I watched six movies last week:
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- The Detective is largely remembered as a trivia point nowadays, a movie based on a novel whose sequel then went on to inspire Die Hard—which is kind of a shame, because it’s pretty good all on its own. (There’s also no real point of comparison beyond Frank Sinatra also playing a New York cop.) Sinatra’s good in the movie, which, especially for 1968, takes an honest look at issues like police corruption, and while hardly flawless and certainly a little dated, is fairly progressive for the time.
- 1979’s Salem’s Lot is far from perfect—it’s rushed in its second half and limited by its 1970s TV budget—but it’s genuinely scary, works really well when it remembers to take its time, and fundamentally understands King’s novel in a way the 2024 version very much did not.
- Killer of Sheep is a lyrical slice-of-life in a community.
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- The pieces, when they start to come together in The Dry, fit, but not in the most satisfying ways, and I’m not sure it ever really gels as a mystery. But the movie has a real sense of place and its characters, of old traumas buried and dug back up.
- The Perfect Neighbor does a remarkable job of piecing together existing footage to tell its tragic story. It’s not a fun watch, even if you’re unfamiliar with the tragedy it’s spiraling towards, but it is a sad document of this American moment.
- I think it’s delightful that Toby Poser, John Adams, and their daughters Lulu and Zelda make horror movies together. And I think it’s terrific that so many of those movies are so interesting and creepy. Mother of Flies is no exception, though perhaps expect more strange and unsettling imagery than any real scares. I don’t think it’s their best, but it grows on you.
I also re-watched The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which is a lot of fun, thanks largely to great performances by Matthau and Shaw, and The Visitor, which is, well, a thing that exists.