About Fred

Here’s my #nowplaying playlist from last week:

I saw a half dozen movies last week:

• In the Shadow of the Moon is a real disappointment—some interesting, if extremely shopworn science-fictional ideas, but they never quite come together, and its characters never feel anywhere close to fully developed.
• Creed II doesn’t do anything unexpected, but what it does, it does very well and with a lot of entertaining style.
• Sharper has its moments, thanks to some decent direction and a game cast, and none of its individual vignettes overstay their welcome. But it also feels very much like a watered-down version of much better capers and con movies.

• Beau Travail is strange and languid—to the point that you wonder if this even is a movie you’re watching.
• M3GAN is very dumb, but not in the fun way I think it needed to be. Maybe that’s the inherent silliness of the material, maybe that’s the (very obvious) cuts that got the film a PG-13 rating, or maybe it’s just that it’s the kind of film you can only enjoy with a crowded theater. Whichever way, I very much didn’t enjoy the movie. And while I’m pleased that Akela Cooper has been named a screenwriter to watch, I don’t think I actually like watching the movies she writes.
• Ticket to Paradise is entertaining enough, but I think that’s only because it has such an exceptionally charming cast and is so pretty to look at. (Though, as an aside, I do note that none it was actually filmed in Bali, where the movie is set, and Billie Lourd’s part seems slightly truncated.)

I also re-watched (and re-enjoyed) 2012’s Lincoln for Presidents’ Day.

Here are all the songs I posted as #nowplaying last week:

I watched 9 movies last week:

• Killers From Space is the sort of movie that cries out for an MST3K treatment, which is why it’s no surprise to learn that it’s been done twice by the Rifftrax guys. (If I saw their first go-around, as the Film Crew, I don’t remember, but it’s possible.) It’s a pretty bad, no-budget ’50s B-movie, interesting more as a trivia question—directed by Billy Wilder’s brother, an early role for Peter Graves, etc.—than as a film itself.
• My Bloody Valentine has been described as being “like a gory Footloose,” which I suppose approximates the overall vibe of this ’80s slasher. It’s not exactly to my tastes—the kills are gory, yes, but not clever or interesting, and the ending feels a little arbitrary—but I see what some people like about it.
• Let Them All Talk feels a little slight and forgettable as a comedy, but it’s enjoyable enough, largely thanks to a very talented cast.

• He Walked by Night is maybe one of the best and worst film-noirs you’re likely to see. Most everything with Richard Basehart’s killer is tense and visually interesting, while the semi-documentary style of the manhunt is such a tedious (and dated) bore.
• My Wife’s Lodger “runs through a repertoire of farcical situations of the most ancient variety”—and that’s a review from the year the movie came out, so you can only imagine how much more dated it’s become since then. There’s mild amusement to be had, but not a lot of real laughs.
• Berlin Syndrome is a taut thriller with strong direction and performances.

• Sand away some of the plot details and World Without End could easily be any of a dozen other ’50s of ’60s sci-fi movies. It still has its own charms as such, even if is more than a little dated and generic in its storytelling.
• The Woman King is thrilling and gorgeous, rich with engaging characters and fantastic performances, not least by Viola Davis.
• More than just an important cultural touchstone for black filmmakers and filmgoers, Cooley High feels like a rich and honest portrait of a time and a neighborhood. Gene Siskel rightly called it “a beguiling story that’s affecting, lasting, and worth seeing more than once.”

I also re-watched It Follows, since I have a friend who’s been watching it recently but, but who’s been too scared to do so in anything but small segments. I found the movie maybe more disturbing than frightening the second time around, when I was less focused on the supernatural plot and more how it affects the characters, focused on it less as jump scares than metaphor. I really enjoyed it again, though.

Here are all the songs I posted as #nowplaying last week: