This is a slow burn of a romance set in an absolutely gorgeous setting off the coast of Brittany during the 18th century. It’s an impressive film with two pretty stellar performances by the leads.
Category: Movies
Deadpool 2 (2018, David Leitch)
Though I was laughing I initially had reservations about this sequel. But it pretty soon won me over and I think I liked it almost as much as the first film, if not just as much.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019, JJ Abrams)
The ninth and final film of the now rebranded “Skywalker Saga” is the weakest of the the final films, I think, though I haven’t seen the other two in some time. Like the first two, it’s too long. But the real problems centre around how similar it ends up being to previous films in the …
Money Shot: The Pornhub Story (2023, Suzanne Hillinger)
This documentary isn’t so much the story of Pornhub as its the story of Pornhub from “Traffickinghub” to the present. It’s a reasonably balanced look at internet pornography in the 2020s, and, specifically, the biggest company in internet pornography, that I wish was a little broader in its scope.
The Town (2010, Ben Affleck)
This is a sort of one-last-job heist film that focuses almost as much on relationships as it does on the heists. Though I appreciate the (mostly successful) attempt to situate the film in a place that feels real, I also feel like the film is tugged in two different directions and that doesn’t completely work. …
Smultronstället aka Wild Strawberries (1957, Ingmar Bergman)
This is ruminative and briefly surreal film about ageing that feels fairly indebted to A Christmas Carol, unless there is a Swedish work that covers something similar.
Magic Mike XXL (2015, Gregory Jacobs)
I was pleasantly surprised by the first Magic Mike, a movie that was both funnier than I thought it would be and much more about the Great Recession than I thought it would be. But this is an entirely different movie.
SÃ¥som i en spegel aka Through a Glass Darkly (1961, Ingmar Bergman)
This is stark but pretty to look at drama about mental illness that I suspect won the Oscar in part because of how foreign in form and content it felt from Hollywood films at the time.
Django & Django (2021, Luca Rea)
This is a brief documentary about the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci that really feels like it was meant to be a DVD extra or something. I haven’t gotten around to seeing any of Corbucci’s films yet, so watching it might have been an odd choice. But I watched it because Quentin Tarantino was in …
Bullet Train (2022, David Leitch)
This is a spin on the classic train movie that leans heavily into some specific styles in reimagining the genre. (Is the train movie a genre or is s it a sub-genre?)
Le Douxieme Souffle (1966, Jean-Pierre Melville)
This is a mostly excellent French crime film directed by one of the greats of the genre. I think it’s the story, more than the direction, that keeps the film from being among Melville’s absolute best.
Hired Gun (2016, Fran Strine)
This is one of those documentaries that tries to cover a big topic by just interviewing some people and telling their stories. There are a whole series of these and they’re not the most effective. But this one is reasonably entertaining, and has enough stories that it isn’t a waste of time.
The LEGO Batman Movie (2017, Chris McKay)
This is a very silly kids Batman film that has enough jokes for adults to keep you laughing but is pretty damn cheesy.
Kanal (1957, Andrzej Wajda)
I am watching Wajda’s trilogy backwards, for some reason, but I don’t think it matters. I don’t how much of an actual “trilogy” it is; I think it’s likely an imposition by film critics because all three films are about Warsaw in WWII. Anyway, this is film two of three of this theoretical trilogy; it’s …
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016, Zach Snyder)
God these DC movies are just so…dour. I am no fan of the MCU, as you know, but every time I watch one of these DC movies from the teens I think the MCU has really stumbled onto something. They may be dumb, but they’re usually at least moderately entertaining. But these films are just …
Kuessipan (2019, Myriam Verreault)
This is a fairly typical coming of age story set in unique place. Though I have (almost) been to this part of Quebec – I’ve driven from Baie-Comeau to Labrador – I don’t think I’ve seen a film set here. Or, at the very least, one set at a Reserve in this part of Quebec. …
The Batman (2022, Matt Reeves)
A little while ago, Jenn and I decided to watch every Batman movie in order. We watched the Adam West movie and then we watched the Burton/Schumacher films. But then, we got this one sooner and ended up watching it before all the other 21st century Batman films. (I’ve most Batman films already, save one …
Vee Vee (1995) by Archers of Loaf
This is a band that likes instrumentals more than most loud rock bands of their era but, even for a band that likes instrumentals, I’d say it’s a bold move to lead off your second album (the album that is almost always “difficult” for bands of this era) with a track that takes over 2 …
See How They Run (2022, Tom George)
This is a reasonably diverting and amusing mystery comedy that riffs on The Mousetrap, the infamous Agatha Christie play that has run in London’s West End, nearly continuously, for almost 70 years. (I have never seen it. It’s run was only interrupted by covid.) I wouldn’t say you have to seen The Mousetrap or read …
Stalker (1979, Andrei Tarkovsky)
Stalker is a willfully difficult, philosophical medication on the nature of faith posing as a science fiction film that feels like it would have been significantly more dramatic had it been made during the age of CGI. (Though Tarkovsky wouldn’t be the one to have made it, then.) I have not read the novel its …
Pyaasa (1957, Guru Dutt)
This film is considered one of the greatest Indian movies of all time and a foundational film in Bollywood history. You can bet I didn’t enjoy it. SPOILERS I guess
Jennifer’s Body (2009, Karyn Kusama)
This is a fun horror comedy that plays around with the teen sex danger angle. Sure, it’s not the first to do this, but it feels like a pretty fresh spin on it.
Catwoman (2004, Pitof)
This has a reputation as being one of the worst films of all time. It is the 40th Worst Movie according to IMBD. But, like so many Hollywood films that are considered among the worst of all time, it’s only one of the worst movies of all time if you’ never seen truly terrible films.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022, Rian Johnson)
It’s likely you have high expectations for this film, if you enjoyed the first one as much as I did. And that’s a dangerous thing. But I’m happy to report that this is both not the same movie as the first one and manages to still hit some similar topical notes. I think it mostly …
The Redeem Team (2022, Jon Weinbach)
This is a pretty rote documentary about the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team, which won gold in 2008 after the previous team had won only bronze for the first time in decades.
Harakiri [aka Seppuku] (1962, Masaki Kobayashi)
I was not familiar with jidaigeki but I’ve seen a few of them without knowing it. It’s possible that what I’m going to say about this film only makes sense in western genres and not in jidaigeki but, given that I’ve only a few of these films, I have no idea.
The Great Dictator (1940, Charles Chaplin)
As the only American film (before their entry into World War II) to deal with the Nazis, I think we have to give it, and Chaplin, a lot of credit. It might seem crazy now, but some people didn’t think this movie should be made, or at least should be toned down. And this is …
The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022, Loren Bouchard, Bernard Derriman)
Like every 22-minute TV show turned into a movie, this one struggles with enough laughs for its runtime. But it’s still pretty enjoyable and has most of the stuff you’d want in a Bob’s Burgers episode.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013, Peter Jackson)
This second film in the hilariously long adaptation of a 310-page novel is mercifully a little bit shorter than the first. (Though not much.) This one I’d actually mostly scene prior to actually sitting down to watch it, as I think it’s been on a lot over the years on channels available in hotels I’ve …
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012, Peter Jackson)
This nearly 3 hour film is the first part of a preposterous adaptation of a 310-page novel. I have no idea why anyone thought a novel this short needed to be adapted into three films, none of which are less than 2 hours and twenty minutes in length. It’s one thing to make an epic-length …