{"id":13278,"date":"2023-11-05T14:01:52","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T19:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13278"},"modified":"2023-11-05T14:02:22","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T19:02:22","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13278","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 8 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0107120\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Hocus Pocus\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-689x1024.jpg 689w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1-768x1142.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4163020\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Tales of Halloween\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13274016\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Reptile\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13281\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/3.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>I know this is going to upset some people of a certain age, millennials just a handful of years younger than me, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0107120\/\">Hocus Pocus<\/a> is not a good movie. I understand how someone might think it is, if they&#8217;d watched it repeatedly as a child on VHS, and it&#8217;s not mean-spirited in any way. But <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/hocus-pocus-1993\">Roger Ebert was right<\/a> when he described watching it &#8220;like attending a party you weren&#8217;t invited to, and where you don&#8217;t know anybody, and they&#8217;re all in on a joke but won&#8217;t explain it to you.&#8221;<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>None of the ten <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4163020\/\">Tales of Halloween<\/a> are abjectly terrible, but not a single one is in any way remarkable or worth seeking out on its own. Horror movie anthologies are almost always hit and miss\u2014I&#8217;m not even that big a fan of what&#8217;s supposed to be the best of the modern lot, <em>Trick &#8216;r Treat<\/em>\u2014but I&#8217;m already having trouble even remembering any of these particular tales.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13274016\/\">Reptile<\/a> is smart and tense and suspenseful\u2026until it just kind of isn&#8217;t. The cast is good throughout, particularly Del Toro, but the mystery never comes together as anything more than boilerplate, isn&#8217;t shocking in its revelations, and in retrospect isn&#8217;t much of a whodunit at all. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/reptile-review-netflix-justin-timberlake-benicio-del-toro\">As A.A. Dowd writes<\/a>, &#8220;the movie often plays like the work of someone who caught Zodiac or Gone Girl on cable years earlier and is trying to recreate it from memory, getting some of the sickly sleekness down but remaining foggy on the specifics.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13923216\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Showing Up\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/4.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt6304046\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/5-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Thelma\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13283\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/5-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/5-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/5-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/5.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044091\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/6-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"Superman and the Mole-Men\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13284\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/6-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/6-667x1024.jpg 667w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/6-768x1179.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/6.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13923216\/\">Showing Up<\/a> is understated and low-key, flirting with many big moments that would probably be the centerpiece of\u2014or even threaten to overwhelm\u2014other movies but never making more of them than they are. It&#8217;s a lovely character study, and another terrific collaboration between Michelle Williams and director Kelly Reichardt.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I really enjoyed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt6304046\/\">Thelma<\/a>, which marries horror tropes to the European art film, and which, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/11\/09\/movies\/review-in-thelma-a-woman-in-love-can-burn-down-the-world.html\">as Manohla Dargis wrote<\/a>, has &#8220;a great talent for making loneliness visceral and visible, for showing how pain can make the world disappear.&#8221;<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044091\/\">Superman and the Mole-Men<\/a> is corny and dated, but I think <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=agv_QA4ED5o\">Steve Shives does a good job<\/a> of detailing its charms (and its limitations), even if I didn&#8217;t like the short movie quite as much as him.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt15399286\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Lynch\/Oz\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/7.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13968674\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/8-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Fingernails\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-13286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/8-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/8-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/8-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/8.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-206x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"206\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-12502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-704x1024.jpg 704w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1-768x1117.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/emptymovie-1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt15399286\/\">Lynch\/Oz<\/a> makes the occasionally interesting observation\u2014and lord knows it&#8217;s full of interesting film clips\u2014but it&#8217;s hard to be convinced by any of its surface-level film criticism, none of which rises above the (already well-established) fact that David Lynch likes <em>The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and has referenced it in his own work.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I like the cast a lot, and the movie dances around some interesting thoughts about love and loneliness, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13968674\/\">Fingernails<\/a> is pretty underbaked as a story.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched <a href=\u201dhttps:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0086541\/\u201d>Videodrome<\/a>, which I probably haven&#8217;t seen in something like thirty years\u2014back when VHS was still a going concern and James Woods was a bankable movie star. The movie is admittedly a little dated, and it&#8217;s never been my favorite Cronenberg. But for all his faults as a human being, Woods is a compelling screen presence, and the movie pokes around at a lot of the fascinating body-horror pre-occupations in a lot of Cronenberg&#8217;s work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 8 movies last week: I know this is going to upset some people of a certain age, millennials just a handful of years younger than me, but Hocus Pocus is not a good movie. I understand how someone might think it is, if they&#8217;d watched it repeatedly as a child on VHS, and &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13278\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13278"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13290,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13278\/revisions\/13290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}