{"id":14526,"date":"2025-12-21T18:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T23:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14526"},"modified":"2025-12-21T18:09:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T23:09:35","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14526","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I watched 8 movies:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt14364480\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Wake Up Dead Man\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2-1383x2048.jpg 1383w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1-2.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32332404\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Keeper\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-1383x2048.jpg 1383w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4627382\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Roofman\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/3-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt16311594\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"F1\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/4-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>Like the previous two films in the series, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt14364480\/\">Wake Up Dead Man<\/a> is a fun murder mystery full of outsized characters, but I think what I liked most about it was its honest examination of faith and service, what a life actually dedicated to god&#8217;s love and compassion would look like.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt32332404\/\">Keeper<\/a> is underbaked in its story and characters, and it feels more like an excuse for Osgood Perkins to work again with Tatiana Maslany than a fully formed movie. But you can&#8217;t exactly fault him for that, because she&#8217;s good again here, in a committed performance that makes the whole thing work better than it should. There also a lot of very surreal and creepy imagery, and even if the movie isn&#8217;t anywhere near the equal of some of Perkins&#8217; other horror films, it&#8217;s not uninteresting.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt4627382\/\">Roofman<\/a> takes an odd tonal shift late in the film, which is probably necessary\u2014given the real man it&#8217;s about\u2014and which I think lends it a little more depth than the goofy comedy it&#8217;s been up until then. But it can&#8217;t help but <em>feel<\/em> like a tonal shift.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>Your mileage may vary with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt16311594\/\">F1<\/a>, depending on how much you love, or understand, Formula 1 as a sport. (Personally, I couldn&#8217;t really track more than &#8220;fast cars go fast,&#8221; even if it does seem oddly more complicated than that.) A lot of the racing is undeniably kinetic, even thrilling, even on a small screen, and there&#8217;s a lot of easygoing charm to the performances. But you can see where the story is headed from a mile lap away, the racial politics (which the movie doesn&#8217;t really acknowledge) are tired, and the fast cars aren&#8217;t nearly enough to carry the day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt36591419\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Man Finds Tape\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14530\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-693x1024.jpg 693w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-768x1134.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-1040x1536.jpg 1040w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-1387x2048.jpg 1387w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/5-7-scaled.jpg 1733w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt30144839\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"One Battle After Another\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14531\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2-819x1024.jpg 819w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2-768x960.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6-2.jpg 1638w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10374610\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Long Walk\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14532\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/7-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt34621966\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Megadoc\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/8-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\/tt36591419\/\">Man Finds Tape<\/a> does some creepy and interesting things, making not altogether unfamiliar ground feel like strange and unknown territory. It doesn&#8217;t necessarily do a <em>lot<\/em> with its premise, but it&#8217;s an interesting use of the found-footage genre.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt30144839\/\">One Battle After Another<\/a> is a lot of fun, not afraid to take some very silly, and then some very serious, swings. It has the feel of a movie I want to see again to fully appreciate, but I liked it a lot on this first viewing.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt10374610\">The Long Walk<\/a> is a very good adaptation of Stephen King&#8217;s original novel, which means it&#8217;s an exceptionally bleak, and not particularly subtle, experience. But what King&#8217;s, and the movie&#8217;s, metaphor perhaps lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in its gut-punch simplicity, and the very compelling performances byCooper Hoffman and David Jonsson.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt34621966\/\">Megadoc<\/a> doesn&#8217;t necessarily explain why Francis Ford Coppola&#8217;s <em>Megalopolis<\/em> is such a bad movie, but it maybe offers some insight into why it&#8217;s the <em>kind<\/em> of bad movie it is. (It would be shocking, after seeing Mike Figgis&#8217; behind-the-scenes footage, to discover that a <em>good<\/em> movie had come out of any of this.) Figgis&#8217; documentary obviously calls to mind the earlier <em>Hearts of Darkness<\/em> about Coppola&#8217;s difficulties shooting <em>Apocalypse Now<\/em>, but here seems much more at a distance, admittedly focusing on only the handful of actors and crew who gave him the most access. (Which probably means too much Shia LaBeouf, but I was actually pleasantly surprised by how candid and owning up to past bad behavior he was, even if I still very much dislike his performance and he still seems a little like a method ass.) Figgis also stops short of the <em>reaction<\/em> to the film, ending as the curtain rises on its premiere at Cannes as if everything that came after was another crowning achievement for Coppola. It&#8217;s an interesting look at what might have been, but it&#8217;s not a redemption for Coppola&#8217;s last film. I&#8217;m glad both exist\u2014one as a crazy passion project, the other a testament to why sometimes passion alone isn&#8217;t enough\u2014but I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d ever find reason to rewatch either.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>However, I did rewatch <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0053459\/\">Eyes Without a Face<\/a>, which I did not remember well, and certainly did not remember being this hauntingly sad. As  &#8211; Guillermo del Toro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.criterionchannel.com\/eyes-without-a-face\/videos\/guillermo-del-toro-on-eyes-without-a-face\">told the Criterion Channel<\/a> about the film, &#8220;At the core of every horror that film I&#8217;ve ever loved, there&#8217;s a poem in it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, I watched 8 movies: Like the previous two films in the series, Wake Up Dead Man is a fun murder mystery full of outsized characters, but I think what I liked most about it was its honest examination of faith and service, what a life actually dedicated to god&#8217;s love and compassion would &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14526\">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-14526","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\/14526"}],"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=14526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14534,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14526\/revisions\/14534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}