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Last week, I watched 7 movies:

• Queen of Earth can be challenging, occasionally a tough watch, as these two (frequently unlikable) characters spiral inward and around one another.
• I’ve never seen the heavily edited version of Ikarie XB-1 that was released in the United States as Voyage to the End of the Universe, but I have to presume it was an attempt to transform the movie into much more typical early ’60s sci-fi fare. However, in the original Czech version, you can easily see a film that would influence later ’60s science fiction, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, from the set design to the slower, more philosophical pace.
• The performances in Wildlife are all really great. I initially worried that Carey Mulligan’s Jeanette descends too quickly into reckless, sometimes hurtful behavior, but then I understood the movie is almost exclusively told from the perspective of her teenage son, who would only understand what’s happening as sudden and disruptive.

• Beatles ’64 isn’t a documentary, it’s a confused assortment of interviews, both new and old, and archival footage. There’s kind of a central thesis at play, but it’s not much deeper than “the Beatles arrival in America was an important cultural moment,” and moreover, it only sometimes puts that moment into (earlier or later) context. It’s occasionally interesting—like when someone like David Lynch randomly pops up to talk about his joy in the Beatles’ early music, or Ronnie Spector jokes about them looking like “Spanish dorks” when she took them to Harlem—and I don’t want to fault the film too much for not being an exhaustive document. But it’s far too disjointed and rambling to really say anything about the band or that moment in 1964.
• The Artifice Girl arguably doesn’t have anything especially novel to say about artificial intelligence, but the questions it does ask—what is intelligence? what will owe self-aware AI if we ever manage to create it?—are handled so thoughtfully, with such a simple script and fantastic performances, that I didn’t care. I thought it was a genuinely great movie.
• The Ray Harryhausen stop-motion effects in Mighty Joe Young have a real charm…which is good, because the other effects around them look a lot more shaky nowadays. In fact, Harryhausen’s effects give the giant ape a real personality, and bring some genuine pathos to what’s otherwise a fun but more than a little hokey movie.
• Burnt Offerings is hokey as heck too, and it’s hard to understand why these characters stay in the haunted house—even discounting the supernatural, they seem to be having a miserable summer—but the movie is also pretty fun.

I had the week off from work, thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday (but also a dentist appointment right before that), so I ended up watching 9 movies:

• It’s a little strange, watching Love Affair without ever having seen the much better known remake An Affair to Remember. Still, Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer are charming enough together.
• The Last Dragon is cheesy but fun.
• Invaders from Mars is pure ’50s-era science fiction: more than a little corny, bordering on camp but never aware that it’s doing so, but still pretty fun.

• The first twenty minutes of Alien: Romulus, before the movie really lets on that it’s a legacy sequel, are kind of interesting, suggesting an originality that the rest of the movie seems to be actively fighting against. But if the remainder was just another stale Alien knockoff, I think I could have still handled that—even after the unnecessary AI deepfake of Ian Holm shows up, and even after the movie starts directly (and nonsensically) quoting previous films in the franchise. But when the movie reveals itself to be a Prometheus sequel as well, and insists on unconvincingly tying every last bit of continuity together, that’s when my waning interest turned into active annoyance. There are still some things to like about the film, some able direction and a couple of decent performances, but it feels more like a wasted opportunity to bring anything new or interesting to the table.
• You won’t learn much from Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show if you weren’t already familiar with its history. But it’s also hard to imagine why you would watch it if you weren’t already familiar with it. There are some interesting, if not revelatory, interviews with nearly all of the principals involved—head writer Louis CK being the notable exception. (It’s easy to imagine interviews with him having been filmed, but then scrapped in the wake of the allegations around him.) This soft doc doesn’t necessarily make a case that the show should have lasted, or that there’s even something to learn from its failure, but it’s an entertaining enough.
• Almost everything that works about Drive-Away Dolls is thanks to the actors, who give every weird line reading and wink-wink-isn’t-this-kooky plot twist their all. (Margaret Qualley in particular is a lot of fun.) But it’s all a bit too much, really. Even if you didn’t already know this was directed and co-written by one of the Coen Brothers, the movie would feel like one of their collaborations but warmed over and therefore half-baked. There’s a lot going on here—too much, honestly—and it never comes together in a particularly satisfying way.

