{"id":14139,"date":"2025-04-13T13:31:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T17:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14139"},"modified":"2025-04-13T13:37:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T17:37:46","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14139","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt20225374\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Vesper\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1-1.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32558992\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Heart Eyes\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2-1.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28490044\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Evil Does Not Exist\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14142\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/3-1-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt20225374\/\">Vesper<\/a> is visually stunning, in some strange and occasionally remarkable ways, especially given its relatively low budget. Its effects are always in service of its story\u2014which, while fairly standard, is told well and balances a believable bleakness with a spark of hope.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32558992\/\">Heart Eyes<\/a> simply did not work for me at all. It&#8217;s a simple but clever enough premise, mashing together a romcom and a slasher movie, but that&#8217;s maybe the last clever thing about it\u2014and that&#8217;s certainly the last <em>simple<\/em> thing. Needlessly over-complicated and never particularly scary, the movie has a few jokes that nearly land\u2014and a likable cast, if not necessarily likable characters\u2014but it&#8217;s a surprisingly big disappointment, given director Josh Ruben&#8217;s previous two very fun horror comedies.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Perhaps a little too meditative and enigmatic for my tastes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28490044\/\">Evil Does Not Exist<\/a> nevertheless offers some lovely visuals and subtly complex observations about our balance with nature and one another.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13287846\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Napoleon\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-1036x1536.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/4-1-scaled.jpg 1727w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4058618\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-209x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Thicket\" width=\"209\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-209x300.jpg 209w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-714x1024.jpg 714w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-768x1102.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-1070x1536.jpg 1070w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-1427x2048.jpg 1427w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/5-1-scaled.jpg 1784w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2262227\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Book of Life\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-14145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/6-1.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>The epic scale and set-pieces in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13287846\/\">Napoleon<\/a> are to be admired, and it&#8217;s nice to see that Ridley Scott hasn&#8217;t lost his painterly eye, but there&#8217;s something about the film that never quite comes to life. Maybe it&#8217;s the half-comedic way Phoenix plays the character, undercutting that epic scale at almost every turn, or maybe it&#8217;s some of the liberties the film takes with the historical record. More likely, though, it&#8217;s the rushed pacing, because if anything, it feels too short and compressed at two and a half hours. There&#8217;s more than a little to like about the film, but it&#8217;s hard not to think it wouldn&#8217;t have found more success as a miniseries, where events and characters were given the room they need to breathe.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s not so much that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4058618\/\">The Thicket<\/a> is unrelentingly grim, it&#8217;s that grimness is all the movie seems to have on offer. It&#8217;s well enough shot, and Peter Dinklage and Gbenga Akinnagbe have good buddy chemistry together\u2014enough that it&#8217;s easy to imagine a better movie with them both left on the cutting room floor, or just not adapted from the original novel\u2014but many of its characters <em>don&#8217;t<\/em> have the same kind of on-screen chemistry, and the movie simply isn&#8217;t fun or particularly compelling on its own.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>More inventive visually than in its storytelling, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2262227\/\">The Book of Life<\/a> would feel like a knockoff of Pixar&#8217;s <em>Coco<\/em> if it hadn&#8217;t been made three years earlier. The anachronistic songs never feel less than odd\u2014as does the framing as a story within a story, of Mexican culture told to decidedly white characters\u2014but the movie isn&#8217;t without its own charms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also re-watched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0090605\/\">Aliens<\/a>, which absolutely holds up, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0085693\/\">House of the Long Shadows<\/a>, which never did. (I had fun watching the latter as part of the weekly <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/search?q=%23HorrorWatch\">#HorrorWatch<\/a> on Bluesky, but it&#8217;s a creaky plot that squanders titans of the horror field, while saddling them with a very bad performance by Desi Arnaz Jr. <em>Aliens<\/em> is still really great, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched 6 movies last week: Vesper is visually stunning, in some strange and occasionally remarkable ways, especially given its relatively low budget. Its effects are always in service of its story\u2014which, while fairly standard, is told well and balances a believable bleakness with a spark of hope. Heart Eyes simply did not work for &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14139\">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-14139","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\/14139"}],"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=14139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14148,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions\/14148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}