{"id":14241,"date":"2025-06-22T11:35:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14241"},"modified":"2025-06-22T11:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T15:35:34","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-125","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14241","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched another 6 movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt3093546\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Listen Up Philip\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14239\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-3-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-3.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0199725\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2-3-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Love &amp; Basketball\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2-3-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/2-3.jpg 619w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0425210\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Lucky Number Slevin\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3-1383x2048.jpg 1383w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/3-3.jpg 1519w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>For a movie without a single likable character\u2014and a fairly <em>un<\/em>likable title character\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt3093546\/\">Listen Up Philip<\/a> is a fun and intelligent character study.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0199725\/\">Love &#038; Basketball<\/a> does exactly what it says on the tin, but Lathan and Epps are just wonderful together, and it&#8217;s a genuinely lovely love story.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>There is a chasm between how clever <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0425210\/\">Lucky Number Slevin<\/a> thinks it is and how clever the movie actually is. Every now and then, a scattered line of hyper-stylized dialogue halfway lands, usually thanks only to an actor&#8217;s delivery, but each one of those moments is a very long time coming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0054298\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/4-3-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sex Kittens Go to College\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/4-3-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/4-3.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0119502\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/5-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Last Time I Committed Suicide\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14244\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/5-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/5-2.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt27812086\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-204x300.jpg\" alt=\"Cleaner\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14245\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-204x300.jpg 204w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-698x1024.jpg 698w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-768x1127.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-1047x1536.jpg 1047w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-1396x2048.jpg 1396w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/6-2-scaled.jpg 1745w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>You may be shocked to learn that the 1960 comedy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0054298\/\">Sex Kittens Go to College<\/a> has not aged well. Although I suspect it was never very good to begin with. Dated and sexist, but also confused and never particularly funny, grasping for zaniness but never more than a strange relic from the past\u2014and that&#8217;s even before a ten-minute sequence near the end in which a robot and a chimpanzee watch four women in a row do topless stripteases in a dream sequence. (This is a thing that actually happens in the movie, even if it was apparently never included in the American release.) The best I can say about it is that Mamie Van Doren remains reasonably likable.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>There are scattered moments of inspired beauty in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0119502\/\">The Last Time I Committed Suicide<\/a>, and I think some decent performances. But it&#8217;s difficult to say how true it is to Neal Cassady&#8217;s life, and the disjointed way in which it&#8217;s told\u2014intentionally, I suppose, mirroring Cassady&#8217;s drug-fueled writing style\u2014makes it difficult to connect with any of it. It&#8217;s a little like being on a lazy bender with someone, occasionally surfacing for a brief moment almost like profundity.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt27812086\/\">Cleaner<\/a> is hardly the worst <em>Die Hard<\/em> knockoff, but it is very, very far from the best. Daisy Ridley gives it a fair go, and director Martin Campbell is an old hand at action movies, but there&#8217;s nothing particularly clever, well staged, or memorable about any of this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched another 6 movies last week: For a movie without a single likable character\u2014and a fairly unlikable title character\u2014Listen Up Philip is a fun and intelligent character study. Love &#038; Basketball does exactly what it says on the tin, but Lathan and Epps are just wonderful together, and it&#8217;s a genuinely lovely love story. &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14241\">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-14241","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\/14241"}],"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=14241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14246,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14241\/revisions\/14246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}