream. She's called on to do a big accent, play dramatic trauma and medical crises, and sing; and she does all of it marvelously well without ever slipping into condescension for this midwestern housewife whose dreams, even at their most grandiose, are still fairly small. There are entertaining supporting parts for Michael Imperioli and Mustafa Shakir as impersonators of Buddy Holly and James Brown who become part of the band, and Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi as their manager and booker.
The many musical scenes are well staged in a variety of venues; kudos to art director Angela Stauffer and set decorator Lisa K. Sessions for creating everything from a grungy biker bar to a suburban Thai restaurant.
The story is, to be sure, familiar from so many musical biopics -- struggle, success, setbacks, grand triumph -- but the movie is, like Neil Diamond's music, so solidly crafted and utterly sincere that even while recognizing something a bit cheesy about it, you can't help but be entertained.
The movie itself is a cover of sorts, being based on a 2008 documentary of the same name. And the knowledge that this all really happened is particularly important here, because when the bad times hit (as they inevitably do in such stories), they are so overwhelmingly, mindbogglingly, repetitiously bad that an audience wouldn't believe it if it were being sold as fiction. At my showing this afternoon, when one awful thing happens for a second time, half the audience burst into laughter.
Hudson is particularly good here, and should be (though she won't be) seriously considered in this year's award races. The part is an actor's dream. She's called on to do a big accent, play dramatic trauma and medical crises, and sing; and she does all of it marvelously well without ever slipping into condescension for this midwestern housewife whose dreams, even at their most grandiose, are still fairly small. There are entertaining supporting parts for Michael Imperioli and Mustafa Shakir as impersonators of Buddy Holly and James Brown who become part of the band, and Fisher Stevens and Jim Belushi as their manager and booker.
The many musical scenes are well staged in a variety of venues; kudos to art director Angela Stauffer and set decorator Lisa K. Sessions for creating everything from a grungy biker bar to a suburban Thai restaurant.
The story is, to be sure, familiar from so many musical biopics -- struggle, success, setbacks, grand triumph -- but the movie is, like Neil Diamond's music, so solidly crafted and utterly sincere that even while recognizing something a bit cheesy about it, you can't help but be entertained.
4KeithChaffee
Fox premiered its new cranky-doctor show Best Medicine on Sunday night; the pilot will be repeated on Tuesday night in the show's regular time slot, and is already available on Hulu/Disney+.
It's a remake of the British series Doc Martin (which I haven't seen), and it sets up a familiar TV formula. After an embarrassing mistake in his Boston practice, surgeon Martin Best (Josh Charles) moves to the quaint village of Port Wenn, Maine to become the general practitioner. He spent summers there as a child with his Aunt Sarah (Annie Potts), so you'd think he wouldn't be quite so shocked by or instantly uncomfortable in the place.
But uncomfortable he is, because Martin is a deeply asocial man, and Port Wenn is the sort of town where everyone knows everyone else's name, family history, and personal problems. Our other regular characters are the town schoolteacher, Louisa (Abigail Spencer), and sheriff, Mark (Josh Segarra), whose relationship has just collapsed on the eve of their wedding; and an irritating receptionist, Elaine (the mononymous Cree), whom Martin has inherited from his predecessor.
So it's House meets Northern Exposure with a touch of Gilmore Girls thrown in for good measure. The longtime TV viewer will recognize a lot of familiar, reassuring names in that cast list; other townsfolk are played by recurring performers Didi Conn, Stephen Spinella, John DiMaggio, and Clea Lewis, so we are in good hands on the acting side. (Martin Clunes, who played the lead role in the British original, will reportedly pop up later in the season as Dr. Best's father.)
This is comfort food TV. These are mostly actors we know and like, all of them asked to do precisely what they are good at (though Potts, at least in the pilot, is largely reduced to Aunt Exposition, and I hope she'll have more interesting things to do as the show develops). Best Medicine is never going to surprise its audience, but what it does, it does well. It's a very pleasant network medical procedural, filled with colorful characters and a picturesque setting.
It's a remake of the British series Doc Martin (which I haven't seen), and it sets up a familiar TV formula. After an embarrassing mistake in his Boston practice, surgeon Martin Best (Josh Charles) moves to the quaint village of Port Wenn, Maine to become the general practitioner. He spent summers there as a child with his Aunt Sarah (Annie Potts), so you'd think he wouldn't be quite so shocked by or instantly uncomfortable in the place.
But uncomfortable he is, because Martin is a deeply asocial man, and Port Wenn is the sort of town where everyone knows everyone else's name, family history, and personal problems. Our other regular characters are the town schoolteacher, Louisa (Abigail Spencer), and sheriff, Mark (Josh Segarra), whose relationship has just collapsed on the eve of their wedding; and an irritating receptionist, Elaine (the mononymous Cree), whom Martin has inherited from his predecessor.
So it's House meets Northern Exposure with a touch of Gilmore Girls thrown in for good measure. The longtime TV viewer will recognize a lot of familiar, reassuring names in that cast list; other townsfolk are played by recurring performers Didi Conn, Stephen Spinella, John DiMaggio, and Clea Lewis, so we are in good hands on the acting side. (Martin Clunes, who played the lead role in the British original, will reportedly pop up later in the season as Dr. Best's father.)
This is comfort food TV. These are mostly actors we know and like, all of them asked to do precisely what they are good at (though Potts, at least in the pilot, is largely reduced to Aunt Exposition, and I hope she'll have more interesting things to do as the show develops). Best Medicine is never going to surprise its audience, but what it does, it does well. It's a very pleasant network medical procedural, filled with colorful characters and a picturesque setting.
5featherbear
HBO/MAX: Polar Express (2004, 1h 40m) Director Robert Zemeckis, screenplay Zemeckis, & William Broyles Jr., based on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. I haven’t read the book. Computer animation of its time. One of those holiday films I kept meaning to see but never got around to; in the end I didn’t find it particularly enthralling. Object of the trip is to convince an older child of the magic/reality of Santa Claus – is this trip necessary? Voice of Tom Hanks playing himself as the conductor of the Express; found the baldness of his computer avatar to be unsettling; he apparently also plays that skeptical older child – if so, some nice voice acting on Hanks’s part – he also does Santa Claus. Liked Nona Gaye as the girl who takes the leadership role among the children & who becomes the true hero of the journey. Eddie Deezen’s voice as the “Know It All” kid was funny. Peter Scolari was the isolated kid who has to be “redeemed.” Santa’s workshop seems like something out of Chaplin’s Modern Times -- I believe there’s even a homage to the little tramp being caught in the factory machinery; there is an actual tramp on the train’s polar journey, also (again unrecognized by me) Hanks. Why are Santa’s elves Jewish?
Also via HBO/MAX during the holidays, re-watched The Wizard of Oz (1939, 1h 42m). I first watched this in a theater as a child – the old Hawaii Theater in downtown Honolulu during its re-release in I’m guessing 1955? Still remember the transition from sepia to technicolor when Dorothy/Judy Garland opens the door of her transplanted Kansas house. Some excellent remastering/preservation because the streaming version color was dazzling. Revisiting the familiar songs was also a treat. Watched a bit here and a bit there when I needed cheering up after some heavy December reading. On a lighter reading note, backed into it after reading Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (along w/watching the movie musical from a while back), which then led to the later L. Frank Baum Oz books I had buried on one of the lower shelves of my bookcases. Currently on Ozma of Oz.
A late holiday entry was the Christmas special/Season 4 “opener” of Beyond Paradise with Kris Marshall & Sally Bretton (Britbox subscription via Amazon Prime), which became available after New Years. As seems to be the trend with this series, a police procedural w/out murders – in this case searching for the family of a man with dementia who turns up at the police station, & concurrently, a burglary at the local bar. This is one of my “comfort food” series & it certainly put fairy dust in my eyes.
After finishing P.D. James’s Death in Holy Orders, as mentioned in the Movies Based on Books thread, watched the 2 episode TV series from 2003, streaming on Amazon Prime. Each episode ca 90m. The series followed the book … religiously, for the most part, though the victim (the Archdeacon played by Matthew Crampton, w/ a goatee that gave him a vaguely Satanic look) came across as two-dimensional in comparison to the character in the James novel. The interest & weakness of the James novel is her ability to delve into the interiority of the various characters (the strength & interest), which leads to the weakness, since she can only give surface portraits of some of the characters or give the killer away. With regard to interior characterization, the TV version can at best do this clumsily or histrionically. James’s poet/detective Adam Dalgliesh is played by Martin Shaw, quite a bit different from Bertie Carvel in the Acorn series. I would go with the book, when all is said & done, though the TV version does not mislead, & the motive from a character standpoint, did not satisfy me in either version.
The PD James series was an interesting contrast with the third entry in the Netflix Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man (2025, 2h 24m), in this case a murder in a New York State Catholic parish. While the James (book or TV) was very Gothic, the Rian Johnson film puts its John Dickson Carr Locked Room cards on the table from the beginning. Carr’s characters are usually flattened in the service of his elaborate plots; Johnson adds his touch by creating a gallery of satirical grotesques, with, as usual, a naif – here Josh O’Connor as Father Jud, the equivalent of the maid Ana de Armas in the original Knives Out – to be led around by the nose by Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc w/his outrageous Southern accent. I did like the way Johnson used the 2-dimensionality of his medium (i.e. not characterization as such but cinematography) to enact the logic of his Locked Room murder, with the theme of performance – theatrical, religious -- running through the entire story.
Addendum: red herring in Death in Holy Orders involves a document that might disprove the resurrection, & of course Wake Up is all about resurrection.
Also via HBO/MAX during the holidays, re-watched The Wizard of Oz (1939, 1h 42m). I first watched this in a theater as a child – the old Hawaii Theater in downtown Honolulu during its re-release in I’m guessing 1955? Still remember the transition from sepia to technicolor when Dorothy/Judy Garland opens the door of her transplanted Kansas house. Some excellent remastering/preservation because the streaming version color was dazzling. Revisiting the familiar songs was also a treat. Watched a bit here and a bit there when I needed cheering up after some heavy December reading. On a lighter reading note, backed into it after reading Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (along w/watching the movie musical from a while back), which then led to the later L. Frank Baum Oz books I had buried on one of the lower shelves of my bookcases. Currently on Ozma of Oz.
A late holiday entry was the Christmas special/Season 4 “opener” of Beyond Paradise with Kris Marshall & Sally Bretton (Britbox subscription via Amazon Prime), which became available after New Years. As seems to be the trend with this series, a police procedural w/out murders – in this case searching for the family of a man with dementia who turns up at the police station, & concurrently, a burglary at the local bar. This is one of my “comfort food” series & it certainly put fairy dust in my eyes.
After finishing P.D. James’s Death in Holy Orders, as mentioned in the Movies Based on Books thread, watched the 2 episode TV series from 2003, streaming on Amazon Prime. Each episode ca 90m. The series followed the book … religiously, for the most part, though the victim (the Archdeacon played by Matthew Crampton, w/ a goatee that gave him a vaguely Satanic look) came across as two-dimensional in comparison to the character in the James novel. The interest & weakness of the James novel is her ability to delve into the interiority of the various characters (the strength & interest), which leads to the weakness, since she can only give surface portraits of some of the characters or give the killer away. With regard to interior characterization, the TV version can at best do this clumsily or histrionically. James’s poet/detective Adam Dalgliesh is played by Martin Shaw, quite a bit different from Bertie Carvel in the Acorn series. I would go with the book, when all is said & done, though the TV version does not mislead, & the motive from a character standpoint, did not satisfy me in either version.
The PD James series was an interesting contrast with the third entry in the Netflix Knives Out series, Wake Up Dead Man (2025, 2h 24m), in this case a murder in a New York State Catholic parish. While the James (book or TV) was very Gothic, the Rian Johnson film puts its John Dickson Carr Locked Room cards on the table from the beginning. Carr’s characters are usually flattened in the service of his elaborate plots; Johnson adds his touch by creating a gallery of satirical grotesques, with, as usual, a naif – here Josh O’Connor as Father Jud, the equivalent of the maid Ana de Armas in the original Knives Out – to be led around by the nose by Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc w/his outrageous Southern accent. I did like the way Johnson used the 2-dimensionality of his medium (i.e. not characterization as such but cinematography) to enact the logic of his Locked Room murder, with the theme of performance – theatrical, religious -- running through the entire story.
Addendum: red herring in Death in Holy Orders involves a document that might disprove the resurrection, & of course Wake Up is all about resurrection.
6featherbear
I wanted to catch Killers of the Flower Moon but since it was a co-production w/Apple, I couldn’t stream it on any of my platforms or even rent/stream it on Amazon Prime. But I just discovered Amazon Prime has now made it available for 48hr rental at a bargain 3.99.* Though you may need the 48hrs since it clocks in at 3h 26m – fortunately I had the evening free.
*Although I also discovered that Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis is no longer available to stream on Amazon.
You can pair it if you really have a comfortable chair or perhaps a masochistic sensibility w/Sinners, also now available on Amazon Prime -- though still on HBO/MAX -- if you want to compare 2 recent re-creations of 20th century US history at its worst – though we seem to be trying hard to bring back the bad old days. Of course Sinners mixes fantasy w/realism, though Scorsese does a final almost Brechtian wrap-up with a sardonic radio play from the 50s that undercuts any notions of justice having been served.
Killers dates from 2023; director Martin Scorsese, film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Eric Roth & Scorsese did the screenplay based on the book by David Grann (I have the e-book somewhere on my Kindle & will probably bump it up on my tbr queue). Kudos to the art & set directors for the period feel. The film is dedicated to the late Robbie Robertson, responsible for the incidental score -- lots of period songs in the soundtrack. The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto was certainly OK, but nothing stuck out for me. Echoes of The Godfather movies every now & then, e.g. the explosion recalling G2, the casual middle distance executions.
