This is a heart-wrenching documentary about tweenage, teenage and child migrants trying to find their way by train to the United States from Central America because their parents cannot support them. It is extremely affecting and parts of it are hard to watch.
Copz
I just finished listening to “Behind the Police,” the Behind the Bastards miniseries on US policing from 2020. And while I do not agree with a lot of it, I do think it’s important to listen to – or to read its sources – to get more perspective on policing, particularly in the US. The …
My Best Friend’s Exorcism (2022, Damon Thomas)
This is a messy horror comedy – messy in the sense of execution, not in terms of gore – that has some good ideas and good moments but is just not very good. I laughed enough I almost bumped up my rating but the problems are big enough I thought better of it. SPOILERS
Bottoms (2023, Emma Seligman)
So this is hard for me because we watched the first 80 or 90 minutes of this in November and then circumstances got in the way. We finished it tonight. My memory of the first half of the movie has really faded so I really don’t think I can be quite fair.
Khane-ye doust kodjast? (1987, Abbas Kiarostami)
This is a simple film about a child trying to give his friend his notebook. It is so very far from the Hollywood films of its era, as you might imagine an Iranian neo-realist film is.
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead Live at the CAA Theatre Toronto March 27, 2024
Something like 20 years ago, I watched the film version of this with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. I enjoyed at the time but was told by a friend, and many movie critics, that the play was better. I guess I sort of always wished to see it. Jenn saw that it was playing downtown …
Road House (1989, Rowdy Herrington)
This is a goofy spin on the “drifter comes to a small town cleans up the town” subgenre of American film, only with an ’80s twist. The ’80s twist is that weird idea that there are “stars” in rote, blue-collar jobs. It’s a little bit like Cocktail where we’re supposed to believe that there are …
Riley Goes to Los Angeles Day 5
We had to set the alarm, due to concerns over traffic. We got up, got dressed, packed, and then realized that the app that LAX’s website had recommended for us to use to book a cab to the airport had never booked the actual cab. It had registered the trip, but had not actually assigned …
Riley Goes to Los Angeles Day 4
We woke up and walked down to Sunset to find breakfast. We walked up the remainder of the hill and then walked down a long hill. We didn’t know the LA Marathon was on so we were very confused by the traffic patterns and the randomly blocked streets.
Riley Goes to San Diego and Los Angeles Day 3
We discovered there was a café like two blocks away that had featured on The Best Thing I Ever Ate so we headed over there for breakfast. We did not order that dish, given that it was absolutely a dessert and not a breakfast, but we did make good choices nonetheless. Jenn got biscuits and …
Riley Goes to San Diego and LA Day 2
In the morning, we went out for breakfast and found a great place only a few blocks away, Breakfast Company. Their menu looked amazing and I had trouble picking what to eat. Jenn had the chilaquiles and I had the shrimp enmoladas. (Both with poached eggs, because: breakfast.) They were both great. It’s the kind …
Riley Goes to San Diego and LA Day 1
In the first 40 years of my life, I went to California once, specifically to Anaheim, Los Angeles and Palm Springs. I went with my family and it wasn’t my favourite trip we ever took. Well, in the last year, I’ve now been to California twice. Last year we drove from Portland to San Francisco. …
The Marvels (2023, Nia DaCosta)
There was a time when certain movies would be put in front of test audiences and feedback would be incorporated into the film, often against the creative team’s wishes. (This may still happen, I have no idea.) Those movies were “focus grouped to death” or what have you, where vague feedback from audience members was …
Top Gun: Maverick (2022, Joseph Kosinski)
Full disclosure: a way of differentiating myself from other people, as a serious fan of movies, I would tell anyone who would listen that I thought Top Gun was a stupid, terrible movie. I’ve seen it all the way through only a couple of times but I’ve seen scenes from it more times than I …
Invader ZIM (2001)
This is one of those innumerable aughts animated sitcoms that I added to my list when I first heard about it but then didn’t get around to watching for fifteen to twenty years. The more of these I watch the more I realize I really missed the boat here. I would have enjoyed many of …
Tanín no Kao aka 他人の顔T (1966, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
Teshigahara has to be among the most interesting directors of the 1960s. Regardless of how effective I think this particular film is, it is weird and unlike basically anything else I’ve ever seen. And it’s so noticeably different from his first two fictional films, the mining crime, um, thriller Pitfall and the Sisyphean horror, Woman …
Otoshiana aka おとし穴 (1962, Hiroshi Teshigahara)
This Japanese film opens with some of the most extreme scoring I think I’ve ever heard in a film. In the opening shots, as the man flees, there is only this piercing, low music, almost seemingly intended to sound like a dog’s bark. And then it drops away for the title card which features aggressively …
Top Hat (1934, Mark Sandrich)
This is my first Astaire-Rogers film and I must say that, for such a famous, iconic Hollywood duo, I am a little mystified. I understand things change, and what was entertaining 90 years ago is not necessarily entertaining now. But I have watched a lot of films from the 1930s for someone my age (and …
Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men (2019)
I do not know Wu-Tang like many people (especially men) my age do. I have listened to exactly one album by the collective, and maybe three or four of the solo albums, all for my podcast. I am more familiar with the RZA from his soundtrack and occasional acting work. But I still knew very …
Clockers (1992) by Richard Price
This is a crime thriller/murder mystery novel that actually turns out to be a tragedy instead. It is artfully done and feels really authentic, at least to someone like me (who knows nothing of this kind of thing). Massive SPOILERS
Cut Bank (2014, Matt Shakman)
This is a weird one: a really hilariously great cast with a pretty strange plot, with a seemingly pretty small budget, and just enough quirk to make it feel distinct. SPOILERS
The Devil Operation (2010, Stephanie Boyd)
This is a low budget, brief and frustratingly crappy documentary about the lengths to which corporations and countries will go to try make money.
Kelce (2023, Don Argott)
Full disclosure: I did not really know who Jason Kelce was. I knew he was the brother of Travis, something I found out only recently when I learned, through Jenn, about their podcast. (I only found out about Travis because of you know who.) I have long ago stopped paying attention to football and especially …
Minding the Gap (2018, Bing Liu)
This is an affecting documentary about three skateboarders in Rockford, Illinois that is really about [redacted for spoilers, see the review]. It’s a moving film that is very much worth your time. SPOILERS (though nothing you won’t find out about if you read about this movie)
Focus (2015, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa)
So I watched the first 20 or so minutes of this in a hotel in Brazil about 4 and a half months ago. I didn’t realize it was on my list. (It was a really big list.) I can’t say I was super into it and Jenn wasn’t in to it enough that she didn’t …
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019, Stanley Nelson)
This is a completely fine documentary about Miles Davis’ career. I didn’t realize it was a PBS documentary but it makes sense as it’s a totally fine TV documentary.
The Farewell (2019, Lulu Wang)
I have no idea how to talk about this film without addressing a major plot point. I’m sure it’s widely known but I consider it a spoiler so… SPOILERS
Regular Show (2010)
This is a well-regarded animated sitcom from the teens. I watched only the first season before giving up and I will explain why below but it’s pretty funny and its spin on sitcom conventions is entertaining more often than not.
Is Streaming Better for Watching Great/Classic/Cult Movies?
I have a list of of 5,532 feature movies, TV shows and short films to watch. I have been adding to this list of movies for something like two decades. The list might seem like an impossible number of films and shows to watch, but I’ve already watched approximately 5,000 TV shows and films in …
Date Night (2010, Shawn Levy)
This is an enjoyable and amusing action/romantic comedy that gets perhaps a little too carried away in terms of execution but is quite funny and consistently funny throughout its run time.