I watched 9 movies last week:
- The 2003 version of Our Town starring Paul Newman mostly didn’t work for me, for reasons that were difficult to put my finger on. I’m a big fan of Newman, and of the 1977 adaptation of Wilder’s play, but this production always felt poorly staged, somehow less minimalist by drawing so much attention to the artifice and lack of finished sets. And while the acting is largely good, I felt no real warmth or connection for the characters, particularly George and Emily, which seems like a fundamental problem with the production.
- The Last House starts promisingly enough, with a simple but mysterious hook and strong leads in Greta Lee and Wagner Moura. And it does some clever things with its confined location—or at least most of the same things you would expect clever movies do when confined to a single location like this. But it’s really let down by unconvincingly tidy ending, and a plot that invites you to spend too much time looking through the holes in it.
- Sicario: Day of the Soldado doesn’t have anything like the weight or tension of the first movie, though it has a little of both, leant to it largely through the performances of Brolin and del Toro.
- Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother often feels more like an exercise than a narrative in and of itself, thanks in part to the anthology nature of the piece. It’s well made and acted, with some exceptionally well observed (and often bittersweet) details, but it really wasn’t until the final third of the triptych that I felt the movie come alive, with characters that felt fully real.
- The Crime of Monsieur Lange is a gem of a movie, albeit a small and modest one, and a pleasant glimpse into 1930s Paris.
- I’m not sure The Drama is always successful in what it’s trying to do, or if what it’s trying to do is always worth doing, but it does some interesting things along the way, and has good performances at its center.
- Dead Ringer is Bette Davis’ show all the way, so it’s good that she’s very good in it. The movie itself is a little hokey and uninspired, not doing a whole lot with its premise, throwing a lot of camera tricks on screen to try and sell it. It’s fun, but nothing special.
- All I can tell you about Lawyer Man is, William Powell is a lawyer, and he’s a man. In all seriousness, it’s a little morality play—more than a little convoluted, especially for such a short film—with a dependably charming Powell as the lead.
- I think I prefer the quiet and stylish retelling of the same story in Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath, but The Vourdalak certainly goes further with the gore and creepiness of it, particularly with that puppet.