The Osage tribe had the good fortune/misfortune of owning a lot of Oklahoma land with tremendous oil reserves, & the story focuses on the white rancher William Hale (Robert DeNiro), who uses his nephews Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) & Byron (Scott Shepherd) Burkhart as go-betweens to engineer the murders of the women of one family after encouraging Ernest to marry the elder sister Mollie (Lily Gladstone) in order to accumulate the estate under her name, & then slowly poison her so everything goes to Ernest. Ernest not being the brightest blade in the drawer, Hale persuades him to sign papers so that his Uncle "King" Hale gets the estate if Ernest has an ... accident. Is there some Daphne DuMaurier floating around here as well or I might just be misremembering my Hitchcock movies? Jesse Plemons heads the Justice Department crew that goes after the Hale conspirators.
There’s a suggestion that the Osage principals really are ambivalent about their wealth – not so the tribal leaders who are properly indignant -- & seem at times to be passively/fatalistically accepting the looting & exploitation. Mollie, suffering from diabetes, nevertheless goes to DC to buttonhole Calvin Coolidge, but puts her trust in Ernest until nearly the end, & her sister Anna (Cara Jade Myers) & their friend Henry Roane (William Belleau) seem to have a death wish. The killers are comically inept, though they'd probably all be pardoned if this took place in these dark days.
*Although I also discovered that Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis is no longer available to stream on Amazon.
You can pair it if you really have a comfortable chair or perhaps a masochistic sensibility w/Sinners, also now available on Amazon Prime -- though still on HBO/MAX -- if you want to compare 2 recent re-creations of 20th century US history at its worst – though we seem to be trying hard to bring back the bad old days. Of course Sinners mixes fantasy w/realism, though Scorsese does a final almost Brechtian wrap-up with a sardonic radio play from the 50s that undercuts any notions of justice having been served.
Killers dates from 2023; director Martin Scorsese, film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Eric Roth & Scorsese did the screenplay based on the book by David Grann (I have the e-book somewhere on my Kindle & will probably bump it up on my tbr queue). Kudos to the art & set directors for the period feel. The film is dedicated to the late Robbie Robertson, responsible for the incidental score -- lots of period songs in the soundtrack. The cinematography by Rodrigo Prieto was certainly OK, but nothing stuck out for me. Echoes of The Godfather movies every now & then, e.g. the explosion recalling G2, the casual middle distance executions.
The Osage tribe had the good fortune/misfortune of owning a lot of Oklahoma land with tremendous oil reserves, & the story focuses on the white rancher William Hale (Robert DeNiro), who uses his nephews Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio) & Byron (Scott Shepherd) Burkhart as go-betweens to engineer the murders of the women of one family after encouraging Ernest to marry the elder sister Mollie (Lily Gladstone) in order to accumulate the estate under her name, & then slowly poison her so everything goes to Ernest. Ernest not being the brightest blade in the drawer, Hale persuades him to sign papers so that his Uncle "King" Hale gets the estate if Ernest has an ... accident. Is there some Daphne DuMaurier floating around here as well or I might just be misremembering my Hitchcock movies? Jesse Plemons heads the Justice Department crew that goes after the Hale conspirators.
There’s a suggestion that the Osage principals really are ambivalent about their wealth – not so the tribal leaders who are properly indignant -- & seem at times to be passively/fatalistically accepting the looting & exploitation. Mollie, suffering from diabetes, nevertheless goes to DC to buttonhole Calvin Coolidge, but puts her trust in Ernest until nearly the end, & her sister Anna (Cara Jade Myers) & their friend Henry Roane (William Belleau) seem to have a death wish. The killers are comically inept, though they'd probably all be pardoned if this took place in these dark days.
7KeithChaffee
Even under ideal viewing circumstances, the most I could say for Mercy is that it was a modestly entertaining silly thriller. But given the news from Minneapolis this morning, today was not the idea day to watch a movie which asks us to take it on faith that the police officer protagonist couldn't possibly have committed murder. (We're also asked to cheer for an AI character, which is another problem, but one that must take a back seat today.)
That officer is Chris Raven (Chris "whaddya mean we couldn't get one of the good Chrises?" Pratt), and in the movie's near-future Los Angeles, he has been one of the loudest advocates for the Mercy Court, an AI system that evaluates the likely guilt or innocence of certain defendants. Those defendants have access to the city's all-seeing Municipal Cloud, and 90 minutes to convince Mercy's AI judge that there is reasonable doubt of their guilt; if they fail, they are immediately executed.
Officer Raven wakes up after a drinking spree that he doesn't much remember to find himself in the Mercy chair, charged with killing his wife. We watch in something close to real time as he spends 90 minutes arguing with and defending himself to the AI, presented on a video screen as "Judge Maddox" (Rebecca Ferguson).
The movie splits its time between Raven and Maddox arguing in the Mercy room, and a mix of shots from a variety of surveillance cameras and cell phones (all phones are legally required to be connected to the Municipal Cloud). That means that for about half the movie, Pratt is strapped into a chair, watching video footage. That removes him of physicality, which means that the movie needs an actor capable of more nimble face and voice acting than Pratt.
Ferguson has the opposite challenge, being asked to drain herself of personality and charisma to portray an emotionless machine. She succeeds better than Pratt, which is admittedly a low bar.
The more interesting performances come from the supporting cast -- Kali Reis as Raven's police partner, Chris Sullivan as his AA sponsor, Kylie Rogers as his 16-year-old daughter.
Director Timur Bekmambetov does do a pretty good job of building suspense and tension in the final action climax, silly as it is. It may be, if and when the current political moment has passed, that this will be a perfectly serviceable way to kill 100 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Today, though, it's a little harder to swallow.
That officer is Chris Raven (Chris "whaddya mean we couldn't get one of the good Chrises?" Pratt), and in the movie's near-future Los Angeles, he has been one of the loudest advocates for the Mercy Court, an AI system that evaluates the likely guilt or innocence of certain defendants. Those defendants have access to the city's all-seeing Municipal Cloud, and 90 minutes to convince Mercy's AI judge that there is reasonable doubt of their guilt; if they fail, they are immediately executed.
Officer Raven wakes up after a drinking spree that he doesn't much remember to find himself in the Mercy chair, charged with killing his wife. We watch in something close to real time as he spends 90 minutes arguing with and defending himself to the AI, presented on a video screen as "Judge Maddox" (Rebecca Ferguson).
The movie splits its time between Raven and Maddox arguing in the Mercy room, and a mix of shots from a variety of surveillance cameras and cell phones (all phones are legally required to be connected to the Municipal Cloud). That means that for about half the movie, Pratt is strapped into a chair, watching video footage. That removes him of physicality, which means that the movie needs an actor capable of more nimble face and voice acting than Pratt.
Ferguson has the opposite challenge, being asked to drain herself of personality and charisma to portray an emotionless machine. She succeeds better than Pratt, which is admittedly a low bar.
The more interesting performances come from the supporting cast -- Kali Reis as Raven's police partner, Chris Sullivan as his AA sponsor, Kylie Rogers as his 16-year-old daughter.
Director Timur Bekmambetov does do a pretty good job of building suspense and tension in the final action climax, silly as it is. It may be, if and when the current political moment has passed, that this will be a perfectly serviceable way to kill 100 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. Today, though, it's a little harder to swallow.
8KeithChaffee
I finished making my way through the British anthology series Inside No. 9 last night, and it's instantly one of my favorite TV shows ever.
Every episode is a new story, in a wide range of styles and tones, but broadly speaking, the show is dark comedy with occasional moments of horror. (TV-level horror, so nothing too grisly or horrific.)
The show's created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who had been working together on various projects for 20 years when the show began in 2004. They co-wrote all 55 episodes, and each appears in all but two of them. British TV seasons are short, so it took ten years to get those 55 episodes (9 seasons of 6, plus a live Halloween special).
Each episode is set "inside no. 9," which is either a house number or a room/apartment; the first shot is usually a close-up of the 9, with the episode title appearing next to it.
Pemberton and Shearsmith are terrific performers in a wide variety of roles, and over the course of the series, they're joined by a magnificent assortment of top-notch character actors and comics.
I like the experimental nature of the show, which takes some big swings in its styles. There's a hotel farce written in iambic pentameter; a slapstick comedy told almost entirely without dialogue; a Reservoir Dogs homage that uses the characters and tropes of commedia dell'arte, an episode in the form of a game show, and a story told entirely from the POV of a single doorbell camera. The final episode has Pemberton and Shearsmith playing "themselves" at the Inside No. 9 wrap party.
And if an occasional episode falls a bit flat (which doesn't happen often), well, they're only half-hours, so you won't have lost much time.
Streaming in the US on BritBox, and recommended with enormous enthusiasm.
Every episode is a new story, in a wide range of styles and tones, but broadly speaking, the show is dark comedy with occasional moments of horror. (TV-level horror, so nothing too grisly or horrific.)
The show's created by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who had been working together on various projects for 20 years when the show began in 2004. They co-wrote all 55 episodes, and each appears in all but two of them. British TV seasons are short, so it took ten years to get those 55 episodes (9 seasons of 6, plus a live Halloween special).
Each episode is set "inside no. 9," which is either a house number or a room/apartment; the first shot is usually a close-up of the 9, with the episode title appearing next to it.
Pemberton and Shearsmith are terrific performers in a wide variety of roles, and over the course of the series, they're joined by a magnificent assortment of top-notch character actors and comics.
I like the experimental nature of the show, which takes some big swings in its styles. There's a hotel farce written in iambic pentameter; a slapstick comedy told almost entirely without dialogue; a Reservoir Dogs homage that uses the characters and tropes of commedia dell'arte, an episode in the form of a game show, and a story told entirely from the POV of a single doorbell camera. The final episode has Pemberton and Shearsmith playing "themselves" at the Inside No. 9 wrap party.
And if an occasional episode falls a bit flat (which doesn't happen often), well, they're only half-hours, so you won't have lost much time.
Streaming in the US on BritBox, and recommended with enormous enthusiasm.
9featherbear
>8 KeithChaffee: Much thanks for the tip! The series hasn't been showing up on my Amazon Prime/Britbox menus & I had to use the search function to pull it up. 6 seasons, just as I was running out of the rather mundane Shakespeare & Hathaway. Will definitely be taking a look for dinnertime viewing.
10featherbear
Didn’t watch much of the Super Bowl Feb 8 but did view all of the Half Time show. Enjoyable, but it would have been enriched with subtitles since these were songs not freestyling improv. I did get the reference to the poorly functioning Puerto Rican electrical infrastructure, & also the many flags of the Americas in the God Bless finale. I wonder if there is an English language commentary explaining all the nuances & references to Puerto Rican culture floating around on the web.
Tying up a lot of series loose ends in the past month or so. Putting off finishing the last episode of The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023, 9 episodes on Netflix) because I didn’t want it to end. (It’s based on a manga series Kiyo in Kyoto but in case you’re wondering this one is live action) Hirokazu Kore-eda, director (1st 2 episodes), screenwriter, & showrunner. He’s also responsible for the Netflix series Asura on my watchlist. I had Makanai tagged on Netflix, but forgot about it until I realized it was one of Kore-eda’s works – I loved Our Little Sister (2015), a film I believe I first caught on Amazon Prime & since purchased for personal streaming. Two 16 yr old BFFs, Kiyo (Nana Mori) & Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) decide to skip high school in their mountain village & become geishas in Kyoto’s Gion District. Sumire is focused on the art & will eventually proceed from maiko (apprentice) to geiko (geisha) – a highly stylized & traditional form of dance & gesture w/musical accompaniment. Kiyo, it turns out, has the knack for creating tasty meals that are as traditionally Japanese as the geisha entertainment, & she soon becomes the house’s resident makanai (cook). Although I understand that a makanai at Kiyo’s age is not plausible, Mori’s character is so engaging she makes the fantasy come true. Both friends work their way to their true callings. What struck me is how the camera loves the 2 girls, lingering on Sumire in her geisha finery when she graduates from apprenticeship; Kiyo’s Joy of Cooking & infectious smile. My sister told me she started re-watching the series as soon as she finished. I might just do the same; it’s wonderful. Roxana Hadadi has an excellent introduction in Vulture I was able to access online via Wikipedia.
On Britbox via Amazon Prime: Shakespeare & Hathaway (2018-2025; 5 seasons). Principals are private investigators in Stratford-upon-Avon Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton) & Luella (Lu) Shakespeare (Jo Joyner), plus their out of work Shakespearean actor Sebastian Brudenell, ostensible receptionist, & master of undercover disguises (Patrick Walshe McBride), along with regulars, the perennially hostile DS Keeler (Tomos Eames) & IT hacker Spider (Darren Evans). Although there seems to be a murder in every episode (10 eps per season) it’s all treated as comedy, & was OK dinnertime viewing – watched the last 2 eps I missed this evening. What started to get irritating throughout the whole run was the use of the rather unprofessional investigators as working class caricatures, Lu a former hairdresser & Frank a “retired” detective. There was a note of class condescension on the part of the writers – as if the lower orders were still 16th century English clowns, it seemed to me. Lots of Shakespeare quotes, though, to make it interesting, though they don’t seem to be integral to solving crimes; just window dressing. Comments on the cast: I liked Amber Aga as DI Marlow, sorry that she was abrupt dropped after 2 seasons; DS Keeler, her subordinate initially, was too much the one note abrasive antagonist. It was both gratifying & annoying that Patrick Walshe McBride didn’t start to appear in the opening credits until the last 2 seasons – unflappable though frequently disappointed, & treated badly by Hathaway, who for me became more dislikable as the series went on.
Re-watched the last episode of Season 4, then watched all of Season 5 of Stranger Things on Netflix. Worked better for me than the Stephen King series Welcome to Derry on HBO Max, maybe because the Duffler brothers really like their characters – and let some episodes stretch out to let them cook -- & somehow they seemed to have more of a sense of humor – in part with characters taking insane risks that the Dufflers somehow allow them to finesse. In Season 5 I especially liked the female characters, the Wheeler sisters, gun-totin’ Nancy (Natalia Dyer) & little sister Holly (Nell Fisher), DJ Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke – hard to believe she was also young Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat ), Max Mayfield the female Jesus figure as skateboarder (Sadie Sink), Erica Sinclair the physics prodigy (Priah Ferguson), & Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) into the heart of Siberia to save her man. I could watch this one again, mostly for the characters.
