Imagine if the Continental Hotel from John Wick was a hospital, in addition to being a hotel, and it was the focus of the film, and the protagonist of the film was Lance Reddick’s character and you get some idea of this weird movie, but hardly all.
Long Shot (2019, Jonathan Levine)
This is a pretty funny movie based on an absurd premise that gets even less believable as it goes. Like any of these politician romance/romantic comedy films, you have to suspend your disbelief. This film at least is funny.
The Mirror Crack’d (1980, Guy Hamilton)
This is an all-star cast Agatha Christie adaptation with a setting that could have been a TV movie. (Though the budget was decent for a feature for its time, so I wonder how much was spent on that cast.) I felt like it wasn’t the best of her plots but apparently it’s partially based on …
Kumonosu-jô [Throne of Blood] (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
This atmospheric adaptation of Macbeth is the first of Kurosawa’s Shakespeare adaptations, but the last one I’ve seen. I watched Ran (King Lear) when I was quite young and I watched The Bad Sleep Well (Hamlet) a decade or so ago. I can’t compare this one to those other adaptations because it’s been too long …
The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018, Susanna Fogel)
This is a pretty funny buddy/action comedy vaguely along the same lines as Spy, but like a buddy version of it. I must admit I had zero interest in this movie and found myself laughing a lot and quite enjoying it.
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet (2010) by David Mitchell
This is my first Mitchell. I found it in a Little Free Library or on someone’s lawn and I just grabbed it because I’d seen Cloud Atlas (though never read it) and figured it could be interesting. I had zero knowledge of the story or setting.
Chaos on the Bridge (2014, William Shatner)
This is an entertaining but brief and hilariously over-directed documentary about the beginnings of Star Trek TNG. It feels like it was made as a DVD extra or for some TCM-type special but it turns out Shatner has made a few of these so maybe there was a series of them for some channel.
Untold: The Rise and Fall of AND1 (2022, Levin Wilson Jr.)
This is an interesting but too brief documentary about the AND1 clothing brand and, particularly their Mix Tape Tour. All I knew about this whole thing was Rafer Alston came from it, so I was definitely the intended audience.
The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015, Robert Schwentke)
This film – a film where the title really wants you to know it’s a sequel, in case you’re too dumb to figure that out yourself – begins with a truck with a video of Kate Winslet’s character summarizing the plot of the first movie. It’s literally a Plot Summary Truck. It has to be …
Werewolf Castle (2021, Charlie Steeds)
This is an extremely low budget fantasy/horror film that fails at both genres. It’s not scary and it doesn’t have any of the magic of fantasy. I knew that going in, of course, but this is one of those films that bad in many ways but it competent enough in terms of the production that …
West Side Story (2013) by the Joe Policastro Trio
This is the first of their albums and the the last one I’ve heard. That’s because it wasn’t available online until recently and I’ve stopped buying CDs, instead buying digital copies when I actually want to support the artist. (Too often I default to streaming, which doesn’t help them much.)
There Are No Fakes (2019, Jamie Kastner)
This is an absolutely crazy story about a potentially massive art fraud involving one of Canada’s most famous painters. The story gets far wilder, though, so I will do my best to avoid spoilers.
The Headspace Guide to Meditation & Mindfulness (2015) by Andy Puddicombe
I have never had any interest in meditation. “Zero interest” isn’t far off. I’ve never found the idea of sitting still for an hour appealing, and I’ve never been attracted to the supposed benefits. (There are people who claim they get ecstatic after meditating for hours or days and I couldn’t care less about that.) …
Heart of a Dog (2015, Laurie Anderson)
Most of my awareness of Laurie Anderson comes from Big Science and her relationship with Lou Reed. I’ve never listened to United States Live and really haven’t encountered much else of her work. (I’ve definitely encountered something else other than Big Science and some live stuff, but I can’t remember off the top of my …
The Report (2019, Scott Z. Burns)
This is a story that needs to be told, and I’m glad somebody told it. But this is not a great telling of this story.
