{"id":14122,"date":"2025-03-30T13:30:33","date_gmt":"2025-03-30T17:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14122"},"modified":"2025-03-30T13:30:58","modified_gmt":"2025-03-30T17:30:58","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-113","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14122","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 7 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0053796\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-3-187x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Entertainer\" width=\"187\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14119\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-3-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1-3.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 187px) 100vw, 187px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0473308\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-199x300.jpg\" alt=\"Waitress\" width=\"199\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-199x300.jpg 199w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-680x1024.jpg 680w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-768x1157.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-1019x1536.jpg 1019w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3-1359x2048.jpg 1359w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/2-3.jpg 1503w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 199px) 100vw, 199px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11426232\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Totally Killer\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14121\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/3-3-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0090196\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-192x300.jpg\" alt=\"Transylvania 6-5000\" width=\"192\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-192x300.jpg 192w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-655x1024.jpg 655w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-768x1201.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-983x1536.jpg 983w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-1310x2048.jpg 1310w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/4-3-scaled.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 192px) 100vw, 192px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>Laurence Olivier is terrific as the sad and selfish title character in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0053796\/\">The Entertainer<\/a>, but everyone around him is also quite good, and the movie is a terrific example of the &#8220;kitchen sink realism&#8221; of &#8217;50s and &#8217;60s British film.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0473308\/\">Waitress<\/a> has a lot of tender and funny moments\u2014and it&#8217;s difficult for the viewing not to be colored by knowledge of writer and director Adrienne Shelly&#8217;s tragic murder\u2014but good-hearted whimsy only carries it so far.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>There&#8217;s a character in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11426232\/\">Totally Killer<\/a> who says, &#8220;I hate time travel movies. They never make any sense.&#8221; I feel like the writers on this movie took that way too much to heart. There&#8217;s promise to the movie&#8217;s central idea\u2014which is essentially <em>Back to the Future<\/em> meets slasher movie\u2014and some occasionally clever moments, but it all falls apart in lazy and confused storytelling.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I&#8217;ve seen worse movies, by far, than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0090196\/\">Transylvania 6-5000<\/a>, but I have rarely seen one this unfunny, one where every single joke simply fails to land. (One film comes to mind, Mel Brooks&#8217; <em>Dracula: Dead and Loving It<\/em>, which just so happens to have been written for Brooks by the same guy.) There are <em>so<\/em> many bits in the film\u2014you will rarely see a movie <em>trying<\/em> this hard to be funny\u2014and yet not a single laugh to be had.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063599\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-3-191x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Shoes of the Fisherman\" width=\"191\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14124\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-3-191x300.jpg 191w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-3-653x1024.jpg 653w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/5-3.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 191px) 100vw, 191px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0116253\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-3-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Executive Decision\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14125\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-3-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-3-690x1024.jpg 690w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-3-768x1140.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/6-3.jpg 797w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11563598\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"A Complete Unknown\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14126\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1-768x1151.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/7-1.jpg 1334w\" 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=\"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>There&#8217;s a lot to like in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063599\/\">The Shoes of the Fisherman<\/a>, including some very good performances, particularly from Anthony Quinn and Leo McKern. And there are plenty of interesting ideas about faith and the role of the Catholic Church, particularly in the era the film was made. But it&#8217;s also overlong, with too many side stories, and it&#8217;s never as epic as its overture, intermission, and length would suggest.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0116253\/\">Executive Decision<\/a> is a better than serviceable &#8217;90s B action movie. It&#8217;s slightly corny and dated, not least because it&#8217;s a pre-9\/11 airplane hijack movie, but it&#8217;s also reasonably entertaining.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt11563598\/\">A Complete Unknown<\/a> is actually quite good. A lot of that&#8217;s down to Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet, whose Dylan always feels like a real character, never an impersonation or caricature, but the rest of the cast around him is quite good as well. And then there&#8217;s the music\u2014Dylan&#8217;s own, the folk music scene he exploded into, and the rock and roll that split them apart.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0082933\/\">Possession<\/a>, which in some ways felt like a first watch. (I don&#8217;t <em>think<\/em> the version I saw a few years ago was the heavily edited one they tried to release in the United States as a straight horror movie, but it <em>was<\/em> YouTube-quality.) The movie is a lot, and not what I would describe as a <em>fun<\/em> watch, but it&#8217;s a powerfully intense and often upsetting film. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/possession\">As a reviewer in <em>Time Out<\/em> wrote<\/a>, &#8220;There are plenty of movies which seem to have been made by madmen. Possession may be the only film in existence which is itself mad&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 7 movies last week: Laurence Olivier is terrific as the sad and selfish title character in The Entertainer, but everyone around him is also quite good, and the movie is a terrific example of the &#8220;kitchen sink realism&#8221; of &#8217;50s and &#8217;60s British film. Waitress has a lot of tender and funny moments\u2014and &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14122\">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-14122","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\/14122"}],"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=14122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14128,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14122\/revisions\/14128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}