On HBOMax, One Battle After Another (2025 2h 41m). My 2nd lengthy DiCaprio film after Killers of the Flower Moon. Just as the Killers led me to the book (which I liked), Battle, with its rather blatantly allegorical names (Sean Penn’s Lockjaw), has re-piqued my interest in reading or re-reading Thomas Pynchon’s chronicles of paranoia, though Vinland would not be near the top. Recent ICE & Epstein news has definitely made the film seem less fanciful.
Right now, dipping into various films & series deciding where to commit. Civil War (HBOMax) seems a suitable follow-up to One Battle After Another. Suitably warned, might still try If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (HBOMax) -- the apartment ceiling collapsing was a nightmare reminding me I need to get insurance – lots of drilling going on upstairs. Still in my Netflix tbw list: Asura & Left Handed Girl. Got a quick taste of Room Number Nine on Britbox w/the S1 E1 “Sardines” plus (Britbox) S10 E1 Shetland which I’ve found intriguing. Peacock: Bugonia; Amazon Prime: Hedda. I need to start making lists.
Tying up a lot of series loose ends in the past month or so. Putting off finishing the last episode of The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023, 9 episodes on Netflix) because I didn’t want it to end. (It’s based on a manga series Kiyo in Kyoto but in case you’re wondering this one is live action) Hirokazu Kore-eda, director (1st 2 episodes), screenwriter, & showrunner. He’s also responsible for the Netflix series Asura on my watchlist. I had Makanai tagged on Netflix, but forgot about it until I realized it was one of Kore-eda’s works – I loved Our Little Sister (2015), a film I believe I first caught on Amazon Prime & since purchased for personal streaming. Two 16 yr old BFFs, Kiyo (Nana Mori) & Sumire (Natsuki Deguchi) decide to skip high school in their mountain village & become geishas in Kyoto’s Gion District. Sumire is focused on the art & will eventually proceed from maiko (apprentice) to geiko (geisha) – a highly stylized & traditional form of dance & gesture w/musical accompaniment. Kiyo, it turns out, has the knack for creating tasty meals that are as traditionally Japanese as the geisha entertainment, & she soon becomes the house’s resident makanai (cook). Although I understand that a makanai at Kiyo’s age is not plausible, Mori’s character is so engaging she makes the fantasy come true. Both friends work their way to their true callings. What struck me is how the camera loves the 2 girls, lingering on Sumire in her geisha finery when she graduates from apprenticeship; Kiyo’s Joy of Cooking & infectious smile. My sister told me she started re-watching the series as soon as she finished. I might just do the same; it’s wonderful. Roxana Hadadi has an excellent introduction in Vulture I was able to access online via Wikipedia.
On Britbox via Amazon Prime: Shakespeare & Hathaway (2018-2025; 5 seasons). Principals are private investigators in Stratford-upon-Avon Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton) & Luella (Lu) Shakespeare (Jo Joyner), plus their out of work Shakespearean actor Sebastian Brudenell, ostensible receptionist, & master of undercover disguises (Patrick Walshe McBride), along with regulars, the perennially hostile DS Keeler (Tomos Eames) & IT hacker Spider (Darren Evans). Although there seems to be a murder in every episode (10 eps per season) it’s all treated as comedy, & was OK dinnertime viewing – watched the last 2 eps I missed this evening. What started to get irritating throughout the whole run was the use of the rather unprofessional investigators as working class caricatures, Lu a former hairdresser & Frank a “retired” detective. There was a note of class condescension on the part of the writers – as if the lower orders were still 16th century English clowns, it seemed to me. Lots of Shakespeare quotes, though, to make it interesting, though they don’t seem to be integral to solving crimes; just window dressing. Comments on the cast: I liked Amber Aga as DI Marlow, sorry that she was abrupt dropped after 2 seasons; DS Keeler, her subordinate initially, was too much the one note abrasive antagonist. It was both gratifying & annoying that Patrick Walshe McBride didn’t start to appear in the opening credits until the last 2 seasons – unflappable though frequently disappointed, & treated badly by Hathaway, who for me became more dislikable as the series went on.
Re-watched the last episode of Season 4, then watched all of Season 5 of Stranger Things on Netflix. Worked better for me than the Stephen King series Welcome to Derry on HBO Max, maybe because the Duffler brothers really like their characters – and let some episodes stretch out to let them cook -- & somehow they seemed to have more of a sense of humor – in part with characters taking insane risks that the Dufflers somehow allow them to finesse. In Season 5 I especially liked the female characters, the Wheeler sisters, gun-totin’ Nancy (Natalia Dyer) & little sister Holly (Nell Fisher), DJ Robin Buckley (Maya Hawke – hard to believe she was also young Flannery O’Connor in Wildcat ), Max Mayfield the female Jesus figure as skateboarder (Sadie Sink), Erica Sinclair the physics prodigy (Priah Ferguson), & Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) into the heart of Siberia to save her man. I could watch this one again, mostly for the characters.
On HBOMax, One Battle After Another (2025 2h 41m). My 2nd lengthy DiCaprio film after Killers of the Flower Moon. Just as the Killers led me to the book (which I liked), Battle, with its rather blatantly allegorical names (Sean Penn’s Lockjaw), has re-piqued my interest in reading or re-reading Thomas Pynchon’s chronicles of paranoia, though Vinland would not be near the top. Recent ICE & Epstein news has definitely made the film seem less fanciful.
Right now, dipping into various films & series deciding where to commit. Civil War (HBOMax) seems a suitable follow-up to One Battle After Another. Suitably warned, might still try If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (HBOMax) -- the apartment ceiling collapsing was a nightmare reminding me I need to get insurance – lots of drilling going on upstairs. Still in my Netflix tbw list: Asura & Left Handed Girl. Got a quick taste of Room Number Nine on Britbox w/the S1 E1 “Sardines” plus (Britbox) S10 E1 Shetland which I’ve found intriguing. Peacock: Bugonia; Amazon Prime: Hedda. I need to start making lists.
11KeithChaffee
Crime 101 is built around three characters whose lives gradually intertwine. Mark Ruffalo is an LAPD detective who can't convince his colleagues that a recent string of jewel thefts are connected. Chris Hemsworth is the thief, careful never to hurt anyone and telling himself that the only real harm is to big corporate insurance companies. Halle Berry works for one of those insurance companies, and is beginning to realize that the company's promises of promotion are probably never going to be kept.
Director/writer Bart Layton, adapting a Don Winslow novella, spins a pretty good crime story. You've got a couple of rousing chase scenes, a tense robbery or two, good people tempted to go bad, and just enough twists and complications to keep things from being *too* predictable.
There's a large ensemble, with supporting roles for Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Corey Hawkins, and Tate Donovan, all smartly cast and doing solid work.
There was a time when we'd get two or three movies like this every year -- no one who's a big enough star to open a movie on their own, but a cast of reliable actors in a movie meant to entertain grownups without a lot of expensive effects or explosions; not a flashy or inspired piece of work, but a sturdy bit of entertainment. Those are harder to come by these days; I hope this one will do well enough to remind the studios that there really is an audience that would like to see more of them.
Director/writer Bart Layton, adapting a Don Winslow novella, spins a pretty good crime story. You've got a couple of rousing chase scenes, a tense robbery or two, good people tempted to go bad, and just enough twists and complications to keep things from being *too* predictable.
There's a large ensemble, with supporting roles for Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Corey Hawkins, and Tate Donovan, all smartly cast and doing solid work.
There was a time when we'd get two or three movies like this every year -- no one who's a big enough star to open a movie on their own, but a cast of reliable actors in a movie meant to entertain grownups without a lot of expensive effects or explosions; not a flashy or inspired piece of work, but a sturdy bit of entertainment. Those are harder to come by these days; I hope this one will do well enough to remind the studios that there really is an audience that would like to see more of them.
12featherbear
The passing of Tom Stoppard reminded me, unfortunately, that I hadn't taken the time to explore his works. Just realized that Amazon Prime has been streaming Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990, 1h 57m) (written/directed Tom Stoppard), so I've started to watch it; about 1/3 of the way through. Just thought I'd drop a note if anyone else is interested since it will be leaving Amazon Prime at the end of the month. Features Gary Oldman & Tim Roth.
13KeithChaffee
Oh, I should try to carch that. Haven’t seen it since it came out.
14KeithChaffee
It's been nine years since the last film from director Gore Verbinski, who returns with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die, a hyperactive bleak comedy about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
We open in a Los Angeles diner (the diner scenes were filmed at Norm's, about a ten-minute walk from where I live), where a rumpled man (Sam Rockwell) in a transparent plastic trenchcoat walks in and announces that he is from the future. Something very bad is about to happen, he says, and he is convinced that this diner has the right combination of people that he will need to prevent that thing from happening and save the future. He hasn't found that combination yet, but maybe the 117th time will be the charm.
The movie cuts back and forth between Rockwell and his team on their mission, and flashbacks to the recent lives of his team members. It becomes clear in those flashbacks that this world is not quite our own; they play like mediocre Black Mirror episodes in which technology run amok has twisted life in strange ways.
Even so, those vignettes are stronger than the mission half of the movie, which gives us a group of bumbling strangers trying to become action heroes. The actors aren't to blame; Rockwell's crew includes Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Asim Chaudry, and Juno Temple, all of them well cast and doing their best to bring life to the material. Of the non-crew actors, Dino Fetscher makes a particularly strong impression as a customer service representative, walking a very precise line between charming helpfulness and creepy insincerity.
The movie feels cheap. The special effects are poorly done (and there are imaginative moments that could be stunning if done well); the lighting is, even by the gloomy standards of recent years, dark and murky; and the sound mix is muddy. And the ideas are never quite clear. Rockwell's unnamed man from the future is supposedly worried about AI, but many of the flashbacks are more about social media paranoia; related problems, perhaps, but certainly not the same thing.
The cast is good enough to keep the movie from ever becoming boring, but even in its best moments, it feels like a fuzzy approximation of the sharper satire that's buried a few layers underneath.
We open in a Los Angeles diner (the diner scenes were filmed at Norm's, about a ten-minute walk from where I live), where a rumpled man (Sam Rockwell) in a transparent plastic trenchcoat walks in and announces that he is from the future. Something very bad is about to happen, he says, and he is convinced that this diner has the right combination of people that he will need to prevent that thing from happening and save the future. He hasn't found that combination yet, but maybe the 117th time will be the charm.
The movie cuts back and forth between Rockwell and his team on their mission, and flashbacks to the recent lives of his team members. It becomes clear in those flashbacks that this world is not quite our own; they play like mediocre Black Mirror episodes in which technology run amok has twisted life in strange ways.
Even so, those vignettes are stronger than the mission half of the movie, which gives us a group of bumbling strangers trying to become action heroes. The actors aren't to blame; Rockwell's crew includes Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Asim Chaudry, and Juno Temple, all of them well cast and doing their best to bring life to the material. Of the non-crew actors, Dino Fetscher makes a particularly strong impression as a customer service representative, walking a very precise line between charming helpfulness and creepy insincerity.
The movie feels cheap. The special effects are poorly done (and there are imaginative moments that could be stunning if done well); the lighting is, even by the gloomy standards of recent years, dark and murky; and the sound mix is muddy. And the ideas are never quite clear. Rockwell's unnamed man from the future is supposedly worried about AI, but many of the flashbacks are more about social media paranoia; related problems, perhaps, but certainly not the same thing.
The cast is good enough to keep the movie from ever becoming boring, but even in its best moments, it feels like a fuzzy approximation of the sharper satire that's buried a few layers underneath.
15featherbear
I need to re-watch Zulu on Amazon Prime after this from X/Twitter:
"According to Sir Michael Caine, initially "The Ipcress File" (1965) had difficulty finding an American distributor as they felt that his character Harry Palmer came across as Homosexual. Earlier, Joe Levine, the President of Embassy Pictures terminated Caine's 7 year contract after seeing 'Zulu' (1964) as he felt Caine looked 'Queer' & was not for the "American audience".
"Here is Michael Caine explaining it in detail:
"Joe Levine, the president of Embassy Pictures and the guy whose photo must surely be in the picture dictionary under ‘American movie producer’ — short, fat and with a big cigar — had put me under contract for seven years, in case I was star material, when I was cast in 'Zulu' (1964). But he was not a fan of my performance. He summoned me to his office and told me, “You know I love you, Michael . . ’ my stomach hit the floor “. . . but you'll never be a romantic lead and you're not for us.’
"I felt dizzy. I concentrated on my breathing. ‘Why?’ I asked, in a tear-soaked whisper.
"‘I know you’re not, Michael,’ said Joe, between puffs, ‘but you look like a queer on screen.’ The 1960s was not an easy time to be gay, or to look it, and Joe released me from my contract. It was a terrible blow.
"When the executives saw the rushes of 'The Ipcress File' (1965) they took a similar view, sending a message to the director, Sidney Furie, that read, ‘Michael Caine is wearing glasses, shopping in supermarkets and cooking. He is coming across as a homosexual.’ That wasn’t the exact message — I've cleaned it up a bit.*
"Luckily Sid took no notice. In fact, he used the difficulty. When the girl (played by Sue Lloyd) asks if I always wear my glasses, I say, in Harry Palmer’s rather low-key, anti-hero way, ‘I only take them off in bed.’ She reaches over and takes them off. It’s now considered to be one of the great moments of movie seduction."
"('Blowing the bloody Doors off', Michael Caine, 2018)
"*In Michael Caine's interview to Uncut in 2006, he mentions the exact words used by the executives,
"“Everybody’s gonna say he’s a f@g! I mean, cooking? John Wayne wouldn’t cook anything for anybody! It looks like a f@gg*t cooking!” I mean, these were the words they actually used.""
https://x.com/DannyDrinksWine/status/2024199739408023741
For purposes of comparison, I'm also watching John Wayne in Hatari, also on Amazon Prime. I recall enjoying both Z & H when they came out in my misspent youth.
