About Fred

Last week, I watched 6 movies:

• Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice is a lot of fun, when it’s a lot of fun. Problem is, the movie is too often trying too hard for its own good, prolonging bits and pop culture references when it could stand to be a whole lot snappier. The cast, particularly Vaughn, are really good, though, and there are enough silly goofs and clever jokes to keep the thing moving at a brisk enough pace. I just wish it was funnier, and did more with its premise.
• Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is like a goofy Black Mirror episode. It doesn’t always work, isn’t half as smart as it thinks it is, and it’s not remotely subtle in its satire, but it is often weird and fun. Sam Rockwell’s charm is unsurprisingly infectious, and the movie isn’t without its clever touches.
• There is a lot to like in the very amiable Good Fortune, particularly Reeves’ kind and goofy performance, even if the movie doesn’t really hold together very well in the end.

• The plot of Send Help is never surprising—it’s all there even in the marketing—so the fun of the movie is in the interplay between its two characters, the subtleties of the performances. Unfortunately, subtlety isn’t exactly in Sam Raimi’s wheelhouse, or at least not in his interests, and what we end up with is two unlikable characters being nasty to one another. (A sprinkling of unconvincing and unnecessary CGI here and there doesn’t help.)
• Locked traps Bill Skarsgård in a car, and a not very good movie, for several hours. Skarsgård puts in the work of creating an interesting character, and this may very well be his best performance, but it’s largely wasted against an underdeveloped premise and halfhearted arguments about morality.
• There’s some charm to be found in Man Wanted, particularly in Kay Francis’ performance, and there are some interesting pre-Code moments here and there, but it’s a little limp and confused, or at least dated, as a romantic comedy.

I also rewatched Kill, Baby… Kill!, which doesn’t really work on the level of story or script, but is so full of atmospheric Gothic horror and terrifically composed shots that it’s easy to forgive that.

Last week, there were a few guesses.

Will there be more, less, or any this week? Guess the artist and song for any or all of these ten lyrics and win no prize!

1. “This Is Why We Fight” by the Decemberists
   “When we die, we will die with our arms unbound”
2. “Why Can’t I Touch It?” by Buzzcocks
   “And it feels so real, I can taste it”
3. “When I’m Five” by David Bowie
   “I will chew and spit tobacco like my grandfather Jones”
4. “Six Weeks” by Of Monsters and Men
   “I fight these animals”
5. “Fortune Teller” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (or others)
   “She said, ‘Son, you feel kind of warm'”
6. “The Way it Seems to Go” by Rachael Yamagata
   “I cannot stand small talk but I’m great at being wordy”
7. “Funnel of Love” by Southern Culture on the Skids (or others)
   “My poor old head is a reelin'”
8. “Hüsker Dü” by Splitsville
   “The drummer was not too bad”
9. “The Partisan” by Leonard Cohen
   “I was cautioned to surrender”
10. “In Too Deep” by Genesis, guessed by John
    “You know I love you, but I’m playing for keeps”

Good luck!

Here’s my April music playlist:

I watched just three movies last week:

• Some very strong performances and well constructed songs aside, Merrily We Roll Along never quite worked for me. Some of that is maybe this particular production, which is filmed a lot more in close-up than a traditional stage musical, but it’s not impossible to understand how the material itself notoriously failed to connect with its original Broadway audiences and critics. (This is the only production of it that I’ve ever seen, so it’s difficult to say.) The musical’s hook of telling the story in reverse chronological order leads to a few clever moments—and is understandably a holdover from the play on which it’s based—but more often it robs the narrative of forward momentum and any kind of character arc. And the songs, while frequently impressive and energetic in the moment, were almost immediately gone from my head at the end of each number.
• If The Blue Gardenia works, it’s largely on the strength of Anne Baxter’s performance (as well as that of some of the supporting players). The plot is a little silly and over-wrought, but they almost make it work.
• Rental Family is odd and sweet, and it benefits tremendously from an endearing Brendan Fraser.

I also rewatched Them!, which is everything you want a 1950s sci-fi monster movie to be.

I read just two books in April:

• Things That Fall From the Sky by Kevin Brockmeier
• Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

It was a busy month, what with my trip to Belgium and the Netherlands and Kaleidotrope re-opening to submissions for the first time in over a year. (I’m back from my trip, and Kaleidotrope is now closed, but I’m still reading submissions.)

Anyway, I made an occasional effort to read a few other, published, short stories, but I just managed the one short story collection and the (slight, but fun) Christie novel. (And both of those were on my trip.)

I will try to read more in May!