Untold: The Race of the Century (2022, Chapman Way, Maclain Way
This Untold didn’t grab me at first. I don’t care about sailing. I’ve watched some bits of the America’s Cup here and there, but never paid much attention. I’ll watch a documentary about just about anything but this one really didn’t grab me to start.
Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (1956, Robert Bresson)
Somewhere in this film is one of the greatest prison escape movies ever made. But I think there are enough nitpicky little things that sap it’s full potential that I’m not sure it’s deserving of the the title.
Wham! (2023, Chris Smith)
This is a fascinating documentary about the British pop duo. Wham! does nothing for me and I can imagine younger me even having some ill will towards them – they are basically anti punk in ethos. (The one album of theirs I’ve heard is way too wannabe Motown for me.) But their story is far …
The Phantom Carriage (2016) by KTL
I feel like, when an early silent feature gets a new soundtrack, it regularly tries to (at least partially) ape the sounds we associate with early silent films. So there’s often a lot of Steinway piano and the sounds are often vaguely jazz-ish. Now, it’s been some time since I’ve seen a lot of early …
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein)
From the makers of Horrible Bosses and Game Night comes…an actually good RPG adaptation that people who don’t play it will actually enjoy? Wait…what?
Jalsaghar [The Music Room] (1958, Satyajit Ray)
This is a pretty classic drama about an old, rich man failing to keep up with the times. There are echoes of lots of other films with this theme. I feel like I’m reminded of The Leopard, but I haven’t seen that movie in years and haven’t read the novel in decades, so I’m probably …
The Bad Plus Live at The Horseshoe Tavern Sunday July 2, 2023
This was my third time seeing The Bad Plus, the jazz piano trio piano-less quartet. Though I’ve listened to a number of their albums many times, I didn’t fully realize what had happened to them as a band over the last couple of years. So this was like seeing a new band.
The King’s Man (2021, Matthew Vaughn)
It’s hard to exaggerate how much worse the third Kingsman movie is compared to the first two. It almost feels like one of those sequels made by someone else, like The Sting 2 or whatever. But, it’s made by Vaughn. It just feels like it misses the mark almost the entire way through. SPOILERS
MTV Unplugged (1991) by The Cure
This is a just a great set, the whole reason to have the show. It’s wonderful to see such an established band actually taking this concept to heart. So many artists don’t really commit to the concept.
Trainwreck [aka Clusterfuck]: Woodstock ’99
I think Jenn and I both thought his was the HBO documentary Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage. But instead it’s a mini series. It seems like some of the interviewees might have been in both, which sort of makes me want to watch the film, too.
The 25 Best Raptors Trades of All Time
There has been a lot of consternation about the last few major Raptors trades, particularly the Young and Pöltl trades. So I decided to figure out what the best trades in Raptors history are and to see how poorly these two trades rank.
Körkarlen [The Phantom Carriage] (1921, Victor Sjöström)
This is an early pseudo horror movie slash morality drama that makes extensive use of special effects and flashbacks. It’s not quite as significant as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari but it’s still major landmark in film.
Simón del desierto (1965, Luis Buñuel)
This is a bizarre surrealist religious satire caught somewhere between a short and a feature (as it is 43 minutes long). It is acclaimed as one of Buñuel’s best films but I think you really have to be steeped in Catholicism to appreciate it.
The Raptors Super Team that Never Was
Every so often I think about a Raptors team that could have existed in an alternate history of the Raptors, in which they potentially contend for a championship in the early aughts with players they acquired through the draft and trades, but whom they traded away over the course of what now looks like a …
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022, Halina Reijn)
This is a fun horror comedy that pokes fun at the kind of rich people who use contemporary “woke” language to hide their own personal sins. The “people being assholes” thing can get a little tired but I promise you it’s worth it. Mild SPOILERS