"According to Sir Michael Caine, initially "The Ipcress File" (1965) had difficulty finding an American distributor as they felt that his character Harry Palmer came across as Homosexual. Earlier, Joe Levine, the President of Embassy Pictures terminated Caine's 7 year contract after seeing 'Zulu' (1964) as he felt Caine looked 'Queer' & was not for the "American audience".
"Here is Michael Caine explaining it in detail:
"Joe Levine, the president of Embassy Pictures and the guy whose photo must surely be in the picture dictionary under ‘American movie producer’ — short, fat and with a big cigar — had put me under contract for seven years, in case I was star material, when I was cast in 'Zulu' (1964). But he was not a fan of my performance. He summoned me to his office and told me, “You know I love you, Michael . . ’ my stomach hit the floor “. . . but you'll never be a romantic lead and you're not for us.’
"I felt dizzy. I concentrated on my breathing. ‘Why?’ I asked, in a tear-soaked whisper.
"‘I know you’re not, Michael,’ said Joe, between puffs, ‘but you look like a queer on screen.’ The 1960s was not an easy time to be gay, or to look it, and Joe released me from my contract. It was a terrible blow.
"When the executives saw the rushes of 'The Ipcress File' (1965) they took a similar view, sending a message to the director, Sidney Furie, that read, ‘Michael Caine is wearing glasses, shopping in supermarkets and cooking. He is coming across as a homosexual.’ That wasn’t the exact message — I've cleaned it up a bit.*
"Luckily Sid took no notice. In fact, he used the difficulty. When the girl (played by Sue Lloyd) asks if I always wear my glasses, I say, in Harry Palmer’s rather low-key, anti-hero way, ‘I only take them off in bed.’ She reaches over and takes them off. It’s now considered to be one of the great moments of movie seduction."
"('Blowing the bloody Doors off', Michael Caine, 2018)
"*In Michael Caine's interview to Uncut in 2006, he mentions the exact words used by the executives,
"“Everybody’s gonna say he’s a f@g! I mean, cooking? John Wayne wouldn’t cook anything for anybody! It looks like a f@gg*t cooking!” I mean, these were the words they actually used.""
https://x.com/DannyDrinksWine/status/2024199739408023741
For purposes of comparison, I'm also watching John Wayne in Hatari, also on Amazon Prime. I recall enjoying both Z & H when they came out in my misspent youth.
16featherbear
Finished watching Shetland S10 on Britbox via Amazon Prime. The series often has vivid, sometimes unexpected moments, & I brought one back from S10:
One of the suspects is one of two sisters separated when young; one was immediately adopted & has led a successful life, married w/a little boy. The other was sent to foster care & was bounced from family to family. Case reports indicated she was manipulative & would specialize in setting family members against each other. Police suspect she had a grudge against the social worker/murder victim who separated her from her sister years ago. It turns out she lied about visiting the victim the night of the murder. And she phoned in a false child abuse report on her sister’s family. Brought in & interrogated by DS Alison “Tosh” McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell), whose sympathetic approach is good at worming out hidden truths from suspects, she admits to lying about the visit but insists she never entered the victim’s cottage & breaks down when she confronts the phone records of the child abuse report. I wish I caught the actor’s name, because she somehow made me sympathetic to her irrational behavior – the phone call was by a person desperate to re-create the alone time she once had with her sister before the separation. The brief clips of the sisters as children seemed unnecessary to me, the woman conveyed anguish so realistically. The sisters are dropped as suspects midway through the series & never surface again. Also a nod to Stuart Townsend as Ed Tulloch, the son of the murder victim and self-promoting poet; also a suspect due to his connection to the drug gang that seems to always be in the background – the way he tries to evade responsibility for his work with the gang & the attempted murder of an informer makes the skin crawl.
Also following up on >15 featherbear:, I watched Zulu (1964, 2h 18m) on Amazon Prime. (Cy Endfield director & w/John Prebble the screenplay as well, based on an article by Prebble). Special credit to cinematographer Stephen Dade for the spectacular outdoor photography. Seen this on screen when it came out. When I purchased my first TV in the early 90s, a large tube job, one of the first movies I watched but it didn’t look quite the same (didn’t help that the TV had dead pixels in the upper left corner). Fortunately my current device is a 48 inch flat screen & the film looked even better than my earliest memory. I was rapt, even though it had commercial interruptions.
This was Michael Caine’s first major performance & I thought he had the best performance in the sense of going from an effete upper class lieutenant Gonville Bromhead who could well have gotten his commission from family connections (generals in the family tree) to a battle tested leader of fighting men (there's your 19th century version of One Battle After Another!), including a counter-attack skirmish on the thatched roof of the outpost hospital. In case you missed it, the film is based on the defense of the Rorke’s Drift outpost by ca 150 British soldiers in 1879 by 4K Zulu warriors, following up on the massacre of 2K British military in an earlier battle in what would then have been Zululand. The Zulu army is on its way to Natal held by the colonials, so presumably the Rorke’s outpost soldiers are told to hold the line. They’re mostly Welsh, & there’s a great scene near the end where the Zulu army is singing its pre-battle war chant prior to the last attack, & the soldiers respond w/the Welsh anthemic “Men of Harlech.”
As to the Hollywood allegations that Caine wasn’t manly enough; I never got that impression from this film, though retrospectively my outlook was probably influenced by the 1966 Alfie & Get Carter (1971) where he seemed to embody the masculinity of the period: probably my basic impression of the Caine persona. Which is why the X citation seems so hilarious. Never caught up w/Ipcress File as cited in the X posting till retirement when I caught it on TCM.
More Zulu tidbits I picked up after seeing the movie: Stanley Baker (as John Chard, the engineer who takes over command by sort of bullying Bromhead) as producer wanted to celebrate the Welsh working class, as socialist employed blacklisted director Endfield. The wonderful Colour Sergeant Bourne (Nigel Green) did not get a Victoria Cross (11 were awarded as a result of the siege) because he took a promotion to colonel instead, and had a very successful military career. The actual Sgt Bourne was 5’ 3” unlike Nigel Green; until I re-watched the film my faulty memory had him dying in the last attack; certainly my favorite supporting character. Henry Hook (James Booth), the jail house lawyer & malingerer in the film was just a regular private in the actual event; he got the medal for rescuing patients from the hospital while fighting off attackers.
One of the suspects is one of two sisters separated when young; one was immediately adopted & has led a successful life, married w/a little boy. The other was sent to foster care & was bounced from family to family. Case reports indicated she was manipulative & would specialize in setting family members against each other. Police suspect she had a grudge against the social worker/murder victim who separated her from her sister years ago. It turns out she lied about visiting the victim the night of the murder. And she phoned in a false child abuse report on her sister’s family. Brought in & interrogated by DS Alison “Tosh” McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell), whose sympathetic approach is good at worming out hidden truths from suspects, she admits to lying about the visit but insists she never entered the victim’s cottage & breaks down when she confronts the phone records of the child abuse report. I wish I caught the actor’s name, because she somehow made me sympathetic to her irrational behavior – the phone call was by a person desperate to re-create the alone time she once had with her sister before the separation. The brief clips of the sisters as children seemed unnecessary to me, the woman conveyed anguish so realistically. The sisters are dropped as suspects midway through the series & never surface again. Also a nod to Stuart Townsend as Ed Tulloch, the son of the murder victim and self-promoting poet; also a suspect due to his connection to the drug gang that seems to always be in the background – the way he tries to evade responsibility for his work with the gang & the attempted murder of an informer makes the skin crawl.
Also following up on >15 featherbear:, I watched Zulu (1964, 2h 18m) on Amazon Prime. (Cy Endfield director & w/John Prebble the screenplay as well, based on an article by Prebble). Special credit to cinematographer Stephen Dade for the spectacular outdoor photography. Seen this on screen when it came out. When I purchased my first TV in the early 90s, a large tube job, one of the first movies I watched but it didn’t look quite the same (didn’t help that the TV had dead pixels in the upper left corner). Fortunately my current device is a 48 inch flat screen & the film looked even better than my earliest memory. I was rapt, even though it had commercial interruptions.
This was Michael Caine’s first major performance & I thought he had the best performance in the sense of going from an effete upper class lieutenant Gonville Bromhead who could well have gotten his commission from family connections (generals in the family tree) to a battle tested leader of fighting men (there's your 19th century version of One Battle After Another!), including a counter-attack skirmish on the thatched roof of the outpost hospital. In case you missed it, the film is based on the defense of the Rorke’s Drift outpost by ca 150 British soldiers in 1879 by 4K Zulu warriors, following up on the massacre of 2K British military in an earlier battle in what would then have been Zululand. The Zulu army is on its way to Natal held by the colonials, so presumably the Rorke’s outpost soldiers are told to hold the line. They’re mostly Welsh, & there’s a great scene near the end where the Zulu army is singing its pre-battle war chant prior to the last attack, & the soldiers respond w/the Welsh anthemic “Men of Harlech.”
As to the Hollywood allegations that Caine wasn’t manly enough; I never got that impression from this film, though retrospectively my outlook was probably influenced by the 1966 Alfie & Get Carter (1971) where he seemed to embody the masculinity of the period: probably my basic impression of the Caine persona. Which is why the X citation seems so hilarious. Never caught up w/Ipcress File as cited in the X posting till retirement when I caught it on TCM.
More Zulu tidbits I picked up after seeing the movie: Stanley Baker (as John Chard, the engineer who takes over command by sort of bullying Bromhead) as producer wanted to celebrate the Welsh working class, as socialist employed blacklisted director Endfield. The wonderful Colour Sergeant Bourne (Nigel Green) did not get a Victoria Cross (11 were awarded as a result of the siege) because he took a promotion to colonel instead, and had a very successful military career. The actual Sgt Bourne was 5’ 3” unlike Nigel Green; until I re-watched the film my faulty memory had him dying in the last attack; certainly my favorite supporting character. Henry Hook (James Booth), the jail house lawyer & malingerer in the film was just a regular private in the actual event; he got the medal for rescuing patients from the hospital while fighting off attackers.
17KeithChaffee
If I hadn't known the backstory of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie before seeing it, much of the movie would have left me baffled. So, a quick "how we got here."
From 2007 to 2009, Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol made a web series called Nirvanna the Band the Show, in which they play Matt and Jay, the members of a Toronto band called Nirvanna the Band. They dream of playing the Rivoli, a club with a reputation for discovering young talent. Their approach to that dream is not the logical approach (write good music, practice, become skilled at your craft); rather, each episode of the show is built around Matt's latest crazy scheme to get them booked. Much of the show is filmed without permits on the streets of Toronto, using unwitting locals (though not in the unkind way of some hidden-camera shows). The show was revived for Canadian television in 2017-18, and now Johnson and McCarrol have brought it to the big screen.
The movie begins with an excerpt from an early web episode, which ends with an enthusiastic Matt exclaiming, "There's no way this plan can fail." Hard cut to seventeen years later, and the guys are still in the same apartment, still scheming to get booked at the Rivoli. Matt's newest plan somehow turns into a Back to the Future II homage, in which 2025 Matt and Jay travel back to 2008 and change things just enough that the 2025 to which they return is horrifying for both of them.
Johnson and McCarrol are likable screen presences, and an appealing comic duo. The movie's got a charming willingness to be silly, and some amusing plot twists, especially in its strongest section, when the guys are trying to figure out how to repair the damage they've done to 2025 and restore their own timeline. As loose and shambling as the movie feels, the time travel plot is actually carefully and thoughtfully constructed. The ways in which they've inserted their 2025 selves into existing footage of their 2008 past are clever and skillfully done.
But the first hour of the movie really drags, and I have never been fond of using hidden cameras to rope unsuspecting people into being props for someone else's project. I don't think the movie quite succeeds as an independent work without some knowledge of its backstory.
Not without its charms, and I wouldn't mind seeing Johnson and McCarrol again in a different project. But this one will probably only be really satisfying to existing fans of the Nirvanna the Band project.
From 2007 to 2009, Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol made a web series called Nirvanna the Band the Show, in which they play Matt and Jay, the members of a Toronto band called Nirvanna the Band. They dream of playing the Rivoli, a club with a reputation for discovering young talent. Their approach to that dream is not the logical approach (write good music, practice, become skilled at your craft); rather, each episode of the show is built around Matt's latest crazy scheme to get them booked. Much of the show is filmed without permits on the streets of Toronto, using unwitting locals (though not in the unkind way of some hidden-camera shows). The show was revived for Canadian television in 2017-18, and now Johnson and McCarrol have brought it to the big screen.
The movie begins with an excerpt from an early web episode, which ends with an enthusiastic Matt exclaiming, "There's no way this plan can fail." Hard cut to seventeen years later, and the guys are still in the same apartment, still scheming to get booked at the Rivoli. Matt's newest plan somehow turns into a Back to the Future II homage, in which 2025 Matt and Jay travel back to 2008 and change things just enough that the 2025 to which they return is horrifying for both of them.
Johnson and McCarrol are likable screen presences, and an appealing comic duo. The movie's got a charming willingness to be silly, and some amusing plot twists, especially in its strongest section, when the guys are trying to figure out how to repair the damage they've done to 2025 and restore their own timeline. As loose and shambling as the movie feels, the time travel plot is actually carefully and thoughtfully constructed. The ways in which they've inserted their 2025 selves into existing footage of their 2008 past are clever and skillfully done.
But the first hour of the movie really drags, and I have never been fond of using hidden cameras to rope unsuspecting people into being props for someone else's project. I don't think the movie quite succeeds as an independent work without some knowledge of its backstory.
Not without its charms, and I wouldn't mind seeing Johnson and McCarrol again in a different project. But this one will probably only be really satisfying to existing fans of the Nirvanna the Band project.
