{"id":13798,"date":"2024-09-01T13:47:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T17:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13798"},"modified":"2024-09-01T13:47:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T17:47:44","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13798","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 5 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0065036\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Stereo\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/1.jpg 408w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044789\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Kansas City Confidential\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13794\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/2.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0051706\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Haunted Strangler\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-669x1024.jpg 669w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-768x1175.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-1004x1536.jpg 1004w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-1339x2048.jpg 1339w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/3-scaled.jpg 1674w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s not hard to see the promise in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0065036\/\">Stereo<\/a>, especially when you&#8217;ve already seen that promise realized in later Cronenberg movies. But taken on its own terms, as a feature, as a <em>narrative<\/em>, it&#8217;s exceedingly dull and disappointing\u2014full of intriguing images and compositions, but none that are put to any real use, with its slow stretches of silence broken up only by underbaked ideas expressed in often near-incomprehensible voiceover.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Despite its overly generic, and not terribly descriptive, title, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044789\/\">Kansas City Confidential<\/a> is a fun, occasionally inventive, certainly surprisingly twisty little noir.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0051706\/\">The Haunted Strangler<\/a> is helped enormously by Boris Karloff&#8217;s&#8230;well, let&#8217;s be charitable and call this a performance, although it&#8217;s far from his best work and\u2014minor spoiler warning, only if you fail to see the movie poster\u2014mostly just involves him contorting his face. A &#8220;ludicrously improbable plot,&#8221; in the words of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.proquest.com\/docview\/1305824840\/F982F0E299784974PQ\/1\">the Monthly Film Bulletin<\/a>, &#8220;which peters out into a series of tediously repetitive chases&#8230;&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt18298588\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/4-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Monolith\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13796\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/4-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/4-693x1024.jpg 693w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/4-768x1135.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/4.jpg 812w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26736843\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Watchers\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-13797\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/5-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/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=\"alignleft 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\/tt18298588\/\">Monolith<\/a> doesn&#8217;t resolve in a completely satisfying way, but that seems at least partly by design. What the movie is, is terrifically creepy, very effective given its small budget, limited space, and single on-screen actor.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26736843\/\">The Watchers<\/a> isn&#8217;t what I would call an especially <em>well<\/em> directed movie, but it&#8217;s more than competent. It&#8217;s in the writing, however, where Ishana Shyamalan&#8217;s weaknesses as a filmmaker really emerge. Because the script is simply <em>terrible<\/em>. By turns both a rush and a slog, both under- and over-explained, it&#8217;s a deeply unscary, uninteresting, and unsatisfying mess.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also enjoyed re-watching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0065724\/\">Five Easy Pieces<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 5 movies last week: It&#8217;s not hard to see the promise in Stereo, especially when you&#8217;ve already seen that promise realized in later Cronenberg movies. But taken on its own terms, as a feature, as a narrative, it&#8217;s exceedingly dull and disappointing\u2014full of intriguing images and compositions, but none that are put to &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=13798\">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-13798","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\/13798"}],"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=13798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13799,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798\/revisions\/13799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}