{"id":14575,"date":"2026-01-18T16:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14575"},"modified":"2026-01-18T16:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T21:44:14","slug":"weekly-movie-roundup-149","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14575","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Movie Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I watched six movies last week:<\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0088402\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-2-196x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Wild Life\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14576\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-2-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-2-670x1024.jpg 670w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-2-768x1173.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-2.jpg 963w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 196px) 100vw, 196px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0026675\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2-2-212x300.jpg\" alt=\"The Man of the Moment\" width=\"212\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14577\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2-2-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2-2.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 212px) 100vw, 212px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0136099\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3-2-205x300.jpg\" alt=\"Death Is a Caress\" width=\"205\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3-2-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3-2-700x1024.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3-2-768x1123.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3-2.jpg 796w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 205px) 100vw, 205px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0088402\/\">The Wild Life<\/a> invites\u2014and greatly suffers from\u2014comparison to Cameron Crowe&#8217;s previous high school comedy <em>Fast Times at Ridgemont High<\/em>.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0026675\/\">Man of the Moment<\/a> has its moments.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s interesting seeing film noir tropes filtered through a Norwegian sensibility in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0136099\/\">Death Is a Caress<\/a>. It&#8217;s not <em>that<\/em> interesting\u2014I wouldn&#8217;t say the story really holds together particularly well here\u2014but it&#8217;s just enough like and unlike Hollywood &#8217;40s noir to keep you wondering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26783625\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-203x300.jpg\" alt=\"Bone Lake\" width=\"203\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14579\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-203x300.jpg 203w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-1382x2048.jpg 1382w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4-2-scaled.jpg 1728w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt5628302\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"Beast\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2-768x1138.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2-1037x1536.jpg 1037w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5-2.jpg 1382w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt29644189\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-189x300.jpg\" alt=\"Black Phone 2\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-14581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-647x1024.jpg 647w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-768x1216.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-970x1536.jpg 970w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-1294x2048.jpg 1294w, https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6-2-scaled.jpg 1617w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 189px) 100vw, 189px\" \/><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<ul>\n<li>There&#8217;s just enough in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt26783625\/\">Bone Lake<\/a> to suggest that several of the people involved will go on someday to make a <em>good<\/em> movie. I don&#8217;t want to oversell it and suggest the acting and direction are necessarily <em>good<\/em>, but they show a lot more promise than the script, which trades on the most obvious (and yet also unbelievable) twists.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt5628302\/\">Beast<\/a> is raw around all its edges. Sometimes, like in Jessie Buckley&#8217;s primal scream of a performance, that works very well.<\/li>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<li>2021&#8217;s <em>Black Phone<\/em> never felt like a movie that could bear the weight of a sequel, and here comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt29644189\/\">Black Phone 2<\/a> to prove that point. It&#8217;s an admirable attempt, visually chilling and honest about what actually living through the events of the first film would have done to the characters. Everyone involved is trying their best. And yet it&#8217;s also kind of an overlong, exposition-heavy exercise that lays more lore upon the framework of the first (decent but also forgettable) movie than it can stand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I also rewatched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0065669\/\">The Dunwich Horror<\/a>, which I didn&#8217;t remember well from a few years ago but really quite enjoyed this time around. It&#8217;s more than a little cheesy and silly, very much like Roger Corman&#8217;s earlier Edgar Allen Poe adaptations, but for Lovecraft, and I enjoyed it very much on that level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I watched six movies last week: The Wild Life invites\u2014and greatly suffers from\u2014comparison to Cameron Crowe&#8217;s previous high school comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Man of the Moment has its moments. It&#8217;s interesting seeing film noir tropes filtered through a Norwegian sensibility in Death Is a Caress. It&#8217;s not that interesting\u2014I wouldn&#8217;t say the &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=14575\">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-14575","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\/14575"}],"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=14575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14583,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14575\/revisions\/14583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}