• Sorry, Wrong Number is a little convoluted, and Stanwyck’s performance teeters almost constantly on the edge of silly hysteria, but there’s a lot to like here.
• They Call Me Mister Tibbs! is no In the Heat of the Night. I appreciate the attempt to give Poitier’s character more life, and both he and Landau are pretty good, but the movie itself is a little dull.
• Troll Hunter does exactly what it says on the tin. Unfortunately, that’s kind of all it does. The workmanlike CGI has aged well enough, likely because it’s mostly hidden in shadow, but the truth is the movie just doesn’t do a whole lot and then kind of peters out. A late attempt at a surprise reveal can’t really change the fact that this feels like a short film padded unnecessarily. There’s a good short film inside it, but that’s kind of all there is.

I also re-watched Double Indemnity, which I hadn’t seen since my college film class, and which is just a pitch-perfect film noir.

• My Old Ass is an often very touching and very funny.
• The very strong performances in A Thousand and One—particularly from Teyana Taylor, Aven Courtney, and William Catlett—really elevate the movie’s very simple story.
• If you loved Inside Out…well, Inside Out 2 is also a movie. It’s not without its moments of cleverness and sweetness, and there is something to be said for taking seriously the complicated emotions of growing up, especially as a young girl, but the movie feels a lot less essential than the first one.

• Magic Mike’s Last Dance has a lot of charm and several very good dance performances—which is good, because you’ll arguably see too much of those.
• Son of Frankenstein doesn’t necessarily bring anything new to the table (or, er, slab), but with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, and Bela Lugosi around, it’s good fun.
• Things Will Be Different doesn’t quite stick the landing or do enough with its intriguing time-travel premise, but it’s a tense ride while it’s happening.

I also re-watched Private Benjamin, which is like three or four movies tacked on to each other, not just the funny boot camp comedy I remember. It is funny, thanks largely to Goldie Hawn and Eileen Brennan, but it’s also a little patchwork.

• Monday “crackles with energy and stings with honesty” (to quote Screen Daily, with terrific performances by both Denise Gough and Sebastian Stan.
• Tuesday feels very strange and personal, but it’s also a deeply moving meditation on death and grief.
• Any Wednesday is surprisingly unpleasant. Audiences in 1966 could be forgiven for thinking its premise ought to be funny, but less so for thinking that it was funny. The movie is backward and dated in its gender politics, but it also feels weirdly miscast (particularly in Fonda’s role), and none of its characters are especially likable.

• A Thursday has a premise that’s interesting until you learn what the movie plans to do with it, until you notice the cheapness of the production, the overly melodramatic music and direction, and the didactic points the movie is trying to make. I could absolutely stand to watch more foregin films, Hindi films in particular—and I do think some of what didn’t work for me here was just my own cultural disconnect—but this didn’t seem like a great place to start.
• Next Friday lacks the heart and charm of the first movie, and it’s mostly crass, intentionally offensive, mildly racist, stoner half-jokes, but it has its amusing moments.
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning is a remarkably frank kitchen sink drama, with a very compelling (if frequently unlikable) performance by a young Albert Finney.

I also rewatched The Fisher King, which feels very much of its time, but also still very much a fable outside of time.

• There’s nothing about Young Dr. Kildare that isn’t more than a little dated, but it’s also pleasantly entertaining.
• Gena Rowlands is very good in Gloria, but I am inclined to agree with Roger Ebert, who wrote, “Rowlands propels the action with such appealing nervous energy that we don’t have the heart to stop and think how silly everything is.”
• 1970’s Count Dracula is fun enough, especially when watched with a group, what with a mustachioed grand vampire. And it’s often faithful to the original book. But it does lack the gothic atmosphere and bloody heart of something like the Hammer Dracula films.
• Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx is a lot of fun.

I also re-watched David Lynch’s The Straight Story, which is as simple and effecting as I remember it.