18KeithChaffee
"Written for the screen and directed by John Patton Ford." That's the on-screen credit at the beginning of How to Make a Killing. No "based on," no "inspired by," nothing that would suggest this is anything but an original story. And that's ridiculous, because aside from a few relatively small changes in the final act, this is a beat-for-beat remake of Kind Hearts and Coronets. (I watched that one yesterday, and there was a lot of deja vu watching this one today.)
Glen Powell stars as Becket Redfellow, whose mother was exiled by her wealthy family for defying the wishes of the family patriarch (Ed Harris). There's a multi-billion dollar family rust that Becket could inherit, if only there weren't seven other heirs ahead of him in line. What's a charming, ambitious rascal to do but murder them all?
The most interesting thing about Kind Hearts is the casting of Alec Guinness as all of the murder victims. This movie drops that idea, and while the doomed members of the Redfellow clan are played by fine actors (Bill Camp, Zach Woods, and Topher Grace among them), the loss of the stunt hurts. Best-in-cast award goes to Margaret Qualley in the role of Becket's conniving childhood sweetheart.
As for Powell in the lead, I don't know whether he's choosing these roles himself or if it's the only way Hollywood can think of to use him, but he is stuck in a rut of playing cocky rascals. Goodness knows that can work; Tom Cruise's early career is mostly based on cocky rascals, and the Cruise/Powell parallel was made explicit when Powell got the lead in the TOP GUN sequel. But cocky can easily curdle into smug, which has happened in a lot of Powell's recent films. And oh boy, does it happen here.
It's a lot harder to root for smug, and when your protagonist is a serial killer, the movie collapses if you can't make the audience somehow root for him to get away with his crimes. This movie needs a twinkly-eyed rogue, not a dead-eyed asshole.
Glen Powell stars as Becket Redfellow, whose mother was exiled by her wealthy family for defying the wishes of the family patriarch (Ed Harris). There's a multi-billion dollar family rust that Becket could inherit, if only there weren't seven other heirs ahead of him in line. What's a charming, ambitious rascal to do but murder them all?
The most interesting thing about Kind Hearts is the casting of Alec Guinness as all of the murder victims. This movie drops that idea, and while the doomed members of the Redfellow clan are played by fine actors (Bill Camp, Zach Woods, and Topher Grace among them), the loss of the stunt hurts. Best-in-cast award goes to Margaret Qualley in the role of Becket's conniving childhood sweetheart.
As for Powell in the lead, I don't know whether he's choosing these roles himself or if it's the only way Hollywood can think of to use him, but he is stuck in a rut of playing cocky rascals. Goodness knows that can work; Tom Cruise's early career is mostly based on cocky rascals, and the Cruise/Powell parallel was made explicit when Powell got the lead in the TOP GUN sequel. But cocky can easily curdle into smug, which has happened in a lot of Powell's recent films. And oh boy, does it happen here.
It's a lot harder to root for smug, and when your protagonist is a serial killer, the movie collapses if you can't make the audience somehow root for him to get away with his crimes. This movie needs a twinkly-eyed rogue, not a dead-eyed asshole.
19KeithChaffee
The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is the latest NBC sitcom from producers Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, an ensemble comedy about two men hoping to use each other to revive their careers. The first episode got a sneak preview last month, with little publicity, and the show had its official premiere last night with the first two episodes.
Reggie Dinkins (Tracy Morgan) was an NFL star until a gambling scandal got him banned for life. He's got no endorsements and a teenage son (Jalyn Hall) and a young fiancee (Precious Way) to support, both with expensive tastes. His former teammate and best friend (Bobby Moynihan) is the self-appointed archivist of Reggie's life; and his ex-wife (Erika Alexander) continues to serve as his agent.
Reggie's latest scheme to find redemption is to produce his own documentary, in which he will tell all, or at least all that will make him look worthy of redemption. He hires Academy Award-winning documentarian Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe, and did anyone have "NBC sitcom" on their Daniel Radcliffe career bingo card?) to make that film, and the two instantly clash, with Arthur insisting that they have to dig into the scandal in order to tell a complete story.
Tracy Morgan is a hard actor to make work. He doesn't have a very wide range. Childlike doofus whose idiocy is somehow lovable has been his stock in trade since his SNL days, and while he's very good at that, a solid half-hour of that would be too much. So making him first among equals in an ensemble cast was a smart idea. I might not, though, have chosen to surround him with so many actors and character types who also work best in small doses. Bobby Moynihan is, like Morgan, an actor of limited range whose shtick either works for you or sends you screaming from the room; Precious Way is doing what she can with the role of the fiancee, but the writers don't seem to have yet made up their minds whether she's a golddigger or genuinely loves Reggie, which leaves the actor in a tough spot.
Alexander and Radcliffe are the standouts here, so the second episode, which is largely centered on them, feels like a great leap forward from the slighly clunky setup of the first.
The comic style is familiar; we're back in the land of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, with rapid fire jokes, lots of pop culture references, and absurd punch lines. (We learn at one point that Arthur is currently based at the "University of Maryland Center for Documentary, Anime, and Pornography.") On top of that is a double layer of mockumentary, as we see scenes from the interviews Arthur is filming, as well as Arthur chatting to the camera about his process and his progress.
The jokes are better than the characters at this point, and I suspect the first few episodes are going to be a bit bumpy as the writers get a better handle on the characters and the strengths of their cast. If the joke, joke, joke style works for you -- and when the jokes are good, it usually does for me -- you might get enough good laughs from an episode to be willing to ride through those early bumps. But if that comic style isn't your thing, I couldn't blame you if you wanted to bail early on this one.
Reggie Dinkins (Tracy Morgan) was an NFL star until a gambling scandal got him banned for life. He's got no endorsements and a teenage son (Jalyn Hall) and a young fiancee (Precious Way) to support, both with expensive tastes. His former teammate and best friend (Bobby Moynihan) is the self-appointed archivist of Reggie's life; and his ex-wife (Erika Alexander) continues to serve as his agent.
Reggie's latest scheme to find redemption is to produce his own documentary, in which he will tell all, or at least all that will make him look worthy of redemption. He hires Academy Award-winning documentarian Arthur Tobin (Daniel Radcliffe, and did anyone have "NBC sitcom" on their Daniel Radcliffe career bingo card?) to make that film, and the two instantly clash, with Arthur insisting that they have to dig into the scandal in order to tell a complete story.
Tracy Morgan is a hard actor to make work. He doesn't have a very wide range. Childlike doofus whose idiocy is somehow lovable has been his stock in trade since his SNL days, and while he's very good at that, a solid half-hour of that would be too much. So making him first among equals in an ensemble cast was a smart idea. I might not, though, have chosen to surround him with so many actors and character types who also work best in small doses. Bobby Moynihan is, like Morgan, an actor of limited range whose shtick either works for you or sends you screaming from the room; Precious Way is doing what she can with the role of the fiancee, but the writers don't seem to have yet made up their minds whether she's a golddigger or genuinely loves Reggie, which leaves the actor in a tough spot.
Alexander and Radcliffe are the standouts here, so the second episode, which is largely centered on them, feels like a great leap forward from the slighly clunky setup of the first.
The comic style is familiar; we're back in the land of 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, with rapid fire jokes, lots of pop culture references, and absurd punch lines. (We learn at one point that Arthur is currently based at the "University of Maryland Center for Documentary, Anime, and Pornography.") On top of that is a double layer of mockumentary, as we see scenes from the interviews Arthur is filming, as well as Arthur chatting to the camera about his process and his progress.
The jokes are better than the characters at this point, and I suspect the first few episodes are going to be a bit bumpy as the writers get a better handle on the characters and the strengths of their cast. If the joke, joke, joke style works for you -- and when the jokes are good, it usually does for me -- you might get enough good laughs from an episode to be willing to ride through those early bumps. But if that comic style isn't your thing, I couldn't blame you if you wanted to bail early on this one.
20KeithChaffee
Nate Bargatze is the host of ABC's newest game show, The Greatest Average American; that was also the title of one of his standup specials. The job is not a fit for his natural strengths. (My only other exposure to Bargatze has been his Saturday Night Live hosting gigs, which also didn't show him to great advantage, but I will be charitable and assume that he must actually *have* natural strengths.) Like most of ABC's current game shows, two half-hour episodes fill a one-hour time slot.
The show is filmed in Nashville, and it is a sort of dumbed-down Family Feud. Three contestants are asked to choose the most common answer in a survey of "100 average Americans" (What's the essential barbecue side dish: cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, or cornbread?), with an occasional "how many of 100 said X" question. Low score after four questions is eliminated.
For the second round, Bargatze himself is the subject of the quiz; he's given 60 seconds to perform some task (shoot free throws, name sports movies), and the contestants have to guess how many he'll be able to do. Loser is eliminated; winner gets $10,000 and moves on to the bonus round.
The bonus round presents the player with seven binary questions (Do you prefer cashier or self-checkout?), and asks them to guess which answer was the more popular among the studio audience. Get five right, and you win the bonus prize of $67,920, which we are told is the average American salary. (The weird specificity of that amount is the funniest joke in the show.)
I admit that Bargatze's wholesome ordinary Christian shtick is not my cup of tea, but even if were, I would find his delivery stiff and awkward. He's so uncomfortable in this setting that the producers have given him two comic sidekicks; they don't say much, but when there is a laugh, it's far more likely to come from them.
The only real entertainment I got from the show was from trying to guess what the "average Americans" would say (What do you mean, it's baked beans? It's obviously coleslaw!). I'd love to know how the show chooses its average American survey subjects; if the studio audience is any indication, the show thinks that America is, on average, a helluva lot whiter than it actually is.
The show is filmed in Nashville, and it is a sort of dumbed-down Family Feud. Three contestants are asked to choose the most common answer in a survey of "100 average Americans" (What's the essential barbecue side dish: cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans, or cornbread?), with an occasional "how many of 100 said X" question. Low score after four questions is eliminated.
For the second round, Bargatze himself is the subject of the quiz; he's given 60 seconds to perform some task (shoot free throws, name sports movies), and the contestants have to guess how many he'll be able to do. Loser is eliminated; winner gets $10,000 and moves on to the bonus round.
The bonus round presents the player with seven binary questions (Do you prefer cashier or self-checkout?), and asks them to guess which answer was the more popular among the studio audience. Get five right, and you win the bonus prize of $67,920, which we are told is the average American salary. (The weird specificity of that amount is the funniest joke in the show.)
I admit that Bargatze's wholesome ordinary Christian shtick is not my cup of tea, but even if were, I would find his delivery stiff and awkward. He's so uncomfortable in this setting that the producers have given him two comic sidekicks; they don't say much, but when there is a laugh, it's far more likely to come from them.
The only real entertainment I got from the show was from trying to guess what the "average Americans" would say (What do you mean, it's baked beans? It's obviously coleslaw!). I'd love to know how the show chooses its average American survey subjects; if the studio audience is any indication, the show thinks that America is, on average, a helluva lot whiter than it actually is.
21KeithChaffee
I have not been quite as down on recent Pixar films as most -- even mid-tier Pixar is still better than most Hollywood animation -- but even I would acknowledge that they haven't exactly been in peak form for a while. I am happy to report that their newest, Hoppers, is the best thing they've done since Coco.
Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) lives on the outskirts of Beaverton, where she learned from her grandmother to love nature. As a college student, she's become an environmental activist, currently working aginst Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) and the freeway he's building from her suburban neighborhood to the city, right through her favorite beaver pond, from which the beavers and all of the animals have mysteriously fled.
When Mabel discovers that one of her professors (Kathy Najimy) has secretly developed tech that allows researchers to transfer their minds into robot animal bodies, she decides that going undercover among the animals is the best way to get them to return to the pond, forcing a stop to the freeway. Things do not, of course, go quite as planned.
Bobby Moynihan has the largest animal role as King George of the beavers, a laid-back ruler whose principal rule is "we're all in this together." Other standouts in the voice cast are Meryl Streep and Dave Franco as the Insect Queen and Insect King, and Vanessa Bayer in a small role as a cheerful shark assassin.
Equal parts eco-fable and body-swap comedy, with just a touch of kid-friendly body-swap horror, Hoppers is packed with terrific jokes and a disarmingly chipper acceptance of the food chain. You can't stop to think too seriously about the plot, which doesn't hold up to too much scrutiny, but it's an awful lot of fun as it happens.
Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda) lives on the outskirts of Beaverton, where she learned from her grandmother to love nature. As a college student, she's become an environmental activist, currently working aginst Mayor Jerry (Jon Hamm) and the freeway he's building from her suburban neighborhood to the city, right through her favorite beaver pond, from which the beavers and all of the animals have mysteriously fled.
When Mabel discovers that one of her professors (Kathy Najimy) has secretly developed tech that allows researchers to transfer their minds into robot animal bodies, she decides that going undercover among the animals is the best way to get them to return to the pond, forcing a stop to the freeway. Things do not, of course, go quite as planned.
Bobby Moynihan has the largest animal role as King George of the beavers, a laid-back ruler whose principal rule is "we're all in this together." Other standouts in the voice cast are Meryl Streep and Dave Franco as the Insect Queen and Insect King, and Vanessa Bayer in a small role as a cheerful shark assassin.
Equal parts eco-fable and body-swap comedy, with just a touch of kid-friendly body-swap horror, Hoppers is packed with terrific jokes and a disarmingly chipper acceptance of the food chain. You can't stop to think too seriously about the plot, which doesn't hold up to too much scrutiny, but it's an awful lot of fun as it happens.
22featherbear
Via Amazon Prime: The Bluff (2026, 1h 43m) Director, co-screenwriter Frank E. Flowers; co-screenwriter Joe Ballarini. Kind of like Nobody 2 (or am I confusing it w/Nobody “the original?”) where the family discovers that unassuming dad is actually a CIA professional killer. In this case, disabled son & sister-in-law discover that mom Ercell (Priyanka Chopra Jonas) is actually a retired Pirate Queen. Takes place in the 1840s, so for me the best part was a virtual museum of antique weapons on active display. Where’s the gold? trope is essential to pirate movies, & this one is part of the tradition. A group of pirates invades the unassuming mom lives, led by the excellently villainous Karl Urban as Connor, who possesses the only six-shooter in the region & historical chronology so he’s like the one eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. Chopra has already had some experience in action movies, so she too does well. Connor is Chopra’s former paramour who has captured her husband, who apparently doesn’t realize his wife has run off w/Connor’s gold stash. At the end, Ercell is single again & on a revenge tour. Ends rather abruptly: The Bluff is where a fire is lit to signal British navy for rescue purposes, though not really necessary since the Pirate Queen has wiped out all the bad guys.
