{"id":14316,"date":"2025-08-17T13:28:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14316"},"modified":"2025-08-17T13:28:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T17:28:15","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-133","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14316","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched another 6 movies last week. The week started reasonably well, but took something of a turn.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13610344\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Harvest\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt19861162\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Return\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-2-692x1024.jpg 692w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-2-768x1137.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-2.jpg 912w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt21375602\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Love Me\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14317\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-2.jpg 511w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt13610344\">Harvest<\/a> is often surreal, even hallucinatory, unfolding slowly in this uncertain time and place of upheaval and change.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I&#8217;m not as familiar with the tales of Odysseus as I&#8217;d maybe like, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt19861162\">The Return<\/a> doesn&#8217;t insist upon that knowledge, is a simple enough tale of violence and regret, with a compelling performance by Ralph Fiennes.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt21375602\">Love Me<\/a> can feel a little like a short film stretched to feature length, and still doesn&#8217;t necessarily flesh out its ideas as much as it might, but they&#8217;re deep philosophical ideas about what it means to be human and real, and the movie plays with those ideas in interesting ways, with strong performances by the two actors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28443655\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Death of a Unicorn\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt5294522\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-2-188x300.jpg\" alt=\"Dreamland\" width=\"188\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-2-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-2-641x1024.jpg 641w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-2.jpg 709w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 188px) 100vw, 188px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0098692\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Wicked City\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14320\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-2.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt28443655\">Death of a Unicorn<\/a> could maybe use a sharper satirical bite, or could make its villains a little more unlikable, but it&#8217;s often funny and well cast.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Margot Robbie is an undeniably electric performer, who is just completely wasted in the otherwise tedious <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt5294522\">Dreamland<\/a>. As critic Peter Sobczynski <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/dreamland-review-2020\">writes<\/a>, &#8220;there is a fine line between &#8216;homage&#8217; and &#8216;uninspired imitation,&#8217; and this film constantly finds itself tripping over it.&#8221; I felt like my time had just been wasted by the end of it.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0098692\">Wicked City<\/a> is an interesting experience, full of a lot of strange, often hypersexualized body horror, but it isn&#8217;t a particularly <em>enjoyable<\/em> experience, often for the same reasons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also rewatched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0085859\/\">Local Hero<\/a>, which I think is a movie a lot of people are a lot more fond of than I am. I do like it a lot, as it&#8217;s quite charmingly endearing, but I still don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s some great masterpiece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched another 6 movies last week. The week started reasonably well, but took something of a turn. Harvest is often surreal, even hallucinatory, unfolding slowly in this uncertain time and place of upheaval and change. I&#8217;m not as familiar with the tales of Odysseus as I&#8217;d maybe like, but The Return doesn&#8217;t insist upon &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14316\">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-14316","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\/14316"}],"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=14316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14321,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14316\/revisions\/14321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}