Last week, I watched 6 movies:
 |
 |
 |
- Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, which I’m only ninety-something-percent sure I’ve never seen before, is maybe more interesting than revealing—I’m not sure I learned anything about the man, if I’m being honest—but it is undoubtedly interesting.
- As Roger Ebert wrote, If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium “isn’t a great movie by any means, but it manages to be awfully pleasant.” The movie is dated, and more a collection of character beats than actual characters or story, but the cast manages to make it a pleasant enough experience.
- I don’t know that Highest 2 Lowest is my favorite Spike Lee/Denzel Washington collaboration, but damn if the movie doesn’t make clear there’s still a whole lot of juice left in the partnership.
 |
 |
 |
- Vanessa Kirby is very good in Night Always Comes. I just wish the rest of the movie around her was equal to the performance. That’s not any fault of the other actors, who are also good—and the movie does have some hard-hitting emotional beats as you feel the desperation waft off the characters. It just feels a little too cliche at times, which is a shame.
- Thank God It’s Friday is two parts Saturday Night Fever and one part American Graffiti, and also very much less than the sum of its parts. “When you describe it, it sounds like a lot more fun than it is when you see it,” wrote Roger Ebert. The movie was all too obviously designed as a vehicle for Donna Summer’s song “Last Dance,” and hey, they managed to get an Academy Award out of it. But it’s weird, because despite what all of the characters in the film seem to think, it’s not even Summer’s best performance of the song, and her character, such as it is, is even thinner than all of the others who drift in and out of the film.
I also rewatched The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires, though not as a double-feature. I enjoyed them both.