Finally caught In Harm’s Way (1965, b&w, 2h 45m) before it exited Amazon Prime. Amazon included a helpful trailer w/director Otto Preminger, where he introduced the large cast of characters. Screenwriter Wendell Mayes, based on the novel by James Bassett which I read years ago. These large scale logistical post-war Hollywood films seem to have become a Preminger specialty: I’m still looking to catch his Exodus & Advise & Consent. At one point, following the Pearl Harbor attack, Captain Rock Torrey (John Wayne) gets his ship torpedoed because he didn’t perform evasive maneuvers in order to save fuel when he tries to attack the Japanese fleet. The Rock likes to sail by the seat of his pants & gets himself demoted from fighting vessel to desk job, where he is assigned to routing various naval convoys. Couldn’t help but thinking this was Preminger reflecting on his own job, keeping various storylines from crashing into each other. Wayne’s love interest is Patricia Neal, who is 50’s wife understanding though she isn’t technically & has to make all the moves. Cast includes Kirk Douglas as Torrey’s alcoholic & promiscuous chief of staff, Brandon De Wilde as the son Torrey never knew, Jill Haworth as his fiancée who gets raped by Douglas who “atones” for his sins by getting killed in a suicide mission, Tom Tryon & Paula Prentiss as the normie married couple; Burgess Meredith as the intelligence officer who supports the Rock, Henry Fonda as the top naval commander, & Patrick O’Neal as the overall jerk political appointee who is De Wilde’s role model. Didn’t even recognize Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone, Carroll O’Connor, James Mitchum & probably many more. (Don’t forget Barbara Bouchet in the opening scene – Kirk Douglas’s wife whose behavior “ignites” the commander’s male sexual violence in the film’s masculinist sub-scenario) Eventually the Rock gets promoted to temporary admiral, & finally gets to tangle with the Japanese navy; effects a temporary delay though his own fleet gets mauled & he loses one of his legs. Maggie/Neal stays loyal through it all.
Daily watching on Britbox via Amazon Prime: Grace (2021-) Seasons range from 2 to 4 episodes generally; each episode is ca 90m, each based presumably on a novel by Peter James, although there seem to be narrative series arcs that don’t generally have relevance to the mystery at hand. For some reason I was going Season backwards, starting w/Season 5 (but E1-4 in order), but having now finished S4 & S5, I'm now trying to watch S1-3 in order. The principal investigators, Roy Grace (John Simm) & Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell), w/notable assistant Bella Moy (Laura Elphinstone) not particularly interesting; the episode plots are lurid & absorbing, though usually w/a pulpy twist in the last quarter. Since I’m book binging & following UConn women’s basketball in the Big East tournament, the series is an easier way to organize my streaming time – not looking for a profound viewing experience -- The Bluff would be another example. Lots of tbw stuff growing on my HBO & Netflix lists, however.
Finally caught In Harm’s Way (1965, b&w, 2h 45m) before it exited Amazon Prime. Amazon included a helpful trailer w/director Otto Preminger, where he introduced the large cast of characters. Screenwriter Wendell Mayes, based on the novel by James Bassett which I read years ago. These large scale logistical post-war Hollywood films seem to have become a Preminger specialty: I’m still looking to catch his Exodus & Advise & Consent. At one point, following the Pearl Harbor attack, Captain Rock Torrey (John Wayne) gets his ship torpedoed because he didn’t perform evasive maneuvers in order to save fuel when he tries to attack the Japanese fleet. The Rock likes to sail by the seat of his pants & gets himself demoted from fighting vessel to desk job, where he is assigned to routing various naval convoys. Couldn’t help but thinking this was Preminger reflecting on his own job, keeping various storylines from crashing into each other. Wayne’s love interest is Patricia Neal, who is 50’s wife understanding though she isn’t technically & has to make all the moves. Cast includes Kirk Douglas as Torrey’s alcoholic & promiscuous chief of staff, Brandon De Wilde as the son Torrey never knew, Jill Haworth as his fiancée who gets raped by Douglas who “atones” for his sins by getting killed in a suicide mission, Tom Tryon & Paula Prentiss as the normie married couple; Burgess Meredith as the intelligence officer who supports the Rock, Henry Fonda as the top naval commander, & Patrick O’Neal as the overall jerk political appointee who is De Wilde’s role model. Didn’t even recognize Dana Andrews, Franchot Tone, Carroll O’Connor, James Mitchum & probably many more. (Don’t forget Barbara Bouchet in the opening scene – Kirk Douglas’s wife whose behavior “ignites” the commander’s male sexual violence in the film’s masculinist sub-scenario) Eventually the Rock gets promoted to temporary admiral, & finally gets to tangle with the Japanese navy; effects a temporary delay though his own fleet gets mauled & he loses one of his legs. Maggie/Neal stays loyal through it all.
Daily watching on Britbox via Amazon Prime: Grace (2021-) Seasons range from 2 to 4 episodes generally; each episode is ca 90m, each based presumably on a novel by Peter James, although there seem to be narrative series arcs that don’t generally have relevance to the mystery at hand. For some reason I was going Season backwards, starting w/Season 5 (but E1-4 in order), but having now finished S4 & S5, I'm now trying to watch S1-3 in order. The principal investigators, Roy Grace (John Simm) & Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell), w/notable assistant Bella Moy (Laura Elphinstone) not particularly interesting; the episode plots are lurid & absorbing, though usually w/a pulpy twist in the last quarter. Since I’m book binging & following UConn women’s basketball in the Big East tournament, the series is an easier way to organize my streaming time – not looking for a profound viewing experience -- The Bluff would be another example. Lots of tbw stuff growing on my HBO & Netflix lists, however.
23KeithChaffee
Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, was austere and understated; so much so, some would argue (including me) that it understated itself all the way into stultifying dullness. Her follow-up, The Bride!, is -- well, not that. It is, to paraphrase Tim Gunn, a lot of movie.
It's a new take on the bride of Frankenstein, and Gyllenhaal borrows from and pays homage to a wide range of movies -- Frankenstein movies, of course, but 30s musicals, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pennies From Heaven are also thrown into the mix. There is one reference so audacious that it will strike you either as magnificently cheeky, or as the cinematic equivalent of stolen valor.
Jesse Buckley stars as Ida, a sex worker involved with a Chicago gangster in the 1930s. That relationship leads to her death.
Elsewhere in Chicago, Dr. Frankenstein's monster, now going by the name Frank (and played by Christian Bale) shows up at the office of Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening), who has been studying and attempting to further the work of Victor Frankenstein. Frank begs the doctor to revitalize a woman for him, as his loneliness has become too much to bear.
That puts Ida on the doctor's table, where Euphronius and her maid/lab assistant (Jeannie Berlin) bring her back to life. And from there, we go where every Frankenstein story inevitably goes. Though they mean no harm, Frank and Ida strike fear into the hearts of everyone they meet, which leads to persecution, violence, and death.
The cast also includes Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Hough as the Fred'n'Ginger-esque actors whose movies Frank adores, and Peter Saarsgard and Penelope Cruz as the detectives on the trail of Frank and Ida.
I was mostly with the movie for the first hour. I could have done without the framing device in which Buckley plays the ghost of Mary Shelley, or the way in which that ghost is integrated into the main story, but otherwise, the wild stew of references was working for me. But once Frank and Ida begin their cross-country flight from the law, and the movie's feminist subtext becomes more explicit (*), I thought the movie's politics got in the way of its entertainment.
(* - To be sure, the subtext is never really all that sub, but eventually you've got Ida repeatedly screaming the words "me too," and it's hard to get any less sub than that.)
This is a huge swing, and I'm always happy to see someone take big chances. It doesn't always work, and parts of it are a fantastic mess. But there is more energy, humanity, and life in any 30 seconds of Buckley's performance here than in the entirely of her overwrought Hamnet turn as Elizabethan Stevie Nicks. Bening and Bale are delightful; and I loved the unexpected professional relationship between Saarsgard and Cruz. Even when the movie doesn't work, it's always interesting, and some of it is extraordinary.
It's a new take on the bride of Frankenstein, and Gyllenhaal borrows from and pays homage to a wide range of movies -- Frankenstein movies, of course, but 30s musicals, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pennies From Heaven are also thrown into the mix. There is one reference so audacious that it will strike you either as magnificently cheeky, or as the cinematic equivalent of stolen valor.
Jesse Buckley stars as Ida, a sex worker involved with a Chicago gangster in the 1930s. That relationship leads to her death.
Elsewhere in Chicago, Dr. Frankenstein's monster, now going by the name Frank (and played by Christian Bale) shows up at the office of Dr. Cornelia Euphronius (Annette Bening), who has been studying and attempting to further the work of Victor Frankenstein. Frank begs the doctor to revitalize a woman for him, as his loneliness has become too much to bear.
That puts Ida on the doctor's table, where Euphronius and her maid/lab assistant (Jeannie Berlin) bring her back to life. And from there, we go where every Frankenstein story inevitably goes. Though they mean no harm, Frank and Ida strike fear into the hearts of everyone they meet, which leads to persecution, violence, and death.
The cast also includes Jake Gyllenhaal and Julianne Hough as the Fred'n'Ginger-esque actors whose movies Frank adores, and Peter Saarsgard and Penelope Cruz as the detectives on the trail of Frank and Ida.
I was mostly with the movie for the first hour. I could have done without the framing device in which Buckley plays the ghost of Mary Shelley, or the way in which that ghost is integrated into the main story, but otherwise, the wild stew of references was working for me. But once Frank and Ida begin their cross-country flight from the law, and the movie's feminist subtext becomes more explicit (*), I thought the movie's politics got in the way of its entertainment.
(* - To be sure, the subtext is never really all that sub, but eventually you've got Ida repeatedly screaming the words "me too," and it's hard to get any less sub than that.)
This is a huge swing, and I'm always happy to see someone take big chances. It doesn't always work, and parts of it are a fantastic mess. But there is more energy, humanity, and life in any 30 seconds of Buckley's performance here than in the entirely of her overwrought Hamnet turn as Elizabethan Stevie Nicks. Bening and Bale are delightful; and I loved the unexpected professional relationship between Saarsgard and Cruz. Even when the movie doesn't work, it's always interesting, and some of it is extraordinary.
24KeithChaffee
Amazon has adapted Patricia Cornwell's long-running series of novels (29 books and counting) into the series Scarpetta, starring Nicole Kidman as Kay Scarpetta, the chief medical examiner of Virginia. I've watched only the first of eight episodes.
It's got an impressive cast -- Jamie Lee Curtis as Kay's sister, Dorothy; Bobby Cannnavale as Pete, her brother-in-law/detective partner; Simon Baker as Benton, her FBI profiler husband; and Ariana DeBose as Lucy, the niece Kay had to raise because Dorothy was such a flake.
As the series opens, Kay is beginning her second stint as chief ME when new evidence suggests that a serial killer currently at work might be tied to the case that made her reputation when she first held the job almost thirty years earlier. (Why did she leave the job? Why has she returned? Those questions will surely be addressed as the season goes on.)
That connection means that all of the major players appear in both timelines, and the producers have done a very good job of casting actors who are believable as younger versions of the characters. Some were easier than others -- young Pete is played by Jacob Lumet Cannavale (*), Bobby's son -- but Rosy McEwen is entirely convincing as the young Kay, and that's a particular accomplishment since we all know very well what Kidman looked like thirty years ago. Another particularly good bit of double casting is a principal suspect, played by Anson Mount in the present and Graham Phillips in the past.
(* - That name caught my eye, leading me to discover the odd assortment of famous ancestors in the Cannavale family. Bobby's first wife was the daughter of Sidney Lumet, who was himself married to the daughter of Lena Horne.)
I have two major quibbles with the show. One is pretty much built in to the serial killer drama these days, and that's that there are far too many lingering shots of nude female corpses. Are there no serial killers who target middle-aged fat men?
The other is that the show is oddly structured, with way too much time spent on the family drama. In a long-running crime novel series, the bulk of each book is going to be spent on the crime, with the personal relationship stories playing out slowly in the background; a small piece of that material will be doled out in each novel. The series is trying to cram 29 novels worth of family background into one season, and it's throwing the balance off, with too little time spent on the murder story.
Nicole Kidman doing television is no longer particularly newsworthy or interesting, and this is the latest in her growing string of "meh, that was fine" series. If you like this sort of thing, this will keep you reasonably content for eight hours or so. It's well acted and competently made, and it could run for as many season as Kidman wants do it. But no one will much remember it six months after it's over.
It's got an impressive cast -- Jamie Lee Curtis as Kay's sister, Dorothy; Bobby Cannnavale as Pete, her brother-in-law/detective partner; Simon Baker as Benton, her FBI profiler husband; and Ariana DeBose as Lucy, the niece Kay had to raise because Dorothy was such a flake.
As the series opens, Kay is beginning her second stint as chief ME when new evidence suggests that a serial killer currently at work might be tied to the case that made her reputation when she first held the job almost thirty years earlier. (Why did she leave the job? Why has she returned? Those questions will surely be addressed as the season goes on.)
That connection means that all of the major players appear in both timelines, and the producers have done a very good job of casting actors who are believable as younger versions of the characters. Some were easier than others -- young Pete is played by Jacob Lumet Cannavale (*), Bobby's son -- but Rosy McEwen is entirely convincing as the young Kay, and that's a particular accomplishment since we all know very well what Kidman looked like thirty years ago. Another particularly good bit of double casting is a principal suspect, played by Anson Mount in the present and Graham Phillips in the past.
