{"id":14326,"date":"2025-08-24T10:57:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14326"},"modified":"2025-08-24T10:58:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:58:39","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-134","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14326","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I watched 6 movies:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0080492\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"Can&#039;t Stop the Music\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-658x1024.jpg 658w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-768x1195.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-987x1536.jpg 987w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-1316x2048.jpg 1316w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1-3-scaled.jpg 1645w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071733\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-3-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Lacomb, Lucien\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-3-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-3-685x1024.jpg 685w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-3-768x1148.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2-3.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066495\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Twelve Chairs\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3-677x1024.jpg 677w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3-768x1161.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3-1016x1536.jpg 1016w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/3-3.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0080492\/\">Can&#8217;t Stop the Music<\/a> isn&#8217;t a particularly good movie, even as a vehicle for the Village People, but it&#8217;s goofily endearing all the same. That&#8217;s mostly thanks to it being such a schlocky time capsule of 1980\u2014which is why it&#8217;s not hard at all to see why it failed so badly in that moment\u2014but I think you also can&#8217;t underestimate the charms of Valerie Perrine&#8217;s performance.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0071733\/\">Lacombe, Lucien<\/a> is an interesting take on some of the same ideas I saw recently in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0036431\/\">This Land Is Mine<\/a>. That movie takes place mid-World War II, and more about reclaiming the nobility of the human spirit than the ugly violence we often trade it for, but both are about collaboration, and why many would choose it willingly, or without thinking.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0066495\/\">The Twelve Chairs<\/a> is very amusing. I don&#8217;t know that I&#8217;d put it in the top half of Mel Brooks&#8217; filmography, but I&#8217;d probably at least put it in the top half of the bottom half.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32331377\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Luckiest Man in America\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/4-3.jpg 510w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt7181546\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Ballerina\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/5-3-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0092115\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-3-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"Troll\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14329\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-3-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6-3.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32331377\/\">The Luckiest Man in America<\/a> feels more fictionalized than it needs to be, which sometimes doesn&#8217;t work in its favor, but the cast, particularly Hauser, are the real draw.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt7181546\/\">Ballerina<\/a> doesn&#8217;t always work, but when it does, it works really well. It plays heavily on the worldbuilding mythology of the John Wick series, which has always been that series&#8217; weakest part, but it also plays to the series&#8217; strengths with some fun, kickass fight scenes.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>I had a lot of fun watching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0092115\/\">Troll<\/a> with the <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/hashtag\/HorrorWatch\">#HorrorWatch<\/a> crew live on Bluesky, but that isn&#8217;t because the <em>movie<\/em> is particularly good. It&#8217;s one of two movies I can remember really frightening me as a child, enough that I never watched more than a few scattered minutes of it. But seeing the movie now, decades later, all I could think was: This? <em>This<\/em> is what frightened me? The movie has such a weird tone, neither scary in the least but also not exactly kid-friendly, so that might account for it. And it has its goofy charms, I suppose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In honor the recently departed Terrence Stamp, I also rewatched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0109045\/\">The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert<\/a>, probably for the first time in thirty years. It&#8217;s not a perfect movie, and not everything about it speaks to where we are today, but Stamp&#8217;s performance is one of the best things about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I watched 6 movies: Can&#8217;t Stop the Music isn&#8217;t a particularly good movie, even as a vehicle for the Village People, but it&#8217;s goofily endearing all the same. That&#8217;s mostly thanks to it being such a schlocky time capsule of 1980\u2014which is why it&#8217;s not hard at all to see why it failed &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14326\">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-14326","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\/14326"}],"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=14326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14335,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14326\/revisions\/14335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}