(* - That name caught my eye, leading me to discover the odd assortment of famous ancestors in the Cannavale family. Bobby's first wife was the daughter of Sidney Lumet, who was himself married to the daughter of Lena Horne.)
I have two major quibbles with the show. One is pretty much built in to the serial killer drama these days, and that's that there are far too many lingering shots of nude female corpses. Are there no serial killers who target middle-aged fat men?
The other is that the show is oddly structured, with way too much time spent on the family drama. In a long-running crime novel series, the bulk of each book is going to be spent on the crime, with the personal relationship stories playing out slowly in the background; a small piece of that material will be doled out in each novel. The series is trying to cram 29 novels worth of family background into one season, and it's throwing the balance off, with too little time spent on the murder story.
Nicole Kidman doing television is no longer particularly newsworthy or interesting, and this is the latest in her growing string of "meh, that was fine" series. If you like this sort of thing, this will keep you reasonably content for eight hours or so. It's well acted and competently made, and it could run for as many season as Kidman wants do it. But no one will much remember it six months after it's over.
25victorianlibrary
Quick list of some of the movies/series I have been watching this year:
Movies:
Married Too Young (1962)
A mechanic gets involved with car thieves.
Not too bad, but also not the best.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056225/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_Married...
Take Care of My Little Girl (1951)
A girl goes to college - about sororities.
Not too bad, but also not the best.
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044100/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Take%20...
The Careless Years (1957)
Two teenagers want to get married but their parents don't agree.
Ok, but not the best.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050229/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_in_0_q_The%20C...
Four Girls in Town (1957)
Four girls audition for a part in a film.
Not the worst, but also not the best.
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_Four%20...
High School (1940)
A Texas ranch girl gets sent to school in San Antonio.
Decent film
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032595/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_High%20...
Series:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Very good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/?ref_=fn_t_1
Angel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff.
Must be watched in conjunction with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and vice versa.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162065/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_in_0_q_Angel
Leave it to Beaver (1957-1960s)
Follows the misadventures of a young boy and his brother in 1950s suburban America.
Very good.
Watch on archive.org
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050032/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Leave%2...
Petticoat Junction (1960s)
Follows a family who run a hotel near a little known branch line railway.
Pretty good.
Watch on Tubi and other online sites.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_in_0_q_Pettico...
Gidget (1965)
Staring Sally Field.
Based on the 1959 surfing film of the same name.
Pretty good.
Watch online.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058806/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_Gidget
Stranger Things (2016-2025)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy set in the 1980s
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_Strange...
Two of a Kind (Late 1990s)
One season comedy staring the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley
Watch on archive.org
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161204/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Two%20o...
Full House (Late 80s-90s)
Comedy
A widowed sportscaster raises his three daughters with assistance from his rock and roll brother-in-law and madcap best friend.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092359/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Full%20...
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990s)
Follows the lives of a group of friends living in the wealthy and privileged Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, California as they transition from high school and into college and then into the adult world.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098749/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Beverly...
'Allo 'Allo (1980s)
In France during World War II, René Artois runs a small café where Resistance fighters, Gestapo men, German Army officers and escaped Allied POWs interact daily, ignorant of one another's true identity or presence, exasperating René.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086659/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_%27Allo...
Movies:
Married Too Young (1962)
A mechanic gets involved with car thieves.
Not too bad, but also not the best.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056225/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_Married...
Take Care of My Little Girl (1951)
A girl goes to college - about sororities.
Not too bad, but also not the best.
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044100/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Take%20...
The Careless Years (1957)
Two teenagers want to get married but their parents don't agree.
Ok, but not the best.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050229/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_in_0_q_The%20C...
Four Girls in Town (1957)
Four girls audition for a part in a film.
Not the worst, but also not the best.
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049228/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_0_in_0_q_Four%20...
High School (1940)
A Texas ranch girl gets sent to school in San Antonio.
Decent film
Watched on You Tube
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032595/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_High%20...
Series:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Very good.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118276/?ref_=fn_t_1
Angel
Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff.
Must be watched in conjunction with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and vice versa.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162065/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_in_0_q_Angel
Leave it to Beaver (1957-1960s)
Follows the misadventures of a young boy and his brother in 1950s suburban America.
Very good.
Watch on archive.org
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050032/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Leave%2...
Petticoat Junction (1960s)
Follows a family who run a hotel near a little known branch line railway.
Pretty good.
Watch on Tubi and other online sites.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056780/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_0_in_0_q_Pettico...
Gidget (1965)
Staring Sally Field.
Based on the 1959 surfing film of the same name.
Pretty good.
Watch online.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058806/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_Gidget
Stranger Things (2016-2025)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy set in the 1980s
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4574334/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_Strange...
Two of a Kind (Late 1990s)
One season comedy staring the Olsen Twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley
Watch on archive.org
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161204/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Two%20o...
Full House (Late 80s-90s)
Comedy
A widowed sportscaster raises his three daughters with assistance from his rock and roll brother-in-law and madcap best friend.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092359/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Full%20...
Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990s)
Follows the lives of a group of friends living in the wealthy and privileged Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, California as they transition from high school and into college and then into the adult world.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098749/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_Beverly...
'Allo 'Allo (1980s)
In France during World War II, René Artois runs a small café where Resistance fighters, Gestapo men, German Army officers and escaped Allied POWs interact daily, ignorant of one another's true identity or presence, exasperating René.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086659/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_in_0_q_%27Allo...
26featherbear
I’ve read a number of Jo Nesbo’s detective novels featuring Norwegian detective Harry Hole (2 syllables, emphasis on the first), & I have a number of them in my TBR queue. Upon checking LT I was pleased to note that I own (somewhere or other) a copy of The Devil’s Star, the basis for the 9 episode (ca 45m each) Detective Hole Netflix series (don't think I've read it though). Whew! Binged all 9 of the damn thing Saturday night from whenever I got up after dinner till 1AM Sunday morning. Nesbo was one of the producers, so I assume it’s close to what he wanted. Dialog is mostly Norwegian, with a dash of Swedish, Danish, maybe some others (Czech?), plus some nuances of Norwegian dialect & Swedish accented Norwegian. Gory, right wing conspiracies, end time conspiracies, pentagrams, arms smuggling , gang wars, Pygmalion complexes, some of the nastiest examples of manosphere creepsters, sex on a waterbed, &, as Netflix likes to warn, smoking (one of Harry’s notable vices – which include excessive drinking & don’t try this at home drug taking – he’s literally a young lad’s role model in the series). Have I left out anything? Don’t remember the Nesbo novels to involve so much plot trickery & luridness. Tobias Santelmann plays Harry H., reminding me of square jawed Jason Statham, though his Harry seems to be a bit more articulate. But the series is carried by Swedish star Joel Kinnaman as Tom Waaler, a rival dirty cop, about as evil a villainous character from episode to episode as I’ve encountered in a crime series in some time (loved Kinnaman in the American/Canadian version of The Killing, where his English was unobjectionable; the finicky Norwegian producers explain his “accent” to Waaler being of Swedish origin.) I’m a big fan! Tip of the hat also to Frank Kjosas, as forlorn husband Willy ("whole fennel seeds") Barli & (hope I’ve gotten this right) Anders Danielsen Lie as Anders Knutsen, the Heidegger quoting creep of a husband to Ana Dahl Torp’s Vibeke of the baggy eyes, who both live in the apartment below the first (?) murder – blood dripping in the boiling potatoes!!). What made it irresistible for me was having the serial killer crime & the smuggling conspiracy themes running side by side but not quite coinciding.
For some shorter though lively action I caught about a week earlier, also on Netflix, Sisu Road to Revenge (2025) (a movie clocking in at a more reasonable 90m), another Scandinavian (not sure if Finland is Scandinavian) bloodbath, with Sisu (Jorma Tomilla), having wiped out a battalion of Nazis in the original, continues in post war Finland & the Soviet Union, to wreak havoc on the Soviets, for the unlikely reason of salvaging the timbers of his home, now part of Russia, for transport back to Finland. Again, carried by the villain w/ the villainous name of Yeagor Dragunov as played by Stephen Lang, who earned his villain chops in Avatar. Note: Sisu has a dog in this one, as well.
Netflix again. War Machine (2026, 1h 46m). Caught this one for Alan Ritchson, who I liked in the Amazon Prime Reacher series. Ritchson is “81” in Army Ranger candidate school. I found the backstory of 81’s “motivation” – failure to carry his wounded brother over the “finish line” during the Afghanistan war – to be rather threadbare. The brothers’ plan was to go through Ranger training together, so of course he must succeed. However, the Rangers’ finalist test is to locate & blow up a fallen plane in the mountainous Colorado forest. Unfortunately, they mistake an alien artifact for the plane & the artifact wakes up. The artifact seems to be a direct “borrow” from one of the War of the Worlds films, & the chase begins, with the Rangers whittled (or perhaps better mangled) down one by one, & despite my noted misgivings, the chase over rough terrain, which is the core of the film, seemed very well done to me. The patriotic theme & the “aliens” might have a Pete Hegseth underlying thematic that could be disturbing, but, in spite of that, good action. I should note that War Machine is pretty gory, though I'm not sure if I caught any Rangers smoking.
I did spend most of March watching 5 seasons of DCI Banks (2010-2016) on Britbox via Amazon Prime, concluding with Banks (Stephen Tompkinson) mourning over a pile of rocks. The other principals are his 2 seconds, DS Annie Cabbot (Andrea Lowe) & DI Helen Morton (Caroline Catz). Both the female secondaries I found to be more interesting than Banks, who claims to detect with his gut, but he comes across as too emotional for his own good, at least as a detective. I’ve read a number of the books in the Banks series by Peter Robinson years ago & don’t remember Banks to be as off-putting. Still, it kept my interest. Also a tip of the hat to Jack Deam as DC Ken Blackstone who does a lot of the grunt work.
Addendum: UConn women got by Notre Dame despite Hannah Hidalgo's efforts. I can breathe again; good luck in the Final Four & please try to shoot a little better.
For some shorter though lively action I caught about a week earlier, also on Netflix, Sisu Road to Revenge (2025) (a movie clocking in at a more reasonable 90m), another Scandinavian (not sure if Finland is Scandinavian) bloodbath, with Sisu (Jorma Tomilla), having wiped out a battalion of Nazis in the original, continues in post war Finland & the Soviet Union, to wreak havoc on the Soviets, for the unlikely reason of salvaging the timbers of his home, now part of Russia, for transport back to Finland. Again, carried by the villain w/ the villainous name of Yeagor Dragunov as played by Stephen Lang, who earned his villain chops in Avatar. Note: Sisu has a dog in this one, as well.
Netflix again. War Machine (2026, 1h 46m). Caught this one for Alan Ritchson, who I liked in the Amazon Prime Reacher series. Ritchson is “81” in Army Ranger candidate school. I found the backstory of 81’s “motivation” – failure to carry his wounded brother over the “finish line” during the Afghanistan war – to be rather threadbare. The brothers’ plan was to go through Ranger training together, so of course he must succeed. However, the Rangers’ finalist test is to locate & blow up a fallen plane in the mountainous Colorado forest. Unfortunately, they mistake an alien artifact for the plane & the artifact wakes up. The artifact seems to be a direct “borrow” from one of the War of the Worlds films, & the chase begins, with the Rangers whittled (or perhaps better mangled) down one by one, & despite my noted misgivings, the chase over rough terrain, which is the core of the film, seemed very well done to me. The patriotic theme & the “aliens” might have a Pete Hegseth underlying thematic that could be disturbing, but, in spite of that, good action. I should note that War Machine is pretty gory, though I'm not sure if I caught any Rangers smoking.
I did spend most of March watching 5 seasons of DCI Banks (2010-2016) on Britbox via Amazon Prime, concluding with Banks (Stephen Tompkinson) mourning over a pile of rocks. The other principals are his 2 seconds, DS Annie Cabbot (Andrea Lowe) & DI Helen Morton (Caroline Catz). Both the female secondaries I found to be more interesting than Banks, who claims to detect with his gut, but he comes across as too emotional for his own good, at least as a detective. I’ve read a number of the books in the Banks series by Peter Robinson years ago & don’t remember Banks to be as off-putting. Still, it kept my interest. Also a tip of the hat to Jack Deam as DC Ken Blackstone who does a lot of the grunt work.
Addendum: UConn women got by Notre Dame despite Hannah Hidalgo's efforts. I can breathe again; good luck in the Final Four & please try to shoot a little better.
27KeithChaffee
There's a certain type of low-budget indie in which a director/writer is making his first film, and calls in every connection he has to fill the screen with talent who will know how to make him look good. Matthew Shear's Fantasy Life is such a film.
Shear stars as Sam, who gets hired at the last minute as an emergency babysitter; the job eventually becomes a full-time nanny position. When the family's father, a musician, gets a job that takes him away from home for a few months, Sam finds himself falling for the mother.
As for filling the screen with talent: The parents who hire Sam are played by Amanda Peet (in a co-lead role) and Alessandro Nivola; the grandparents are Judd Hirsch, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harper, and Bob Balaban; and there are one-scene bit parts for Zosia Mamet and Holland Taylor.
Peet has been working in television for the last decade, and she hadn't had a film role this good for at least a decade before that. The death of the romantic comedy did weird things to a lot of film careers, hers among them. There's a bit too much drama in this story for it to quite be a rom-com, though there are elements of that in it.
Shear has been working in film and TV fairly steadily for fifteen years or so, but this is certainly the largest role he's had, and he holds his own with his more experienced colleagues.
It's a pretty good movie, and Peet is strong enough in it to make it an easy recommendation.
Shear stars as Sam, who gets hired at the last minute as an emergency babysitter; the job eventually becomes a full-time nanny position. When the family's father, a musician, gets a job that takes him away from home for a few months, Sam finds himself falling for the mother.
As for filling the screen with talent: The parents who hire Sam are played by Amanda Peet (in a co-lead role) and Alessandro Nivola; the grandparents are Judd Hirsch, Andrea Martin, Jessica Harper, and Bob Balaban; and there are one-scene bit parts for Zosia Mamet and Holland Taylor.
Peet has been working in television for the last decade, and she hadn't had a film role this good for at least a decade before that. The death of the romantic comedy did weird things to a lot of film careers, hers among them. There's a bit too much drama in this story for it to quite be a rom-com, though there are elements of that in it.
Shear has been working in film and TV fairly steadily for fifteen years or so, but this is certainly the largest role he's had, and he holds his own with his more experienced colleagues.
It's a pretty good movie, and Peet is strong enough in it to make it an easy recommendation.
28KeithChaffee
Steven Soderbergh's The Christophers is largely a two-hander for Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel, both terrific.
Coel is Lisa, an art restorer who is approached by Sally (Jessica Gunning), a former art school classmate, and her brother Barnaby (James Corden). They are the estranged children of Julian (McKellen), a once prominent painter best known for two series of paintings of his then-boyfriend, paintings known as "the Christophers." They tell Lisa that there is a third series of Christophers, none of them finished, in Julian's attic, and propose that she should "complete"/forge them, so that the kids can "discover" them in the attic when Julian dies; they'll share the profits from the sale with her.
Lisa gets herself hired as Julian's assistant, and the movie is largely made up of their attempts to figure out exactly what the other is planning with regard to those eight paintings. Ed Solomon's screenplay is crisp and witty (though a few lines are lost in a slightly muddy sound mix). Even when the plot detours in a direction you thought you were expecting, it winds up landing not quite where you thought it would.
Fine performances all around; even Corden is more interesting playing a conniving creep than he is in his usual "ain't I adorable' puppydog mode.
Coel is Lisa, an art restorer who is approached by Sally (Jessica Gunning), a former art school classmate, and her brother Barnaby (James Corden). They are the estranged children of Julian (McKellen), a once prominent painter best known for two series of paintings of his then-boyfriend, paintings known as "the Christophers." They tell Lisa that there is a third series of Christophers, none of them finished, in Julian's attic, and propose that she should "complete"/forge them, so that the kids can "discover" them in the attic when Julian dies; they'll share the profits from the sale with her.
Lisa gets herself hired as Julian's assistant, and the movie is largely made up of their attempts to figure out exactly what the other is planning with regard to those eight paintings. Ed Solomon's screenplay is crisp and witty (though a few lines are lost in a slightly muddy sound mix). Even when the plot detours in a direction you thought you were expecting, it winds up landing not quite where you thought it would.
Fine performances all around; even Corden is more interesting playing a conniving creep than he is in his usual "ain't I adorable' puppydog mode.
29KeithChaffee
You, Me & Tuscany is a romantic comedy, which we don't get as many of these days as we used to. It's not perfect, but there are things in it that work very nicely.
Halle Bailey stars as Anna, who meets Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) in a New York bar. He's from Tuscany, traveling on a long business trip, and Anna is stirred to make the Italian visit she's always dreamed of. As can happen with spontaneous trips, there are no hotel rooms in the village when she arrives (it's the annual summer festival), and she decides to crash at Matteo's charming villa, since he's told her he's almost never there.
When she's found there by his family, she winds up pretending to be his fiancee, even as she finds herself falling for Matteo's cousin, Michael (Rege-Jean Page).
Bailey is charming and manages to sell even the more absurd plot points with enough conviction that you're not too bothered by the silliness, and while I am still not convinced that Page has enough charisma to carry a movie, he's certainly pretty to look at.
The supporting cast is filled with fine Italian actors. Isabella Ferrari is warm and lovable as Matteo's mother, and Marco Calvani is a bubbly delight as a Tuscan cabbie who befriend Anna. The weak link is Aziza Scott as Anna's best friend, who delivers her every line as the Sassiest Black Woman who ever lived; she's grating and overbearing.
I don't want to oversell the movie. It's lightweight enough to use dandelion fluff as a paperweight, and you could drive a herd of elephants through some of its plot holes. But we don't go to romantic comedies for airtight plotting, we go for the fantasy and escapism of watching beautiful people overcome silly obstacles to find love, and the movie delivers plenty of that.
Halle Bailey stars as Anna, who meets Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor) in a New York bar. He's from Tuscany, traveling on a long business trip, and Anna is stirred to make the Italian visit she's always dreamed of. As can happen with spontaneous trips, there are no hotel rooms in the village when she arrives (it's the annual summer festival), and she decides to crash at Matteo's charming villa, since he's told her he's almost never there.
When she's found there by his family, she winds up pretending to be his fiancee, even as she finds herself falling for Matteo's cousin, Michael (Rege-Jean Page).
Bailey is charming and manages to sell even the more absurd plot points with enough conviction that you're not too bothered by the silliness, and while I am still not convinced that Page has enough charisma to carry a movie, he's certainly pretty to look at.
The supporting cast is filled with fine Italian actors. Isabella Ferrari is warm and lovable as Matteo's mother, and Marco Calvani is a bubbly delight as a Tuscan cabbie who befriend Anna. The weak link is Aziza Scott as Anna's best friend, who delivers her every line as the Sassiest Black Woman who ever lived; she's grating and overbearing.
I don't want to oversell the movie. It's lightweight enough to use dandelion fluff as a paperweight, and you could drive a herd of elephants through some of its plot holes. But we don't go to romantic comedies for airtight plotting, we go for the fantasy and escapism of watching beautiful people overcome silly obstacles to find love, and the movie delivers plenty of that.
30featherbear
Well, UConn women’s basketball ended somewhat prematurely in the Final Four & I finally got my tax return & first quarter estimated tax paid, so I can finally take a break & explore a bit more TV & movies on TV, though I still feel a bit in arrears w/my reading projects.
I DVR’d Sword of the Beast (1965, 1h 25m, b&w) via a late-night TCM presentation. Director/writer Hideo Gosha. Actually, just discovered that it’s one of the items in an “outlaw samurai” Criterion DVD omnibus collection I have sitting unwatched – till now – on my shelves! I mistakenly thought the collection included Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai. I’m slipping; need to explore my own collections! Obviously not familiar with his work – he later went on to do yakuza films, but his early films are genre jidaigeki, pre-Meiji historical dramas. Apparently his best in this genre are 2 1969 films, Goyokin & Hitokiri. But Sword of the Beast was pretty good; somewhat reminiscent of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with Gennosuke (Mikijiro Hira), a ronin, a former samurai on the run for killing his clan counselor, who goes on a gold-hunting expedition to a mountain owned by the Tokugawa Shogunate, where he encounters gold poacher/prospectors from another clan, Jurota (Go Kato) & wife Taka (Shima Iwashita). Much of the film features Gennosuke not doing much panning for gold in the mountain streams, but avoiding getting killed by the Shogunate police, the group of the assassinated counselor’s retainers led by the counselor’s daughter & her fiancée, plus Jurota, plus some shenanigans at the local inn – not sure about affiliations in this latter case. Sex definitely plays a role but limited to a suggestively bared shoulder or two. Basically both the clan running the illegal gold operation & the revenge group clan are as devious as the Mexican bandits in Sierra Madre, though the daughter of the assassinated counselor & her fiancée do act w/honor. Glad I own this one, as it turns out. Genre samurai films in B&W are the best, visually.
On MGM+ -- though it is now available on Amazon Prime: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025, 2h 49m). Director Christopher McQuarrie, screenplay McQuarrie & 2 other guys. Confusing opening & the amount of set pieces left out opportunities &, as far as I was concerned, added plot holes, notably: leaving out how Grace (Hayley Atwell) & Tapeesa (Lucy Tulagarjuk) retrieve & revive the frozen Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) from the arctic waters (the plan was explained in advance, but the action itself is glossed over as he wakes up in the arms of Ms Atwell) – second, Ethan’s sleight of hand w/the parachutes in the biplane chase, which does have a 1930s serial feel to it. In any case, I had to re-watch Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One on Netflix to remind myself about what was going on in the sequel. Turns out all of the MI team’s derring-do actually resulted in the spawning of The Entity, the AI planning to destroy humanity, but ripe for the picking by Luther’s poison pill & Grace’s active pickpocket hands. Also wondering whether the posthumous sermonizing of Luther (Ving Rhames) is Scientological. Nice to see Ethan delegating a lot of the dirty work to his team, in this one: Atwell, Rhames,, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff (the demented Paris, minion of supervillain Gabriel/Esai Morales. Paris has a St Paul moment when Ethan spares her life though she’s a lot better in part one when she's a crazy armored car driver), Craig Tarzan Davis (Degas, Shea Whigham’s lieutenant, who crosses over to the MI side for some reason), plus Rolf Saxon (William Donloe, the CIA analyst whose work was purloined by Hunt in one of the iconic scenes of an earlier Mission, dutifully reprised in Final Reckoning, with the result that he ends up exiled to a frozen island off Alaska). Anyway, be sure to at least watch Dead Reckoning Part One before (Part two) Final Reckoning.
I liked Emma Stone in Bugonia (2025, 1h 58m) Director, Yorgos Lanthimos; screenplay Will Tracy & Jang Joon-Hwan, though the denouement was unsatisfying. Kidnapped by madman Jesse Plemons, we have a rhetorical duel between management-speak vs rabbit hole speak, which is interesting, but the resolution is unclever rabbit hole-ism. Though in these times, the alien solution has its gruesome satisfactions. (Caught it on Peacock, but it's moving to other streaming services -- Netflix or Amazon Prime, check your listings)
Probably locked in to HBO/MAX for the time being, currently alternating between The Wire: Season 1 (I’m on Epi 7; actually re-watching it, but the plan is to watch the later seasons for the first time) & just starting Season 2 of The Pitt, which concluded on Thursday. Confess I’m often on the verge of tears watching the suffering of some of the patients, as was the case in the previous season. I was planning to binge, but I can’t take more than one episode per evening.
I DVR’d Sword of the Beast (1965, 1h 25m, b&w) via a late-night TCM presentation. Director/writer Hideo Gosha. Actually, just discovered that it’s one of the items in an “outlaw samurai” Criterion DVD omnibus collection I have sitting unwatched – till now – on my shelves! I mistakenly thought the collection included Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai. I’m slipping; need to explore my own collections! Obviously not familiar with his work – he later went on to do yakuza films, but his early films are genre jidaigeki, pre-Meiji historical dramas. Apparently his best in this genre are 2 1969 films, Goyokin & Hitokiri. But Sword of the Beast was pretty good; somewhat reminiscent of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, with Gennosuke (Mikijiro Hira), a ronin, a former samurai on the run for killing his clan counselor, who goes on a gold-hunting expedition to a mountain owned by the Tokugawa Shogunate, where he encounters gold poacher/prospectors from another clan, Jurota (Go Kato) & wife Taka (Shima Iwashita). Much of the film features Gennosuke not doing much panning for gold in the mountain streams, but avoiding getting killed by the Shogunate police, the group of the assassinated counselor’s retainers led by the counselor’s daughter & her fiancée, plus Jurota, plus some shenanigans at the local inn – not sure about affiliations in this latter case. Sex definitely plays a role but limited to a suggestively bared shoulder or two. Basically both the clan running the illegal gold operation & the revenge group clan are as devious as the Mexican bandits in Sierra Madre, though the daughter of the assassinated counselor & her fiancée do act w/honor. Glad I own this one, as it turns out. Genre samurai films in B&W are the best, visually.
On MGM+ -- though it is now available on Amazon Prime: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (2025, 2h 49m). Director Christopher McQuarrie, screenplay McQuarrie & 2 other guys. Confusing opening & the amount of set pieces left out opportunities &, as far as I was concerned, added plot holes, notably: leaving out how Grace (Hayley Atwell) & Tapeesa (Lucy Tulagarjuk) retrieve & revive the frozen Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) from the arctic waters (the plan was explained in advance, but the action itself is glossed over as he wakes up in the arms of Ms Atwell) – second, Ethan’s sleight of hand w/the parachutes in the biplane chase, which does have a 1930s serial feel to it. In any case, I had to re-watch Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One on Netflix to remind myself about what was going on in the sequel. Turns out all of the MI team’s derring-do actually resulted in the spawning of The Entity, the AI planning to destroy humanity, but ripe for the picking by Luther’s poison pill & Grace’s active pickpocket hands. Also wondering whether the posthumous sermonizing of Luther (Ving Rhames) is Scientological. Nice to see Ethan delegating a lot of the dirty work to his team, in this one: Atwell, Rhames,, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff (the demented Paris, minion of supervillain Gabriel/Esai Morales. Paris has a St Paul moment when Ethan spares her life though she’s a lot better in part one when she's a crazy armored car driver), Craig Tarzan Davis (Degas, Shea Whigham’s lieutenant, who crosses over to the MI side for some reason), plus Rolf Saxon (William Donloe, the CIA analyst whose work was purloined by Hunt in one of the iconic scenes of an earlier Mission, dutifully reprised in Final Reckoning, with the result that he ends up exiled to a frozen island off Alaska). Anyway, be sure to at least watch Dead Reckoning Part One before (Part two) Final Reckoning.
I liked Emma Stone in Bugonia (2025, 1h 58m) Director, Yorgos Lanthimos; screenplay Will Tracy & Jang Joon-Hwan, though the denouement was unsatisfying. Kidnapped by madman Jesse Plemons, we have a rhetorical duel between management-speak vs rabbit hole speak, which is interesting, but the resolution is unclever rabbit hole-ism. Though in these times, the alien solution has its gruesome satisfactions. (Caught it on Peacock, but it's moving to other streaming services -- Netflix or Amazon Prime, check your listings)
Probably locked in to HBO/MAX for the time being, currently alternating between The Wire: Season 1 (I’m on Epi 7; actually re-watching it, but the plan is to watch the later seasons for the first time) & just starting Season 2 of The Pitt, which concluded on Thursday. Confess I’m often on the verge of tears watching the suffering of some of the patients, as was the case in the previous season. I was planning to binge, but I can’t take more than one episode per evening.
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